Audio Version Of The Blog – 7/12/22
Posted on July 12th, 2022
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Medium published my new article “Shinzo Abe — the Assassination of a Good Man for the World and for Israel”
Japan’s national election, the Upper House election, July 10, 2022. Shinzo Abe, former Prime Minister of Japan, dies after being attacked during a speech in Nara City, Nara Prefecture. The remains of Shinzo Abe. Voters offer flowers. on July 10 2022 in Nara, Japan. (Photo by Kazuki Oishi/Sipa USA)
On Friday, two days before the elections for Japan’s upper house of parliament, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s former prime minister, was assassinated while making an election speech in support of a local candidate in the city of Nara. I regretted hearing about it. While not all his international initiatives proved successful, and despite lackluster success raising Japan from a prolonged economic slump, Abe was a good leader for Japan, for the world, and for Israel.
Abe had a positive influence on his country; he was positive for Israel and positive for the world. Although it is not immediately evident how he did this, he helped make the world more stable. This is why I regret his passing.
Japan is located (both geographically and politically) in between China, Russia, and America. These giant global forces surrounding Japan place it in a unique position to be a balancing element. Shinzo Abe understood it, felt it, and indeed strove to promote balance.
Although the US tried to pull Japan to its side in its struggle against China, Abe managed to maintain good relations with the US while not getting pulled into a battle that was not good for Japan. The Japanese people do not perceive China as an enemy, and Abe did not want to engender enmity between them.
China, too, has its own aspirations concerning influence in Japan. While not aspiring to impose itself on Japan as it is attempting to do in Taiwan, it still strives for influence. Here, too, Abe managed to run between the raindrops and keep Japan dry.
Abe had positive feelings about Israel. He felt that Israel has a special role in the world arena, and that it was worthwhile to maintain good relations with it. He was not only seeking economic or technological benefits from Japan’s warm relations with Israel; he truly felt that Israel has some sort of a parental role with regard to the world. This was the basis of his respect for Israel, and not a political or economic opportunist attitude.
In fact, leaders are generally more sensitive to the role of Israel in the world. Boris Johnson, too, had a keen sense for Israel’s significance in the world. Because statesmen engage in international relations, they sense that there is a certain code, a connection that ties all nations together, and that Israel plays a key role in that connection.
The death of Shinzo Abe, the forced resignation of Boris Johnson, the chaos in Sri Lanka, the never-ending cycle of elections in Israel, and the plummeting popularity of Joe Biden are only some examples of leadership in disarray, indicating that a global process is underway. I hope these changes lead to a positive change, as many governments and nations will have to decide where they are headed.
The world has to change. Humanity must ask itself where it wants to go. There are many points of conflict in the world, and we have to provide an inclusive answer to them.
World leaders, as well as nations, must understand that the world cannot continue as it has thus far, with a constant threat of war and instability. We must all understand that the world needs better connections, healthier relationships between nations and people. This is where we should aspire.
For now, this transformation is happening through the falling of leaders. This is the milder version of the change. A more aggressive version will be the falling of bombs rather than the falling of leaders, as is happening in eastern Europe.
If we can harness the global political turmoil to set off a profound transformation in our relationships, we will all benefit from the events. If we avoid making the changes now, we will be painfully forced to make them later. Either way, the world requires correction.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Curse of Re-elections”
“As long as the laws of society are not satisfactory to each and every individual in the state, and leave a minority that is dissatisfied with the government of the state, that minority conspires under the government of the state and seeks to overthrow it,” wrote Baal HaSulam back in the 1930s in his essay, “Peace in the World.” To this he added that if the power of the losing faction “is not sufficient to fight the government of the state face to face, it will seek to overthrow it indirectly, such as by inciting countries against each other and bringing them to war, for it is natural that at wartime there will be many more dissatisfied people with whom they will have hope to achieve the critical mass to overthrow the government of the state and establish a new leadership that is convenient for them.”
It seems as though these words were written yesterday, not ninety years ago. What is worse, the pertinence of Baal HaSulam’s words proves that we have not learned much.
We established the Jewish state based on laws we borrowed from the British Mandate that ruled here before us, with some leftovers from the rules of the Ottoman Empire that ruled here before the British. These are not the laws of the Israeli nation, but laws of the nations of the world. This incongruity wore down the legitimacy of the judicial structure to such an extent that lawmakers and laypeople alike are leaning increasingly toward following their own interpretations of the law.
