Opinion (Robert J. Gordon, Stanley G. Harris Professor of the Social Sciences, Northwestern University): “This paper raises basic questions about the process of economic growth. It questions the assumption, nearly universal since Solow’s seminal contributions of the 1950s, that economic growth is a continuous process that will persist forever. There was virtually no growth before 1750, and thus there is no guarantee that growth will continue indefinitely. Rather, the paper suggests that the rapid progress made over the past 250 years could well turn out to be a unique episode in human history. The paper is only about the United States and views the future from 2007 while pretending that the financial crisis did not happen. Its point of departure is growth in per-capita real GDP in the frontier country since 1300, the U.K. until 1906 and the U.S. afterwards. Growth in this frontier gradually accelerated after 1750, reached a peak in the middle of the 20th century, and has been slowing down since. The paper is about ‘how much further could the frontier growth rate decline?’ The analysis links periods of slow and rapid growth to the timing of the three industrial revolutions (IR’s), that is, IR #1 (steam, railroads) from 1750 to 1830; IR #2 (electricity, internal combustion engine, running water, indoor toilets, communications, entertainment, chemicals, petroleum) from 1870 to 1900; and IR #3 (computers, the web, mobile phones) from 1960 to present. It provides evidence that IR #2 was more important than the others and was largely responsible for 80 years of relatively rapid productivity growth between 1890 and 1972. Once the spin-off inventions from IR #2 (airplanes, air conditioning, interstate highways) had run their course, productivity growth during 1972-96 was much slower than before. In contrast, IR #3 created only a short-lived growth revival between 1996 and 2004. Many of the original and spin-off inventions of IR #2 could happen only once – urbanization, transportation speed, the freedom of females from the drudgery of carrying tons of water per year, and the role of central heating and air conditioning in achieving a year-round constant temperature. Even if innovation were to continue into the future at the rate of the two decades before 2007, the U.S. faces six headwinds that are in the process of dragging long-term growth to half or less of the 1.9 percent annual rate experienced between 1860 and 2007. These include demography, education, inequality, globalization, energy/environment, and the overhang of consumer and government debt. A provocative ‘exercise in subtraction’ suggests that future growth in consumption per capita for the bottom 99 percent of the income distribution could fall below 0.5 percent per year for an extended period of decades.”

My Comment: Humanity must provide itself with everything necessary, but not more, and all of its resources should be directed to its re-education, creating humane interaction; this is programmed by nature, and we will have to realize this. Kabbalah explains how to do this!
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Question: By our attaining the next level in the convention, the work in the group will become deeper and stronger, but together with that, what will happen to the dissemination for the 99%?

Answer: We need to be involved with dissemination. Those in the group who are of the opinion that they can disseminate need to be involved in it. They can create games, write materials, and be involved in it. This means that people in the group need to divide their commitments, each one needs to execute a certain job in order to serve the 99%. There are people who can go out to the public.

In many cases women are preferred over men: They don’t invite antagonism, don’t cause worry or suspicion, and don’t cause many problems.

I think that all of those who can should be given an opportunity to participate in the dissemination. You shouldn’t force a person who is afraid or if he doesn’t have an inner foundation to go out to the public, if he is not able to place himself correctly. Teaching is nevertheless a talent, and a person must have it. Of course, it’s possible to learn, but also for that one needs some preliminary basis.

Clarify who in the group is really able to deal with dissemination and invest in them. And whoever isn’t, don’t. Don’t force them. They can assist, arrange things, and serve, which is also a big and essential job that isn’t less valuable than other work. You need to seriously relate to those opportunities that you have and not restrain them.
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From “A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 9/23/12

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Question: If I am corrected, I see a better world around me. But if I see suffering around, how should I treat it?

Answer: Our life is a duality. On one hand, our body belongs to the animate world, but on the other hand, the desire that we are developing belongs to a higher level, the human degree.

It is said about the world that we see around us: “Everyone is like an animal.” A human being in our world is not just similar to an animal, he is even worse. By nature, animals instinctively take care of their own existence. They have no urge for binge eating, inventing goodies, sweets, and delicacies for themselves; grains or grass are enough for a donkey. Give him bread instead, and he will not want it. Similarly, animals have no impulse to overindulge in sex; they act on instinct, breeding in the seasons designated by nature. They do not have palaces, burrows are enough for them. This is animal existence.

Unlike them, a human has exorbitant desires so that as a result of development they discover it has brought him to a dead end. This is what we reveal today.

