Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.20.14

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Was Marx Right?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Umair Haque, London-based consultant and author, Director of Havas Media Labs):

  • Immiseration. Marx claimed that capitalism would immiserate workers: he meant that labor would be ‘exploited’ — not just in a purely ethical sense, but in a narrower economic one: that real wages would fall, and working conditions would deteriorate. How was Marx doing on this score? I’d say middlingly: wages in many advanced economies — notably, the most purely capitalist in a financialized sense — have failed to keep pace with productivity; not for years, but for decades. (America’s median wage has been stagnant for roughly 40 years.) In macro terms, labor’s share of income has plummeted, while the lion’s share of growth has accrued to those at the very top.
  • Crisis. As workers were paid less and less, capitalism would be prone to chronic, perpetual crises of overproduction — for they wouldn’t have the means to purchase or invest in enough goods to keep the economy humming. As Marx put it, there was likely to be ‘poverty in the midst of plenty.’ …
  • Stagnation. Here’s Marx’s most controversial — and most curious — prediction. That as economies stagnated, real rates of profit would fall. How does this one hold up? On first glance, it seems to have been totally discredited: corporate profits have broken through the roof and into the stratosphere. But think about it again, in economic terms: Marx’s prediction concerned ‘real profit,’ not just the mystery-meat numbers served up by bean counters, and chewed over with gusto by ‘analysts.’ …
  • “Alienation. As workers were divorced from the output of their labor, Marx claimed, their sense of self-determination dwindled, alienating them from a sense of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. How’s Marx doing on this score? I’d say quite well: even the most self-proclaimed humane modern workplaces, for all their creature comforts, are bastions of bone-crushing tedium and soul-sucking mediocrity, filled with dreary meetings, dismal tasks, and pointless objectives that are well, just a little bit alienating. …
  • “Commodity fetishism. A fetishized object is one which is more than a symbol: it’s believed to have actually the power the symbol represents (like an idol, or a totem with magical properties). Marx claimed that under industrial age capitalism’s rules, commodities became revered talismans, worshipped through transactional exchanges, imbued with mystical powers that give them inherent value — and obscuring the value of and in the very people who’ve worked labored over them in the first place. It’s one of Marx’s most subtle and nuanced concepts. Does it hold water? Again, I’ll merely pointing to societies in furious pursuit of more, bigger, faster, cheaper, nastier, now, whether it’s the retail temples of America’s mega-malls, or London rioters stealing, not bread, but video games.”

My Comment: Marx was right in the fact that he believed that only human education and upbringing would lead a person to the transformation of the capitalist system into a true socialist, and if it happens violently, by external pressure (a revolution), and not by the freewill of the corrected people, there will be a German or Soviet-style Nazism.
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Is The War Against Terrorists Or Concealment?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the current war is a struggle between different ideologies, what is the current war between ideologies in Israel?

Answer: First, we have to understand that we are managed by the upper force, by the thought of creation, and by that we can use the Light that Reforms in order to save ourselves and to win. But how should we win?

This whole war is not in order to defeat some hostile terrorist organization but in order to defeat the concealment that is all over the world.

We must remove it, at least to some extent, and then we will see what world we are living in, what is happening to us, to all of the created beings, and what the upper force wants of us. By the way, this is not contrary to the Islamic perspective at all. It requires explanation and nothing more.

War is a conflict between two opinions. The essence of this war is that every side wants to win by using its ego. But we should understand that today there is no room for this kind of war. This war has become something else: We are required to remove the concealment. We are sent an obstacle that forces us to think that we are seemingly fighting terrorists over some territory, some domination, or some political ideology.

But, in fact, it is a totally different battle that takes place only so that by this situation we will be able realize that it is the upper force that puts us in these acute situations so that we will be able to reveal it.

We can only reveal it by massive dissemination of the message that everything comes from this force in order to reveal it and reach equivalence of form with it. It is because this equivalence of form is the means to reveal it.

Equivalence of form with the upper force requires us to fulfill the condition of love thy friend as thyself and to turn one’s enemy into one’s lover, which means to turn the enemies into friends and the external enemies into internal ones.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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It Isn’t Too Late To Get On The Right Path

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In recent years the situation of a state of emergency and rocket attacks have repeated several times and we constantly speak about the need to connect and to unite, but no one wants to listen to us. What is the problem here? Is it that people aren’t ready yet or that we don’t know how to explain things?

Answer: I cannot blame our enemies for wanting to destroy us and I cannot blame the people of Israel for not understanding what is happening and why this situation reoccurs again and again. The only ones to blame are the people who know how to perform the correction but are too lazy to do their job and are in no rush to use all the means that they have to bring the method of correction to the people, not only to the nation of Israel but to the whole world too.

Since we are in the era of the end of correction, we can tell everyone about it, including our enemies. We will feel that they understand it and acknowledge it. They will find out what the source of their anti-Semitism is, their deadly hatred of the Jews, and why fate keeps us in a continuous conflict that also brings about great suffering and wars to the Arabs themselves.

