Toward The New World In A Reasonable Way

Question: What will happen to the world if humanity just sits by idly?

Answer: If we sit with our hands folded, then a third world war will start. Little of the world’s population would remain, and the small percentage of people who would survive would be forced to accept the method of mutual and correct cooperation between them to reach a state in which all of humanity would rise to a new developmental level.

We have already exhausted what has been given to us on Earth on the levels of still, vegetative, and animate nature and now we need to rise to the level of Adam (Man).Adam, similar (Domeh) to the upper force, is our next level of existence.

We see that we are at an impasse in science, culture, relationships, the family, and the mutual cooperation between us. The world has fallen into drugs,feeling the futility and meaningless of existence. The current paradigm has exhausted itself and must be replaced by a new one.

Question: May a third world war really be needed to carry out the process of rebooting?

Answer: Why? After all, it can be done without war. For example, a naughty child learns through blows, whereas a good child understands that it is preferable to do everything in the best and quickest way.

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about these two possibilities, because it is possible for us to reach the next stage, not automatically through blows as evolution has compelled us to do for thousands of years, but through the reasonable way of an honest intellect.
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From “The Echo of Moscow” Radio Program 11/25/15

Upon Whom Do The Blows Of The Creator Land?

Question: Yesterday you said that help from the Creator comes in the form of troubles, blows to the ego, yet when they strike my “donkey” it doesn’t seem like help to me….

Answer: There is no greater help than this. After all, I am within the desire to receive, egoism, and what truly works on me are these blows, not a nice attitude.

Basically, the blows that the Creator gives me are a reward, and my work is always “to kiss the stick.” I build a new spiritual Kli by changing my attitude to the blows, identifying with them and leaving my suffering donkey. The donkey, let it suffer; I turn to the side of the rod and am eager to adhere to the hand that holds it.

With the help of the blows I separate and free myself from my egoism. When I have no where to escape them, I cannot help but wonder if it isn’t possible to evade the stick, then I no longer want to identify with the “flesh.” This is a natural reaction: if I feel unbearable suffering, first of all I ask the doctor for a pill to reduce the pain, meaning I want to pull away from the suffering of the body.

That is how the pain helps me to renounce egoism and connect to something that is used for helping me. And suddenly looking at my ego from the outside, I discover that I am suffering specifically because of it. So the pain helps me distance myself from the ego and get closer to the Creator.

So the blows are necessary. But upon whom are they falling? It is not on me, but my egoistic desire. This desire is not me. I want to identify, not with the “body,” not with the desire, but with intentions for bestowal, to the yearning for bestowal, that are above egoism. Now I understand the desire was given to me to so that over it I would adopt the attitude and involvement with bestowal.

Consequently I need the blows. They help me to make the right calculation.

It is said: “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” The entire history of the people of Israel since they left Babylon is the history of overcoming suffering. Even in the period of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) there were numerous wars and problems that accompanied the inner work, the clarification of egoism and its correction. The Torah calls Israel a “stiff-necked people” (Exodus 33:3); after all, their desire was always increasing and this led to stronger confrontations.

What can we say about the last 2,000 years of exile when the people were pursued by troubles and faced brutality; it knew no bounds. How is it possible to compare this to a day of illness after a fever? All of these troubles came from the Creator, the good who does good (Psalms 119:68), and landed on the egoistic desire making to make it possible to detach from it and achieve bestowal.

So the problem is that we identify with the desire to receive. If, contrary to the program, despite the fact that it was imposed upon me, I have not yet renounced egoism and am still connected to it, I need to receive blows.

But in fact this is not so, and when I separate from egoism I will stop getting the stick on account of myself. When my time arrives to separate from the ego, to leave it, to that degree trouble befalls me. But the stick comes down specifically on the desire and not on me. If I am detached from the desire, then I don’t feel the blow; on the contrary, I feel good, more strength, health, and attainment.

This is the entire problem. That is what is called exile.

The Creator will increase the blows on the desire to receive methodically so that we will abandon it. Today all of humanity is entering into this process along with the people of Israel, but nevertheless, the people of Israel still have to repay their debts.
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From the 2d part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/14, The Book of Zohar

The Strength Of ISIS

Opinion (zeit online, Tamim Ansary): “The true power of the IS is not in his bombs and guns or its hideous determination. It resides rather in the ingenious way in which how the organization formulates their worldview and forges a weapon: It is an apocalyptic confrontation between Islam and the West is in progress. … They will wipe out the satanic other and unite the world under the umbrella of Islam.”

My Comment: No matter what you call modern Islam, we already see the chaos it generates and spreads in the world. It also makes no difference what the true Islam is, which like true Judaism and Christianity, perhaps may not exist in our world.

