Question: On January 31, 2016, the Secretary General of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Angel Gurria gave Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon a report regarding the economic situation in Israel.

Although the housing prices are rising and poverty increasing, Israelis feel happier. How can this paradox be explained?

Answer: Apparently for Israelis, happiness does not depend on money. In fact, the feeling of happiness doesn’t depend on whether you have an apartment or not. I believe that you can live and be happy in a Bedouin tent or a small room.

Comment: But the Israelis keep complaining.

Answer: I understand that they are complaining, but on the other hand, they buy more and more apartments every year even though housing prices are rising sharply. And the state is interested in that because it actually determines the price level by raising taxes. When a person buys an apartment, he pays the state, through the sellers, 40%-50% of the price and even more.

Moreover, I saw a TV program not too long ago where a fancy 5-room apartment that costs a million dollars, for example, could be bought on Arab territory for the price of $50,000, which is 20 times cheaper, although it is built of the same materials and is of the exact same standard. You can buy 20 flats of the same standard and even houses for the price of one flat that was bought in Israel, not too far from the center, at a distance of 50, 20, and even 10 kilometers from the center, as long as it is not under the jurisdiction of local laws.

Why is that so? Because such prices and inflated profit are common both among the builders and those who collect the taxes.

What can we do about that? Ask the state since it has determined the building policy. If the state had clearly determined the level of housing prices according to size or location, everything could certainly have been different. It is all in the hands of the state but they don’t take this matter seriously.

Question: Is feeling happy an Israeli quality?

Answer: Yes, basically we feel good. Despite the fact that no one loves us, everyone pressures us, etc., an Israeli who lives in the country, surrounded by others who are like him, with his army, and with its industry, feels good. His children can study in a university even if they have to work part-time since things aren’t always that simple, but they can still do it. There are still social elevators. Even people who were born and grew up in the periphery may, in a few years, attain high positions in the hi-tech industry and get very high salaries. I believe that Israel is still a land of opportunities.

It is a unique country with unique minds that will still “sell” their brains. Hi-tech is our future. We will live on it and everything else will disappear because there will be no need for it. We don’t even need agriculture because others can do that, but the brains cannot be transferred to others.

Our future is in hi-tech and good minds. This is enough in order to be the head of the world. It isn’t bad and not too little; we only have to use our mind correctly.

Question: What about the spiritual factor?

Answer: This is what I meant when I said that you have to know how to use your head. Besides, we have to provide the world with new technology as to the right development and how to build the right society in order to bring the world new technology and new techniques.

I believe that we will also discover that because what we have and no one else does is the wisdom of Kabbalah, which can show the whole world an example of unity, peace, and real happiness. Then the whole world will be happy just like Israelis are today.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/2/16

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Comment: A group of atheists filed a suit in federal court in Akron, Ohio USA demanding the expression “in God we trust” be removed from the dollar bill, claiming that they are forced to use these bills and feel that there is an implication that God intervenes in financial activities, which is contrary to their non-religious belief.

Answer: There is no greater blasphemy or distortion of the idea of the Creator than to print such an expression on currency, regardless of which religion it is. The Americans believe that it helps them and protects the dollar, which means that God protects the dollar since the dollar mentions God.

What can I say about it? It is better to replace money with a plastic card so that people will be able to pay without using dirty pieces of paper. In the future people will need the same amount of money in the bank and will use money only for their basic necessities. It can be 1,000 dollars a month, for example, and if a person doesn’t use all the money, he can use what is left the next month.

The next phase will be a phase without any bank accounts or money. A person will consume only what he needs from special warehouses or stores and everyone will rely on the fact that he takes only what he needs and not more.

Comment: A person has to undergo a special educational process in order to take only what he needs.

Answer: We will have to come to that.

Comment: That sounds like science fiction.

Answer: It will be done by the Upper Light, a special force that corrects us. Of course we will not be able to reach this level of correction by ourselves. It is impossible.

But we will be able to evoke a special, yet hidden, good force into the world, through our unity and connection and efforts, so that it will correct us and make us better, like it is.

We will not take anything more than we need and will begin to produce only what is actually necessary so that everyone will feel equally good and comfortable.

Question: Where will God’s name be written in the future?

Answer: God’s name will be written on the human heart, not on a bill. The heart is the collection of all all human desires; it must transform itself and become His name! All human actions, all desires, the whole system, which is conditional, is allegorically called the heart,  which has to change and to be for the sake of the Creator.

All of a person’s actions, all his desires, the whole system called a heart, has to embody the Creator’s image.

This means that the heart itself is a system and the sum of all its internal relations should similar to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 1/26/16

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Opinion (from cont.ws): “Money can be transferred from pocket to pocket, but this won’t produce what’s most important ‑ goods that ensure normal human existence. And goods are formed by actual production.

