Comment: According to a study carried out by Harvard University, life without friends is as dangerous as smoking (Newsweek).

My Comment: A person is a system influenced by many factors: loneliness, sadness, fears, worries, all sorts of doubts and pressures put on him by society. All these factors can create great pressure, which could cause serious illnesses.

Comment: According to the study, the level of fibrinogen in the blood of lonely people who have very few ties with their relatives and have few friends is 20% higher than that of other participants in the study.

My Comment: A person needs to be in contact with society. It is our nature. Therefore, a lonely person constantly subconsciously searches for contacts, and if he doesn’t find them, he is under constant stress and pressure.

Question: Do you believe that young people who are involved in virtual relationships feel lonely?

Answer: Yes, in recent times loneliness is felt more acutely because there is no warmth in virtual relationships. But this is still a positive process because the growing loneliness leads a person to the recognition of evil. The question is how and whether it is along the long path of suffering or along the quick path of the Light.
[193506]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/31/16

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In the News (Business Insider): “In a note to clients out Tuesday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said there’s a 20%-50% chance that we’re living in the matrix — meaning that the world we experience as ‘real’ is actually just a simulation. …

“‘Many scientists, philosophers, and business leaders believe that there is a 20-50% probability that humans are already living in a computer-simulated virtual world.’”

My Comment: “We’re living”—and in the past, we weren’t living? Mankind is naïve; it constantly thinks that it has discovered something new! They finally got it. The existence of the so-called matrix suggests we are subordinate to the one law of nature. We are tightly chained to it. Each of our cells, every thought, every desire, all are within nature.

Likewise, a particular thought is sent to a person even before he thinks it. Every desire takes shape within him even before he wants something. Before he makes any move, energy, amino acids, electricity, and everything else is gathered within the body, giving him a direction. A person doesn’t do anything on his own! At best, he feels that he is moving, but actually he is being moved.

The task of Kabbalists is to discover who is moving the person, who is the master of the matrix. And why should it be otherwise? The still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels of nature develop us: all of our cells, everything around us. How could it be that we are suddenly on our own? What are you talking about? Has the guidance disappeared? Has the force of evolution disappeared? Has the program of development stopped all of a sudden?

This is our illusion. We have become separated from what is happening with us.

Question: Why do we naturally feel that we are independent?

Answer: This illusion was given to us intentionally so that we would discover that we actually exist within the law, and we need to know this law. When we discover the main law of the matrix, then we will become more enlightened people, and then we must move onward.

This knowledge should compel us to understand the behavior of the matrix, what our relationship with it is, and why we were created such that, on the one hand, we would be within it, and on the other hand, we wouldn’t feel ourselves within it.

In principle, the person is like a schizophrenic patient. He has an absolutely split personality. In other words, on the one hand, he is managed, and on the other hand, he thinks that he is the manager. This duality begins to concern him. The world is becoming such that it seems that a person has lost his hold on the reins he previously thought he was holding.

This situation leads him to suffer so that he will search, and from his spiritual search, he finally will decide that he must understand the general law of creation. It is possible for him to understand it only if he begins to discover it on his own. To the degree that he becomes similar to the law of nature, he will discover it and get to know it. But in no way will he be able to do this from the outside as we would like to do.

Question: So, how then will his life change?

Answer: It is according to how much he complies with this law. He will live according to the laws of the matrix: total bestowal, total dependence, and all of us connected through mutual Arvut (responsibility). In fact, this is an immense joy because you acquire knowledge, understanding, and integration within an immense, infinite system that is simultaneously so close.

Question: Will a person lose his individuality with this?

Answer: Absolutely not. On the contrary, he will begin to acquire an individuality that he didn’t have before! So, first we need to be given a good shake to show us that we are not within this system at all. Then, it will be possible for us to gradually enter it.
[194882]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/19/16

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In the News (Science Daily): “‘You missed out.’ Is there another sentence that could strike such anxiety in the hearts of young people? … It’s true, though, and we need to talk about fear of missing out. Known as FOMO in millennial-speak, fear of missing out is quickly taking a toll on Generation Y — and it’s probably causing damage to your own life. …

“The average college student spends eight to 10 hours killing time on their cellphone each day, and when we consistently believe we are ‘missing out,’ anxiety and depression may set in. It’s no surprise then that anti-depressant use is very high and grows each year.”

Question: How do you relate to that?