Humanity must learn to live together without imposing any ideas by force but by appreciating only one idea—the inclusive connection and unity above all the differences and contradictions.
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The Wealthy Lost Billions

Question: During the first trading week of 2016, the combined wealth of 400 of the richest people in the world was reduced by $200 billion. According to the Bloomberg Index, the main reason for this financial loss is the economic slowdown of China and falling oil prices.

Answer: We don’t want to understand that this world has a beginning and an end, as does everything else in the world.
“This world” refers to the egoistic system of mutual cooperation between us that we built. It can exist no longer because, like a hydra, it is beginning to eat itself.

The problem is that in the paradigm upon which this world was created, everything is measured by money. But money is the equivalent of egoism according to which we can no longer measure the world today.

Question: So, what would be the equivalent paradigm?

Answer: It will be a paradigm that is not material since from a material aspect everyone will be provided for. One can see how the immigrants are inundating Europe, and the Europeans are providing all of their necessities. For example, one can stop working and certain organizations and the state will take care of him.

Question: Does this mean that the fear of being without money will disappear?

Answer: Without a doubt! Today, a person doesn’t work to meet his basic needs. Although he is still working to make more money, the cycle of money-commodities-money where human efforts are equivalent to a salary is disappearing. It is necessary to provide a person with what he needs to live, regardless of whether he works or not.

Therefore, in the future, the value equivalent to money will be only the good mutual relationships between people as humanity gradually discovers that it is the power of good being disseminated by those studying the wisdom of Kabbalah that creates the amazing property of abundance in nature. The “earnings” of a person will be determined by how much good feelings and intentions toward others come from him.

The value will be determined not according to income, but by how much he can give, disseminate, do something to rally people together. After all, the unity of people will make them assimilate with the higher nature, and everyone can receive abundance from that higher force, like good health, flourishing nature, balanced weather, and so forth. This will be equivalent to the salary of a person.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/10/16

Are You Ready To Work Less?

Comment: Co-chair of the Zionist camp Tzipi Livni suggested adding Sundays as an additional weekend day off in Israel. She believes that this would help reduce the tensions that exist in society regarding resting on the Sabbath and in addition would make it possible for Israelis to become more united, as one people, and would build good neighborliness and mutual respect.

Answer: I would have suggested three full days of rest: Friday according to the Muslim religion, Saturday according to the Jewish religion, and Sunday according to the Christian religion.

We would need to make sure that all three days were balanced properly so people could effectively enjoy their leisure time. On Sundays people could go out more, shopping and communicating more.

It would be good to prepare some interesting social and children’s programs.  After all, children would have two free days, and they would need something to do so they don’t run wild. For this we would need to seriously prepare so as not to miss the opportunity to create a correct developmental and educational framework for them that would maintain their physical and mental health.

The nation must harness the entire public for this so that they will take upon themselves a large part of the responsibility for the free time in the three-day weekend. I think that this would lower tensions and hostility in society. It should be a state program of how we spend the time freed from completely superfluous labor that is no longer necessary in today’s world.

On the other hand, there are fields of activity that could continue to operate without interruption. For example, if the work on some construction sites involves only foreign workers, why can’t construction take place on Saturdays? Let people make the decision.

And the same thing could apply to all other specialties that we need. They could have staggered schedules.

That is all it is necessary to think, to do the smart thing, without any party manners: who will benefit and how it can be adapted for yourself.

This is a very difficult proposal, around which you can reshape the whole society.  It is necessary to think about all to make wise decisions, without any party matters.

This is a very complex proposal, and it is possible to reshape all of society around it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/8/16

The Threat Of Financial Collapse – The Atlantic Ocean Is Free Of Merchant Ships

In the News (YourNewsWire): “Russian Naval Forces have reported that the entire Atlantic Ocean appears to be totally deserted of major freighter ships for the first time in recorded history.

“The Kremlin say that Panamax and New Panamax vessels, plus all types of wet carrier (oil/liquified natural gas) vessels including VLCC and ULCC supertanks are nowhere to be seen.

“Russia claim that the evacuation of the Atlantic ocean is a ‘clear’ sign of a coming Western economic/banking collapse, with the world’s stock markets crashing during the first part of the year being another clear signal.”

From (Superstation95.com): “Commerce between Europe and North America has literally come to a halt.  For the first time in known history, not one cargo ship is in-transit in the North Atlantic between Europe and North America.  All of them (hundreds) are either anchored offshore or in-port.  NOTHING is moving.

“This has never happened before.  It is a horrific economic sign; proof that commerce is literally stopped.

