Question: Scientists say that people lie to preserve their value in the eyes of others. According to psychologists, the so-called “white lie” is used in this case. What is a lie from your point of view?

Answer: A lie is a natural defensive reaction of an organism that doesn’t want to see itself damaged and humiliated. What difference does it make to me whether it’s a lie or the truth? The main thing is to keep myself at a certain level. If I need to lie, I’ll lie, and if I need to tell the truth, I’ll tell the truth. I don’t take into account either one or the other, I consider only my inner state.

Therefore, people don’t have any understanding of what is a lie or the truth. Everything is determined only in relation to a person. You can’t say to someone, “Why are you lying?” He’ll say, “I’m not lying, for me this is the truth.” Why is it the truth? Because in this way, I support myself in the best possible condition. That’s the only truth!

Objective truth doesn’t exist because our nature is only the desire to receive pleasure and to keep ourselves in the state of maximum possible comfort at any moment in time. Therefore, what supports this state is the truth for me, and what doesn’t support it is a lie.

Question: What is a lie in the Kabbalistic sense?

Answer: In the Kabbalistic sense, everything is evaluated only with respect to the purpose of creation. Everything that is in agreement with the purpose of creation is the truth, and whatever isn’t in agreement is a lie. What leads to bestowal, love, adhesion with the upper force, and ascent to the next level is the truth. All the opposite is a lie.

Question: What if this isn’t related to the purpose of creation and exists as we do in this world? Is it the truth or a lie?

Answer: Nothing can be said. We see in different eras and in different cultures completely different criteria for truth or a lie.

Question: Does it mean that we live in the world without coordinates?

Answer: Of course. Coordinates indicate how my egoistic heart twists me. One minute I can say, “Yes, this is the truth” and the next minute I say, “No, this is a lie.”
[204351]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/1/17

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Question: Virtually the entire award ceremony of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which presents the Oscars, was internally devoted to bashing Trump.

The host, Jimmy Kimmel, famous American actor and producer, said: “This broadcast is being watched live by millions of Americans and around the world in more than 225 countries that now hate us. As you know, and I don’t have to tell anybody, our country is divided right now. I’ve been getting a lot of advice. People have been telling me: “It’s time to bring everyone together. You need to say something to unite us.” Let’s get something straight, off the top, I’m not—I can’t do that!”

What can be said about the division of the country because essentially, this is the first time in the history that something like this is happening in America?

Answer: I would say that this is happening in the entire world.

The world is beginning to understand where the completely irrational liberal recklessness, when everyone can do anything they want, has brought it to. I can do whatever I want and how I want, no one can tell me what to do. Essentially, I am not a member of society because I can act according to my own cannons, and you can act according to yours; do what you want and don’t interfere in my business.

Such a society makes the integral, global humanity impossible. We’ve reached a state when everyone wants to be a liberal, and by this is they mean, “Don’t interfere with me.” The so-called political correctness and freedom of speech give everyone the right to say whatever they want.

Unlimited permissiveness, irresponsibility, and lack of any kind of upbringing in schools, universities, and everywhere else brought us to what we have now in Hollywood.

If Trump understands that his task is to educate the American people, limit the influence of negative elements, strengthen the spirit, unite, then of course… What he says, is right. Will he be able to achieve it? I don’t think so. This will be very, very difficult. Even though the program sounds nice, it’s incorrect.

It is good in that it has nice plans. As it is said, “I love the grandeur of our plans.” We have been through this already. But Trump does not and will not have the means by which to realize these plans because ultimately he is…just Trump. Because what is really needed here is a methodology derived from nature. In order to save everything, the upper force is needed.

If he realizes that Kabbalah has it, the world will be able to pass this critical point and move on toward its goal by the right path, not the left, because the left involves the world war, in which few will survive. But they will survive only in order to complete the correction.

The fact is, tremendous suffering decreases the need for large numbers of people. Thus, in case of great suffering, instead of eight billion, the remaining eight million will be enough to resolve the problem. Because the entire world spins only in order to unite one collective soul, which was shattered in the beginning of its creation.

We’ll see how it goes. We have to fulfill our function. So far Trump is saying and doing the right thing, and in general, it is up to him.

All of this will spin through the Jews, and it will not be pleasant for them. They are now splitting into two camps, and there will be no peace until they unite among themselves and begin working together to correct humanity, in general.

