Question: The Israeli economy in 2016 is like a villa in the jungle. The world is in chaos, dramatic events follow one after another.

Yet in Israel we have a record number of tourist trips abroad, purchases of new cars, economic growth above 3%, the lowest unemployment rate in the last thirty years, and at the same time, increasing disparity of income and poverty.

That is, it’s a mixed picture, but in general, the year wasn’t bad, many countries would envy it. How can we explain that the world is shaking and the economic situation in Israel isn’t so bad?

Answer: The normal calculation doesn’t apply to Israel. So far we are given a possibility to exist safely. However, this postponement will soon be over if we don’t come to our senses and understand what should be done and how the whole world depends on us. But we depend on the connection between us, not of the world.

We have an interesting situation: the world feels dependent on Israel, which poisons its life, hates Israel for this, and pressures Israel. But Israel doesn’t feel dependent on the world, and it indeed doesn’t depend on anyone because it is above. Israel aims to attract the Light, the upper force, to the entire world to provide the world with the method of correction and to bring “Light to the nations.”

We feel that we don’t depend on the world, but the world depends on us, and we are proud of it. However, the world can react very badly and it is worthwhile considering this fact. Israel should unite and show to the whole world the method of connection that only we have. The world is getting closer to the critical point, and if we don’t unite before it is reached, there will be a big explosion. Then the world will fall on Israel with great hatred and accusations.

We shouldn’t wait for this moment; we should be prepared; we should reach out to the world and explain that we have something to give it. The main industry of Israel shouldn’t be high-tech but the method of connection. Everyone is talking about the need to find some method, but they can’t, and Israel has such a method.

Comment: Donald Trump said that he wants to unite America. Everyone understands the necessity of social harmony. So far, the only uniting thing is a hatred of Israel. Fourteen countries voted against Israel in the last vote in the United Nations, and only the United States abstained. Everybody around the world welcomed this decision, everybody has united against us.

Answer: The world begins to understand that Israel is the problem. But the Jews are not aware of our obligation to the world, we don’t understand what it means to be a Jew and that people hate us because we neglect our mission specified in the Torah.

Question: How does one overcome the split between the political right and left when each of them thinks they are correct and blames another?

Answer: We need to give the method of connection to everyone and explain that nobody is right; only through connection can we rise above all the differences. There we will receive an eternal reward.

Question: What is your forecast for 2017?

Answer: I hope very much that our organization Kabbalah la’Am and the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education Center will be able to connect with the people even more, and explain to them that our future depends on our connection where we reveal the upper world. And in the upper world we discover a higher dimension.
[199640]
From a “Talk About 2016 Results,” 12/25/16

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Comment: The first of December is World AIDS Day. The HIV virus, which causes AIDS, was first discovered in 1981 and since then great efforts have been made to find a cure or a vaccination for this disease which is still incurable.

Answer: There are many such “dirty tricks” prepared for humanity to deal with.

When do diseases manifest? As soon as there are egoistic conflicts between us, when we use the egoism that has just been revealed in its most hateful forms, based on the resentment we feel toward each other, we are immediately shown a similar response.

This response descends from the spiritual level to the level of our mutual relations, to the corporeal level, and is revealed in the form of AIDS and many other infectious problems that spread throughout mankind. Suddenly diseases we thought were eradicated a long time ago emerge.

Question: Do you see a correlation between the problems that emerge and the egoistic evolution of humanity?

Answer: Yes, absolutely. I can’t say how exactly it will be revealed, but it is clear that if there is new egoism and we don’t correct in time, it leads to such outcomes on our level.

Question: Can we fight diseases with medication?

Answer: We can to a certain degree. We have to make great efforts and invest great resources to somehow mitigate the blow in the corporeal world, which on the spiritual level can be done at once.

One drop of medicine on the spiritual level operates almost immediately, whereas on the corporeal level, it involves spending billions of dollars. In any case, it is a violation of the balance of nature.
[198220]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 11/30/16

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Question: These are just some of the cities that were victims of terrorism in the year 2016: Brussels, Istanbul, Orlando, Nice, Munich, Tel-Aviv, Berlin, and Zurich. There no longer remain places on the face of the Earth where you can feel completely safe.

