Comment: The Pope made a speech about the refugees in which he emphasized: “It cannot be that so much suffering should fall on innocent men, women and children!” He called for everyone to open their doors and hearts to them.

Answer: Everything he spoke about is correct, but only if there is no violence. There is a total lack of education, information, and previous unity among the population of Europe and the refugees.

The refugees want to dominate Europe. They have not really fled from their homeland because of a terrible war; rather, it is more because of the fact that they have been paid a lot of money to come to Europe as conquerors, not as those seeking a temporary warm and safe place. So it is impossible to speak of them as refugees, but only as a conquering army.

Question: Is there a way out of the situation into which Europe has been thrown?

Answer: No, this kind of situation will continue; the situation will drift out of control. Europe cannot oppose it. It cannot close its borders to them because it is completely divided into factions. It is broken, and the nations of the European Union cannot reach any agreement between them. So it is natural that this problem will not be solved.

Question: Will nations like Hungary, Macedonia, and others be able to close themselves to the refugees?

Answer: Eastern Europe can be closed. First, the refugees aren’t really trying to get there. Second, people are living there who learned in Soviet schools and don’t have any particular emotional weaknesses and so on. They recently had a similar experience not long ago.

Question: Basically, is the prophecy about the subjugation of Europe by the Muslims materializing?

Answer: Yes, Europe will be conquered by the Muslims, and everywhere, instead of European churches and cathedrals, there will be Muslim mosques and madrassas (Islamic religious schools).

Question: Will there be a war between Christianity and Islam?

Answer: No, Christianity will surrender peacefully.

Question: What will happen to Judaism?

Answer: Nothing. Those who can will leave Europe; those who cannot will gradually dissipate.

Question: What should the perspective of Israel be regarding this process?

Answer: We very simply don’t need to be interested in what is happening in Europe at all or its conquest by Islamic hordes. We don’t need to get involved with any mundane matters; rather, we must re-educate ourselves to full unification. This is our only concern.

Our unity will then influence the entire world and the nations of the world, first of all, the Christians and Muslims; they will suddenly feel an attraction to each other and the possibility of their mutual acceptance. They will understand that this comes from the Jews, and then they will gradually form mutual relationships between them, and after that this will spread throughout the world.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/17/16

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Comment: The chairperson of the Labor party Mr. Isaac Hertzog suggested separating East Jerusalem from West Jerusalem with a security fence. He said that Jews did not pray for places like Shuafat and Isawiya in East Jerusalem when they asked God to enable them to return to Jerusalem.

Answer: I understand that they didn’t pray for such neighbors. I realize that there is nothing good in having Arab neighbors as long as the Jews don’t correct themselves. So first and foremost we Jews have to correct ourselves, and as long as it doesn’t happen, we need to build fences. The world is returning to its starting point, to fencing cities like with the Chinese wall, etc.

Question: Does this mean that you are in favor of building fences between different parts of Jerusalem?

Answer: Absolutely not. We should only build fences around our state and not inside it. The fences should protect the state from immigrants who are trying to cross the border from Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan in any way they can.

Of course, we should fence Israel in the best possible way as we did in the Gaza strip, that makes things much simpler. Our neighbors are forcing us to do so over and over again, and so we need to build fences and engage in our correction, and our change will lead to the change of our neighbors.

This will be an invisible potential barrier.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/10/16

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Comment: The authorities in Egypt may forbid women to wear veils and scarves that cover their faces because they claim that they were invented by the Jews.

Answer: The reason is not that. The fact is that now a relatively democratic government is in power in Egypt. They want to cancel various Muslim orthodox traditions as much as possible. So they have taken the opportunity to ban the wearing of veils in public places: at work, theaters, and coffee houses to defeat this trend and free the younger generation from it.

Regarding Jews,  they nourish dislike, to put it mildly, and even hatred, and so they say that the Jews invented the niqab.

Comment: They claim that it is said in the Talmud that if a woman leaves home without covering her head and face, she is violating Jewish religious law.

