Question: There is the commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.” Why?

Answer: In Kabbalah, “do not do” is equivalent to “impossible.” You cannot reproduce the name of the Creator because for this you have to attune yourself correctly and make yourself similar to the Creator.

That is, do not do means simply impossible. It is impossible to reveal the Creator if you do not connect with other people, otherwise He simply is not revealed.

Question: Where is the Creator revealed? Where do I find Him?

Answer: Between people.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 6/7/22

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The Creator in Hebrew is “Bore,” which means “come and see.”

The fact is that when a person attains the upper force, he calls it “Bore,” which emphasizes that the purpose of one’s development is to rise above the forces of this world, meaning above inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, to the level of the Creator (Bore)—the basis of the whole nature of our world.

When we say “God,” we mean a common force that exists and dominates everything, including absolutely all the lower levels within itself.

And what animates, supports, and gives birth to everything around us we call “nature,” and it is still the same Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 5/21/22

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Comment: I heard a story about an accident in a research lab that occurred in Germany in the 60s. The story goes that an employee accidentally dropped a tightly sealed flask of a toxin into a container with water and it wasn’t removed from the water until some days later. It was discovered that although the flask of poison was tightly sealed and its contents could not have mixed with water, laboratory mice that were given this water died. The water did not physically come into contact with the poison, but it nonetheless absorbed its destructive information.

My Response: The fact is, we feel the material itself: water, poison, still, vegetative, and animate nature.

Our whole world is a world of vectors, a world of forces. And we no longer feel them in the form of forces, but represent them in the form of matter in all its various forms. Therefore, if we break away from matter and turn to the world of information, to the field of forces, then we can see that almost everything around us and ourselves are a force field that carries and communicates with each other precisely with informational data.

In this case, it does not matter much how and where it happens: through some walls, restrictions, border conditions, what is the diffusion or the influence of the vector on the vector. All the same, informational data influences even at a great distance or while enclosed in a container like a glass bulb.

Therefore, even if it seems to us in our materialized world that bodies do not connect together, naturally they influence each other. Especially in delicate forces and in small doses.

Question: What kind of power is water?

Answer: Water is the general reviving force of our nature because we are created on the basis of water. In principle, we could have been created on other terms. But the quality of water is the quality of bestowal, the quality of transfer, the quality of revival, the kind attitude of one object to another. If water connects them, then positive information is transferred.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. The Secret of Life” 7/13/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “To what do you attribute the recent upswing in violent attacks against Jewish people?“

The core reason for hatred and attacks against Jews is that there is no mutual responsibility among the Jewish people.

The foundation of the Jewish people is ideological, not biological: that we once united according to the tenet “love your friend as yourself” during the increasingly divisive times of ancient Babylon, and by doing so, became a conduit for the force of love and bestowal to enter among us and spread to others.

Since those times, human egoism grew and we lost our sense of such connection. However, whether we know it or not (and the vast majority of us today are unaware of it), we hold potential and the method to achieve a state that can elevate humanity to a state of common love.

Why does achieving such a state of connection hold immense importance today? It is because reaching a state of love among humanity holds the key to solving every problem humanity faces today on all scales: personal, social, economic, ecological and global.

The fact that hatred and attacks against Jews have been on the rise in recent times is due to the need for love and connection to enter the world—and the Jews hold the key to unite. In the mid-2000s, I warned American Jews about a forthcoming rise in antisemitic crimes and threats through various lectures across the country, and the idea was publicly dismissed as nonsense by various American Jews in attendance. Today, however, we are in the midst of exponentially increasing antisemitic crimes and threats, and the solution to the problem—the unity of the Jewish people, forming ties of mutual responsibility—remains elusive.

By failing to acknowledge our need to come together, we invite hatred and attacks upon ourselves. On the contrary, if we develop the power of unification among us, then we will see an inversion of that very hatred into its opposites of love and respect for a nation that brings goodness to the world. It is my hope that we will take heed to our need to unite above all of our differences, and by doing so spread the unifying force to humanity at large.

