In the News (from The Financial Times): “Germany warns on global inflation after crisis” The world could face high inflation and a “crisis after the crisis” when the global economy recovers, Peer Steinbrück, German finance minister, has warned. “I am concerned that the counter measures we are seeing around the world, financed by enormous amounts of debts, could be paving the road to the next crisis,” Mr Steinbrück told Bild, a tabloid daily.

My Comment: The crises will continue until we discover their real cause, which is not paper money, but our relationships. We have to correct ourselves. The question is: Will we do this before a world war or after?

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In the News (from The US Department of Labor): “Employment Situation Summary” Non farm payroll employment continued to decline in April (-539,000), and the unemployment rate rose from 8.5 to 8.9 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.7 million jobs have been lost. In April, job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major private-sector industries.

My Comment: Yet we are told that the crisis is over, that we have already passed the bottom and are recovering…

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A question I received: I have always been a good, responsible worker, but I was recently fired from my job. I have no money, but I have to feed my family. So who’s to blame for all of this: my own ego? And what should I do now?

My Answer: There is a reason for the situation in the world today. Everything is developing purposefully. Nature has a plan, and currently it is making all the people in the world, in every country, be afflicted by blows. These blows are not coming down on us randomly, because everything that happens to every person is purposeful and thought out. We are all interconnected inside a global network, where there is a place and a program for every person.

Therefore, it does you no good to simply complain about being fired and ask, “What should I do now?” The circumstances require you to gain awareness and understanding. This is what you have to focus on, and if you do, your situation will improve.

However, you are not the only one who does not understand what is happening. Just look at how the whole world is reacting to the current crisis: everyone is simply running away from the unpleasant situation toward something that appears better. The “bubbles” they created have burst, so now they are creating new ones. This is why the stock market keeps rising and growing. How else could it be rising if people are being fired, the industries and production are coming to a standstill, and trade is winding down?

Hence, it is obvious that today we are being lied to two-fold. It’s as if we have taken a pill to reduce our fever and we think that we are already cured. We see the stocks rising and think that everything is okay. People have comforted themselves, but in actuality it’s like taking a drug. For now everything seems alright.

But our situation is like a person who’s falling off a roof top, and someone asks him, “How are you doing?” And he replies, “Just fine – I’m still alive.”

Notwithstanding, people are scared inside. But a person cannot live in constant fear; he has to compensate for it in some way. There is nothing we can do until people will figure out why this situation is happening, what is the cause of the “illness” and how it is progressing. That is how they will find the way to cure it.

This illness can go on for many years if we don’t begin treating it. But when we do begin, then everything will happen quickly and easily. The remedy exists – it is the method of correcting man’s nature, known as “Kabbalah.”

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In the News (from Yahoo News): “US votes for 9/11-style commission to probe financial crisis” US lawmakers voted Wednesday to create a 9/11-style commission of experts to probe the causes of last year’s devastating financial meltdown and to draw lessons to prevent its recurrence. The commission would have a wide-ranging remit to examine the role of US regulators and the Federal Reserve.

My Comment: No commission will be able to find out what the cause of the crisis is, because the cause is inside all of us. It lies in our relationships, which have become interconnected; but because they are egoistic (since egoism is our nature), the interconnection is a negative one . The network of our egoistic relationships is invisible to us. We don’t feel that it exists and obliges us to act a certain way. This is why everyone is still trying to guess what the cause of the crisis is.

My Suggestion: Let’s “attack” (influence) this commission with our thoughts, our desires for the true cause of the crisis to be revealed. This is an action all of us can take together. In addition, I propose to create a document called, “The true cause of the crisis and the proposal for its correction,” and to send it to this commission. It will attract attention if it is signed by thousands of our friends. Perhaps we can send it to this commission through the media, as an open letter.

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In the News (from GlobesOnline): “The pessimistic outlook for global trade is the most important factor because export is a substantial part of our production. Global growth forecasts for the second half of 2009 are very pessimistic,” Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer today told the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee.

“Global trade is projected to fall by 9%. If these forecasts turn into facts, it will mean the worst global economic situation since World War II. Obviously, if global trade plummets, we cannot but be affected. Unemployment will probably continue to rise through mid-2010. In other words, we face a difficult year. We must pay attention to the real economy precisely when great optimism leaves the financial markets.”

My Comment: I applaud Prof. Fischer for being so direct and honest. Since man’s nature is “the will to enjoy,” it erases the negative emotions we felt in the past. So when our suffering becomes permanent, we stop noticing it. This is what’s happening with the crisis: although it isn’t ending, and is actually getting worse, it seems to us that it is almost over.

Kabbalah warns that humanity has an egoistic illness and it is not treating it Therefore, just like any disease, it is going deeper inside us, and will strike us more severely. If we continue closing our eyes to the facts, then we will soon face all the horrible symptoms of the illness!

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In the News (from The Rediff News): “Microsoft plans to lay off 5,000” Less than four months after announcing plans to slash 5,000 jobs, software giant Microsoft has warned of more job cuts depending on the impact of the economic slowdown. “As we move forward, we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure, including additional job eliminations,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a memo to employees on Tuesday.

