Question: Is the development of humanity predetermined?

Answer: At this stage, there are only two ways of the development of humanity: either by the method of Kabbalah or by terrible, serious, irreversible blows. Unfortunately, there are no other ways. We are now at a specific point to solve the problem. By “now” I mean a few more months or a few more years. But time shortens very quickly.

When I was a novice scholar in Kabbalah, even before completing the dissertation and all my other works, when I only began to become acquainted with these materials, I had no idea that such a movement, such an evolution, even that a revolution was possible in the world.

And here, in 20 to 30 years, we have ended up in a completely different world that no longer operates according to the old principles, laws, and canons. And with every day it is felt more and more.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Europe Today” 1/26/11

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Medium published my new article “Climate Crisis — Not Child’s Play”

Environment Day sand sculpture is seen at the Bay of Bengal Sea’s Puri beach as it is creating by sand artist Manas Sahoo for awareness among people on the coastal area on the occasion of World Environment Day at Puri, 65 km away from the eastern Indian state Odisha’s capital city Bhubaneswar on June 5, 2021. (Photo by STR/NurPhoto)

The planet is running out of time — humanity is utilizing the resources of the world faster than it can recover naturally. That is the United Nation’s blunt assessment of the climate crisis for the occasion of World Environment Day, celebrated June 5th.

This year’s theme is, “Only One Earth.” But beyond the catchy slogans, the fact is that we do not seem to realize that we indeed have only one place to live: Planet Earth. We continue to shoot at our own feet with our reckless actions towards our surrounding environment.

In spite of how many people keep shouting, talking endlessly about the environmental crisis, how many meetings take place, and how many decisions are made, nothing seems to help. Either we just leave the state of the planet as it is now, ignore all the problems and wait for the next disaster to happen, or we admit that everything that we have done up until now is ineffective and fruitless and finally make the sharp turn required.

To raise awareness about the precarious state of the planet, beginning next year, Israeli schools will make classes on the climate crisis mandatory for students of all ages, the Education and the Environmental Protection Ministries recently announced. They will begin integrating an environmental program equivalent to one hour per week into the curriculum for students from kindergarten to high school.

Will this make a difference or will it be as unsuccessful as previous efforts to solve environmental problems? The answer does not depend on the hours spent on these studies or who will develop them. Rather, it depends on what is taught and the extent to which students understand the causes of the climate crisis and how to solve it.

We know that the severity of the global environmental crisis can be compared to a spaceship coming toward us to destroy the planet, and that we who live on Earth must prepare to avoid being harmed by it. And how do we prepare? We have to explain that the climate crisis is a consequence of a human crisis. So, the solution that will ultimately bring the world into balance is for us to change ourselves to cultivate positive human relationships and grow closer to each other internally. That is, the heart must expand, not physically, but emotionally. To start feeling the entire world as a part of each and every one of us and for us to care for the entire world as we care for ourselves.

This is true because nature is a system of integral connections that operates through a hierarchy. What happens on any particular degree in the system affects all the other degrees. The intensity of the impact on the system corresponds with where it stands in the hierarchical ranking. The human race is the highest level in nature, above the inanimate, vegetative, and animal. Therefore, the part of the system that destroys the ecological balance the most are the egoistic actions of human beings that disregard the interests of others, including the other parts of the system of nature.

Humanity can do nothing to correct this self-focused tendency until it recognizes that its harmful instinct rules all its decisions and is the primary source of the imbalance in nature. By learning how to build relationships based on mutual understanding, care and cooperation, a positive force is created which is capable of restoring harmony in all levels in nature. This is the crucial truth that must be taught.

When we learn how to transcend all of our negative egoistic tendencies and recognize that we are all individual parts in a single, connected and completely interdependent mechanism, we will also comprehend that doing good to others is also good to us. Just as today we are the ones who destroy all of nature, we also have the power to repair it. The planet’s countdown is on but we still have a window of opportunity to control it if we change our thoughts, actions, and desires to upgrade our human relationships.
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Question: Baal HaSulam writes that fostering national love is the key to the success of the economy, education, and security. How can this be done?

Answer: This is possible only if we attract the upper light, the upper force, because Jews cannot have national unity. After all, this is a gathering of many completely different, opposite groups of humanity.

Question: How can we foster national unity if we have so many different currents?

Answer: We need to raise what we are talking about above these currents. Our attitude to ourselves, to the world, to others should be integral.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/26/22

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Question: The Russian scholar Vladimir Vernadsky came to the doctrine of the “noosphere” at the junction of the First and Second World Wars, which, as he wrote, completely changed his consciousness because he began to analyze the reason why world wars occur and where they lead.

Why did scientists of such magnitude see a new stage in the development of mankind during the times of severe upheavals?

