A strong relationship is like an animal that you need to constantly feed in order to continuously grow it. You feed this animal with mutual concessions. Moreover, for those who have their own families, the mutual concessions need to include all family members, and you need to teach children about this animal that you need to concede to. That is the basic principle of holding a strong relationship, and enjoying it. While it might appear as if you do not enjoy conceding to your relationship partner, because you might think that the other side subdues you—you will actually find that you do enjoy it, because by doing so, you enliven the “animal,” the relationship. It seems as if the weak side concedes, but if we do what the other side cannot do, then we are not weak—we come out the hero. The hero is actually the one who concedes. We need to respect that quality more. Your partner should be proud of you and honor your overcoming of yourself and your concession to them. If you have children, then your partner would tell them about it, and how it brings them real satisfaction.

The Iran nuclear deal will pour a lot of money into Tehran, strengthen its power and status, and Israel predicts that such an agreement will be very bad for itself, that it will bring Iran closer to having a nuclear bomb, and will enable Iran to continue spreading terrorism. Moreover, since the United States is currently considered Israel’s greatest ally, such a deal also shows that Israel will be left to deal with Iran on its own in case of an existential threat. Indeed, Israel can rely on nobody. America is no friend of Israel, and in general, Israel has no friends. It shows that only Israel itself can establish its own protection. In my opinion, I want no protection from anyone but myself. Our certainty about our future lies in the mutual support of both our spiritual and our corporeal degrees. What is this support of both our corporeal and spiritual degrees? On the corporeal degree, it means that we develop this weapon ourselves, and on the spiritual degree, it means that we become equipped with a spiritual weapon. A spiritual weapon is the force of human connection. If we activate such a force, then we can reach a state where the Iranian people, including their government and everyone else, will want to connect with us wholeheartedly and devotedly.

I watched about half of the Harry Potter movie, and the main takeaway I got from it is that we have a desire to escape from our reality, or at least to broaden its boundaries. And we can. However, it is no game, and it is not for children. In order to exit our current reality, we need to work on changing our perception of reality. The main barrier standing between where we are in our current reality and entering a whole new reality is pride. That is, in order to exit our current reality, we need to annul ourselves, our egos, and pride is what mainly stands in the way of doing so. And, indeed, we need a certain kind of magic in order to leap from our reality to a whole new reality. Real magic is when we elevate our qualities above the limitations of time, space and motion. We can then be unlimited in these parameters. In fact, there is no time, no space and no motion. When we annul ourselves, we annul these parameters from our senses, and we no longer control them. In other words, we need to let go of controlling time, space and motion, that we exist in such parameters, and that we hold onto them like how children hold onto their toys, refusing to let go. This is how we are naturally built. When we let go of it, then we discover a perfect and eternal world, free from the constraints of time, space and motion.

Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman responds to a viewer in Gaza who asked about his fellow Gazans scalping work permits that Israel provides, making people in Gaza pay money in order to get such permits.

We need to learn that the reason for war is the hatred that dwells among us all. Also, we need to wage war on this hatred, to push ourselves into the fight against our own ego—the force within us that constantly makes us consider self-benefit over benefiting others—in order to rise above our egos and positively connect to each other. By doing so, we will win and reach a state where there is no war. At the moment, we see that each side points out the other side as the egoists, the fascists, and it is snowballing. We see repeats of scenes that we thought belonged 100 or so years in the past: from refugee children and elderly people standing outside in the freezing cold, to horrific scenes of the aftermath of battle. However, our ego will show us scenes from even a thousand years ago until we reach the decision that we need to let go of it. While our ego is our nature, and it is natural to think about ourselves over others, what we miss in such a picture is that we need to reach the recognition of evil. “Recognition of evil” means becoming aware of the inherent evil of our egoistic nature; that our ego makes us feel only ourselves, and instead of ourselves, we need to feel others, i.e. to transition from “me to we.” Such a transition is called “correction.” Until we undergo such a correction, our sense of self—our ego—will continue making us suffer. We should thus seek how we can make the monumental shift from me to we as quickly as possible, and focus our prayers also for this most significant correction to happen.

