Comment: In the framework of studies that were conducted for two years by the Adler Institute on the subject of education, a poll was conducted in which it was clarified that around 48% of Israeli parents don’t talk to their children. In an additional poll that was conducted among 300 Israeli teenagers aged 13-18, around 40% of them confirmed that they are not in communication with their parents and are not familiar with their history and roots.

Answer: This is understandable because today we are rising above the level of corporeal development where everything was built upon a traditional household in which parents and children were strongly connected to each other. For the most part, the son was heir to his father’s profession, built a house next to his father’s house, and so on.

But for some time now we have not been in this situation. With the development of industry, everyone was drawn to the cities, and through the development of a variety of professions, the connection between “fathers and sons” was broken.

When the generation develops with such turbulence and rapidity, when the perspective on the world is changed entirely in a few years, then not only the children, but also the parents don’t recognize themselves compared to what they were five years before. While in the past children would leave the home of their parents at the age of 18-20, now, already at the age of 11-12, the child doesn’t want to feel that he owes something to someone, his parents are the ones who owe him something while he doesn’t owe them anything.

We have reached a situation in which it is up to us to begin to rise above the corporeal level, where people are connected with each other only from a physical aspect, according to the household in a traditional manner. As of today, what else can parents give to their children?! They can no longer convey their education to a child because it differs from what the present generation requires.

Not even the present education corresponds to the needs of a young person so that he can develop in his life. Everything is changing rapidly and children don’t feel the need to communicate with their parents. The parents also don’t feel any attraction to their children because they are no longer realizing themselves through them.

We are found in a very interesting situation. So that the need for a link between the generations will appear, which is generally what happens in the transition from one generation to another; there must be a common aspiration, a common flow of life, in which gradually the purpose of life now becomes clear.

The wisdom of Kabbalah gives that to us. The attainment of the purpose of life and the purpose of all of creation is the same purpose. Then the children will be able to be “nourished” by their parents. In this situation, the parents can give their children home schooling beginning from a tender age, instilling in them the right foundation for all of life. Both of them will be found within the same internal and external orientation, current, and movement.

They will have something to talk about with each other, something to convey to each other. In this way, the link between the generations will appear, no longer on the corporeal level as it was throughout the history of humanity, but on the spiritual level, on the level of the connection of the soul.

Then they will begin to discover the deep and spiritual connection between them; they will discover why specifically these are their parents and these are their children, why specifically contacts like these are happening between them, including physical contacts on the corporeal level, and then a transition to the level of souls will happen.

Question: What kind of goal will be determined?

Answer: The goal of humanity is to reach an inclusive mutual connection. The connection will also be directed toward familial connections that will become strengthened thanks to the spiritual connection. The physical connections will remain on the same level, and there will even be more independence.

This will be a completely new system of mutual connections, supported by the entire society. And so new mutual relationships between parents and children will prevail; the connection will be new.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/29/16

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Question: Is the soul connected to the body or is it independent?

Answer: The soul is not connected to our egoistic body in any way, God forbid. If a person’s arms or legs are cut off, his soul still remains whole. The body can grow old and die, but the soul feels no changes during this process.

Question: Is the soul replaced when it develops?

Answer: The soul is never replaced; it constantly develops.

Question: Does a wicked person have a wicked soul?

Answer: Basically the soul cannot be wicked. The soul is the attribute of bestowal, which a person acquires.

Question: Can we say that the soul is the intention by which I use my desire?

Answer: No, the soul is a desire that already has the right intention.
[177193]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/20/15

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New Life 624 – Baal HaSulam – Rav Yehuda Levi Ashlag
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

When one looks at the life of the Kabbalist, one must divide the viewpoint into two levels, our world and the upper world. When Baal HaSulam found the ARI’s book The Tree of Life at his teacher’s home, he was astonished to discover what was written there. A few years later, he organized a group of families to immigrate to Israel, but he was banished, and in the end he immigrated by himself. He brought a tanning machine with him to Israel. He believed that man must work and not be a sponge and receive charity. But when they discovered that he had been a rabbinical judge in Warsaw, they appointed him to be the Rabbi of Kiryat Shaul.