Answer: What else can lead humanity to some changes if not upheavals? Otherwise we won’t wake up.

If a man is a desire to receive, to enjoy, and to be filled, then when I get what I want, I no longer have any needs; I will be content. If a new desire has arisen, I fill it. Otherwise, I have no motivation to move; I will not develop myself.

New desires arise from within me according to some internal program unknown to me. If they automatically get filled from the outside, then I myself do not exist, there is no movement coming from me. A person can be developed only by constantly arousing newer and newer desires in him and, at the same time, not giving him fulfillment so he will look for how to fill himself.

This leads us to progress. Later we reach some kind of impasse and see that we can no longer fill ourselves. This is a characteristic feature of our generation. Hence we see depression, suicide, drug use, and everything else. New desires appear, but nobody knows how to fill them.

Moreover, some desires lie beyond this world. Therefore we begin to relate to our world nihilistically, indifferently, with detachment. We are overwhelmed with desires for something more, to which we see no answers in our world. Where is the source of those pleasures that I desire?

This is how nature pushes us to open the noosphere.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Prophet” 11/23/11

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Comment: Today the world has taken on a global dimension, where people feel that they are somehow interconnected.

Kabbalah is called upon to completely change values and priorities and arrange them in such a way that human relations are built on the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself,” mutual support, and so on.

My Response: We have nowhere to get away from it! We will come to this decision anyway. Kabbalah simply gives us the opportunity to do this.

When the so-called G8s, G20s, and not only political or economic forums, but any other public organizations gather, they talk about the need for collaboration.

Today, everyone understands that collaboration is needed, otherwise the world will explode or spread apart.

Question: If everyone understands this, then what does Kabbalah offer that is new?

Answer: Kabbalah is not offering anything. It says: “Friends, you correctly understood that the world is one and we are at the mercy of some common world force that acts centripetally on us, always bringing us closer toward mutual interdependence. From year to year we become more dependent on one another, and more than likely, we can’t even break this connection.”

That fact wouldn’t change if some state wants to separate, withdraw from the world community, or try to provide itself with some kind of subsistence economy and thus isolate itself from others. It won’t help.

Today, all states, all people on Earth are connected from within by nature itself with some invisible ties so that they are not able to isolate themselves in any way. Scientists, political scientists, and sociologists talk about this, and everyone understands this very well.

The only thing that no one has is the strength or knows how to come to this unification, or where to get the power that is opposite to our egoism that is trying to separate us, tear us apart, and directs us to suppress each other.

How can we make sure that instead of this centrifugal force, we would reveal the centripetal force?

Comment: But people don’t feel this connection.

My Response: We are not talking about an ordinary person. We are talking about people who are managing the state, society, and technological development. They understand what the world is coming to, that today no country can separate from each other because we are small parts of nature.

Nature has brought us to a state in which we are interconnected. And we cannot break this mutual connection.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Europe Today” 1/26/11

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Medium published my new article “Globalization Needs Urgent Fixing”

In an interview for CBS News on March 8, 2009, during the financial crisis that became known as the Great Recession, then Wachovia Corp. economist Mark Vitner said that untying the world’s entangled economies is “like trying to unscramble scrambled eggs. It just can’t be done that easily. ‎I don’t know if it can be done at all.” Since then, we have grown even more entangled. Nevertheless, the developing food crisis because of the Russia-Ukraine war, the semiconductor crisis and shipment delays because of the pandemic, and the increasing international tensions have brought back the question of deglobalization.

At the 2022 meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) that ended just last week, deglobalization was again a major topic. The Financial Times reported in one story that “The three-decade era of globalisation risks going into reverse according to company executives and investors,” and in another story, argued that “Technological progress suggests the turn from globalisation can bring benefits as well as challenges.”

I agree with Vitner’s observation that it is impossible to deglobalize the world economy. It cannot be done, not now, not ever, and in the future, it will be even more scrambled than today.

However, and this is why economists are toying with the idea of breaking the ties between the world’s economies, globalization is aggravating the world’s problems because it is based on such negative relationships that we should stop its progress and not continue until we organize it on a more positive basis for everyone involved.

Currently, we are relating to our economic relations the same as we are relating to all of our relationships: from an exploitative approach. Without realizing that the economy provides for our most basic needs, and should therefore not be treated as a means for abusing and trampling other people, the world economy will continue to slow down and food and gas shortages will escalate.

The paralysis will lead to famine in many countries and severe shortage of staples in many others. As a result, conflicts will become violent, wars will break out, and life will devolve to 19th century conditions. We cannot afford to mistreat each other when it comes to economic matters.

