Entries in the 'Globalization' Category

Everybody Goes Their Own Way

laitman_222Remark: The development of the coronavirus gives a certain tool for making political, economic, and other decisions in the US and other countries. Even if it is not connected directly, it is the reason for a huge number of transformations that could be made in the world now.

My Comment: Of course. There are opportunities to act with a strong hand now.

Question: It is as if a show is being played out before us. The initial provocation is set, and we, as if, find ourselves in a situation where we don’t simply move by inertia in a boring process that we are, possibly, quite fed up with. Maybe it was comfortable, but not very dramatic, dynamic. Now the suspense is absolutely everywhere.

Societies and governments in many countries are at odds: What to do next? That is, the virus is already just a background.

How effective can measures for forced artificial stimulation of old sectors of the economy, employment, and consumer demand be? Will it lead to the exit from the crisis or, on the contrary, exacerbate it? There is an acute controversy in this regard.

Answer: I think that if humanity got rid of many useless economic sectors, we would, obviously, do the best for humanity, nature, and the virus so that it would calm down. But I am not sure humanity is ready for it.

Now the US will still follow its path anyway. Regarding Europe, I think the path will be different. The attitude toward the population is different there.

Even more so in Israel. Here the government cannot afford to treat the population as it pleases: the most important thing is the economy. Here, concern for people should be in the first place. Nobody would let the government do something for the sake of the state treasury or some economic prosperity statistics.

In Israel, there is a special attitude toward human life. It has always been this way with the Jewish people. That is why if the government makes a mistake and disregards the citizens’ lives, it will be doomed. The people will immediately rise up and replace it. The fact that human life is above everything is deeply ingrained in the nation.

Question: In other words, do you think that in this case, Trump has the right to a risky economic experiment that would not work in Israel?

Answer: I cannot even imagine this in Israel. As far as I know the people there, the government and everything that happens here, it is impossible to even think about it.

Any ruler in Israel, any governing party, and everybody else must constantly proclaim: “We are for human life!” Their criticism toward each other is based on this: Why do they care about people less?
Only we truly care! That is, everything revolves around the importance of human life. This is not the case with Trump. His reasoning is very simple: Competition is competition in everything.
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From KabTV’s “The Coronavirus Explodes the Old Economy” 3/26/20

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A Monument To The Coronavirus

laitman_566.02Comment: Europe turned out to be powerless before the coronavirus. Italy fell first, then Spain, then France. There are a lot of cases. The complete closure of the borders began. This united Europe, which was proud of its opened borders, suddenly began to close, one country toward another. You support communication and connection all the time, but here it is the other way around.

My Response: I rejoice at the closing of the borders! I rejoice at the destruction of these selfish, militaristic, and other connections.

The virus breaks all the old connections, this whole Gordian knot, that we could not break. Now there are no longer these schemes: suppliers, consumers, ships scurrying from one part of the world to another part of the world to deliver useless goods… For what?!

Everything will be calm now. See how the ecology has improved, the air has become cleaner.

Comment: It is said that the air in Italy has become almost 25-30% cleaner. Clear water flows in Venice. And there is no smog over China anymore, instead birds are flying in the sky.

My Response: I remember riding in a gondola along the canals of Venice once, I immersed my hand in the water so romantically. Then, for several months, the nail and the skin on my whole finger were peeling off. How many antibiotics I took! And today, I can’t imagine. If those canals are clean, then it should be made a monument for the coronavirus.

Comment: Now the countries have got closed.

My Response: Right! It is said in the Torah that the estrangement of sinners is good for them and good for the world.

Question: Why didn’t we help Italy through the whole world?

Answer: How is it?! Who will help? For what?!

Comment: There is such a thing—help.

My Response: There is no such thing as helping. On the contrary, help to bury it deeper into the ground.

And how is the whole world system, the system of world relations, built? Does anyone think of anyone other than themselves? I can’t raise myself in any way if I don’t suppress others. After all, everything is measured relatively.

Question: Do you mean to say, everyone acts only for his sake, which is our world?