Without a common goal and a collectively adopted constitution, we will never have a stable government and a solid Jewish state. Our common law should be the law that was the basis of Jewish peoplehood: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Even when the people of Israel could not practice it, they always strove for it. If they do not, they are not regarded as Israel.
Currently, because no effort, or even aspiration to unite exists within the people of Israel living in the State of Israel, we are not Israel. What are we then? We are a collective of persecuted migrants and refugees, many of whom feel that the country they live in does not belong to them and dream of the moment they can return to the country from which they or their parents were chased away.
Herzl’s vision of forming a safe haven for Jews is not enough. If this is the only reason for our gathering here, we will not be able to form a cohesive and stable society. The obstinate, opinionated nature of our people will soon take over, and division and hostility will develop. This is what is happening to Israel today. As a result, the political parties have splintered and become fragmented, and a succession of elections ensued.
If we want to stabilize the Israeli society and prevent its disintegration, we need to fall in line behind a single goal that we value more than our own opinion. Also, the goal of our country should not be to save the Jews, but to save the world from division and conflict.
The reason Israel is always at the center of attention, especially in times of conflict, is that the world looks to Israel for example. Since the inception of our people, we have been tasked with serving as a model of unity. Our ancestors assembled from numerous tribes, clans, and countries, and pledged to love each other more than themselves. This is unheard of by today’s ostensibly civilized standards. In the ancient world, this was utterly inconceivable.
Nevertheless, our ancestors attempted it and succeeded. Moreover, they proved that when they unite, they triumph and overpower any nation that challenges them. They proved that military and economic success depend, in the case of the people of Israel, solely on their unity.
Alternatively, when they became divided and hostile toward each other, they demonstrated weakness, and foreign nations overpowered them and exiled them. Our unique nation, therefore, became the first nation that could choose its own fate. When it chose unity, it succeeded; when it chose division, it failed. In a sense, our nation was a proof of concept, a “pilot,” as historian Paul Johnson called us. We proved that foreigners can bond in peace and love if they value unity more than their own culture and tradition.
The modern-day curse of endless elections reflects a decline in the level of the unity of our people in the State of Israel. Instead of lining up around the tenet of unity above all other considerations, each party promotes its own agenda and claims that it will lead Israel to success. Yet, they are all wrong because if their ideas do not require national unity as a precondition, it makes no difference what agenda they support; it is condemned to failure.
Only when we realize our unity, above all differences, will the curse of perpetual elections be removed. Moreover, only when we realize this will the danger of another cataclysm to the Jewish people be averted, as Israel becomes what Israel is meant to be: “a light [of unity] to the nations.”
Medium published my new article “The G7 vs. China”
In 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping, launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The idea was very similar to that of the game of Monopoly: whoever owns more property, has more power and gains more wealth. Without much fanfare, China began to finance massive infrastructure projects and buy essential assets in countries around the world. Any country that wanted to benefit from China’s wealth and construction expertise had to sign an agreement that admitted it to the BRI. As of March this year, a whopping 147 countries have joined the initiative. In this way, without firing a single shot, China has carried out a successful worldwide invasion. Now, finally, the powers of the West are waking up.
The invasion is not limited to countries that have signed the BRI agreement. Chinese companies have bought or operate countless strategic assets in the US, for example. Chinese companies are also building Israel’s two new seaports (out of three that exist), Israel’s light rail, and a Chinese company owns Tnuva, Israel’s largest food manufacturer. What the Chinese realized long ago, and the West did not, is that investment means influence, and influence means conquest.
Now the West has finally woke up. That is, the US has realized that China is simply buying up the world. The Chinese offered the US to join their initiative, but the US would never agree to join China on China’s terms.
To counter China’s economic foray, the US recently brought together the seven most economically powerful western countries, known as the G7, to launch a counter-initiative that will hopefully impede the uninterrupted advancement of the BRI. The G7, consisting of the US, Canada, Germany, Japan, France, the UK, and Italy (which also signed the BRI agreement), have pledged $600 billion to counter China’s initiative. Regrettably for the G7, however, that sum is probably too little, too late.
China has gone a long way since the days when it was a closed, isolated country. First, it began to manufacture for the world. Subsequently, it began to export not only goods, but also expertise, labor, and wealth. If, previously, they admitted other countries into China by building factories that manufactured for European and American brands, now they are also penetrating those same countries through their wealth and expertise. The roles have been reversed.
For the moment, everyone seems content. Signatories to the BRI enjoy China’s wealth and building power, and do not have to pay for essential projects that would have been too costly for them to carry out. In return, China is gaining footholds in countries around the world, effectively buying their support.