What is even more frustrating is that the shortages are not real; they are the outcomes of nations’ unwillingness to supply other countries with necessary products. If we change our attitude toward each other, we will discover that we already have an abundance of everything and there will be no shortages of any kind.

Thanks to globalization, small countries such as Singapore, Israel, some of the Arab states in the Persian Gulf, European countries with small populations, and small islands can all prosper despite their size. They import what they need, which is most everything, and export unique products or technologies, or rely on tourism. However, in the absence of extensive and constructive ties between countries and nations, such countries will not be able to provide for themselves, and they will simply disappear.

Notwithstanding, we will not be able to stop being dependent on each other. We may think we can, and this is why deglobalization was a topic of discussion at the WEF, but we will not be able to do so. One way or the other, we will have to improve our relationships and stop trying to belittle and put each other down. We will discover that even trying to do so, as is happening now, causes tremendous harm to everyone, including to ourselves.

There is no way to go through the shift without some level of pain. Pain is the only impetus for change. However, I hope that we will be clever enough to respond to it quickly so that the level of pain we must endure will not entail a third, nuclear world war.

The natural evolution of humanity has connected us, and nature does not reverse its track. Therefore, all we can do is try to move forward pleasantly and not painfully.

If we dedicate efforts to teaching ourselves about our interdependence and the necessity to collaborate positively, we can reverse the negative trajectory and the threat of war. Instead, we will advance with globalization peacefully, in a way that benefits everyone, and truly provides for all our needs.
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Medium published my new article “Beyond Gun Laws”

U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden pay their respects at a memorial at Robb Elementary School, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in the deadliest U.S. school shooting in nearly a decade, in Uvalde, Texas, U.S. May 29, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

The carnage at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, reignited the debate around gun laws and the Second Amendment, especially since it came only ten days after another mass shooting at a Tops Friendly supermarket in Buffalo, New York. There is no question that not every person should be permitted to own a gun and background checks are necessary. However, there is also no question that stricter laws alone will not improve the situation. It is time to look beyond gun laws, to accept that there is an educational problem here, and without education for acceptance and solidarity, nothing will change for the better.

The issue of gun violence is a testimony to the alienation and division in American society. Certain communities have always bore the brunt of higher death rates in the United States. Michelle R. Smith wrote on Associated Press that according to Sociology Professor Elizabeth Wrigley-Field at the University of Minnesota, who studies mortality, there are profound racial and class inequalities in the United States, and our tolerance of death is partly based on who is at risk. “Some people’s deaths matter a lot more than others,” she lamented. Because gun violence stresses not only the alienation, but also the division in American society, it is crucial to nurture empathy and solidarity.

As tragic as they are, mass shootings are not America’s worst problem when it comes to gun violence. The number of gun related fatalities reveals the depth of the crisis. A Pew Research Center article published February 3, this year, reveals that “On a per capita basis, there were 13.6 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2020 — the highest rate since the mid-1990s.” This is more than twice as many as the closest western country on the list of gun deaths per 100,000 people.

To understand how to improve the situation, we need to understand what is wrong with the current educational paradigm. Currently, Americans are taught to follow a simple law: Let yours be yours and let mine be mine. In other words, they are taught not only not to care about each other, but even not to see each other. This attitude is called “sodomite rule” since this was the governing law in the Biblical city of Sodom, and that was exactly the reason for its ill-fated end.

To create a viable society that can keep its members happy and safe, the social element of society must be vital and dominant. If each person is left to fend for himself or herself, it will disintegrate the society. This is what the current dominant paradigm is telling us: “You are on your own!”

Everyone has fits of anger; it is only natural. What normal person did not want to kill his or her partner, or neighbor, or boss, or the president, at some point in our lives? It is a natural emotion that comes with intense frustration that we all feel sometimes.

But who carries it out? Only those who feel no empathy for others. A society that nurtures the thought that we are on our own creates no inhibitions in people’s minds. Since we are on our own and must fend for ourselves, why should we not eliminate anyone whom we regard as a threat?

The only way to prevent the senseless deaths from continuing, therefore, is to nurture empathy and solidarity. Nothing is more needed for American society today.

Speaking of nurturing empathy, one of the key reasons that Americans have so little of it is the media. Look at what they show. From infancy to adulthood, they expose people to immense amounts of violence. By doing so, they educate them to become violent. If America wants to change itself, it must change its education in all its aspects, not only in schools, but mainly in the media, including social media and all forms of mass communication. As long as people are ill-educated, no penalties will help.

Currently, no one is thinking, much less acting in this direction. The president and other politicians say a few words expressing shock and dismay, probably according to what they are dictated by advisors, and then what? Do they do anything? Does anyone do anything? No one does anything. Until action is taken to change American culture from alienation to empathy and from division to solidarity, it will keep mourning the loss of loved ones due to gun violence.
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Question: Today’s children are not taught correct relationships in schools. How will we come to this?