Answer: Of course.

Question: And you say that if everyone feels that everyone acts only for his sake, it is good, don’t you?

Answer: Yes, but besides this, they will feel that without mutual support, without proper linking, we still cannot survive.

Question: That is, the state must conclude that the connections were vicious, selfish, and now we need to separate in order to connect to another connection later?

Answer: The virus annuls them. All motor ships, steam locomotives, airplanes, everything is standing still, and everything is calm, nothing is moving. Gradually, all banks will be empty, all unnecessary things will disappear. Indeed, in recent years, the most important enterprises were companies, which allocated empty money. Someone is printing it on a machine.That is, it is pure speculation, in addition, by air.

Now all this should just disappear step-by-step. Like a soap bubble or a balloon with helium that flies away and bursts somewhere.

Question: What relations should states come to after this annulment? What is the best? What is your opinion?

Answer: Very simple. I give you something, you give me something necessary for our existence. That’s it, and nothing extra. Nothing extra!

And for all the rest, we engage in studying the world where we live, studying ourselves, and how we can achieve a truly good, correct state in the world.

Question: And what about the thing you always spoke about—the upbringing of a single Europe?

Answer: This is it.

That is, everything we did, all the unnecessary things that have reached up to 90% of our occupations, businesses, and everything else, we must now leave them all for the sake of upbringing, for the sake of changing all of humanity.

You know how everything will be quiet, calm, good! What a quiet atmosphere it will be, birds will be singing, fish will appear in the sea again. Everything will be fine.

Comment: Ecology will recover.

My Response: Everything! Like in Chernobyl.

Comment: Now the same thing is happening in Fukushima. Everything is being restored, those animals that disappeared long ago, have appeared again.

My Response: Yes, it was considered that they were extinct, but nothing disappears in nature. A Reshimo, an informational record, exists and suddenly begins to appear from somewhere. How can it be from somewhere?! But the same way it appeared once from somewhere, it’s happening now.

Comment: It is only necessary to pull humans out of there.

My Response: Humans, I hope, will be different. And if not, then dinosaurs will come again.

Question: You are always talking about interconnected humanity. What is interconnected humanity? Let’s say after the virus.

Answer: After the virus, interconnected humanity is when everyone gets what he needs to live in a normal form: clothes, food, house, etc., education for his kids and everything that is needed, and besides, the rest of the time one is engaged in public work. And everyone gets the same.

Question: What is that public work?

Answer: Public work means to strengthen public relations between people. And nothing else! It is forbidden to engage in any kind of business. No business!

Question: Public relations between people, what is this?

Answer: This is such a strengthening of relations between people in which the highest form of nature gradually appears, when we feel ourselves as existing forever!

Question: As a result of this upbringing, how should I treat other people?

Answer: As you treat yourself. Although we are separated from each other by our bodies, we are one spiritual body after all.

Question: That is, “love your neighbor as yourself,” is this treating “as yourself”?

Answer: Yes. And it will come!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/26/20

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The Danger Of Social Unrest After The Coronavirus, Part 2

Laitman_001.02The coronavirus threatens the world with great unrest, revolutions, and world war. The path of suffering that we embark on, going against nature and not striving for an integral community, will bring us a lot of trouble and different problems, up to a new world war. Unfortunately, the world is still governed by egoistic governments, which are mainly concerned with their own benefits and positions.

What should be done in order to change the direction of movement for the better? There is an ongoing heated debate over whether the coronavirus is a product of nature or has been generated in a laboratory, as the US accuses China.

But I do not think it is so important where exactly the virus came from if it has been meant to act against humanity that does not fulfill the conditions of the correct connection between all elements of nature. No matter where the virus has come from, either from a market or from a laboratory, it is a consequence of human egoism that has not received correction on time.

It is clear that at the first, everyone blamed China. But what do we actually want from this country? This is an egoistic system, the same as all others, but only with its own specific character.

Everyone in their place would have acted in exactly the same way. Every nation would like to become as strong and big as China. We ourselves, blinded by our thirst for profit, transferred all production to China and allowed them to gain such power. What are we blaming them for now?