Recently in Israel, a ninth grader at an art school in Tel Aviv slapped his teacher in the face, and it was followed by other students in the class applauding him. The student was suspended, and the teachers at the school spoke out against violence and discontinued their work that day. I see this incident as a result of our current form of education. It is as if that boy gave a slap to the whole education system, and it could be that all teachers and the entire education system need to feel it. He is a result of this system, which includes not only the schooling he receives, but our society in general, our families, schools, workplaces, the media, TV, radio and what goes on in the streets. If horrible examples are abundant in the environment that influences us, then what do we expect to see in our lives? Today’s youth are simply the results of this environment. We need to completely change this education system because it currently has no aim of nurturing and growing children into happy, confident and well-connected human beings. Instead, it aims at nothing more than giving people a few subjects, and leading them to a certain grade standard. In other words, today’s education fails to develop the inner human in us. What should be the main objective of the education system? It should be to develop human beings in the fullest sense of the term. In order to develop human beings, the educators themselves require learning of what that means and how to do it. If we bring about such a change, then we will start seeing the emergence of a whole new harmonious and peaceful society. Children and teens will have a positive attitude toward their parents, teachers and other people in general. We will also know how to positively connect with each other, why we connect, what is the meaning of life, and how to realize it. That is of utmost importance in education. We will also learn different subjects and topics along the way, but we need a new foundation that defines who and what we are, why we are here, and how we can improve ourselves.

An editorial published by the Kuwaiti daily Arab Times called for the Gulf states to normalize relations with Israel. Arab Times Editor-in-Chief Ahmed al-Jarallah urged that "All the Gulf states should normalize relations with Israel due to the fact that peace with this most advanced country is the right thing to do" and also condemned the Gulf states’ support for Palestine, mentioning that Palestinians’ negative attitude to the Gulf states in return is an “insult.” In general, normalization between Israel and Arab countries is a positive phenomenon, but it depends on our attitude toward reality, humanity and our cousins. In relation to reality, we need to consider how we bring about peace and harmony in the world. In relation to humanity, we need to seek how to bring about education that can guide humanity on how to positively connect above its differences and divisions, and by doing so, realize a whole new life of goodness and happiness. And our attitude toward our Arab cousins should be that we wish to bring them closer to us than even the rest of humanity. The Arab world will understand that it is beneficial to make peace with Israel when we, the Jews, will soften our hearts and positively connect to each other. By making peace among ourselves, then to the same extent and even more so, we will see how peace emerges between us and the Arabs, the Palestinians and everyone else. By implementing positive connections among each other, the world would also receive the drive to do so. As a principle, if there is Jewish unity, then unity and its myriad positive effects would ripple throughout the world. Likewise, if division and hatred reign supreme among Jews, then so too such negative qualities expand throughout the world. We would thus be wise to imagine that the relations we implement among each other—even just in Israel, among everyone living within its borders—influences the whole of reality, all of the nations, and literally every person. I understand that it is hard to grasp, depict, and agree with such a concept, but it is nevertheless the truth.

During the 2021-22 winter in Israel, there were several cases of elderly people found on the verge of hypothermia due to their inability to pay the costs involved in heating their homes. As such, a petition emerged that called to cover the heating costs for all elderly people who could not afford their electricity bills. I would take such a proposal a step further: that a national plan should be prepared whereby the elderly would not need to pay for heating in the winter at all. In general, such a situation brings up the question of empathy, namely: what do we need to do in order to feel the pain of others? That is, when we ourselves are freezing cold, we feel such pain distinctly and act on it immediately. However, if we know about others who are cold, we are inclined not to act with the same level of urgency. To empathize with the pain of others, we need to open our hearts to them. “Opening our hearts” means participating in their sorrow. In this particular instance, it means that we should act toward them as we would act for ourselves if we were freezing cold. The problem is that our nature makes us take care of ourselves while keeping others at a distance. Yet, we should know that the upper force, the Creator, which is a force of love, bestowal and connection, holds our nature, our hearts. Therefore, if we would ask the Creator to open our hearts to the sorrows of others, then we would receive an open gate to the world’s correction, i.e. to a state where we become sorrow-free and achieve balance, peace and harmony. Moreover, by doing so, we would receive a feeling of the upper force, which would fulfill us completely. As for this particular case with heating for the elderly in winter, there is a key argument—“Where would we get the money to pay for all of that electricity?”—to which I think that if the people in this country were all concerned about fixing this problem, then we would find that it is no large sum of money. All we need is to care.

