In the News (from AFP): Japan’s Sony Corp. said Tuesday that it was cutting more than 8,000 jobs worldwide and shutting plants as part of an overhaul of its business to cope with the global economic downturn. The electronics giant said it would axe about 10 percent of its manufacturing sites, cut investment in its electronics business by about 30 percent.

My Comment: Only the necessities will remain!

In the News (from The Daily Telegraph): Pubs are closing at a record rate, with six closing every day because of the economic downturn. The British Beer & Pub Association says that 39 pubs a week are closing in Britain, a rate 20 times faster than three years ago. It is estimated that 44,000 jobs in pubs and bars have been lost in the past couple of years and that 60,000 more jobs will go shortly.

My Comment: Could anyone imagine this happening?! Truly, the world will be different…

In the News (translated from Newsland.ru): “Will the crisis turn women into wives and mothers?” Being mother and wife is the only worthwhile way for a woman to realize herself. Most women toil in order to earn a salary, but not for self-actualization. Meanwhile their children grow up lacking a mother’s attention and develop inferiority complexes. However, the crisis is forcing women to return home.

My Comment: Kabbalah views the crisis as correction. The disappearance of excess will help us to better prioritize life and its values.

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In the News (from World News): “Divorces are down because of economy” The recession and economic turmoil are creating a new class of casualties: married couples who can’t afford to get divorced. In these tough times, many people are finding it’s cheaper to stay together, even when they can’t stand each other.

My Comment: Similarly, the nations of the world will also realize that it’s necessary to stay connected. And then they will realize that any connection yields such benefits that even if they have the option of separating, they never will!

In the News (from Pew Research Center): “Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Outlet” The Internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as an outlet for national and international news. For the first time, more people say they rely mostly on the Internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). For young people, the Internet now rivals television as a main source of national and international news.

My Comment: People want a multi-faceted, interactive connection rather than one-sided information. The Internet makes it easier to uncover the lies that pervade all the mass media, because the users create a multi-polar source of information and commentary. When technology will enable television to be broadcast on the Internet, all other news outlets will disappear.

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In the News (from Investor’s Business Daily): “U.K. In Recession, Banks Sinking Fast, But Gov’t Boxed In” Britain’s plunging pound, shrinking economy and crumbling financial system are inviting comparisons to Iceland, which asked for an IMF bailout last year after its banks failed and its currency collapsed.

My Comment: The more people resist and stubbornly refuse to learn from nature about how to come out of the crisis, the more countries will end up like Iceland. People still don’t realize that we are governed by the law of integral interdependence, where everyone is unified and equal. And the only way to overcome the crisis is to equalize all humanity with this law.

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In the News (from Tribble Ad Agency): The Great Depression has reached Detroit… unemployment has reached 21%, and it’s expected to get worse… even the criminals don’t want to leave jail … some offenders, notably those without homes of their own, were now expressing reluctance to leave jail when their sentences were done.

My Comment: People won’t be able to save themselves by running away from their responsibilities. It’s necessary to teach the prisoners about the new world and the global connection between everyone, and to prepare them for a new life, so they could come out to freedom with a new, clear conscience! Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to put all of us through solitary confinement? (That’s a joke.)

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A question I received: The Vice–President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs said the following about the outcome of the financial crisis, “You can’t run away from the crisis. The world today is globalized, so it’s stupid to suppose that in the great ocean of instability, there are islands of prosperity that remain. First of all, people have to reduce ‘show-off spending.’ Over the last one hundred years, Americans have developed the notion of ‘noble behavior during a crisis,’ which includes charity.”

My Comment: This is not enough. What we need is a complete overhaul of human consciousness and attitude toward self, the world, and the Creator. Nobility and charity cannot correct anything.

Gradually the world is gaining a recognition of the “non-earthly” tasks it must now resolve, and people will then discover the method of solving them, Kabbalah. But for the time being the world is still comforted by thinking that it’s possible to go back to the past by making superficial changes.

Here is what Martin Wolf wrote in The Financial Times: “Choices made in 2009 will shape the globe’s destiny” Welcome to 2009. This is a year in which the fate of the world economy will be determined, maybe for generations. Some entertain hopes that we can restore the globally unbalanced economic growth of the middle years of this decade. They are wrong. Our choice is only over what will replace it.