“The reason commerce has stopped is simple: People are not buying things.   When people do not buy things, retailers do not sell things, so they do not order more goods for stock.

“When retailers do not order goods, manufacturers don’t make anything because there are no orders to fill.  When manufacturers do not make goods, they don’t order raw materials for manufacturing.

“When there are no orders for raw materials, commodities sellers do not sell raw materials. When no raw materials are sold, there is no shipping by large cargo ships, (or railroads or tractor trailers) to move anything.

“Put simply, the global economy is LITERALLY stopping.  Right now.  Today.”

My Comment: This is so after talking about in this blog many years ago. And what will happen next? Look at what I already wrote about it in the past. And this is not a matter of gloating; rather it is so that we can be saved from the impending chaos!
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Whitening The Black Point

Human growth in the spiritual world is similar to the phases of the moon, the constant renewal of the moon. The moon symbolizes Malchut, which in itself is black and doesn’t shine but reaches correction through the Ohr Hozer (Returning Light). The correction of the moon is called Kiddush (Sanctification), which isKodesh (Holiness), meaning it rises to the level of Bina through which it is whitened. Through corrections, the black point transforms into a white point every month.

A Hodesh (Month) symbolizes Hidush (Innovation), and this doesn’t necessarily last thirty days. It is even after this when the work with our spiritual Partzuf is divided into Rosh, Toch and Sof, each one with ten Sefirot from which exactly thirty parts result. However, in the meantime, we can go through renewals every moment because we have not yet discovered the details clarifying our contact with the Creator at every point.

So, the main thing now is to try to construct oneself as an Ubar (Fetus) within the group. It is necessary to imagine that the group has the image of the Creator that it is in connection and love, and only I must become integrated with it. Through the group, I will be able to find the strength that will help me to nullify myself.

I must nullify myself regarding all of the events in life, but this doesn’t mean that I don’t need to do anything, as we sometimes mistakenly think and sit without moving in some meditation, canceling ourselves with respect to something higher. Nullifying myself means canceling my egoism, not inaction.

I specifically need to carry out actions, and there are many. I need to contend with all of the disturbances that conceal “There is none else besides Him” and, as it is written, “You are good and You do good” (Psalms 119:68) from me. I need to determine beyond all of the disturbances that everything comes from the Creator, both me and my surroundings.

There is only one black point, from which I make a clarification about myself and the environment, that wants to blacken everything from perspective of my egoism. It is only this black point that I must transform into white, understanding that everything comes by command of the Creator, according to His order, and that is how to advance.

If we make efforts like these and help each other, then very rapidly we will reach a state of Ubar.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/14

God Carried Out An Act Of Terrorism?

Comment: A year after the massacre at the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a new edition was published depicting God on its cover with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and hands soiled with blood. The Vatican immediately protested.

Answer: Why was the Vatican indignant? Didn’t God to this?! Who creates all the problems in the world?

After all, God said: “I created the evil inclination” (Kiddushin 30b). What is the origin of all the terrible crimes and everything else? Our evil inclination that the Creator created in us: so turn to Him.

He gave us the evil inclination so that we would correct and reeducate ourselves, but we are not doing this. The second half of the phrase “I created the evil inclination…” is “I created the Torah as a spice.” Therefore, it is necessary to take the Torah and use it correctly.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how to change our nature from an evil and egoistic nature to a good and altruistic nature. That is how God will be revealed before us correctly. Then we, the evil inclination, and the good inclination will be aimed correctly and will rise to the level of the Creator. That is what the Creator created the evil inclination for.

When we use only one characteristic without the other, we don’t have anyone to blame except ourselves, and anyway the Creator created even this in us.

Therefore one must turn to the Creator, but through the second half of His statement.
[174200]From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/7/16

Escaping Europe

In the News (The Star): “Marseille Jews are being asked to go without the kippa ‘until better days’ amid a rise in anti-Semitic violence – a recommendation that’s being met with ire. …

“Religious Jews in Marseille are facing a wrenching choice: Whether to wear the skullcap that proclaims their religion or tuck it away in hopes of staying safe. …

“An attack this week was the last straw for the Marseille Jewish community’s religious leadership: A machete-wielding 15-year-old slashed a Jewish teacher in the street. Under police questioning, the boy invoked Islamic State.

“Zvi Ammar, head of the Israelite Consistory of Marseille, asked Jews to go without the kippa ‘until better days.’ Kippa is the Hebrew word for skullcap, while it is known as a yarmulke in Yiddish.

“Ammar called it the hardest decision he’d ever made. His words disturbed and divided French Jews and non-Jews alike, and evoked Nazi-era fears.