Answer: In the past, before I discovered the wisdom of Kabbalah, I also suffered from this fear to a certain degree. In my time there was no Internet, and I scoured all the magazines, libraries, practically everywhere because I feared missing something important in the world about myself, about life, and I feared missing an opportunity to fulfill myself. This fear is rooted in the fact that a person wants something meaningful in his life, to attain something, not to miss what’s important, to know the meaning of life. But eventually a person runs around until he grows tired and accepts the fact he will somehow arrive to the end of his life.

Question: Does this mean that suddenly a positive fear of not living his life in vain arises in a person?

Answer: Of course, a person wants to leave his mark, do something meaningful, so that people will know about him, will appreciate and remember him.

But a person who reaches the level of the wisdom of Kabbalah begins to understand that the most important thing for him is that people should change for the better, and this is what he invests his efforts in. It is like taking care of children: it makes no difference to a person what his children may think about him. What’s important to him is that they should succeed and think correctly about their children.

A Kabbalist only thinks about how to fulfill himself by educating others so that they will advance without having to follow him all the time. This is the main thing, and his reward is the fact that people should follow the right way to fulfill themselves by resembling nature, without even knowing about him. In other words, the fear of a Kabbalist is that he will not be able to fulfill himself as an integral part of all nature. This has to be his attitude and the fulfillment of his attitude to everyone else.

Question: Do you have any fears?

Answer: I don’t have any fears, but I do aspire to fulfill my mission, which is the feeling that I have to justify what I have been given by my teacher, and I feel his pressure on me even at the moment. It isn’t fear but a feeling of responsibility. What fear can there be in a world where the Creator manages everything? I feel responsible for revealing the legacy of the great Kabbalists to people so that every human being will have the chance to totally fulfill himself by using this knowledge.
[193639]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/31/16

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Question: From the point of view of Kabbalah, what kind of a place does Europe hold in the general development of humanity?

Answer: Europe holds a central place in the development of humanity after Israel. This is because Europe is a “Babylonian” gathering that is today becoming the most significant appearance of the Tower of Babel. The Europeans want to solve the problem exactly the way it was done in the past by Nimrod, the king of Babylon. But Abraham opposed this and said that there was no benefit to it. So Nimrod drove him out and he went with his disciples to the territory of the present land of Israel.

The founders of the European Union wanted to distribute more money to all the Europeans and thought that everything would be okay, but the Europeans are already different and the immigrants who have moved to live in the nations of Europe are also different. They are not interested in material fulfillments but in ideological or even spiritual fulfillments.

The immigrants want Europe to become Muslim, painting itself in green. If we look at the map of Europe, then everything has a color: A red flag here, a yellow one there, a blue one there, and so forth, whereas the immigrants want everything to be inundated and washed with the color green and they will gradually “impose” their desire. In principle, the clash between Islam and Christianity will lead them to unite and go against Israel.

Question: They will unite to compel Israel to do its work?

Answer: This is the internal program that is inherent in the program of creation, which they themselves don’t know. They really will unite to force Israel to do its work.
[194890]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/19/16

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Comment: American Jews are watching the news from Israel. One of the reactions to your post, “Do American Jews Need Israel?” caused disagreement about what you say regarding their attitude toward Israel. A writer claims that in America many Jews differentiate between the nation of Israel and the land of Israel. In their opinion, the land of Israel has a special spiritual mission for all of us, which unfortunately cannot be said about the country. It would be doubtful to justify putting all the Jews with a liberal outlook into one “boat,” just as it is doubtful that it would be worthwhile for all Jews to immigrate recklessly to the State of Israel in this stage.

Answer: In general, globally I agree that it is impossible to heap humanity into one pile. Indeed, there is a difference between the land of Israel and the State of Israel. I do not encourage anyone to immigrate to the country, but what I mean is that since we are the Jews who are evaluated in the world according to our spiritual root, which is the land of Israel, in which the State of Israel exists today, we need to strengthen this nation.

Even if many Jews in the world, and in particular in America, think that it would be better for them if the State of Israel ceased to exist, the land of Israel would not cease to exist and would always be called this.

It was called this even in the period of the British Mandate, the Ottoman administration, and even three thousand years ago when ancient peoples lived here. So we must not think that the land of Israel could change. It is eternal and has expanded much beyond its present national borders.

These borders were designed by the upper force, which outlines this territory called the “Conquests of King David” (“Davidic Conquest”), from the remaining areas of the Earth. This area is large and extends to Babylon on one side, to the Nile on another side, and also north and south.There is no question that it cannot be.

This is the history that is connected not only to the past, but also to the higher forces that cooperate among them mutually and have an influence on the area of the entire Earth in that they emphasize its different parts. Understandably, the nation of Israel of today is completely incompatible with the land of Israel because Jews can live in it only to the extent that there are friendly and loving relationships between them.

