Pause

Due to the blog editor traveling to the World Kabbalah Convention in Israel the update of the blog will pause from today until the 28th of February 2018.

The original blog is obviously constantly available.

The State Of Israel—The Place For Revelation Of The Creator

From the writings of Baal HaSulam it is apparent what tremendous meaning he gave to the State of Israel, the people of Israel, and its land being united. In this union lies a very powerful spiritual charge. That is why it should not be permitted to separate the people of Israel from the State of Israel, from the land of Israel, or from our international, global Kabbalistic group, which represents all people and nationalities.

How is it that the entire world relates to the State of Israel? All acknowledge that the land of Israel is unique since it is considered holy by all three main religions. But why is the State of Israel, which just turned 70 years old, so important?

For Baal HaSulam, the concept of the state of Israel was holy, he even had a Shabbat knife with the inscription “State of Israel.” In returning to this land and to Zionism, he saw another very important step toward the revelation of the Creator.

It is because a place appeared where real unity and brotherly love “as one man with one heart” could be established. Initially, it applies to the people of Israel, who must realize this unity first in order to serve as an example for the entire world.

The world demands this from us without realizing it. This is the sole reason for the existence of anti-Semitism, which doesn’t disappear from history’s stage as time passes, but instead strengthens and becomes sharper. The success of the people of Israel and its existence in the land of Israel depends on this understanding. Without it, there is no place for us here.
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From a “Talk During the Meal” 2/2/18

Complain To The One Who Created Us

The world is beginning to feel that it has reached a dead end. It turns out that there is no democracy, no liberalism. What have we come to from allowing the mass media and oligarchs to freely run rampant?

After a decade, they will again gather in Davos and proclaim: “Now 99% of the total capital is owned by 1% of the population, and soon all 100% will come into our hands. All the rest can die from hunger. We, of course, feel sorry for them, but there is nothing we can do about it. This is an egoistic path of development. If you dislike it, complain to the Creator.”

The rich themselves will say: “You want change, but it’s not in our hands. We are not at fault; we are the same egoists like everyone else. You would have done the same in our place. All the money has accumulated with us because the desire to enjoy obligated us to act in this way. Complain to the one who created us.” Perhaps then, those unfortunate people who have not a crumb left will understand that they need to turn to the Creator.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/18, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 60

To Comprehend Universal Consciousness

Question: Do we have the opportunity to comprehend the universal mind and learn how to correctly perceive, respond, and build our behavior in society and society itself?

Answer: If we look only at our life and at our limited possibilities and properties, then the future “does not shine” for us.

We see what is happening in the world: egoism grows and people indulge in it, no one is going to limit it and cannot do so, and no one can manage the world intelligently.

If there are some great personalities who understand this, their influence on society is so small that the chance of coming to a world correction is almost zero.

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of very interesting and rather revolutionary things. It explains that there is nothing outside. All that I observe and everything that appears to me—are my internal properties. Absolutely everything is inside me. But I see this as inanimate, plant, animal, and human nature that is outside only to be able to feel more, because I cannot see this inside of me.

If I begin to know the outer world as my inner one, to expand my participation in it, and to relate to the world with good connection and love, then I begin to feel these qualities in myself. They come back to me from the outside.

I perceive them in myself and thus I understand that, in addition to my true consciousness, i.e., a large information field, there is nothing outside, and I exist with respect to it. And all other creatures, including humans, exist only in me as my internal properties.

When one starts to get insight into this, one understands that there are no contradictions here—you just see other people who have certain properties and seem to exist, like you, but in reality you are one in one whole mind.

According to Kabbalah, humanity will come to a state when they will be convinced that they are under threat of destruction. But people cannot destroy themselves because it contradicts the general development program. Thus, people will understand that they have to move into such a relationship that will give them the opportunity to begin to feel themselves existing at the next level —not only in the power of reception, but in the power of bestowal.

And then between these two planes—the lower (egoistic) and the higher (altruistic)—we can exist in such a way that egoism will be directed to the benefit of love and bestowal because we need to feel others and know what to give to them and how to be with them in the right communication.
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From KabTV “Together on the main thing. Alexander Zhdanov,” 11/24/17

New Life #941 – How Does Man Change Internally?

