When a person dies, he is given permission to see. He sees his kin and his friends from the world of truth, he recognizes them (Zohar for All, “VaYechi,” Item 168).

“When a person dies” means that he has risen from the previous degree to the upper degree, i.e., he has connected even more with the rest of the souls above his animalistic egoistic desires. There he sees those kindred, close-to-him souls, with whom he will now begin to connect to master this degree.

That is, each spiritual degree is arranged according to a very simple principle and is based on an even greater connection of souls between themselves both in quantity and quality.

Question: Are the close here called those who were close to him in life?

Answer: Of course not! The father, mother, brothers, sisters, or children have no relation to spirituality. Only your friends from the spiritual work or those upper souls, your teachers, who helped you do. You discover that they are around you. This is your spiritual environment, your spiritual group.

First you discover your friends, and possibly not even those you had before on previous levels. Additionally, you discover upper souls who are now connecting to you. In the same way at school, for example, you move from one class to another, change teachers, or move from one place of work to another and change your environment.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #20

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The end is guaranteed, but in its time, meaning it is completely connected and dependent on time.” (Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”)

If we don’t hasten our development, it will take place in its time, which means in 221 years, the years that remain until the end of 6,000 years.

But we will not be rewarded with living in our current corporeal clothing this way until then. So, let’s try to attain the 6,000 years in our spiritual clothing and wrapping now in this life. We will make efforts and we will attain it.

According to the above-mentioned law of gradual development, one must go through many degrees, which tend to come heavily and very slowly and lengthily, and stretch over a very long time before one reaches the end.

Kabbalists don’t hide the fact that there are problems along the spiritual path. But these are our growth problems just like the growth of small children. They are beaten, fight with others, cry, and express their discontent, which are all phases of their growth, and nothing can be done about it.

It is the same in spirituality. But it is a process that can be accelerated. We begin to understand very quickly that it is when we act this way that we advance.

Because the objects we are discussing are evolving, sensing, living beings, they, too, must suffer great agony and pains in those states of development, since the compelling force that exists in those degrees in order to raise man from a lower degree to a higher one is but a pushing force of pain and torments that has accumulated in the lower degree and that can no longer be tolerated.

This is about the path of suffering and not about our path. Our problems are only in the ten, in order to guide us to increasingly greater unity, and then nothing can scare us and we will not undergo any suffering.

But if we don’t begin to do that, the world will undergo terrible afflictions. Today the media everywhere don’t even hide the fact anymore that our world has reached a dead end. All political and economic systems have ended their functions and there is no solution.

We are living in wonderful times and it is so good because we are given an opportunity to ascend above our dull and gloomy life to a totally different state.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 7/14/19

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #11 “Joy with Trembling”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 58

Selected Highlights

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We try to connect in such a way as to break down all the walls between us. It does not matter that we all differ in our thoughts, desires, and characters, only one thing is important—to unite around one goal. This is what connects us.

Therefore, there is no need to change anyone’s natural qualities, on the contrary, the more differences there are between us, the better. But at the same time, we set one goal for ourselves and we all want to be aimed to connect in it. This will be the Creator that we want to reveal because the Creator is the result of our connection.

The Creator is called come and see (Bo-re), i.e., we will come and see that He is one. Until we reveal Him between us as one whole, in common agreement, common understanding and feeling, and in one point of our connection, we will not reveal the Creator.

That is why He is called come and see because we build the condition of His existence by our connection. There is no Creator without a creation. He does not exist until we create this concept of Creator and He begins to exist only relative to us as our Creator. Besides this, there is only an abstract upper force that we do not attain.
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From the International Kabbalah Convention 9/25/21, “Entering Impregnation – Revealing a New World”, Lesson 1

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are the most important things we need to teach our children early in their life?“

Today’s globally interconnected and interdependent world where we raise our children is very different from the world we grew up in.

In order for children to grow up prosperous and happy in today’s world, they need to gain awareness of how connected we are, and the sooner they learn about it, the better.

We should teach them about the planet we live on, so that they understand how we exist in a single ecosystem, with myriad interactions running throughout nature’s still, vegetative, animate and human levels.

We should also teach them about the solar system, the influence of the sun and the moon over the Earth, how seasons change, and how natural forces shape our lives.

In terms of human development, we should show children that divided civilizations and nations become antagonistic and filled with problems, while united ones prosper.

Most importantly, we need to teach them the interconnectedness and interdependence of nature’s forces as a single system and their effect on us. They should understand that even though they connect through today’s technologies, their connection extends beyond technology to other people and nature on all of its levels.

The goal of emphasizing humanity’s and nature’s interconnectedness in children’s education is to nurture their positive connections with their environment, i.e. with other people and nature. If they grow up with a sensation that caring for other people and nature positively affects them, and vice versa, that not caring about other people and nature negatively affects them, then they will bypass a lot of suffering and live enjoyable, peaceful and harmonious lives.

The key point in this connection-enriching education is to understand that our attitude to other people and nature is an ongoing relationship. We can then understand the reciprocity in nature. Thriving relationships, whether in families, friendships, couples, work relations, or in society at large, require mutual consideration. The advantages of reaching genuine friendship and even love in a relationship always override the efforts we apply to get there. Therefore, gaining awareness of our interconnectedness and interdependence should lead us to the conclusion that we should invest in our connections to realize our interdependence positively.