The new faces of terrorism: trucks crashing into crowds, as happened in Nice and in Berlin, child-terrorists—12-year-old children blowing themselves up, not to mention the tragedy that is happening in Syria and Iraq. Where are we headed, a world of terrorism?

Answer: I would not call this terrorism but a third world war that is developing in this form. We imagine war as battles between armies, but today we try not to bring the situation to this point because this would signify the end of our planet.

So, war has taken on a new form: local military operations and terrorism. This is the way that humanity discharges excess tension and aggression. It used to be that nations would go to war against each other; today the world is becoming integral, everything has become so mixed together that it impossible to determine who is against whom with certainty.

Question: What awaits us in 2017?

Answer: I think that in 2017 humanity will unite more against terrorism: England, Germany, all of Europe as a whole, Russia, and the United States will find a common language between them for combatting terrorism. Terrorism will be the reason that will help them to unite.
[199390]
From a Talk About 2016 Results 12/25/16

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In the News (CNBC): “As the global workforce modernizes and low-skilled workers lose their jobs, momentum builds around the idea of a universal basic income, or a fixed, regular payment that all residents, no matter their employment status or wealth, would receive from the government.

“Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SolarCity, Tesla, and SpaceX, recently declared that a universal basic income was a reasonable next step for the U.S. ‘There is a pretty good chance we end up with a universal basic income, or something like that, due to automation,’ Musk told CNBC. … 

“Computers, intelligent machines, and robots seem like the workforce of the future. And as more and more jobs are replaced by technology, people will have less work to do and ultimately will be sustained by payments from the government, predicts Elon Musk, the iconic Silicon Valley futurist who is the founder and CEO of SolarCity, Tesla, and SpaceX. …

“‘This idea of giving people money for nothing is a real adjustment for people. It goes against our basic values.’ -Martin Ford, Author of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future…

“That said, there is currently one privately-funded, short-term pilot program being run by the Silicon Valley accelerator, Y Combinator, in California. The goal is to see how people react in the U.S., says Sam Altman, President, Y Combinator Group. The program gives ‘unconditional’ payments to selected residents of Oakland. The administrators write, ‘we hope basic income promotes freedom, and we want to see how people experience that freedom.’ If it is successful, the plan is to follow up the pilot with a larger, longer-term program.”

My Comment: The problem is that if a person is given a social income, which means that he is provided with the minimum necessary to live on, he will sit in front of the TV and will become increasingly more insensitive, and what is more he will might smoke grass too.

A businessman who lays off his employees has to provide them not only with the minimum necessary to live, but also must employ them and take full responsibility for them and for their social problems. Eventually it will cost him much more than to pay them their full wages.

(CNBC): “Even if provided with regular payments from the government, Ford predicts that America’s workforce won’t give up altogether. ‘The vast majority of people will do more. They will want to work if they can. They might work part time; maybe they can only find a part-time job. That combined with the basic income will be enough. Or maybe they will start a business.'”

Answer: These people will not take on anything if they are not seriously taken care of and if the right society is not established of them. Ninety percent of the world population will be laid off work as a result of robots, machines, and computers taking over and replacing people, so those 90% of the workers who are free have to engage in the correction of man and of society.

We have to occupy them during their work day in a serious manner in studying the nature of human society. We have to learn how we can all be connected to each other and how to mutually cooperate correctly in order to be in harmony with nature. This means that they have to study the wisdom of Kabbalah and no one can escape this.

Therefore, on the one hand, the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed and, on the other hand, robots are replacing people.

Question: Does it turn out that the allowance is like a stipend given to people so that they will study?

Answer: No, these funds will be given as a salary. At first, the salary can be progressive for those who study seriously and don’t miss any lessons, etc. And those who miss lessons will not get paid.

Thus, we can force people to participate in this process, since otherwise humanity will bring itself to its end.

Question: Is this a social revolution?

Answer: Yes, a quiet revolution which obliges all people to learn what a human being is and what human society should be relative to nature. A person will learn how to live in harmony with himself and with the world around him.