New Life #941 – How Does Man Change Internally?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

In previous generations, people had stability at work, married once, and were less likely to desire change. These days, the desire to enjoy, which is inherent in all of us, develops constantly and our lives are always changing. We want to look good in the eyes of others, but eventually this pleasure also fades away. Eventually, we ask about the meaning of our lives, and this leads us to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. We learn how to acquire the attributes of the Creator and see reality differently. We discover the upper force, learn about the power of love, and become included in eternity, revealing the secret of life.
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From the KabTV’s “New Life #941 – How Does Man Change Internally?,” 1/2/18

My Facebook Page: “Florida Shooting”

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/14/18

Yesterday’s Florida shooting is only the latest of 18 school shootings since the beginning of 2018, which means that now there’s a school shooting in America every 60 hours.

When former New York police chief says, “this reality is the new normal,” and “will just continue to occur,” America should recognize its problem is much greater than gun control laws – it’s about how it has become a culture that is desensitized to obscene levels of violence.

Declaring such school shootings as acts of “pure evil,” as Florida Governor Rick Scott just did, amounts to ignoring any cultural conditions that create them.

Take a look at the trend: The Columbine massacre was carried out by an 18-year-old and a 17-year-old, Virginia Tech by a 23-year-old, Sandy Hook by a 20-year-old, and now in Florida, another 19-year-old. And these are only the big names etched into America’s collective memory. Between them there were more than 200 other school shootings, most of which follow the same pattern, with a young adult becoming a murderer.

By the time they are 18, American kids watch 200,000 acts of violence, 16,000 of which are murders, and that’s just on TV. Now add to that what they see when they go to the movies, wander the net, and the violent video games they play. When you consider the impact of the above on a developing mind, who might also be struggling with difficult life circumstances, is it really so surprising that horrific violent scenes are playing out in real life?

When people feel like their life is not necessarily worth living, their senseless acts reflect the worst their culture has taught them.

The way towards a less violent in America goes beyond laws and regulations. America must read the writing on the wall and initiate a massive socio-educational endeavor to infuse its culture with new examples, norms and values.

The Living System

The spiritual system works in a special way. In the material world, we are used to the fact that even the largest systems are built on a more primitive principle where any element performs its autonomous function.

For example, a car has its radiator, carburetor, pistons, and cylinders, and every detail functions as it was initially designed without changing its function according to the new conditions.

Spiritual systems have much fewer elements: 5 x 5 x 5, but the problem is that by changing their degree relative to the Light of infinity, they change their attributes, as it is written “Changing your place brings about a change of luck.”

This is the entire complexity.

Otherwise, all of The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES – Talmud Eser Sefirot) could be explained in twenty pages. But the problem is that there are spiritual ascents and descents through which attributes change, and this confuses us.

If spiritual Partzufim ascend or descend, they can change their previous behavior. It is impossible to say about any five Sefirot if this is Hochma or Hassadim (Bina), because this depends on what is above and below them, what they clothe, and to whom they must bestow.

No one exists by itself, and so it turns out that each can perform the functions of all. There is no such thing in our world! However, the entire spiritual system is created from a single desire to enjoy, and everything else in this system depends on the way it is used.

Lights enter the system and start organizing it according to their qualities. Everything depends on the position of the Partzuf or even its part in relation to other Partzufim. This is impossible to understand with our mind; it must go through our feelings and then we will see that this system is alive.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/18, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 10, “Table of Answers for Topics,” Item 149

Love On The Physical Level

Question: Can we see examples of true love anywhere so we can understand the possibilities of realizing it?

Answer: An example of true love is the love of a mother for her child.

This is love on the physical, beastly level, which can be seen in a limited form in animals and in a more extensive form in humans. If we were to cut off the connection between a mother and her child, there would not be any love between them.

Therefore, in our world, what we call love is simply an egoistic attitude toward a source of pleasure. It is nothing more than this. If I love you, then I receive pleasure from you.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/13/17

New Way Of Communication

Remark: In our times, people communicate with each other less and less. They bury themselves in their mobile phones, computers and send each other emojis.

My Comment: This is invented in order to create an illusion of communication. Someone wrote to you, you answered someone; you somehow read the message and typed an answer. That’s it, communication over.

Question: What is the communication Kabbalists speak about?

Answer: Kabbalistic communication is a few levels higher.

First, when we contact each other, we talk about the ways to alter our feelings so that they get in unison, and we begin to understand each other. This happens not only through text, sound, and information carriers, not only through sensory channels between us, but we aspire to get onto the one spiritual wave that fills the entire universe.