Answer: I have never seen Jewish women cover their faces. Their heads yes, not only on the street but also in their homes. A covering that leaves only the eyes exposed doesn’t exist in Judaism.

It is worthwhile to note that women wearing veils may appear more attractive. We know from the wisdom of Kabbalah that concealment is something charming, attractive, and bewitching. It is like a courtship, with only big, almond-shaped eyes exposed with beautiful makeup and everything else is covered. So the play of the eyes actually attracts a man more; he is magnetized by those wonderful dark eyes. So instead of concealment derived from modesty and distance, the complete opposite is created.

Question: And what does the Jewish custom of a woman covering the hair on her head symbolize?

Answer: This is a quite another matter. Covering the head is a tradition that comes from higher Kabbalistic sources. A woman’s hair is considered to be unsuitable and inappropriate for a stranger. But this does not apply to unmarried girls because they wore their hair loose all the time. Married women would cut their hair short and wear a scarf over their heads, which was always considered to be a sign of modesty and virtue.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/13/16

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Comment: The Chief Rabbi of Israel, David Baruch Lao, referred to the killing of a terrorist as a Mitzva. He also quoted from the Torah saying that: “You should precede he who comes to kill you,” and added that there is no need to fear the legal implications of the offense.

Answer: I don’t know how he can guarantee that since the state laws are not always the same as the laws of the Torah.

Comment: What is more, he added that if someone goes out to the street with a knife, he shouldn’t be able to return to his home.

Answer: It is clear why he went out with a knife and that he has no other intention but to kill. When terrorists are captured and interrogated, they don’t hide their intentions and declare their desire to kill; therefore, if you encounter such a person, you should do everything in your power to kill the attacker.

Comment: The Chief Rabbi of Israel believes that this is the only way we can stop terrorists.

Answer: I doubt whether it would stop them because they receive a lot of money for such acts of terrorism, and mainly because they believe that they will be rewarded by entering paradise, which is the most important thing for them.

In addition, the families of terrorists reap huge benefits, their homes are preserved, they are given grants and medals, and the terrorists are given impressive funerals. In the past, the British used to bury dead terrorists wrapped in pig’s skin, and then according to the Koran, a person cannot reach paradise. Then then terrorist attacks immediately came to an end.

We should also stop the grants that we give the Palestinian Authority so that they will not have the means to encourage terrorists and their families.

Moreover, we should destroy their houses and evacuate the families, which means, that we should do everything in our power so that they will not get used to committing acts of terror.

But the most important thing we should do is to unite among us so positive forces will reach our world that will force potential terrorists to change themselves, their tactics, and their attitude to Israel, to themselves, and to life.

This is how we can influence them in the quickest, easiest, and most effective way. We don’t need anyone in order to do that; we don’t pressure anyone and no one can blame us for anything. If we do what is up to us, we will not need anything else.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/13/16

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New Life 549 – The Connection Between The Nation Of Israel And The State Of Israel
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Abraham gathered people around the attributes of Hesed and the love of others and realized that the physical location for them is in the land of Israel.

The physical land of Israel has a spiritual root.  Everywhere on Earth where people sit down, they get progressively take the form of the geographical place.

The State of Israel couldn’t exist anywhere else but in the land of Israel.

We are not considered the nation of Israel yet. The nation of Israel is a group of people who are united as one. Our life here in Israel gives us a chance to build ourselves as the nation of Israel, to build love on top of all the differences between us.

Israel should be organized as one body that is led by wise men who will lead all the people to unity. We came here in the past as an escape from trouble and problems in the Diaspora, a Jewish haven. Today, all of us together have to turn into a nation!

The future Israel is a state in which everyone relates to others as members of his family and we all live in harmony.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 549 – The Connection Between The Nation Of Israel And The State Of Israel,” 4/9/15

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Question: Who is Haman in our time?

Answer: Haman is the force that divides us and thereby weakens the nation so that it is easier to manage us. In the Book of Esther, Haman told king Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and separate among the peoples throughout all the provinces of your kingdom…”; they are weak because they are divided, and therefore it is easier to destroy them.

