Question: The psychologist in me tries to understand himself and others, to analyze and solve problems, to manage his feelings, and to change his attitude to reality. What does a Kabbalist try to do within himself?

Answer: A Kabbalist finds the sources of perception of the surrounding reality, its boundaries and, by working on himself, pushes these boundaries so far that he begins to see the upper force behind reality, the quality of bestowal and love, opposite to the quality of reception and rejection of everyone and everything, which is inherent in egoism.

In the fight between these two qualities, by preferring bestowal, love, and connection over the quality of separation, reception, and hatred at each stage of spiritual development, a person becomes a Kabbalist. He begins to act not for his own sake, not in order to fulfill his egoism, but for the sake of others, for the sake of spreading altruism.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/15/21

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And Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it under the doorpost which is in the sanctuary of the Lord.

And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us; it shall be a witness against you, lest you deny your God.” (Prophets, Joshua, 24:25-27)

“Stone” (In Hebrew “Even“) from the word “Havana,” understanding. This is about a person’s heart, which he feels either as a stone or as something alive that has the ability to hear. No wonder the heart is called either an alive one or a stony one.

We need to make the stones feel, cry, and live and we would build a Temple to the Creator from such stones, that is, from our hearts. This is the basis for the people, for the country, and for all of humanity, and in principle, for the Creator.

Question: Until when is it necessary to warn the people and threaten them not to deny their God?

Answer: Until the end. Until complete correction (Gmar Tikkun). And each time a person will still receive punishments, rewards, and advance in such a way between this and that.

Question: Why do we not learn?

Answer: We learn. We cannot say that we do not learn from the past, but there are always new desires, new obstacles. We cannot take the old things and move on. Practically, when we reach the goal, we will see that, in principle, everything was good.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/6/21

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Question: Every morning we get up and say: “We have to get up early for work. We have to make another business call. We have to exercise. We have to write an article. We have to go to our son’s game.” And by replacing only two words in these sentences, we can change the general approach to life. You do not “have to”—”you can.”

You can get up early for work. You can make another call. You can prepare dinner for the whole family. And the perception of life, the perception of everything that happens in it, changes.

What is the advantage and what is the distinction between the two attitudes: “has to” or “can”?

Answer: It depends on one’s perception of the world. I either want absolute peace and agree, like Oblomov, to lie in bed all the time, I have everything, I do not want anything, I will wait for the day I die. So what?

Or I feel that this life is worthy of being able to fix something in it, achieve something else, become different. And then I rejoice at the opportunity before me. It depends on what kind of attitude you have to life: creative or consumeristic.

Question: Does the consumer attitude lead a person to the point of “I have to” or “I can”?

Answer: I want and that is it. I want to use everyone and everything—this is the consumer attitude to life. And the opposite is to use this life to rise to its next level.

Question: Life means that there is always an opportunity to use every state?

Answer: There is always an opportunity in life. Always look for an opportunity and seize it.

Question: Then I have a few questions and please comment on them.

The biggest obstacle is fear. Is it true?

Answer: Uncertainty and fear immobilize a person, closes and “cans” him, that is, deprive him of the opportunity to act.

Comment: The biggest mistake is to lose heart.

My Response: This is also true. “The biggest,” I don’t know. But it is a big mistake. The biggest one is to disconnect from the Creator.

Question: So you still need to be connected to Him?

Answer: And without connection to the Creator where will the forces come from? Where will the direction come from? Where will the appeal to the one who corrects and does everything come from? I am not doing all this. I simply must turn right to Him for Him to do everything.

Comment: The most dangerous person is a liar.

My Response: Yes. But I do not listen to them so I do not think they are dangerous people. If only someone really asks for help, spiritual help—to find a goal in life, strength to realize this goal—then I hear, but otherwise, no. Therefore, no one can seduce me.

Question: Who, then, is the most dangerous person?

Answer: For man, the most dangerous person is himself. Who can harm him except himself? No one.

Question: And how can he harm?

Answer: By the fact that he listens to himself, to his egoism. Trusting his beloved self.

Question: Who needs to be trusted?

Answer: The teacher or the Creator. This is, in principle, the same thing.

Comment: The most insidious feeling is envy.

My Response: This is the most wonderful feeling if a person can correctly implement it. There is nothing better than envy! There is nothing more, generally, there is nothing better than envy to move forward.

Question: Can you give an exercise on how to use envy correctly?

Answer: You must first find a goal, and then envy everything that leads to this goal.

Comment: The most beautiful act is to forgive.

My Response: The most beautiful act—it is not to forgive. The most beautiful act is to direct a person to the truth.

You do not have to forgive anything. The Creator forgives nothing! There is judgment, continuous judgment. And thanks to the fact that nothing is forgiven, we understand where we are wrong, and we can correct ourselves.

Question: And in relations between people, should a person judge himself or others?