“The debt has reached such a scale that no profit of the world’s real sector can maintain the stability of the inflated debt market. But instead of bankrupting nonviable subjects and limiting the production of new debt, the blow is being made on the real sector.

“Today everyone is screaming about the fall of oil prices. But it is not about oil. Over the last year the combined index of all raw materials fell by 34%. The Baltic Dry Index, which assesses the price of moving the major raw materials by sea, has fallen three years in a row, dropping almost six-fold.

“Real manufacturing is shrinking, followed by a decrease in international trade. All the idle money gets accumulated in the banks, which creates the danger of hovering inflation.

“The fight for money now unfolds between the states: the US and Europe. The flow of money from Europe to the United States should have been reflected in the drop of the value of the euro in relation to the dollar, but Europe does not wish to become a sacrificial lamb to postpone the fall of the US, and prefers to hole up in its own debt market, not American.

“It would seem that the emission could solve the problem: printing more dollars or euros and thereby maintaining the seeming stability. However, any country that risks starting emission first in its own interests without considering the interests of its ‘partners’ risks to be the first to fall into the spin of hyperinflation.

“But the US are capable of influencing the problem of the refugees: the New Year events in Cologne are possibly a rehearsal, a prelude to chaos that may transpire in Europe.

“We are going to witness a hot spring in Europe against the politics of the official authorities. As well as the clashes with the refugees who may turn out to be much more organized than it appears today. One can guess what will happen with European finances.”

Comment: Nevertheless, the way out of the situation is possible, but on a completely different plane—by directing the social order toward similarity to the unified system of nature. After all, by being opposite to the unified system of nature with the egoistic “distorted” society, we create the reason for the general crisis.

The solution is not feasible in any other plane, only in the correction of societal ties: we need to start building them not on egoism, but on altruism that is opposite to it. With our egoistic connections, our development, we’ve put the system that governs our world out of balance so the system of governance forces our destruction. The immediate correction of man’s nature is the only realistic solution. If we do not take the view of Kabbalah, we will be forced to this conclusion by World War.
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Question: The European Court of Human Rights ruled that an employer may read the personal correspondence of employees if the correspondence is carried out during working hours.

The decision was made while investigating the case of the Romanian engineer Bogdan Barbulescu when it became clear that, during working hours, he was carrying out correspondence of a personal nature on the work computer.

Answer: What this is like is if I were to be working on a particular machine and while at work I made items from the employer’s material on the side and then sold them. It is the same thing here. I must use my work computer only to perform tasks the employer gives, not for my personal purposes.

However, there are cases in which this is necessary, for example in the context of problems in the family or if one of my relatives is seriously ill and things such as that, then it is another matter. Yet, if this is repeated regularly and has no relation to urgent matters, why should I be dealing with such things at work?

This is called theft. I am stealing the time and resources of my employer by sending personal correspondence. This should not be. The Romanian engineer was fired by the rules. An employer has the right to read and know everything that is in his custody. The computers are his property and so is the work time of the employees.

The eight hours that a person spends in the workplace belong to the employer, except for agreed upon breaks that he can go out to drink coffee or even write that personal correspondence. But it is only during this time and only if the employer allows it. Then it is not considered theft but is included in an agreement with the employer.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/14/16

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Comment: The largest prize in the recent lottery in the United States was one and a half billion dollars. As always, the name of the winner is not disclosed. He bought a ticket by chance in California, and suddenly he won.

There is always a lot of excitement around winning the lottery, and the most moving stories along with the strangest are revealed.

Answer: In general the winners of the lottery are people who don’t know any combinations of numbers; they don’t make systematic calculations, and don’t buy the ticket in a particular place and so forth. In fact winning is completely by chance.

Question: How does fate give this to a person?

Answer: Winning the lottery is a big disaster. From the moment a person wins onward, his entire mind is occupied with thoughts of what to do with this money. This means he is not free.

From the point of view of the wisdom of Kabbalah, an enormous responsibility is imposed upon a person regarding what he must do with the power that he receives from the Creator, how to use this power correctly.

If a person has little power, somehow he gets along in life, sometimes he does good deeds and sometimes causes some damage. This is normal when talking about a small amount of power.

But when a person receives a great deal of power from above, there is a problem. The Creator gives these powers to a person and then checks what kind of attitude this person has about what he gets: how he will use these means, and what kind of a world he will make with 500 million or with a billion dollars.

We see how all kinds of wealthy people give donations, and everything disappears like water in the sand. They donate money to Africa or other places, and this bears no fruit. So all the people who want to make a contribution and want to help somehow are miserable.

Question: What would you do if you won a billion dollars?

