Opinion (Mikhail Khazin, Russian economist and political commentator): “In the past few days, there were two events that, at first glance, have no relation to each other. Moreover, they could not even be logically connected. However, symbolically, they are very close.

“The first event – the death of Fidel Castro, who personified a whole era. …

“The second event—a statement by the President of Germany Joachim Gauck that Germany needs to suspend the further integration of the EU. The fact is the idea of European integration, which in the 1980-90s was perceived as the capitalist idea equivalent of revolution, has gradually arrived at collapse. At first, she had promised everyone happiness and prosperity, which was spread all over the world, and by 2010 had reached its peak. Today it is not even a question of whether the EU would be expanded, but whether it will be able to continue as a single structure.

“And the other is the end of an era. The death of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez earlier symbolizes the exhausted potential of Latin American revolutionaries. The idea of liberal expansion is over. Practically, this means that the world will still be built on the confrontation of ideas—but it will have other ideas. And now it is important to understand what these ideas will be and how they will interact.”

My Comment: I don’t think that the world will be built on opposition as we are nearing a point in which the developing force that motivates us, egoism, has exhausted itself.

It is like when the fuel in a nuclear power plant burns up, the plant ceases to operate, and the fuel must be refilled, and so must we. This went on for thousands of years. But as of today, the whole ego has been burnt out and our nuclear power plant is gradually shutting down, quieting down: one block, then another block, and then a third block. One step at a time, glissando, the whole world is going to sleep, a standstill.

Question: What does the future hold for us?

Answer: In the future humanity will gradually grow sober and begin to ask: “What are we living for?” After all, a person has to be filled with the meaning of life! He shouldn’t just study history, geography, and literature, watch movies, etc.; he should find out why he is living.

This is a frightening question, which will increasingly manifest in humanity, will make them enter into depression, and force them to find the answer.

When humanity inevitably begins to suffer, cry out, and howl like a wolf at the moon in search of the meaning of life, then it will also begin to see clearly and reveal that there is great meaning in this vacuum! The whole vacuum is the whole meaning! This is the formula, the matrix in which we are living.

Then we will grasp it just as Adam HaRishon (the First Man) did and as the twenty generations of Kabbalists that followed him until Abraham did, and as the Kabbalists who followed Abraham did.

Eventually the circle will be closed and we will once again participate in this great venture, when people will once again start the search for the meaning of life, which they started back in ancient Babylon. In fact, to this day, this question has not been fully disclosed by humanity. In ancient Babylon a small group of people revealed it and it disappeared. Now we have to adopt their system of searching and gradually discover it on our level. This is what we are getting ready for.

We have to show humanity that is crying out: “what is the meaning of life?!” not only what the real meaning is, but also the method through which they can discover it.
[198414]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 11/30/16

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Question: How do you see society in Europe in 2020? Will the current events impact the unity of the European community or will they lead to greater division? What will happen to the EU economy?

Answer: That depends on many factors. But if Europe is divided, it will be better off than if it stays the way it is today.

It is better to disperse gradually than to relate as they do today because currently these ties are purely egoistic. And if they are gradually corrected, it is possible to keep things the way they are. In fact the European states will be able to get closer to each other and to cooperate properly according to the degree of their correction.

I don’t think that now they will suddenly feel what I am saying. I have spoken about it many times in person with European leaders. They will not do it. They will not be able to! Politicians and bankers are managing Europe. For them a united Europe is the unity of banks and industrial plants in order to profit as much as possible and to crush whoever is below them to rise above someone. Therefore, there is no point talking about a united Europe. It is the unity of the industrial market and of the banks and nothing more than that. And the rest of the people experience only troubles. The disparity between the two will only keep growing.
[200294]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/3/16

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Comment: You have said that robots will soon replace people. The decline in the price of energy leads to the fact that every object will soon be worth the price of the energy it takes to produce it and will be totally worthless, and therefore robots will also become cheaper.

In addition to that, robots leave us much free time and we will have nothing to do but to study how to be human and improve the technology that will leave us even more free time. American youth today are getting more and more education because they cannot find jobs, and education provides them with a framework, progress, a perspective which they live for.

The trend you speak about, that humanity will begin to study how to be human, has already started.

My Response: We are not talking about studying simply in order to make more advanced robots and computers. We want to teach people so that they will understand what they are living for, why man evolves, and where evolution is leading us, why we have undergone such transformations, and what we have to attain in the future.

We have to realize that and look at the whole process from above, from an upper perspective, not from within ourselves, to establish a balanced society now and not by trial and error as we have done in the past through suffering, revolutions, and wars. We can use all that as a model and reach the right conclusion.

