“How A Father Of Five Becomes A Killer Of Mothers” (Times Of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “How a Father of Five Becomes a Killer of Mothers”

Last Tuesday evening, a 35-year-old man, a schoolteacher and father of five from the Bedouin settlement of Hura, drove his car to Beer Sheba. There, he saw an elderly Jew riding his bicycle. He rammed him with his car and killed him. He drove away from the scene and stopped at a gas station, where he spotted a woman standing with her back to him. He stepped out of the car, drew an 8 inch long blade knife and stabbed her in the back. She turned to him and he stabbed her again. She fell on her back so he leaned over and stabbed her until she stopped moving. She died. He got into his car and drove on. Near a roundabout, he pulled over, went into a clothing store and drew his knife. He stabbed three people there, two men and a woman. The woman died. He went back to his car and saw an elderly man driving through the roundabout. He accelerated and crashed into the car. The elderly man was hurt and stunned. The schoolteacher got out of the car, drew his knife, and stabbed the elderly driver multiple times until he died. At that point, a bus driver saw what was happening, drew a gun, approached the attacker, and told him to put down the knife. The attacker jumped on him, too, but the bus driver pulled back and pulled the trigger. The stabber collapsed and died within seconds; the killing spree was over.

It is hard not to wonder how a father of five, a schoolteacher who spends his days educating children, can become so monstrous toward people from another faith. But when you think of what he himself was taught—that killing Jews, any Jew, not necessarily soldiers, rewards you with heaven above, admiration below, and a lifelong financial support for your family, courtesy of the Palestinian establishment, it becomes more understandable.

Indeed, the reward came right away. Hamas praised the killing, and the social media post in Arabic that the Israeli government posted about the slaying got more than 4,000 jeering faces within hours after posting.

In his past, the assailant spent five years in jail for membership in ISIS. Clearly, he had been filled with hatred from his youth, which led to his joining ISIS, and the hatred he absorbed there lived long after his release from jail. Indeed, the applause on social media proves that killing Jews is praiseworthy in the Arab society as a whole.

There is a solution to the problem, but it takes courage. Currently I do not see who among Israel’s leaders has it, but the solution will not change if we stall. It will only become more evident that there is no other way.

There are two steps to the solution. Since hostilities have reached a level that risk innocent civilians, the first step is to separate the two populations. Arabs and Jews can no longer live together; it is a fact of life, written in blood.

Jews and Arabs have a common father: Abraham. Just he said to his brother Lot, “Is the whole land not before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; and if to the right, then I will go to the left,” Jews must part from their Arab cousins.

The second step in mending the situation is to solidify Jewish unity through education. There will never be a military solution to the belligerence of our haters. As our leaders and sages have been telling us since the inception of our nation, the only thing that can dissolve the world’s hatred toward us is our own internal unity.

We, the nation that conceived the notion of loving others as ourselves must implement it on ourselves and set an example of unity and mutual responsibility. If we do, the world will welcome us, including the Arabs. If we do not, we will continue to suffer from senseless killings and the world’s hatred toward us will only grow more violent.

For more on the significance of Jewish unity, see my books Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour, and The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord.
[295748]

Toward Intelligent Coexistence

271Comment: Nowadays, more and more, scientists, public figures, and national leaders agree on the need to create some kind of unified global idea that contributes to the survival of mankind.

And although the reverse process is still going on, meaning, there are attempts to defend specific traditional values, in general the following trend is manifested, the creation of a single global vision for all, which would speed up the process of cognition of the programmer who created the universe.

My Response: We cannot get away from this, we have to do it. Nature pushes us to understand it and come to some kind of reasonable human community. It is impossible to continue like this, because every moment we will be more and more afraid for ourselves, for humanity, for the world, and for our Earth to continue to exist.

We need to move into a new reality. Now it seems like it is virtual to us, even fantastic. But it works exactly according to the mirror principle: turn your evil into good and you will see how the world will become completely different, and you will be different, and so will everyone else.

We have no other way out. We have to come to this.
[294635]
From KabTV’s “Virtual World” 2/9/22

Related Material:
Great Programmer’s Plan
Unified Social System
Present From Baal HaSulam To The Last Generation

The Book Of Zohar—Revealed In People

65Question: The Book of Zohar was written 2,000 years ago. Do you know the current location of the original book, its first scrolls? After all, there were a huge number of scrolls, and only 5-10% reached us.

Answer: Yes, initially The Book of Zohar consisted of 100 volumes, but a maximum of three or five of them have reached our time.

Question: Can the original source itself ever be revealed?