Ultimately, however, human nature will win and only the landlord, i.e., China, will reap the profits. In the case of Tnuva, for example, they will allegorically take the food and leave Israel with the leftovers.
However, evolution never stops. China may think it can take over the world through economic power, but its downfall is bound to come. In the next phase of China’s evolution, forces will rise from within the country and disintegrate the Chinese society from within. It will take years, perhaps decades, but the process is certain to happen. When disintegration begins, China will decline.
China cannot remain strong indefinitely because it is relying on one force — socialism. If you rely on one force, any force, and do not balance it with an equal measure of its counter force, you disrupt the natural balance that exists in reality, and reality eventually overwhelms you. The only way to remain strong and successful is by employing contradictory forces equally, and creating a union that does not suppress any of them or gives precedence to any one force over the other. Then, when you have a balanced system, longevity is guaranteed.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Israelis Need Only One Passport”
There is a strange phenomenon that is probably unique to Israelis, or perhaps to Jews: purchasing an alternative citizenship. For some years, it was possible to legally purchase a Portuguese citizenship and get an EU passport, if you met certain conditions related to your ancestry. Now, a similar deal is being offered to people with roots in Germany. I can understand why after two millennia of persecution, Israelis are inclined to secure an alternative location in case trouble finds them here. However, I believe, and history is my witness, that hiding will not help us escape trouble. Our only protection is internal unity. No one has ever defeated, or even challenged us when we were united.
Therefore, I am not looking to buy an alternative passport or prepare a safe haven for myself, even though I have family outside of Israel. Instead, I am trying to do what I think I, and all the Israelis should do.
The more chaotic the world becomes, and it is quickly becoming very chaotic, the more the Jews will be accused of causing it. It is not because we are deliberately causing chaos, but because we are not setting an example of unity, we are blamed for the world’s inability to establish cohesive societies.
The reason for the global rise in antisemitism is not Israel’s negative conduct toward our neighbors, even though this is the world’s grievance against Israel. The real, albeit elusive reason for the intensifying antisemitism is the worsening division in the world, which it pins on Israel.
There is a simple reason for this: Whenever there is division, it is blamed on the Jews since our role is to set an example of solidarity and mutual responsibility, the tenets around which our nation was born, and the values we were tasked with exemplifying. Therefore, if Israel fails to fulfill its calling, the world condemns it.
In other words, the world hates us not for our actions, but for our inaction, for our refusal to practice and display internal unity. As long as we do not strive for solidarity and cohesion, we will not find peace or security anywhere, not in Israel, not in Europe, not in America, and not in Africa. Wherever we go, people will blame us for their wars and for their woes.
Our only safety net, therefore, is our unity. When we are united, we pacify the world’s wars and win humanity’s gratitude and favor. When we are divided, wars and conflicts ensue, and the world hates us for it and seeks to punish us.
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It is written: “There is none else besides Him,” which means that there is nothing but one, single, and the only upper force that operates in the entire universe.
And the fact that it seems to us that there are many different, antagonistic, and even absolutely opposite forces in the world is because this upper force presents this to us in such a way and governs all the other forces that are under its full authority from above. In this way, it governs, guides, and develops us.
We cannot see that only one force drives everything because we do not have the qualities to perceive it. After all, in order to feel this force, it is necessary to correspond to it in some way. We notice any phenomenon in the world only to the extent that we have the same qualities inside us. If there are no such qualities in us, then we do not feel anything. Perhaps there are many interesting phenomena happening around us, but we do not feel them and thus do not suspect their existence.
We are inside the upper force beside which there is nothing and it controls everything. Yet, if we have some kind of conflict at work or at home, then we do not feel that there is some kind of force behind them that in a concealed way controls all the events of our life. After all, we are very far from this upper force and do not identify ourselves with it. Therefore, it seems to us that there are many forces and actions in reality fighting with one another and that the world is full of opposing forces.
If we, however, begin to attach it to the Creator as the only force and want to reveal Him, we will find that there is really only one force operating in the entire universe that is good and doing good to everyone: to the bad and to the good.
A person should try to reach the same attitude to the world in order to also become good who does good, like the Creator. Then we will feel how the good force of the Creator dominates the entire reality, and that in fact, there is none else besides Him.
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From KabTV’s “The World” 6/28/22
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One may be diligent, but no person shall enjoy the society more than the backward. There will be an equal standard of living for all (Baal HaSulam, The Writings of The Last Generation).
A necessary condition for the existence of a future society is an absolutely equal income, payment and supply. Everything that everyone has should be the same as others have, but in accordance with the personal needs and tastes of a person.