My Comment: The same thing is happening all over. Meanwhile, we’re led to believe that the crisis is over and everything is fine.

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In the News (from The World Socialist Website): “Europe faces ever deepening recession” The cost of bailouts and declining tax revenues due to the slump has led to a spiraling of government deficits, which collectively have hit 2.3 percent of GDP for the 27-nation EU. The government debt to GDP ratio increased from 66 percent at the end of 2007 to 69.3 percent in the euro zone and from 58.7 percent to 61.5 percent in the EU… According to figures compiled by [the Dutch newspaper] NRC Handelsblad, Italy’s national debt is already well in excess of its GDP, Greece is approaching this figure and Belgium, France, Germany, Portugal and Austria all top 60 percent of GDP… Several countries have already gone cap-in-hand to the IMF, including Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Latvia and the Ukraine.

My Comment: There are many more unpleasant surprises ahead, and if we keep closing our eyes to them, we will keep hurting ourselves.

Because people haven’t found the remedy for the crisis, they are choosing to ignore it. But in the meantime, the illness is spreading. Let’s put forth all our efforts to let everyone know that there is a remedy, and by using it, we can quickly cure ourselves!

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A question I received: In today’s world, the leaders of the big financial companies receive bonuses by the millions. Having received the government’s bailout money, they are using it to their advantage – increasing their personal wealth and not depriving themselves of anything, while the ordinary citizens pay for their mistakes.

My Answer: That’s right! And it will only get worse until we recognize that our egoism is evil. Without this recognition, we will not be able to progress. This is why we will see things get even worse: the “big guys” will try to suck us completely dry, leaving us with just the minimal means for existence.

Everyone thinks that these companies can continue to exist in their current condition, if only they fix a little something here and there, with the help of a government-sponsored, bribed commission. We will continue to pour many more billions of dollars into these companies, until every country will find itself on the brink of collapse and bankruptcy.

In the end, we will reveal the enormous evil that lies within this egoistic regulation, and humanity will then concede that it’s necessary to eliminate this kind of regulation. Therefore, the most important thing for us is to reveal the evil of our egoism faster.

In the meantime, the global financial game continues as we watch the stock indexes rise. But has the manufacturing industry resumed normal functioning? Everything has been shut down. Are they selling more oil? No – because the manufacturing industry, its main consumer, is dysfunctional. Everything is going down, but for some reason, the stocks are on the rise. What is going on here?

People are using any situation that comes their way with a blind approach: no matter what, I must make a profit! But tomorrow, they might have to throw their millions out as they won’t be worth anything! But who cares about tomorrow – today this money means everything to me!

There is no other way for people to see things, because egoism does not sense or see what will happen tomorrow. And so the game continues.

In addition, we have to understand that the financial world does not have a method of coping with the problem. The people there do not understand the changes that are going on. They only know that the profit they receive today is their profit. And if they don’t make a profit, someone else will. This is the law of competition: either I win or you. And since neither the government, nor the society, nor the entire economic system have a solution, they all continue this game. Not continuing it is not an option: they can’t shut down the stock exchanges, at least not now when there is a guise of a recovery. But in truth, the descent continues: statistics show that there is a decline in production. So what is the reason for the rise in stock market? It’s happening because of speculation.

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The current crisis has reached a level where our egoistic detachment from one other is at its peak, and it does not allow us to make any collective actions. Today we are even incapable of making an exchange, where we give something and receive something in return. That is, we are not even capable of giving in order to receive.

I cannot deposit my money in the bank and get it back, I cannot work for someone and receive my salary, an owner of one business cannot sell his product to another and make a profit. This kind of mutual exchange no longer works!

This is why we will have to shift to an attitude of care for others. This is the only way that everyone will be able to get everything they need for a comfortable existence.

We used to live in a world where we could receive without consideration for others, without giving anything in return, or in other words – to steal. The entire history of our civilization over millennia is a history of exchange and interaction, as it says in the Bible, “Go and earn from each other.”

Today, however, this period of egoistic exchange has ended. You cannot receive nor give for the sake of receiving anymore. But then how can we exist? What should we do?

Humanity has not realized its new state yet. People still do not understand that the old regulators are gone, and that from now on everyone will be able to live only by being completely interconnected with the world. This is the condition of the global, integral world. This condition is called “mutual guarantee.”

People will attain prosperity only through others, depending on how kindly they will think of others, and on how much they desire to give to others. This is what today’s crisis is pushing us toward.

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In the past, Nature didn’t judge us by how strong the connection between us was. We were connected by Nature into one net (one soul – Adam), but Nature did not require us to implement this connection willingly and consciously.

Back in the 1940s, Baal HaSulam wrote in his newspaper “The Nation” that the world is actually one family, completely interconnected. However, this connection is only being revealed to us now. And today, everything depends on whether we will carry out this condition, set by Nature. The current crisis and everything that will happen to us in the future depends only on the quality of the connection between us.

Therefore, we must constantly envision the system of our interconnection as clearly as we can, in order to uncover our current disparity with it. This disparity is the cause of our troubles, and uncovering it is the first step to solving the problem.

If each person will reach a clear understanding of the cause of the crisis, this will solve the crisis! And then, all of our actions will gradually become consistent with Nature.

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