Audio Version Of The Blog – 02.12.16

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Municipal Expenses

laitman_568_01Question: Statistics were recently published about the services provided by the local authorities in Israel for their residents. The numbers are astounding.

A resident of Tel Aviv gets a variety of services and activities totaling 6,700 NIS, while a resident of Kiryat Yam receives municipal services totaling 360 NIS, 20 times less, and respectively, in Ra’anana it is 6,158 NIS, and in Ofakim it is 537 NIS. I understand that, in Ra’anana, the residents earn more and pay more in city taxes, but 20 times is unreasonable. This is absurd.

Answer: This is the way of our government. It has no plan to bring equal conditions to people, so accordingly the mayors also don’t plan to bring equal distribution of services to their residents.

If you investigate the various strata of the population within a city—in the center of the city, on the periphery, and in the rest of its areas—you will see an immense difference between them according to the same principle as exists between the center of the country and the periphery. The matter indicates that, as of today, our government still requires changes.

The people must demand that the periphery be at least like the center of the country. It must be even better because the conditions there allow for it, such as large areas and extensive possibilities. The problem is the lack of attention devoted to this.

Question: The emphasis placed is placed on the fact that every industrial area, i.e., all of the work, is found in the center.

Answer: That is not important. The entire periphery is a sleeping area. Under today’s conditions, the residents of the entire periphery can reach every central office or factory by train within an hour to an hour and a half. The problem is that it is necessary to dedicate more attention to this, and the peripheral areas need to be good residential areas.

Where have you seen an American who wants to live in the center of a city? He needs a good house with a garden in nature and will even commute an hour to work, while at home, there are wonderful conditions for the family.

All of my relatives live in Canada and travel an entire hour to work. But along with this, they have a house and a plot of land near a lake, woods, and clean air, i.e., all the conditions for a good life.

Our periphery is advancing very slowly toward a good level. Government programs should take this into account.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/27/16

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A Kabbalist Is A Person Who Lives In Two Worlds

Laitman_109Question: What does it mean that Kabbalists live in two worlds, in this world and the spiritual world?

Answer: A Kabbalist is a very interesting person. According to our standards, he cannot be called a saint. He is a normal person with five normal senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch).

A Kabbalist exists in a physical body with all of the instincts that are maintained in it, along with a variety of habits and hobbies. This means that a Kabbalist sees, feels, and evaluates the world through his beastly body like every other person.

However, at the same time, he is included in a group of like-minded people who yearn to attain the spiritual world. So, he advances upward according to that yearning. That is the second feature of being considered a Kabbalist.

But people with whom he is connected may no longer exist in our world as bodies; it does not matter. He feels the forces that are behind all objects and is connected with them, meaning with the souls, because our upward yearning is by way of the soul.

On the one hand, he sees this world, feels all of its suffering, and wants to take people out of this world, and on the other hand, he ascends and draws them along after him.

Question: Is there some kind of connection between the physical body and the spiritual ascent of the person?

Answer: There is actually no connection. A person exists in this physical body until he discovers what is called the “point in the heart.” Then, it is as if he leaves his body. He stops being involved with only it. He begins to be involved with the development of the point in the heart.

But this doesn’t mean that he no longer sees the beauty of this world, doesn’t love the people who are close to him, doesn’t want to eat something tasty, and so forth. Everything that is typical of a person in this world exists in him. In other words, people before the spiritual ascent need not fear that they will lose something. On the contrary, they will only expand their circle of communication.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/13/15

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Bacteria Communicate

laitman_571_01Research (from sci-news.com): “’Bacteria living in communities communicate with one another electrically through proteins called ‘ion channels,’ explained Dr Gürol Süel of the University of California San Diego, lead author on the study…

“Dr Süel and co-authors discovered that when a biofilm composed of Bacillus subtilis bacterial cells grows to a certain size, the protective outer edge of cells, with unrestricted access to nutrients, periodically stopped growing to allow nutrients – specifically glutamate, to flow to the sheltered center of the biofilm.

“The researchers observed oscillations in membrane potential that matched the oscillations in biofilm growth and found that ion channels were responsible for these changes in membrane potential…

“’Just like the neurons in our brain, we found that bacteria use ion channels to communicate with each other through electrical signals. In this way, the community of bacteria within biofilms appears to function much like a microbial brain,’ Dr Süel said.”

