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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Question: The French foreign minister Laurent Fabius announced that Paris will recognize a Palestinian state if the peace process in the Middle East doesn’t move from its frozen point soon. The government of Israel has rejected this peace initiative that has been put forth almost like an ultimatum.

Why does Paris have such a strong desire to support a Palestinian state at a time when it is itself experiencing Islamic terrorism?

Answer: This is not important. Even if all the nations of the world experience fear, humiliation, and pain from Islam, they will be anti-Jewish and not anti-Islamists because they feel that all the evil that happens in the world is specifically because of the Jews.

When we cannot connect between us and bring good to the world through that connection, we are supplying the world with the force of evil. We allow this force to develop and are not counterbalancing it with the force of goodness.

We are the conduit through which the higher force of goodness can descend into the world, providing the the proper balanced existence. As long as we have not begun to unite between us to become the conductor of this force in the world, humanity will feel more and more that we are the reason for all the troubles in the world.

It will not help us to think wisely and logically, saying to ourselves that Europe is now going to see what kind of situation the new extremist Islamic preachers are bringing to the world, etc. Europe will not see it, on the contrary, it will get along with them and try to rein them in a bit.

The incursion into Europe by millions of Muslims will continue, along with the entry of many militant extremist elements. But Europe will be more and more considerate to them and will hate us, not because we are good or bad to the Muslims, or because we are for or against their state, but because we are not bringing the power of goodness into the world. It is necessary to distinguish between these things.

Question: Does anyone understand this?

Answer: Nobody understands. The nations of the world act instinctively; they feel that the evil is due to us.

When we say: “Have we done something bad? Have we been carrying out acts of terrorism?”, they answer that the evil is due to us. They don’t know why.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that this is because we are not conveying goodness into the world through us! We need to be unified with “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), and through a connection like this between us, through us we will convey the good force that is found in nature and must be revealed in the world.

Question: Why has this task been specifically imposed upon us? In what way are we to blame?

Answer: We are not to blame for anything. We were chosen for this task and so we must do it.

“We” is the group of people who will convey the good and uniting force into the world the moment that they unite. It is only in this way that we will be able to ensure a good future for ourselves, and not in any other way.

I am happy that I am living in a generation like this in which events like these are happening. I hope that the people of Israel will understand what is written in the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is the foundation of the people of Israel. This wisdom was discovered 6,000 years ago and we need to understand it because otherwise we could lapse into a new Holocaust.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/1/16

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New Life #645 – Ideological War
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Where does Islamic ideology draw its strength; what kind of future does it offer the world, and what future can we offer the world in contrast to it, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah?

It is a deep and wide issue that began in the days of Abraham and his son Ishmael almost 4,000 years ago.

The Arabs see themselves related to ancient peoples who lived here, but historically, the fact is that there is no connection between them. They attach themselves holy people and holy places and tell the world that it is all Islam. They want to spread Islam all over the world and simply aim at bringing all of the people to believe in one God. They promise anyone who accepts Islam in this world Heaven, and this is the reason that they are not afraid to die. They plan to take over the entire world—including China, India, and Russia—and they have the patience to do so.

According to Kabbalistic sources, Islam will rise and almost conquer Christianity, but in the end, they will unite together against Israel. However, we have a stronger ideology, the wisdom of Kabbalah; if we connect to it, we will be saved from any affliction. There is no point arguing with anyone but only to connect to one another in love. Then, we will change everything through the upper force. Kabbalah will give us the inner power, and we will manage all like puppets on a string through the connection between us. Eventually, the ideology of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which we must promote, will rule the world.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #645 – Ideological War,” 11/8/15

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New Life #652 – The Solution to Terrorism in Europe
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazuz

Summary

What is the to overcome terrorism; how is it possible to achieve a true European Union, and how can each one of us contribute to the process of healing Europe?

Europe has filled itself with Muslim immigrants. It is too late now to stop the decline. Europe is old and tired, and not prepared to stand against the young and stirring Islamic spirit.

