Audio Version Of The Blog – 12.22.16

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How Can We Get Closer To The Creator?

laitman_528_04Question: What should a person think about or what should he do in order to get closer to the Creator if he isn’t in a group yet?

Answer: It is important to be in a group of ten, to establish connection with a group. It can be a small group of two or three people and even a virtual group. Without a group, the study is merely the acquisition of knowledge, which doesn’t yield anything beneficial. You have to learn to be connected with other people and to advance together with them.

Our Education Center for studying the wisdom of Kabbalah provides an opportunity to establish a connection with such a group, which eventually forms a stable virtual society. All the graduates of the third semester already know where they can connect with people.

Therefore, anyone who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah should take a course through the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education Center where you learn how to organize a group into groups of ten and according to which principles they should work together.
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/26/16

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Marx’s Predictions Come True, Part 3

Laitman_028_02Question: Do you think that the world’s powerful people are able to listen to your warnings?

Answer: The beauty of the present period is that the powerful people are losing their ability to control. They built a system for themselves, believing that it would function for centuries.

It is a system that allows the world to be controlled with money and other artificial incentives. However, since everything in this system is evaluated by money, it ends very quickly. Over the last 30 to 40 years, we have understood that neoliberalism is bankrupt and cannot continue.

It was turned into a game by printing money with nothing to cover it. This bubble would have burst a long time ago if the entire world weren’t involved in this game. The developed countries were assisting the struggling ones, so the system lasted a little longer, but it doesn’t work anymore according to the laws of our egoistic nature.

The world can only develop either according to an egoistic or altruistic nature. These are the only two forces existing in our world. Today, we see that development through the egoistic nature has ended. Karl Marx wrote about the end of capitalism, seeing this perspective even back then.

The elite managed to stretch this agony over many years, assisted by the two World Wars, which greatly slowed the process of dying capitalism. Over the past 50 years, they have managed to survive due to the fake game with dollars, industry and international trade.

America and Europe destroyed their industry and came to terrible unemployment because of this game. Real unemployment in the US is about 30%, and it is even higher in some European countries.

It is impossible to continue moving in this direction. It is not by accident that Trump won the US election. People who more or less see current events understand that this path has reached a dead end. This bluff, built on deception in the economy, trade, and banking system, this entire bubble, must burst.

The great number of unemployed is a serious problem for every country, and we need to find a solution. Apart from supplying them with food, clothing, and shelter, we need to give them fulfillment. Otherwise, they will turn into wild animals.

There is a dialectic of the natural development of human society that cannot be stopped. Not even the most powerful ruler can freeze society at the level of a feudal system for centuries.

There comes a time when people rise up and overthrow all kings and vassals. Today’s elite doesn’t see the seriousness of the problem, like Marie Antoinette who advised the hungry people to eat cake if there is no bread. Eventually, it can end in a big explosion.

Of course, the elite today are more intelligent and cunning than previous monarchs. They influence society through mass media, which they control, and they nourish society with drugs.

Yet, this still will not help. It just slows down people’s waking up to this critical situation. The overall process cannot be reversed.

Our egoism has finished its development. Capitalism is a system that is built entirely on the use of egoism in all of its forms. Therefore, the elite gain control over the media, government, and courts, and use it all only for their own interests in order to exploit everyone. But there is a limit to this, and we’ve reached it.

As a result, the elite break away from the people, leaving them almost nothing, and the people turn into a powerful force from below that has “nothing to lose but their chains,” as Marx wrote. Those are the people that he called the “proletariat.”

However, I doubt that the American people will go to the streets to organize a bloody revolution. Most likely, they will act by pressuring the government, and through elections. There are, of course, the possibility of small riots, but it will not come to civil war as happened once in France and Russia.

Related Material:
Marx’s Predictions Come True, Part 2
Marx’s Predictions Come True, Part 1
The Wealthy Lost Billions

Human Rights Day

Laitman_414Comment: On December 10, 1948 the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and since 1950 this day has been observed as Human Rights Day.

This declaration, which was adopted almost immediately after the terrible WWII that trampled all possible rights, including the right to life of millions of people, has become the first world document that formed the state of human rights.

Answer: 66 years have passed since then and what has the UN done in order to implement it in our lives? Does it educate people in every country to relate to each other in a humane manner, or does it do the opposite? I don’t see that anything positive has happened. They only speak about it and nothing more than that.

People are greatly disappointed with all the declared international days: Coal Miners Day, Veterans Day, etc. It is the same with regard to Human Rights Day.

Question: What are human rights to you?

Answer: Human rights are to understand and attain the meaning of life. One can actually attain it! All the ways are opened for this purpose and I can do it. After all, human rights are not about a person not being hungry, having a roof over his head, having a family, children, education, a pension fund, etc. These are basic things that can easily be provided today for everyone.