Otherwise, humanity very quickly will come to the point that the streets are full of roaming vagrants and gangs, killing and burning everything around them. If we reach this point no special forces will be able to help us.

Therefore, we have to start the learning process right now. I welcome robotics and the fact that people will be free from the need to work, as Marx also wrote about. But this is only for one purpose: so that we will begin to turn people into human beings.
[197949]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 11/9/16

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Question: 2016 wasn’t easy for the world economy, but the world has somehow survived. It all started with the big drama around China and fears that it would sink, losing its entire former heyday, and that it would drag the entire world with it into the abyss.

Then, the dramatic situation continued in Europe with the vote on “Brexit.” No one understood its consequences, fearing the collapse of the big banks and the entire banking system. Dramatic events followed one after another.

But on the other hand, despite all of the economic turmoil and a sense that the current method has exhausted itself, in terms of the economy, 2016 wasn’t bad. The world economy is out of crisis and unemployment has decreased.

We treated the little symptoms of the disease without touching its foundation and managed to survive another year. How can you explain that every year it seems that this is the end of the existing economic approach, but the world continues to live through it year after year and nothing changes?

Answer: This just proves that economists can’t change anything. They only think that through their games in the stock markets and banks, they determine the life of the world. The world will continue to survive because the problem is not in the economy but in the relationship between people.

So I do not think that we should worry about the economy. Well, even if there would be another collapse like in 2008 or a devaluation of 20 to 30% all over the world, so what? Banks will steal another few billion from the poor and cover their shortfall.

Question: Economists say that the model based on profit fails all over the world. Life expectancy increases, the number of workplaces is reduced sharply, and robots push us to retire. But there are no possible solutions to those problems. There already are discussions about the introduction of a universal guaranteed income. So, where is the world going?

Answer: Economists will have to take all of this into account, and it will be part of the new economy.

Question: Why are so many people optimistic after the election of Donald Trump as the US President and hopeful for a positive change?

Answer: It is because Trump is a man versed in business. He knows how to do business and refers to the world as a private business.

Economists shout that the world’s economy is on the verge of collapse, but no one wants to take care of the entire world. The economy has become integral all around the globe. Yet, they can’t work together to see the entire world as a home, as their family, as a single country, a single society, and to begin to take proper care of it.

Instead, they perform insignificant calculations: “I am here, and you are out there,” but that doesn’t work anymore. There is a contradiction. On the one hand, the economy must be uniform throughout the world, and on the other hand, economists are unable to think in such a global way.

In other words, economists are the problem. How do we convert them to people with a broad view of the world, not just of their pockets? Otherwise, tomorrow, they will lose even what they have in their pockets.

Question: In 2016, we witnessed the economic collapse of entire countries (Venezuela), the currency denomination and extraction of banknotes from circulation (India), and the economic problems in Greece. How will this affect people?

Answer: It will hit everyone, even billionaires who will suddenly find that they have nothing left of all of their billions. If America has such a huge public debt, how it can be covered? Let’s say that it is necessary to pay off the debt today, so how many billions would be left in the world?

Question: It is impossible to pay off the US debt, but no one is requiring it. Everyone is trusting in the US dollar and therefore are not asking for the repayment of debt.

Answer: However, if they balance the economy and reduce the debt to zero, then every dollar probably would be worth 50 cents or less. Hence, all of it is a fiction.

Question: If such a businessman like Trump has come to power, would it accelerate or, on the contrary, slow down the process of correction and the recognition of evil?

Answer: I think that Trump wants to put everything in order. After all, he understands that in today’s world, everyone is very dependent on each other: China, India, USA, Brazil, and Russia. It is such a vast economic network that no one can be free from it.

Question: But if I am John from Wisconsin and Trump organizes everything, I have no motivation to change my life. Yet, we were talking about the process of correction and the recognition of evil, about moving to new relationships and new economy.

Answer: John from Wisconsin doesn’t need to change, but Chaim from Jerusalem must. Chaim and Sarah from Jerusalem are obliged to change, and then John from Wisconsin also will change, along with Fritz from Berlin, and Jack from London.