Animals have no instinctive drive to harm other animals. Any killing of other animals that they do is out of necessity for their survival, but not out of a sinister intention to enjoy the other animals’ suffering. People, however, have an additional egoistic quality, as it is written, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth.” We should thus raise our children with a constant concern that they will learn the interconnectedness and interdependence of everyone and everything, and think and act accordingly.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and a team of writers on September 2, 2021 – Writers Meeting 274. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the purpose of public international law if there are no effective enforcement mechanisms to apply it?“

Today, international law is in the hands of speculating politicians who use it for their egoistic goals. The solution to this problem can take place on condition that we change our social values to altruistic ones. With such a shift, we can affect positive change in relationships between people and between countries. Doing so will impact a fundamental shift in our increasingly malevolent attitudes to each other to positive connections. It is necessary for altruistic values to be the foundation for all international agreements.

Of course, there is no just international law today, and therefore there are also no effective mechanisms to apply it. Only on condition that it will be altruistic and directed at humanity’s benefit, that humanity will want such laws and governance to become implemented, and will understand the need for them, will a worldwide form of governance emerge.

Today, we also discover that the UN fails to fulfill its task. It cannot do so, as it is like a toy, a means, in the hands of politicians, and it fails to carry out what we had counted on and hoped for in the past. We could form a thousand more international organizations, whether altruistic or egoistic ones, and governments—but the same situation will continue until we change their foundation: a transformation for them to be for humanity’s benefit, fortified by the understanding of the general law of nature.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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My new article on Linkedin “Tunisia’s New Prime Minister Could Mark the Beginning of a Real Arab Spring”

On September 29, Tunisia’s president, Kais Saied, named Prof. of Geology Najla Bouden Romdhane as the country’s new prime minister. The newsworthy element about this story is that at a time of intensifying intolerance within the Muslim world, a Muslim country appoints a woman as prime minister. I think it is a wise decision that can pay Tunisia a handsome dividend, and I hope that naming Prof. Romdhane for this high position will mark the beginning of a new and positive Arab Spring.

While it is not for me to speculate on the motive of President Saied in picking a woman for the job, I have no doubt that essentially, a woman is a natural pick for an administrative task. After all, who runs the house? The woman. While the man is usually regarded as the head of the family, the real landlady is, well, the lady. She may stand behind her man, but from there, she runs her husband, as well as everyone and everything else.

Since Biblical times, the man was instructed to follow the woman when it comes to making choices. In Abraham’s case, for example, “God said to Abraham … ‘whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her’” (Gen. 21:12).

Therefore, I think that picking a woman to govern an Arab country is a good choice. I have no doubt that she will face obstacles. She will need to prove herself to her people and to Arab leaders wherever she goes. Nevertheless, it is a welcome revolution that I think will eventually succeed.

It is time that even fundamentalist Muslim cultures will begin to acknowledge the unique power of women, that their word has merit and weight. Throughout the world, we can see the impact of women in every field, and it is time it reached the Muslim world, as well.

Some countries pride themselves in being progressive, when in truth, they place a glass ceiling over women’s heads that blocks their promotion up the ranks of government. I think that such countries are losing. In statesmanship, as at home, ignoring women’s views is a great loss to everyone.

It is written in The Book of Zohar (Beresheet 2): “And the man said, ‘This is now a bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh’ … Now he began to praise her, ‘She shall be called ‘a woman,’ for there are none other like her, the glory of the house.’”

Indeed, a woman at the head of a country will relate to the country as she relates to her home. The citizens will be as her children. If she behaves like a woman instead of trying to fit into the masculine stereotype, she will see to every little detail that is under her influence.

Unlike a man, a woman can multitask very naturally. While men must focus on one task at a time in order to do it well, women can perform multiple duties concurrently without losing concentration on any of them.

Therefore, it is my hope that this welcome change will percolate to more Muslim countries, including the Arab society here in Israel. I have no doubt that it will not be easy, but in the end, if women join the leadership of countries, they will be very instrumental and promote effective solutions to the multiple crises plaguing our world.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Do we need to fix humans?“

The weakness of world reformers throughout the generations [is that] they regarded man as a machine that is not operating properly and needs mending, meaning to remove its broken parts and replace them with working ones. – Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), “Peace in the World.”

There is nothing faulty in a person and nothing needs changing in him. Everything was given to the person by nature, so different negative attributes, and even desires to kill and to steal, were given to us by God or the Creator. (“Nature” and “God” are regarded as the same force of love and bestowal in the wisdom of Kabbalah. In Gematria, “God” and “the nature” are equal in number.)

We do not correct people by imprisoning or executing them. We can correct ourselves by placing ourselves in frameworks where we can reach the understanding that we need to correct our nature, or in other words, to positively connect above our most negative impulses toward them.

We need to rise to the next level of our development without destroying our negative attributes, and we needs to acquire positive impulses instead of negative impulses in relation to others.

When we actively apply a positive impulse above our negative impulses in such a way, then we will start feeling a new state of connection between plus and minus as between the negative and positive poles of the same field. We will then start feeling a whole new peaceful and harmonious reality.

Based on “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on July 7, 2019. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Homeland is where you feel good. (Folk wisdom)

If a person is corrected, then it coincides that the homeland is where you feel good. And if a person is not corrected, then he is mistaken in the definition of homeland, perhaps absolutely.

A corrected person is one for whom the goal of his life, his development, and the goal of the world are one and the same.

Question: What is that goal?

Answer: Goodness.

Question: What do you mean by this?

Answer: When everyone feels good.

Question: What simple definitions you give! Is it okay for everyone? Doing good to another?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What is to do good to another?

Answer: “Do not do to another what you do not want to be done to yourself.” This is the main rule.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/5/21

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