New Life 444 – Hanukkah: The Maccabean War Against The Greeks
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What does Hanukkah symbolize? What is the war that took place between the Maccabees and the Greeks and how is it related to the goal of the creation and to the role that the nation of Israel has to fulfill?

Hanukkah symbolizes a person’s first spiritual ascent.

The Greek’s domination is a shell, Klipa, an evil force that limits our consciousness so that we will not feel the Creator. The Greeks did not demand a change in our corporeal life; they wanted to control our spirit. The Greeks objected to our worship of our God according to which, through love of others, a person connects to the Creator.

The Maccabean war was an ideological war about the definition of who and what the upper force is. The main war was between the nation of Israel, between the Maccabees and the Hellenists. The nation of Israel exists only because it has a spiritual root. If we are not connected, there is no nation of Israel.

Yashar-El means that through the love and connection between us we reach a greater love, which is the upper force. We build a shelter by the love between us that will be able to absorb the upper force that is absolute love and bestowal.

Idolatry exists even today. We worship the “God of science,” for example.

Hanukkah symbolizes our return to our internal war, to connecting to others and to discovering the upper force between us.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 444 –  Hanukkah: The Maccabean War Against The Greeks,” 10/7/14

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In the News (TechCrunch.com): “Xavier Niel’s new project is an ambitious coding university in Silicon Valley called 42. But the trick is that it’s nothing like other universities out there. …

“This isn’t Niel’s first try at building a coding school. 42 has been doing well in France. … there are already 2,500 students learning to code right now in Paris. But what makes 42 different?

“42 is nothing like your average university. There’s no teacher and no classroom. Students are expected to learn a set of skills in 3 to 5 years. The school relies on peer reviews, coding projects, internships and gamification. If you stay motivated for 3 to 5 years, you’ll become a good software engineer.”

My Comment: This is a very good method because it reconstructs the human level in a person and makes him self-reliant, responsible, and ready to communicate. The shared assignments build the mutual connection between the students. The students do the assignments together; they do the homework together and are in a mutual connection, which is wonderful.

We are reaching the point where the computer will be the doorway to a world through which a person will be able to attain everything so the old form of education will gradually disappear.

Question: What about the lecturers, the doctors, and the professors?

Answer: Their role will come down to writing books, programs, assignments, exams, workshops, etc. There is no need for lectures as the academic institutions will switch to self-learning methods.

Question: What I find most striking in this process is that the students check each other’s assignments. What impact will this have?

Answer: Certainly this will oblige them to be integrated, it will tighten the connections between them and will bring them together—not detaching and disconnecting them as working on a computer usually is.

Eventually we have to discover the need for contact and a tight connection with each other. Later, we will discover that every essential area in life, in society, in the economy, in commerce, etc.—everything relies only on the right mutual connection between people.

The right connection, just like in technology, is based on the fact that plus and minus connect through a resistor between them, where positive energy is released. I am sure that eventually everyone will discover this. Our role as Kabbalists is to explain that this is the correct law of connection of all the positive and negative attributes people have, of all the views and inclinations in society, and that it is all necessary to create the right connection between us. This is the only way humanity will safely ascend to the next level of its evolution, to spirituality.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/9/16

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New Life #334 – The Wisdom Of Relationships
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

We live in a world that is highly connected but with a lot of inequality and we suffer from conflicts in relationships. How can we learn to establish connection and good communication between us?

In the past, people were categorized into classes, and relations were clear and simple. Today, all the boundaries have been breached, the differences between people are disintegrating. Interdependence has been created between everyone. In the end we will have to be like brothers. But until then, all relationships will be confusing.

The best means to develop correct relationships is discussions in connection workshops In connection workshops we discuss the correct relations between people, we try to be equals, to be close to each other. The attitude of equality and mutual acceptance is the basis of all good relations between us. In the connection workshop, a person acquires integral eyeglasses and through them he sees his life in a new light.

Today a social educational system should be established that will clarify the need for us to connect. On the one hand, the world has become one global village, everyone depending on each other, and on the other hand, great hatred is revealed.

In the state of interdependence, we must learn to consider others, to pass from narrow egoism to mutual acceptance.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #334 – Me and the society: The wisdom of Relationships,” 4/1/14

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New Life #333 – Revolution In Relationships
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

How does it happen that there is abundance in the world and with this revolutions in all areas of life, how is this connected to relationships between people, and can they be avoided?

The sign that we are facing the next revolution are the multivariate crises in all realms of life. The next revolution will be unique because technology will make it possible for us to engage with connection. A revolution in relationships is ahead for us: on Earth there is great abundance, we only lack good relationships.

Today people build themselves up through ruining others, even though all of us depend on each other. I have an urge to harm you, even though I know it will be bad for me. As it is among couples.

When we have digested well that this is our situation, it will be a pre-revolutionary situation. The next revolution, the revolution of relationships, must happen. This is simply because there is no choice. This will be an educational revolution in the whole society. The revolution will bring one thing with it: an improvement of relationships between people, love and mutuality.