Answer: Through the blows of fate and very serious blows at that. Nature will not forgive our separation, not according to any principle whether national, religious, social, political, or economic—no matter which.

No separation! Neither into classes, nor into sectors, nor into borders; nature today will not stand it. Any of our separation, division, or rationing will be met by nature with the opposing forces. Such a society will feel its complete failure.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Europe Today” 1/26/11

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The ever quickening advances of science made possible by the success of the Human Genome Project will also soon let us see the essences of mental disease. Only after we understand them at the genetic level can we rationally seek out appropriate therapies for such illnesses as schizophrenia and bipolar disease.

Knowing “why” (an idea) is more important than learning “what” (the fact) (James D. Watson).

Comment: Scientists cannot explain how or why these changes occur.

My Response: But there are things that we can really change in ourselves by making some rearrangements in the genes. It is just the inner part of our body; its higher level is where information about it is encoded. It is not beyond our reach. It is in our power to change things there because it is an egoistic part of our existence.

Imagine such a tool as a man has been created, in his animal body, with his own characteristics. It contains certain information and some kind of program of existence and development. We get access to this program because we have already developed to a certain degree and can tap into this block within us, either to do something with good intentions or, as usually happens, with bad ones.

A while back we gained access to primitive weapons, then to firearms, then to the atomic bomb. We can use them either for harm or for good. It’s the same here. We have two ways before us: either to act for the benefit of humanity or to harm it. So it will be until people come to their senses.

But it’s all a matter of technology! I don’t see anything out of reach here. We will be able to somewhat understand the causes of certain diseases and psychological and psychotic disorders.

But of course this will not solve our problem as humanity, nor the problem of our existence or the meaning of life. It is just in charge of our body.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Dissenting Opinion” 8/29/10

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Question: Scientists are very concerned that the magnetic poles are reversing. They say such a reversal could create “pronounced climate change” and that terrible cataclysms and changes await our planet.

Why is this happening? Is there any explanation for this from the point of view of Kabbalah science?

Answer: From the point of view of Kabbalah, I have not found an explanation for this, although I have been hearing about it for a long time. I am in contact with many scientists and am interested in all the changes they observe and what statistics they generate.

I am trying to find a correlation between what all kinds of observations with the naked eye of nature say and what is described in Kabbalistic sources and can be observed by Kabbalists.

Naturally, we expect all kinds of troubles from nature because we do not match it. Our well-being depends on how similar we are to it.

Let’s say my existence is set in a certain range of temperatures. In the range from plus 15 Celsius to plus 25 – 30, I can exist as a Neanderthal, as a naked person. In other cases, if I, for example, go under water or go up into space, I have to use special clothes, additional devices to adapt to temperature and pressure.

Humans are very weak beings. Nature affects us with all sorts of parameters, including ones that are unknown, imperceptible, and unconscious to us.

To date, we know about several thousand parameters that must be maintained in some kind of homeostasis and equilibrium with the surrounding nature or within our system, which is under the influence of the environment.

A person is a very subtle, dynamic, delicate system. Any change in one direction or another entails a change in other parameters and in other systems. This causes an imbalance.

What does blood pressure, high blood sugar, and all kinds of health problems mean? This is practically an imbalance of the system. It must be in balance, which is achieved by internal self-regulation and balance with the environment.

The problem is that we have learned to achieve this balance artificially. We invent all kinds of devices that help us not pay attention to external temperature, pressure, or any natural phenomena: thunder, lightning, whatever.

We are not interested in this. We have put ourselves in some kind of cocoon and we can, as it seems to us, do whatever we want. It turns out that for thousands of years we have always surrounded ourselves with such a cocoon, constantly improving it in order to be less dependent on nature. And at the same time, we ourselves became increasingly opposed to it in our cultural, moral, technical, and social development.

Now we are revealing that nature is interconnected, global, integral, built on cooperation, concessions, love, balance, on the connection of all its systems, all parts. And we don’t pay attention to it. We are the masters of nature, we are above it, and we are higher than it.

It turns out that we have reached some kind of milestone, crossed this Rubicon and are in opposition with nature when our imbalance with it is revealed in some explosive way. Moreover, it is revealed to such an extent that we are not able to block it with any artificial systems.

Comment: I think we have already come to the point where nature shows us that we cannot go against it, no matter how much we defend ourselves and no matter how hard we try to do it.

My Response: Yes, but at the same time we don’t know what to do next. We do not realize that, in principle, we ourselves cause all these imbalances.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Pole Inversion” 5/15/11

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