In the News (Ynet): “An upcoming report from the World Obesity Federation (WOF) has shown that over half a million Israeli children are overweight. Compared to European countries, the group in which the Jewish state is categorized, Israel is in first place for overweight persons and in second place compared with Europe and third place globally when children are included. …

“The report maps the state of children’s health in different countries and states that 28.8 percent of Israeli children under the age of 18 are overweight. The forecast for the future is worrying: The report states that within eight years, that datum is likely to jump 50 percent, and the number of obese and overweight children in the country is expected to reach 740,000, an unprecedented number by any measure. …

“Israel is in first place in the European group for obesity, with 12.6 percent of its children being considered obesity by this index. Globally, Israeli children are only behind their US counterparts, 12.9 percent of whom are obese. The European average is 7.4 percent for children. If children with BMIs of 25–30 are included, that figure increases to 23 percent of European children. …

“‘The parents need to teach their children how to behave correctly and to choose the right food amidst the jungle of advertisements for harmful food,’ concluded Dubnov-Raz. ‘Like a parent teaches their child how to act safely on a bicycle in the urban jungle—that’s how it needs to be with food. Otherwise, we’ll wake up in a few years, and we won’t understand how we got ourselves in this situation.'”

My Comment: The food products in Israel are of relatively high quality and we usually don’t indulge in high-calorie foods, but we still consume large amounts of foods.

The main reason is that we are a high-tech nation in which very few people have manual jobs where they engage in hard physical work. In fact, we are a high-tech nation in agriculture, computers, and military technologies, so it is only natural that people, including young people, sit for many hours and move very little.

How should we handle this process? We need to produce low-calorie food, and of course launch a campaign promoting participation in sports.

I believe that sports should become an integral part of our social frameworks since otherwise we will end up with a huge “army” of people who are sick and weak and have to be taken care of. It is of course better to invest a little in sports, in promoting participation in physical activities, than to invest in healing sick people. A person has to live a healthy life and die healthy.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 11/2/16

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New Life #586 – Between Culture And Spirit
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

There are many conflicting opinions regarding culture. Many works of art were based on hatred. Of course, those who rule want to influence education and culture, and this is true all over the world.

An artist or a composer is blessed with talent, but this doesn’t mean that they are mentally more developed than others. There are endless examples of books and plays that were written by people who hated mankind and were not intellectuals.

A person who is with a developed mind is a person who loves others, and he can be a very simple person. Education and broad cultural knowledge do not mean that a person is necessarily good or bad to others. This is measured by a person’s heart, his attitude to others, not by how much he has learned.

Studying the wisdom of Kabbalah changes a person for the better and corrects his egoistic nature. An intellectual is a spiritual person who values the good relations between people above anything else. An intellectual is a person who is above matter, above the egoistic relations between people. An intellectual doesn’t criticize others since he understands people and that a man’s heart is evil from his youth. He knows that it is only human to take advantage of everything for one’s own good, to suppress others, and he aspires to help people ascend their nature.

Even if you are educated, a composer, or a philosopher, it doesn’t mean that you are an intellectual, that you are above the ego. A cultural person is a person that everyone feels comfortable being by his side. He is not proud and doesn’t think lightly of others. Culture means knowing human nature and thus relating to everyone with love and understanding.

The original Israeli culture is a culture based entirely on “love thy friend as thyself,” and it is on this basis that the nation of Israel was founded. An educational process that will turn a person into a cultured person who can change his evil nature as required in order to reach this level.

But engaging in composition and art makes people even more egoistic than others. It is not their fault. The great egoism that is built in them doesn’t enable them to sit quietly, and they have to express themselves. It is only natural for such a person to belittle others, not to regard them as equals, and not to want them near him.