Answer: Why should I judge someone, or myself, or others? I judge the Creator, I always go to Him, and so I check everything with Him. This is called “I judge Him.” Then there is no offense, no reason for forgiveness. Everything is checked only in relation to the goal.

Comment: The best protection is a smile.

My Response: I do not think so. It seems to me that a smile, to the contrary, can be perceived as mockery, disdain, and condescension.

It is best to show a person that you do not consider him at all, that you are directed only at your goal, and he has nothing to do with it. And therefore, you don’t treat him well or badly, but you relate to him to the extent that you can show him what is worth paying attention to in life.

Comment: The most powerful force is faith.

My Response: By faith I understand something completely different from what ordinary people understand, and therefore I believe that there is no greater error in life than faith. There is nothing more harmful in life than a person who believes.

Faith in Kabbalah is the ability to be above your egoistic principles and just give everything. The power of bestowal is the power of faith in a person. That is, it is an active force that helps a person to rise above his egoistic nature: the property of Bina over the property of Malchut. Only in this way.

Otherwise, faith is I closed my eyes and left.

Comment: The best support is hope.

My Response: No. We cannot hope. There should be hope only to the extent that I grant myself correct advancement.

In Kabbalah, the surrounding light is called hope. It has not yet entered you, but it already shines on you because you are correctly directed toward the goal. That is, hope is a very serious advancement. Measured! Everything is deterministic

Comment: The best gift is love

My Response: The best gift is love. Yes! But by love we mean absolute merging with other desires in the general fulfillment by the Creator.

Comment: A person strives all his life for love, for hope, for support.

My Response: This is from weakness, from ignorance, inability, and the fact that he is just a lazy person. The whole culture of being positive refers to weakness, laziness, and slovenliness.

Comment: Therefore, some researchers advise against the urge to strive to be happy.

My Response: No, you really need to be happy. You just need to find out what kind of state it is to be happy. What is absolute happiness? Merging with the higher force because it is absolute.

Question: And then what does the person receive?

Answer: He receives the same state the higher force is in. His benefit is that he becomes equal to the Creator. There is no state more perfect.

Question: How does this distinguish him from an ordinary person?

Answer: An ordinary person is a small egoistic animal looking all the time for a warm corner. And a person who achieves merging with the Creator does not need to look for this warm corner, he is already in it, truly in the most comfortable state.

Question: And at the same time, people are striving for the positive, striving for absolute happiness that they cannot grasp. When faced with troubles, with strong grief, illness, or tragic situations, they keep silent about them. Is this a correct attitude?

Answer: No, by no means. A person must react very vividly to any manifestations in his life of bad and good traits, qualities, forces, and phenomena in order to format himself according to the highest state. Otherwise, he will miss his whole life.

Question: And if something tragic happens in a person’s life, how can he use this state?

Answer: Measure this tragic component in his life with respect to the absolute: is it de facto tragic, or maybe they want to bring him closer to the truth with a very strong influence.

Question: And what does a person need to do?

Answer: He goes to clearly find out the purpose, the truth, the central state of the world.

Question: Accepting the negative in order to direct everything toward the goal, is this a skill that can be learned?

Answer: To do this, you need to be in school, in the study of Kabbalah. To do this, you need to be in a certain state, in a certain atmosphere, encircled, and then it will work out.

Comment: Researchers say older people learn to accept negative things more easily to push them toward goals than younger people.

My Response: Naturally, this comes from life experience. But, in principle, this has nothing to do with Kabbalah.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/17/19

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Selected Highlights

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My new article on Linkedin “May We Never Stop Asking”

Ilan Ramon was the first Israeli astronaut. He was aboard STS-107, the 28th mission of the space shuttle Columbia. Upon re-entry into the atmosphere, Columbia disintegrated and exploded killing all seven crew members on board. Ramon was a great achiever. He was an elite fighter pilot and the youngest pilot who participated in Israel’s strike that destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor. Despite his success, Ramon asked poignant questions about life and its meaning that I think we should all ponder, for they are what give value to our actions.

Mr. Ramon sent his questions to Yeshayahu Leibowitz, a renowned professor of biochemistry and neurophysiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was also a prolific writer on Jewish thought and western philosophy. “For a long time, I have been pondering many questions that might be incorporated under the title, ‘What is man’s purpose in the world we live in?'” wrote Ramon. “The more questions we ask, the greater the contradictions and ambiguities. How do you explain the essence of life?” he asked Prof. Leibowitz. “How do you see man’s purpose and goal in life, and what is the way to achieve this goal?”

Today, when many people are asking similarly poignant questions, we should look into them more closely. There is a reason for these questions; they are the compass that leads us to our calling in life, to our ultimate goal.

However, to find our purpose, we should start with the basics. We may not be aware of it, but humanity, indeed all of reality, does not consist of distinct entities and separate individuals. In truth, we are all parts of a single entity that functions like an organism, with us as its cells and organs.

