Audio Version Of The Blog – 03.07.17

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JPost: “American Society Headed Toward A Breaking Point”

The Jerusalem Post published my new article “American Society Headed Toward a Breaking Point

If business people such as Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank must apologize for their conservative views for fear of losing business, this is not liberalism and certainly not pluralism. This is tyranny.

A little over a week ago, Bill O’Reilly of The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News slammed the twisted reporting of the deportation of illegal immigrants who were convicted felons, showing how the media portrayed them as innocent “maids, moms, and shopkeepers.” He said that this exemplifies how the media coverage of President Trump is beyond biased; it is “blatant dishonesty.” Mr. O’Reilly, whose program is “routinely the highest-rated show of the three major US 24-hour cable news television channels,” concluded the item declaring, “There is a radical element [the radical left] in this country that wants to destroy it. If this continues, there will be a breaking point.”

As harsh as this threat sounds, judging by the relentless attempts of the Democrats to sabotage Trump’s efforts to man key positions, the media’s slew of warped and made up stories purporting to prove the president’s incompetence, through the army of on-the-ground agitators that Obama’s Organizing for Action has dispatched in order to disrupt every town-hall meeting in the country and create the pretense that the nation is with the Democrats, it seems that there is indeed a war against the president on multiple fronts.

It is not a question of policy; it is a question of identity. Donald Trump recently deported 680 convicted criminals, and the media was up in arms over the deportation of “innocent people,” as they called them. Where was the media when Obama, to whom immigrants referred as “Deporter-in-Chief,” drove out 2.5 million people during his tenure, the majority of whom were without any criminal record? And where was the outcry when it became known that Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, sold one fifth of US uranium to Russia, and that she and her husband, Bill Clinton, personally profited from the deal?

The media were silent because Obama and Clinton were the guardians of power for a small ruling elite that wants to dominate the US. A president who does not comply with their dictates does not serve their interests and there is no telling what they will do to remove him from office. For now, they are using a bogus, humanistic agenda such as caring for the immigrants and backing the Obamacare program to promote their goal of ousting Trump, but there is no reason to believe that they will stop there.

The Necessity of Diversity

Liberalism in itself is a noble idea. Following World War II, numerous countries in the West adopted the Liberal agenda as a “vaccine” against fascism and Nazism. However, a society cannot be vital and vibrant unless many different views vie against one another and in the process become polished and refined. When all the parties understand that diversity of views creates vitality, they strengthen their society and increase its ability to cope with changes.

Our own Jewish tradition encourages diversity and debate as a means to enhance social cohesion. Martin Buber wrote in Nation and World: “It is not neutrality that we need, but rather cohesion, cohesion of mutual responsibility. We are not required to blur the boundaries among the factions, circles, and parties, but rather share a recognition of the common reality and to share the test of mutual responsibility.” Likewise, the great Rav Kook wrote (Orot Hakodesh), “Near the end of days, the quality of unity will surface in the nation… This quality is immersed in pool of strife and discord, but its content is paved with love and wondrous unity.”

For generations, Jewish leaders taught their disciples that conflict of views is a means for finding the ideal solution and strengthening social cohesion. The Talmud writes that “A father and son who engage in Torah become each other’s enemies, yet they do not move from there until they return to loving one another” (Kidushin 30b). The Zohar, too, writes (Aharei Mot), “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to also sit together. These are the friends as they sit together, and are not separated from each other. At first, they seem like people at war, wishing to kill one another. Then they return to being in brotherly love. …And you, the friends who are here, as you were in fondness and love before, henceforth you will also not part … And by your merit there will be peace in the world.”

The Inevitable Evil

Yet, the American society has denied the legitimacy of “other parties,” as Buber put it. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” said British Liberal MP Sir John Dalberg-Acton. Liberalism has been the sole “legitimate” agenda for decades now, but instead of using it to create a vibrant arena of views that invigorate one another, it has become a stifling mechanism by which anyone who contradicts what the media deems true is shamed and bullied. If business people such as Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank feel that they must apologize for stating their honest, very mildly conservative views for fear of losing business, this is no longer liberalism and certainly not pluralism. This is tyranny. Beneath a guise of free speech, America has become a fascist country, where only one view is permitted.

But if “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” then this is to be expected. “The inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen 8:21) is not merely a verse from the Torah. It is who we all are. This is why rulers need the media to monitor them, and why the media needs to be kept genuinely free and pluralistic.

