In the News (from BBC News): Surely when people need relief from their financial worries they reach for the natural medication created by body contact? Professor Helen Fisher of Rutgers University argues that the sheer stress of money worries in general elevates levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain – and dopamine is associated with romantic love.

My Comment: Desire is the matter of all creation, including us. Our entire essence is the will to fulfill our desire. We want to fulfill it by any means possible and as much as possible.

In times of crisis, people’s desires change, as do the sources of fulfillment for the desires. Since people can’t get the fulfillment they desire, they go back to the most natural sources of fulfillment – love and sex.

However, nowadays even this won’t make people feel fulfilled because our desires are transforming into a global desire, which can only be fulfilled when everyone will unite into a single whole.

Related Material:
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In the News (from The New York Times): “Survey Reveals Broad Support for President” A month into Mr. Obama’s term, more than three-quarters of the people polled said they were optimistic about the next four years with him as president.

My Comment: “The hearts of the world’s rulers are in the Creator’s hands (Lev Sarim VeMelachim BaYad HaShem – a Kabbalistic quote) .

In the News (cont’d): [However,] nearly all Americans are concerned that the cost of the economic programs will have significant long-term effects on future generations, with 65 percent saying they are very concerned about increasing the national debt.

My Comment: The real crisis still hasn’t been revealed in its entirety, and when it is, people’s opinions will change.

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A question I received: I am the CEO of a high-tech company in the center of Israel. Currently, sales are at a standstill, while expenses continue to mount as before. In addition, the crisis may continue to develop in unpredictable ways. I have two options: either I close down the company and fire all the employees, or I cut back on everything to the minimum and wait for the crisis to pass.

During one of the morning lessons, you said that everyone should sit down at a desk and learn about the laws of Nature. By doing this, we will draw a positive influence from above, and as a result, bring an end to the crisis. So would you recommend that I use the company’s savings to sit my employees down in a classroom and have them learn the science of correction? If yes, then what should I explain to them?

My Answer: Contact me through my assistant at 054-560-6721, and we can meet to discuss the possibility of the second option.

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In the News (from The Independent): “Brown flies to meet President Obama for economy crisis talks” Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Fed and now adviser to President Obama, said that, while he felt capitalism would survive, “I’m not so sure about financial capitalism.”

In the News (from The Socialist Alternative): “Marx on the Cover of Time Magazine in Europe — Capitalism Losing Legitimacy” Karl Marx made the front cover of the February 2 issue of the European edition of Time Magazine, displaying the weakening confidence of the capitalist ruling elite in their system.

In the News (translated from Utro.ru): “Capitalism Will Not Survive the Crisis” Some members of the US economic elite are fearful that capitalism will be replaced by socialism.

Karl Marx said, “Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more expensive goods, real estate and equipment, pushing them to take more and more expensive loans until the loans end up in default. The defaulted loans will cause banks to go bankrupt and nationalized by the government, and this, in turn, will lead to the emergence of communism.”

My Comment: Marx predicted the future rather well. We underestimate him only because Russia did not carry out its experiment correctly. If they would have done it according to Marx, then everything would have worked out. But in actuality, they would have not even attempted it because they were not ready for it.

Now these ideas are starting to come to life regardless. In fact, Marx derived his theory from practice, basing it on the development of human egoism. For more, see the newspaper, “The Nation.”

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In the News (from The New York Times): “Job Losses Pose a Threat to Stability Worldwide” “This is the worst we’ve had since 1929,” said Laurent Wauquiez, France’s employment minister. “The thing that is new [about this crisis] is that it is global, and we are always talking about that. It is in every country, and it makes the whole difference.”

My Comment: That’s right: the distinctive feature of this crisis is that it is global. This is qualitatively, not quantitatively, different. It isn’t just a crisis that has hit many countries, but a crisis that has hit everyone together. It has connected all the countries in the world even more, revealing our interconnection to everyone.

And now everyone has to learn about this phenomenon. The new laws and qualities of today’s civilization can only be created by means of a complete connection among all people, cultures, countries, and nations in our small village. We will not be able to come out of the crisis without creating these new qualities.

In the past, we progressed by means of simple competition, the way Darwin described it. Now, however, we are a single organism, and we can no longer compete with each other. On the contrary, the only way we can make progress is by drawing closer and reaching greater harmony with each other.

In the News (from Atlantic Monthly): “The Capitalist Threat” by George Soros There is something wrong with making the survival of the fittest a guiding principle of civilized society.

My Comment: Actually, it wasn’t wrong in the past, but it is now, when all our individual egos have united into one, global egoism. This change took place in the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, Baal HaSulam wrote that the whole modern world was already like one family – see the newspaper, “The Nation.”