Friendship means that they are not treating each other badly and wish each other well. Love is an even higher level, meaning that they are ready to give everything to each other, as one would to loved one. When a mutual relationship like this exists between us, we merge with the land of Israel, with that upper force that illuminates us and appears in one common general structure. That is what we must long for and reach.

Certainly the national structure of the nation of Israel today is absolutely not like this. It takes its cue from the western example and wants to be like the rest of the nations of the world, something that cannot be among the Jews. The Jews temporarily continue to exist here by protecting themselves with all their might. Yet, this existence cannot continue forever. I don’t even call the Jews a “people” because the meaning of a people is that there is a common denominator; whereas, among the Jews there is nothing in common. This is a “gathering of exiles,” a gathering of people who have come from all the ends of the Earth, and nothing more than this.

If the Jews were to build from themselves a single people by longing for unity, rising above their ego, eliminating their mutual hatred, competitiveness, and so forth, they would be able to continue to live in the land of Israel and the land would be good for them. The upper force would begin to work on them for the better and would shield them from all troubles.

If this doesn’t happen, military preparations, neither its force or weapons, will not help us, not even the help of presidents of the United States or the nations of the world. In any case, we will reach a situation in which, as Baal HaSulam wrote, we will be forced to leave the land of Israel and among that small number who would remain, some of them would be annihilated and the others would drown in the “sea” of the Arab population that would fill this land. So we have no choice, we must reach a state in which we clearly understand our destiny, our future, and our obligation to show the whole world an example of unity. Then the world would stop hating us and would see our benefit, the reason for our eternal existence which is meant to bring the world to unity. We would truly become a “Light unto the nations” (Isaiah 42:6).

Question: The author of this response believes that your attitude toward American Jews is too biting. Why do you relate to them like this? What do you hear from American Jews?

Answer: What I hear from them is that all of the problems of Israel are Israel’s fault. I completely agree with them, except for one thing. Even though Israel is like this, we must not abandon it; we need to support it. When they place themselves beside those who want to annihilate it, they are not only slandering Israel, but are helping to annihilate it. This is not at all irrelevant to the problems of the Jewish people, for if the State of Israel were to disappear, the next thing that would follow would be a new Holocaust.

The State of Israel is like a member of the family. In any case, we cannot “throw” it out of the family circle; we must correct it. The American Jews could do this if they were to behave wisely and weren’t trying to ignore the current situation.

Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of American Jews are indifferent toward the State of Israel because they are included in American life to such a degree that Israel doesn’t affect them in any way, and therefore, they don’t want to hear about it. What is important to them is their own good and what might happen to Israel is not important to them. That is not how to treat a family member because even if it would be better for you, you cannot get rid of him, you must think about him.

So American Jews must unite and think about how through external pressure they can force the nation of Israel to move forward in the right direction, to become more pluralistic, and not to succumb to external and internal coercion.

Israel must build a nation for itself that is based upon relationships of friendship and love, on the foundation of the principle of Judaism, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), and not on all kinds of factionalism, religious movements, disputes, and wars.
[193692]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/7/16

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In the News (Israel Today): “184 Jewish communities and synagogues in the United States have signed a letter for the protection of the immigrants from the Middle East and Africa seeking refuge on American soil, which promised to provide assistance to these people. …

“These representatives of American Jewry are ready to provide refugees with its services in education, legal protection and financial assistance.

“‘American Jews react to this greatest immigrant crisis in history, as if the victims were our countrymen’ – quotes words of the Vice-President of HIAS Jenny Rosen in the website of the newspaper The Jerusalem Post.”

My Comment: I have no objection to helping other peoples if the right basis for this exists. But, after all, you cannot provide a place next to you for a person who will rape your daughters, murder your parents tomorrow, and hang you. There already have been incidents like these, and we see where it leads.

Question: In principle, do you think that could be?

Answer: I am sure of it if we judge this according to the development of egoism in humanity, and Jews are not providing an example of the correct connection between people, are not restoring the integral system called Adam, and are causing an opposite result through this type of action.

This has happened before. There is nothing new or unexpected here. At one time, Jews were helping young Hitler. There is a lot of documentation on this subject. So history repeats itself.

I believe that the current state of society clearly shows any person, and humanity as a whole, that we have no idea about what is happening to us.

So, we cannot resolve, especially in advance, and in particular issues such as a solution to immigration, as long as it is not clear where we are going, where the world is heading, what we want from life, what will happen over time to the entering community and to those Jewish or Christian communities that accept them. We don’t know what their natural tendencies are and how they will coexist.