Answer: No way, it can’t be. A person needs to accept a sum that he can use correctly so that it will be beneficial. This is a very great responsibility.

To win a billion dollars I would require hundreds of thousands of people who possess the right knowledge, who could create an educational and informational system with this money, a system that could bring about a change in humanity.

A billion dollars is a great sum, but if we are talking about the re-education of humanity, this will cost more than one billion.

Unfortunately, we still are not ready for this. So if you have a desire to give me a gift like this, I would ask you to wait.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/14/16

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Question: During the first trading week of 2016, the combined wealth of 400 of the richest people in the world was reduced by $200 billion. According to the Bloomberg Index, the main reason for this financial loss is the economic slowdown of China and falling oil prices.

Answer: We don’t want to understand that this world has a beginning and an end, as does everything else in the world.
“This world” refers to the egoistic system of mutual cooperation between us that we built. It can exist no longer because, like a hydra, it is beginning to eat itself.

The problem is that in the paradigm upon which this world was created, everything is measured by money. But money is the equivalent of egoism according to which we can no longer measure the world today.

Question: So, what would be the equivalent paradigm?

Answer: It will be a paradigm that is not material since from a material aspect everyone will be provided for. One can see how the immigrants are inundating Europe, and the Europeans are providing all of their necessities. For example, one can stop working and certain organizations and the state will take care of him.

Question: Does this mean that the fear of being without money will disappear?

Answer: Without a doubt! Today, a person doesn’t work to meet his basic needs. Although he is still working to make more money, the cycle of money-commodities-money where human efforts are equivalent to a salary is disappearing. It is necessary to provide a person with what he needs to live, regardless of whether he works or not.

Therefore, in the future, the value equivalent to money will be only the good mutual relationships between people as humanity gradually discovers that it is the power of good being disseminated by those studying the wisdom of Kabbalah that creates the amazing property of abundance in nature. The “earnings” of a person will be determined by how much good feelings and intentions toward others come from him.

The value will be determined not according to income, but by how much he can give, disseminate, do something to rally people together. After all, the unity of people will make them assimilate with the higher nature, and everyone can receive abundance from that higher force, like good health, flourishing nature, balanced weather, and so forth. This will be equivalent to the salary of a person.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/10/16

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In the News (YourNewsWire): “Russian Naval Forces have reported that the entire Atlantic Ocean appears to be totally deserted of major freighter ships for the first time in recorded history.

“The Kremlin say that Panamax and New Panamax vessels, plus all types of wet carrier (oil/liquified natural gas) vessels including VLCC and ULCC supertanks are nowhere to be seen.

“Russia claim that the evacuation of the Atlantic ocean is a ‘clear’ sign of a coming Western economic/banking collapse, with the world’s stock markets crashing during the first part of the year being another clear signal.”

From (Superstation95.com): “Commerce between Europe and North America has literally come to a halt.  For the first time in known history, not one cargo ship is in-transit in the North Atlantic between Europe and North America.  All of them (hundreds) are either anchored offshore or in-port.  NOTHING is moving.

“This has never happened before.  It is a horrific economic sign; proof that commerce is literally stopped.

“The reason commerce has stopped is simple: People are not buying things.   When people do not buy things, retailers do not sell things, so they do not order more goods for stock.

“When retailers do not order goods, manufacturers don’t make anything because there are no orders to fill.  When manufacturers do not make goods, they don’t order raw materials for manufacturing.

“When there are no orders for raw materials, commodities sellers do not sell raw materials. When no raw materials are sold, there is no shipping by large cargo ships, (or railroads or tractor trailers) to move anything.

“Put simply, the global economy is LITERALLY stopping.  Right now.  Today.”

My Comment: This is so after talking about in this blog many years ago. And what will happen next? Look at what I already wrote about it in the past. And this is not a matter of gloating; rather it is so that we can be saved from the impending chaos!
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Comment: Every year in Israel two million tons of food, costing billions of shekels, is thrown away. Consequently more than 35% of the food products are discarded. In 2015 the losses due to food waste was about 18 billion shekels.

Answer: How can we balance that? Should we post a policeman next to every Israeli who will check their garbage cans or to persuade them not to buy or throw away what is left over? Should we set it aside for the hungry and the poor?

Should we found an organization that will collect the surpluses of food products and give it to the needy? It will not work.

There is no method that can prevent this except for the re-education of people. Each of us should be hurt by the thought that I have and others don’t, that I eat and another is hungry, that I throw away what other people have worked so hard for and that could be useful.

We have to bring people to make the most optimal use everything in the world. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us, that you should only use what you need in order to exist. It is necessary to properly relate to the world that was created just so for you to exist in physically, while your heart and mind would be in the upper world, yearn for it, and you will get there!