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In the News: (from The European Parliament): “Focus on the long term while tackling immediate economic crisis” MEPs [members of European Parliament] and national parliamentarians from the 27 Member States and the candidate countries began a two-day Joint Parliamentary Meeting to discuss “A New Deal for European Economic Recovery.” ECB [European Central Bank] President Jean-Claude Trichet said that stimulus packages should be aimed at fostering longer term structural adjustment.

My Comment: They’re starting to understand that they are not in control of the situation and that it’s pointless to try to plan anything, since there is no regulator! The lack of solid ground under their feet will make them keep searching for solutions until they’ll discover that the crisis was caused by just one thing: the lack of a complete, reciprocal and good connection between people.

As they keep searching for more answers, they will realize that it’s necessary to find a means to amend the connections between all the people in the world. And this is possible only by applying the method of Kabbalah – the science that explains this connection. Then, Kabbalah will truly become a science about our lives.

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In the News (from Canadian Business Online): German Chancellor Angela Merkel is calling for a new international charter as a way to get out of the global financial crisis. “We want to make sure that in the future there are no gaps in the world regarding financial products, market participants or instruments,” Merkel said. Among the solutions Merkel is pushing is the idea of a global “risk atlas” that would give an overview of where risks might occur, in an effort to swiftly intervene and prevent them from escalating.

My Comment: The crisis can make us unite, or it can make us become isolated from one another. It’s very dangerous for the latter to take place, since this will be opposite to the tendency of our development as humanity!

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A question I received: I came across an interesting article, “It’s Every Man for Himself,” depicting the scene on Wall Street this year. Is it correct to assume that the heart of Wall Street, the heart of American politics, the heart of American business – with this “every man for himself” attitude – is what you describe as the complete growth of egoism to the critical point? I work on Wall Street, but in a technical capacity. Should I try to change careers, so that I am not subject to this punishment? To be honest, the idea of working as a laborer / road builder / carpenter seems to be more aligned with the principles of Kabbalah than a career on Wall Street.

My Answer: You’re right: Kabbalists always preferred simpler trades because working there lets your mind be free to think about the Upper World, instead of about how much you’re earning. However, if your specialty is technical, it shouldn’t interfere with your spiritual path. In this case it doesn’t matter where you work, as long as you work in a legal organization. My advice for you is to keep your job.

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Here is a letter I received from my student, Tasha:

I forwarded my article from your blog to my coworkers. Afterward, one of them came to me and asked, “Do you really think it’s possible for people to work without money, just out of the goodness of their hearts?”

I answered, “It will be when we won’t have any other choice: when we’ll have to change our ways or starve to death.” He replied, “And when will that happen?”

It’s really interesting how everything’s changing. A mere six months ago, if you started telling people about the idea of integrating different processes into one, everyone would hear you out politely and then start arguing about who’ll be “calling the shots.” But today – take a look at what’s happening! Everyone’s starting to be friendly and rushing to be the first to be integrated and cooperative. God forbid you get a reputation of being non-compliant or uncooperative – you’ll be the first candidate for dismissal.

You’d think that people would be clinging to what’s theirs with everything they’ve got, without any regard for others, but what’s happening is just the opposite: everyone has discovered that no one will survive without mutual help and support.

So the system seems to be regulating itself, after all?

My Answer: What’s happening is that the desire (feeling) and the thought (information) are flowing inside the system that’s now global, going from those who are aware of the process to everyone else.

Thus, without even realizing it, people are beginning to think in new ways: We instead of I.

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In the News (from The Telegraph): “Thousands of French cafes close” There is growing evidence that the French are skipping starters and coffee or simply staying at home to cope with food and fuel price hikes. Restaurant closures have soared by 25 percent from last year. Cafes and bars saw closures shoot up by 56 per cent. “The profession is increasingly working with cheaper products to avoid raising costs,” said Danièle Deleval, vice-president of France’s main restaurant and hotel industry.

My Comment: The crisis will leave people with just “the bare necessities” – whatever they need in order to live. But everyone will realize that this is “for the best.”

In the News (from The New York Times): “Laid-Off Foreigners Flee as Dubai Spirals Down” Many of the foreign workers who make up 90 percent of the population here, have been laid off and face the prospect of being forced to leave this Persian Gulf city. That in turn reduces spending, creates housing vacancies and lowers real estate prices, in a downward spiral that has left parts of Dubai — once hailed as the economic superpower of the Middle East — looking like a ghost town.

My Comment: The paradise has been deserted. If the crisis continues, the same will happen in many other places in the world.

Related Material:
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