The problem is that we are unaware of our oneness and perceive ourselves as separate beings. Just as we can understand the purpose of the existence of a cell only in the context of the organism where it lives, we can understand our own existence only in the context of all of reality. Because we feel like separate beings and do not recognize our connection to all creations, we cannot find the meaning and purpose of our existence.

Therefore, instead of living a fulfilling life as part of something higher than ourselves, we live only for ourselves, not knowing why we go through life’s hardships or the benefit we derive from our existence. This is the root cause of today’s increasing prevalence of anxiety and depression.

Our task, therefore, is to become aware of our interconnectedness. If we can come to feel as one entity, we will know our place in the world, how we can contribute to it, and how we should live our lives. We will be happy and confident knowing our worth and our place in the world.

However, we will never know about our connectedness or about the meaning of our lives unless we ask about it. These fundamental questions, which can be quite daunting at times, are the engine that drives us to seek answers. They are the force that drives humanity to learn and evolve. If we want to keep growing, we should never stop asking.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What elements of our lives do we need to consider to live a balanced lifestyle?“

We should take care of healthy nutrition, a balanced diet, physical activity, stress management, leisure time, and having balance in our free time, e.g. from sitting and listening to music through to playing with kids, playing sports, and so on. These are all elements of a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

In addition to taking care of balancing our nervous system, it is written in Kabbalah that “all shall be clarified in thought.” That is, we should inspect our inner thoughts, desires and intentions, and a correct review of them should bring us to what is known as “the middle line,” i.e. balance between life’s many forces. We then reach an optimal state of spiritual and corporeal life as one.

In the middle line, we can correctly use nature’s forces, which includes our innate powers inherited from birth as well as the achievements of the previous generations.

Based on “New Life episode 1,115: A Formula for the Right Connection” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Nitzah Mazoz and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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My new article on Linkedin “The Happiest Sad Birthday”

Let me tell you a true story that sends an important message to all of us. Halleli, a 4-year-old girl from Jerusalem with special needs, wanted to celebrate her birthday with her friends from kindergarten. Her loving parents arranged for everything: the place, the food and sweets, a clown to entertain the kids, and various fun activities that all the children enjoy doing. All her friends from kindergarten had promised they would come, and Halleli couldn’t wait to celebrate with them. But in the end, only one girl showed up. The candy, the clown, and the games just stood there, untouched and unwanted.

The next day, heartbroken, the girl refused to go to kindergarten. Her parents were beside themselves with sorrow and worry for their child and didn’t know how to comfort her. In his distress, Halleli’s father posted on social media what had happened, and matters took a sharp turn for the better.

A man from the neighborhood read the post and was overcome with emotion. “I have kids too,” he thought. “What if she were my daughter?” He felt he had to do something to give that girl an experience that would wash away her sadness. He decided to throw her the birthday party of her life.

He combed the neighborhood and told everyone about Halleli and that he was organizing a birthday party for her and asked everyone to come. A few days later, Halleli had her party. This time, hundreds of children and their parents showed up to make the little girl happy on her special day. Her parents were overjoyed and grateful beyond words to the kind stranger, and as for Halleli, her face beamed brighter than the sun.

This story doesn’t only tell us about human kindness. It is a warning sign. It demonstrates how heartless, perhaps even cruel, we can be if we are not organized and galvanized into positive action. It also proves the immense potential that lies in establishing mutual responsibility in society. When people who don’t know each other help each other because this is the value they live by, there is no end to what such a society can achieve.

The Jewish people became a nation when complete strangers found the words of their teacher, Abraham, compelling enough to implement. His teachings about kindness and mercy as the key to solving society’s problems struck a chord in the hearts of his listeners and they joined his group. This is why mutual responsibility and “love your neighbor as yourself” are the tenets of Judaism – social laws that relate not to God but to our fellow person.

Today, when alienation permeates every corner of human society, we desperately need mutual responsibility and care for others. These are the only qualities, the only values that can keep human society from collapsing altogether. Just as Abraham had found that the remedy to his homeland’s social ills were care for others, all of us must now realize that the cure for heartlessness has not changed since ancient times. The only difference is that alienation has now spread throughout the world.

Humanity must do today what the ancient Hebrews did – unite across divisions and establish love of others where today there is nothing but hatred. Perhaps such moving stories as the one about Halleli’s birthday will help us realize that mutual responsibility is not a noble but unrealistic notion, but an imperative step we must take to ensure our survival as a functioning society.
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Filed under: New Publications, Unity | Add Comment / Ask Question →

My new article on Linkedin “The Darkness of the Crystal Night Continues”

The words “crystal night” may evoke the image of stars twinkling in the clear night sky, but it is nothing of the kind. This week, 83 years ago, the Nazi Party’s paramilitary forces (SA) smashed the windows of synagogues, schools, and other Jewish institutions, broke into them and set them on fire. The coordinated pogrom took place throughout the Third Reich, in Germany and Austria. The smashed windows scattered on the ground gave the night its name, Kristallnacht (Crystal Night), or the Night of Broken Glass. More than 400 Jews were slain that night, 400 more died in concentration camps shortly after, and many more committed suicide as a result of the pogroms.