Jews must rise above everything that is happening between those who side with Trump and those who side with Obama or Clinton, and unite among themselves for the benefit of correcting the world. If we make it, then yes. If not, we will have Nazi Germany again.
[204448]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman,” 03/01/2017

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In the News (The Guardian): “Jonathan Safran Foer: ‘Technology Is Diminishing Us’

“Most of our communication technologies began as substitutes for an impossible activity. We couldn’t always see one another face to face, so the telephone made it possible to keep in touch at a distance. One is not always home, so the answering machine made a message possible without the person being near their phone. Online communication originated as a substitute for telephonic communication, which was considered, for whatever reasons, too burdensome or inconvenient. And then texting, which facilitated yet faster and more mobile messaging. These inventions were not created to be improvements on face-to-face communication, but a declension of acceptable, if diminished, substitutes for it.

“But then a funny thing happened: we began to prefer the diminished substitutes. It’s easier to make a phone call than to make the effort to see someone in person. Leaving a message on someone’s machine is easier than having a phone conversation – you can say what you need to say without a response; it’s easier to check in without becoming entangled. So we began calling when we knew no one would pick up. Shooting off an email is easier still, because one can further hide behind the absence of vocal inflection, and of course there’s no chance of accidentally catching someone. With texting, the expectation for articulateness is further reduced, and another shell is offered to hide in. Each step ‘forward’ has made it easier – just a little – to avoid the emotional work of being present, to convey information rather than humanity.

“The problem with accepting – with preferring – diminished substitutes is that, over time, we too become diminished substitutes. People who become used to saying little become used to feeling little. Or just feeling what’s been designed and sold to us to feel.”

Question: Where do you think modern technology, artificial intelligence etc., is leading mankind?

Answer: To the recognition that we have to give all that up and start working from heart to heart, to actually give up everything that is not related to the feeling in the heart. Everything else will reach its peak and then disappear. We will not need to connect through long lines and web networks, the highest technologies in space or in new cities, nothing.

We will not even need TV with giant screens and thousands of channels. No one will want to clog his head with all that. We see that young people are gradually turning their backs to that. It will take a few more years and we will also get rid of all the phones.

Comment: Futurologists say the exact opposite. They believe that an interstellar communication will be developed…

Answer: Nonsense. Nothing will happen.

Question: Are you saying that all this will disappear and man will want to feel warm affection again?

Answer: Today, for example, a car is a means of getting from one place to another, not the goal itself. Imagine that you had a spaceship and ten stars, and that your mother-in-law lived on one star and another relative or a friend lived on another, and you could get away from them all, get your own little planet and live there peacefully.

But we already realize that all these things lead to nothing. A person has to fill himself, and he cannot find a filling in all that, so we keep chasing different fillings and eventually see that although we have the means for that, it doesn’t justify itself. A person feels more and more empty.

Comment: It turns out that our whole life and future developments are merely a race actually a race after fillings…

Answer: Of course! See how writers depict futuristic pictures: we are moving from one place to another at such great speed, where to? From one empty end to another empty end, but at least they are writing best sellers.

Question: Jonathan Foer says that we are drawing away from the hearts. He actually fears that. Do people feel this fear as a result of progress?

Answer: No, they feel that because there is no way out. If humanity does not discover the reason and the goal of the creation, it will sink into drugs and sleeping pills.

Question: Why do we go through such a long way? Why do we need all these technologies?

Answer: Because we have to recognize the evil part of our nature. If we don’t get to fully know it, we will not be able to correct it.
[204016]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/1/17

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In the News (ScienceNews): “The world’s earliest alphabet, inscribed on stone slabs at several Egyptian sites, was an early form of Hebrew, a controversial new analysis concludes.

“Israelites living in Egypt transformed that civilization’s hieroglyphics into Hebrew 1.0 more than 3,800 years ago, at a time when the Old Testament describes Jews living in Egypt, says archaeologist and epigrapher Douglas Petrovich of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. Hebrew speakers seeking a way to communicate in writing with other Egyptian Jews simplified the pharaohs’ complex hieroglyphic writing system into 22 alphabetic letters, Petrovich proposed on November 17 at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.”

My Comment: A mistake is concealed here.

