In the News (fondsk.ru): “The central banks of the leading Western nations are flooding the global economy with money. … Money [interest rates] is not only very low, it has become almost free. …

“Today money cannot measure the cost or the price of goods and services. A striking example – the price of oil, which may change several times during the year. The fact is that oil prices were measured using a tool that only by inertia we call money. In fact, it is a banal tool of speculation, manipulation and redistribution of wealth in favor of the owners of money – those who control the printing presses. Without exaggeration, we can say that today we are witnessing the death of money.

“Companies in the fields of industrial production, agriculture, construction, and transport cannot make long-term investments, long-term contracts, or engage in research and development. They cannot even engage in normal trade. … Modern producers are in a position that our ancestors were thousands of years ago when there was no such universal medium of exchange as money.

“Naturally producers are trying to adapt to the era of the death of money by building new economic relations. These new relationships are called in various ways: …

– Pure barter, which does not involve the use of money in any form;
– Partial barter, which is designed to minimize the use of official money;
– Barter based on the use of alternative money, that is money that does not have official status.”

My Comment: In the future there will be a rational allocation of necessary and sufficient products and services that can be acquired in any store or service point

by recording the acquisition on the account of every citizen by means of a code. Subject to the successful participation of each one in a daily system of compulsory public education and necessary work according to its distribution.
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Question: How effective is the workshop if the friends have only been repeating your words for years during the workshops, and in fact have been using their mind (the ego) but don’t include their feelings? Should we add emotional exercises?

Answer: A person, like a kid, automatically repeats what the books say or what he has heard and it is only once in awhile that he has a greater understanding of what he reads or says.

It is a normal process both in our world and in the upper world. In both cases we develop under the influence of the Surrounding Light, but in the case of spiritual development we invoke and summon the Surrounding Light by special efforts: the group, the yearning for connection and unity, Kabbalistic texts, etc.
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Question: A “selfie” is a concept that even psychologists really cannot explain. They believe it is narcissism. People enjoy taking pictures of themselves with a video camera before they die, when they fall into an abyss, or hover over a speeding train. After that, they post the photographs on the Internet.

This is the most popular thing today, and everyone loves to look at them. It is a kind of virus of our time.

Answer: Why can’t they explain it? If you post this on the Internet, this says that eternity dwells in this. The Internet is our encounter with eternity because, theoretically, what is uploaded there will exist forever in the system of mutual human relationships. That is the way you get yourself there.

Question: Why has a self-portrait become a form of communication?

Answer: This is because a person who photographs himself, expresses himself. People look at him, understand who he is, what he is expressing by the expression on his face, what he wants to say, and the background on which he wants to fix himself. This is the transfer of very concrete and good information.

Question: Psychologists have a theory of social comparison. The theoretical thinker Leon Festinger said that humans have an inborn characteristic of constantly evaluating themselves in comparison to others.

Answer: Certainly, this is because otherwise our ego cannot evaluate itself. How can it measure itself if not in relation to others: I am worse, better, where, how. The main thing is to show people where I am, with whom, and on what background. Look, be envious and be impressed.

Question: Why does a person constantly need to photograph only himself? Photograph your loved ones, relatives, and friends.

Answer: There are no longer my favorites. Only “Me.” Even if I love someone, it is only because he gives me pleasure. This is like my love for a good steak. So, the selfie explains our self-love very precisely, the desire to be found at the center of attention. “Look at the ‘center of the world.’ Leave everything else on the side. Do you see me? It’s me.”

Question: Will this lead us to a dead end?

Answer: Yes, today we are evolving very rapidly to a recognition of the ego as something bad.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/4/16

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New Life 544 – Jewish Culture: The Passover Haggadah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

“What makes this night different?” Tonight we feel free. We were slaves and now are free…

We were slaves: we were enslaved to Pharaoh and couldn’t escape by ourselves. Today we are also enslaved to our ego, the evil inclination that divides us and sparks disputes between us and doesn’t let us be. How can we be liberated? We have to decide at the Seder table that we will no longer relate to this egoistic form.

The Torah spoke about four sons: the wise one who is clever, the wicked one who doesn’t want to engage in connection, the simple one who doesn’t understand anything, and the one who doesn’t know how to ask and realizes that there is something sublime about connection but for the time being we cannot digest it.

This is what stood by our fathers and us: if we wish to ascend above our ego, we will be rewarded with a force that will help us, the connecting force.

And the Lord saves us: the Creator turns Iran and everyone against us so that we will rise above our ego. If we build corrected relationships between us, the attitude of Iran and the rest of the world immediately will change for the better.

The Egyptians treated us badly; after the material abundance comes a feeling of emptiness and pain so that we will ascend.

The Lord took us out of Egypt: there is an upper force that can bring love among us right now if we only want it. We want to aim at the right place, not at good food, but at love that will reside among us.

With a strong hand: you tear yourself from your bad attitude to others and switch to a good attitude to others.

The Lord himself: just as He created us with an evil inclination, He will also build the good inclination in us. Who is the Lord? The force of love and bestowal, the force of unity, connection, mutual guarantee, and cooperation.