Based on the video “Why Is There a Recent Israel-Arab Uprising Against Israeli Jews?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Going Above the Arguments with the Will to Receive”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Meaning of Conception and Birth”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 3, “Inner Observation,” “Histaklut Pnimit,” Chapter 3, Item 1

Selected Highlights

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Medium published my new article “Shinzo Abe — the Assassination of a Good Man for the World and for Israel”

Japan’s national election, the Upper House election, July 10, 2022. Shinzo Abe, former Prime Minister of Japan, dies after being attacked during a speech in Nara City, Nara Prefecture. The remains of Shinzo Abe. Voters offer flowers. on July 10 2022 in Nara, Japan. (Photo by Kazuki Oishi/Sipa USA)

On Friday, two days before the elections for Japan’s upper house of parliament, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s former prime minister, was assassinated while making an election speech in support of a local candidate in the city of Nara. I regretted hearing about it. While not all his international initiatives proved successful, and despite lackluster success raising Japan from a prolonged economic slump, Abe was a good leader for Japan, for the world, and for Israel.

Abe had a positive influence on his country; he was positive for Israel and positive for the world. Although it is not immediately evident how he did this, he helped make the world more stable. This is why I regret his passing.

Japan is located (both geographically and politically) in between China, Russia, and America. These giant global forces surrounding Japan place it in a unique position to be a balancing element. Shinzo Abe understood it, felt it, and indeed strove to promote balance.

Although the US tried to pull Japan to its side in its struggle against China, Abe managed to maintain good relations with the US while not getting pulled into a battle that was not good for Japan. The Japanese people do not perceive China as an enemy, and Abe did not want to engender enmity between them.

China, too, has its own aspirations concerning influence in Japan. While not aspiring to impose itself on Japan as it is attempting to do in Taiwan, it still strives for influence. Here, too, Abe managed to run between the raindrops and keep Japan dry.

Abe had positive feelings about Israel. He felt that Israel has a special role in the world arena, and that it was worthwhile to maintain good relations with it. He was not only seeking economic or technological benefits from Japan’s warm relations with Israel; he truly felt that Israel has some sort of a parental role with regard to the world. This was the basis of his respect for Israel, and not a political or economic opportunist attitude.

In fact, leaders are generally more sensitive to the role of Israel in the world. Boris Johnson, too, had a keen sense for Israel’s significance in the world. Because statesmen engage in international relations, they sense that there is a certain code, a connection that ties all nations together, and that Israel plays a key role in that connection.

The death of Shinzo Abe, the forced resignation of Boris Johnson, the chaos in Sri Lanka, the never-ending cycle of elections in Israel, and the plummeting popularity of Joe Biden are only some examples of leadership in disarray, indicating that a global process is underway. I hope these changes lead to a positive change, as many governments and nations will have to decide where they are headed.

The world has to change. Humanity must ask itself where it wants to go. There are many points of conflict in the world, and we have to provide an inclusive answer to them.

World leaders, as well as nations, must understand that the world cannot continue as it has thus far, with a constant threat of war and instability. We must all understand that the world needs better connections, healthier relationships between nations and people. This is where we should aspire.

For now, this transformation is happening through the falling of leaders. This is the milder version of the change. A more aggressive version will be the falling of bombs rather than the falling of leaders, as is happening in eastern Europe.

If we can harness the global political turmoil to set off a profound transformation in our relationships, we will all benefit from the events. If we avoid making the changes now, we will be painfully forced to make them later. Either way, the world requires correction.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Curse of Re-elections”

“As long as the laws of society are not satisfactory to each and every individual in the state, and ‎leave a minority that is dissatisfied with the government of the state, that minority conspires ‎under the government of the state and seeks to overthrow it,” wrote Baal HaSulam back in the 1930s in his essay, “Peace in the World.” To this he added that if the power of the losing faction “is not sufficient to fight the government of the state face to face, it will seek to ‎overthrow it indirectly, such as by inciting countries against each other and bringing them to ‎war, for it is natural that at wartime there will be many more dissatisfied people with whom they ‎will have hope to achieve the critical mass to overthrow the government of the state and ‎establish a new leadership that is convenient for them.”

