Question: On Israeli TV Channel 2’s program”Meet the Press,” the question of who can solve the country’s security problem and curb the wave of terrorism wave in Israel was discussed. According to a recent poll, Avigdor Liberman and his decisive policy—the death penalty for terrorists, immediate destruction of homes, and so on—came in first, which is not surprising since people have grown tired of terrorism.

Answer: This is not surprising at all! I understand people who are afraid to go out into the streets and are afraid to let their kids play in the yard or go to school or kindergarten.

They see Liberman as a serious man with a tough and serious approach. When he was a minister, serving in different governments and different offices, his work was always well organized.

Question: Does that mean that he made tough decisions?

Answer: I don’t know if they were tough. What do you mean by tough?

There are people who would cry hysterically if you wave a finger at them. There are those who will remain calm if you beat them. And there are people who will whistle as you put them in front of a firing squad. It depends on whom and how!

Therefore, it is impossible to say whether these are tough measures or not. With regard to the people to whom Liberman refers, these are not tough measures. By the way, they understand it very well and even respect it.

Question: Can the death penalty be enacted in Israel?

Answer: Why not? If there is such a penalty in neighboring countries, why not in Israel? The Torah doesn’t forbid it.

According to the Torah, for example, there cannot be prisons. There is no such concept in the Torah. It is because people come out of there even more corrupt, and this applies to every country.

Question: Then, what? Let’s say that the death penalty would be introduced. Can such a bold policy change the state of affairs in the country?

Answer: Yes, it clearly would change everything. We must put things in order at home. Our country cannot exist as others do. There is plenty to do here.

Whatever we do must be focused on the overall advancement of all of mankind. We must set an example of how we relate to the various manifestations of good and evil. This is our mission!
[175652]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/24/16

Related Material:
The Islamic Movement
Our Good Attitude
Our Strategy Is The Unity Of The Nation

Filed under: Israel Today, News - 1 Comment →

Question: An event was held at the World Economic Forum in Davos, “One Day in the Shoes of a Refugee.” This was an event organized by former refugees and NGO volunteers. They suggested that all the participants of the forum spend one hour in the shoes of a refugee and feel what it is like.

Answer: I don’t know what the participants in the forum felt in the shoes of the refugees. They aren’t really oriented emotionally toward this since money is primarily what is important to them. There are fifty-nine million refugees in the world, but I think that there are many more immigrants. The problem is not the refugees but people who are moving to other places. How many have left Russia and its neighboring countries? It is not possible to count them.

Humanity is beginning to lose connection with the earth. A person transcends his origin, his birthplace, his prior education, and his family, and gradually stops feeling a connection with the places that were close to his heart. As the world advances, people disconnect from the earth because we are in a new situation, in transition to the next level of development.

People are ready to live without a connection to a particular point on the planet or to a particular society. A virtual world exists for them. Even their perception is becoming virtual. They are ready to create completely new social and economic relationships.

We will stop pulling everything possible from nature. We will stop depleting it and begin to consume only what is necessary. Humanity will advance in its understanding, in its sensing and inner development, into the general feeling of nature.

Question: Are you optimistic?

Answer: I am always optimistic. The problem is only how the new world will be born, how we will go through the labor pains. We could be pressured so much that the next level will be born after the loss of several billion people in bloody wars, in suffering, and long labor pains.

I would like, and I know that it is possible, to do this differently, easily, practically, and well. The wisdom of Kabbalah offers this way. The next level is ready for us. There is no doubt about it, but let’s try to reach it in a good way. I hope that humanity will hear this in spite of everything.
[175534]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/22/16

Related Material:
The Refugee Crisis In Europe
A Sharp Turning Point In History
Europe’s Future Is In Our Hands!

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, News - No Comments →

Question: What does it mean that “Bina went out”? Can Sefirot move around according to their will?

Answer: This refers to bestowal. I can bestow in all places without any restriction since this is the force of Bina, the Light of Hassadim (Mercy). With Hassadim, I can be in any place without any boundaries and bestow to anyone that is suitable for my bestowal. And with the Light of Hochma, there are different conditions.

The fetus enjoys the Light of Hassadim, in other words, enjoys being similar to the upper. It doesn’t perform any actions, but is similar as a result of his devotion and self-annulment. It wants to be like the mother, like the Creator. The fetus can’t express itself as the Creator in practical bestowal, but it expresses its preparedness to be like Him passively.
[127417]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/14,The Book of Zohar

Related Material:
Hot Air Balloon Flight To Freedom
Bina Is A Free Country
The Freedom Of Pure Bestowal

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work, Zohar - No Comments →

New Life 677 – The Meaning Of Tu Bishvat
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Tu Bishvat represents a special state in which a person sees the fruit of his work of planting himself in the right environment. Having performed the 39 labors, he is rewarded with fruit: the fruit of the tree of knowledge and the fruit of the tree of life.

