Question: China has defined the minimum size of a bribe for which the death penalty is given: 3 million Yuan or 463,000 US dollars. In accordance with their gradation of the amount of money, defined as “large,” “huge,” and “enormous,” the court sentences various terms of imprisonment or the death penalty.
Does the Torah permit the death penalty?

Answer: Yes. There are four types of death penalties mentioned in the Torah: burning, strangling, stoning, and decapitation. These all stem from spiritual roots. In ancient times, death sentences were so rare that it was considered an unusual event. We can count very few cases in which Jewish people were sentenced to death during the thousand years before the nation of Israel received the Torah. During the 70 years there was one death sentence and this period was considered barbaric.

In those days the Sanhedrin made the final decision regarding a punishment. But the case was heard over many years, discussed so thoroughly for so long that individuals would die, and then the case was closed. However, these laws are hardly suitable for other nations because the Jewish nation is based on spiritual principles.

I don’t know if the world needs a death sentence today, but I have no doubt that there is a need for compulsory education all over the world. Humanity is affected by egoism that develops like a virus and infects everyone, from small children to the elderly. We are not aware of the many layers of the egoistic membrane that are wrapped around each of us. We don’t feel one another and treat each other according to values that are totally incompatible with the right desirable communication between people. The world is deteriorating, and if we don’t start some kind of spiritual human social educational, it will become totally barbaric. The whole problem is us.

Question: How can we reeducate all of humanity that is now 7-8 billion people? It sounds like a fantasy.

Answer: It is impossible to educate seven billion people, but it is possible to reeducate the 3-4 million people living in Israel. If the Jews really understood that the fate of the world depended on them and that they are facing the threat of annihilation, the threat of another Holocaust, all our problems would be solved. I have been saying that for many years, but lately global problems are increasingly manifesting: problems in UNESCO, in the UN, the elections in the US, problems in the EU common market, in Russia, in Syria, and everywhere.

We need to finally open our eyes and see that we are responsible for all these terrible egoistic revelations. We have to explain this to the Jewish people because the whole world will turn to us and demand an answer, demand compensation for the centuries they have suffered as a result of our lack of understanding and our reluctance to fulfill our mission.

As for the death sentence in China, it is also related to us. All the evil in the world on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, and the human level results from the behavior of the Jewish people, and so the world is beginning to turn to us through its subconscious hatred toward us, demanding that we reexamine our conduct. We should take things seriously, and then things will be better for us and for the whole world! There is no other way.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/19/16

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Question: The Graduate Student Association of New York University voted to support the resolution to impose a boycott on Israel. This resolution calls for the Student Union and all of its sponsors to end all ties with Tel Aviv University. Can this boycott be stopped?

Answer: It depends on us, the students of the wisdom of Kabbalah, on how much we succeed in explaining to everyone what the mission of the people of Israel is, why we exist as a nation and as a people. The role of the people of Israel is to bring humanity to the goal of creation, to the goal of the development of civilization. Those students who rise up against us as well as the entire world must discover and know this. It is up to us to say this with a “Voice of Voices” (Berachot 15b), in every street, on every stage, and in all of the communications media.

Unfortunately, we cannot even reach the Jewish people yet, all the more so everyone else; so this kind of threatening news will continue to reach us daily from all over the world, and gradually the “siege” will begin to tighten around us in the same manner but with different configurations.

The student boycott will be replaced by a technology boycott, an industrial boycott, an international trade boycott, the buying and selling of goods and so forth. But today no nation can exist in isolation, just as a family cannot exist alone without buying everything it needs at a store. So we have no choice. We must accelerate and rapidly catch up with the time that we have lost.

Jews all over the world must understand that the Creator is the one who is “narrowing the ring” around us, pushing us to carry out our mission. It is up to us to show all of humanity how to unite correctly for the sake of the world. Humanity can unite around the boycott against us, while on the contrary, we can come together if we begin to teach them about the right mutual connection between them. There are a total of two possibilities for the world. They can unite against us or unite with us in order to rise to the next higher level of human development.

The Jews cannot escape their obligation. We must carry out our mission because otherwise the boycott will become an “iron belt” tightening around us, a locked fortress that is being attacked from within and without. And we cannot hold our position because this is a “war” against the Creator.

