News Report: (translated from life.pravda.com): The cause of the crisis according to the average citizen: The crisis is happening because people speculate and underestimate the value of honesty. Many products and services are not sold at their actual value. Moreover, many people think they are exempted from following the law. The authorities are lying to the people, and the people are lying to the authorities.

The solution to the crisis according to the average citizen: If we grow up (psychologically) and become responsible, if we understand the consequences of our actions, then there won’t be any crises. After all, the crisis only happened where there was greed, and where people’s desires, needs and wealth were excessive.

My Comment: It’s wonderful to see how quickly suffering elicits the correct thoughts in people. We were created as egoists – inside “the will to receive” – on purpose. When we don’t receive as much as we want, we feel suffering. Hence, egoism brings us to the correct solutions.

With a little more suffering, we will begin to reason correctly: we will realize that the answer isn’t to decrease our egoism, but to completely tear away from it, to ascend above it. And then people will suddenly discover that their opinion is already described in Kabbalah – the science about man’s correction.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Story of Jacob and Esau Teaches Us How to Trick Our Egoism
Laitman.com Post: We Were Created as Parts of One Whole
Laitman.com Post: The Path of Light Versus the Path of Suffering

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News Report (from Gizmag): Remarkable new research from the U.K. Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) concludes that for every unexpected 10% fall in housing prices, an extra 5% of couples will split up. … The study concludes that unexpected downturns in the housing market can damage family stability…

My Comment: Indeed, the crisis is multifaceted: it is a crisis of science, culture, the family structure, upbringing, society, depression, drug abuse, ecology, and climate. Moreover, all of its components influence each other.

Hence, all the different consequences of the crisis are yet to become revealed this year. Of course, it seems to us that the financial crisis is the most important one. But it will bring along all the other ones, until we realize that there is only one crisis – the crisis of our relationships with each another.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Wishes for the New Year – 2009

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News Report (translated from Spiegel Online): The director of the UN World Food Program, Ralf Südhoff criticizes Western politics for being shortsighted: “The financial crisis hasn’t even turned into an economic crisis yet, but already everyone has forgotten about the starving people and the victims of HIV in third-world countries. But a billion hungry people are a real threat!”

My Comment: The authorities are afraid of having hungry people turn up at their own homes! Chances are that Africa will be completely forgotten during the crisis. After all, only an awareness of the common “body” (or system) and a vision of our clear interdependency with each other, can force humanity to think about the third world.

A question I received: What will happen to agriculture during the current global crisis?

My Answer: It will also experience a crisis.

News Report (from European Commission): The European Commission and the World Bank have released a new map of Travel Time to Major Cities, showing that:

• the global urban population is over 50%

• 95% of the people live on just 10% of the land

My Comment: Unlike the previous times of hunger, it’s no longer possible to survive by having your own parcel of land.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: When Will Hunger Start Affecting Us?
Laitman.com Post: How Will Hunger Affect the Earth’s Population?
Kabbalah Today Article: Mankind’s Growing Hunger

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Questions I received on questions and answers:

Question: I am confused about how you can give one answer to many questions asked by different people. You treat them as if they are robots, and you give everyone the same answer: that they have got it all wrong and that their path will clear up with time. I agree that there is a lot of confusion along the way, but how can you assume this kind of authority? After all, every soul is different from the others, and their paths are also different. Just as there cannot be two identical people, there can’t be one answer for everyone. I think that you have to open up to people a bit more.

My Answer: Man is the desire to enjoy. Everything is determined only by the size and quality (type) of the desire. Generally speaking, everyone develops in the same way – just like it happens with children’s physical development. There is only one Law. And just like with children, the differences are insignificant. The method is the same for everyone, and I was not the one who created it. The Teacher (me) explains the method and the rules of spiritual development; he gives answers and advice, and the student applies them to himself. Through the searching and the confusion, called “the Creator’s concealment,” one seeks the opportunity to reveal the Creator by changing himself.