The Jews didn’t borrow anything from anyone because the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are derived from the spiritual structure of three levels (Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut) of the upper world that influence us. So humanity began to realize them subconsciously. The Hebrew alphabet comes from Adam, who discovered them 5,777 years ago and used them himself. So in any case, humanity will have to reconsider archaeology, paleontology, and everything else, and will then agree that everything comes from there.

If there were any records before then, as far as it seems, these were notes and symbols, but an alphabet by which we connect a collection of images into a meaningful word and create a sentence from the words, meaning a completed thought on a particular subject that even after generations can be transmitted, something like this didn’t exist anywhere. This is only because the Jews had a connection with the upper world and specifically took the terms and the method from there.

In other words, there are three levels between us and the upper world that are filled with a particular collection of forces that become the letters in our world.

Each spiritual force is a letter. We get a word by connecting them together and by connecting words, we get a thought.

Question: Did all signs and hieroglyphs appear after these letters?

Answer: Certainly. The Hebrew letters are the foundation of written languages, including Chinese and Japanese.

Question: Why do we have no way of proving this?

Answer: Why should we prove it? Humanity is searching in its own way based on excavations, motivations, opinions, and theories. But this was written in our books thousands of years ago. Nobody wants to pay attention to this because it contradicts the Christian and Muslim approach. So it is preferable that we remain quietly on the side.

The different languages, the alphabet, and everything else came from ancient Babylon and this reached ancient Babylon from Adam.

Horizontal and vertical lines and other elements of the letters are derived from those forces that we try to symbolize, because each letter is a symbol of a particular spiritual expression, of a particular spiritual form, of a force, and so forth. They are like a seal. So there are 22 such seals, which are absolutely sufficient for conveying the higher spiritual characteristics of Bina and the lower spiritual characteristics of Malchut.

Nothing more or less is required. That is how the letters must be conveyed. However, there have been permutations, their replacement. In general, this is a deep, complex system, because everything is found in the letters.

So in this way, the secret of the letters, their combinations, their formation, and their development is still waiting to be discovered. There are laws according to which it is impossible to modify anything in the Hebrew alphabet. It is impossible to change even one letter, even one line, font, or embellishment. Everything about the calligraphy must be preserved.

In computer programs, we find twenty thousand different fonts. This has no connection to truth. There exists only one font called “Ktav sofer – scribal writing” through which everything is presented in the Torah, because there the precise graphic form expresses the inner content of the force in the letter.
[200013]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/14/16

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Question: A few weeks ago, a father in the village of Migdal near the Kinneret killed his wife, their small children and the neighbors’ son. This is the third incident since the beginning of the year in which parents murdered their children. In Jerusalem, a mother killed her four daughters and in Acre a mother killed her five-year-old son. How can we explain the fact that a parent who is supposed to protect his child becomes his murder?

Answer: People find themselves under such pressure, such circumstances that pressure them on all sides, until they begin to think that it is actually their children who are the main liability in their life, and thus they sentence them to death. They believe that if they had no children, they wouldn’t be under such pressure and would not have to care for anyone and would be relieved.

These are exceptional tragic incidents. I believe that the cause for such incidents is the fact that life has become too stressful for people and there are those who cannot take it and are willing to free themselves from it at any cost.

Question: How does that happen, because we always use parental love as the closest example of true, unselfish love?

Answer: Love of parents for their children is a natural emotion that is typical of both humans and animals, but when parents find themselves under pressure and don’t know what to do, they lose their mind. If someone had stopped them at that moment, and then told them what they had intended to do, they would of course have been shocked. This is a situation of temporary insanity.

Question: So who is insane, humanity?

Answer: Today, people undergo very strong pressures and so, unfortunately, such cases will reoccur.
[201458]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/30/17

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In the News (BBC): “British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday will deliver a speech in support of the official definition of anti-Semitism, which, in its view, makes it easier to prosecute the perpetrators of crimes motivated by hatred of Jews.

“A clear definition of what should be considered anti-Semitism will help the police, municipalities, universities and other organizations, according to the government.

“International Alliance Memory of the Holocaust (IHRA) hopes that this official definition, agreed only in this year, it will be taken at the international level.

“In this formulation, anti-Semitism is called ‘a certain attitude toward the Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews’.

“Further, the text states that ‘Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews or non-Jews, and (or) their property against the Jewish community institutions and religious buildings.’”

My Comment: It could be that an accepted official definition for anti-Semitism will make it possible to denounce people more concretely for relevant activities or statements, but it will not “cure” them of anti-Semitism!