I watched about half of the Harry Potter movie, and the main takeaway I got from it is that we have a desire to escape from our reality, or at least to broaden its boundaries. And we can. However, it is no game, and it is not for children. In order to exit our current reality, we need to work on changing our perception of reality. The main barrier standing between where we are in our current reality and entering a whole new reality is pride. That is, in order to exit our current reality, we need to annul ourselves, our egos, and pride is what mainly stands in the way of doing so. And, indeed, we need a certain kind of magic in order to leap from our reality to a whole new reality. Real magic is when we elevate our qualities above the limitations of time, space and motion. We can then be unlimited in these parameters. In fact, there is no time, no space and no motion. When we annul ourselves, we annul these parameters from our senses, and we no longer control them. In other words, we need to let go of controlling time, space and motion, that we exist in such parameters, and that we hold onto them like how children hold onto their toys, refusing to let go. This is how we are naturally built. When we let go of it, then we discover a perfect and eternal world, free from the constraints of time, space and motion.

In early 2022, human rights organization, Amnesty International, published a 278-page report titled "Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity," which further advanced the “Israel is an apartheid state” narrative, describing Israel’s policies and activities not only in the territories, but also toward Israeli-Arabs, as those of an apartheid regime. While the report describes Israel as conducting apartheid policies toward Palestinians and also toward Israeli-Arabs, the negative views about Israel are in fact sourced in the egoistic relations among the Jewish people themselves. Overtly, we find no reports about negative connections between Jews, but covertly, there is a deep-seeded feeling in the nations of the world that the Jewish people owe the world a method of correction of human relations up to a point of “love your neighbor as yourself,” and that the Jews are failing to provide this method. The feeling of the Jewish people failing to provide the world with a method for rising above divisive drives is then what ultimately forms as negative views that the nations of the world hold toward the people of Israel, and the “Israel as an apartheid state” narrative is one such consequence. It is as Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes in his “Writings of the Last Generation”:“It is a fact that Israel is hated by all the nations, whether for religious, racial, capitalist, communist, or for cosmopolitan reasons, etc. It is so because the hatred precedes all reasons, but each merely resolves its loathing according to its own psychology.” In short, connection is a law of nature and the people of Israel were established as a conduit through which to pass the connection in nature’s deeper levels to humanity. The solution to the increasing negative views about the people of Israel is thus for them to realize their role in the world, i.e. to implement the method that leads to “love your neighbor as yourself.” As such, they become “a light unto the nations,” i.e. a conduit for the tendency of “love your neighbor as yourself” to spread worldwide. On the contrary, their failure to realize this method holds back such a tendency from spreading around the world, and the world increasingly feels that the people of Israel are a source of darkness, up to a point where the world would feel that there is no right for this nation’s existence. We thus have no choice but to start increasing our positive connections to each other up to a peak of love. By doing so, we would invert evil to good, and see peace and harmony throughout the world. Likewise, we would find that the world would invert its attitude to us from negative to positive.