It seems as though these words were written yesterday, not ninety years ago. What is worse, the pertinence of Baal HaSulam’s words proves that we have not learned much.

We established the Jewish state based on laws we borrowed from the British Mandate that ruled here before us, with some leftovers from the rules of the Ottoman Empire that ruled here before the British. These are not the laws of the Israeli nation, but laws of the nations of the world. This incongruity wore down the legitimacy of the judicial structure to such an extent that lawmakers and laypeople alike are leaning increasingly toward following their own interpretations of the law.

Without a common goal and a collectively adopted constitution, we will never have a stable government and a solid Jewish state. Our common law should be the law that was the basis of Jewish peoplehood: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Even when the people of Israel could not practice it, they always strove for it. If they do not, they are not regarded as Israel.

Currently, because no effort, or even aspiration to unite exists within the people of Israel living in the State of Israel, we are not Israel. What are we then? We are a collective of persecuted migrants and refugees, many of whom feel that the country they live in does not belong to them and dream of the moment they can return to the country from which they or their parents were chased away.

Herzl’s vision of forming a safe haven for Jews is not enough. If this is the only reason for our gathering here, we will not be able to form a cohesive and stable society. The obstinate, opinionated nature of our people will soon take over, and division and hostility will develop. This is what is happening to Israel today. As a result, the political parties have splintered and become fragmented, and a succession of elections ensued.

If we want to stabilize the Israeli society and prevent its disintegration, we need to fall in line behind a single goal that we value more than our own opinion. Also, the goal of our country should not be to save the Jews, but to save the world from division and conflict.

The reason Israel is always at the center of attention, especially in times of conflict, is that the world looks to Israel for example. Since the inception of our people, we have been tasked with serving as a model of unity. Our ancestors assembled from numerous tribes, clans, and countries, and pledged to love each other more than themselves. This is unheard of by today’s ostensibly civilized standards. In the ancient world, this was utterly inconceivable.

Nevertheless, our ancestors attempted it and succeeded. Moreover, they proved that when they unite, they triumph and overpower any nation that challenges them. They proved that military and economic success depend, in the case of the people of Israel, solely on their unity.

Alternatively, when they became divided and hostile toward each other, they demonstrated weakness, and foreign nations overpowered them and exiled them. Our unique nation, therefore, became the first nation that could choose its own fate. When it chose unity, it succeeded; when it chose division, it failed. In a sense, our nation was a proof of concept, a “pilot,” as historian Paul Johnson called us. We proved that foreigners can bond in peace and love if they value unity more than their own culture and tradition.

The modern-day curse of endless elections reflects a decline in the level of the unity of our people in the State of Israel. Instead of lining up around the tenet of unity above all other considerations, each party promotes its own agenda and claims that it will lead Israel to success. Yet, they are all wrong because if their ideas do not require national unity as a precondition, it makes no difference what agenda they support; it is condemned to failure.

Only when we realize our unity, above all differences, will the curse of perpetual elections be removed. Moreover, only when we realize this will the danger of another cataclysm to the Jewish people be averted, as Israel becomes what Israel is meant to be: “a light [of unity] to the nations.”

Filed under: Israel Today, New Publications, Unity | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Medium published my new article “The G7 vs. China”

In 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping, launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The idea was very similar to that of the game of Monopoly: whoever owns more property, has more power and gains more wealth. Without much fanfare, China began to finance massive infrastructure projects and buy essential assets in countries around the world. Any country that wanted to benefit from China’s wealth and construction expertise had to sign an agreement that admitted it to the BRI. As of March this year, a whopping 147 countries have joined the initiative. In this way, without firing a single shot, China has carried out a successful worldwide invasion. Now, finally, the powers of the West are waking up.

The invasion is not limited to countries that have signed the BRI agreement. Chinese companies have bought or operate countless strategic assets in the US, for example. Chinese companies are also building Israel’s two new seaports (out of three that exist), Israel’s light rail, and a Chinese company owns Tnuva, Israel’s largest food manufacturer. What the Chinese realized long ago, and the West did not, is that investment means influence, and influence means conquest.