The Chinese got all this and worked diligently and selflessly to provide all our needs, justified by the fact that we transferred all the work to them. We have allowed this nation to rise in a short time, and now we are indignant because we do not like it. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

So far, the epidemic has been spreading more and more due to our desire to correct it in egoistic ways without turning to the side of greater integration. We live on the globe in an integrated system: inanimate nature, plants, animals, and people.

All four levels of nature are obliged to communicate and support each other. Inanimate, plant, and animal life live in symbiosis and feed each other. But the upper level, a person of this world, ruthlessly destroys all other levels, although in his mind he can understand that we need to act differently.

Here there is a mismatch between the mind, which realizes the need to behave more altruistically and build an integral society, and the primitive egoism, which obliges us to snatch more and escape. They are constantly fighting with each other.

But then a virus suddenly appears and helps us change our attitude toward human society, which is obliged to become integral, global, closed, and based on mutual assistance. Otherwise, we will necessarily reach world war and total self-destruction.

A path to an integrated society is possible only through educating a person, through learning, so that everyone understands what kind of world we live in, what nature requires of us, what the upper integral force of nature is that leads us to a perfect state, and also, what prevents us from following the instruction of nature and connecting with good bonds.

The entire population of the earth is obliged to learn this. If we just start learning this, we will no longer see epidemics. Even if we still cannot manage to realize this integral connection, and we have just started to learn it, the main thing is to start, and then we will see how it immediately makes our whole life easier!

This will immediately help us, and we will suddenly discover new opportunities for maintaining business, industry, jobs, and families as we consider everything as a single closed system. But if we continue to act as egoists who consider it possible to profit at the expense of others, then this will no longer work.

Improvement does not require a lot of time, and as soon as we begin to study, changes will immediately take place. We ourselves will change and from this we will understand what needs to be changed.
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From KabTV’s program “Global Perspectives: The Danger Of Social Unrest After The Coronavirus, Part 2,” 5/1/20

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New Life After The Quarantine

laitman_600.04In returning to normal life after the quarantine, we must be sure that we are coming to a new form of existence while preserving the integrity of the world and its internal union.

And if we do not want to maintain such an external form and each one continues to care only about his personal wellbeing, his own country, and building his happiness on the misfortune of others, then, of course, we will never achieve peace in the world. We will harm each other and, in the end, all of these problems will return to us like boomerangs.

Therefore, we will see how the desires of the US, China, and Europe to use each other and think only of their own benefit will turn against them in the very near future. One can already see how the desire to use China and squeeze all the resources out of it has helped it build a powerful and rich country.

But, if now, it does not begin to think of the whole world as though it were relating to one country, to one integral world—if any state comes out of the correct connection with the rest—it will completely collapse.

We are entering a system called the “last generation;” a united, integral humanity. And therefore, anyone who does not correctly use the integral form that is being revealed now and does not perceive the world as one country, one people, will lose. The more any country separates itself from the rest, the more it will lose.

Why did the Europeans build a common market? In order to be able to confront Russia and China, not at all in order to ensure equal prosperity for all of the states of the European Union and to serve as an example of unification for the whole world.

Initially, they had such wonderful dreams, but then they scattered. Every country is selfish. But when we begin to make connections with the goal of opposing others, this is already a very serious crime, doomed to result in big blows from the side of nature.

In our time, we will not get away with this like we did before, nature will beat us.

The coronavirus was the first general blow to hit the whole world. If we do not start to treat the world as one common family, we will face big problems.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/20, “Connecting the World in the Last Generation”

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Coronavirus: Nature Will Cope With Us

laitman_543.02Question: If the mortality rate from the virus is at 3 to 5%, maybe it is more correct to let these 3 to 5% die? Meaning, to not stop all the processes, and send the whole world into quarantine, thereby causing a protracted crisis that could be scarier and worse than the death of 3 to 5% of the population.

Answer: I would not associate one with the other. I look at the world in a completely different way. On one hand, there is a disease that the virus causes: a violation of the proper functioning of the human body. And then the person dies.

