Comment: The authorities in Egypt may forbid women to wear veils and scarves that cover their faces because they claim that they were invented by the Jews.

Answer: The reason is not that. The fact is that now a relatively democratic government is in power in Egypt. They want to cancel various Muslim orthodox traditions as much as possible. So they have taken the opportunity to ban the wearing of veils in public places: at work, theaters, and coffee houses to defeat this trend and free the younger generation from it.

Regarding Jews,  they nourish dislike, to put it mildly, and even hatred, and so they say that the Jews invented the niqab.

Comment: They claim that it is said in the Talmud that if a woman leaves home without covering her head and face, she is violating Jewish religious law.

Answer: I have never seen Jewish women cover their faces. Their heads yes, not only on the street but also in their homes. A covering that leaves only the eyes exposed doesn’t exist in Judaism.

It is worthwhile to note that women wearing veils may appear more attractive. We know from the wisdom of Kabbalah that concealment is something charming, attractive, and bewitching. It is like a courtship, with only big, almond-shaped eyes exposed with beautiful makeup and everything else is covered. So the play of the eyes actually attracts a man more; he is magnetized by those wonderful dark eyes. So instead of concealment derived from modesty and distance, the complete opposite is created.

Question: And what does the Jewish custom of a woman covering the hair on her head symbolize?

Answer: This is a quite another matter. Covering the head is a tradition that comes from higher Kabbalistic sources. A woman’s hair is considered to be unsuitable and inappropriate for a stranger. But this does not apply to unmarried girls because they wore their hair loose all the time. Married women would cut their hair short and wear a scarf over their heads, which was always considered to be a sign of modesty and virtue.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/13/16

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Comment: The Chief Rabbi of Israel, David Baruch Lao, referred to the killing of a terrorist as a Mitzva. He also quoted from the Torah saying that: “You should precede he who comes to kill you,” and added that there is no need to fear the legal implications of the offense.

Answer: I don’t know how he can guarantee that since the state laws are not always the same as the laws of the Torah.

Comment: What is more, he added that if someone goes out to the street with a knife, he shouldn’t be able to return to his home.

Answer: It is clear why he went out with a knife and that he has no other intention but to kill. When terrorists are captured and interrogated, they don’t hide their intentions and declare their desire to kill; therefore, if you encounter such a person, you should do everything in your power to kill the attacker.

Comment: The Chief Rabbi of Israel believes that this is the only way we can stop terrorists.

Answer: I doubt whether it would stop them because they receive a lot of money for such acts of terrorism, and mainly because they believe that they will be rewarded by entering paradise, which is the most important thing for them.

In addition, the families of terrorists reap huge benefits, their homes are preserved, they are given grants and medals, and the terrorists are given impressive funerals. In the past, the British used to bury dead terrorists wrapped in pig’s skin, and then according to the Koran, a person cannot reach paradise. Then then terrorist attacks immediately came to an end.

We should also stop the grants that we give the Palestinian Authority so that they will not have the means to encourage terrorists and their families.

Moreover, we should destroy their houses and evacuate the families, which means, that we should do everything in our power so that they will not get used to committing acts of terror.

But the most important thing we should do is to unite among us so positive forces will reach our world that will force potential terrorists to change themselves, their tactics, and their attitude to Israel, to themselves, and to life.

This is how we can influence them in the quickest, easiest, and most effective way. We don’t need anyone in order to do that; we don’t pressure anyone and no one can blame us for anything. If we do what is up to us, we will not need anything else.
[179403]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/13/16

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Question: Do you think that egoism is the highest human sin?

Answer: It is our nature and nothing more.

Question: But at the heart of all crimes and transgressions is the ego. For example, are the members of Daesh, whom everyone talks about, simply egoists or barbarians?

Answer: They are egoists, but their ego finds its expression in fanaticism.

Question: Does this mean that when we defeat the ego, their will be universal prosperity?

Answer: Then we will be connected with good harmonious connections, not only with each other, but also with the surrounding nature and with its general system of management.

We truly will feel that we are living in a balanced world, and we will begin to feel our coming higher states through the system of nature. This is the most important thing the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals. It gives us a perspective not only of this world, but of all of the rest of our states.

This is very influential for a person. He begins to understand that, during the process of his existence in this world, it is up to him to take into account all of his other possible states, completely realistically.
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From the Webinar on zahav.ru 2/10/16

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Comment: The price of oil has dropped, so many countries are trying to take measures to save as much as they can. In Venezuela, for example, the civil servants’ work day has been reduced.  Now on they will work from 7:30 in the morning until 1 pm.

Answer: Every natural resource is becoming increasingly cheaper and more accessible today. Therefore, there can be no hunger. Instead there will actually be general abundance that no one will really need. People will be satisfied with simple, normal, corporeal consumption.

This of course will lead to increasing unemployment, but it will be dealt with by special government allowances. First people will receive money without having to work and every individual will have a permanent income or allowance. Work will not be required.