They are also in a bad position, and although they are proud of their power, they actually suffer. So they should understand the reason for their suffering.

It is clear that nothing will help there. We can destroy all the terrorists, but the next day new ones will come along. Our enemies have enough people and missiles to bomb every centimeter of our territory. There isn’t a piece of land in Israel that would be safe from missiles and where people could live in peace.

Both we and the Arabs are well aware of this. But this confrontation is held on a certain border because the people of  Israel is obliged to fulfill  its mission and in the meantime, we are given some time to do so, in order to fulfill it in the good, right way of the Light, in the way of I will hasten it (Achishena). If we don’t do so, we are about to experience the terrible times described by the prophets.
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From KabTV’s “The Mission of the People of Israel,” 7/8/14

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Kabbalah Is A System Of Laws of Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: According to what I have understood, every person must reach the wisdom of Kabbalah. But if, for example, he falls into another stream when searching for the spiritual way, does God punish him for this? And when a person enters into the spiritual way, why do events even worse than before happen to him?

Answer: Different things happen to a person all the time in order to push him towards the right goal. If he behaves correctly, he goes forward according to the laws of nature; so things are good for him. If not, then this system of forces influences him negatively.

The wisdom of Kabbalah talks about how nature is built, not about a God who supposedly sits and thinks about how to punish someone. Only the laws of nature exist (call them God the Creator, it makes no difference)! So there is no reward and there is no punishment.

Kabbalah is not a religion; it speaks only about the force that develops us, that we should get to know and comprehend. If we attain it, then we develop quickly and easily and reach the correct goal that was determined before this force.

But this does not mean that if I open a Kabbalah book today things will immediately be better for me. What are you talking about? Do I know how to behave correctly, how to use the laws of nature correctly?

It is is like it is in physics, like in any science! If I know how to use the laws correctly, then I benefit from it. But if I opened a book but still don’t know how to use the laws that are recorded there, I cannot claim that I won’t make a mistake. There is nothing miraculous here. There is a system of laws we are learning to be able to use correctly.

So it is impossible to relate to the wisdom of Kabbalah as to some religion or magic or sorcery, where I apparently began to learn it and in spite of it all, things are bad for me. The idea is that you still don’t know how to use it. And when you learn, then to that degree, things will be good for you. This is as it is in every enterprise. This is clear materialistic knowledge.
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From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria “Day Two” 7/12/14, Lesson 4

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Convey The Truth To The People Immediately!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Yesterday there was a stormy debate in the nation about the possibility of a ceasefire.  Even though it didn’t occur, what do you think about this?

Answer: First of all, of course, it is necessary to prevent our enemies from acting like this in the future, and in this sense, a cease-fire won’t help. An action is required here that will make it possible for us to live normally.

On the other hand, in my opinion, a cease-fire can bring benefit if the people of Israel understand that it is up to them to carry out a correction and it has no other choice. There is no other way of reaching a quiet life, there won’t be a calm life as long as the people don’t correct themselves as required, meaning, until they become “like one person with one heart,” as the people of Israel must be according to the sources.

And so “the territory upon which we dwell” will become the true land of Israel. The people must relate to their place exactly as the land of Israel, that is, yearning straight to the CreatorYashar-El. This must be the worldview of the people, and this is not a religious, but a spiritual view.

And then, of course, nobody in the world will have a reason to say that this land doesn’t belong to us. On the contrary, everyone will want us to live here; everyone will feel that the presence of the people of Israel in Zion will make it possible to provide the source of life, spiritual fulfillment for the whole world. And this is what all nations are missing. So there will be peace (Shalom) and also wholeness (Shlemut) throughout the world, and it will extend from here.

If the people of Israel use the ceasefire to return to their normal life, then it won’t help anything and in another few months we will see that the situation will only become more severe. In fact, our enemies are right in not agreeing to a ceasefire. Indeed, based on our present approach, the ceasefire won’t be beneficial. It is clear that if we don’t carry out a spiritual correction, everything will be much worse.

So ultimately what is there to do? The group called Bnei Baruch, which understands that a correction is ultimately required here, and it is shown to us that there is no alternative, must turn to the whole world now, and in particular the people of Israel, and openly explain what is happening and what must be done.

Otherwise we will have no possibility of remaining here. In the meantime, the missiles of the enemy are like plastic pipes with explosive material, but next time it could be much worse. They will begin to throw advanced bombs at us and even atomic, chemical, and biological bombs. And this will be not only from one direction but from all four directions. Anything is possible.

And so if we understand that there is alternative but only spiritual correction, then let’s implement it. This doesn’t mean that we must give up on armaments, on the “Iron Dome.” No. But it must be understood that true correction is carried out on a higher level.

First of all, it is up to us to understand that we are the active heart. It is up to us to go out to the people and explain to them what is happening, even compulsively. Now is the “time for action” (Psalm 119:126). Everything is happening for us so that we will explain to the people of Israel about their mission with all of our strength and by all means.