If people today understood the meaning of life, they would live a much better life regardless of the UN.
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/05/16

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Ynet: “Europe Is Catching A Ride On Trump”

From my column in Ynet: “Europe Is Catching A Ride On Trump”

France is the ticking time bomb of Europe: the economic crisis, the wave of immigrants and Islamic terror are threatening to disintegrate Europe from inside. Brexit and Trump’s election have only empowered the right-wing parties that threaten the integrity of the European Union. Rav Laitman examines the global system of nature and offers a plan for coping with the turmoil the world is facing.

Who among the leaders contending for presidency in France is more dangerous for Europe and for the world? Fillon or Le Pen? A close look at the views of both candidates reveals that their views are not so different,
Marie Le Pen, the leader of the far-right party in France, hopes to do what Trump has done in America. In opposition to her is Francois Fillon, former Prime Minister of France under whose peaceful façade hides a radical revolutionist.

The two leader are expected to run against each other in the 2017 elections for presidency in France, but their common inclination is already obvious, both favor restricting immigration to a minimum and a total war against radical Islam. The main struggle between the two will focus on economic policy. Fillon has promised to adopt the right policies including reforms to encourage the free market, cuts in manpower in the public service and in government expenses, while Le Pen opposes globalization and supports the state’s intervention in the economy. One thing is certain, they will both do everything in their power to buy the hearts of the middle class voters who are afraid of losing their jobs.

Everything that will take place in the French Republic in the coming year will symbolize what the future holds for the other countries in the crumbling continent. The economic crisis, the waves of immigrants, and the loss of personal security are threatening to dismantle the French interior. The Brexit of the neighbors on the British Isle and the Americans’ choice of Trump have heightened nationalism and only encouraged the radical right to rise and to fight for their home.

American Rules of the Game

It is for good reason that the American President Barak Hussein Obama made his last round of visits to European heads of state last week. This is another step in preserving the status of the elite he represents, under the banner of global economy and worldwide politics. In fact, this is a diplomatic charlatan, whose sole purpose is to oblige the countries to continue to dance to the financial interests of America. With or without them, the world economy is stagnating, and it is already obvious that if no significant change is made soon, the next step is global chaos.
America is interested in preserving its dominance at any cost and not all the European elite agree to play by the rules that America dictates. These rising leaders in France, which is more associated with Europe and who feel less cosmopolitan oppose the familiar move and are inspired by Trump’s meteoric rise.

I have already written a lot that the EU will eventually disintegrate and that the Brexit will be the first step in this process. I also predicted that Trump would be elected and bring a new spirit, but in the end, after the upper 10% exploits the middle class in Europe and the US, a huge social vacuum will be created. Even now a quarter of the European youth, which are called Europe’s lost generation, are unemployed…

Class Conflict

The egoistic nature of man is developing rapidly, and it will not leave a penny in another’s pocket. Baal HaSulam wrote extensively about how the wealthy in communist Russia will leave not a penny for the proletariat, “not even to ensure their daily bread and cover the nakedness” ( “The Last Generation”). In America this trend is taking shape, and about 60% of the population falls below the average standard of living to the lower class. One out of every eight Americans today lives on food stamps of $1.60 per day. The same thing is happening in Europe, even though the US moved extensive manufacturing to Europe and China where new plants were built.

But now when we are in an economic slump, there is hardly anyone to sell to or to buy from, and the right is rising: Trump in the US, Le Pen in France, and in Germany, Hungary, Greece, Poland, and Spain voices call to restore nationalism. Everyone wants to steer the global economy so that it will serve the interests of any country locally and not the international elites.

This crystallized humanity into two clear camps: the international elite that dominates industry, banks, and the stock markets that are feeding on the profits of the middle class’ hard work; and the people, a huge camp whose standard of living is declining because resources have been stolen from them and that are becoming increasingly more nationalistic.

It is impossible to return to the prosperity of 30 years ago—a global world that is mutually dependent with borders closed between countries, or trying to replicate the prosperous industry in Asia, to the US and Europe. Industry has changed tremendously and is not profitable anymore. An Asian worker can live on a dollar a day, which is not enough for an average Western worker to live on. And so when dark clouds appear on the horizon, what has the European or the American citizen got to lose? Suddenly joining a Nazi party in protest against the waves of immigration or expressing a nationalistic and even a racist view in public against a foreign culture is seen as a normative act. How far can these movements go? How extreme can the situation get? Unfortunately, in such cases, the economic crisis and the social conflicts usually lead to a terrible world war, as history has already proven to us twice, but then… surely we all lose.