We are trying to reach such a level of the common wave where we could feel it together, but naturally, each one in his own way. Just as we hear the same melody and each one experiences it in his qualities; nevertheless, we have something in common.

The commonality is in this melody that comes from one source and causes qualities in us that are, perhaps, somewhat different, but they are adequate relative to the source itself, and therefore we meet in it.

We remain different, but feel this difference between us. And most importantly, when each of us connects to the source, it is the source that connects us with each other, we are equal in it. Otherwise, we cannot contact each other at all, and we suddenly discover that we can only communicate through mobile phones.

Therefore, Kabbalistic communication is completely different. It happens without words. We do not send any messages to each other, but together we try to rise onto the same wave, to reveal the field of the Creator and to exist in it.

Question: What makes us to communicate in this way? We see that humanity does not want to contact each other.

Answer: Indeed, a person does not want to communicate with others at all unless this calms him down and fills him up. Yet, in principle, he does not need communication.

But this is a completely different matter in Kabbalah because we attain our inner spiritual life through this. We reveal the eternal, everlasting state that rises all the time, including everything that exists in itself—something an ordinary person does not feel.

When we begin to understand what Kabbalah has prepared for us, it is amazing. Then we stop engaging in all sorts of technical means of communication and try to reach contact on the level of thoughts and feelings in the connection between us in the ten. This contact includes all the present, past, and future with us and with humanity as a whole. This is a completely different way of communication.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/22/17

How To Neutralize The Negativity Of Facebook

Zuckerberg and his team are gradually becoming aware of the impact their creation has on people. Facebook does not deny that it can cause people to depend on and spread fake news (Ziff Davis, LLC). 

Now he also admitted that social networks can directly influence democracy, and not in the best way (NPR).

Nothing can be done here. The most powerful means of influencing the world is far too profitable. In fact, a social network can “install a new software” in any person with or without one’s awareness.

A person is a social being; he has “buttons” and “springs” that act unconsciously, but very effectively. Therefore, no matter what the social network says, what sins it confesses, it nevertheless dominates us and decides for us how we look at the world.

In fact, a social network is not only an Internet platform, but the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to it, “heavy” ideological propaganda is replaced by an inconspicuous and much more powerful psychological treatment. It penetrates deep into the subconscious and implants an attitude to life. Everything else is derived from that.

As a result, a person accepts everything the system is feeding him and remains an eternal consumer in its framework.

It is time to recognize the evil that sweet-voiced architects of “right” relationships bring to us. Our interconnection must grow out of the warmth of the heart, not from an exemplary charity. Cheesy ads and beautiful gestures help to “tame” our egoism, but do nothing at all to correct it.

The only way to escape from this influence is to consciously choose another “program,” other criteria for interaction and mutual assistance. With the help of Kabbalah’s method, we can create a social network of hearts, not users. We can really improve the society we live in, and certainly without any damage to democracy.
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New Life #940 – The Essence Of Change In The World

New Life #940 – The Essence Of Change In The World
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

The purpose of creation is for the creatures or humankind to become more like the Creator, meaning that the creatures have a desire to love and give like He does.Creation develops in its desire to enjoy both quantitatively and qualitatively through the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels. The Creator develops and fulfills the desires of humankind with vitality. The influence of the Creator is constant and constantly changing in order to bring creation to a state of absolute goodness and mutual love. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, there are no changes in the external world but only in the heart of man.
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From the KabTV’s “New Life #940 – The Essence of Change In The World,” 1/2/18

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

My Facebook Page: “Valentines Day Post”

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/14/18

What do we love? We love what we enjoy.

In our world, we define love as a source of pleasure. We enjoy something, and love that same something that makes us feel good. Therefore, we love a juicy steak, a cold beer, a certain TV show, a person who makes us laugh, and so on.

This kind of love is purely egoistic. Likewise, we hate any source of pain in our lives. Nature works by moving toward pleasure and away from pain. We function in that same nature, as do animals, plants and even inanimate matter.

What, then, is true love?

There is no concept of true love anywhere but in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Why? It is because true love is a spiritual phenomenon born in us when we make ourselves of service to fulfill the desires of others. In other words, when we try to rise above our egoistic benefit, we become included in a desire that is not our own. Also, it doesn’t matter whether this desire is our partner’s, or a complete stranger’s.

We do not judge whether we think the desires, goals and passions of others are good or bad. If we love them, then we try to fulfill them as if they are our own. That is the essence of “love your friend as yourself.”

