In the News (translated from NEWSru.com): Economists believe that the worst is yet to come. Professor of Economics at NYU, N. Rubini, said: “My estimation of the losses suffered by American banks is 3.7 trillion dollars. The global recession will turn into a long-term depression, lasting many years, unless we take the proper measures.”

The policy that fixates the currency rate in Russia, Kazakhstan, the Baltic States, Bulgaria, and Romania will encounter a currency crisis. Russia should not have “defended the ruble.”

The Head Economist of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, Klaus Schmidt–Gebel, said, “The fall of GDP in the world will continue into 2009, and even 2010.” The President of the International Institute of Freedom and Democracy, Hernando de Soto, said, “The current crisis is a crisis of trust. We don’t trust anyone in the market.”

Governments that pump the market with additional liquidity or provide tax incentives to the economy, do not take the cause of the crisis into account.

Head of PIMCO, Richard Klarid, said, “In Washington they believe that this is a liquidity crisis, and keep pouring new money into the market. But this is not a liquidity crisis. This is a crisis of inadequacy, and it is much harder to solve.”

My Comment: People are gradually starting to understand that the cause of our problems isn’t the economy, but the trust between people. And as the crisis keeps growing, people will open their eyes and will start treating one another by the laws of “a small village.” At first this will happen artificially, but later it will become natural.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Present Crisis Is a Crisis of People’s Trust in the Egoistic System of Relationships

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In the News (from The Financial Times): “Governments turn to barter deals as credit to secure food dries up” Countries struggling to secure credit have resorted to barter and secretive government-to-government deals to buy food, with some contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In a striking example of how the global financial crisis and high food prices have strained the finances of poor and middle-income nations, countries including Russia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Morocco say they have signed or are discussing inter-government and barter deals to import commodities from rice to vegetable oil.

The revival of these trade practices, used rarely in the past 20 years and usually by nations subject to international embargoes and the old communist bloc, is a result of the countries’ failure to secure trade financing as bank lending has dried up.

My Comment: Now all the countries are becoming like that – outlaws of the global government! Our lack of balance with Nature (the regulator) will affect everything we do. To people’s surprise, anytime a person will start doing something, he’ll find that “nothing’s going right,” that things just “don’t work out” for some reason. Even bartering won’t help: despite every person having something to give to another and something he can receive in return, the barter just won’t go through. Why?

Imagine that you did not comply with one of the laws of physics, or you complied with it, but did so incorrectly. Then, you would find that you always fail at everything you do. This is the state we are in. Indeed, people are acting like children, naively believing that everything will fall into place the way they want it to, rather than by the laws of Nature.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Nature’s Commandments = the Creator’s Laws

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In the News (from The New York Times): A new survey by the Pew Research Center shows that most city dwellers would rather live in a suburb, small town or rural area.

My Comment: Egoism searches for a place where there is less suffering. However, people won’t be able to “hide their head in the sand.” They will have to become corrected to become like nature. And the Creator cautions that He will “get” us anywhere. In other words, Nature is leading all of Its parts to the state of complete balance with It).

You are still thinking of the world the way it was decades ago. But even though there are places that externally look like nothing has changed, in fact, all the connections have been renewed: they have become global (absolutely interdependent). And today you will discover this in any suburb or village.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Man Was Created to Exist In Balance With Nature
Laitman.com Post: Nature’s Commandments = the Creator’s Laws

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A question I received: I just came across Pulsa d’Nura which is supposedly a Kabbalistic practice to curse someone and apparently they have used it in Israel to curse Ariel Sharon and others, and it worked every time. This is horrible! Is this true? Can someone use Kabbalah to hurt another person?

My Answer: Usually this happens the way it happened to Rasputin: He cut the chandelier in the lounge and warned that something horrible would if a prince were to enter. Then when the chandelier actually fell, everyone said he was a prophet. So it’s the same here: the moment something happens, hundreds of charlatans appear and shout, “We told you so!” So calm down – there are no miracles in this world!

The world is what we perceive. We call that which is revealed to us “this world” or “our world,” and that which isn’t yet revealed to us, “the concealed world.” And we constantly reveal the world to a greater extent. Therefore, “the hidden” and “the revealed” are constantly changing, since the boundaries of “the revealed” expand.

We are now approaching the stage of the full revelation of the world, where nothing will remain concealed. The Creator (all of Nature) will become revealed to us because we will become equivalent to the Creator’s nature by changing our common egoism to the quality of bestowal. Then, we will all reveal Him, as it is written, “Everyone will know Me, from the greatest to the smallest.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: There Are No Miracles
Laitman.com Post: The Illuminati’s Coming to Get You – NOT!
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
Article: “Kabbalah as a Modern Teaching”

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In the News (from Times Online): “Dawn of the superhumans?”
Tipu Aziz is the Oxford neurosurgeon best known for his work with movement disorders… He implants an electrode in a specific part of the brain. When this area is electrically stimulated, the patient’s tremor stops instantly. Many thousands of people now have these implants for controlling Parkinson’s and they are now also being used to control pain and, significantly, depression and other mood disorders.