The ten plagues are ten disconnections from the negative attitude towards others and the switch to a positive attitude.

The slaying of the first born: why did God kill the babies in Egypt? It refers to our ego, that should not grow anymore. We must not allow any negative attitude toward others to grow in us; we must immediately kill it.

It would have sufficed us: we can attain everything if we only have good relations between us, we don’t need anything else. It would have sufficed us, the warmth between us at the Seder table, the force of connection and love, we want it to be among the whole nation of Israel. It is with the help of this force that we can solve all our problems, get rid of all the troubles and really flourish.

Next year in Jerusalem: A new world will be built from the force of love that we have created among us.

One, who knows (what it stands for): we begin to know the upper force from the connections of love, the one force.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 544 – Jewish Culture: The Passover Haggadah,” 3/31/15

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New Life 541 – Jewish Culture: The Ten Plagues In Our Day
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

What is the Torah really telling us, what is revealed to us through the ten plagues, and by means of the proper education how can we build a balanced world so we can live in peace and tranquility?

The Torah is not talking about things that happen in this material world, but the upper world. Every person must realize all the stories of the Torah by himself, and within himself: Adam, the period of the flood, the Exodus from Egypt, and so on.

Every person must write a Torah scroll for himself, meaning he must correct his characteristics according to the letters in the Torah.

We were created with an egoistic nature; we only do things for our own benefit. Our goal must be transcendence to love. To correct ourselves, either through blows or through awareness, we must feel that the ego is detrimental to us.

Pharaoh symbolizes the ego in a person; it doesn’t let us be considerate to others or develop love for others. So Pharaoh, the ego in us, must receive blows. Today all of humanity is in a state of “Egypt.”

The 10 plagues led the children of Israel toward breaking away from the ego that is divided into 10 parts. An example of a plague: The world is full of abundance today, but as a result of bad relationships, half of the world is starving while the other half throws large quantities of food into the garbage.

The rampant ego is the cause of the high cost of living, housing and retirement problems. In addition, nature assaults us mercilessly. The education of children, divorces, drugs, murder, violence, and terrorism—it is up to us to recognize that all of this is derived from the ego.

The situation in the world necessitates publicizing the method for correction, the method for connection above the ego, how to remedy the situation, and that there is a cure. In addition, through connection we can rise to a new, eternal, and whole dimension of existence. And the Haggadah of Pesach (Passover Haggadah) tells us about this, about freedom from the angel of death, freedom from the ego.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 541 – Jewish Culture: The Ten Plagues In Our Day,” 3/26/15

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 19

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Shmot,” Chapter “Bo” (Come Unto Pharaoh), “The Sea Monsters” 

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 13

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Dargot HaSulam,” Article 926

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Question: Is it important to re-read Kabbalistic texts over and over again?

Answer: No, not necessarily. Read what you enjoy, what is close to you, so that you will feel that the text is written for you. Basically you don’t have to do it at all. In principle, it does not matter what you read from the true Kabbalistic sources, because the most important thing—is your aspiration to the Light that you feel in your heart.

You will gradually feel that you are getting closer to the Creator in response to your yearning—to feel it above the problems, that are brought by the same force, so that you will turn to Him. After an appeal to Him, the problems disappear, there is a short respite, and again a problem, and then your aspiration to the Creator.

Everything stems from the Creator and everything is solved by getting closer to Him.

Question: Should I unite with the friends if I want to solve a certain problem and then read a book together in order to summon the positive force?

Answer: Yes, the solution to the problem is in the connection with friends, but this doesn’t mean that you are free from solving it on the level of our world.

You cannot solve corporeal problems in a spiritual way only. You have to actually act physically, and the solution will come through your connection with the friends and the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/7/16

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Question: You keep on saying that we don’t have the tools to manage our lives in our world, but what about our thoughts?

After all, there is a theory that our world is an infinite space of variations and our dominant thoughts influence this or another version of the development of the events in our lives. It seems logical that thoughts lead to deeds, and deeds lead to results.

The film The Secret speaks about the same idea. It is much more pleasant and optimistic to know that something depends on us in this life than to live with the hope of change, even to the best, but it is an illusory world for us.

Answer: According to what the Kabbalists discover in the upper world, our world is completely managed from above, while we can influence events only through the upper world by attracting the Light of correction, which is called Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light).
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The Torah describes spiritual properties, not physical characteristics. For example, there is the property of “Moses” in every person. Even the Creator exists in every one of us. After all, a person is a world in which there is absolutely everything!

Therefore, the Torah speaks about how one can balance his inner world and connect, correct, tune, and calibrate it correctly.

Only then can one use it to reveal the Creator through the correct interaction of all of its parts. The inner harmony that is formed within a person gives him the sensation of the upper existence. This is the force that fills, balances, and governs everything.

When all parts balance and complement one another within us and there is nothing left that would work in a corrupt way, then the common property called the Creator is formed. This is the revelation of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/12/15

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