He turned to the secular public since a Kabbalist who has attained the general system thinks and worries about everyone. He explained how we can participate consciously in the development process that we must go through. The essence of the correction is to transform our egoistic nature, the hostility and hatred, into love of others. He wanted to introduce the ideas of Kabbalah to the people, so he met with Ben-Gurion and the leaders of the community.

He foresaw the Holocaust and World War II. By his being in Israel, he spiritually stopped Rommel and Stalin. He wrote a lot and is named Baal HaSulam because of the “ladder” interpretation he wrote for The Book of The Zohar, which is the ladder of the levels of correction.

At the end of each day, he would give away his money so that he wouldn’t have any for the next day, in order to draw spiritual forces closer to the people. But they never listened, and today we must make his system public in order to correct the situation in Israel and in the world. In his writings of the “Last Generation,” he explained that in the end, we must attain the life of love of others and social equality. There was no person more important for our generation because he gave us the tools to reach the upper life, peace, and eternity.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 624 – Baal HaSulam – Rav Yehuda Levi Ashlag,” 9/10/15

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 44 

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 217 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Inheritance of the Land”  

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In the News (washingtonpost.com): “The world’s largest underground aquifers – a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people — are being depleted at alarming rates, according to new NASA satellite data that provides the most detailed picture yet of vital water reserves hidden under the Earth’s surface.

“Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers — in locations from India and China to the United States and France — have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study period, researchers announced Tuesday. Thirteen aquifers declined at rates that put them into the most troubled category. The researchers said this indicated a long-term problem that’s likely to worsen as reliance on aquifers grows.”

My Comment: Through the selfish relationships on the level of Adam (Man), people cause an imbalance in the lower levels of nature: still, vegetative, and animate. And leads itself to the threat of self-destruction.

The solution cannot be on the level of the still, vegetative, and animate, but specifically on the human level, through balancing relationships between people and bringing humanity to a good mutual connection. Therefore we must implement global education.
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Question: Who is closer to the wisdom of Kabbalah, men or women?

Answer: Men. Women feel it more instinctively while men must go through it and transfer this knowledge by way of their head, mind, and thoughts.

Their need for correction of the ego is much greater than it is with women. So a woman can study less; she doesn’t need to get up at three o’clock in the morning for a lesson, while this is mandatory for men. That is how nature created us.

The male ego is different from the female ego, it requires a greater correction. Because it deviates from the way, it is torn to pieces.

Women are not inferior to men; their ego is simply earthier in an everyday practical sense. They are more corrected than men. If a woman were managing the world, the world would be better.

Comment: But still, sometimes women are managed by men.

Answer: If they were to take things over everywhere and the men were to go fishing, it would be better for everyone.
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From the Webinar on zahav.ru 2/10/16

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Question: What do you think about the increasing presence of nuclear weapons in different nations?

Answer: This is very good. If there had been no nuclear weapons, Russia and America would long since been at war with each other instead of not since the Second World War. What stopped them was only nuclear weaponry because they understood its significance. For the first time in the life of the military, for whom war always promoted power, they are afraid of war, of nuclear war.

Everyone is afraid of nuclear war, therefore people who “hold the button in their hands,” understand that one shouldn’t play with it. There are limits to where we can fight a bit, mainly in third world nations: I trip you, you give me a slap, etc.

Hitting each other in a political lobby or through the third world is understood by everyone and is perceived as being normal. If 100 people die here and 100 there, it is not taken into account. In contrast, everyone understands that a nuclear war is unpredictable, to the point that it would be impossible to rein it in.

Question: And what if every small nation had nuclear weaponry?

Answer: Is Saudi Arabia a big nation? It is a rich nation that can buy anything.

Comment: But don’t you think that some crazy person could press the button?

Answer: I don’t think that there are that many crazy people in the world, it only seems that way to us. Gaddafi was not crazy, as we now understand. Neither is Fidel Castro nor the present leader of Korea.