This is not the situation in America. Neoliberalism, which has destroyed Europe through immigration, and nearly destroyed the US by eliminating its middle class, has been the sole ruling agenda in the US for decades. It serves the interests of the small elite group of magnates who control the American economy, the media, and thereby the government, all the way up to the White House. They determine what is reported and what is not, who is defamed and who is glorified. By controlling the media, they have dominated public discourse, public opinion, and have avoided criticism. This is ingenious, but deadly to society.

Their best interest is not the best interest of the American people. They aspire for world domination. Through proxies such as Obama and Clinton, they “removed” Arab leaders such as Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, and Bashar Assad, destroyed their countries, and created an influx of migrants into Europe. It is not that these Middle Eastern tyrants are or ever were anything to admire, but if you look at Iraq, Libya, and Syria today, would it not have been better for their people if their tyrants had remained in place, rather than the ruin, death, hunger, and terrorism that is their daily reality today?

If the people driving the “liberal” agenda in Europe maintain control over their governments, it will not be long before Europe accepts Sharia law. As this sad story of a forced child marriage shows, this is already happening, but it will spread much faster if they succeed.

And what they have done to Europe, they will continue in America: This same group will allow unchecked influx of migrants into the US, who will drain the already overstretched welfare system, create an impossible conflict of cultures and faiths, which will result in extremism and subsequent bloodshed on both sides. And all this will be done in the name of liberal thinking, pluralism, humanism, and democracy.

On the Side of Correction

It may appear as though I am in complete support of President Trump and against the Democratic Party. In truth, I have no personal affinity for any particular person or agenda. I do have great affinity for diversity above which people can connect since diversity keeps society cohesive, agile, and healthy, and keeps the country strong. At the moment, President Trump represents this view quite well, and the Democratic Party, with its undisputed monarch Barack Hussein Obama, absolutely does not.

I regard Trump’s victory as a sign that the American society is still alive and kicking. It gives me hope that it will also be able to go through the necessary sobering up without bloodshed and without dragging the world into another war. If Clinton had been elected, there is no doubt that war would have erupted. Russia, America, and Europe were already making preparations on the ground. Now, at least there is a chance for peace and the correction of society.

But to correct society, all parties will need to learn from the Jewish tradition—that “love covers all crimes” (Prov 10:12). Rav Yehuda Ashlag, author of the Sulam (Ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar, wrote in his essay, “The Freedom”: “Just as people’s faces differ, so their views differ. Therefore, society is cautioned to preserve the freedom of expression of the individual. Each individual should maintain his integrity, and the contradiction and oppositeness between people should remain forever, to forever secure the progress of the free society.” Liberals would do well to listen to their own “coreligionist” Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times who wrote, “We progressives could take a brief break from attacking the other side and more broadly incorporate values that we supposedly cherish—like diversity—in our own dominions.”

At the moment, Trump cannot end the war with the media and the Democrats because he is not the one waging it. For things to calm down, the media and the Democratic Party must decide that the best interest of their country comes before that of their party, or even that of their financiers. If this war does not stop, then either the media will be severely restricted going forward and American democracy will be hampered, or the next leader America’s political right sends forward will likely be one who will truly galvanize the conservatives in America, and “there will be a breaking point,” as O’Reilly put it.

For America’s sake and for the sake of the world, I pray that this great nation wakes up and understands the value of diversity, the benefit of honing views through open debate, and the powerful cohesion attained when that debate yields solutions that contribute to the thriving of the whole of society.
[202655]

My Thoughts On Twitter, 3/6/17

twitter

 

If Trump plans to return from financial to industrial capitalism, it will lead to the crisis of the 1930s, protectionism, and unemployment.

Capitalism is the last form of humanity’s egoistic development. Egoism is ending. Next stage: a profit-free production of necessities.

Purim: Some aspire to unite, others support it, and together they can get rid of the ego (Haman) and reveal the Creator.

Purim: Hamantash cookies symbolize Haman’s desires taken without the egoistic intention and filled with the desire to bestow and love.
[#203047]
From Twitter, 3/6/17

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What Does A Kabbalist Rely On?

laitman_234Question: What does a Kabbalist rely on if he cannot trust his mind and his feelings?

Answer: A Kabbalist relies only on the method through which he can invoke and summon the Upper Light.

There are billions of people around us who rely on their minds and their feelings, and what use is it to them? It is time to stop behaving like blind kittens and to begin thinking clearly.

A person should in no way count on and trust himself. After all, a person doesn’t know what is happening inside him now and, all the more so, what is good for him. We can see what has happened throughout human history. We don’t even know how to live.

We are all the outcome of the effect of the system of the upper forces on us. It is basically one force, but it is as if it operates and affects us through many forces. We must understand that our work is to draw the upper force to us and begin using it intensively in order to develop spiritually.
[201220]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/21/16

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We Should Know How To Read The Torah

laitman_209Question: What is the tradition of the oral law?