The impression from the spiritual life of the past still remains in the Jewish people so they can renew it today. But in order to develop properly, the society has to help us advance toward the spiritual goal and we will grow like the tree of the field in it.

The first phase in the growing process is the recognition of good and evil. We have to accurately define what is good and what is evil and perform self-checks, internal scrutiny, of ourselves and those around us.

The goal is to reach the attribute of love and bestowal. In order to do so, we have to ascend above our egoistic nature, which wants to suckle everything for its own sake, and acquire an opposite nature, which wants to give everything to others, to fill them, as it is written: “I have seen an opposite world.”

The more we want to ascend, the more we have to connect to people below because our attitude toward all of creation and especially to people is what connects us to the upper spiritual forces.

If we change our attitude from receiving to giving, we will discover the upper world and suddenly see a new reality in which everyone is in perfect love and wholeness, loving one another. To do so, we don’t need to correct others, but ourselves, and then we will feel love, the Shechina, peace, and pleasure that fill this world. This is the fruit we will eventually reach.
[175520]
From KabTV’s “New Life 677 – The Meaning Of Tu Bishvat,” 1/14/16

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

 

Filed under: Holidays, New Life - No Comments →

New Life 676 – “For Is The Tree Of The Field Man”
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

It is written, “for is the tree of the field man” (Deuteronomy 20:19); but it must be precisely understood from what field a person is born. Human society was built from our natural drives, not our knowledge from the level of Adam (Man). The Adam in us was born from a drive for internal development that exists within us. And its success depends on its ability to approach the useful, to avoid the harmful, and to be exact about the definitions.

A person doesn’t want to feel limited. He feels that he has everything, but he has nothing. This world has become too small for him and he wants to escape to eternity, to see true reality. When he wants to know the reason for everything that happens and to understand the general law of nature, then he is linked to a higher and eternal field of knowledge in which he grows like a tree of the field. He draws from his upper roots and discovers the perfect law of connection between everyone.

Our roots are on a level higher than we are, which we must penetrate in our development.
[175393]
From KabTV’s “New Life 676 – For Is The Tree Of The Field Man,” 1/14/16

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Holidays, Israel Today, New Life - No Comments →

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1]

[media 2]

Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

[media 3]

[media 4]

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts, “Who Is This,” Item 170

[media 5]

[media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Concealment and Revelation” 

[media 7]

[media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Gatehouse of Intentions,” Item 88 

[media 9]

[media 10]

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio

[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/download/audio/eng_o_rav_2016-02-02_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’2.2.16′]

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Rabash, “The Matter of Truth and Faith”: The form of Ibur (conception), which is the level of smallness, is its real form. But because it doesn’t have only smallness, it is considered a deficiency, and wherever there is a deficiency in Holiness there is a hold of the Klipot (shells). Then the Klipot can lead to a miscarriage, which means that the spiritual embryo will fall before it has completed its phase of conception. Therefore there has to be a delaying factor which is what gives it the phase of wholeness, meaning the phase of greatness, because an embryo is its mother’s thigh (part of his mother), so the conception is not called by its own name. This is the reason that the embryo eats whatever his mother eats, which means that everything that the embryo receives is in the mother’s vessels. Therefore even if the embryo doesn’t have vessels which are fit to receive greatness, it can receive in the vessels of the upper, which is its mother, because it totally annuls itself before its mother and has no entity of its own.

This is called the phase of Ibur, when it totally annuls itself before the upper and then when it receives greatness it is in a state of wholeness, and therefore there is no hold of the Klipot. This is the reason it is called the delaying force. Therefore this is safeguarding that the embryo will not fall in spirituality like a miscarriage of an embryo in corporeality, as the corporeal mother has to maintain her embryo, so that nothing will go wrong, God forbid, and it is the same in spirituality.

It is difficult to explain the spiritual state of the embryo, since in the corporeal world we only see the external form and external phenomenon and don’t know which internal forces operate both in the mother and in the embryo. The embryo has to be in a state of wholeness; otherwise, it cannot grow. The embryo cannot grow under conditions of restriction, pressures, and deficiency. It has to receive everything the mother has.

Although there is a whole system that takes care of the embryo, it is connected to the mother’s body. This means that the embryo needs to have the power to annul itself before the greatness of the upper level. Then it will feel itself in a state of wholeness and thus will be able to grow.