The effort to love others gradually detaches us from our inborn egoistic perception, granting us a new spiritual one: a new eternal and whole form of fulfillment opens up to us, unbounded by our world’s narrow egoistic limits. Immense spiritual pleasure stems from our merging with nature’s infinite source of pleasure, thereby accessing the knowledge of the perfection of the higher reality, which guides us toward increasing connection, harmony and perfection.

This is spiritual love. When we will feel such love, we will clearly understand that there is and never was any other kind of love.

So then, how can we come to feel spiritual love? Interestingly enough, feral children can help us understand…

Feral children grow up isolated from any human contact and raised in an environment of animals since they are very young. They have little to no experience with what is considered normal and acceptable human behavior in society, and thus their behavior is very similar to the animals they grew up around.

Our environment establishes our world, our thoughts and our behavior. Therefore, in order to achieve true, spiritual love, we need to participate in an environment of people who work on attaining spiritual love. This is the goal of a Kabbalistic environment. It provides the socio-educational conditions all its participants need, through study, discussions and exercises, in order to develop newly formed connections and sensations of spiritual love.

Baal HaSulam About The Commandment Of Love

Question: Why do you say that your focus is on correcting the relationship between people and unifying them, while Baal HaSulam mainly wrote about the worlds, the Sefirot, etc.

Answer: Baal HaSulam had to reveal the system that governs our world. His Talmud Eser Sefirot, commentaries on The Tree of Life by Ari, The Book of Zohar, and other works formed the basis of his work.

But if we take the letters and articles of Baal HaSulam, they all talk solely about the process of attaining the Creator, which is the goal of studying the science of Kabbalah.

Spiritual attainment occurs only among the people who are engaged in creating a specific connection among each other. This connection must be similar to the ten Sefirot and that is why Baal HaSulam described it as The Study of the Ten Sefirot (Talmud Eser Sefirot).

As soon as people even minimally become similar to what is described as ten Sefirot, they immediately begin to feel the Creator in them. Meaning, these feelings are a sensor, a detector that reveals the Creator.

Remark: Once Baal HaSulam received a letter from one of his fellow citizens with a claim that Baal HaSulam defined a new structure, a new methodology.

Baal HaSulam replied with a long letter in which he stressed: “It seems that you have not sufficiently studied my words.” He noted that “when the people entered the land of Israel and there was no peace, it was impossible to expect that someone would fulfill the main commandment.”

In order for the Torah not to be forgotten, people began to engage in the rest of commandments, ignoring the most important one because they had no other choice. But the most important is: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

My Comment: It is written in black and white. There is no way around it. And this is exactly what is missing. There is a void in all modern religions in fulfilling the commandment of love for one’s neighbor. That is why everyone, including religious figures and systems, hate Kabbalah because it puts emphasis on achieving love for one’s neighbor.
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From The Lesson in Russian Language 9/10/17

Eternal Love

Question: Does a Kabbalist have the pleasure of eternal love? Does he feel this sensation?

Answer: Eternal love is true love, when you generate all the negative and positive forces of creation within yourself, gather all the characteristics that exist in all the worlds, and unite the entire creation.

You unite the negative and positive poles of everything in the universe and include everything within yourself, and it begins to work like a perpetual motion machine within you.

This is eternal love; it constantly renews and is endless in its manifestations of love.

Question: Why isn’t this called egoistic love?

Answer: It’s because this love manifests above your individual egoism with respect to all the others that appear to you as opposing negative characteristics, and you restore a positive balance. It turns out that both the minus and plus work simultaneously.

This is a a kind of technical model: a minus cannot exist without a plus and a plus cannot exist without a minus. They exist together, yet in regard to us, only one of them is revealed. When we connect three lines together within us: plus, minus, and the balance between them, i.e., the middle line, it begins to work in us and we feel all of creation.

Question: Is the Creator the force that is discovered between the plus and minus or is He the force that helps me reach this state?

Answer: The Creator is the middle line that is discovered between us, and this is love. Only by ascending above the correct balance of plus and minus, do you reveal the Creator, which is called love. The Creator and love are the same thing.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/13/17

Newsmax: “Suicide Rise After Robin Williams Signals Need For Media Revolution”

The largest portal Newsmax published my new article “Suicide Rise After Robin Williams Signals Need for Media Revolution“

New research found that in the five months after comedian Robin Williams had committed suicide, there was a dramatic increase of almost 10 percent in suicide rates across the U.S., and it had a lot to do with how the media communicated the suicide to the public.