The problem is how Trump will put pressure on Israel so that it will finally begin to engage in spiritual correction. The spiritual correction must take place in Israel, the financial correction in America, and then everything will be fine.
[199576]
From the Talk Summarizing 2016 12/25/16

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Comment: Fidel Castro has passed away. A million people attended a rally in honor of his passing in Havana.

In his time, Fidel Castro liked to hold long meetings; he was able to inspire people. They don’t want to part with this romance because they see what is happening in America and Europe.

My Comment: The fact is that Cubans are not inclined to the American way of life, to cold, calculating business. Therefore, shooting in the air, dancing, carnivals, cigars, and all the rest are much more suitable for them. Of course, Fidel was very close to the people, but when I spoke with his daughter in Miami (she manages a radio station in Spanish), she was seriously opposed to her father and didn’t agree with him on many issues. So she ran away from Cuba to America and dedicated her life to an ideological fight with him.

Question: In your opinion, would it be possible to add the concept of unity or similarity with nature to communism?

Answer: With such people as the Cubans, maybe it is possible to achieve something, but I still don’t think anything good would come from it because they haven’t advanced to complete, terrible egoism yet.

People must understand that there is no other way. They must first reach the end of their egoistic development; they must realize that the ego has exhausted itself and that we cannot continue to work with it because it begins to separate us. Some rise to the top (the elite), and others sink to the bottom to complete poverty, and there is nothing between them. It turns out that 90% of the population at the bottom will be impoverished and 10% of the population at the top, excessively wealthy.

So what to do next? Both the excessively wealthy and the impoverished are at a standstill. You can’t give less to the poor because it would start food riots. There is also nothing you can give to the ones at the top, so how will the rich accumulate their billions under their mattresses? And most importantly, at the bottom there is no purchasing power. So how will those at the top be able to earn more?

Society is divided into two parts. There is nothing more for the elite to exploit and the lower strata only have the minimum to sustain themselves. We had to reach such a state in order to understand that egoism is what has brought us to this. The conclusion is very simple: we have to engage 90% of the global population with the “production” of a human and building a new society!

At the same time, people should receive adequate medical, social, and other support. Their training will be interspersed with sports, drawing, and other activities. The main thing is that they all will be busy from morning to evening:women, men, children, adults, and the elderly.

Egoistic development has completely exhausted itself. Egoism, that is eager to absorb the entire globe, has exhausted itself. Now we have to put things in order in our home and live in peace.
[198153]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 11/30/16

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New Life 793 – The Remedy For Human Society
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Human desire has grown, and as a result, everyone has his own opinion and more factions are created in society. This trend is indicative of human development, but with it, there is a lack of connection between everyone like there is between the various parts of the body.

In the past, the people of Israel consisted of 12 tribes, according to this it is possible to understand that we also require connection and separation.

Today we are like nuts in a sack, and without external enemies we would become completely separated from each other. We need to learn to build a connection above everyone’s ego; without this, we cannot sustain a family, society, and the world.

Human development is expressed by our ability to connect even with people whose opinions are different from ours. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches how to connect above differences. In order to sustain a good life, we must learn to connect so that no one will exploit others, but will complement them. We lack a positive force for doing this because we naturally only have a negative force, the ego.

We must not destroy the side that is against us; we need to learn to live with it in connection, like plus and minus. The system that connects between two opposing sides is called the middle line.

This method of connection is not only relevant to politics, but to every system of relationship, including couples.
[197861]
From KabTV’s “New Life 793 – The Remedy For Human Society,” 11/24/16

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Question: What is the difference between today’s crisis and the Tower of Babel that was also explosion of egoism?

Answer: The shattering in ancient Babylon happened due to the crisis of egoism that divided the society into many parts and tribes. Abraham also appealed to equality, like Marx and Baal HaSulam.

But it wasn’t the manifestation of the final egoism; therefore, people had a solution. They just decided to disperse to the four corners of the world as the Torah describes.

Today’s crisis is on a completely different level, although its principle is the same. Everyone understands that there is no solution to the crisis: we have nowhere to disperse, and we can’t return to the old industry. It is impossible to change the obsolete system to a new egoistic one the way it happened when slavery was replaced by feudalism and then capitalism.