And on the other hand, there is the fear that this disease causes in humans. At the same time, people, out of fear, hide in their homes, and move further from each other. From the viewpoint of the upper governance, one is not related to the other.

On the one hand, the virus was sent, on the other hand, it is accompanied with fear. That’s it. But maybe fear alone would have been enough without a virus? No, there must be some reason.

And it also makes no sense to send the virus without fear. For what? Therefore, it is done with a combination of one with the other. Moreover, these are two completely different systems in nature: problems that cause fear and panic, and then problems that cause disease.

What is good in fear and panic? They stop humanity from absolutely unnecessary, ugly economic, political, and material development.

Here at this point people can shake themselves and think: “What am I doing? What do I need this for?” Involuntarily,  50 to 70% of the products we produce are unnecessary. So we will stop and not do that.

Now, when a lot of families are staying at home, let’s look at our family and think about where our children spent time, what they did. And when did the family all get together at home? When did they sit together? Now all of a sudden they begin to draw closer somehow. At first they sit in separate rooms, in different corners, as they are used to, by themselves. And later they begin to speak with each other, even play something together. After all, there is the time and there is an opportunity.

See how much it changes everything? Our world is changing! Therefore, I am saying that the virus is actually good. It will shake all of humanity.

If we had continued all this time to pour smoke into the sky, then a lot more people would die from that than from the virus. You say: “The virus claimed a thousand people.” But from the air pollution that we would have created during these days, many more people would have died. Let’s look at things a little more globally and you will see that completely different calculations can be made here.

And if you look a little ahead, you can understand that having refused, with the help of this virus, unnecessary production, unnecessary connections, flights, and all other things, maybe like a kind mother we’ll help our good old Earth to bloom, tender and soft. What’s so bad about that? Why are you looking at the world with such a narrow view?

Embrace the whole system more openly. Understand that the force that ennobles your world makes you shake yourself up: “Think, with what are you so busy?!” This is what our wise virus is doing. In nature nothing is done in vain. Everything is just to bring us people to the right interconnection, to kind relations, so that we can realize our egoism as evil and transform it into good. And it will be done. I assure you.

Nature is stronger than us. You see how it can make us stand up, like a dog on its hind legs. And we are ready. When I look at how humanity today is reacting to the virus, I begin to believe that possibly this humanity may have a good, kind future, that nature will cope with us.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/22/20

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Can The Virus Leave A Negative Aftereffect?

laitman_565.01Question: Can a virus leave a negative aftereffect? How should humanity respond to it so that it would not be negative?

Answer: There will be nothing bad after the virus. I hope it cures us.

In fact, as Rabash wrote, it will be a cure rather than a sickness. The virus will cure us of egoism, raise us a little higher, cleanse us , and make it possible to look at each other with new eyes so we would not be so egoistic, so nasty toward each other.

Therefore, life after the virus will be much easier, much better. I think we will see it soon. But not in the next few months. It won’t be that fast.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/22/20

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Be Healthy!

laitman_628.4From above, a blow has come to the whole world at once, to all of humankind. And this is a clear signal that we are in the last generation and have come to one global system.

We are not treated separately from above, as individual countries, but we are perceived as one organism, which it strives to advance and return to the form of man, Adam, that is, to the form of one soul.

But how is it possible to recognize that my personal desire and the desire of society, of all of humanity, are equally important, and that I have the right to take care of myself only to the extent that I take care of humanity? This is very difficult because it hits the most painful egoistic point.

But this is precisely the integral accounting system that is operating in the last generation, and we are obligated to come to it.

If every cell in a perfect organism thinks of the whole body as itself, it is a sign that the body is healthy.

The spiritual world is in the same place as the material world and in the same desire to receive, which does not disappear, but is only complemented by the intention that changes its use. A person remains a person; the only question is how he uses his desire—for the benefit of his neighbor or exclusively for his own benefit.

