The Judaic Studies Program sponsored Laitman’s lecture and the Middle East Studies Program, the Department of Religious Studies, the TAK Honor Society and the Consulate General of Israel to Florida and Puerto Rico co-sponsored it.
Kabbalah is generally defined as Jewish mysticism, but Laitman’s lecture, titled “Kabbalah and Nature,” presented it as a form of ancient universal wisdom, dating back almost 6,000 years, about the manner in which the universe functions. Speaking in Hebrew through a translator, Laitman said “the science of Kabbalah” is particularly relevant to humanity today.
Ancient Kabbalistic texts, said Laitman, speak of “. . . one force that acts in the world, which . . . encompasses the world and governs reality and us within it.” Laitman said humanity’s task is to discover this force and recognize the manner in which the world is interconnected.
Laitman said even in inanimate systems, such as the universe as a whole, there is a balance between the different parts that allows the system to sustain itself.
“The only place where [this balance] doesn’t exist,” he said, “is in human society . . . We have to achieve that balance.”
Laitman also addressed the political implications of this worldview, saying the current international crisis presents a chance for humanity to unite and “. . . live as a single body, with one heart.”
Our modern consumer society, said Laitman, is unsustainable, and humanity needs “. . . a society of balanced consumption, where everyone receives . . . what is sufficient for this world.”
“I’m hopeful,” he said, “. . . we will eventually decide to create a global government, a global system that runs this system as a whole.”
Many students, like sophomore criminal justice major Christopher Bolanos, attended the lecture with Dr. Whitney Bauman’s Earth Ethics class.
“It was interesting that he said . . . that our consumer society has to be changed to a society of balanced consumption in order to better our situation and environment,” Bolanos said.
Jonathan Biro and Leilani Echezabal, both members of FIU Shalom, commented after the lecture on Laitman’s statements about the relationship between humanity and nature.
“I find it very fascinating how much Kabbalah has to do with the environment and nature,” said Biro, a senior psychology major. “I was interested to hear about how our human fate will end up promoting pro-environment and pro-ecological initiatives.”
Echezabal, a graduate student studying higher education administration, said she liked Laitman’s emphasis on harmony.
“I liked the fact that he was talking about the fact that we have to mutually connect harmoniously, and . . . his idea of being harmonious, as one person with one heart.”
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