Comment: Humanity can reach this on its own. Kabbalists don’t necessarily need to guide it.

My Response: No, if humanity goes through the natural way, it will be a path of terrible suffering once again. What is the use of inventing more sophisticated machines that can replace people? What will happen to billions of people?

Comment: They can spend their time in continuous studying the structure of the world, geography, or history, what’s wrong with that? It is better than sitting at home or demonstrating and going wild on the streets.

My Response: It is pointless. Suppose we force millions of people to study, what will happen to them in the future? A person cannot engage in something that is pointless and that he doesn’t feel he needs. After all, he will not be able to use it anywhere. We have to see a beneficial outcome, at least some payoff. Such studies will bring no gain.

Question: What will they gain if they see or study the goal of life and about being human?

Answer: They will know that they are doing it in order to ascend to the next level of existence and will begin to feel that they exist in a different reality. They need to be taught this.

Question: And what if they have no desire for it?

Answer: We can gradually develop it because the bud of this desire is in everyone, but in some it is deep inside, whereas in others it is closer to the surface. We can quite easily awaken this spark called the “spark of the Creator” because the suffering that stems from not knowing one’s destiny and the fact that everything is going to end and we are facing death exists in everyone. We just suppress it. And here we don’t need to suppress anything, but quite the contrary, we should stimulate hope and progress and choose life instead of death. We offer life.

Every individual has an internal element that enables him to understand what the true, eternal, perfect life or inevitable death is.
[200148]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/14/16

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Comment: Humanity has not been able to pull itself together; defense spending is growing every year.

My Response: Certainly. These “toys” have become more and more expensive.

Question: Do you believe that the reason for this is rising prices or are there more arms purchases?

Answer: I think this might occur before the next level of war, which will be managed with the help of robots: unmanned aircraft, ships, and submarines. There is no need for soldiers in this. They require operators sitting behind computers and everything else will be managed through these toys.

Question: Where is this leading us, the removal of people from all the military games and incessant growth of armaments?

Answer: Humanity will work on this. I hope, particularly today when the United States is apparently going through changes, that we will go in the way of peace and not in the way of war. This is because during the tenure of President Obama, talk about a third world war as something normal, as something self-evident, began. As it were, don’t worry. Everything will happen in its time.

I believe that humanity has an opportunity to overcome all of this, and until then, the boys will play with these toys. Adults are sitting behind computers like children and beginning to manage the process. Everything is directed toward breaking others’ computers, damaging their systems. So these toys are very serious and vey expensive. This is an endless war that can be managed on millions of fronts because it includes everything, beginning from computers to the means for identifying and disrupting systems.

Question: How do we get to the last stage and stop engaging with this?

Answer: It will be when we see that all of this is completely useless, that we are just playing. Suppose a war begins today, not in the skies, but on computers. After all, we already understand that fighting from the skies is worthless. You just press “Enter” and that’s it. We no longer exist. So playing like this is better.

After a war like this, when a lot of money was spent, you ultimately see that you cannot fight because you are not pressing on the button to destroy a stranger but it is the equivalent of destroying yourself—everything will quietly end. 

I would be scoring on my own goal; there is no longer any enthusiasm for the game; there is nothing to climb to. We all need to go out to the next level of development. Especially when we consider that we will not need to work because we can provide every person in the world with everything, and for free. What this means is that we must be involved with something else, in particular, the relationships between us.

All together this will lead to an epiphany for mankind, and they will see that their yearning is directed toward the next level of existence because in fact, all pleasure, all fulfillment, is found there. So, I am an optimist.
[200021]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/15/16

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Question from Facebook: If the wisdom of Kabbalah is the only way out of the impasse, and all must study it, then why are people still not so eager for it? Is there a way out of the deadlock in the world with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: Exiting the world’s state of deadlock is possible only through the wisdom of Kabbalah, which explains how to transcend our egoism. Today egoism is slowly burning up; it has stopped working. People have become indifferent to everything. Give them some drugs and a little food and they won’t need anything else. They have nothing to strive for.

The current level of development has a precise end. Individuals already discovered it many years ago and today it is being discovered by the masses who don’t want anything. Even from the point of view of industrial development, there is no escape for us. Humanity has no need to work since machines manufacture everything. It is possible to feed, clothe, and provide everyone with shoes without the participation of people in the production process; they can get everything that they need to live.

It will become clear that the next level of development will not be by means of using the ego. So how do we proceed? What do we exist for? The world is beginning to lose its internal vital force because if there is no fuel in the form of egoism, everything will crumble: the family, society, and reciprocity. And here the wisdom of Kabbalah comes to help.
[199857]
From a webinar “The Year in Review” 12/26/16

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New Life 809 – The Impact Of Judaism On Humanity
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is the internality of Judaism, equality means that that there are no differences between people and that everyone is equal and important.