The leader of Korea is a smart man and if he makes some noise with the help of the weaponry, it is for one purpose only, “Give us food” because they are starving. Gradually we feed them, placate them, and we don’t even know about it., Even the Americans directly or through a third nation, and also Russia and China. What can you do? Everyone understands each other perfectly.

So I don’t think that there is any uncertainty here. When you understand that you have a serious trump card and the other one does too and you are both holding each other by the throat, that is everything. So I think that nuclear weaponry is an excellent means for restraining and sobering up humanity from childish behavior. I very much hope that in the future care and wisdom will prevail.
[178431]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/26/16

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Question: Does the wisdom of Kabbalah have a formula for a happy family life?

Answer: Of course, after all, the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about the unity of people and the private level of unity is the family.

Question: Do you mean that people who educate society according to the wisdom of Kabbalah can replace family psychologists? After all, preserving the integrity of the family today is a great problem: There are domestic difficulties daily; life isn’t easy, and the nuclear family is starting to fall apart.

Answer: Families are not breaking up because of the daily troubles but because it is in the interest of industrialists, advertisers, and the like. While a couple needs one apartment, a divorced couple needs two apartments. Today’s global economy is interested in having more consumers, and divorce doubles the number of consumers. Moreover, the elite don’t need millions of people who procreate.

Comment: But the industrialists also live in families.

Answer: They are merely 1% of the world’s population and have no need for all the rest. Why do they need seven billion people! As far as they are concerned it is better to reduce the world’s population even without wars by simply reducing procreation. Thus they will be able to cut down the world’s population by half during one generation.

Question: Does the wisdom of Kabbalah know how to keep the family together?

Answer: It isn’t simple. The wisdom of Kabbalah gradually tells people how to interact with each other correctly.

Comment: I heard in one of your lectures that if one partner studies the wisdom of Kabbalah while the other partner is far from it, they don’t have many chances of keeping the family together.

Answer: Of course there are problems. If one partner is greatly interested in life on the spiritual level and the other is interested in life on the corporeal level, there are disagreements and conflicts and they feel that they have different impulses. But even then no one says that they should get divorced. On the contrary, it is necessary to keep the family together no matter what.

We try to do it by any means. I understand that it isn’t easy today. Still, it is better to keep the family together, especially if there are kids. First, I am against divorce. And second, one should somehow interest his or her partner and make it understood that you have a dream, something that you are really interested in. The right thing to do is to interest your partner in your field of interest, since by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person begins to discover the real meaning of life.

Everyone is interested in this matter to some extent.
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From the Webinar on zahav.ru 2/10/16

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Comment: A famous blogger wrote that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to astonish people with news about what is happening in the world. People digest the frequent bloody news about terror, about youth that can stab a man with a knife, and don’t mourn the casualties anymore because you would have to do it every day.

Answer: We have had the thirst for such sights since ancient times when they used to kill and maim people, stage battles, etc. Humanity cannot do without it. It isn’t only the need of modern man but a human need for blood.

We are undergoing a serious crisis of consciousness and it is becoming clear that we are miserable nothings. And somehow this has to break. Therefore, the Internet, different problems, ISIS, and radical Islamic organizations push the world forward quickly. These are vital forces in our evolution. Changes occur very intensively and we are beginning to perceive and realize everything very quickly. If people were stuck in the past at one point for ages, today they undergo a lot during one generation.

Question: What will this feeling lead to?

Answer: It will lead to a great outcry stemming from the recognition of the meaningless of our existence. We will not even be able to choose whether to live or not, whether to leave this life or not, so we are controlled by our egoistic nature. In addition to the fact that we exist, we were given a mind to understand that we are miserable and worthless and exist for no reason and for no purpose.

This unclear outcry will be revealed in humanity, and then we Kabbalists will be able to say: “We know what to do in this situation. We have actually been waiting for it for almost 6,000 years and today we can tell you how to turn this deep, terrible hopeless cry into a sigh of joy, a merriment that has no limits. It is possible. We will be very happy to share this opportunity with you.”
[178413]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/26/16

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