Audio Version Of The Blog – 09.05.16

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Sunset Of The Great European Civilization, Part 3

Laitman_727Question: The European civilization has always been a model of high ideals, freethinking, equality, the scientific approach, and faith in the wisdom and power of man, the master of the world. So why do we see today that this ideology has become harmful for us?

Answer: Everything in this world goes through birth, development, a period of prosperity, and then decline and death. The European materialistic approach, claiming that everything was in the hands of man, was very helpful and rational. Indeed, in this case we don’t need some mystical forces and rely only on things we see in front of us.

This European approach has contributed a lot to the development of man and his approach to life, in comparison to the philosophies in other parts of the world: India and Arabic countries, where the focus wasn’t on man, his education, and development.

Education brought its values to Europe, such as ethics, equal rights for men and women, freedom of speech, and equality. However, today, I don’t admire them as much as previously in the distant past.

After all, we know how strong the religious influence in Europe is even now, with all its slogans about freewill and equality. Inside each European lives this inner split that with all his aspirations to freedom he stays religious inside.

If you come to France, home of the French Revolution that is a symbol of all European ideals, and go to the periphery, to small towns and villages, you will see that they live there the same as it was in the Middle Ages, and the approach to life is the same and the church is the same.

The spirit that the Europeans received from the Jews influenced them in two ways. On the one hand, it brought ideals of freedom of speech and religion, education, and equality to Europe, and on the other hand, it gave Europe a strong Christian religion with all its medieval doctrines and restrictions that are alive in the people till today.

These two forces emanating from one source act in the Europeans and can’t come to an agreement. This is what determines the European spirit.

Question: Why did these wonderful ideas of education and equality bring Europe to the catastrophic situation that we see today?

Answer: The fact is that these were just nice slogans, and in reality a person hasn’t changed internally at all. He remained the same person he was from ancient times. If we dig into him a little deeper, we will see the same barbarian he used to be.

People don’t understand how to use the freedom they received. It was necessary to develop a person for this, so he would know what equality is, what forces are required in order to reach it, and how to resist his egoistic nature.

It was a scientific and technological revolution, but one can remain a barbarian and have an atomic bomb. True development involves the development of a person inside the savage, and this didn’t happen in Europe. People don’t change from nice talk alone. In order to change a person internally, an upper force is required, in addition to the inherent egoistic force that exists within us.

Since this wasn’t the case, the Europeans remained the same, as they were before. They only played in the beautiful philosophies, literature, and culture in order to embellish their life, and nothing more. However, if we go a little deeper, we will see that people remained the same as they were 2,000 years ago.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/18/16

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Sunset Of The Great European Civilization, Part 1
Europe Is The Center Of The World And The Modern Babylon

Selling Your Soul To The Devil

laitman_549_02Question: What does it mean, “to sell your soul to the devil”?

Answer: Selling your soul to the devil means giving all your desires for money and even for knowledge in our world. Everything in our world is called the “devil” because all our corporeal engagements divert us from the spiritual path. The world “devil,” “Satan,” stems from the Hebrew root “Leastin” (to divert). It refers to any engagement in our world by which a person replaces his yearning for the true goal.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/3/16

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Spiritual Birth

laitman_243_04Spiritual birth is a very complicated birth process. The lower is inside the upper and the womb is seemingly made of two doors, one of which has an axis. In the ninth month, the embryo completes its development and the doors begin to open and the mother feels an internal pressure, which is what we see in our world.

spiritual-birth

If we express this in Kabbalistic terms, the Gevurot that have developed (the limiting force, the Dinim) put pressure on the embryo who also wants to be free. On the whole, he undergoes a very serious process during his birth when these forces actually push him out, but they also shape him as a human being in the future.

This is the first drama in his life since before he was in a kind of rest house for nine months, in perfect tranquility, fully secure, fed, and all his needs provided for. But this state ends dramatically when he is born.

The attitude of his mother to him totally changes. She pushes him out as if she doesn’t want him anymore and he undergoes great pressure and is born.

The embryo develops in the mother’s womb with his head up and before he is born he turns upside down with his head downward, which means that he is detached from his previous values and doesn’t think like he did before, and this is how he is born under great pressure.

The exodus from Egypt is called spiritual birth, which in our world is symbolized by Pesach (Passover). First everything was right and good in Egypt. We developed normally in Egypt, inside our egoism.

Then Pharaoh’s attitude suddenly changed to such a degree that this Partzuf, the soul that develops, undergoes the ten plagues, called the ten Sefirot, which throw it out. The womb contracts, the birth canal opens, the water recedes (the water breaks).

The same thing happens in Egypt: the passage through the Red Sea is the passage through the water. Then the actual birth takes place.