An educational process that changes a person’s nature for the good makes good use of art and composition. Theater, for example, can illustrate our current situation, how low we have plunged, and what the correction we need is.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #586 – Between Culture And Spirit,” 3/31/14

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In the News (The Huffington Post): “A Marie Claire piece published last week presented readers with one of society’s biggest taboos: parents who regret having their kids. One woman in the article describes motherhood as a ‘life-altering mistake’ and a ‘middle-class prison.’ The mostly career-oriented interviewees resent that changing diapers has kept them from writing books and describe themselves as ‘not mother material.’ Facebook groups with names such as ‘I Regret Having Children’ and books such as The Mother Bliss Lie: Regretting Motherhood prove these women are not alone. …

“The decision about whether to spawn or not won’t truly feel like a choice until there’s no longer a taboo against women who don’t want to be moms.

“Fewer millennials are looking to motherhood for fulfillment. Last year, the number of births in the U.S. hit a record low and a 2012 survey from the University of Pennsylvania found that in a 20-year span, the number of students who planned to have children dropped from 78 to 42 per cent. Yet cultural attitudes haven’t caught up with reality. …

“Women should choose motherhood because they want kids, not because of societal pressure. The horrible reality that some parents regret having children proves our expectations need to change.”

My Comment: Society’s distorted view of life is reflected in its attitude regarding offspring, the future of the family, the nation, the world, and further influences every individual’s opinion about his own life and family. The solution to the problem is undoubtedly only by changing society’s attitude, which depends on educating society. It must be addressed in a comprehensive manner, involving mass media.
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In the News (Media Polesye): “Recently the generation took shape following the millennials – centennials, they are called Generation Z. For the first time in history, children are so different from their parents.

“These are people who were born after 1996 or after 2000 (according to various studies). …

“This is the first generation that was born in the Internet era. They do not remember what life was like without the gadgets and they spend more than 8 hours a day with smartphones and tablets, at every step of the centennial – they use apps as naturally as breathing. Generation Z does not divide the world into the digital and the real, their life flows smoothly to the screen and back. …

“Minus – centennials do not like to concentrate for a long time. …. They need to catch the maximum amount of information in a short time. …

“Centennials study in an embrace with technology and are used to cross the subjects of study. In their head, every paragraph of the textbook is permeated with hyperlinks of ‘Wikipedia.’ In addition, they are used to thinking globally, because they instantly receive information from around the world. …

“This generation, which prefers to see. Communicating on the Web, centennials use Emoji, emoticons, pictures. …

“They need to visualize everything; any information needs to be visible. …

“Everything must be done quickly. Speedy work is becoming more important than ever. …”

My Comment: This generation will establish the basis for the correction of man and society. It was born for that. And we need to adapt to them in order to teach them the method of correction according to the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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In the News (Pravda): “David Hagmann from Carnegie Mellon University and his colleagues believe that the phenomena associated with the adoption of collective decisions are subject to a certain mathematical algorithm. Scientists have borrowed from the animal world, bees and bacteria, as the principle for creating the model.

“Both are part of large groups, but they are able to participate in rather complex decision-making, using signals that pick up from a small amount of group members, scanning the environment. So, choosing places for bee hives is based on information received posted in searching ‘spies.’

“Similarly, are the need to act and algorithms for collective decision-making, according to the study authors. Imagine that we have a kind of notional group of people that have access to a limited amount of information.

“Based on this information, each of these people may decide to perform one of several actions that are predefined and his intention immediately becomes aware of others who, in turn, may follow suit or to do some other way.

“When one of these options reaches a greater degree of popularity, all the others make a collective decision, guided by the opinions of several ‘interest groups.’ Moreover, the prevalence of this decision will depend on the size of ‘interest groups’ – the larger it is, a greater number of people will accept this decision. …

“The fact is that the members of large groups unconsciously choose the least risky strategy of the developing solutions. So, if the place for a hive or colony of insects is built hastily by the selected ‘scouts,’ it can lead to death of the whole population. Therefore, at the moment of decision-making analysis and risk assessment are necessary.