There was a shocking case of a 20-year-old calling the police multiple times in severe mental distress. Eventually, the officer on duty who took her calls lost patience: "Enough, already! You're driving us all crazy. You can go and kill yourself for all we care." A few weeks went by and she committed suicide. The officer who took her calls felt deeply ashamed. Each of us seemingly has a certain limit before we totally lose it and no longer are in control of our actions. Why are we made that way? We are made with a certain limit beyond which we lose control in order for us to be able to eventually change our nature from the desire to receive to the desire to bestow. When we relate to others out of an attitude of bestowal, where we purely wish to benefit them without any self-interest intertwined, then we understand them and their pains. Then, instead of losing our patience with them, we instead discover opportunities to help, support and praise them. We should thus focus on increasing our sensitivity to each other, which is achieved first and foremost by listening to explanations of how interconnected and interdependent we are. By increasing our inclination to positively connect throughout human society, then we attract upon ourselves the positive force of connection that dwells in nature, and by doing so, we eventually start feeling that we live in a single system. Such is the shift from the corporeal animate level of existence that we are currently on, to an awakening into a whole new human level of existence, where we feel ourselves as parts of a single whole. In such a state, we would feel close to each other, and would have no sensation of others stressing us out or pushing us out of balance. Instead, we would seek opportunities to help, support and encourage others. We would then view people who approach us with requests as doing us major favors. It would no longer be difficult for us to connect with others, feel them, and serve them. The more people would call us and nag us, then the more we would feel that such people help us rise from the animate level of existence to the human level, and we would thus realize the purpose of our lives through such an attitude and such relations.

Israel has the world’s highest rate of kidney donations to strangers, which serves as an example of a paradox: On one hand, we find such displays of sensitivity and support in Israel, and on the other hand, we see a place where people’s egos often collide. How do these two extremes coexist? It is indeed characteristic of Jews, who both rise to the sky and also fall into the depths of the abyss. Our nature is such that we cannot be only in one extreme, but since we were originally established as a people who reached a state of unity above divisive drives, then it becomes characteristic of us to hold two opposites within ourselves. We now have to make all possible efforts in order to elevate ourselves from the depths of the abyss, i.e. from immersion in our egoism—our desire to enjoy at the expense of each other—to correct our egoism, and instead use our desires to bring benefit to others. We have the ability to invert everything that appears negative to its positive, i.e. to the benefit of others, with the help of the intention. The intention is the thought of what we wish to get out of a certain action, and a good intention is one where we aim to benefit others through our actions. Likewise, every person has the ability to conduct their every action with a good intention for the benefit of others. It is thus worthwhile for us to exercise this ability—to engage in building environments that nurture the creation of a good intention—in order to reach a more harmonious, peaceful and happier state of existence.

Disney movies taught entire generations what ideal love looks like. In a classic format, a woman in distress is saved by a knight on a white horse, they fall in love and live happily ever after. In these movies, it is usually love at first sight. Is this how love is supposed to be? Love at first sight is not true love, and it is thus unsustainable. True love, rather, has a different foundation, infrastructure and reason. To love is the meaning of life. There is nothing greater than love. When love fulfills us, we are alive. When love disappears, it is worse than death. Love is when we have something that we can do for another person, and it fulfills and enlivens us. There is no stronger emotion than love. Why does love fade away? It is because we have to renew it. Love is like a pet that we need to constantly feed. By doing so, we can continually renew our love up to a point where it can be felt infinitely.

More than a third of the Norwegian public believes that Israel treats Palestinians the same as how Nazis treated Jews during the Holocaust, according to a recent survey. Such an attitude coincides with Norwegian schools and media presenting Israel as the great villain of the Middle East. It thus raises the question of what will future generations think about Israel if such is the material being circulated, and have we not progressed beyond such attitudes? We have not progressed beyond any of these attitudes because we have not corrected anything. Antisemitism does not pass, but only on condition that Jews change themselves, i.e. that Jews start relating to themselves, to their lives, to their place and to the world differently and truthfully. We need to know why we exist, and who we are as a nation. We exist in order to show the world the corrected form of human society as a whole. The corrected form is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If we make progress in that direction, then we will be able to influence the entire world, including Norway. This is the rule by which we all need to live. If we lived by it, then all people would feel a positive illumination coming from the Jewish people, and thanks to the Jews, all people would also come closer to realizing that rule. Today, we are condemned for how we treat the Palestinians. However, if we in Israel will start implementing relations of love for one another, even a little bit, then the extent to which we reach relations of mutual love for each other will change the world’s view of us accordingly. We would then also find ourselves closer to Palestinians, Norwegians and everyone else. We Jews once held relations of mutual love, and that connection shattered. Since its ruin, we have felt a common hatred toward each other, and that is the source of our every problem. If we correct our broken connections, then we would also correct our relations with the rest of the world. The cure for antisemitism is thus in the love between us.

Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi discuss the possibility of people losing their data privacy. The following is a loose transcript of the talk… Oren Levi: A few days ago, we celebrated Data Privacy Day. In relation to privacy, we found recently how even the Israeli police spied on several of its citizens using Pegasus spyware, made by the Israeli technology company NSO Group. It seems as if the more advanced technology becomes, the less privacy individuals possess. There is nowhere to hide. We become exposed, as if naked, in front of everyone. What will protect us in such a state? Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman: The protection will be that everyone will lack security, and when everyone is open toward one another, we will feel no shame, we will each have nothing to protect, and that will bring calm to everyone. Oren Levi: Where is the insurance that will give us 100% protection? Dr. Laitman: Call upstairs. Connect with the upper force, the good and benevolent force. The only means to be under His protection is through reaching equivalence of form, and performing the same actions as He does. Acts of bestowal and love are opposite to our nature, since we are incapable of feeling them. Someone on the same frequency as this force of nature will feel safe, protected, and peaceful. The only payment required is your loyalty.

A student at a school approached his teacher, because he saw a girl who had come to school in a torn coat. Since it was winter and her coat was inadequate to stand up against the cold weather, the student suggested a trade setup where anyone could give whatever they wanted with the aim of making sure that every kid in school would have an umbrella, boots and a coat for winter. The teacher was very moved, shared the idea with the parents, and it was set up in two hours. A question that arises from this heartwarming situation is why are we all not as sensitive as that child? Obviously, we would find ourselves in a much more positive reality if we were. We adults are bigger egoists and are much more inclined to pay attention only to what is ours. We have been created in such a way where we feel increasing detachment from each other in order for us to develop a sincere prayer for help: to have our hearts opened so that we can feel others similarly to how we feel ourselves. By reaching such an inversion of how we feel reality, then we would feel connected, close and understanding of each other. We would then all feel like one body. We would have no holes in our coats, and would feel ourselves as parts of the upper world—of love, bestowal and connection.

Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi discuss how we can extract infinite energy from nature. The following is a loose transcript of the talk… Oren Levi: A revolutionary method produces electricity out of seaweed by placing special electrodes in the ocean water. Not only does it not pollute, but it also emits oxygen supporting our atmosphere. Scientists find energy in everything. It's like nature saying, "Just come and take." Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman: It really is that way. Everything that we discover in nature is like taking from the treasure built out of the upper force's great love toward us. Nature is indeed saying, “please come and take,” but only if you use it in a good way among yourselves. “Use it to each other's benefit and only then you will discover all the treasure in the world that I'm giving you. There are infinite surprises, sources of energy, light and beauty. You will lack nothing, but on the condition that you use everything to the benefit of everyone.” This is the condition set by nature because nature is whole. Therefore, in order to use nature correctly, we need to also be whole like nature. It is a simple law. We should thus invest in positive human relations, because we derive infinite energy from there. They can never be detrimental, but always beneficial, and they are unlimited like the universe.