Second, we will have to oblige everyone to undergo the right educational process so that they will not pass their time being idle. If a person doesn’t have to work and all his necessities are taken care of throughout his life, he won’t need to go to school or to university, he won’t need to learn a profession, he won’t need to do anything. This means that he will sit at home, watch TV, play on his computer or on his cell phone, and that’s all. Therefore, it is essential to oblige everyone to get an education.

I hope that some of the people who will stop working will undergo retraining and become teachers and educators and some will be students, and thus they will begin to advance up to the desired spiritual level.

Education will be aimed at making every individual a human being in the right sense of the word. A person is not an animal who walks erectly on two legs and uses dark instincts, modern weapons, and drugs. A human being is a person who understands his goal and feels that he has to attain it in his connection with people like him.

I do hope that all the governments will understand that this is the only way they can succeed, since otherwise they will devour themselves.

Question: Will the state force people to engage in self-education?

Answer: The state is a compulsive body and it has to exert pressure on people in order to turn them into good citizens since otherwise we see what happens. Europe is turning into a negative example for the whole world today, while 30 to 40 years ago it was a positive example. It is because the Europeans were allowed to have free benefits, but did not implement the right education at the same time and didn’t do anything.

We all see what it has brought them to; it is a clear example. Therefore, there will have to be compulsive government education and it will be the most important function of the state.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/29/16

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New Life 696 – Thank God That He Hasn’t Made Me A Woman
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Nature has created mankind as two different creatures, a man and a woman, and the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about their spiritual roots. A man in spirituality is someone who overcomes his ego and a woman is the definition of the ego before it is corrected. When a man overcomes his ego and leaves the power of a woman he blesses the Creator “Thank God that He hasn’t made me a woman.” Everyone is obliged to correct his ego, man or woman, Jew or gentile.

A woman’s modesty is called the egoistic desire to receive that has not been corrected yet, and so it should be hidden. “A king’s daughter’s honor is concealed” means that the Upper Light can enter the corrected desire to receive. The place where the Creator is revealed is called Shechina or bride and the Light with regard to the vessel is called a groom.

Our customs are a kind of a theatrical play hinting as to what the spiritual commandments are that we need to perform. The custom of women covering their head, their hair that symbolizes storms, the egoistic thoughts that need to be covered before they are corrected, and a woman’s modesty in general symbolize the uncorrected desire to receive that needs to be covered, restricted, until it reaches the state of to receive in order to bestow. All the corporeal actions are only customs and not commandments, while the corrections of the desire are commandments, and the force that corrects the 613 egoistic desires inherent in us is called the Light that Reforms.

The Creator is the general force of reality and coupling with Him is when a person can bestow like He does. Then the Upper Light can enter the corrected desire like a groom that couples with the bride. The Light that enters the vessels is such a great pleasure that one can bear it only with the intention of in order to bestow.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 696 – Thank God That He Hasn’t Made Me A Woman,” 3/1/16

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “Love of Friends”

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 1

Writings of Rabash, “Dargot HaSulam,” Item 936

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Question: In Britain there have been sharp debates on whether it’s worthwhile to leave the European Union. The famous physicist Stephen Hawking and 150 other scientists expressed sharp opposition to leaving. They think that thanks to their membership in the European Union, the subsidies for science in Britain grew and the number of experts increased. Do you think that England needs to leave the European Union?

Answer: Leaving it no longer has any meaning because the European Union will fall apart in the near future in any case.

These are artificial international gatherings that don’t determine anything. There is no mutual connection between them, the borders are being closed, and conflicts, discord, and innuendo are on the rise. The movement towards unification that existed in Europe before has disappeared, although even in the past, only the European Common Market, or more precisely the “market,” united them.

So I think that no matter what they do, this formation must break down anyway. It is not based upon internal unity and preliminary education of people to come closer to each other, but rather only on the desire of those who wanted to get rich from it, and what’s more, do it at the expense of others.

So what kind of union is that? What kind of common market is this if five countries accept, say, 25 additional members in order to create even more capital for themselves at their expense? This is simply exploitation of others and in a most brazen manner.

A system like this is destined to fail. Nature has intentionally pushed them towards this situation so that they could realize that a union of this kind can no longer exist in our world, unlike in previous generations when it was possible to conquer peoples. Even the Soviet Union could not hold together a similar union of socialist republics like the European Union is trying to do. So everything will fall apart because this is exactly the same system at whose foundation lays the ego.

A union can succeed only when the people yearn for it themselves. Without union on the grassroots level, all other structures will crumble. A feeling of necessity, a sense of profit from union has to come from below. Then a greater level will be attained, a spiritual level, and our union will bring more Light into the world.

They should have educated the people! But for this, it is necessary to discover the wisdom of Kabbalah, to begin to somehow teach and educate people on the grassroots level, at least a little, because otherwise everything is destined to fail.