“And they were a slap to the French government, desperate to reassure its Jewish community — the world’s third largest — and a nation shaken by a violent year.

“The president called the recommendation intolerable. Two Jewish legislators wore kippas to French Parliament in protest.

“It means that we are projecting part of the responsibility on the victim,” France’s chief rabbi, Haim Korsia, told The Associated Press.”

Answer: About 70-80 years ago there were calls that Jews should remain Jews and continue to wear kippas along with all the other typical Jewish features, which led to the extermination of the people. After all, there were those who tried to convince the Jews not to flee from Eastern Europe before WWII and to remain Jewish. And 6 million were killed.

Who kept them there until the end and called them to stay? The leaders of the nation. If the leaders has risen and said “we have to leave immediately,” everyone could have been saved. After all, Hitler wanted to transfer the Jews to Palestine and they were allowed to come to the US at first, but they refused. Why? Because the religious leaders held them back.

I believe that all European Jews should first take off their kippas. The Torah says that if you are being threatened you have to do everything in your power to remove the threat. This is called protecting the soul.

Second, no one will protect them if they start killing Jews and it will not even be reported on the media.

Question: So what should they do?

Answer: Leave on time. If the past doesn’t teach them, there is nothing I can say. The Jews are called a stiff-necked people.

Question: Where should they go to?

Answer: The safest place for them is Israel, or at least another country where they can live in, like America for example.

Europe is no place for Jews anymore after WWII. People tolerated them for a while as a way of paying for their earlier sins, but the Jews have no future there.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/13/16

Chernobyl Is Flourishing

Comment: It has been 30 years since the explosion at the nuclear reactor in Chernobyl. Recently scientists decided to check what is going on in the surrounding area around and installed 42 cameras.

They discovered that over the past 30 years the number of animals in the area increased many times over.  There are animals that had disappeared from that area a hundred years ago and even animals that were completely extinct, like wild rats, the brown bear, Przewalski horses, buffalo, and foxes.

One of the international group of scientists that conducted the research, Professor Jim Smith from Portsmouth University, was quoted in New Scientist‘s article “Wildlife is thriving around Chernobyl since the people left“: “Whatever negative effects there are from radiation, they are not as large as the negative effects of having people there, …”.

Answer: Man is the most harmful force in nature and is even worse than a nuclear bomb. Without man’s interference the ecological balance is restored; even if it seems that certain species have totally disappeared, nothing in nature actually disappears forever.

It seems that certain animals devour others and that they seemingly become extinct, but if the ecological system needs certain species, they will be restored. If animals become extinct, it is the mark of man on nature by his attitude. When man is absent nature flourishes.

Question: What should we do so that nature should flourish with us and that we will exist in it?

Answer: We have to correct ourselves in order to achieve that because we have destroyed the human being in us, and as a result we destroy the future and make the earth an unlivable place.

All of nature was created for man’s sake, so that by living in this world, like an animal, he will ascend to the next level of his evolution, expand his senses and their boundaries, and feel the upper world through this world. Our world will simply withdraw to the sides before man and like in a movie and he will see that there is another dimension behind it. It is indeed so.

I advise you to come closer and to enter this new reality that exists and is ready for every individual and for all of us together.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/8/16

How To Deal With Terrorism?

Question: If we unite, will we be able to defeat terrorism?

Answer: According to the wisdom of Kabbalah we have to unite against our internal evil, our egoism. This evil is not in a person himself but between people. If we unite, both terrorism and all the other problems in the world will disappear.

Question: How long will it take for all the people in the world to start establishing friendly relations? Will they will keep shooting each another until then?

Answer: Nature has its own rules. We have to reach an integral society, reach the new level of our evolution and to discover the next world, which is higher than our world. Today we live on the level of animals, not on the human level. The word “human,” Adam in Hebrew, stems from the word “Domeh,” to resemble, general nature. We have to ascend above ourselves.

When we begin to sense the world in two opposite forces that are balanced between good and evil, then we will see a totally different picture above the one we see now, a perfect eternal world of forces and mutual actions. This is the world that we should discover now while living in our body, and this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us.

Question: So should we stop bombing ISIS and engage only in our own personal growth?

Answer: No, we should continue our struggle against ISIS and other terrorists. If you are attacked or threatened, you should precede your enemies and kill them first.

But through physical actions alone, we will not achieve anything. We have to establish good relations between us, the right mutual relations through which the good force that is concealed in nature will be revealed in the world. Then it will begin to balance the evil force and organizations like ISIS and everything that is in the form of evil in this world today will disappear.