Our role is not just to survive like all the rest of the peoples, but to show them the way toward the Creator. The Torah was given to us for this, and all the peoples subconsciously expect salvation from us. This is the reason they blame us for all of their problems.

We, the Kabbalists, must try to carry out our mission quickly with regard to the Jewish people; the Jewish people must realize their mission with regard to the nations of the world, and everyone together must carry out the general mission of humanity with regard to the Creator. Everything is realized in a single chain.
[182725]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/25/16

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In the News (Science Daily): “An international team of researchers led by the University of Granada (UGR) has demonstrated, for the first time, that depression is more than a mental disorder: it causes important alterations of the oxidative stress, so it should be considered a systemic disease, since it affects the whole organism.

“The results of this work could explain the significant association that depression has with cardiovascular diseases and cancer, and why people suffering from depression die younger. At the same time, this research may help finding new therapeutic targets for the prevention and treatment of depression.”

My Comment: Of course, the entire body is affected because the body, as well as the whole of creation, is a complete system, ten Sefirot, according to the general rule, “There is no partial in spirituality.”

The more that research of this type will become known to us, perhaps people will understand more rapidly that depression is clear sign of the demand by the body to attain fulfillment of the desire for pleasure in any way. In our day, fulfillment of the desire for pleasure is possible only through discovering the meaning of life. This is possible only by discovering our next level of development, which is the revelation of the upper world with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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Question: The State is Israel is celebrating its 68^th independence day, a country was built on the desert sands and has fought many wars in the struggle for its existence and independence. What do you think of the accomplishments of the State of Israel in such a short time?

Answer: It depends on what you consider an accomplishment. If we count the accomplishments by the technological innovations and other inventions, then they are truly great.

We have built a wonderful agricultural infrastructure; we can feed ourselves and we export many agricultural products; we don’t depend on rain water or on ground water, we desalinate sea water. We have built wonderful roads and railroads; we have a strong army and advanced weapons.

But all that does not guarantee our independence. A state’s independence today is not based on its power, on its inner technological, economic, or political strength. Today every country depends on the whole world. The modern world is round, global, a small village, and so if we want to be independent, we don’t need to be independent of others, but rather to be in good relations with everyone.

It is impossible to hold on to a certain position today and say, “I have a nuclear bomb so I don’t depend on anyone.” It is very easy today to isolate a country and to make it fall to its knees. Therefore, a state’s independence should be measured only by its good relations with other countries and not by its power.

The concept of independence does not refer to individual independence anymore. This concept now refers to global independence.

We can speak about being an individual country but the State of Israel is not independent yet.

Question: So what do we celebrate?

Answer: We celebrate the state’s birthday and nothing more than that.

Question: But the world we depend on is, in most cases, against us.

Answer: Unfortunately it depends on us. We are the only state in the world whose independence depends on us alone, while all the other states depend on each other and, at the same time, also on us. This is the most amazing thing!

Therefore, if we want to be independent, we have to unite in order to set an example for the whole world. The moment humanity sees that, it will immediately begin to learn how to unite from us and we will become Light unto the nations. In that case, nothing will threaten us anymore.

Now, on the other hand, we only cause the other nations harm according to what we hear on all sides and from all the nations. We are the source of evil for the whole world! Because Israel is the central part of the general system of the world and whatever happens to Israel affects all the other nations.

If the relations between us in our country are bad, we convey the same state to the world and the whole world falls to a state of division, disputes, and disagreements. Unless we unite, the world will not unite and all the nations will blame us for all their troubles.

Since the ego is constantly growing, the nations of the world will treat us increasingly worse with every year that goes by.

I wish our nation would begin to understand who we are and that not only our independence and our prosperity depend on our unity, but also the prosperity and independence of all the nations of the world does as does their positive attitude toward us.

I bless you all and wish all our future true independence day!
[183220]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 5/9/16

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Comment: The nation celebrates the memory of the fallen Israeli soldiers. On these days the situation at the border of the Gaza Strip continues to be alarming: renewed exchanges of fire, the discovery of new tunnels all the time. If the latest statement from the commander of the Southern Command, Major General Eyal Zamir is to be believed, Hamas is preparing for the next war. Chances are that events like these will continue. Since the proclamation of this state, 23,447 soldiers gave their lives for the existence of Israel. Can we freeze this number and stop it from becoming larger?