Answer: I think it can be, but why reveal it? If a thousand more pieces of parchment are revealed, like the Qumran scrolls, for example, so what?

The Book of Zohar must be revealed in people. People need to understand its meaning, its basis. This is the most important thing.

Question: Baal HaSulam notes that this book has made a very strong impression on the world. Where are the consequences of this visible in our world?

Answer: We don’t see that, but, in principle, if such knowledge, such force, is manifested at least in something, in people, in forces at the level of our world, then this should give the world a big boost in its movement toward final correction.
[295057]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/15/22

Related Material:
The Power Of The Book Of Zohar
The Key To The Book Of Zohar
How To Enter The Book Of Zohar

The Spiritual State Called Jerusalem

417The Tanakh often mentions the city of Jerusalem and its importance. The Tanakh was written by people who attained the upper force and described how to reveal a spiritual state called Jerusalem (Yerushalayim or Ira shalem).

“Ira” in Hebrew means awe and “shalem” means perfect; “Ira shalem” means absolute awe before the quality of bestowal of the Creator.

It means that a person reaches a state where he is completely in awe, but in good trembling. He experiences this not because he is afraid and trembles from the possibility of receiving some kind of punishment, but he trembles because he wonders whether he can really do to the Creator the same thing that He does to him, all that goodness, the upper abundance, everything that He pours out on him.

We are not talking about a simple person in our world who is in concealment, but about someone who reveals the universe and sees how the Creator did everything for his benefit—eternity and perfection. And at the same time, he reveals an adequate attitude to the Creator. This is called the state of “iraa shlema” or “Yerushalayim,” that is, absolute awe, absolute aspiration.
[294910]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/22/22

Related Material:
Jerusalem: A Symbol Of Unity
Jerusalem—Absolute Awe
Jerusalem: Not Stones But The Spirit

When The Majority Opinion Becomes Law

263Question: We influence each other on the level of desires and thoughts. And the fact that laws are being passed today that were unthinkable ten years ago is this because we are connected to each other at the level of thoughts and desires?

Answer: The fact is that we agree with the corruption, with the descents that occur in society. And if this is, let us say, the opinion of the majority, then it inevitably becomes law. Therefore, we have no choice but to go with the flow along with society that is gradually falling, falling, falling.

The science of Kabbalah reveals to a person his place, his purpose, the meaning of his life, and answers the questions that he needs to know in order to exist. It gives him both strength and knowledge of how to change his life.
[295040]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up, Partnership Agreement” 4/7/10

Related Material:
A Simple Formula For Spiritual Life
The Evil Eye Is The Power Of Thought
Proper Environment

A Question Related To Eternity

198Question: Should a person listen to his environment when he has a question about the meaning of life and is told: “Why do you need this? Why are you thinking about it?”

Answer: People do not understand that a person who asks a question about the meaning of life is at a higher level of development and that greater voids are revealed in him than in them. They can somehow fill their little voids with restaurants, jobs, awards, and medals. But this person cannot.

Today, the question about the meaning of life arises latently among billions, but many do not understand what is happening to them. They pass it off as some small problem, ill health, dissatisfaction at work or at home. People do not understand that this is a deeper issue that is connected with eternity. That is the whole problem.

Question: So, does the disclosure of this question within a person show that he is at a higher level of development, and therefore others cannot understand him?

Answer: Of course. With this question, we rise from the level of animals that live without thinking according to the orders of nature that automatically arise in them and that they fulfill. We begin to think, “What for?” This is already a question about eternity, the level of the Creator. Here we must reach His degree because we can no longer remain animals.

At this level, I begin not only to function correctly in the world around me, but I am obliged to study why I exist. I must understand who is launching me and why He is doing it. I want to be like Him. I want to understand the meaning of everything that happens to me. Only then will I be able to do something, otherwise I will not have the strength.

That is, I must reveal the Creator. The Creator is the next degree that controls us, the general force of nature.
[294680]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Summing Up” 4/7/10

Related Material:
Understand What To Live For
Depression—An Illness Of Lack Of Meaning In Life
Understand The Meaning Of Life

From War To War

023Question: All Kabbalistic primary sources speak of internal wars, but we see the manifestation of wars in our material world. Is this process inevitable?

Answer: This process is inevitable and it is constantly moving forward. Its formula is very simple: the opening of the right line, the opening of the left line, the appearance of the middle line between them, and its disappearance. Then again one line rises above the other, plus over minus, minus over plus. This is how development goes on all the time.

Question: If everything in nature is determined, then does it mean that the course of its events cannot be changed and all wars must manifest themselves, including the third and fourth world wars that the prophets wrote about?