This is the reason that we must unite above all of our differences, including every part in the nation, in spite of everything that divides us, without any arguments as to who is right.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is directing us toward this unity, to unity above all of our differences, so that, as it is written, “Love covers all transgressions,” since this is the only kind of unity that there can be in the nation of Israel, which otherwise would remain as a gathering of exiles, as a collection of immigrants from different counties.

Haman is the force that tears the Jewish nation into pieces. We can identify him in every part of society, religious and secular, left and right political streams, etc. Kabbalah is the method of uniting opposites, above all rejections. It is the only method that has the force of correction, the force of Esther and Mordechai.
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The problem of the world is that a correct connection between people doesn’t exist. A correct connection is a system in which all the parts are found in mutual relationships between them and in harmony, where all are concerned about the welfare of the entire system and nobody is concerned about his own welfare. In a situation like this, the system is perfect.

When people attain a connection like this between them, they begin to feel nature and not themselves. The nature that they begin to feel is called the “Creator” because they discover its mind, program, and purpose.

Beginning from Abraham, people began to attain the harmony of nature in the connection between them, they discovered the Creator. The students of Abraham behaved according to the general laws of the world, to the extent that they discovered the Creator. This behavior came to be expressed in daily activities and in the relationship with the environment, and it was derived naturally and directly from their sensations. The activities that the members of the group of Abraham implemented seemed like they were only mechanical actions to someone who didn’t belong to this group and didn’t feel nature and the system of connection between people.

A harmonious mutual connection between people is called “love,” so it is said: “I created the evil inclination, I created the Torah as a spice.” The intention of the word “Torah” is the power of the Creator that is designed to correct the relationships between us, the relationships of egoistic mutual rejection. Involvement with the correction of the egoistic nature of a person is called keeping the Torah, and learning the Torah is called learning the possibilities for correcting the ego.

The general Mitzvah (commandment) of the Creator is correction of the ego to the level of “and you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). When a person mechanically performs the associated activities without correcting himself, his ego, this is called maintaining the customs. Since the days when the people of Israel fell from the level of “and you shall love your friend as yourself” to the level of “unfounded hatred,” they have been found in a state of maintaining the customs.

In their internal essence, the people of Israel are a group of people who are found in mutual Arvut (guarantee), yearning to be “as one person with one heart,” and filled with mutual love.
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In the News (pewforum.org): “Israel’s Religiously Divided Society”

“Nearly 70 years after the establishment of the modern State of Israel, its Jewish population remains united behind the idea that Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people and a necessary refuge from rising anti-Semitism around the globe. But alongside these sources of unity, a major new survey by Pew Research Center also finds deep divisions in Israeli society – not only between Israeli Jews and the country’s Arab minority, but also among the religious subgroups that make up Israeli Jewry. …

“Although they live in the same small country and share many traditions, highly religious and secular Jews inhabit largely separate social worlds, with relatively few close friends and little intermarriage outside their own groups. In fact, the survey finds that secular Jews in Israel are more uncomfortable with the notion that a child of theirs might someday marry an ultra-Orthodox Jew than they are with the prospect of their child marrying a Christian. …

“Moreover, these divisions are reflected in starkly contrasting positions on many public policy questions, including marriage, divorce, religious conversion, military conscription, gender segregation and public transportation. Overwhelmingly, Haredi and Dati Jews (both generally considered Orthodox) express the view that Israel’s government should promote religious beliefs and values, while secular Jews strongly favor separation of religion from government policy.

“Most Jews across the religious spectrum agree in principle that Israel can be both a democracy and a Jewish state. But they are at odds about what should happen, in practice, if democratic decision-making collides with Jewish law (halakha). The vast majority of secular Jews say democratic principles should take precedence over religious law, while a similarly large share of ultra-Orthodox Jews say religious law should take priority.

“Even more fundamentally, these groups disagree on what Jewish identity is mainly about: Most of the ultra-Orthodox say “being Jewish” is mainly a matter of religion, while secular Jews tend to say it is mainly a matter of ancestry and/or culture. …

“When asked whether halakha should be made the official law of the land for Jews in Israel, majorities of Haredim (86%) and Datiim (69%) say they would favor this change. By contrast, most Masortim (57%) and an overwhelming majority of Hilonim (90%) oppose making halakha the law of the land for Jews in Israel.