Only connection with each other can help them. Then, the power of connection will stop the forces of evil. No power except the power of connection can neutralize the religious wars that will be building in the world.

The European Union was not made from “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), but from the consideration of monetary interests. We need to begin to learn to connect within each and every nation first of all, and after that, it will expand.

It is worthwhile to do connection exercises: smile, be considerate, feel small and learn from others, and feel big and provide an example. The daily study of connection must be implemented by each and every person in educational institutions, at work, on television, and on the Internet.

Why will the improvement of relationships between people stop terrorism? It is because connection is stronger than separation.

The highest power in nature from which life is derived is the power of connection and life. This is what created everything.
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From the KabTV’s “New Life #652 — The Solution To Terrorism In Europe,” 11/17/15

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Question: The people of Israel are basically very egoistic; each one considers himself the center of the universe. Can we expect radical positive changes in a nation where everyone is focused on themselves?

Answer: This is why it is said that the Jews are a stiff-necked people. There is nothing we can do about that. We were created this way intentionally in order to lead the entire world and to give to the world.

We have given the world so much, and now we must give humanity the method of connection and integral unity, and we must be the ones to do so, although we are so individualistic and so far from it.

Question: Who is “we?” In fact, there are 300,000 Jews living in Israel who are considered of “secondary importance” to the state, such as “half-Jews” and mixed families.

Answer: We do not refer to a people on a genetic basis, but to the people founded on the basis of a 3,500-year-old idea first introduced by Abraham in ancient Babylon.

Question: Who is considered the nation of Israel today?

Answer: There is no nation today. What we call our nation are only people who have reminiscences (Reshimot) from previous generations and who have carried the idea of unity throughout human history. This genetic intellect awakens in them today and demands the attainment of the meaning of life.

There are people in whom the question about the meaning of life is still dormant, but it can appear in people who never have been related to the Jewish people. This means that according to the wisdom of Kabbalah a Jew today is someone who feels an inner desire to discover the meaning of life.

If we unite according to the method of connection and integral unity, not only in Israel but all over the world, there will be no problems.

Question: This implies that basically the entire world can become Jewish.

Answer: It must be so since we are not speaking about nationality. A Frenchman, for example, can be a Jew in ideology.

Question: I am for the idea of seeing all of the people in the world as part of the nation of Israel, but it seems that in Israel there are those who do everything to deny people the right to be called Jews.

Answer: We must establish a different absorption system according to which we can accept all those who want to come here. We will examine their readiness for unity, for connection of equals with everyone, and if a person agrees to that, it is a sign that he is a Jew.

Question: But we cannot base our policy on that.

Answer: I don’t see any special policy here. I see a mass of people who are called a nation that is totally divided. It reminds me of nuts in a bag who don’t want to connect, and it is only the bag that connects them and keeps them together.

Therefore, it is not a nation, not a state, but as the Arabs say, “a temporary Zionistic entity.”

If we were like all of the other nations, internally connected by our natural genes, we would be a state, but we are not connected at the moment, neither by genes nor by ideology. So, there is no nation.

We cannot get along and live with each other, and we only get along when we are pressured from the outside and become like a bag of nuts. However, it is impossible to live under external pressures for a long time since these are merely sufferings and nothing more. What we need is to reach a balance of forces.
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From the Webinar on zahav.ru 1/13/16

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Question: I am a Christian. For 2,000 years we murdered Jews in the name of Jesus, and that is our fault.

I am a coordinator of a work group that conducts Jewish-Christian dialogue in Russia. We come together with the “Russian – Jewish Conference” to places where there have been mass murders of Jews and erect monuments there on which, “Forgive Us” is written.

Today is the time to confess and express regret to the Jewish people for what we did. Now Europe is harvesting exactly what it did 2,000 years ago when the Jews were expelled and sent to the gas chambers. So there has apparently been a price of repentance and regret to the people of Israel, the “chosen people.”