“Hagmann says the same thing occurs in the human brain. In the brain there is a decision-making center, and the nerve cells are searching for the best options to carry out further actions. …

“‘Our brain works in such a way that the decision is made only when a certain number of neurons are active in the decision-making center…’ – says one of the study authors, Russell Goleman.”

My Comment: This is further proof that specifically a collective and its maximal collective decision is correct because in this case the decision and action are consistent with the single network that connects all parts of nature into one unified system.
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New Life #380 – Behind The Scenes
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

How do we create a play that is timeless? Which compositions do we need today that would correspond with the changes that humanity undergoes, and how can a good play contribute to our development?

The director gives an updated interpretation of old classical plays. There are actors who dress up just like the hero in the play and there are those who add their own. We live in very special times today, and the world needs new compositions. Compositions were always based on the power of the ego. The hero was the one who overcame others.

Today the world is integral. The new hero is the one who knows how to connect different people and establish mutual complementation, connection. Modern plays have to be based on today’s life, on how to heal the world. The moral of the play should be that there is one remedy for all the illnesses in the world: the right connection between us.
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From KabTV”s “New Life #380 – Behind The Scenes,” 5/22/14

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Question: As a mother, I feel that my great love for my children is mixed with anxiety, and it seems that the Creator mocks my ego through my children.

Answer: The Creator doesn’t abuse anyone. It is actually people who abuse themselves by not performing the actions of corrections that they can perform and, thus, invoke suffering in vain.
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New Life #379 – The Theater Experience
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

What is it about the theater that makes it such a moving experience? How does it work to make a person identify with the characters on stage, and how can a person be positively affected by a play?

When you go to the theater, you prepare yourself to be influenced by a special environment. This is how it operates on us. Sometimes a play may remind us of past experiences that have been sweetened. It shows us what happened and what should happen. The theater can teach us a moral. It has a great educational potential.

Identifying with the characters, a play with educational value is written to bring a person to a higher human level. The audience can be prepared for the show starting from the moment people enter the theater.

When a person comes to a play, he is filled to such a degree that he forgets about his own life for a couple of hours and is absorbed in the story. This is especially evident with young children. See how fascinated they are when they watch a play or a movie. After watching a play that has an educational value, you return to your own life as a different person, you grow wiser.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #379 – The Theater Experience,” 5/22/14

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New Life #378 – Harmony Between The Sexes Without A Fight
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

What has gone wrong with the way women function in a global world? What special force is there in a woman and how can she naturally manage in the world once she receives the right education?

The approach of fighting for women’s rights is wrong. It leads to conflicts. This isn’t a female approach but a masculine one. Who is in control at home? The woman is. Why? Because she serves, loves, and connects everyone. Nature has intended a greater role for the woman than the one she fills today; she has to lead the change. The female way to attain something is by agreement and acceptance, not by force. If women managed the world, there would be no wars. Today we all need to be re-educated.

A woman is the driving force in the transition to a new integral world. She has to come out of her hiding place and lead things. It is not a revolution by physical force but by integral education, by educating to connect and to accept. Will there be differences in the wages of men and women in an integral world as we see today? A modern woman needs to feel that she is responsible for the whole world, like a mother.

Tomorrow is the tomorrow of women, because a woman is a home and today our planet is everyone’s home.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #378 – Harmony Between The Sexes Without A Fights,” 5/20/14

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Question: If a father wants to give a child an example of advancement toward and longing for spirituality, what must he do? In what way can he express spirituality?

Answer: A person who aspires for spirituality goes through two stages:

1. He learns about the structure of the world and discovers that the world is a closed integral system, as all of science and research have also verified.
2. He understands that the role of a person is to match himself to the general integral world.

What this means is that a person who longs for spirituality shows how important it is to take himself out of the state that is opposite to nature and bring himself to a state of full connection with it, similarity to it.

This desire for connection with all parts of creation, to mutual harmonious cooperation with nature, to be similar to it, is called “raising a man.”
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/26/16

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