The people must know this. The idea is not so that they will know us and recognize that we are right, but so that they will know that their fate depends upon it. This is what Baal HaSulam told us: If we carry out this mission, we will remain in our land, and if not, we will be forced to leave it. And so, the time has arrived for aggressive dissemination.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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A Painful Wound On The Body Of Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can it be explained rationally to an educated secular Israeli that the people of Israel have a role and he must be connected to it?

Answer: We begin from this, that we are unique. We cannot solve the problem of our relationship with the world. Since the days of the destruction of the temple, the Jews were like a “corn,” like a wound on the body of humanity. This wound is constantly smarting; so what is to be done with it? It isn’t clear. It is impossible to get rid of it or eliminate it.

Everyone hates the Jews; they all feel they are special, and they feel this way themselves. However, neither the world nor the Jews themselves know why this is so. The biggest anti-Semites understand this problem partially and so do the Kabbalists. The Kabbalists revealed the source of what is happening, and the anti-Semites, as in the example of Henry Ford, are truly affected by an immense spiritual need. And so, in the world is a constant, enduring phenomenon, conspicuous, very strange, and inherently paradoxical. Think about the role of the people of Israel, its activities, etc.

Interestingly everyone that takes up arms against the Jews, that caused them problems and destroyed them, has ultimately suffered defeat and was unable to cope with them. In other words, it is the destiny of the people and they cannot be eliminated until their task has been fulfilled.

But on the other hand, at the end of history it will disappear, will dissolve among everyone and everyone will be as it is; everyone will connect to the higher power. And besides that, the Jews are not a people, not a nation in the conventional sense. For example, any Frenchman can become a Jew and cease being French. But on the other hand, if a German receives French citizenship, he will remain German.

So Jewishness is not determined according to the origin of a person, rather according to his attitude towards the goal of creation. As Baal HaSulam writes, “Every person of ‘Israel’ has a point in the heart inside,” meaning a belonging to the characteristic of bestowal. The person in whom this point has been awakened is joined to the people of Israel.

Question: What is the connection between hatred towards Israel and its role?

Answer: The people of Israel are not carrying out their role so people subconsciously feel that they have stopped the Upper Light that must fill the receptive Kelim. The people of Israel have the Masach (screen); they are the “head.” It is not by chance that the letters of the word “Israel” (ישראל) form the word “Li Rosh” (ראש לי) – I have a head. They must attract the Light to correct all of the Kelim. They are responsible for the entire correction and all fulfillments.

But there is no tangible evidence of this. Anyway, there are a lot of things in the world that are not revealed before our eyes. So there will always be people who deny this approach. They will accept the approach only if they receive “blows.” In general, troubles make us wiser. After all, when a person is thrown into trouble, the desire to receive becomes greater and he sees a connection between things he never noticed before.

In the meantime, even if he doesn’t agree with the explanations that he receives, they still “soften” him and bring him closer to the truth. If after the explanations a person is still not convinced, then after a number of problems he will change his opinion.

So we must disseminate among the people the information about their role. Indeed we also must hear something many times until we absorb it, and then it is still difficult for us to implement what we have heard.
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From the 2nd part of Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7.06/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Unity of the Nation”

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What The Study Of The Ten Sefirot Is Talking About

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Right now we are studying The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES), Part 2, “The Connection Between Ability and Intention.” I cannot concentrate and relate this to myself and understand it.

Answer: We are a desire to receive pleasure, and the intellect is developed only to serve desire. So as long as you haven’t begun to feel within you what is described, you cannot use these parameters of desire. Will it be possible to use it and with what intention?

But there are people who have the ability to learn, not inside themselves, within the desire, but by constructing a model in the mind. They learn the Talmud “theoretically” without using it on themselves. Unfortunately, that is how everyone is learning today!

But the Torah specifically requires “practical” learning (sensory, within the desire), i.e., on ourselves, on our desire. And as long as it isn’t, as long as you cannot go through this state in sensation, you don’t understand what the Talmud is saying.
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The Essential Secret Of The Jews, Part 6

From the book, The Essential Secret of the Jews, M. Brushtein

Before we continue, we suggest that you pay attention to the conclusions to which scientists and experts in various fields of knowledge have come today. We will present them at the end of every chapter in the first part of the book. We have given them a title according to the current orientation: “Basic Principles of Integrality”.

Basic Principles of Integrality

From the end of the 20th century humanity became one body, one large family.

The problems are not by chance.

The reason for all the problems is found in a lack of balance of mutual human relationships.

Violations in the mutual relationships between people, between humanity and nature, bring confrontations, wars, diseases….

Even local wars can bring climatic problems to every point on the face of the Earth.
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.20.14

Workshop

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter 16

[media 3] [media 4]

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Rejoicing in Holidays and Not Giving to the Poor” 

[media 5] [media 6]

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Chapter 4, Item 42 

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption” 

[media 9] [media 10]