In the meantime we simply restrain them by bombing and fighting against them, but they will not disappear unless the good force of nature affects them.

This is what is happening in Europe, and we are helpless. Terrorism will grab more and more parts of the world until it fills the whole world. This is how we will be forced to accept the method of correction.
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From “The Echo of Moscow” Radio Program 11/25/15

An Embryo Has No Right To Criticize Its Mother

Rabash, “What Is That The Right Hand Should Be Raised Over The Left Hand In The Work”: We need the drawing force and the delaying force in conception. This means that conception is the first phase when a person enters Holiness.

The drawing force is the force that shows the truth, the drawing of the world, which means whether one has a good picture of the state he is in, which shines on him in the world, which means the form he has when he looks at his work, whether he is in a state of wholeness or not, meaning whether he works for in order to bestow or whether he wants to work for in order to bestow no matter what.

The delaying force is called by that name since when the drawing force shows a person the truth, which during conception is called the beginning of the world, he surely sees the deficiencies which may be grip for the Sitra Achra (the other side) and therefore there must be a delaying force, so that the embryo will not fall, which means fall into the Sitra Achra, and in order to delay and prevent the fall although there is a deficiency, as the drawing force shows, a certain form that this work has, the delaying force is called the right line.

It is because it moves on to the phase of wholeness, which means that he believes in the faith of sages who said that a person should be happy with what he has, which means with his attainment of the Torah and the Mitzvot (commandments), which is a great reward for him since he sees that there are people to whom the Creator has not given a thought or a desire even for the fact that I do have a certain attainment, which is called the delaying force, that one should not fall from the world and that he will also be born later, meaning from this world of keeping himself in conception, meaning at the beginning of the work, that there should be two lines, meaning the right and the left lines, and he will be rewarded to be born and to be in the phase of suckling of Holiness, which by the drawing force and the delaying force a whole embryo will come out of this work in Holiness.

Our development involves drawing and delaying. The drawing force develops the embryo and the delaying force delays and guards the embryo so that that drawing force would not destroy the embryo and so that it will develop into the correct body. The drawing force develops the embryo from the inside and the delaying force limits it on the outside and so together they build the future newborn.

It is just like a statue that can be sculptured out of clay and can be made from a block of marble by removing unnecessary parts, which means that it is possible to add or to remove, to add a form or to remove matter, and thus eventually turn the block of marble into a statue.

This is how our embryo is formed, because we need two forces, the force of bestowal and the force of receiving, which should be balanced, in harmony, supporting each other; the Light keeps the darkness and the darkness keeps the Light. This is the reason that we must constantly yearn for connection, mutual support, love, and corrections because this is the correction of the shattering. We build the embryo in the connection between us, the states of Ibur (conception), Yenika (suckling) and Mochin(mind), meaning our increasingly more advanced forms, until the end of correction. This development is achieved by the increasingly greater connections between the parts of the desire, attributes, and inclinations that are in the connection; the drawing force is revealed in the feeling of connection between us.

I undergo ascents and descents in the same connection, feeling it as good or bad, justifying it or not. I see the depicting force that draws the picture of the Lord’s work for me in a different way and so I must constantly work on keeping my state of an embryo so that despite the pictures that are depicted to me I will accept them thankfully and be impressed by them because I keep advancing in bestowal toward the true form of theCreator, toward absolute love and bestowal.

It turns out that I need the delaying force, which guards and doesn’t allow me to break through and to criticize but constantly keeps me impressed by the forms that I attain. These forms are not pleasant, of course, if we weigh them by our egoistic mind and feelings, and so I constantly need the delaying force that brings me back to the right conclusions.

If these new forms are forms of in order to bestow, I weigh them in my desire to bestow in faith above reason and accept them as good and right forms, and although at the moment I cannot accept them in my heart and soul, I accept them in faith above reason, in my overcoming power, and agree to be in them without any egoistic sweetening. I don’t think about my personal benefit but only about the well being of thegroup, of the environment.

I am required to scrutinize things carefully and sharply in order to weigh my situation soberly and without mistakes in the spiritual fog. But I actually weigh things simply and see whether it is for the sake of my ego or for the sake for the environment. If I weigh it from the perspective of the environment, I ensure that my embryo adheres increasing more tightly to the wall of the womb. The group is the womb. Thus I advance and adapt myself more and more to the upper, to the spiritual womb, and this is how I will be able to receive from the upper increasingly more of the Light that Reforms, like a corporeal embryo who receives his vitality from his mother.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/14

Global Leadership – A Thing Of The Past

Opinion (Ian Bremmer, Time): “During the annual Asia-Pacific leaders’ summit in Manila in November, President Obama sought out two people for a pressing conversation. Not Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces were busy changing facts on the ground in Syria, nor Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose global economic strategy is paying off for China. Instead, he turned to a pair of entrepreneurs: Jack Ma, the CEO of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, and Aisa Mijeno, an ecological innovator from the Philippines. Obama gave a short speech and then spent nearly half an hour moderating a panel discussion with two businesspeople.