An animal in our world never eats more than it needs and doesn’t store anything if its instincts don’t require that. On the other hand, man constantly stuffs himself with more and more, and is thus killing himself. He kills all that is spiritual in him. His brain ceases to work on something else. It is said: “a righteous eats to revive his soul.”

The right education gives a person a feeling that he doesn’t need all that; it is too much; I can give what I don’t need to others; everything should equal.

Comment: Does this means that what a person needs is food, good health, and a roof over his head?

Answer: Yes, but at the same time I also have to make sure that others should have the same.
[174188]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/7/16

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Question: The Russian Federation published a new military doctrine for the year 2016 and for the subsequent six years. The new national security strategy determined Russia’s political rivals, which include the United States and its allies.

Likewise, the expansion of NATO, approaching the borders of Russia, and instigating “colorful” revolutions is seen as a national security threat. If we look at this from above, how is the world evolving?

Answer: The world is evolving toward a situation in which everyone will begin to lose and will come to a simple conclustion: We have to unite, eliminating all borders. After all, war is pointless. Today it’s impossible to fight using ordinary weapons.

We still don’t have the vision of the future as far as how the so-called takeover will take place. Ideologically? What kind of ideology can there be if by all accounts, it doesn’t exist. Economically? Go ahead, conquer me….

Today, we are approaching a completely different world. Even though Russia, the United States, and Europe have planned their strategies for the upcoming years, the world will draw completely different conclusions from them.

We should seriously consider how we can create a society that is capitalist in its form and socialist in its content. How can we get a person to work wholeheartedly? It is only through capitalism. How can we get a person to relate well to people? It is only through socialism.

How do we integrate these approaches?

The wisdom of Kabbalah recommends combining these two forms of relationship: a desire to work honestly—basically without receiving a reward—and a desire to treat people as yourself.

After all, the egoism works correctly, compelling you to do your best so that you build a healthy society based upon the principles of bestowal: “received—gave away” or “gave away—received.” This is exactly what is neccessary in production, in commerce, and in fact, in everything.

The relationships between people have to be socialistic, equal concern for all: for children, for the environment, for everything else, but this has to be done from the bottom of one’s heart. And how is it possible to wholeheartedly compete with each other at work and to relate to each other like loved ones in all other circumstances? It is only with a capitalist approach to work relationships and a socialist approach to everything else.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/5/16

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Comment: Five years ago you said that there will come a time when the price of oil would drop to $30 a barrel. This is happening now: the price of oil has dropped to below $30 a barrel. Iran is now joining the oil market, Saudi Arabia is killing Russia with cheap oil and America is also part of this game. On the whole it seems that the price of oil will continue to drop.

Answer: This isn’t where we are headed. Energy isn’t a problem and we can produce energy from everything. Of course oil will be very cheap and in this respect a bleak future awaits Russia since they will not be able to rely on oil. It is actually Russia that is soft with Iran and I cannot imagine why.

Besides, the shale revolution is coming, technology is advancing and most importantly there is no heavy industry and steel production. Soon ships will be printed out of such materials that do not need smelting and forging.

When I see that the price of oil is dropping, I see progress coupled with the gradual transition of humanity to a totally different level of existence, to a level on which everything will be more virtual. The earth and its resources will not affect our standard of living. Life will be different, more airy, more virtual. It will not be connected to hard work with heavy objects. Houses will be built easily, as if made of children’s building blocks.

This is necessary so that people can understand that what is important is not satisfying our unrestrained needs because if we want to, we will be able to easily provide everything we need.

Therefore, humanity has to grow and to ascend above the current era of consumption which is all about get-get-get, and reach the recognition that it doesn’t need all that.

In fact this is already happening. We see people’s rejection of expensive purchases. Man can overcome his petty egoism. Today a person mainly needs a smart mobile phone in order to communicate with others, but this will also pass.

People don’t want to chase after delicacies, travel around the world, or attain anything. Everything passes, fades, and vanishes. And in the end a person will become empty.

We are brought to the state where a person begins to think about what he lives for and what the meaning of his life is.

Everything moves only in the direction of virtual reality in which everything disappears, and a person is left facing infinity like a baby on the verge of an abyss.

Different desires, attributes, questions, and feelings begin to awaken in him, which will reveal to him the meaning of what the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us. It is starting to draw and to attract him; he will enter it and see a system of forces that he is part of, which he manages and is managed by.

And all this is happening in an ever increasing harmony that is gradually revealed; it begins to play inside a person like a moving, powerful melody, continuously filling him without leaving any voids, even invisible ones. This draws him to the upcoming dimensions. I envy those who have not discovered it yet!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/15/15

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