Regardless of the outcome of the elections, the best thing for Israel (for it to succeed in all areas) would be for the four major political parties to unite, and to leave all the small, non-political parties aside, so they’ll stop haggling for their part of the population to receive special benefits at the state’s expense.

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Two questions I received about studying Kabbalah:

Question: After four months of intense study and reading The Book of Zohar for eighteen hours a day, I felt a sensation of pleasure that’s beyond this world. I was overcome by the revelation of something new. This lasted for thirty seconds and then disappeared, since I was unable to stand this feeling. Then I stopped studying because it was unbearably difficult. My body became heavy and I couldn’t function. Later I got back to studying, but I started having horrible fears. So I stopped again. Please tell me, what am I doing wrong?

My Answer: Everything. You should eat well, rest, exercise, and work. And only once you have done all of these, when you have free time, you may then study Kabbalah. And you should only study in our beginners’ course.

Question: The Creator brings a person to Kabbalah, but this person is still resisting it. He doesn’t connect to the group and is still trying to find egoistic pleasure. Does this person cause more suffering in the world than a regular person, who doesn’t know anything about Kabbalah?

My Answer: No! It’s because he advances down the path leading to the goal, and the system (the Creator) perceives this person’s temporary stops and changes in direction as discoveries of his uncorrected qualities (egoism), in order to then eliminate them.

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Laitman.com Post: How Does a Kabbalist Organize His Day?
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Baal HaSulam Article: “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”, Item 40

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A photograph of all the Congress participants:

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A question I received: Why does the sensation of the Upper Light evoke both immense pleasure and terrible suffering?

My Answer: This depends only on your qualities and on whether they’re directed toward the goal. If the Light shines inside a Kli that’s prepared and corrected, then you feel It as goodness. And if It shines into an unprepared, uncorrected Kli, then you feel suffering. However, if your direction is towards the goal, this alters your sensation of the Light to joy, because you anticipate the struggle and the achievement of the goal.

Related Material:
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The Path of Kabbalah: Chapter 2.10 – “The Sensation of the Light”
The Path of Kabbalah: Chapter 3.5 – “The Four Phases in the Evolution of the Vessel”

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In the News (translated from Izrus.co.il): “Kabbalist Michael Laitman is preparing a plan to take over the whole world and Madonna is not involved” The founder and president of the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute, Michael Laitman, held an International Kabbalah Congress. In an interview with the IzRus portal, he spoke about the goals and the participants of this event.

My Comment: That’s the mass media for you! What can you do with them? No matter what, they just have to mention Madonna along with any Kabbalist. To them, having a connection with Madonna is the same as having a connection with Kabbalah. But that will change…

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In the News (from Science Daily): “How A Brain Chemical Changes Locusts From Harmless Grasshoppers To Swarming Pests.” A collaboration between a team of scientists has identified an increase in the chemical serotonin [the “happiness hormone”] in specific parts of the insects’ nervous system as initiating the key changes in behavior that cause them to swarm… Vast swarms containing billions of locusts (grasshoppers that swarm) stretching over many square kilometers continue to inflict severe economic hardship on parts of Africa and China. In November 2008 swarms six kilometers (3.7 miles) long plagued Australia.

My Comment: The grasshoppers feel happy from being in a flock. This is the reason for their behavior, whereas the food is secondary. If the locusts stop feeling happy from working in a flock, they will stop destroying the vegetation. But this unconscious need for serotonin cannot be destroyed. These “plagues of Egypt” will disappear only when man rises above nature and begins to accumulate the feeling of happiness. This will affect all the lower levels of nature, and then the plagues will vanish.

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Editorial in the News (translated from TheMarker): If you ask me, I suppose that the grayish anemia of this electoral system comes mostly from despair – national, individual, collective, personal, and general. It is a perfect, Godly despair. This despair is now our greatest, most real enemy; in fact, it is the only thing that really threatens our existence.

My Comment: Truly, despair is the most distinctive quality in the general mood of our society. In addition to all of Israel’s other “eternal” problems, we now have a long-term financial crisis, providing a backdrop for the reemergence of the old crises, such as the crisis in upbringing, education, the family unit, safety, absorption, lack of a single culture for this nation, and so on.

There is only one solution: to discover that we are a “special, chosen nation,” obligated to bring the revelation of the Creator into our world. We must master the wisdom of Kabbalah and, using it, clearly reveal the Creator to the whole world. This is the only way that we and the whole world will come out of the crisis. This is the path we must choose.

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Our friend Daniel from Iran posts our materials, translated into Persian, on his blog:

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Kabbalah website in Farsi

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In the News (from The New York Times):“Data Show College Endowments Loss Is Worst Drop Since ’70s” Battered by the markets… the drop found by the reports is the biggest in the value of college and university endowments since the mid-1970s.

In the News (from The New York Times): “Brandeis Says It Plans to Sell Art Collection to Raise Cash” The trustees of Brandeis University voted unanimously on Monday to close the Rose Art Museum and sell its collection to help shore up the university’s finances.

My Comment: The crisis will free the universities of excessive expenses and programs, and of unneeded specializations and specialists, leaving only what is necessary. And the same will happen in the day-to-day lives of all people.

In the News (from France24): “Number of Internet users tops one billion” The global number of Internet users has surpassed one billion. The digital research firm comScore Inc. reported that China had nearly 180 million people going online in December, followed by the United States with 163 million, Japan with 60 million, Germany and Britain with nearly 37 million each and France with 34 million. India was next with 32 million Internet users followed by Russia (29 million), Brazil (28 million), South Korea (27 million), Canada (22 million) and Italy (21 million).

My Comment: Based on this, we have to create a system of global education. This is what the web was created for!

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A question I received: Where can I see a list of the countries from which the participants of the 2009 Congress came? Was there anyone there from my country, Bulgaria?

The list of congress participants (by country, listed alphabetically): Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Minor Outlying Islands, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Zaire.

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