“Obama’s explicit message was that government and business must work together to solve energy and environmental problems. The unspoken message was louder: in a hotel filled with leaders, the President of the United States felt he had more to gain chatting with private citizens than engaging his counterparts. …

“In a world of emergencies, leadership matters—and in 2016 it will become unavoidably obvious that the world lacks leadership. The days when heads of the G-7 industrial powers like the U.S. and Germany controlled geopolitics and the global economy are gone for good. The international group of today is the expanded G-20, which is much larger—including important emerging powers like China and India—yet agrees on much less. The result might be called a G-zero world, a global caucus whose members don’t share political and economic values or priorities. They don’t have a common vision for the future. Many years in the making, a G-zero world is now fully upon us.

“For all the rhetoric from U.S. presidential candidates, Washington can no longer even pretend to play global police officer, because public support isn’t there for any action that might require long-term commitments of U.S. troops and taxpayer dollars. …

“Yet abroad, America’s once predominant influence is fading fast. In the Middle East, the most powerful terrorist organization in history occupies large sections of Iraq and Syria. Russia has paralyzed Ukraine and is bombing unchecked in Syria. China is challenging U.S. military power in East Asia and Washington’s institutional power everywhere else. Obama now relies on sanctions, drones and cybercapabilities to advance U.S. interests—blunt tools that do little to build the consensus needed to solve the world’s most complex problems. Few U.S. officials, even the most hawkish, are able to make a clear case for the role they think the U.S. can and should play in a new world.

“Europe can’t help—its leaders are too busy coping with migrants, maneuvering around populist political rivals, working to keep the U.K. in the E.U. and helping Greece find long-term financial footing. China won’t fill the G-zero vacuum—it’s more active on the international stage, but only in pursuit of narrow national interests. Beijing is fully occupied with an anticorruption drive of historic ambition, a bid to revitalize Communist Party rule and a high-stakes economic reform process.

“Who will take the lead in destroying ISIS, stabilizing the Middle East, containing the flow of dangerous weapons, mitigating climate change and managing international risks to public health? No one. The world’s many wildfires will burn hotter in 2016, because no one believes he can afford the costs and risks that come with putting them out.”

My Comment: This is the general outline of the direction toward which the world is advancing, but the main thing is that the world will begin to take on the form of a united society, mutually interconnected more tangibly. It is impossible to manage society in a situation like this unless people will learn to be united and interconnected.

Creating A Third Civilization

Question: Was the Maccabean rebellion the last spark before the waning of the first Jewish civilization?

Answer: The Maccabean rebellion was indeed an outburst before the waning of the Jewish civilization, not of the days of the First Temple, but of the second, during the days of the Second Temple. Now we are nearing the third civilization,

Today there is no Jewish civilization and we need to restore and rebuild it because this is what the world strongly demands. The first two civilizations were the foundations of the third civilization, which should include the whole world.

This may sound like the slogans of the Islamic movements that want to swallow the whole world, but in Judaism it is about ideological unity. There is one Jewish civilization that undergoes three phases, and we can understand that by studying thewisdom of Kabbalah. All three phases reveal the building of the Temples, including the third future Temple we have to build, not in the form of a grandiose structure in Jerusalem but by uniting the hearts of all of humanity. It isn’t about an ideological conquest and enslavement but about freedom and overcoming the enslavement of our ego.

This will bring all of humanity to the right mutual integral communication, and life will be felt as one body in which all the organs and cells are connected and function in the best possible way. This life is called eternal life and all of humanity should reach that because it actually makes up all the parts of this body.

The wisdom of Kabbalah emphasizes that we can reach this through crises that will push us to change, like the Islamic civilization that is wakening now that will demand the world’s submission by the sword in the name of Allah, or we could implement the good mutual connection between us instead of using weapons and coercion. Worshipping an upper entity, the idea of an upper force, is crucial for this cause but not in the way we know it. Bowing to the East, in the direction of Mecca will not change anything. We should rather bow to the unity of our hearts.

The Muslim Allah symbolizes the force of unity, the only force that operates in the world, and this is also how all of humanity should operate. This is the reason that Islam is awakening now, and it will provoke and enrage the whole world. The world will not discover the current Judaism by resisting Islam but the wisdom of Kabbalah, which will explain to the world the rule of “love thy friend as thyself,” which is the right global communication law for all mankind. Life by this rule will have to take over the whole world.