Answer: Regarding the Jewish people being the “chosen people,” I would say that this must be justified. If being chosen means earning something, that is what the Jews must do. As to repentance and expressing regret, all of us must rise above our common enemy, the ego, which is really burning inside of us. If we begin to do this, then we will feel that we are on a completely different level of development and there will be no need for any justification.

What you are doing is natural human behavior, but the wisdom of Kabbalah welcomes only deeds that are really directed towards a link between humans.
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Question: The European parliament along with the European Jewish congress in Brussels held a ceremony to commemorate the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The president of the European parliament Martin Shultz spoke in the ceremony and noted that the Jewish community greatly contributes to the culture and the economy of Europe.

At the same time, he also expressed his regret and empathy that the Jews don’t feel safe in Europe because of terrorist acts, violence, and assaults.

What has changed in Europe since the occurrence of such events 70 years ago?

Answer: Everything has changed for the worse. In the past there was no actual threat to the Jews outside Germany and its allies, but today we can say that there is definitely no safe place for the Jews anywhere in the world and that they are persecuted with great enthusiasm.

Both Europe and the US adopt policies that endanger the very existence of the state of Israel and intentionally act to harm its sovereignty in order to promote their interests in the region.

Although president Obama declared on the Holocaust Remembrance Day that we are Jews in spirit, it doesn’t go along with his open anti-Semitic policy and his attitude toward Israel.

Such an attitude toward Jews today is no longer considered bad manners. Humanity has undergone a phase of internal development and now it simply erupts against the Jews even through statesmen and politicians.

Western Europe is infected by the anti-Semitism virus. I understand their situation since the whole world is nearing the solution of its main problem, ascending to the next level of development. Therefore, the current level the world is in a rebirth crisis.

The world has to overcome the labor pains and be born on the next level of unity in every aspect of life: social, political, and economic, and basically accept a totally new format according to the forces of nature that develop us. The problem is that the world cannot advance to a state of unity at the moment since humanity refuses to change.

The Jews are the first to be blamed for that and it is true. Anti-Semitism stems from the nations of the world’s subconscious feeling of total dependency on the Jews who are not doing their job, and the Jews themselves are aware of the fact that they are the root of all the problems in the world.

Question: Recently it was published that extremist left-wing organizations in Israel received donations of about 260 million shekels. Moreover, most of the donations from foreign European governments. Moreover, the same European parliament that held Holocaust Remembrance Day services donated a large sum to their activities. How can you explain that? What do they want from Israel and the Jews?

Answer: This is an internal resistance to the state of Israel, which stands in their way. When the Jews were dispersed throughout Europe and represent a whipping boy, then it is quite normal. But when they have their own government, army, flag anthem, and makeup like every other country, the European countries cannot get along with it. It is clearly seen that they benefit from the existence of the state of Israel, which enriches Europe and the whole world with its advanced technology and innovations.

But this fact doesn’t change the Europeans’ attitude toward the Jews. They cannot allow the nation they hate so much to exist normally, as much as you can call its situation normal.

The Jewish problem is unsolvable as long as the Jews don’t understand their mission: to show all the nations of the world how to continue their development, and while they do not, the world will suffer and the Jews will suffer even more.

Question: Are there any signs that the Jews are starting to understand their mission?

Answer: This perception is given to them with great difficulty. I would say that the nations of the world even precede the Jews in understanding that. As strange as it may sound, the nations of the world are ready to understand, accept, and recognize their dependency on the Jews. The prophet Isaiah said that the nations of the world will bring the Jews to the right state and will carry them to Jerusalem.

Therefore, I am very hopeful that the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah among the peoples of the world will help them influence the Jews so that the latter will understand and recognize their mission and fulfill it. Then the world will be able to ascend to the next good level of development and everyone will live happily and in equality.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/28/16

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New Life 666 – 2015: Good And Bad
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

We live in an era in which we can influence and benefit ourselves and the world, but we don’t know how to do it. We live in a complicated system and only are familiar with a very small part of it. But we can learn how to manage it. This is what makes the Jews special, and this is the reason that the world hates us. The key to the world’s happiness is in our hands.