Answer: No, because we haven’t taken any extreme measures to stop not only the wars of the world, but also the lapse of humanity into a new world war. All of this is in the hands of the Jewish people, especially the people gathered here, in Israel. For this we must unite among us. Unfortunately, in this regard we are a very stubborn, stiff-necked people who don’t want to unite. To date, we are behaving like a bunch of refugees from different nations.

Comment: But our army is considered to be one of the most cohesive and patriotic armies in the world.

Answer: This has no relation to the unity we must find and discover between us. It is the unity that is expressed in the Torah as, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), which is the great general rule of the Torah (Yerushalmi Nedarim 30:2). We must achieve this level of unification within the framework of all the people, or at least begin to move toward it. If we begin to make some kind of movement toward this, we will immediately begin to feel changes for the better among our people and in the attitude of the nations of the world in regard to us. We can simply check this out for ourselves. And if we don’t do this, then from day to day we will feel more fragmented, rough, and unsafe within our internal borders.

Question: Where to start—the media, the schools?

Answer: With the establishment of a general guideline of nationwide public education in that same spirit in which it was established by Abraham 3,500 years ago in ancient Babylon and existed with until the destruction of the second Beit HaMikdash (Temple), when it fell from love to hatred, in which it has been in until today. It is now up to us to ascend again to the level of love, kindness, and the understanding that we are one family, to be “like one person with one heart,” meaning to return to what lies at the foundation of our people. We are different from the other peoples. For them it is enough simply to be together with each other. We have no common biological foundation, like the English and the French and so forth, for example. So the moment we lose the unity between us, we immediately disintegrate, disperse, and begin to hate each other. Moreover, among our people appear those who become the main anti-Semites in the world. So we are obligated to begin with unification. That is what the wisdom of Kabbalah says, and only in this manner will we save ourselves and stop the increasing the number of soldiers killed.

Comment: Speaking of government policies, it is very difficult to compare those good and wonderful ideas that you talk about with the stern apparatus of government policy.

Answer: Yes, but the government must take this upon itself and the people must obligate it, and everyone together must begin to be involved with education in the spirit of unity, without waiting for government decisions. This must be a very serious network that will be involved with popular education, teaching the entire society to live with good mutual attitudes. This has already begun to exist. We have been trying to create it and have gotten responses from people. Even though we have seen good results, it is still too little. Certainly, we are trying in this way to influence the government, participating in elections, doing all the kinds of activities possible to materialize our idea in life. But without pressure from the people on the Knesset, there won’t be any shift.

Question: Can a person who is reading this do something toward this trend?

Answer: He can, only if he comes to study in courses according to the method of integral education and information. We are inviting everyone. Come, become interested. We will work together and immediately feel changes for the better from the entire world in regard to Israel.
[183214]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 5/9/16

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In the News (LeMonde): “At a time when Europe is disintegrating, hanging in the air is a scent of nostalgia, the twilight remembrance of a time we thought immutable. The announced death of Europe, like the end of empires, fell without being beware. The old continent is found in the world of Austrian Jewish writer Stefan Zweig, haunted by the Austro-Hungarian grandeur before 1914. ‘It was the golden age of safety,’ Zweig wrote in Le Monde yesterday. … ‘Everything in our Austrian monarchy, almost a millennia, seemed based on that duration and the state itself seemed the supreme guarantor of this continuity … Nobody believed in wars, revolutions and upheavals. Any extreme event, violence, seemed almost impossible because of an era.’

“A century later, safety flew. Unreason prevails. The European Golden Age is over. Its promise of prosperity, embodied by the euro, the gold standard of the twenty-first century, is belied by the ongoing crises and mass unemployment; its political ambition, to forge a ‘union ever closer between European peoples’, as stipulated in the Treaty of Rome in 1957, smashes the rise of populism and the threat of [Britain’s exit from the EU] and extension of the French ‘no’ in the 2005 referendum; Its message of peace is belied by the return of foreign war (Syria, Russia) and interior, with Islamist terrorism.”