My Comment: Everyone’s holding hands as they blissfully wander through sunny green pastures, happy and smiling… and fiddling with their electric simulators from time to time. What a touching scene!

However, Nature will never let this happen, because Its plan is for people to develop their feelings and minds so as to attain the Creator’s level.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah – the Cure for Any Affliction
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Kabbalah Today Article: The All-Purpose Remedy

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In the News (from Contrarian Investors’ Journal): “Baltic Dry Index indicates a collapse in global trade” In May 2008, the BDI [price of moving the major raw materials by sea] fell from a record high of 11,793 to a low of 663 since 1986. It has been said that such low reading means that shipping costs is very close to the “combined operating costs of vessels, fuel and crew.”

My Comment: What else do you need when you receive a higher reward for these actions, when your soul is fulfilled, when you feel perfection and eternity, the Upper Harmony that’s above this temporal and imperfect life? People should only change (correct themselves) from reception to bestowal. This is merely a psychological problem, because people will receive billions times more than they do now, and they will receive it forever.

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A question I received: The overwhelming majority of people do not recognize “the quality” of the current crisis and the reason for it – that our egoism breaks and distorts all our connections, and that the only way to survive is by attaining the quality of “love for your neighbor.” Moreover, people don’t realize that they need help from the Creator, Ohr Makif, to do this. They do not realize this because they were created on the still level, Domem, and maybe they will never be able to realize this, and they don’t need to.

So what is the purpose of Kabbalah dissemination? If the elite are deaf because they are caught in the vicious cycle of their profiteering interests, and the masses are deaf because of their low level of development, then who are we disseminating to, and what are we disseminating?

My Answer: We are disseminating the science of how every person can correct himself. And every person will apply this science to the extent of his free will, which emerges due to the development of his desire (heart) and mind, through suffering and recognition.

By applying this science, every person will make his path of correction easier, shifting it from the natural one (under Nature’s blows, the way all evolution takes place), to evolution that happens by means of one’s aspiration for the goal, for the quality of bestowal and love for everyone. The global crisis is an indication that this is necessary.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Solution to the Global Crisis Cannot Be Found Without Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: The “Active Part of Humanity” Must Unite

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A question I received: I don’t know what to do. I feel as if I’ve lost all my energy and I am “hanging in the air.” Nothing interests me at work. Even though I do everything possible in my spiritual work, I feel despair as I’ve never experienced it before. I have no “fuel.” Nothing affects me anymore. I feel no desire for anything in this world, and the only desire I have is to escape to somewhere, but I don’t know where to. My heart tells me that this place exists, but I’m still not there. I have been studying with you for over three years and I can’t imagine life without Kabbalah. But I am getting desperate because I feel like nothing is happening to me. On the contrary, the desires of the external environment are affecting me, making me even weaker. What can I do? I can’t continue like this anymore! What should happen now?

My Answer: The reason you are feeling so weak on the spiritual path is that you lack a connection with the group. You aren’t receiving the importance of the goal from the environment, but this is the most important thing – it’s the foundation of our advancement!

You can read more about these states in the Shamati articles and the Letters of Baal HaSulam. There are Reshimot (information or the genes of our spiritual development) concealed in us, which constantly become revealed, causing our egoistic desire to constantly grow. And we must constantly ascend above these Reshimot using our intention to attain the quality of bestowal and love for the Creator. This is exactly why our egoism grows: to give us the opportunity to rise above it, to rise from our world to the level of the Creator.

And then we will understand Him, as it is written, “For they will all know Me, from the smallest of them to the greatest” (Yirmiyahu 31:33). But the process is always the same: the Reshimot that become revealed in us are always egoistic, and every time, we have to receive the force to rise above them by increasing our connection with the environment (the group).

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Joy Brings You Closer to the Creator
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In the News (from Science Daily): “Natural Selection Not The Only Process That Drives Evolution?” Why have some of our genes evolved rapidly? It is widely believed that Darwinian natural selection is responsible, but research led by a group at Uppsala University suggests that… rather than being the result of Darwinian selection for new adaptations, many of the genetic changes leading to human-specific characters may be the result of the fixation of harmful mutations. This contrasts the traditional Darwinistic view that they are the result of natural selection in favour of adaptive mutations.

My Comment: Evolution (the constant development of the entire universe) is based on the continual manifestation (revelation) of information, data, or genes. These genes are called Reshimot (which comes from the Hebrew word meaning “record”), and they constantly trigger greater and greater egoism on all levels of nature (the still, vegetative, animate and human levels of egoism). In turn, the egoism constructs external “coverings” or forms of the still, vegetative, animate and human levels, in all their great diversity.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Darwin’s Theory No Longer Works In Our Times
Laitman.com Post: Creation and Evolution
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A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: “From the First Thought to the First Man”
Interview with the Future: “The Spiritual Gene and the Reshimot (Reminiscence)”

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