So England can quietly remain within the European Union, because it will all end soon.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/11/16

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Comment: Scientists from the University of Grenada in Spain have found that depression is a much more serious and complex problem than we had thought. It is clear that depressions can become a reason for various diseases, ranging from diseases of the heart and blood vessels to cancer.

Answer: Depression can be found as the basis for most disease, suffering, sickness, torments, and the like.

The essential substance of human nature is desire. Unfulfilled desire arouses a sense of dissatisfaction. And a particular degree of dissatisfaction is even felt as torment, to the point of becoming unbearable agony, driving one to suicide, if only to be rid of the suffering.

Depression is the foundation of all problems and its results are revealed on the material level in the cells, in the body, and in everything else. Depression is not only transmitted to other people but also to household pets who are also currently receiving antidepressants.

A kind of depression “belt” has been created around the Earth that influences everyone, even people who are thousands of kilometers from the centers of depression of particular countries feel it.

All of the people on the face of the earth are in constant connection through the higher system that doesn’t satisfy us fully because it expects a particular movement toward it from us. It is possible to move toward the higher system that must fulfill us only through union between us, through resembling it. Without uniting and resembling it, we don’t draw to ourselves the possibility of being fulfilled by it. So the “faucet” is seemingly closed and we are unfulfilled. However, our ego is growing at every moment and puts us into a greater depression.

Question: Is it possible to say that depression is a call from the higher system to approach it?

Answer: It is a call for us to understand that it is up to us to discover the method of fulfillment.

Question: Are we heading toward a generation of intense depression?

Answer: I think that it will not be the entire generation, but a large part of it. Moreover, humanity will enter into such a depression in which people will dream of how to die. They will want to go to sleep and not wake up and will ask the doctor for a such a pill.

Question: But we are now inventing lots of antidepressants….

Answer: That won’t help. We cannot bypass the development of the ego; its lack of fulfillment provokes depression in us. So we constantly increase the dosage and consume stronger and more effective drugs.

Question: What kind of antidepressant will work?

Answer: The only thing that will help is the attainment of a sensation that will fill our inescapable emptiness, our unfulfilled desire. And it is only the Upper Light that can give this. We have already reached this situation.

Question: What is this Light that will become the best remedy against depression?

Answer: It is the feeling of the meaningfulness of existence, the attainment of this meaning supported by ascent to the level in which your desire will be fulfilled by a feeling of connection with everyone, a feeling of the one and only integral system that is full of the Upper Light. The Upper Light will give us this kind of fulfillment, which will bring about an absolute bond with all other creatures and ultimately with the higher power, the Creator.
[179386]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/11/16

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Question: There is startling news of tourism developing in sites of nuclear disasters.

Tourists have begun to visit the nuclear power station in Chernobyl. This initiative is encouraging the Japanese who believe that in 2036, the main focus will be touring the Fukushima nuclear power plant where an accident occurred in 2011. They already are beginning to plan advertising for tours in the area.

Why would a person be drawn to places where disasters have occurred?

Answer: A person wants to view his future, to know what will happen after a nuclear disaster occurs on the face of the Earth. Tourism to places like these is not an adventure, but a clear and unconscious fear about what could happen to anyone at any minute.

In fact, they are showing places in the radiation zone that seem to be ordinary; freed from human intervention, now rivers splash with fish, magnificent forests are full of berries and mushrooms, and animals, once exterminated by man,  are revived. All of it exists in a marvelous way.

If it were possible to free planet Earth from human intervention without a nuclear explosion, the Earth would be a wonderful planet, blue, beautiful, and clean. Everything would exist in balance, and everything would be good. Humanity came and broke everything!

Question: Tourists who visit the nuclear power station in Chernobyl tell a story about five residents in the area of Chernobyl who didn’t leave the area. They are nourished by what exists there and are living well in the meantime.

Answer: This is a very interesting observation of nature, that even if nature is found in a situation that apparently seems to be contradictory to the life of protein bodies, if the protein bodies maintain relationships between them that are not egoistic, they can live in peace in those areas and radiation doesn’t affect them! It could be that radiation mainly affects people and what surrounds them only because their ego opposes it!

However, if a person relates to everything equally, and is calm and in balance with all of nature in all situations, he can walk on burning coals, enter a burning house, live in an area of radiation, and nothing will affect him. This means that everything depends on our balance with the nature that surrounds us, and first and foremost on our inner balance!

I believe that if we don’t hate nature, are not afraid of it, begin to accept it as it is, and want to achieve harmony with it, then we will not suffer from negative influences. The very strong inner state of balance with nature is called the Creator, a state in which the person enters fully into a state of adhesion with it.

Then, everything that is derived from the Creator in relation to the person has an influence as a force that is vitalizing and good.

This is not understood on the physical level, but it is possible to imagine that there exists a higher level in which all of the forces of nature are derived from a good source, the Creator, and if a person rises internally to this level, that is how he perceives all of them.
[179113]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/9/16

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