Now the West has finally woke up. That is, the US has realized that China is simply buying up the world. The Chinese offered the US to join their initiative, but the US would never agree to join China on China’s terms.

To counter China’s economic foray, the US recently brought together the seven most economically powerful western countries, known as the G7, to launch a counter-initiative that will hopefully impede the uninterrupted advancement of the BRI. The G7, consisting of the US, Canada, Germany, Japan, France, the UK, and Italy (which also signed the BRI agreement), have pledged $600 billion to counter China’s initiative. Regrettably for the G7, however, that sum is probably too little, too late.

China has gone a long way since the days when it was a closed, isolated country. First, it began to manufacture for the world. Subsequently, it began to export not only goods, but also expertise, labor, and wealth. If, previously, they admitted other countries into China by building factories that manufactured for European and American brands, now they are also penetrating those same countries through their wealth and expertise. The roles have been reversed.

For the moment, everyone seems content. Signatories to the BRI enjoy China’s wealth and building power, and do not have to pay for essential projects that would have been too costly for them to carry out. In return, China is gaining footholds in countries around the world, effectively buying their support.

Ultimately, however, human nature will win and only the landlord, i.e., China, will reap the profits. In the case of Tnuva, for example, they will allegorically take the food and leave Israel with the leftovers.

However, evolution never stops. China may think it can take over the world through economic power, but its downfall is bound to come. In the next phase of China’s evolution, forces will rise from within the country and disintegrate the Chinese society from within. It will take years, perhaps decades, but the process is certain to happen. When disintegration begins, China will decline.

China cannot remain strong indefinitely because it is relying on one force — socialism. If you rely on one force, any force, and do not balance it with an equal measure of its counter force, you disrupt the natural balance that exists in reality, and reality eventually overwhelms you. The only way to remain strong and successful is by employing contradictory forces equally, and creating a union that does not suppress any of them or gives precedence to any one force over the other. Then, when you have a balanced system, longevity is guaranteed.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Israelis Need Only One Passport”

There is a strange phenomenon that is probably unique to Israelis, or perhaps to Jews: purchasing an alternative citizenship. For some years, it was possible to legally purchase a Portuguese citizenship and get an EU passport, if you met certain conditions related to your ancestry. Now, a similar deal is being offered to people with roots in Germany. I can understand why after two millennia of persecution, Israelis are inclined to secure an alternative location in case trouble finds them here. However, I believe, and history is my witness, that hiding will not help us escape trouble. Our only protection is internal unity. No one has ever defeated, or even challenged us when we were united.

Therefore, I am not looking to buy an alternative passport or prepare a safe haven for myself, even though I have family outside of Israel. Instead, I am trying to do what I think I, and all the Israelis should do.

The more chaotic the world becomes, and it is quickly becoming very chaotic, the more the Jews will be accused of causing it. It is not because we are deliberately causing chaos, but because we are not setting an example of unity, we are blamed for the world’s inability to establish cohesive societies.

The reason for the global rise in antisemitism is not Israel’s negative conduct toward our neighbors, even though this is the world’s grievance against Israel. The real, albeit elusive reason for the intensifying antisemitism is the worsening division in the world, which it pins on Israel.

There is a simple reason for this: Whenever there is division, it is blamed on the Jews since our role is to set an example of solidarity and mutual responsibility, the tenets around which our nation was born, and the values we were tasked with exemplifying. Therefore, if Israel fails to fulfill its calling, the world condemns it.

In other words, the world hates us not for our actions, but for our inaction, for our refusal to practice and display internal unity. As long as we do not strive for solidarity and cohesion, we will not find peace or security anywhere, not in Israel, not in Europe, not in America, and not in Africa. Wherever we go, people will blame us for their wars and for their woes.

Our only safety net, therefore, is our unity. When we are united, we pacify the world’s wars and win humanity’s gratitude and favor. When we are divided, wars and conflicts ensue, and the world hates us for it and seeks to punish us.
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