For several months, major news outlets repeatedly described or speculated on the suicide method and the site of suicide with all the visceral details, going against the basic standards established by the World Health Organization for how the media should cover suicides.

Reporting guidelines for celebrity suicides weren’t established arbitrarily. Previous studies have already documented the parallel increase between suicide rates and media coverage of suicide, and pointed at the risk of reinforcing suicidal tendencies by media reporting.

We also know that guiding the media on how to cover suicides does have an impact. For instance, popular rock star Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1994 had very little impact on suicides in the Seattle area where he lived, with the media being restrictive in its coverage, and accompanying it with suicide prevention messages. In contrast, the suicide of Marilyn Monroe in 1962 was widely covered and was followed by a 10-12 percent increase in suicide rates.

So if both history and science are painting such an obvious risk for public health, what is guiding the media to do otherwise?

The answer should be easy to see: media outlets are guided by one thing, and that’s ratings, because ratings means money. It’s that simple.

This is why front pages and news programs made their coverage as sensationalist as possible in the case of Robin Williams, with some even portraying a glorified version of what happened. As long as it can win them more points in their battle for our attention, they will go for it.

Sadly, those who carry suicidal tendencies, those who are not as emotionally resilient as the rest of us, are the first to suffer the consequences. But it’s not only them, because we are all trapped within a vicious cycle: Headlines are becoming more obscene, while we are growing more oblivious to them, which in turn drives producers to create even more sensationalism, and the snowball just keeps rolling down the hill.

Robin Williams Wasn’t the Only One with Split Personality

Media outlets are not accountable to anyone besides their shareholders. As long as this continues to be the reality, the vicious cycle will continue to escalate. If we wish to make public health a real priority, then media outlets must be required by law to work together with psychologists, sociologists, and public health experts when it comes to covering events of such nature.

But there are even more lessons to learn from the case of Robin Williams. Like Williams himself, many people today lead a double life, appearing to laugh on the outside while crying on the inside. We’ve built a booming industry of distraction to keep ourselves continuously entertained, while depression has become the number one cause of illness and disability, and is the diagnosis most commonly associated with suicide.

Social media is encouraging and cultivating our “spilt personality” like nothing that came before it. We can hide dark and gloomy feelings behind colorful photos with glossy filters. We could have a thousand friends on Facebook yet no one to talk to, thousands on our contacts yet no one to connect with.

New Media Channels Are Bound to Emerge

The media is our broadest common environment, and it’s especially like that in the digital age. Sooner or later, we will have to see the need to make it a healthy environment for ourselves and our children.

But a change cannot happen before we recognize just how malleable we all are in the hands of media channels that only care about ratings. Whether we want it this way or not, our media channels affect us on multiple levels, from our worldviews to our health and wellbeing.

When we come to that realization, completely new media channels that are accountable to the people are bound to emerge. They will be channels that recognize the media’s role and responsibility in public health, in maintaining a balanced spirit in society rather than sensationalism, and most importantly, in contributing to social unity rather than division.

The internet can already provide the technical infrastructure for such a media revolution, but the drive from the people must come first.

The Latent Period In Spiritual Work

There is a certain “latent period” in spiritual work when a person does not see that he is advancing or doing anything. It is similar to a pregnant woman who does not yet show signs that there is a new life growing inside her.

It is due to the fact that spiritual actions fall within the force of bestowal, while a person does not yet possess this quality, and therefore cannot see the spiritual actions. If there is a Kabbalist next to him, then he can, through his force of bestowal, see what is happening to a person and what is in store for him, while the person himself cannot.

Sometimes a person cannot detect any changes inside himself; although preparation is underway and very important changes take place, they are below his sensitivity threshold. After all, he is not yet in the intention to bestow at this stage.

Therefore, a person can never see his next degree; it is only perceptible to a Kabbalist next to him. Like parents who know how their children will grow up in a year or two, but their children themselves do not understand.

All this concealment is on purpose to give us the opportunity to develop the Kli (vessel) of bestowal. If the next degree were revealed, we would be unable to work in bestowal, having full knowledge of it.

It is a blessing that the breaking and concealment took place because of which we are able to develop the Kli of bestowal, faith. I don’t want to see or know! Even the seeing and knowing that is later revealed, the ability to see the whole creation from beginning to end, I do not accept into the same Kelim (vessels). I don’t want to get answers, I want to bestow above them.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/18, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 56

A Soul From The Perspective Of Kabbalah

Question: Can we say that Kabbalah is the psychology of the soul?