My Comment: I don’t have a malicious joy at seeing the predictions I made more than a decade ago, which were even published in this blog, coming true. I translate what the wisdom of Kabbalah says about what is happening, and the wisdom says there is a different path of development. But it depends on the unity of the Jews in Israel, Europe, and the world.

Because only by the unity of the Jews, as required by Kabbalah, is the unifying force revealed in the world and it enables us to integrate! The more the Jews reject the idea of unity, the world will show a growing hatred toward them, up to a new Holocaust.
[181966]

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Comment: During his interrogation, Mohammed Abrini, one of the three suspects in the terrorist activity in Brussels, stated that one of the targets of the terrorist operation was planned to be on the counter of the El-Al airline, meaning that the intent was to harm Israeli citizens.

Even before then, the Israeli Minister of Intelligence had expressed suspicion that a terrorist attack was being planned against Israeli citizens, but nobody believed him. In retrospect, it is probable that the terrorists were forced to change their plans when they discovered that there were no potential victims near the counter.

Following this statement, it is logical that they would blame the Jews because they tried to harm us, but when we weren’t there, they harmed others. This would mean that the Israelis were to blame.

My Comment: The terrorists’ implication is that: “Through its policies, Israel arouses terrorism. As a result, other people are killed. Therefore we are asking the Europeans to pressure Israel to withdraw from foreign soil. Then the terrorism will stop.”

This policy is working wonderfully, especially since it corresponds to the desires of the Europeans. They don’t want to see the Jewish people exist, especially the Jewish nation. Soon we will see how they will go out against Israel in partnership, hand in hand.

The reason for this is that internally in the nations of the world hatred exists toward the Jews for not carrying out their historical role, and I can understand them.

The Jews must unite and bring the world the world the method of unification through the example that they give to the nations of the world. If the Jews don’t carry out their mission, then the world doesn’t need them and will want to annihilate them. Conversely, if the Jews were to do this, the world would carry them on their shoulders with pleasure and make them into their teachers. This is what the world subconsciously wants.

Everything is in our hands. We have no reason to blame the terrorists or other people. All of those who are currently against Israel are right since Israel has not corrected itself and is not carrying out its role.

Let’s hope that the people of Israel will still understand their historical mission, get smart, begin to unite, and show the whole world an example of unity, which the world needs so much.
[182157]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/14/16

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Question: In 2015 there were a record number of death sentences enforced: more than 1,600. Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia are the leading nations in the number of executions; they carry out close to 90% of them. What is happening with us? Have we become less sensitive than before?

Answer: The world is advancing toward more brutal times, and soon even Europe will begin executions. The “Golden Age” has already passed, and we will see how everywhere in the world the death sentence will become a routine punishment.

The tolerance that existed for ten or twenty years has gone. The bourgeoisie that has come to power again seeks control through money and power, and is only concealed by what is called tolerance. What was no longer is.

There are no democratic elections, everywhere stands dictators who only reach agreements between themselves and decide who will replace whom. Everything is bought and sold for money, and if not, then for more money. Europe that could once declare that it was democratic and tolerant has long gone.

Question: What is your personal attitude toward the death penalty?

Answer: According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, a death sentence is permissible, but only enforced every ten years.

In the Talmud it is said that if a death sentence is decreed in a particular court more than once in seventy years, then it is considered cruel.

Let us hope that we can achieve times like these in which not only the need for capital punishment will be cancelled, but also other penalties, prisons in particular! Prison is a product of the ego. According to the Torah, prisons are unnecessary. They don’t correct a person; on the contrary, they harden him and direct him toward even greater sins. In the period of the Kabbalists in Israel, there were no prisons.

Question: Thinking about our present uncorrected situation in the world, would you introduce capital punishment into Israeli law?

Answer: In principle we are left with no choice. In ancient times, education and information preceded the behavior of people.

Today there is no education at all among the population; so talking about a need for the immediate cancellation of punishment is impossible. It could be that the laws that are in force now can rein in the population from performing violent actions and outbursts to some degree.

But in general it is up to us to think about this, so that we will reach a situation where there will not be any need for capital punishment.
[182148]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/14/16

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Comment: A group of scientists from Tel Aviv University examined the correspondence of the garrison force at the 600 BC Tel Arad fortress and concluded that the Bible was written several centuries earlier than has been believed until now.