Animals don’t undergo such a difficult process like man. For animals the birth does not involve such great pressure, while for humans the physical and the spiritual birth involve a great pressure indeed.
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Salad With Salmonella

Laitman_506_6Question: The Health Department in Israel announced the removal of products from the Tahini factory HaNasich from store shelves due to contamination by Salmonella bacteria. Products of nine different brands were found contaminated with bacteria in which Tahini was used.

The Health Department determined that employee negligence led to Salmonella contamination of cereals and other brands. Moreover, the management of the factory acknowledged that it knew about the contamination two weeks before this was known to everyone and yet the manufacture of the products was not halted at the time. As reported by Ynet, in addition to halting production, the Health Department is considering the possibility of filing a lawsuit. In a case like this is it necessary to consider such a step?

Answer: There is nothing to consider here, it is necessary to act. In a case like this I would take extreme measures, because this is talking about the health of citizens. Regarding health this knowingly caused harm. Knowing of the situation, the managers of the factory could have found a way to stop the output of contaminated product. If they didn’t do this, they simply caused damage willingly and are guilty of causing much harm to people. In a case like this, they have no place in the food industry. They must pay the full obligation for the damaged caused. The nation must pay attention to this.

Comment: Contrary to your opinion, I have heard the opinion of experts. They say that such activities were never punished very severely.

Answer: Certainly! The nation doesn’t punish banks or companies like these. They are allowed to do anything, so that is also how they behave.

Question: Is it possible to solve this problem in another way?

Answer: It can be solved only through managing general integral education for the people so people will begin to understand how an orderly society should behave. It is impossible to go on like this, not because the “upper class doesn’t want it” and “the lower classes cannot” or vice versa, but because nature itself teaches us that it is up to us to change our existential paradigm regarding our attitude toward the world, nature, ourselves, and society.

From the point of view of the wisdom of Kabbalah, this necessarily must be realized, and already in our time people must understand that it is up to them to change themselves and not those around them, meaning that they must be involved with self-education and self-enlightenment. We are advancing toward a situation in which the means of production will no longer have much influence on society. Production itself will not require employees. The authorities don’t know this and cannot manage it, but only “replicate” themselves again and again.

We are found at the end of the previous paradigm of social development, governance, and management. All of this will end soon and it will be clear that nothing can be realized anywhere in any form in any nation in the world.

Society must change; it must reconstruct itself according to a completely different program of full mutual cooperation, with a good connection between us, when all of us are principally involved with connection and unity. So it is up to us to educate ourselves. This is not very easy, but against our will we are moving toward this.

Question: Does this mean that nobody will be rich and that a communistic equality will prevail?

Answer: This is not communism but a state that nature is requiring from us. We must reach a state in which all of us together will be a single integral system similar to what manages us. In a system like this, we are already beginning to evaluate people not according to the number of zeroes they have in the bank, but according to the contribution that a person makes for the sake of the unity of the entire society because nature is seriously driving us toward general integration and it is up to us to realize this call.

Question: How will this be expressed in our activities?

Answer: Only in the implementation of the method that explains the overall dependence, the general mutual connection, in what manner we must be arranged in balance with nature and between us, meaning how we must re-invent ourselves.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/15/16

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The Secret Of Conception And Birth

laitman_236_01Question: Birth is a very complex and complicated process and is explained in the 400 pages of the six volumes of the Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) by Baal HaSulam. At what moment does conception take place?

Answer: Conception takes place the moment that the Kli (vessel, desire) is ready for conception. When the female part (the desire to receive) is ready to unite with the male part (the intention for the sake of bestowal), by becoming like it, which means the moment that our desire becomes worthy of bonding with the intention for the sake of the Creator (bestowal), then immediately a union takes place between them and a Partzuf (a spiritual body) appears.

The left side of the Partzuf is the female part, and the right line is the male part, and between them they give birth to the assimilation to the Creator, which is called the third line or soul.

Question: Why does conception have to be carried out at night?

Answer: The entire process takes place for the sake of the attribute of bestowal. Night is darkness and the attribute of bestowal can be revealed and appears only in darkness, in the state where the soul doesn’t want any light and enlightenment, so that its action will really be with the intention for the sake of bestowal. In other words, I don’t want to see the future, I don’t want anything for myself. I only want to act in bestowal. This state is called night.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/24/16

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New Life 447 – Natural Disasters: The Result Of Our Imbalance With Nature

New Life 447 – Natural Disasters: The Result Of Our Imbalance With Nature
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

If we aspired to being harmoniously balanced with nature, we would receive positive feedback from nature, but first we have to balance the relations between us…
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From KabTV’s “New Life 447 – Natural Disasters: The Result Of Our Imbalance With Nature,” 10/21/14

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 09.05.16

Preparation for the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace,” “The Wheel of Transformation of the Form” 

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Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention,” Lesson 6

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