The origin of anti-Semitism is in the appearance of the “point in the heart” in Jews, which is the budding of the altruistic characteristic that appeared in them at the time of Abraham until the destruction of the Second Temple, meaning for the 1,500 years in which the Jews existed within the framework of the principle, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) or fought for the sake of realizing this principle. The destruction of the Temple was the moment the Jews fell from the level of altruism.

Human nature is opposed to the principle of altruism, so when they feel that it exists in a particular group, they hate that group of people subconsciously. In the Torah it is said that this hatred was born in humanity when the Torah was received. It is a method for correcting human nature from egoistic (all deeds intended for oneself) to altruistic (all deeds intended for the sake of others).

Human nature will certainly not change due to the adoption of an official definition for the term “anti-Semitism.” The (special) natural negative attitude of anti-Semites toward Jews will not disappear. In the Introduction to The Book of Zohar it is said that hatred toward the Jews will exist in all generations, until the period when all the nations of the world will begin to change their egoistic nature to an altruistic nature. The crisis in development that is beginning to be revealed in our times will force them to this more and more.

So the wisdom of Kabbalah, the method for changing human nature, is being revealed in our time. The Jews are required to be the first to learn the method. Their role will then be to reveal it to the entire world. In that way, mutual relationships in the world will begin to improve. Without accepting this method from the Jews, the world will achieve this change as a result of world wars.

From the introduction to The Book of Zohar, it is absolutely clear that the appearance of anti-Semitism among the nations of the world is a natural phenomenon, a law, whereas the uprooting of anti-Semitism from the nations of the world is possible only if the Jews will adapt themselves to the correction of their nature and give an example to all the nations of the world this way, becoming a “Light for the nations” (Isaiah 49:6).
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Last week I was invited to participate in the news program “The Day” on Channel 9, one of the biggest channels on Israeli TV.

The news report from the International Kabbalah Convention held on February 21-23, 2017 in Tel Aviv was called “The World of Kabbalah.”

In this coverage, Channel 9 for the first time spoke about the foundation of the Jewish people, about their strengths and weaknesses. Our internal conflicts and world’s hostility towards the Jews are not accidental. They require rational reflection, without which we simply don’t have a future.

After all, we are not ordinary people. Abraham gathered our ancestors from different tribes and initially they were united only by one thing: love for others. They were close in spirit, but they were not blood relatives.

Many things have changed since then, but still only we can unite ourselves and the nations of the world into one family.

This is why we find no peace, like a person who rejects his destiny. That is why anti-Semitism is raising its head again. People don’t like us not because we are “chosen,” but because we don’t put our uniqueness into practice, don’t bring a light onto the nations, and don’t show them how to live in peace and harmony with each other.

However, I am optimistic about the future. Eight thousand people came to our annual convention, and it already doesn’t surprise anyone. The country is gradually getting used to the idea that unity will decide our common destiny. Uniting above all contradictions, we will see how everything is changing for the better.
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In the News (Al Arabiya): “Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis – ISIS-affiliated extremist group in Egypt – has released images purporting to show the execution of a 100-year-old man.

“The group, who rebranded as ISIS-Sinai when they pledged allegiance to the extremist group holding swathes of Iraq and Syria, killed Sheikh Sulaiman Abu Haraz after kidnapping him earlier.

“Abu Haraz, considered one of the symbolic Sufi clerics and elders of the Sinai Peninsula, was taken by the group from in front of his house in Arish city under gun point.”

My Comment: Sufism is Islamic Kabbalah. They live their lives in exile from their nations because they are hated, similar to the attitude toward Kabbalists in Judaism. Likewise, Sufism calls for everyone to achieve unity through limitless love, as a fundamental principle for all of humanity.
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In the News (Phys.org): “A UK, Canadian and Italian study has provided what researchers believe is the first observational evidence that our universe could be a vast and complex hologram. …

“The researchers, from the University of Southampton (UK), University of Waterloo (Canada), Perimeter Institute (Canada), INFN, Lecce (Italy) and the University of Salento (Italy), have published findings in the journal Physical Review Letters.