When we begin to feel others as our children, we will want to make things better for them. When we become a completely new humanity, all of us as a single person, the perception of reality will be upgraded. We will achieve a revolution in relationships either as a result of much suffering or through the development of consciousness while there is still time. If everyone begins to talk about this with all the people around them, this will advance us greatly.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #333 – A Revolution In Relationships,” 3/30/14

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Question: In recent years a lot has been said and written about the new generation born from 1996-2000 called “Generation Z.”

This is the first generation that was born in the Internet era. They don’t divide the world into the digital and the real, their life flows smoothly to the screen and back. They have developed immunity to advertising, they just don’t notice it.

They learned “arm in arm” with technologies used to crisscross the study of subjects; they are used to thinking globally because they instantly receive information from all around the world. They value security because they grew up in the era of terrorist attacks and wars. They are going to work a lot and earn a lot. They don’t want to destroy the system but slowly and surely are going to make the world better.

What do you think about this generation that was born in the Internet era?

Answer: Our world is only filling the digital field for them. Whatever fits the smartphone screen exists for them and everything else doesn’t. Their way of thinking and their attitude toward life changes accordingly. The most important thing for them is what is displayed on the small screen.

Question: But this phenomenon hasn’t just appeared, there must be some kind of plan?

Answer: The plan is very simple: to give people the possibility of unlimited global communication as much as possible, without division into languages, continents, and countries. They are using this and living within it.

They think that through this technology, which is inextricably linked with their body, they will be able to fill themselves. Yet all this means nothing. They will still find that their hands remain empty and all that they truly need is human contact, human connection.

Question: Will it be easier for them to achieve the feeling that they are inside the system?

Answer: Yes, but they need to discover that this system is filled with absolute emptiness. If the previous generations had some ideals to achieve special knowledge, goals, realizations, and discoveries, for them it’s business in the form of computerized “toys.” I think that by 2025 Generation Z will end.

The next generation, with the help of these gadgets, will be in contact with each other in order to be interconnected, because through this they will be able to reach union with nature and reveal it.

Today smartphones in the hands of youth are a goal for them and for the next generation they will become the means for connection, not between mobile devices, but specifically between people who will discover a new level of existence. This generation will be beyond the boundaries of the alphabet; after all, “Z” is the last letter in it. Baal HaSulam wrote about this and he called them the “Last Generation.”

Question: How will the wisdom of Kabbalah be revealed to them?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah will be revealed to them as the emptiness in the world they are living in and as an opportunity for the true fulfillment. But this will be only when the technology in their hands will be used not as a goal but as means for attaining connection and fulfillment between people.

Question: But the degrees are reduced all the time, the life of the generations becomes shorter and shorter. How do you determine the life of the last generation?

Answer: The last generation, focused only on the union between people and revelation in their unity, the next level of existence, the next world, will exit the boundaries of time.

They will feel themselves outside of time, space, and limitations. Gradually, the levels of the inanimate, animate, and vegetative nature will come out of us, evaporate, and we will stay only within our sensations.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/28/16

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New Life #332 – Leadership And Government: What Will The Next Revolution Be?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Revolutions usually involve wars and bloodshed. How will the next revolution be different from its predecessors, how will it change society, and what will the role of education be in the process?

An ideal life is possible only when everybody is content, feels equal to one another, like in a family. But human nature is egoistic and it always wants to be better than the others. How can we use human nature for the better with clean competition, for the benefit of society as a whole? We need education dedicated to what is most honorable in our eyes would be the one who contributes most to society; education for connection.

Russia tried to educate the population, saying that whatever was in the best interests of the society would benefit the person as well, but the time was not ripe for it. They lacked the recognition that we have today, that capitalism does not make us happy. Material abundance and advanced technology are essential preconditions for a social revolution. Capitalism had to bring us to a state as in Europe today: a multi-faceted crisis.

The next social form can begin only in a society of abundance, where there is not equitable distribution. Today there is material abundance, but no happiness. Each person is an individualist, closed within himself.

Another prerequisite is the acknowledgement of the evil in the present situation. If we don’t connect, we will fall into an abyss. We must set a new education that will open warm relationships between people’s hearts. When we begin to feel interdependence on each other, we will understand there is no alternative but to build good relations between us.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #332 – Leadership And Government: What Will The Next Revolution Be?” 3/30/14

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Question: What is goodness according to the wisdom of Kabbalah? Can you give an example?

Answer: I cannot give an example of goodness because it is impossible to show it. Just because people do good, that is, meet others’ needs – it’s not good. Our “good actions” in the corporeal world do not have a positive effect. Many organizations and people perform “good actions” for others, but we don’t see any proper, positive consequences of their actions. After all, it is necessary to first know the plan of the creation, the internal structure of the world, and the system of forces that operate on it, and then act in accordance with them.

Imagine a computer is in front of you and you don’t know which software operates it, what could you do? It is the same in our world, in the system of the creation, which is just like a giant computer we enter without knowing that the thoughts, feelings, and especially the mutual relations between us affect all of nature in a very active accurate manner. When the relations between us are incompatible with the plan of nature, we make mistakes and press all the wrong buttons. We don’t see the keyboard and the actions that we perform on it, and so the outcome is a corrupt humanity, problems with the environment and in every aspect of life.