Of course, we will continue to think about ourselves, but can we even begin to think about others just a little? Otherwise, we will get blows, one virus after another, which will force us to correct ourselves and gradually begin to think integrally and globally as one interconnected system.

But it will be a difficult path of suffering. One virus has infected the entire world and if we do not start thinking about each other, the pandemic will not stop, but will only expand.

The next virus will be such that I will not need to protect myself from it by wearing a mask and maintaining distance, but by protecting others. If I do not think about others, then I will feel bad myself, I will infect someone with the virus, and when the same virus comes back from them to me, I will really get very ill.

And this will teach me to take care of others; I will only worry about making sure that everyone around me is healthy and that no one gets infected with my virus.

If I pass this virus on to someone and then get it back, it will be a real blow. That is when we will start to think about how not to pass something bad on to our neighbor. These viruses will correct our intentions and teach us not to harm others. Nature has, in reserve, many ways to teach us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/20, “Connecting the World in the Last Generation”

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In The Diverse Kaleidoscope Of Decisions

laitman_448.3Question: Today, the coronavirus is not only taking thousands of lives, it is also having a huge impact on the world’s economy.

Each country reacts differently to this situation. Unprecedented measures are being taken in the USA and Europe to support employment and consumer demand. In particular, the United States Senate decided to allocate two trillion dollars to stabilize the financial system in support of businesses and the public.

At the same time, national currencies are collapsing practically all over the world. It turns out that the whole world is financing the inflation of the dollar bubble in the United States, causing a contradictory picture.

In addition, Donald Trump announced his decision that the quarantine regime in the US would soon be weakened and subsequently completely abolished. It is as if he wants to raise the country through employment, through the economy, to give people confidence so they will feel this and support him in the upcoming elections.

What is your attitude toward the big picture? Who would you support in this situation? What do you consider most correct in this diverse kaleidoscope of solutions?

Answer: I believe that the most correct approach is for man to form the right attitude toward the world, the society, and himself. Only this can save us. Otherwise, if not this virus, another one will appear.

We are in complete opposition to the single integral system of nature; as we destroy it by all possible methods, we get such a reaction. Naturally, all this will not pass without consequences.

What is Trump doing? Everything he can as a businessman and as a person who has very few options and possibilities ahead. Or, he can completely surrender to a system that freezes all industry, all businesses, and then, of course, America will become a desert.

Can you imagine what this means to the leading and the most important country in the world?  The powerful industry, scientific and technological center, and suddenly, everything completely freezes! It is like freezing the whole world and bringing it to the level of zero.

Or, continue everything at full capacity. Half measures will not do anything. Trump will be criticized either way.

Therefore, I believe that, in principle, his decision, with his capabilities, is the only right one. He cannot stop a country like America.

Remark: Most Americans like this decision because now there will be a massive distribution of money, support for enterprises, demand, and so on.

But in the country itself, within the elite, within society, the media, there are great contradictions. As always, an unprecedented exacerbation of all problems is escalating before elections. And it is as if emphasizing that Trump is putting the fate of the American people at stake and they may suffer as a result. His decision may be risky, but it will lead to some kind of dynamics.

My Comment: I believe that this is also correct because it will help him make decisions with the resettlement of Hispanic people and all the rest. He will be able to close the borders where necessary. He can do anything. Because on one hand, there is an exacerbation and the virus, and on the other hand, people still get the opportunity to work and earn money.

In principle, at this point, he can modify as he wishes, and no one can blame him for anything.
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From KabTV’s “Coronavirus Blows up the old Economy” 3/6/20

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“Obsession With Reopening The Economy Will Cost Us Heavily” (Medium)


Medium published my new article “Obsession with Reopening the Economy Will Cost Us Heavily”

The main discourse you hear in the media concerns how fast and how much to reopen the economy. No one seems to ask why we should open it at all. No one asks if the businesses that were shut down were doing any good to anyone besides their owners, and if closing them was not actually better for the rest of us. COVID-19 gave us a chance to examine everything that we’ve consumed and decide what we really need. Yet, somehow, we seem to shun the opportunity.

