In the News (from JTA Org): “Poll: Most Israelis know Temple destroyed on Tisha B’Av” Ninety-seven percent of Israeli adults surveyed know the Jewish date of the Holy Temple’s destruction, a survey reported … Some 64 percent of Israeli adults surveyed, including about 47 percent of secular Israelis, said they would like to see the Temple in Jerusalem rebuilt.

My Comment: That’s right: they are “waiting,” expecting someone else to come and build it for them. In addition, they think that the Temple is a building where specific rituals are performed, and a place that may give new jobs to people. They see it as a confirmation of their heritage (and of themselves), as a tourist attraction and a political instrument.

However, no one realizes that “the construction of the Temple” means that every citizen will create the quality of love and bestowal within. Or in other words, that it is a person’s transformation from an egoist to one who loves everyone.

It’s not this Temple they are mourning, but their own selfish ambitions. It is written that the Temple was destroyed due to the people’s unfounded hatred toward one another. It is also written that for every day the Temple is not rebuilt, it is destroyed. This means that as long as the people don’t correct themselves, their “love for others as for oneself” (which they had during the times of the Temple) will remain destroyed.

Somehow, no one seems to be worried about the fact that this loving relationship is missing among all the citizens of the Israeli society. And the education system – whether secular or orthodox – doesn’t inspire any true aspiration for the Temple.

Therefore, the percentages from the above survey are fake: people don’t understand the true essence of the Temple.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Jewish Nation Can Only Be Revived By Restoring “Love For One’s Neighbor”
Laitman.com Post: Building The Third Temple
Laitman.com Post: The Third Temple And The Coming Of The Messiah
From Chaos to Harmony: “The Future of the World is in Our Hands”

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In the News (from The Economist): The rich world’s population is aging fast, and the poor world is only a few decades behind. …labour forces are now beginning to shrink and numbers of pensioners are starting to rise. For the public finances, an aging population is a huge headache. In countries where public pensions make up the bulk of retirement income, these will either swallow up a much larger share of the budget or they will have to become a lot less generous. What can be done? As the IMF puts it, “the fiscal impact of the [financial] crisis reinforces the urgency of entitlement reform.” People in rich countries will have to be weaned off the expectation that pensions will become ever more generous and health care ever more all-encompassing.

My Comment: And the same thing will happen all over the world. Old age is no longer protected, and the hungry will have no one but themselves to count on.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Financial Crisis May Leave Americans Without Pensions
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In the News (from arxiv.org): “Testing the link between terrestrial climate change and Galactic spiral structure” We confront past suggestions of a close link between terrestrial climate change and the Sun’s transit of spiral arms in its path through the Milky Way galaxy. We use new information on spiral structure based on CO data that does not make simplifying assumptions about symmetry and circular rotation. Comparing the times of these transits to changes in the climate of Earth, not only do the claimed correlations disappear, but also we find that they cannot be resurrected for any reasonable pattern speed.

My Comment: All the changes that occur in Nature are influenced mainly by human behavior, or rather, by people’s thoughts and desires. The problem is that this influence is hidden from us and thus we erroneously focus on and measure our external influences, such as gas emissions and solid waste pollution.

However, even though the pollution on the Earth’s surface seems enormous, its influence on climate change is actually negligible. The greatest influence comes from our egoistic thoughts!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How To Make Nature Change
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Kabbalah Revealed: “The Dark before the Dawn”

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In the News (from The Wall Street Journal): “Pope Weighs In on Financial Crisis” You know the international financial crisis has implications in every aspect of global life when the Pope decides to weigh in. Today Benedict XVI issued his third encyclical focusing on the economy. It is widely seen as directed at G-8 leaders gathering in Italy this week. Here are some excerpts:

Economy and finance … can be used badly when those at the helm are motivated by purely selfish ends. …we must adopt a realistic attitude as we take up … new responsibilities to which we are called by the prospect of a world in need of profound cultural renewal, a world that needs to rediscover fundamental values … it is not the instrument [the economy] that must be called to account, but individuals, their moral conscience and their personal and social responsibility.

My Comment: All of the above is correct, but how can we possibly make people’s all-enveloping egoism budge? Only through Kabbalah! Maybe someone could tell the Pope about it…

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Have To Realize That Egoism Is The Cause Of The Crisis, Before It’s Too Late
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