Answer: No. Kabbalah is everything! And the soul, if we are talking from a wider point of view, is all in all some kind of feeling.

A person believes that the soul is his inner experiences and concerns, but this is simply the vital force that acts within him and makes it possible for him to ascend. To a particular degree this force also exists in animals.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, the soul is called our egoistic desire, which with the help of the upper Light we correct into its opposite desire, into an altruistic desire, and this desire works with an intention to bestow to others, instead of receiving.

The soul is a person’s movement away from himself toward the outside, the ability to bestow, to love others without any personal benefit.

If you attain this characteristic, which must work for a very long time, it means that you have a soul. If you don’t have this property, then there is no soul.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/3/17

My Facebook Page: “Robin Williams Suicide”

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/13/18

New research found that in the five months after Robin Williams committed suicide, there was a dramatic increase of almost 10 percent in suicide rates across the U.S., and it had a lot to do with how the media communicated the suicide to the public.

Media channels ignored the basic standards set by the World Health Organization for celebrity suicide coverage. Why? Because the only thing that guides media outlets is ratings, which means money.

Sooner or later, a media revolution will have to happen. New media channels that are accountable to the people will recognize their role and responsibility in public health, in maintaining a balanced spirit in society rather than sensationalism, and most importantly, in contributing to social unity rather than division.

The internet can already provide the technical infrastructure for it, but the drive from the people must come first.

Read my full article

Artificial intelligence in the End-of-Days: Killer Bots for Gog or Dry Bones to Praise God?

The largest portal Breaking Israel News published article based on my interview with Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz: “Artificial intelligence in the End-of-Days: Killer Bots for Gog or Dry Bones to Praise God?”

And He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of Hashem!” Ezekiel 37:4 (The Israel Bible™)

Artificial intelligence is advancing at a lightning pace and is already being adopted for military use, raising questions as to what role this powerful new technology will play in the end-of-days. Will it be a terrifying rogue combatant in the final Biblical War of Gog and Magog, or will it be an unforeseen savior of mankind and even have a possible role in the resurrection of the dead?

In one potential end-of-days scenario, technology plays a destructive role for humanity. A video, titled “Slaughterbots” and produced by the notorious Campaign to Stop Killer Robots illustrates this outcome in which autonomous drones armed with explosive charges wreak havoc on society. The video is part of a campaign intended to ban lethal autonomous weapons, a concern which clearly resonates with many as the petition has already garnered over 20,000 signatures.

Aspects of the fictitious future depicted in the video are appearing to become reality. Both India and Japan announced this week that they are beginning to introduce autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) into their defense sectors.

At the same time, governments also recognize that the destructive potential of AI raises moral difficulties. British Prime Minister Theresa May announced this week that her government is establishing an advisory body to coordinate with other countries in discussing how artificial intelligence can be used ethically for military purposes.

It seems that any future war, including the pre-Messianic War of Gog and Magog, will include killer robots, and many spiritual leaders are already considering how AI figures into a religious vision of the end-of-days. Rabbi Michael Laitman, a leading expert in Kabbalah and the founder of Bnei Baruch Kabbalah association, believes that technology and more specifically artificial intelligence, will play a major role in the end-of-days but not necessarily a positive one.

“It is clear in Kabbalah that in the times preceding geula (redemption), Man is going to utilize the entire potential of technology,” Rabbi Laitman told Breaking Israel News. “Men will begin to create artificial intelligence. People will want to achieve something similar to the creation of Man.”

“In the time of the geula, people will understand that all of this development, all throughout history, is what brought us to an even greater collapse,” he stressed. “This will become very clear in war when we see that all of the technology we developed for man’s good can immediately turn around and be used against man.”

Rabbi Laitman believes that the same motives of Man which led to the construction of the Tower of Babel are also in play with the development of artificial intelligence.

“Men wanted to ascend to the heavens and become like God,” the rabbi explained. “To do this, they were dealing with the basic foundations of creation. They wanted to fix something inside man they believed was a blemish.”
Though this motive sounds noble, Rabbi Laitman pointed out a flaw that turned their good intentions into evil.
“This came from a place of ego, in which they wanted to take the place of God,” Rabbi Laitman said.