Neither the sword or the green and black flag, the nice symbols of the Islamic flag, nor the Star of David are the answer, but only the correct and good relations between people. If the integral connection in humanity is restored and becomes the general collective force, people will unite and attain the Creator between them.

Not only the wisdom of Kabbalah aims at the unity of mankind, but also Sufism, the internal wisdom of Islam. When humanity acts in a way that matches the upper force it will begin to feel that it merges with it and the corporeal world, that the wisdom of Kabbalah calls the virtual world, will gradually disappear from our senses and we will reach the third civilization.

Our true existence is only in the world of the upper forces. If you want to attain, sense, and find it, I invite you to become acquainted with the wisdom of Kabbalah.
From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 12/16/15

Brain, Heart, Liver – These Are Various Forms Of Self-Nullification

Question: Every time a person nullifies himself towards the group, is another black point added?

Answer: That is precisely how the Ubar (embryo) grows. Every new point is joined to it and shapes its body and all of its organs every time a new self-nullification towards the group is required from us. This is our work in gathering the cells into the body of the Ubar as the result of many such actions.

In the beginning these are general points that have no precise distinction like “stem cells.” And then we begin to see distinctions among these cells. We still don’t see specific organs behind these cells: liver, legs, lungs. These organs aren’t working yet, but only laid the foundation for their future. But it is already possible to distinguish that these different cells have different manners of nullification.

Much later, the person begins to feel that there is a connection between all the various types of self-nullification. He constantly experiences all kinds of disturbances and reactions to them, externally and internally. Sometimes a problem comes from the outside in a special way, summoning a particular internal response within him.

And sometimes an internal disturbance appears in him that summons a particular external response. And according to these modes, a person already begins to distinguish lines, evaluating the height, although in the meantime it is still only anUbar.

In this way he must complete his entire structure to the form of Ein Sof (Infinity). On the one hand he achieves the wholeness of his final form, but on the other hand, he approaches this final form in stages. In this way he passes through all the phases,Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, and Dalet. This means that he must finish the Aviut de Shoresh of desire, and then the levels Aleph, Bet, Gimel, and Dalet. But it is impossible to finish the Shoresh phase until the end of the last level, Dalet, because that determines and influences the previous level.

It follows that a person grows all characteristics in stages, constantly swinging back and forth and completing everything together. So even in the physical Ubar, there is no sequential growth, one by one, the head, the body, the hands, the legs; instead everything grows proportionally.

So the degree of development is evaluated according to various parameters. For example, for a two-year-old child we take into account height, weight, inner development, and the ability to perform particular actions with hands and feet. We examine his entire level, which belongs to the “Nefesh level” as a whole. These are the same stages of the new moon that we must renew all the time.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/14

Between Two Forces

Baal HaSulam, Shamati #121, “She Is Like Merchant-Ships”: In the verse, “She is like the merchant-ships; she bringeth her bread from afar.” When one demands and insists that “she is all mine,” that all the desires will be dedicated to the Creator, theSitra Achra awakens against him and claims, “She is all mine,” too. And then there is a tradeoff.

When a person receives an awakening regarding the Creator from above, the power of the Sitra Achra also is awakened in him to make freedom of choice possible for him, and so two forces are active simultaneously.

A tradeoff means that one wants to buy a certain object and the buyer and seller debate its worth, meaning each of them claims that he is right.

The person is torn between these two forces, for both of them are pulling him: “…meaning each of them claims that he is right.”

And here the body examines to whom it is worthwhile to listen: to the receiver or to the giving force. Both clearly argue, “She is all mine.”

One force insists that it is preferable to advance along with this world and take everything that is possible from life, and another force pulls him toward spirituality, claiming that this world is not worth anything and is built this way only in order to rise above it, and the person ruins his life, torn between the two forces that trade between them.

And since one sees one’s lowness, that in him, too, there are sparks that do not agree to observe the Torah and Mitzvot even as a dot on the iota, but that the whole body argues, “She is all mine…”

The “dot on the iota” is the point, the beginning of all the letters. However, the person is not prepared to realize even this small point for the sake of bestowal.

…then, “she bringeth her bread from afar.” This means that from the removals, when one sees how far one is from the Creator, and regrets, and asks of the Creator to bring him closer, “she bringeth her bread.”

Bread means faith. In that state one is awarded permanent faith, since “God hath so made it that men should fear before Him.” This means that all the removals that one feels were brought to him by the Creator, so he would have the need to assume the fear of heaven.