As we all know, the Torah was written after the return from the exile in Babylon because there were not enough educated Jews who could write it. Now following this discovery scientists are re-examining when the Bible was written.

Answer: The first book about the wisdom of Kabbalah was written by Adam about 5,770 years ago. During the time between Adam and Abraham, there were several other writings by different Kabbalists. Abraham, as Rambam claims, wrote many Kabbalaistic books, but only one remained until our days, The Book of Creation. Abraham, who lived in ancient Babylon 3,500 years ago, gathered a group of people who became the nation of Israel with time. All the members of the group had to learn how to read and write. They spoke Hebrew because Hebrew and Aramaic were the languages spoken in ancient Babylon.

Abraham’s group was founded in order to attain the upper world in the connection between people. On this basis, they naturally understood the origin of the letters, the roots of the words, and felt the language of the branches, the upper attributes of the world, which have no names, called roots, and are named by their consequences in our world, which are called the branches.

Many books were written in the time between Abraham and Moses because all the Jews were highly educated from Abraham’s time onward. Since the exile in Egypt onward, the Jews left Egypt on a totally different level of consciousness and attainment because during their life in slavery they got to know their work in the ego. During the 40 years of wandering in the desert they began to write the Torah for all the nations.

It says that Moses taught his students along with his assistant Joshua. Moreover he taught all the people because the Levites engaged in the general education and teaching of the nation.

Question: How long did the writing of the Torah (Pentateuch) take?

Answer: The Torah was gradually created during the 40 years of wandering in the desert. Everything the nation of Israel underwent in practice took place internally in their spiritual roots, and they expressed this in the book called Moses’ Torah.

When they lived in the land of Israel after the building of the First Temple and then after the building of the Second Temple, they wrote all the other books including the “Prophets” (Naviim), the “Holy Scriptures” (Ketuvim), and the Mishna.

From the time the two temples were destroyed and before they were exiled, the Talmud was written, and all the other books were written while they were in exile.

The Torah says that there wasn’t a child from Dan to Beer Sheba who didn’t know the Jewish laws and who didn’t know how to read and write. They knew most of the books by heart because that was the ancient method of studying; students had to learn by heart what the teacher taught them.

Question: This means that there was never a break in literacy.

Answer: Since the time of Adam, in those circles where Kabbalists lived, there was almost universal literacy. Abraham eradicated illiteracy among the ancient Babylonians who joined him.
[182144]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/14/16

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Comment: A new bill was proposed to cancel financial transactions imposed on the weaker sectors of the population, over the phone or during a visit of a representative from different companies, that push pensioners, new immigrants, or disabled people to buying products they have no need for.

Previously it was possible to cancel transactions within two weeks of a purchase, now it is proposed to extend the period to four months.

Answer: Correct. It is essential. In addition, organize legal aid for these people to protect them from the various offers and unexpected visits they receive. Such occurrences are frequent! After all, we are talking about a lot of money.

It is worthwhile to add, because at present there is a transition to communicate through the Internet since people contact each other through the internet and prefer not to go to stores.

Comment: The whole matter is about lack of trust….

Answer: The whole matter is about the egoistic nature of man that wants to cheat others, to get rich at the expense of others, and it’s the only way to earn a lot of money.

Question: Why does it make us feel good?

Answer: A person doesn’t just get corporeal satisfaction from it but also moral satisfaction. He feels that he is higher, more successful, and smarter than the other, that he is special.

Further, he is strongly convinced that he did a good deed for the “poor guy,” by selling him something a little cheaper.  He even justifies himself.

There is nothing we can do; we live in this world. If we reveal this from the viewpoint of egoistic existence, then we are speaking about constantly “deceiving ” each other and a constant struggle at all levels: in the government, in organizations, and between them!

Everything is aimed at deceiving people, taking advantage of them. First I think how  I will profit in relation to the other, that the other person should lose, and that he will lose in such a way that the next time he will come to me anyway and will buy from me. This means that the next time I can deceive again. And that’s the way it is all the time.

Question: Will there be an end to this?

Answer: The end will come only after all the population goes through general education. It needs to be a political mission. We need to support education for the society, for the nation, and also for the United Nations. After all, it should be involved only in education!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/31/16

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