A New Meaning For Humanity

We must realize that the fact our civilization is crumbling before our eyes is inevitable. The world is in a deeper crisis that we realize. The era of coarse capitalism, based on our abusive egoistic nature that began to grow back in the days of ancient Babylon about 3,500 years ago, is over. It was then that the first foundations for trade and the use of money and taxing were laid and fanned out across the globe. But today money is losing its value in the eyes of those who are looking for the meaning of life. If you add globalization, advanced technology, and 3-dimensional printers occupying the world to the equation, you will discover that there will be very little need for a labor force to produce what we need.

What people lack today is a sense of happiness and economic security and not a few more dollars in the bank account, so all the attempts to carry out artificial changes in the global economy will not help. The question world leaders should engage and which demands an immediate solution is how to take care of millions of idle unemployed people who are day by day joining neo-Nazi groups or dictatorial regimes.

As we have seen in the past, specifically the apparently “pure” bleeding hearts, those who have previously described themselves as liberals, might lose their human side and become the cruelest of all. Baal HaSulam said back in 1942 in “The Writings of the Last Generation” that the world mistakenly attributes Nazism to Germany only, but it actually stems from democracy… the Democrats must also reject religion, justice and peace, and that all nations are the equal in this. When the democratic elections in the US ended, we all saw how millions of “liberal Democrats” went to the streets trampling the ideology they were raised on, opposing the candidate who was lawfully elected, ready to shatter shop windows since they were not happy with the outcome of the elections. On the other hand, the supporters of the extreme right are rising, spreading hatred and fear, and the American nation is more divided than ever before and fears for its future.

We are facing a new era, a generation that is advancing toward far-reaching changes that are of crucial importance to its future and the future of its children. If we don’t hurry, we will face great turmoil especially the State of Israel, which strongly depends on Europe and the US. Any slight change there will immediately lead to actual destruction in Israel.

A New Human Industry

The solution to the crisis that haunts us is a universal recovery plan. In other words, a national, social and educational program to unite the divided humanity, which will include a permanent solution to unemployment, the erosion of the middle class, and the disappearance of the working class, an empiric profound multi-phase plan that will even attempt to enact laws and offer principles of connection as the basis for healing human society.

The Law of Connection is actually a government plan that will find the way to impact society and create an environment that is a “must” for the American and European people. Its goal is to give people tools and to establish a supportive environment for them that will help them learn to connect to each other and to be considerate of others. It is an educational process that will impact all of society and by which we will know ourselves and the environment we live in, and will be able to share the knowledge we have and establish a common consciousness and a feeling of belonging to one system.

Imagine sitting at a roundtable every day all day long, learning about the global world and human nature, speaking about how to tighten the internal communication between us, connecting to each other, and letting the warmth spread in the relations between us. The spirit of unity will be the new product, and the participation it, the huge educational project that will prepare us for it, is actually man’s new job. The positive force of connection that we will be produced between us will become the new human industry and it will provide everyone with an existence, both emotionally and mentally, in the form of joy and happiness, peace, and tranquility. In such a society, people will not worry about food, clothing, healthcare, education, housing, transportation, entertainment, and any social service. Everything will be provided by the ten percent of the best people in every area who will take turns.

A system of classes rich in content will operate as part of the daily education program, through workshops and practical experiences like sports, music, art etc., which will fill the time of both children and adults and will impart tools for creating the right connection with others and how to behave in a corrected society. The greatest evil between people stems from ignorance and from not knowing. “If people knew about the human form, they would refrain from inflicting any harm on themselves and on others,” as Rambam wrote in “More Nevochim” part 3, item 11.
This project is similar in scope to the academic study, and will include lectures, online courses, experiential workshops, and discussion circles, which will increase people’s awareness of the global world we live in. The study will include tests, questionnaires, and homework assignments, which will enable a person to assess his progress in improving his relationship with society. At the same time, the media will also be used, publicizing content that will promote the values of unity and create televised and digital environments that will support the process.

The Process: Unity

This educational initiative is based on the laws of the global nature that the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches. Unity is the underlying structure in nature. Nature aspires for balance, equality, and wholeness, and because people are part of nature, we too have a duty to act in equality and be mutually considerate. The only difference is that in our case we have to do this consciously through an educational process. If we establish the mutual connections between us, which will be compatible with life in the global world that we discover today, we will undoubtedly spur the positive force of connection that is between us and thus will reach the understanding and the feeling that will help us make the right decisions and succeed in everything that we do. According to Baal HaSulam in his article “The Freedom,” “Social unity may be the source of all our happiness and success.”