That is, one can be satisfied with two kilograms of something, and for the other 500 grams is enough. One needs, say, special clothes and shoes, and the other does not need them. Everyone will receive everything as much as is necessary for him.
Question: Will a person think about the things he will receive from his actions in society?
Answer: In such a society, everyone thinks only about bestowing to others. It depends on the education, on how much society itself influences a person. And society will think about him and provide him with everything he needs.
The balance between reception and bestowal will be set by the person himself because the most important thing for him is to receive what is necessary from society and feel that it is completely sufficient.
A person will be feeling the balance internally, the fact that his bestowal is equal to reception.
[299811]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 6/24/22
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Question: Why does water have a high sensitivity to various disturbances?
Answer: Because it is a carrier of basic information. Water is the general quality of bestowal, which connects everything with each other. This is the quality of life, it revives.
If all other elements of our world are egoistic, then water has altruistic qualities. It has this force originally in it. This is why water is a solvent, a connector. It exists around developing objects. Without water there is death, give water there is life.
But at the same time, water can also be a carrier of negative energy. For example, all kinds of tsunamis, hurricanes, and floods. It depends on what information it carries, and by what it is generated. It already depends on people, on their wrong influence on the world.
Basically, we emerged from an ocean of water because until a huge amount of water mass appeared on the planet, life was impossible. The transition happened from quantity to quality, when a huge amount of water information was gathered together and organic life began to emerge in it. From where? From the information that is embedded in the water.
[299638]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. The Secret of Life” 7/13/11
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Comment: Professor Michio Kaku, in an interview with The Times newspaper, discussed what the world will be like in the near and distant future. The professor believes that by 2030 a new type of contact lens will already appear in the world that will have Internet access as well as show a virtual reality to users.
My Response: Of course, it’s convenient, but it is quite possible that I will have other glasses and I will be able to see all this in the air whenever I want. Since all the waves are here in the air, I will be able to see the screen and the keyboard to press in front of me, At any moment, as if it is recreated it in front of you.
After all, what is a device? The accumulation of existing information. It stays in the air in the form of waves and I can immediately imagine it in any form and work on it. To do this, you don’t even need to embed anything in the brain.
But it doesn’t matter because it’s all technique. And what’s the meaning?! What information will be transmitted at that time?! Will we even want to connect with each other?
Let’s say this current period will pass, this frenzy of sites of “contact”: Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and everything else. What’s next?! People will get tired of litter in the virtual space and they will ask to have all this garbage removed.
We will destroy it all, although it will still remain somewhere in nature and nothing will truly be lost in it. And what’s next? We will remain empty. We have huge opportunities to connect with each other and we do not want this.
Comment: Two trends are clearly visible now: the interconnection in global society and the awareness of this. But some are looking for it with the help of technology, others with the help of biological evolution.
My Response: So it’s the same technology, only biological. Some make new programs and others instead of programs want to embed access directly into a person. What’s the difference?! I’m talking about the essence of the information that we will exchange: do we need it or not?
Just as we are now abandoning the previous forms of existence, life, and connection and are looking at the previous years as something naive, and simple, which we can no longer be filled with, we will also not be able to be filled with these new technologies.
So what if there are huge opportunities in front of me to connect with all the people on earth?! I won’t want it, I’m just tired; that’s what humanity will feel.
[299731]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. The Future of Humanity” 7/17/11
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Question: According to Kabbalah, man is not in the worlds, but rather the worlds are within man. If so, then why have we been given such a corrupt perception? Why do we perceive ourselves inside the world, but not the world inside ourselves?
Answer: So that when we correct our senses we would bring ourselves to the new and correct perception of the world, so that we ourselves would recreate it in front of us and within us in the correct form. We would do it.
This means, I have to correctly tune myself to it, transform my properties from egoistic ones to the property of bestowal and love. I am the one who must do this. I must exert, and I must have a desire for it to happen. Then I will become independent and will be able to sense the entire depth of nature and what is happening there.
Just like Japanese people sense rocks, so do we have to sense matter in its entire depth because it is all part of our soul. There is nothing in the world outside of the soul. All inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, and all of us together are parts of the human soul.
Question: But if my “I” of today is only depicted for me and in reality the whole world is me, then what exit from oneself are we talking about? Ultimately, I come to the state where I love myself?
Answer: The exit of oneself into the outer world or taking the world inside of me is the same thing. It all depends on how you prefer to discuss it.
[298848]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Branch of Sakura” 5/15/11
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