If this were sorted out, we would realize the first thing to be done is precise work on correctly understanding what it means to be a society: it must be connected to the manner in which people can get closer to each other despite different religions and currents.

Then, they wouldn’t just open their gates to the immigrants. Rather, first and foremost, they would move them through a very serious educational system to adapt them to the conditions provided to them. However, today, they simply are granting the immigrants aid and the ability to exist as they like.

In this case, Islam will develop in its most distorted form because the Islamic preachers are on the alert and do their best to establish militant Islamic centers in these nations. First, they will behave quietly until they become established. Then, after at least one generation, the “game” will be conducted on a serious level on all fronts.

The goal of Islam is to conquer the entire world. It is written on its flag: “There is no god but Allah, Mohammed—his prophet.”

Question: What is the goal of the Jews?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that we, the Jews, must reveal the method for connecting people. It is up to us to reveal this to the entire world that needs it so much.

But Jews don’t know this, so the method of connection and unity safely remains on hold, as it has been. When will it be revealed? This depends on many factors. When Jews begin to become interested in the reason that others are preparing to strike them, they may become interested and start exploring this: “What are we guilty of?” Then, they will find the answer with the Kabbalists. In the meantime, this question remains rhetorical.
[193972]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/14/16

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We are living in a period when the question about the meaning of life has broken out among humanity as a universal call. A person wants to know why he exists and why it is worth living.

In the past, his desires were in the framework of material existence. The main thing was to have food, sex, family, wealth, honor, control, and knowledge.

These desires developed in us during the entire course of human history, and thanks to them we developed our lives, communications, and the system of connections between us.

Until the middle of the 20^th century, all of this was normal. Then the ego changed. It began to demand: “What is the meaning of life?” It was specifically the ego that asks these questions. Its last question is: “What is all of this for?” Which is to say, there is food, sex, family, honor, and knowledge; all of this is okay, but why is it necessary if everything comes to an end? This is useless. Even if we lengthen our lives for another 100 years, what else? The question remains unchanged.

For thousands of years our ego developed with a gift for answering all the questions about life. But now it bluntly asks the question, “What is it for?!” So we are in a crisis in all the areas of life: science, art, education, family, and so forth.

The entire world is immersed in depression and drugs because people long to know why they exist. They don’t want to have children or have a family because they feel that there is no meaning to it. People didn’t feel this way in the past, like animals that don’t have this problem.

The great challenge that stands before us is to understand how to find the meaning of life and where to search for it. We cannot find it in our world. We cannot find the meaning of life on Mars either, and not even on other distant stars because all of these are lifeless, inanimate bodies, the inanimate level of nature. To do this we must rise to a higher level than our level of life.

Nature is goading and hastening us toward this, so that we will rise up from the level of the still, vegetative, animate, and human nature in this world, to the next level, the next dimension.

How is it possible to rise above ourselves? After all, to do this we need to have a different nature. This is complicated, but possible. There is a method in our world, the wisdom of Kabbalah, which makes it possible to attain this. It explains how to find the meaning of life and places this question before humanity.

This is a 5,777 year-old method. Despite its antiquity, it is very relevant today because it is beginning to be revealed and has appeared only in our generation, calling to humanity to discover it, to possess it, and to know it, and through that to rise to the next level of development, the next dimension, the next world, during our lifetimes. The question about the meaning of life was posed at the beginning of the wisdom of Kabbalah, but it had to wait for humanity to develop. It was written at the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th century that it would be time for Kabbalah to be revealed and that the upper world would be attained with its help.

Every level develops from its previous level. The vegetative develops from the still, the animate develops, and then human society develops. And now we must rise to the next level, above the level of human society, to form a new man.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a very realistic method, accessible and imperative for each one of us. We are suggesting that everyone should become aware of it. It doesn’t require special changes, affiliations, or physical efforts and activities from us; just simply start studying it. It doesn’t call for believing in something; rather, it describes the world in which we are found, and according to its system, it will become clear to us what we must do to attain the real world, the next level of existence.

We don’t feel this level of existence now, just as a stone doesn’t feel the vegetative world and the vegetative world doesn’t feel the animate world because they are not on the same level of existence. So we only feel it to a very weak degree and don’t understand anything about the next level of our development.

Only a question about the meaning of life appears in us. So let’s discover the right answer and in that way we will merit immense pleasures and fulfillments! We will attain a feeling of true life!