Answer: Yes, unless we apply forces to constantly bring these two opposing forces into balance with each other.
[295012]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/1/22

Related Material:
“Between War And Peace”
Will There Be A War?
The War For Peace

A “Judge” Is A Human Quality

630.2You shall not curse a judge, neither shall you curse a prince among your people (Torah).

Question: Where does respect for judges come from? After all, an ordinary person cannot know the level the judge is at or how much he has distanced himself from his ego.

Answer: The issue is that a judge is not a person but a certain inner quality that allows one to judge himself. The beginnings of this quality are inside each person, and everyone should develop it within themselves. Without it there is no point in even thinking about rising to the spiritual degree.

It is also said: You shall set up judges and law enforcement officials for yourself in all your cities that the Lord, your God, is giving you… (Torah).

This means that if I want to get out of Egypt, i.e., out of the prison of my ego, I must cross the Red Sea (Yam Suf – Final Sea) that separates egoistic desires from altruistic ones and begin to develop altruistic desires in myself.

However, I must develop them in accordance with the instructions, calculations, and qualities that I find in myself compared to my former egoistic qualities and rise above the ego and thus constantly judge myself about how to rise again and again. All the states I pass through are the “period of judges.”

Question: What are the cities where one sets up judges and law enforcement officials?

Answer: You can enter the upper world, the quality of bestowal, connection, and love, only if you meet the condition of not being controlled by the forces of the ego, but by the the forces of love and bestowal you receive from the corrected egoistic qualities.

Then a completely different, new world opens up before you. You are building it and creating it.
[294575]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/11/22

Related Material:
In Righteousness Shalt Thou Judge Thy Neighbor
Our Own Judges
Judge Yourself

When Will Wars Stop?

294.2Comment: Some scholars profess that we should understand that war is the normal state of humanity at all times. What do you think about this statement?

My Response: We see throughout history that peace cannot exist without war and that there are periods of peace and periods of war.

If this is what happened historically, then we must accept this as given.

Comment: But I do not want to accept this!

My Response: Then you need to find a method in which war does not take place in the form it does now. It will take place within the world. This is what Kabbalah says, that a person should fight with himself a little every day. And then he will have no need or no inclination to fight with others.

Question: With what should I fight in myself?

Answer: Fight with your egoism with which you want to conquer the entire world, tie everyone up, and so on. On the contrary, all this is unnecessary.

Question: Does it mean that it is egoism that bursts out into wars?

Answer: Of course it is our egoism that forces us to fight each other. Here we need to understand that we can slowly balance this egoism, and this should be our daily work.

Question: And then it will not burst out into wars?

Answer: In no way will it burst out because it will not be necessary. I will fight with myself every day, and thus I will not have to fight with someone.

On the contrary, I will need to take everyone as a helper against my egoism.

Comment: This is very practical advice!

My Response: Tell it to those who start wars.

Comment: How can we tell this to all of them? After all, this is really how wars arise, over pride, over egoism, over the statement “I said!”.

My Response: We can clearly see that.
[294595]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/24/22

Related Material:
Let Him Make Peace Between Us
Will There Be A War?
When Will Wars End?

It Is Impossible to Become Wise Without Practice

219.03Question: Many famous people claim that in the pursuit of such fulfillments as fame, wealth, etc., there is nothing but emptiness. Can it be that life itself shows us by example that we should strive in a different direction?

Answer: It does not matter. We can even see this in the lottery, with its horrendous statistics. Most people who won millions ended up very badly: financial ruin, divorces, robberies, violence, and accidents.

See how nature plays with us. Who would not want to win today after all this? There is no such person who would refuse to win. If a person who knows what happened to the previous hundred winners is now given a lottery ticket and asked: “Will you be the hundred and first?”, he will answer: “Yes. This will not happen to me.”

Question: Why? Where does this idea come from?

Answer: Because no one is wiser than the individual who has gone through all these tests.

Question: So a person must still go through it personally, pass through it himself?

Answer: One must! Otherwise, one will not have this impression, he will not listen to you anyway. We must go through all these states, and only after they roll over us like a steamroller that kneads us, do we become wiser. It is impossible to become wise without practice.

But if a person can attract the upper light to himself, then he will pass through these states not physically under blows, but internally, rationally, spiritually. We must give him this opportunity. If he does not use it, then on the level of our world he must go through all this, as they say, to feel it on his own skin.
[294751]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Summing Up” 4/7/10

Related Material:
When Money Will Bring Happiness
Where Is Happiness Hiding?
Reaching Happiness