Humanity would not have developed without the spiritual development of Adam, Abraham, and our other forefathers, which they spread to the world.

The meaning of human dignity stems from the fact that we are all part of one system so everyone is special and very important.

3,500 years ago, the ego erupted in ancient Babylon and Abraham taught a group of people who wanted to ascend above it and connect. Western society enacted laws regarding human dignity without the intention of keeping them from the heart. Human life has lost its value today despite the growing numbers of fatalities in traffic accidents, acts of terrorism, etc. UN delegates want to devour each other, thus re-education is needed for everyone!

We have reached a crisis and there is nothing to hold on to any more except for nice words. We are nearing the birth of a new state.
[200080]
From KabTV’s “New Life 809 – The Impact Of Judaism On Humanity,” 1/3/17

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New Life 808 – Between Liberalism And Judaism
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Man is the crown of creation because his desire is the greatest. His desire is an egoistic desire, which means he enjoys at the expense of others.

The ego buries us in this world, but we have been given an opportunity to ascend above it to an infinite unlimited world.

5,777 years ago, a scientist named Adam, whom we call First Man (Adam HaRishon), discovered that it was possible to ascend above our nature and developed the method for correcting man and society. Kabbalists who followed him continued this method, but as the generations descended, the Jewish people distorted the method of correction and now it is only empty words. Judaism today is built only on externality without the internal correction that is found only in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We are facing a revolution that Adam HaRishon predicted 5,777 years ago, a revolution in which relationships of exploitation and egoism will change to relationships of connection and love. We have to lead all of humanity to love of others, to the feeling that we are all one, to the feeling of the upper force.
[200010]
From KabTV’s “New Life 808 – Between Liberalism And Judaism,” 1/3/17

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Question: Is it possible to scientifically predict the future?

Answer: It is impossible because Western society has lost its stable form and there is no new model of society or a state to replace the old model. There is a trend of social decline and of social isolation. The waves of immigration from poor to wealthy places are increasing. And the mechanism of assimilating immigrants is refused and the gates are closing.

The future is depicted to us as if all our basic necessities will be given for free. Robots will work and people will be idle. This future is opposite from the present and is not compatible with it. Therefore, the transition to the future, which is about to take place in ten years, is not understood and cannot be predicted in any way.
[200137]

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Evolution moves forward, developing still, vegetative, and animate nature and humanity, each at its own pace. But the problem is that people don’t know that their development advances in accordance with the program embedded in nature.

It seems to them that they develop themselves according to their wishes. In fact, we can make plans, but the world is spinning in its own direction.

Just as in Russia they made an experiment, turning the country from feudalism to socialism for few dozens of years, and then they had to go back, because the experiment failed. Other countries have also attempted to change the course of development; there is no country that developed in a straight course. After all, nobody knows the law of nature so the development happens by such a circuitous route.

Lately the world is beginning to understand it is in  a global problem. We don’t know how to develop further because egoism exhausted itself and ceased to encourage us to develop. There is no competition that existed before. The young generation doesn’t want to live the way their predecessors did.

All the previous generations throughout the entire thousands-year-long history of humanity developed due to the fact that they wanted more and more. Today, it isn’t so; the young generation isn’t attracted to the values that their parents honored. Moreover, we can’t provide jobs for all of them.

They don’t want to study; each one is immersed in his smartphone and not interested in anything else. However, we will still have to provide them with all the necessities: clothing and food. The connection between a place of work and earnings will disappear.

First of all, there are many people who don’t work and get a lot due to the already existing causes. On the other hand, there are people who don’t work, but receive an allowance for life, consider it enough, and don’t want anything more. The connection between work and earnings is lost, and the pleasure from both has also disappeared.

A person doesn’t get any pleasure from work, earnings, family, children, or anything else. In the end, it turns out that he has no reason to live and the only thing left is drugs. So recently drugs are becoming legalized; otherwise, people will organize revolutions and riots across the country.

Question: In what direction is the world moving today?

Answer: The world is looking. But it is useless to look for new things at the old level. The world is in a global crisis. Everything is at a standstill; everything is ending because our egoism is no longer pushing us to the achievements in the material sphere. What can be done?

Here we need to understand that we can reach the nest degree of development only through unity. This is what happens in nature. It is necessary to rise!

Question: What will be the new pleasure in the new world?

Answer: The new pleasure is the revelation of the upper world, eternity, and perfection of human existence in a new dimension. It may seem unreal and imaginary, but it will happen.

A person’s internal attainment of his nature will be completely new, allowing him to escape from his body and see the world not through the limited physical sensors but above them. Then he will feel the eternal and perfect world.