Jewish unity must never be for its own sake. The whole purpose of the existence of the Jewish people is to build an exemplary society. In the short periods when we had such a society, we thrived and the nations admired our achievements. When we grew apart, they began to hate us since our division sent the opposite message from the one we are intended to send, that unity above differences creates the ideal society and the happiest people.

This week, Austria unveiled a memorial in Vienna to commemorate the memory of the victims of Kristallnacht, and the memory of the 65,000 Austrian Jews who perished in the Holocaust. This event is also an opportunity to acknowledge that antisemitism is rapidly intensifying the world over, and another Holocaust is already on the horizon.

I wish I could be a bearer of good news, but the reality is that we have not coped with the reasons that generated that violent hatred and its subsequent horrors. We are still deep in the darkness that originated that pogrom, and all the pogroms before and after it.

Nevertheless, I see no cause for despair. On the contrary, the key to changing our position in the world is in our hands; if we muster the determination, we will prevent such atrocities from afflicting our nation going forward.

Memorial days should not focus on remembering the dead. I, too, lost the majority of my family in the Holocaust, but remembering them will not prevent it from happening to my children or grandchildren. If we want to secure our future, we must focus on what we can do today to achieve it, rather than mourn the dead, although that has its place, as well.

In the spirit of this proactive approach, I think we should look at what we can do about antisemitism. For all our efforts, we see that reasonable explanations do not uproot the hatred. We can, and should, forbid expressions of online antisemitism, and we should do all that we can to curb overt Jew-hatred and Israel bashing, which has become trendy among politicians and opinion leaders. However, these measures will only buy us a little time; they will not prevent the eventual intensification of the hatred to levels that will erupt in large-scale violence against Jews.

To use the little time we have, we should focus on ourselves rather than on our haters. There is a lot we can do that will change the world’s view about us. Below is a list of don’ts and dos regarding coping with antisemitism.

Don’ts:

1. We should not attempt to appease our haters, neither abroad nor in Israel. They hate Jews, and anything we do to appease them will only embolden them and add derision to the hatred.

2. We should root out the thought that antisemitism is the result of this or that policy of the Israeli government. The expulsion from Spain, the pogroms in Russia, Kristallnacht, and of course, the Holocaust, happened long before there was a Jewish state. Therefore, bashing Israel is just an insinuated way to express hatred of Jews.

3. Don’t argue with Jew-haters. Hatred needs no justification; the hater always feels entitled to the hatred, so arguments are a waste of time and energy.

Dos:

1. Develop solidarity among Jews. Our ancestors were strangers who united around an ideology of creating a society where people love each other as themselves. Only when they committed to be “as one man with one heart” did they become a nation. Moreover, we were exiled because we hated one another, so the basis of our restored nationhood must be unity.

Incidentally, unity does not imply uniformity. On the contrary, the differences among us will create a society whose strength is in its diversity. The shades and nuances of a united Jewish society will generate a lively, dynamic, and powerful society.

2. Once we establish unity among Jews in Israel, it should spread and encompass every Jew around the world who wishes to join in. Following the same idea that diversity generates power and vitality, any Jew who wants to contribute one’s special flavor to the rejuvenated united nation will be welcome to join.

3. Finally, and most important: Jewish unity must never be for its own sake. The whole purpose of the existence of the Jewish people is to build an exemplary society. In the short periods when we had such a society, we thrived and the nations admired our achievements. When we grew apart, they began to hate us since our division sent the opposite message from the one we are intended to send, that unity above differences creates the ideal society and the happiest people.

As I have shown in two extensive publications on the subject, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism and Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour, history proves that these dos and don’ts work. Now we must have the courage to implement them.
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Filed under: Anti-Semitism, New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Why are the true causes of the crisis partially hushed up and partially slowly revealed?

Answer: Because it is unprofitable for those in power. The people who are in power today and profit from what they do in the world are unhappy themselves. They are like a squirrel in a wheel, spinning and spinning, more and more. Who has $100, wants $200, who has $200, wants $400, and so on.

This is a vicious cycle humanity finds itself in. It will be able to get out of this circle only when it reaches some critical point at which, on one hand people will receive a correct explanation of where they are, and on the other hand their suffering will force them to open their eyes and see where they exist.

The correct explanation and the feeling of being at a dead end makes a person stop and look for a way out. Then it will be possible to talk to them about what this way out is.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 10/19/21

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