The bad relationships between us are destroying the world. We have evil thoughts about one another, and this is why our enemies rise to destroy us. Everything will be peaceful and good in Israel and the world when we want to be good to one another here in Israel. The fact that we have evil thoughts about someone is natural, and we must learn how to rise above them.

As it is written, “Love covers all transgressions.” We shouldn’t argue about who is right and who is to blame, but simply rise to connection.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 666 – 2015: Good And Bad,” 12/24/15

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New Life 683 – Between Meat And Milk
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Meat and milk symbolize the two forces at work in nature: plus and minus, the power of reception and the power of giving. Kosher fish have fins and scales, they represent the characteristic of a person who doesn’t receive pleasure for himself directly, but operates according to bestowal. Meat symbolizes the egoistic desire, fish symbolizes a smaller desire, and the milk even smaller, while a pig symbolizes the greatest egoistic desire.

A person who feels the upper system clarifies the internal desires while eating, and the upper system begins to live in him, for inside, within us, there is a power that enlivens us called the “Creator.” If we relate to everything that is around us with love, we feel the power within us called God.

Slaughtering means that internally a person must kill the wild animal in him by using it correctly, which means that its power must be increased to the level of Adam (Man). Our interior, like nature, is divided into levels: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. Kabbalists discovered the upper roots and wrote the laws of Kashrut, according to branch and root, in which the internal butcher is the Light that Reforms, and it is up to the person to summon this Light to butcher the beast in him.

Above the system of forces, there is one inclusive force, and a person asks it to correct him according to the system; there is no power in a person to correct himself; it is all ego, and if he wants to have a soul, it is up to him to accept this corrective force. We are talking about the administrative and supervision system in nature that operates and runs us.

The system doesn’t care what or how a person eats, but the dietary laws indicate what a person, as a Jew, must correct within himself.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 683 – Between Meat And Milk,” 1/26/16

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Question: After the beginning of the conflict between the Ukraine and Russia, there was a large increase in emigration of Jews from there. Is the threat against the Jews who remained there something that is greater than it is for the rest of the citizens of these nations?

Answer: Without a doubt. As long as we don’t bring the method of union, the world will advance towards even greater separation more rapidly; it will be bad for the Jews everywhere.

Anti-Semitism and hatred will increase and no peaceful spot will remain in the world outside of Israel. And if we don’t begin to do something for the sake of connection and unity in Israel, Jews will travel away from here in search of a better place. But even in other places they won’t find anything. General unrest will begin.

Question: When there are conflicts and clashes in Israel, many young families with children travel from here to ensure the safety of their children, not because of economic considerations. Is this step justified?

Answer: I will answer with an example in my family. All of my close relatives arrived in Israel and from there traveled to Canada. Even before then, in the first years of the revolution, other relatives left Russia, emigrated to England, and have lived there ever since.

During my travels for lectures throughout the world, I have met with them more than once, as well as with the media and ordinary people, and I don’t see that people living abroad are happier, more cheerful and carefree. They have regular lives like everyone.

A person in Israel, even though he complains about everything, feels alive, inner changes happen within him, something within him is constantly turning around. He perceives all as his own, and in no other place in the world does he feel that he is living in his nation, whether good or bad, whether he hates or loves it.

So I don’t think we should leave here, even if you have some justification. Moreover, the same threat doesn’t exist here that would force us to leave.

Question: What about the national [Israeli] news when the media announce the beginning of some operation?

Answer: This is psychological pressure, no more than that. If we consider the last Intifada, that I hope is on the decline, how many people were wounded here in comparison to the number who were murdered in other countries in times of peace?

Comment: I have been thinking about this subject. I love this nation because one of the most important values here is the value of human life; it is much more valued here than in other nations.

Answer: If we were to change the atmosphere so that the connection between people would become good and warm, if people were to begin to feel that they were abandoning a big, united family, nobody would leave.
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From the Webinar  1/13/16

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