It is between a better balanced world economy and disintegration. That choice cannot be postponed. It must be made this year. We are in the grip of the most significant global financial crisis for seven decades. As a result, the world has run out of creditworthy, large-scale, willing private borrowers. The alternative of relying on vast US fiscal deficits and expansion of central bank credit is a temporary – albeit necessary – expedient. But it will not deliver a durable return to growth.

Fundamental changes are needed.

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In the News (from finance.blogspot): Reginald Smith of the Mathematics Institute of the Bouchet-Franklin in Rochester has mapped the spread of the financial crisis, showing that “The losses in certain markets follow a cascade or epidemic flow like model.”

My Comment: It could not be otherwise, because all phenomena, including our own actions, are part of Nature. And we are a part of it, even through we try to detach from it. Therefore, all phenomena are similar, but they occur at different egoistic levels, whether the still, vegetative, animate or human. This is further evidence that Nature is one and integral, and everything in it is interconnected and similar. Furthermore, it shows that there is just one reason for all the evil in the world: our breach of balance with Nature, which is a breach of the cooperation between all of Nature’s parts.

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In the News (from Financial Times): “The Group of Two that could change the world” American political analyst Zbigniew Brzezinski, advisor to Barack Obama during the presidential campaign and former national security adviser to President Carter, proposed that China and the US collectively work out all of the world’s problems.

My Comment: Unless it’s forced by external circumstances, any form of isolationism is opposite to the integral, global laws of nature that are being revealed in our time. Therefore, doing this will only bring about an even greater crisis.

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In the News (translated from utro.ru): Sooner or later the economic crisis will be over, and then life on our planet will be completely different. The experts of the World Economic Forum concluded that the era of swift development has come to an end, economic growth will slow down, the influence of the government will increase, and the global economy will change completely. The experts put forth four scenarios for the future of the global financial system: Either the worst will happen in the East, or in the West, or everywhere at once, or the world will somehow recuperate.

My Comment: Nobody knows the future, because it is for us to decide. However, there aren’t four, but two possible scenarios: either things will be good for everyone, or bad for everyone. It can’t be divided up into parts, because the world is integral and absolutely interconnected, and this is being revealed more and more each day.

There are two possible paths: the path of suffering, or the path of conscious development and a favorable connection between everyone. However, one way or another, we will have to reach one goal – to become an integral part of Nature.

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In the News (translated from Javno): This year’s traditional Vanity Fair will have no hint of glamour because of the global crisis. The traditional glamorous party Vanity Fair fashion magazine organizes every year after the Oscar awards will this year be far from the glamour attendees of the event are used to. As the global economic crisis is affecting all areas, the leaders of the renowned magazine decided to organize a rather humble party and reduce the list of invitees as much as possible. “We will curb expenses this year,” the magazine’s editor said, adding that the party would resemble the magazine’s first party 15 years ago which was pretty humble.

My Comment: Naturally, everything that was artificially created by humans will eventually come to an end. Only the natural existence will stay, along with spiritual development.

Glamour is often so tasteless, because people just want to “sparkle.” But this is already disappearing. Glamour has outlived itself.

The crisis does not mean that the world is falling apart, but that its false, shiny shell is. And just like a chick is born from an egg, this shell will break to reveal the birth of a new life – a new world that exists by the eternal laws of Nature, the laws of bestowal and love.

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Question: In one of the lessons you said that America is built egoistically to unite more than other nations because it is comprised of different nations (is ethnically and culturally diverse), and that it is going to be okay in this crisis if the people unite. My question is: doesn’t this speak to some space in me? Some space inside me that egoistically would like to get along with the other people in my life?

My Comment: Of course, this is how we start correcting our nature: by searching for a better egoistic life. However, while studying Kabbalah we begin to feel the value of having a direct altruistic attitude to others; its independence, greatness, and the infinite, eternal sensations that become revealed in it. And then we discover how to attain this, and consciously aspire to come out of egoism.

In the News (translated from SvobodaNews): The Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Science (IERAS) reports that Russians are faced with a decline in income. They will have to take any job, save money, raise their professional qualifications, and support each other. At this time it is important to stay connected with family and friends, because people will have to come out of this difficult situation together.

My Comment: Indeed, this prolonged suffering will force people to unite – and not just within each nation, but all the nations together. Kabbalah enables us to understand what is happening, and then people will also be able to quickly understand what to do in order to attain equivalence with Nature, with the quality of bestowal and love. This quality is the basis for survival in the unified system of humanity.

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