We don’t know what is really good for us. As the saying goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” We don’t understand what good intentions are. If they were correct, it would be the way to heaven, that is, the proper correspondence between us and nature. Everything would be good and nice: fresh clean air, warm sunshine, and birds singing.

But we see the world is totally different: there are radioactive clouds looming over our heads, the earth under our feet is polluted and burning, tsunamis and tornadoes are approaching. We have prepared a very precarious future precisely because we don’t know how to influence the world correctly.

Therefore, we need to abandon the usual stereotypes of “good and bad” and understand what “good” or “bad” means in terms of nature. And from nature’s point of view, these concepts are totally opposite to ours because we are created in an egoistic form.

If we ascend above our egoism, we will be able to clarify all these terms objectively; we will understand the nature of our relationship with nature and will be able to act correctly.

Question: To sum up, could you define what goodness is from a Kabbalistic perspective?

Answer: Goodness is everything that enables us to reach the level of the proper mutual cooperation and harmony with nature. When we are in a balanced system, we will begin to feel the system of nature itself as a new dimension of eternity, infinity, and perfection. A person must reach this state and discover what good and evil are by himself, as the Torah says, “and you will be like God, and know good and evil.”
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 10/26/16

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New Life #381 – The Good Life Channel: All Of Us Are Actors
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Every person plays many different characters in his or her life. How can you be an “educated actor” and how is it possible to be the right actor in the play of life and take the correct role in the world?

We don’t know who we truly are. From the moment we were born, we copy the behaviors of our environment.

Today we need to change fundamentally, but there is nobody to take an example from. We need to relate to everyone as a single family. We have no choice but to be actors and start performing in the play of life.

Each one is a wild man inside but plays the same corrected person in his relationship with others. It is up to us to open the “Theatrical University of New Life” to learn psychology and acting.

Act One: All the actors behave well toward others. Act Two: We learn to respond to the negative attitude that is aroused in us from others. Act Three: We achieve the perfected image of each one and of all of us together. This is mutual bestowal. All of life is a stage, and that is how we realize life. All of us are heroes and nobody disturbs another.

A good actor is an actor who achieves perfection, completion, and love toward everyone.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #381 – The Good Life Channel: All Of Us Are Actors,” 5/22/14

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New Life 402 –The Root Of The Problem Of Suicide In Our Time
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

What leads a person to think about suicide, in what state is he in before taking this step, and in what way is it possible to get him out of this emotional state?

The Root of Suicide

Some of the people who are going to commit suicide see all other people as unfortunate. We must find a solution because there is growing emptiness, depression, and despair, and finally suicide. There are those who don’t find any reason for a life like ours, maintaining our body and our descendants until we die.

Existential questions arise in a person depending on his level of development. They distinguish the animal from the human.
A person who is going to commit suicide feels like his life is to no avail and he has no reason to live. Before committing suicide, a person suffers, he lacks any possibility of some kind of benefit for himself or others. The suicidal person feels that everyone is drugging themselves in order to carry on in life, and he is already disgusted by this.

Someone who grasps the meaning of life can open the eyes of a person who has suicidal tendencies. The meaning of life is to strive toward a new life during our lives. Break through from darkness to the Light.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 402 – The Root Of The Problem Of Suicide In Our Time,” 6/12/14

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New Life 401 – Suicide
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

How does a Kabbalist relate to the phenomenon of suicide? How can it be prevented with the help of learning about the purpose of life, and what social inquiry does the phenomenon lead us to?

We can see the phenomenon of suicide even among animals. This indicates that this phenomenon is embedded in nature. There have always been suicides. People do not consider their corporeal life as the most important thing. Going out to war endangers a person’s life and there is also the death penalty.

On the one hand, we spend a lot of money on saving people’s lives and, on the other hand, on wars and killing. A person who commits suicide calculates matters and sees that his life isn’t worth the effort of preserving it.

It is possible to heal the inclination to commit suicide as well as depression and despair. If a creature from another planet studied our life today, he might not find a justification for living it. Suicide is a call for us to examine our life: why are people brought to depression and despair? Our life probably has another purpose, a more internal purpose, than just living the way we do.

It cannot be that nature has developed us for no real purpose. We have to find that purpose. Our sages said that a man would be better off if he weren’t created, but since he was created, he has to study the reason for which he was created. The purpose of life is to reach “love thy friend as thyself.”

When a person fulfills this rule, he breaks through to eternity. Suicide is a result of the lack of understanding of the purpose of life and of what a person can attain during one’s lifetime. The rate of suicide is growing because the ego is growing, requiring more strongly inside us to fulfill life, but it doesn’t happen… the younger generation looks at us as dinosaurs, “what are you living for…?” All the virtual connections and the advanced technology only intensify their feeling of emptiness and despair.

The wisdom of connection brings people to a special connection between them, a connection in which they discover an enlightened upper world.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 401 – Suicide,” 6/12/16

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