“A holographic universe, an idea first suggested in the 1990s, is one where all the information that makes up our 3-D ‘reality’ (plus time) is contained in a 2-D surface on its boundaries. …

“Professor Skenderis comments: “Holography is a huge leap forward in the way we think about the structure and creation of the universe. Einstein’s theory of general relativity explains almost everything large scale in the universe very well, but starts to unravel when examining its origins and mechanisms at quantum level. Scientists have been working for decades to combine Einstein’s theory of gravity and quantum theory. Some believe the concept of a holographic universe has the potential to reconcile the two. I hope our research takes us another step towards this.”

“The scientists now hope their study will open the door to further our understanding of the early universe and explain how space and time emerged.”

My Comment: The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks a lot about this, but it suggests that one should be involved with the study of man, not the study of nature, to expand the possibilities of our perception, our inner characteristics, so then we will see that the picture of the world that appears before us depends completely on our inner characteristics.

As we shape the world ourselves, we limit it, and as such we also see the world. If we expand this picture by changing our characteristics, we will see the world differently, in other dimensions.

Question: Which is to say, to do this, people must change? And scientists believe it is necessary to explore nature.

Answer: The examination of nature is a very limited approach to the subject. It doesn’t yield anything. We have no benefit from this except satisfying our curiosity.

A person needs to develop and change himself. He can and must expand his internal sensory perception, emotions, desires, and thoughts so much so that he will see worlds that exist outside of him, but he will discover them when he discovers himself.

For example, a little child differs from an adult in that he perceives a small, narrow part of the world, even though he basically sees exactly what the adult sees. The question is what does it mean to “see”? The entire difference lies in this. We don’t see the inner connections of nature, we don’t see the true world but only our lowest level.

It is only when person opens the next levels of absorption, knowledge, emotion, and impressions within himself that the next level of creation that exists around us will be revealed to him.

At present, we are in a period and state in which we can understand that our movement in the direction proposed by scientists is erroneous.

We must turn inward, into ourselves, and expand our senses. But because this is connected to the ego, against our nature, we don’t want this. We sell our perceptive abilities in exchange for petty egoism.
[202747]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/1/17

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In the News (Legacy Project – Cornell): “I’ve spent time over the past year talking with young people about their hopes for marriage. And the question that comes up more than any other is: ‘How do I know if the person is the right one for me?’ Is there a way to tell if someone is likely to be a compatible long-term mate, or a difficult and contentious partner?

“Sounds complicated, right? But in our interviews with hundreds of long-married couples about what works and what doesn’t for a long and satisfying relationship, one simple and straightforward answer emerged again and again. It turns out that our elders believe there’s something close to a ‘magic bullet’ when it comes to deciding in a relationship: ‘Should I stay or should I go?’ And it all comes down to similarity. …

“Based on their long experiences both in and out of romantic relationships, the fundamental lesson is this: You are much more likely to have a satisfying marriage for a lifetime when you and your mate are fundamentally similar. And if you’re very different, the elders warn although that marriage can work, is likely to be much more difficult.”

Question: Does this have a spiritual root?

Answer: Of course, those who are alike are attracted to each other in every aspect of life.

Question: Does breaking this rule have any implications?

Answer: In such cases it is very difficult to adapt yourself to that person because you have to get used to him and understand him. After all, psychology, ideology, awareness, insight, and tastes require a close match, which none of us, being egoists, wants to do because it involves an enormous expenditure of energy. If people connect, they have to choose someone they can understand very well. Men usually subconsciously choose women who resemble their mothers and women choose men who resemble their fathers.

I wish you all to find the half that is right for you.

Question: Is the Creator the right half for us?

Answer: In order to become His half, we need to resemble the Creator. In this case, the same rule applies—the law of similarity, equivalence of form. We should bestow and love to the extent that He does, and by acquiring this attribute, we get closer to Him.

Question: Do I have to feel that the Creator gives and bestows?

Answer: We begin to feel Him to the extent that we acquire this attribute.

As for marriage, we can take an example from religious families. They marry men and women from their environment, who have been brought up in the same way. They don’t need to learn what their spouse likes or doesn’t like, what he/she is used to, or what kind of life they will lead.

They have seen all that at home and will continue to live this way in their family. They match each other from the start. They resemble each other and so they co-exist without any unpleasant surprises. This is what similarity means. In Orthodox families it works 100%.

Therefore, it is preferable to choose a partner according to likeness. If we could screen young people and see the resemblance and equivalence between them according to certain criteria, it would be clear whether they were suitable marriage partners or not.

All their assurances that they love each other, do not mean anything.
[201036]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 11/1/16

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