He would have the need to serve the Creator because otherwise he will not be able to escape from the quagmire of life.

This is the meaning of “that man doth not live by bread only, but by everything that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord.” This means that the life of Kedusha(Sanctity) within one does not come specifically from drawing closer, from entrances, that is, admissions into Kedusha, but also from the exits, from the removals. This is so because through the dressing of the Sitra Achra in one’s body, and its claims, “She is all mine,” with a just argument, one is awarded permanent faith by overcoming these states.

This is our way. We are constantly given various physical temptations to confuse us, and it is up to us to reduce their value without foregoing them. It is impossible for us to abstain or be ascetics since we must use everything that there is in our world but in the framework of a reasonable, regular existence. Regarding everything that goes beyond the necessities, we must turn to spirituality. Both of these aspects must balance.

Our method is not mysticism and not religion. It is impossible to abstain from anything. A person must reasonably use all of the means that are at his disposal in this world, and turn all of his desires upward to resemble the Creator, to connect to Him.

“Reasonably” refers to something that we could forego, but don’t because we decide that this is necessary for our normal existence. In a case like this, it is “neither praised nor condemned.” Essentially, as of today, the entire world is advancing toward this state.

Today there are an increasing number of inhabitants on the face of the earth; there is less and less work, more and more unemployed, social benefits are being cut, and so forth. According to statistics, 50% of all of the property on the face of the Earth is owned by 1% of the entire population.

Ultimately, this will force the world through wars and revolutions, or through awareness, to reach the decision to produce and consume only what is necessary to survive reasonably and with dignity.

In the past, there was a condition, “Eat bread with salt, drink little water, sleep on the ground, lead a sorrowful life, and labor in the Torah” so that everything would be okay. But a few hundred years before our era, Kabbalists made special corrections for us in the system of management, and now there is no need for a person in our world to impose any physical and corporeal limitations for the purpose of correction. He can consume reasonably and calmly everything that is necessary for his health, for his existence, without limitation. So if my mind is always busy, with spiritual advancement, in a group, in study,  and in dissemination, then it is not important how much I drink and eat with friends. There are no limitations.

Now the world is  advancing toward achieving sustainable consumption. In any case, we have nowhere to flee. The external atmosphere and environment, and even the state of the economy and industry economic obligate us. Therefore, a person will be involved only with rational servicing of the body and all of the rest he will aim toward the spiritual level.

However, this article states that even if a person places himself in the middle line, nevertheless he will be drawn constantly toward the right or the left, the left or the right. In order to advance, we must be between the two lines of development. On the one hand, we seem to be drawn toward spiritual development, and on the other hand, we are drawn toward various disturbances, away from the side of the right line.

This means that one should unite everything with the Creator—that is, that even the exits stem from Him—and when he is rewarded, he sees that both the exits and the entrances were all from Him.

Being humble means being in the middle line all the time, being fixated on “There is none else beside Him” with the help of the balance of the two lines when the person understands that the two lines equally come from the Creator, and only so he would realize freedom of choice and advance.

Moses tolerated the humility, which is why he was called humble since the lowness made him glad. Thus, in each degree, one should hold onto the lowness, and the moment he loses the lowness, he immediately loses all the degrees of Moses that he had already achieved.

“Nullity” means that the person does not have its own forces, and all the forces to move forward, he receives from the Creator. In other words, I am not a power generator, I do not have them. Everything that I have: power, intelligence, desire, domestic status, external circumstances and the fact that I get to awareness at every moment of his life – all my Creator substitutes. There were no accidents or something that depends on me.

Lowness means that a person doesn’t have his own forces, and  all the force to advance, he receives from the Creator. In other words, I cannot create power by myself because I have no power. All that I have is energy, intelligence, desire, an inner state, external circumstances and what I become aware of every moment in my life. All of this comes from the Creator. There are no accidents here or something that depends on me. The only thing that depends on us is understanding what is happening, making the right choice, and bringing all that we feel within us and around us to the one and only source.

This is the meaning of patience. Lowliness exists in everyone, but not every person feels that lowliness is a good thing. One does not want to suffer.

The person begins to understand that he is not the main source of intelligence, thought, action, decisions, or anything. All of this comes only from the Creator. This helps him adhere to the Creator, and if he understands this more and more deeply, he simply melts into it.

So our work is to attribute everything that we have, in the heart, in the mind, our decisions, our vision, everything that we feel within our senses, everything that happens around us and within us, to the one and only source. This is the principle of “There is none else beside Him.” If we attribute everything that we do to the same origin, we achieve adhesion with the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/10/14