Answer: The oral Torah explains the written Torah, which only Kabbalists can understand according to their level of spiritual attainment.

We should know how to read the Torah, and in order to do so, we must learn Hebrew because all of the words are terribly distorted by translation. The letters that make up the word have a very deep meaning: their order, sound, the similarity or difference between them, and so on. Every letter is made of several elements that indicate certain forces of nature, whether positive or negative, that operate horizontally or vertically by drawing toward them or by being distant. This is the reason that writing the letters is a special art.

Eventually, a person begins to understand that there is an encoded description of consecutive spiritual acts before him, not an ordinary text.

In Hebrew, every letter is a symbol, a unique signal with many elements that are connected in a special way and convey information, a bit of concrete information that contains the whole spiritual structure inside it.

It is possible to simply read Kabbalah books, and it is possible to read them in great depth and penetrate the internal meaning. When a person enters the text, he travels through it until he understands everything that happens in it and the flow of the internal information. It is a totally different attainment of the Torah, and this is actually what is called “secret” to a certain degree.

Therefore, the oral Torah is the Torah that is forbidden to be taught. The concept of forbidden refers to the fact that it is impossible since a person will understand nothing before he is a Kabbalist. On the other hand, there is no need to understand anything in the wisdom of Kabbalah. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, everything is allowed—everything is for a person, for his sake.
[201283]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/4/16

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What Should We Hope For?

laitman_938_04Question: You said that you are only an expert in teaching the wisdom of Kabbalah and that you have not attained the complete end of correction. So, what should we, who are merely beginners, hope for?

Answer: No one has actually reached the complete end of correction. It is a very high level, but everyone must attain it.

Rabi Shimon’s group and Baal HaSulam reached a relative complete end of correction. It is impossible to reach the complete end of correction unless all of the people, or more accurately, all of the souls, are corrected. It is because we are living in a system that is mutually connected.

I tell you frankly that I am on an intermediate level, but it is certainly enough in order to teach you. If I were on a higher level, I wouldn’t be able to do so.

Baal HaSulam says in his article “Baal HaSulam’s Prophecy” that he especially asked to be lowered from the high level he was on so that he would be able to express and convey the method of Kabbalah.

Sometimes, the levels of the teacher and the student in the wisdom of Kabbalah are disconnected, and it is not always possible to overcome that. Would a professor in an art academy teach a five-year-old to play the violin? No, since this is what teachers in music schools do. When the child grows, he will learn from more professional teachers until he reaches a master, an expert.

We will continue our motion forward together, and our common teacher will be the Creator.
[200971]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/7/16

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Don’t Associate The Body With The Soul!

laitman_538Question: Is the purpose of death to unite people?

Answer: The death of the corporeal body does not unite or separate people. Our body is like a small animal that lives next to its master.

Question: Can the fear of death push us to unite?

Answer: The fear of death does not motivate us to do anything. Every living creature is afraid of dying. The fact that the body ceases to function is a natural state and nothing more than that. You should not associate the soul with the body in any way. It is a very big mistake.
[202354]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/1/17

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New Life #571 – Why Don’t Protests Work

New Life #571 – Why Don’t Protests Work
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Question: Why don’t protests, which are a perfectly democratic tool, work in Israel?

Answer: Because different laws work in Israel.

The nation of Israel can only be based on the rule of “love thy friend as thyself.” Connection is our foundation.

Protests will not solve our problems because the solution is in establishing a new connection between everyone. Crying out in the streets will not work; the only thing that will work is the gradual study of the reasons why we don’t succeed in building a better society here.

The connection between us has to help us learn something about connection every day, about the love of others, about the correction of our relations. We have to connect in order to solve our problems, to unite our hopes, and to stop treating others with disrespect.

Protest is connecting against someone. We, on the other hand, have to protest against our egoism, the force that separates us. Connecting is ascending above all our differences, above our opposite views, spreading an umbrella of love above everything.

We have to promote actions that will lead to connection with the people: workshops, debate circles, sing along, etc. The reason is that a very powerful force is revealed in the connection between us, the positive force that is concealed in nature, the force that balances everything.

Connection summons the force that builds instead of the force that destroys. We protest against the egoistic force in us. It is only when we change that the Israeli society will change and life in our country will be better.
[159858]
From KabTV’s “New Life #571 – Why Don’t Protests Work,” 5/17/15

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.07.17

Preparation for the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic: “Purim”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Mutual Guarantee,” Item 28

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