So seeing people’s suffering, we have to mentally divide their existence into two parts. What does a person need on the animal level to live a healthy normal life? He needs a shelter, food, clothing, family and other necessary, but only rational, conditions. Of course, we cannot live as we did a thousand generations ago. I need to wish everyone in the world to have acceptable conditions, but not more. The general law of nature states: On the animal level, you must ensure your existence, and all your other desires, thoughts, and abilities, everything that you have in addition, you must devote to spiritual ascent.

So, if we talk about the future world, about the life until the end of correction, when this world disappears from our feelings, the reasonable set of things, necessary for material existence should be provided and everything else given to spiritual development.

If today, we had organized our life in this way, we would have found that there is everything in this world necessary to provide each of the seven billion people with normal physical conditions. Most of the day, we would be free from material work in order to study and realize our internal spiritual work to change ourselves. This is what we should strive for.

I do not know yet how it can be realized in practice, but hope very much that we will be able to explain to people that this is the correct way of life in the world. Through the crisis and explanations, we will come to the middle line, to a state, in which the world accepts it.
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From the Convention in Italy 9/30/12, Lesson 2

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Question: History demonstrates that major wars always happen at the borderlines between epochs when old stereotypes are being destroyed. On one hand, wars always triggered destruction; on the other hand, they pulled humanity to a higher level of evolution. Is it possible for us to skip the next war?

Answer: First of all, I don’t try to outsmart anybody. I do what I am supposed to do according to my mission, using all my means to the end. We do not know start and end dates.

Egyptian exile experience suggests that suffering tremendous pain and misery preceded the birth, the escape from Egypt. Labor contractions are extremely intense. Overall, there is what is called the ten plagues, ten labor contractions, that form the need for correction in us. So, we have to go through them anyway.

I don’t know when they will be over, nor can I identify each attack. I’m not so wise to know how things will unfold this time around. There are no exact directions, and I myself have not yet passed the process; I go through it together with everyone else: What can I say? Especially because it is about the plane of this world with its layer of egoistic thickness. So, we simply do our job.

As to a threat of war, wars vary. The main thing is to keep the people of Israel in the land of Israel and initiate dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah for the sake of correcting the world. Everything that opposes this purpose goes against the goal of creation. This is how we should regard this issue. In accordance with the law of root and branch, correction is possible only in this land. Although, according to Baal HaSulam’s writings, Jerusalem today (after the shattering occurred) is merely a source of evil.

Question: A cancerous tumor destroys processes in the body of humanity. In medicine, they use chemotherapy in this case. If we translate it to society, is this equivalent to nuclear war?

Answer: No, I don’t think we will really come to this point, not if we manage to embrace the world with the methodology of correction and have more people accept our thoughts and desires. Nor will it happen if people start understanding us better, mainly through our internal lines of connection that “thread” through the all of humanity.

In any case, our core activities should be held in the land of Israel. With all the pressure and our giving the people the wisdom of correction, it will spread throughout the world without any problems. Baal HaSulam writes  in the Introduction to The Book of Zohar that it is written in many sources. I repeat, according to the law of roots and branches, the main correction is here.

This is our job. Therefore, all our groups wherever they are and whichever language they speak, besides disseminating the wisdom, should use every opportunity to influence what is happening in Israel. This land is at the very center of the world map and is the most problematic place.

Question: Contemporary Jewish people include people who have come from all over the world bringing their traditions and stereotypes. Will they be able to rise above their “baggage” and fulfill the part of the work that is assigned to them? Will they be able to unite the world and raise it to a new level of evolution without revolution and war?

Answer: It’s not about country of origin, although it of course plays a role, above which they have to rise for the sake of unity. In general, the ascent will spread the upper Light among everybody and will allow It to reach the parts of the world with which we already have established connections. The dispersion of the Jewish people happened only for the sake of making them bond with other nations. So, when the people of Israel are united, the power of their unification transmits through the lines of internal connection with the nations of the world, thus making them sense and accept what is going on here in the land of Israel.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/19/12, “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 4: This is what has sustained us thus far, to maintain the armies and the wall around the wisdom of truth, so no stranger or foreigner would break in….

The wisdom of Kabbalah was concealed because all the nations had to develop. The entire world must advance until it is totally disappointed with the ego.

Then, when they feel powerless and cannot continue, people will see that the current form of life on earth has come to an end. This refers to the social and ecological destruction, and to a person’s inner destruction.