There is nothing left to change; we have exhausted all the possibilities. Our egoism. as a result of its work, devastated humanity, drove it to despair, fooled it, and divided into the “prosperous elite” and the “masses.” But the elite, in fact, have nothing. If the financial bubble bursts, everybody will be left with nothing.

The elite must understand that if it comes to the explosion, we will find ourselves in an absolute desert. All life will stop; no one will be able to make any economic connections or deals with others. Banks and investment companies that play this game are bringing the world to the final line.

Why hasn’t the financial bubble burst yet? Why are China and Russia buying US government bonds? Why does everyone agree with its debt? It’s due to the fact that if the dollar system collapses, all world trade and production will freeze. We’ll have nothing to eat tomorrow. There won’t be anything to buy in any store; everything will stop: no one will bring, receive, and deliver goods to others.

We are in a very difficult situation. Therefore, it is no accident that people build warehouses with food and bunkers where they can hide for several years in case of war. After all, in the worst case scenario, we may be left with nothing.

We won’t be able to go back to the “gold standard” (when currency is pegged to gold) due to the sprawling structure of the connections that rose after its cancellation.

Even the negative development stops, because egoism has nowhere to grow. Everything freezes. After all, egoism needs fuel in order to develop, but it has completely burned out. Egoism will be able to continue developing only if we will develop a positive force in parallel with its growth.
[198696]
From KabTV’s “A Talk About the Current Situation In The World” 12/2/16

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We can say that Karl Marx has reached a great height; he was as unique as Baal HaSulam, only not on the spiritual level. Marx was a man,who understood the process that is happening in the world and what kind of development awaits us.

He made drew conclusions according to the initial symptoms that manifested in his time on the basis of his research and statistics of textile factory workers.

He was an economist and versed in these matters. With the symptoms of the beginning of egoistic development at the dawn of the industrial revolution and the first mechanization with steam engines, when there wasn’t even electricity, he already knew where it would lead. He was a real economist compared with all other economists who only studied tricks that help to pump more dollars.

Marx felt the driving force of development because he understood that it comes from human egoism and that it could not lead to anything good. Therefore, it is preferable to move in the direction of equality. Baal HaSulam also said that the life of the last generation will be based on equality and universal integration.

Only Marx didn’t see it from the spiritual level like Baal HaSulam, but Marx drew his conclusions as an economist. He said that it is preferable not to continue economic development in the capitalist form, but it is better to start rebuilding society based on equality.

In fact, he didn’t believe that it would happen immediately. Judging by his work, he understood that first preparation and training are required to raise the consciousness of the proletariat to the next level. After all, in his time the workers were completely ignorant.

Today we finally begin to study what we were laughing at during the last hundred and fifty years. His contemporaries didn’t understand Marx. Thirty or forty years after him, the revisionists appeared who distorted Marx’s method in every possible way. Both Lenin and Stalin were also consequences of these mistakes.

Yet Marx’s Capital in itself is a prophecy of the economy. There is no doubt that during the current crisis it will get a new life. The only problem is with the stereotypes established against Marx and the identification of “Marxism” in its Soviet interpretation.
[198642]
From KabTV’s “A Talk About the Current Situation In The World” 12/2/16

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New Life 792 – From Consumerism To Spirituality
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Today we measure a person by his assets; status symbols are important to us and we live in constant competition.

Human nature is the desire to enjoy. A person aspires to fill his desire in every action that he performs, like buying something for himself, for example.

Today our ego demands filling and we don’t know how to fill it. The consumer culture today is characterized by buying things that we actually don’t need as a result of advertising that creates this need in us. A person’s self disappears; he doesn’t think about anything and only worries about having money in his pocket.

The only way to break out of the consumerism cycle is through new comprehensive social education. A person must have a greater goal in life, something whole and eternal.

The next product we will market to humanity will be the essence of life, through which a person will contact eternity. A person aspires to ascend above life and death; he refuses to feel limited
[197843]
From KabTV’s “New Life 792 – From Consumerism To Spirituality,” 11/24/16

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