Our egoism, dissatisfied with life and unable to be filled with it, will push us to this degree. We are right before this breakthrough that can be very easily implemented if we unite. Through our unity we can reach the next level of existence.

People feel that reality becomes surreal and changes, but it isn’t clear how. They can’t feel it yet because it doesn’t exist in our senses. We need to develop new sensory organs.

Question: How does this beautiful dream about the new world connect with today’s reality?

Answer: It connects perfectly because in essence, we are looking for fulfillment, we want to feel that we are perfect, elevated, and don’t live in vain. We want to exit the limits of our material body that will certainly die one day.

Kabbalah has the method that can make us eternal and perfect, can open the entire universe in front of us, and can raise us above the boundary of life and death, above all limitations.

Thus, we don’t lose anything of what we have today, but in addition, we gain perfection and eternity. It is possible, we just need to receive additional internal sensory organs to be able to exit ourselves and feel the reality located outside of us.

Question: Such a dream attracts many people, but they demand proof that it works. Can you prove it?

Answer: How can I prove it to someone who doesn’t have the spiritual sensory organs? Suppose we try to persuade a person who is blind from birth to undergo an operation in order to acquire sight. But he doesn’t understand what it means to be able to see. It seems to him that he feels everything as it is.

Likewise, it is impossible to explain to a person that he doesn’t have the perception of the external world, that it is independent of his body, and it allows him to feel eternal and perfect. It is impossible to explain this before a person acquires such perception. Let’s hope that in 2017 we will be able to convey this to people, and most importantly, to the Jews, so that they will understand their responsibilities.
[199791]
From a “Talk About 2016 Results,” 12/25/16

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Question: The word “tribe” has a primitive, savage tone, but, at the same time, it speaks about a special connection between people that has been lost in the modern Western world.

No wonder the books of Sebastian Junger, American journalist, author, and filmmaker, who traveled to the most dangerous hot spots of the world, including war-torn Afghanistan and Sarajevo, have become so popular.

Upon his return, he related that the strongest feeling he brought from there was the sense of “tribe” and mutual support. Most of all he was impressed with the peace and confidence that he felt there despite the war and gunfire.

However, once he returned home to New York he began to suffer from fear and post traumatic stress disorder. He understood that while being in the dangerous zone he was experiencing the special feeling of unity that protected him, and when he returned home he became depressed due to the loss of this feeling and the sense of inner emptiness.

What have we humans lost by distancing from the “tribal clan”?

Answer: Humanity came from the womb of nature. We all are the descendants of a single couple that later reproduced again and again. All the couples that came from the first one never left each other. The connection between generations, meaning between parents, children, and grandchildren was preserved. Parents love their children and even their grandchildren more and it strongly binds us together.

We don’t notice it in modern times, but people felt a great closeness to their relatives: uncles, aunts, cousins, and so on. By nature we are created in such a way that we would have continued to live together if not for our egoism that alienated and divided us.

When growing egoism wedges between us, it breaks our natural connections and replaces them with the business relationships: “Go and earn from one another.” Then instead of being connected through the hearts, we seek to connect our pockets in order to earn more.

So we are interested not in the warmth of our relationships, but only in the size of gain or loss in our own primitive, direct, and egoistic benefit.

So it is not surprising that today children don’t feel affection toward their parents, but remember them only to the extent they can use them.

And parents, because of their big egoism and the influence of society also don’t pay much attention to their children; they send them to be educated at school and in various circles. When a child grows up, he is released into life and in the best case, parents talk to him on the phone.

It turns out that we have lost not just the sense of the native tribe, a big family, but also the sense of family in general, even the smallest one. A person comes home from work and there is no one there. He sat alone at work in his office and he is alone at home. He communicates with the world through the screens of the phone, TV, and computer and doesn’t need anybody around him.

We don’t understand how much surrounding ourselves by four cold walls as in an “iron cage” separates us from the native tribal connections, family, human contact, warmth, and engagement. 

It started when our egoism became more important to us than the natural ties between us. It began thousands of years ago in ancient Babylon and spread around the world. People began to lose the feeling of unity and connection.

In ancient Babylon, people lived who understood and felt each other. However, when egoism flared up, it began to divide people into family clans. So many different nations appeared. Egoism began to demonstrate its force of separation. First it separated people into families, and in our time it breaks the bonds even within the family, separating people from each other.

We are now at the second round of the Tower of Babel. In the ancient Babylon, people felt they were trapped inside one city, and today we are locked on Earth. The same phenomena has returned, but now at a global level.
[198980]
From KabTVs Program “A New Life” #794 11/29/16

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