I understand your complaints about me and about the path, but you will have to accept the conditions of spiritual development – “from darkness to the Light.” Continue reading and you will see why it cannot be different.

Question: Sometimes people ask you simple questions on the blog, but your answers are so complicated that it seems as if you’re not answering the questions directly. Instead the answers always come with broad, lengthy and complicated explanations. Is there a reason for this? I sincerely hope that you will have the courage to post this question.

My Answer: It’s because I’m either unable to give a simpler answer, though I do try, or you don’t understand the depth of the question and the answer.

Question: When I have questions, should I look for the answers only through my study? Or should I ask them and make them public? Or can I combine these two alternatives?

My Answer: By making efforts, you evoke the influence of the Correcting Light (Ohr Makif) upon you. As a result of Its influence, you will start understanding and seeing through the matter of our world.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: An Invitation to Ascend – the Purpose of This Blog
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“Attaining the Unity of the Universe” – Lesson of July 7, 2004

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Three questions I received on various spiritual practices:

Question: These days we hear many things about secret societies and their influence in our society – societies like the Knights Templar, Rosicrucians and the Freemasons. What does Kabbalah say about these brotherhoods? Are their teachings in accordance with Kabbalah? Are they a good thing to join? Or are they agents who only follow their ego ?

My Answer: I think of them as childish games. All of the secrecy is just for blowing up their importance.

There is a possibility to influence the Creator and thus to govern the world, and it is available to everyone – to the degree one becomes corrected so as to be good toward everyone.

Question: Is there only one school of Kabbalah or several?

My Answer: There are other groups that study Kabbalah. You can probably find them on the Internet.

Question: I am interested in the issue about the red strings. Some say that they have no relation to Kabbalah. Others say that they protect people from “the evil eye.” I understand that this could be explained as a psychological effect, but I heard that the red strings give one a connection with protective energy (due to being produced in a special ritual setting).

My Answer: They are no more than a psychological effect. Kabbalah forbids this because it is a deceit and distracts a person from the goal for which he and this world were created.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Illuminati’s Coming to Get You… NOT!
Laitman.com Post: Practical Kabbalah Has No Use for Red Strings
Kabbalah Today Article –  Kabbalah: User Manual
The Kabbalah Experience: Chapter 7 – “Beliefs, Mysticism and The Supernatural”

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Two questions I received on development through Kabbalah:

Question: It says in a book by Rav Kook that there are two kinds of redemption: redemption that comes in due time (בעיתה – Beito), and redemption that comes in response to a person’s plea (אחישנה – Ahishena). Either way, redemption will come eventually. According to Kabbalah, we have to change from within, and then we’ll attain happiness. And by spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah, we will make everyone happy because they will receive the same Light. But then it would seem that Kabbalah contradicts the notion of the existence of time for correction.

Answer: You’ve mixed it all up! Kabbalah was given to us so that instead of progressing “in due time,” we will speed up time (progress through אחישנה – Ahishena). This means that we can develop without waiting for the suffering to come (without בעיתה- Beito).

Question: What do you mean by the point in the heart? Also, do you mean that fate – or circumstances in our life that might be difficult – push us to this point so we will discover our purpose?

Answer: Suffering and emptiness lead a person to the question about their meaning, cause and purpose. Gradually a person starts feeling that he needs to understand the cause of all that’s happening, and this feeling is a subconscious desire to reveal the Creator. A person then discovers the source of this knowledge (the books, group, and teacher), and reaches the goal.

The point in the heart is the desire to reveal the Creator, and Kabbalah is the method or means to reveal Him. The point in the heart is your soul’s initial desire, and your soul then begins to develop from this point. The point in the heart is similar to a seed: when it’s placed in the environment that’s right for its development (the group, books, and teacher), it begins to develop into a vessel of the soul – a desire in which a person begins to sense the Upper Force, the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Freedom of Will Lies in Acceleration
Laitman.com Post: The Path of Light Versus the Path of Suffering
Interview with the Future: “The Acceleration of the Reshimot”
The Path of Kabbalah: “The Awakening of the Point in the Heart”

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