“The disagreements over what it means to live in a Jewish state are not merely hypothetical. The survey asks about numerous concrete policy issues in Israel – including marriage, divorce, conversion, military conscription, transportation, public prayer and gender segregation – and finds deep divides.”

My Comment: The separation will only grow and will be manifested in more and more extreme forms. There are two possibilities: either the separation will split the society and it will disappear along with the nation, or we will be forced to consider that the Jewish nation can only exist on condition that it yearns for the general rule, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) and “Love covereth over all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12), as was customary 2000 years ago during the period when our nation existed. The moment we violated this principle, the nation ceased to exist.
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New Life 533 – Beauty And Women In The Scroll Of Esther
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What do the female characters in the “Scroll of Esther” symbolize, why is the value of feminine beauty emphasized in the scroll and where is true beauty found?

All of the characters in the Megillah (scroll) and in the Bible in general, represent forces found within a person.

-Vashti is an egoistic queen, thinking about her own welfare, whereas Esther thinks about the welfare of her people.

-Like Vashti, all of us are egoists. Each one draws things to himself. Haman came and forced us to connect.

-In wild nature, the female is not as beautiful as the male. So a woman has to work on her beautiful appearance.

–Nature created us this way because a woman symbolizes a person’s natural desire, which is the ego and is not beautiful.

The entire story about Vashti and Esther shows the work that a person must do with his ego.

-The female side in every person represents the ego. It is ugly, only for itself, at the expense of others.

-It is up to the person to correct (to beautify) himself, concealing his ego and the conflict between people. This is what Esther did. She told the Jews: in order to be saved, you must gather, connect.

-Esther was afraid to approach the king without an invitation. She doesn’t rely on her external beauty. She requires a different beauty. The ultimate beauty that she requires comes from the efforts of her people to gather, to connect, and love each other.

Connection between people creates the ultimate beauty. Connection corrects all the defects that there are in everyone.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 533 – Beauty And Women In The Scroll Of Esther,” 3/3/15

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Esther is the secret force that connects the king and the Jews. The King refers to the Creator from which the force of Mordechai and the force of Esther stem. These two forces correct the Jews so that they can stand against all of Babylon in their corrected state.

The first time the Jews left Babylon was under the leadership of Abraham, about 1,500 years BCE. A thousand years later they find themselves in Babylon again and then Mordechai with the help of Esther take them out of there. Esther remains in Babylon and bears a son to King Ahasuerus who later helps the Jews build the Second Temple. These historic facts are described very nicely in our sources.

Esther is a good example of a Jewish woman who sacrifices herself: She is modest, quiet, and clever; she can foresee the future and wisely advises the whole nation. When the people do what she tells them, they break free of the ego. The name Esther stems from the Hebrew root of concealment, which also symbolizes the concealed female force which we have to look for in our generation. It exists.

Esther is a collective figure of the right female force that exists in the nation just like the force of Mordechai. It is by these two forces that the Creator gives us, through these figures and the way they dress in the forces of nature, that He manages us, brings us closer to Him, and turns us into a nation, since in Babylon we were merely a group of people. And the moment we become a nation, the Creator takes us out of Babylon.

Today there is no need to take us out of any place in the corporeal sense but only in the spiritual sense. In order to do that, we have to unite so that we can be one unique network in which the Creator is revealed and present that to the whole world.

Although we lack the two forces of Esther and Mordechai, they do exist within us and today the Bnei Baruch organization is revealing them. The wisdom of Kabbalah is already revealed as a method which Mordechai and Esther wanted to offer the nation back in their time. Only if we can turn to the people who are on a very high egoistic level now, and if they listen to us, will they be able to unite and we will all be able to come out of the spiritual exile. Then heaven will open up and the Creator will be revealed, and the nations of the world will turn to us and carry us to the spiritual Jerusalem.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/14/16

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