The upper opens itself a bit more each time for the embryo, and the embryo has to close itself more and more and to receive from the bottom up, in rejection and at the same time also in a state of wholeness. We can see that two opposites are integrated here.

Although the embryo is totally inside the mother, it doesn’t use its desires, but annuls them and is in a state of total devotion to the mother, and thanks to this it grows.

It advances gradually from one level to the next. The upper opens up a bit more Light for it, and the embryo, on the one hand, uses its desire to receive because it grows this way.  But it uses the desire to receive from the bottom up, without receiving inside it and rejecting everything in bestowal. Each time he is with a greater force, a greater desire to adhere to the upper.

We have to try to clarify all these details in the workshop. Although it is difficult, we need to make increasingly greater efforts in order to get closer to this state and enter it as much as we can. A spiritual embryo is our next level, which we must ascend to.

In fact we have already reached it. It is actually good that we find it hard to imagine it; we feel confused and unable to understand it. This resistance will help us hold on more strongly to the small details that are close to us.
[127289]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/14

Related Material:
Birth, Feeding, And School Years
Conception Is The First Level Of The Spiritual Reality
Integrating In The Work Up To The Point Of Self-Cancellation

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

Question: On January 21^st Tel Aviv celebrated National Hugging Day along with many in the world, a day of whole world hugging started in America 30 years ago.

They say that ten seconds of hugging per day lowers blood pressure and relieves stress, etc. Could this be the solution to all problems?

Answer: It could be, but only if we decide to embrace more than once a year, not without a reason, but with the intention of making the world a better place, all of together in every corner of the world.

If it were constantly advertised in all the media and huge organizations worked to encourage us to do this, because otherwise it is all just contemptible and empty, then it would be possible to feel the upper force in the yearning of the world.

There is no doubt that the upper world would be revealed to us in direct proportion to everyone’s hugs and smiles toward each other.

We would have direct access to best existence of the highest levels, and all of the evil in our world would disappear. But this is only if we constantly think about this and yearn for a connection between us internally.

Hugs are an external action that must be combined with an intention to transform the world for the better. Then everything would take care of itself and succeed.
[175524]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/22/16

Related Material:
Hugs Can Fight Infections
Hugging A Loved One Strengthens Health
Relationships With People Affect Health

Filed under: Israel Today, News - No Comments →

Comment: Only 290,000 tourists visited Israel in October, a drastic decline compared to previous years. It is also reported that the current wave of terrorism not only stops tourism but also the medical tourism that has been highly developed in Israel.

Answer:  The fact is that the so-called medical tourism in Israel came mainly from Russia and the Russian-speaking regions. Now their economic situation is much more difficult.

So I think the issue is not whether it is safe here or not. Israel, compared to other regions, is a much safer place.

Medical care in Western Europe is highly developed and so very few come to Israel for medical treatment. Interestingly, citizens of neighboring Arab countries come to receive medical treatment in Israel, particularly not advertising it, including relatives of Hamas leaders. Politics and business are always more important.

The situation in the world is simply getting worse. There are more problems, diseases, poverty, overcrowding; everything is becoming more condensed. It is felt everywhere: in culture, art, and the Internet that is becoming more and more flat. Previously the Internet was a star, and today it isn’t.

The world is gradually fading. But this is natural because we have to transcend to the next level, but haven’t yet. The current level has already become obsolete; it has been exhausted.

Therefore, if we don’t change voluntarily, the problems and afflictions will force us to begin to change our world into a more universally connected world, a world in which we resemble nature, the world where we want to enjoy more sublime values rather than shallow corporeal pleasures.

I saw tourists in Western Europe and all over the world 20, 30, and 40 years ago. Even 10 years ago these were cheerful people traveling, hiking, visiting sites.

But today it is all over. Tourism has exhausted itself and has become outdated. Young people don’t need this; they see everything on the Internet; they aren’t interested in castles and cathedrals. Tourism has grown old. If there are any tourists, they are mainly the elderly. The elderly slowly die, and young couples aren’t interested.

Question: What will tourism turn into?

Answer: It will disappear. People’s demands change, and if they change, it means that the past becomes tasteless. You can give them money, but they won’t spend it on a trip. So all these luxury hotels, tourist attractions, planes, and everything related to tourism will gradually disappear. We can shut down the Ministry of Tourism without a problem.

Question: What about trips and journeys to spiritual worlds?

Answer: There will be a demand for that! Contact our tour guides, we are organizing such journeys.
[173382]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/29/15

Related Material:
Infinite Pleasure Instead Of Black Friday
Patent For A Happy Life
A World In Which Evil Is Found Everywhere

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, Israel, Israel Today, Nations of the World - No Comments →