My Comment: All parts of nature (still, vegetative, and animate) are mutually and integrally linked. Only human desires and thoughts are absolutely egoistic. As it is written: “I created the evil inclination” (Kiddushin 30b), meaning there is nothing more we need to do!

To counterbalance the evil inclination, egoism, a man needs to desire the lack for the desire to bestow to others. Mutual bestowal exists instinctively in nature. It does not exist in human society.

However, a person can summon the power of bestowal according to the law of equivalence of form: if a group of people decides to relate to each other as a single whole (this is described in the articles of Rabash about the group) and examines the proper relationship between the system (which is the whole issue of Kabbalistic sources), they cause to themselves, through their actions, the manifestation of the positive force of love and bestowal (the Creator).

Everything that occurs in our world happens only for the purpose of forcing people, or rather the Jews, having been committed in the past, to reveal the Creator between them, and then transfer this methodology to all mankind. The delay in revealing this technique is the reason for hatred of the Jews. This is the cause of anti-Semitism. Let us be like the bacteria!
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New Life #641 – Violence And Incitement On The Internet

New Life #641 – Violence and Incitement on the Internet
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

What happens on the Internet reflects what happens in human society, but a virtual battle is preferable to a physical battle. The more rapidly we recognize that we are evil animals, the sooner we can advance to the correction of human nature.

The Internet, and not archaic bodies like the UN or UNESCO, will determine the future of humanity. Seemingly civilized people allow themselves to go wild on the Internet and in the future will come up with techniques for eliminating entire peoples through the Internet.

Today, a “School for the Young Martyr” is conducted on the Internet; in the future they will explain how to build an atom bomb on the Internet. Bad things spread more rapidly than good because that is tailored to our ego; we benefit from evil. In the future the Internet will become so vile that we will understand that it is an X-ray of the malice within us.

From this we will reach the correction of human nature, correction of the malice in a person, and we will learn how to communicate well to everyone. People love looking at evil, our open atmosphere is evil, hatred, and violence. The network spares us from a lot of bloodshed and basically it, not the schools, is the educator of people. In the future the Internet will help us change our nature and relate to everyone with connection, sympathy, and love.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #641 – Violence and Incitement on the Internet,” 11/1/15

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New Life 496 – Where Do Dreams Come From?

New Life 496 – Where Do Dreams Come From?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazuz

Question: What are dreams? There are many myths and legends about dreams, this phenomenon has gripped humanity throughout all of history. Even the ancient Romans and Greeks tried to explain dreams. But until now this phenomenon has remained a mystery.

A person spends one-third of his life sleeping, and he dreams all the time even though he doesn’t remember most of them. This is the way our brain processes and sorts all the information that it gets throughout the day.

But there are some dreams that apparently convey a special message that reveals the future. Generally, where do dreams come from?

Answer: Even the Torah talks about dreams: the dream of Jacob, the dreams of Pharaoh and his ministers. A dream is a natural phenomenon, but sometimes we perceive dreams as things that are not serious, like unrealistic daydreams.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is of the opinion that during sleep the brain summarizes all the information that it gets throughout the day, and this is specifically what we perceive as dreams. These data has some kind of fluidity that appears in the brain without even any connection to real substance, they take on special forms so that we see unusual pictures of people, animals, and strange events.

The result of this is that dreaming, unlike reality, has no material foundation. So it is as if everything is happening in the air, without any connection to our actual desires.

Besides this, in a dream we can discover those desires that we would want to realize, but are not ready to do so, fears that torment us from which we cannot free ourselves, all kinds of fantasies, as well as pleasant and unpleasant impressions that we have experienced.

Among them are those that we would like to forget. And it could be that in real life we have been successful at this, but subconsciously they are still living in us. So when we sleep, when we are cut off from the real world and our environment doesn’t affect us, all of these fears and concerns are awakened in us and begin to live in a dream.

Dreams can tell a lot about a person: his inner state, desires, thoughts, all kinds of plans, fears, and disturbances. When he is under hypnosis, it is possible to interrogate him and get a lot of information from him. In this state a person loses control over himself and opens himself to interrogation.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 496 – Where Do Dreams Come From?” 1/11/15

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.12.16

Preparation for the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts, “Ascents and Descents on the Path”

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