In an article that Rabbi Laitman published last Friday in Breaking Israel News, he outlined the dangers of artificial intelligence but also described a solution in containing potential problems.

“Unfortunately, I do believe that AI-powered weapons will be developed,” the rabbi wrote. “If we upgraded our human consciousness at least as much as we upgraded our technologies, then we would have no fear of creating AI terminators that would be capable of eliminating us. Instead, we would further our research to discover a technology more sophisticated than AI, and energy more powerful than nuclear energy.”

Rabbi Mark Goldfeder, a senior lecturer at Emory University School of Law, speculated that AI would, in fact, play a more positive role in the Messiah.

“Some people have proposed an apocalyptic vision of AI in which Man and machine merge in the End of Days, suggesting that this would be tchiyat hametim (resurrection of the dead),” he told Breaking Israel News.
He also described efforts to upload the entirety of an individual’s knowledge to a computer.

“Some scientists think they are on the path to achieving this and in some form replicating or even recreating the consciousness of individuals,” Rabbi Goldfeder said. “This is not the traditional understanding of tchiyat hametim and not one that I ascribe to, but that being the case, I can’t imagine why it would be problematic as something else entirely if it is done with proper consent.”

The rabbi suggested that at some point in the future theologians will have to determine whether AI should be considered sentient and human.

“The line between Man and machine in the Torah is not as clear as what we would like to think it is,” the rabbi said.

Although AI poses many ethical and theological questions, Rabbi Goldfeder thinks that not only is this a good thing but that the development of technology was in fact intended by God to be part of Man’s role in being a partner with God in Creation.

“One of the first commandments we received was to conquer the world, which we understand as that doing your best to participate with God in creation,” Rabbi Goldfeder said, citing Genesis.

Hashem blessed them and Hashem said to them, “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; Genesis 1:28
“All these forces were put in nature and they are amoral, not immoral; what we do with them establishes good or evil,” explained Rabbi Goldfeder. “Artificial intelligence has the ability to help us do incredible good.”
Rabbi Goldfeder believes AI will continue to be important even after the arrival of the Messiah.

“People tend to think of y’mot ha’moshiach (Messianic era) as going back to Biblical times,” Rabbi Goldfeder told Breaking Israel News. “I assume the Third Temple will make absolute use of every technology we have available.”
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Who Will Manage The Future Society?

Question: In the year 2018 will there be less stupidity in the world? Or vice versa, the more there is, the closer we will come to discovering it is foolishness?

Answer: Both. Two opposites are necessary. On one hand, there will be much more stupidity, as we now see in politics. On the other hand, there will be many people who understand that this is stupidity, insignificant, and dirt.

This will change the general state of nature, the network of forces we are in. We don’t have any need for rulers and there is nothing to expect from them, nor from the intellectual and bourgeois elites who seem to hold the world in their hands.

The desire of the masses to change the situation and unite with each other correctly will gradually lead to a change in everything that nobody can oppose.

Question: Baal HaSulam said that first it is necessary to educate the entire generation, and then they will choose the right leader. How, in your opinion, should the system of government of the future be?

Answer: It is only through the method of correcting the person, through educating the person, that people whose foremost concern is society’s welfare will gradually make their way into governance.

Question: But will one person rule, like kings in the past, or will it be a society?

Answer: I think that it will be a community, but very small, a kind of Sanhedrin as was established in ancient times. It included 71 people who managed the spiritual life. I don’t think you need any more than that.

Each one of them will take responsibility for one system or another of the union: One will be responsible for the system of children, a second for the system of women, a third for the field of science, and so forth. They will solve all questions collectively.

They will be chosen by the overwhelming opinion of the masses who will feel and “smell” who these people are that can manage them. Baal HaSulam writes about this at the end of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.”

Question: Can you tell when this will happen?

Answer: No. But it seems that during the course of the next two or three years humanity will understand that all the systems must be replaced; otherwise, we will reach a dead end.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/24/17

Answers To Your Questions, Part 192

Question: If a person is alone but has watched the recorded daily lessons for more than ten consecutive years, is virtually present in the conventions, prays for the world group, and connects everything to “There is none else besides Him,” does this advance him spiritually?

Answer: It advances him to a certain extent, but working in a group is imperative to enter spirituality.

Question: How is it possible to provide for someone else, to become one with him and feel him as myself? Must I compare him to myself, even though I don’t understand myself? And what must I do when others try to fulfill me?

Answer: These questions are solved only in a group, a group of ten.
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