Israeli researchers discovered how a fungal network manages the exchange of nutrients between trees. Fungi connected to tree roots communicate the transfer of minerals, nutrients, water and carbon, while the trees funnel their carbon to the fungi in return. The researchers also found that the fungal network serves to strengthen and recover trees that developed certain problems. Therefore, one thing we can learn from fungi is that there are complex and smart connections in nature. Among us humans, we actually have much more complex and profound connections, but due to our egoistic nature, we have no idea how to approach them. Fungi and trees, however, use their connections to their mutual benefit because they contain no such ego. However, nature made us human beings with the ability to connect two opposite qualities, the negative egoistic quality of humans and the positive altruistic quality of nature. It is so that we can correct our egoism into its opposite—altruism—and by doing so, reach nature’s higher degree. And for us, nature’s higher degree is one of love, bestowal and positive mutual connections among everyone. On one hand, fungi have a certain awareness of something missing in the ecosystem, and pass on certain forces to complement it. Among us people, on the other hand, we can see opposite examples, such as people continually amassing more and more wealth to a point where they do not know what to do with all of their surplus, while others starve to death. We would thus be wise to learn from fungi about the intricate connections in nature, and that we can positively realize our interconnections by prioritizing the benefit of others over self-interest. Our eyes see an egoistic reality, but behind the scenes, from the perspective of nature itself, is an altruistic reality, and if we filled our connections altruistically like nature, then we would experience harmonious, peaceful and whole lives. We would then gain nature’s wisdom. We would understand how the intricate connections in our reality work, and how we could maximally benefit our lives by mutually complementing each other through positively realizing such connections.

Faruk, a 14-year-old from Northern Iraq, was dying due to congenital heart disease and doctors in Iraq had already given up hope. A Middle East Organization, which helps children undergo lifesaving treatment in Israel by doctors in one of the hospitals, saved his life. On returning home to Iraq, his father said: “I am saying this from here, from Iraq to Israel. I kiss the eyes of your doctors, one by one. Israeli people are a merciful nation.” Such stories are indeed heartwarming, and raise the question: why can we not normalize the relations between these two countries? On one hand, such stories touch the hearts of many, but on the other hand, they fail to touch the hearts of leaders. In short, we should not look to leaders for a positive solution, but instead look to tuning ourselves toward positive connection. Otherwise, we can expect to see our world heading toward greater and greater evil. We need to understand human nature and the nature of the world. The only reason we are “stuck” in a negative tendency toward worsening relations among people, societies and nations is due to the people of Israel. The ball is in our court: we need to reach positive connections among each other first and foremost. It is very difficult because we accumulate within ourselves the entire ego of the world, all of its evil. Nonetheless, we need to perform a special heart operation on the people of Israel by inviting the positive force dwelling in nature to improve our connections. We do so by becoming an example to all people that we wish to come closer and positively connect. It is the only way to save ourselves from all problems and troubles. We are hated only to the measure in which we hate each other. The nations of the world are not evil. As a result of our negative connections, we project our evil onto them. We are the ones who can bring about correction, since we are the nation who originally reached “love your neighbor as yourself,” and we need only want to achieve that state again. If we implemented such a correction of our relations to each other, then we would see myriad positive responses to us, with one of them being the feeling of Muslims not just as our cousins, but as our brothers.

Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman responds to questions from Oren Levi, which emerged after a research on rats showed that rats that had more of a genetic connection were able to better cooperate. The following is a loose transcript of the talk… Oren Levi: Do man’s genes determine the measure to which he can cooperate with others? Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman: Cooperation passes through the genes, but it is not ordinary genetics like with rats. Oren Levi: Who is there to blame when a person has bad genes and he is more antisocial, apathetic, and won't cooperate with others? Dr. Laitman: The person is to blame for not getting ahead with the cure. A person can release himself through his attitude toward others. It starts with the understanding, "I need to reach a state where I care about others. Others also need to care for their friends." In the quality of cooperation each of us is a wrong-doer. We're all egoists and all of us need to correct ourselves, to invert ourselves from reception to bestowal. Everyone will have to perform this correction. When a person who was born with poor cooperation genes inverts himself, he will be better than everyone. But he'll have some hard work to do: the greater the minus, the bigger the plus. Nature did not screw anyone up, so to speak. Everyone has the ability to invert themselves from minus to plus, and by doing so, discover their spiritual world. To the measure he loves everyone, he starts feeling that he is in the world of the Creator. What does that feel like? God's world. A person loves everyone, understands everyone, feels everyone. This person treats everyone in a good and nice way, seeing themselves as a means to help others. The person is enjoying himself all the time because he can bestow. He or she can give to everyone, and that's unlimited, that's heaven. Everyone can be that way. Not only is there hope for everyone but everyone has to go through this.