When we begin to study this method, we will begin to understand the system in which we are found, its matrix, and this knowledge will lead us forward. It does not enslave us; it doesn’t bind us to anything, and is not obligatory. It is the only salvation for today’s  generation. A goal is being revealed before us that previously was hidden.

Here’s to your success in discovering it!
[194022]
From KabTV’s  “Questions About the Meaning of Life” 9/19/16

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In the News (The National Interest): ”Although the 2016 U.N. meetings seem quite similar compared to others held over the last several years, this week’s debate comes at a time when the international community is inundated with problems in virtually every region of the world. With the exception of a landmark peace agreement that ended five decades of conflict in Colombia, every region is experiencing some degree of threat that could spiral to a whole new level if the international community as a whole and regional governments in particular are unable to find a way to address them. The list is endless and depressing: a humanitarian abomination in Syria and daily terrorist attacks in Iraq; the rise of anti-immigration parties in Europe and the biggest challenge to the EU since its foundation; a North Korea on a full tear towards a permanent nuclear weapons capability; Russia flexing its military and diplomatic muscle in the former Soviet Union; and China increasingly carving out more territory for itself in the South China Sea.

“The United Nations was created nearly seventy years ago to ensure that crises that pop up around the world are either mitigated to the greatest possible extent or are solved in a way that doesn’t promote further conflict. After tens of millions of people perished in World War II, the last thing the world wanted was a return to a full-scale armed conflict that produced nothing but more death and societal destruction. At the top of the U.N. pyramid, of course, is the Security Council — a body of the world’s most geopolitically vibrant countries, each with a veto, responsible for the ‘maintenance of international peace and security’ in global politics. If an armed conflict, a natural disaster, an atrocity committed by a government, or a nuclear weapons breakout occurred somewhere around the world, it is up to the Security Council to determine the best course of action in a unified and collective way. And in theory, every U.N. member state is required to uphold the council’s decisions.

“Today, it isn’t a stretch to say that the Security Council is not living up to those obligations. Indeed, what was originally thought to be a body where conciliation and unity between the world’s major powers would avert further war has changed into a forum that resembles a meaningless debating society. But what’s even worse than a meaningless debating society is one whose membership is composed of highly antagonistic actors constantly at each other’s throats regardless of the issue.”

My Comment: The United Nations and the Security Council of the United Nations are a reflection of the general state of the world. Moreover, the member nations of the Security Council are already in a state of open warfare. So it only remains to make this a reality. It is doubtful if after that a place will remain for the existence of the United Nations.

There must be a higher decision to seat all the permanent members of the United Nations in a “circle” and begin to arrange a study with them according to the method of connection and unity. It will be before or after the Third World War, but this will inevitably happen!
[194048]

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Opinion (Basil Koltashov, Head of Center for Economic Research Institute of Globalization and Social Movements ): “In the years 2015-2016, we buried many hopes and illusions. …

“The US economy is in a bubble. The bubble has debt already exceeding 100% of GDP.

“This bubble exists in the banking system where the situation seems stable only because of the Fed’s supercheap money. The bubble can also been seen in the housing market. And it is also in the stock market.

“There is a whole set of reasons for the 2008 crisis, but the situation is only under control for the meantime. …

“Of course, you can still talk about the strength of the US economy – the economy is high, the country is rich in resources, industry, agriculture and the development of technology. But there is no clarity with the prospects. Moreover, once again the storm is coming.”

My Comment: All of this is clear. It is just not clear how to awaken the sleeping brain of humanity to recognize the real and true danger and to become aware of a realistic solution.
[193944]

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In The News (Russian Bazaar): “One of every three and a half Americans at an age when they are capable of work who were born in the territory of the United States are living at the expense of relatives and from government assistance grants. This shocking conclusion was made by analysts of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) on the basis of new statistics by the Census Bureau (Census Bureau) and the Department of Labor (DOL).

“The increase in the number of unemployed Americans – one more consequence of the disappearing middle class, which during the reign of Barak Obama fell to a record 47% – 49%.

“Unemployed citizens were more likely to admit that the being poor today can be more profitable than the working taxpayer. …

“ If even a decade ago to be a representative of the middle class was prestigious, but now the poor are much more than the middle class.

“The conscious transition to the ranks of the poor is observed throughout America”.

My Comment: The world is advancing toward the end of its egoistic development and toward passage to the level of integral development, the development of an internal connection between individual people to the full feeling of all of us as one whole.

The need for superfluous work is disappearing. We will manufacture only what is imperative for our existence. We will invest all of our time and energy in the creation of integral connections among us from a desire and yearning (Achishena – I will hasten it) or from compulsion through suffering (Beito – in its time).
[191965]

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