It would be one thing if we were only missing out on a chance to add value to our lives by choosing what was good for us and rejecting the redundant. But the real problem is far worse: The excessive consumerism causes us to deplete Earth’s resources, exploit one another, and waste money we could put to much better use than on accessories, gadgets, and paraphernalia that we will trash within a year when the trend changes.

The dream world we have been looking for, where everyone is happy, is nowhere in particular. It is within us.

What is even worse is that because we’re not learning the lesson that we should have learned from COVID-19, a much worse outbreak will follow soon, which will not hurt mostly the sick and elderly, and whose mortality rate will be minimal. We will be hit by a plague that will hurt children and grownups, its mortality rate will be far higher than COVID-19, and the recovery from it will be far slower, harder, and far more painful. We can wait for this to happen, but we can also get over the reopening obsession and see that the coronavirus has brought us to a whole new world.

Covertly, the virus has ushered us into a new era. It is as if we drove into a new country where we don’t know the culture or the manners, so we’re behaving as we did in our previous country. But in this new place, people behave differently: They aren’t competing. They are sharing, considerate, they care for one another, and they do not tolerate exploitation.

In the new country, people don’t enjoy shopping. They go to the store to get what they need, and spend the rest of their time with one another. Since technology has developed to a point where very few people need to work in production, the majority of people simply socialize. Since they are connected and feel close to one another, they do not suffer from manmade ailments like depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, or violence. And since they spend most of their time socializing, their idols are people who excel at bringing people’s hearts closer.

We, humankind, have been admitted into this country. We are still oblivious to it, but we are already there. This is why all of a sudden nothing works but for no apparent reason. In this new country, we are taking baby steps. And just like babies, we must think twice or three times before we take another step.

There is no need to fear; it is not a hostile country. If we think positively about others, the new country will embrace us and teach us what to do and how. All that it demands of us is to try to learn how to connect, rather than how to control, which is what we were taught in our previous home.

The dream world we have been looking for, where everyone is happy, is nowhere in particular. It is within us. The old world is cracking and breaking apart, and the new world, the new reality is emerging. Just as our ill-willed thoughts created the old world, our new thoughts are engendering a new world. These are thoughts about connection, bonding, and mutual concern, yet we are still mostly ignorant of their presence. Nevertheless, they are already strong enough to break our obsolete world apart.

All births are painful and all beginnings are tough, but we can make it that much easier by wanting to take part. If we resist, our birth will be a painful one. If we partake in the process of our own volition, it will be a wonderful experience. After all, what could be better than coming to a place where everyone genuinely wants to befriend you, and you want to befriend them?
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Bring The World To Balance

laitman_929Question: What practical significance does talking about balancing all of nature have if I can’t even influence myself, let alone all of humanity?

Answer: We must learn to influence ourselves, to evoke the right influences of the upper light, the positive forces of nature, and thus compensate for all its negative states. Even one person can compensate for absolutely all states, including you and everyone else. So in no case can you say that you can’t do it. Each and every one of us can.

Of course, you can say: “There are billions of people in the world. Even if I do something, it will be a billionth part that will give nothing.” This is wrong! Man is able to bring all of humanity to balance. And that’s how he should act. The wisdom of Kabbalah says this in many sources.

In particular, in the article “The Love of God and the Love of Man,” Baal HaSulam writes: Thus, each and every Mitzva that an individual performs affects the whole world… each Mitzva that the individual performs before the whole earth is full of knowledge develops the world so it will come to this.

It is said, “And one sinner destroys much good,” since through the sin he commits, he reduces the weight on the scale,… By this, he turns the world backward.

It turns out that any person by one action violates the harmony of the world or corrects it. Therefore, in no case should we neglect the positive contribution that everyone can make to the balance of the world.

Now we are in a special state when we have thrown the huge global system out of balance so much that it begins to emit viruses. That is, from its non-equilibrium state, it can no longer compensate itself in any way, except by releasing harmful biological microsystems. Therefore, we need to understand that there is nothing left for us but to seriously take up our responsibility to bring the system to balance.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 3/15/20

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