The byproduct of this initiative may help the world leaders find a solution for the growing unemployment problem and they can use it to create many jobs in establishing an extensive, uniform infrastructure that will include all the sectors and will operate in a variety of social frameworks including kindergartens, schools, universities, workplaces, employment agencies, the media, hospitals, and nursing homes. People who will participate in this social-educational program will be rewarded with an incentive and benefits from the state—a move that will pay off financially for any leader and will help in maintaining social order.

Another advantage for leaders is that people will cease to produce useless products only in order to keep consumerism alive. The good relations will create a positive social atmosphere that will lower the rate of crime and violence and will thus diminish the need for law enforcement agencies like the police, court houses, and prisons. The state will save millions. By promoting the ideology of unity, “all the wars will disappear from the world since everyone will care not about his own wellbeing but about the wellbeing of others,” as Baal HaSulam writes in “The Last Generation,” and the state will become one big family-like community,national and individual problems will gradually be solved, and the force of connection will heal the injured states and bring them together again. So who among the world leaders is the most dangerous to our world? The one who will be the last to implement this method in his country…
Ynet: “Europe Is Catching A Ride On Trump” 12/1/16

How To Interpret The Torah?

laitman_209Torah, Deuteronomy 13:13 – 13:16: If thou shalt hear tell concerning one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God giveth thee to dwell there, saying: “Certain base fellows are gone out from the midst of thee, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying: Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known”; then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in the midst of thee; thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.

We can’t interpret the Torah literally because it speaks only about spiritual qualities and spiritual states of a person. If it is written, “Smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword,” it doesn’t mean that it really happened that way.

To smite means to eliminate egoistic intentions within you: not the desires, they are all correct, but the intentions became egoistic. They must be cut off, as if with the edge of the sword.

There are four levels of desires: still, vegetative, animate, and human. Depending on what level the desire belongs, it should be either slaughtered, burned, or stoned, and so on.

It means that first of all, it is necessary to determine the level of the desire. Therefore, you should ask a person to figure it out and help him determine what it is. After all, you can’t climb into him and switch his intention from “for my own sake” to “for the sake of others.” You must make sure that he himself would perform this switch. This is a correction.

It is written in the Torah that have drawn away the inhabitants of their city,” meaning they started to fall from the level of bestowal and unconditional love for one’s neighbor. After all, once the most important thing for society was the love of one’s neighbor and bestowal. “We” prevailed over the personal “I,” which was suppressed by each one.

We all move to correction; therefore, executions and punishments that the Torah speaks about are the punishments for all sorts of egoistic problems that are revealed and must be corrected by the influence of the environment, pressure, and education.

If suddenly the “I” begins to manifest in a person and he, driven by his egoism, draws others into it, arguing that this is the way we need to act, he should kill these impulses within himself. The society must care about it, worry, and prevent these states.

It is written, “Certain base fellows … from the midst of thee.” “The midst of thee” is the qualities of bestowal and love, and “certain base fellows” are the egoistic desires that lead a person to other gods, other values. Therefore, a person shouldn’t just act against them, but should clarify their internal motivation: where does it lead, where it came from, why does he suddenly have this weakness? After all, egoism is renewed in each of us every second.

One should understand clearly what to do. This is a very big job and the society must constantly protect each individual, help, inspire, strengthen, and support him.
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/20/16

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Actions And Intentions

laitman_624_03_0Question: How is it possible to differentiate between spiritual characteristics and beastly characteristics?

Answer: The intention determines everything. On one hand, a person can think about something sublime or be involved with music, painting, or literature and experience creative suffering, all of these with the goal of becoming famous and fulfilling himself intellectually and emotionally because a large ego is motivating him. All great people were very big egoists, because in order to reach the heights of achievement one requires a great egoistic power, a longing for advancement.

On the other hand, it is possible for a person to be involved with something very simple, a small business, but his intention is bestowal, like a person who gathers a group of children and involves them with music, intending to develop them. Characteristics themselves are neutral. Everything depends on the intent. So without knowing what the intention is, it is impossible to determine the nature of the activity. Nobody knows the feelings and motivations of another person; it is even difficult for a person himself to determine what the true motivation for his deeds are. The wisdom of Kabbalah is called the “Hidden Wisdom,” because a person’s intention is concealed from strangers.

Question: Which characteristics does a man need to attain the power of bestowal?

Answer: In spirituality, the gender of the physical body is unimportant. When a person bestows, he is called “male,” and when he receives, even though he is physically a male, in our world he is called “female.” That is how the wisdom of Kabbalah determines the spiritual gender of a person.
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/26/16

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New Life #655 – The Greek Approach And The Maccabee Approach

New Life #655 – The Greek Approach And The Maccabee Approach
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz







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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 12.22.16

Preparation for the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic: “Chanukah,” Part 1

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Lesson on the Topic: “Chanukah,” Part 2

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