So, the wisdom of Kabbalah must be concealed in order to allow the ego to develop and not to stop this process in the middle. It is because it speaks about overcoming the ego, but if it isn’t ripe yet, there is nothing to overcome. Thus, we must wait until it reaches its full development. Kabbalists determined that the final phase began 500 years ago in the times of the Ari, but the last alignment was necessary so that, in our days, it will be absolutely clear.

Today, the entire world is beginning to acknowledge the fact that there is nowhere to develop and advance, and that none of the known methods can help us develop in the right way. So, the wisdom of Kabbalah—which, until now, was rightfully concealed—is being revealed to the world.

Question: To whom is it actually revealed?

Answer: It is gradually revealed to everyone. If we take the Europeans and the Americans, for example, if they see that they have reached a dead-end and have no means to correct the social crisis and the crises in industry, commerce, education, and in any other area, then thanks to our internal and external dissemination, they finally will be able to understand that there is a method that can help them overcome the ego that is destroying and viciously consuming them like a cancerous growth. This method will allow them to cope with it and begin living the good life again.

First, the cells of the general human organism grew separately, each according to its own form, like buds that sprout out of the earth. It was a natural process, and the wisdom of Kabbalah waited patiently in concealment for them to fully grow.

Finally, they have grown and begun to connect egoistically, and this egoistic connection very soon will lead to death since they are all connected, but “pulling the blanket” in their own direction. This is the nature of cancer. As a result, the terminal state is revealed, but, together with it, the wisdom of Kabbalah also is revealed immediately in order to allow its recovery.

The remedy cannot be revealed unless the patient discovers how critical his condition is. There must be “recognition of evil” here and “free will” as to whether to take the remedy or to ignore it. We, on our part, must work, and humanity must feel that it is ill. This is the process.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/19/12, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” p.5: Now you will understand what is written in The Zohar: “With this composition, the Children of Israel will be redeemed from exile.” Also, in many other places, only through the expansion of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the masses will we obtain complete redemption.

They also said, The Light in it reforms him. They were intentionally meticulous about it, to show us that only the Light enclosed within it, like apples of gold in settings of silver, lies the cure that reforms a person.

This power exists nowhere else. No other book, no other means in the world will help us correct ourselves, to come to the general correction and achieve the goal of creation. The only way is to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah so that it becomes revealed everywhere, so that everyone will know: There is a means for correction of the world.

Even if everyone is able to realize it only to the extent of his power, there must be awareness that the science of Kabbalah brings us correction. This knowledge is a prerequisite. Even Pharaoh learned what correction is and thus agreed to release the children of Israel. In other words, our egoism will not let us rise above it if we do not receive a clear and accurate idea of the method of correction.

Baal HaSulam writes about this in the article “Messiah’s Shofar:” “We have accepted that there is a precondition for the redemption—that all the nations of the world will acknowledge Israel’s law, as it is written, “and the land shall be full of the knowledge,” as in the example of the exodus from Egypt where there was a precondition that Pharaoh, too, would acknowledge the true God and His laws, and would allow them to leave.”

This applies to our personal Pharaoh, egoism, and to the whole world to which we must convey this knowledge. The world already feels that it needs a certain technique, but how quickly they learn about it depends on us.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/12, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Our convention begins, and we are busy only with connecting, only with unity. From this moment until the end of the convention, we will not remember anything else and will not speak one word about the external world; we are focusing only on ourselves and on our friends wherever they are.

Don’t speak and don’t think about what is going on in the world. After all, if a person corrects himself by connection, the worlds of BYA will be balanced and the balanced forces will dwell in all of nature. If we, Bnei Baruch correct ourselves, the affluence will certainly flow from us to everyone; it will flow to the channels that connect us with the whole world.

Baal HaSulam writes about it in the Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot, Item 4: When the Children of Israel are complemented with the complete knowledge, the fountains of intelligence and knowledge shall flow beyond the boundaries of Israel and water all the nations of the world.

Thus we too have to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah among the nations of the world, but we have to perform the correction, not they. During the convention we forget everything: home, dissemination, and the world. There is nothing but the place where we are, together with our friends who are connected to us from all over the world. We are together in one heart. We are totally disconnected from the external world, entering more deeply inside.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/12, “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Question: How can the group awaken me?

Answer: This is part of our mutual guarantee. I must feel that if I don’t awaken them, they will not do the same for me.

This is actually the problem: Why do we fall asleep and not advance, lagging behind the world? Instead of carrying the world behind us to correction, we are waiting for the world to discover its illness, the shattering, more and more.

If a close relative, someone who is very dear to you, your child, were seriously ill, and he felt worse from day to day, would you wait tranquilly until he were in a fatal condition? Wouldn’t you look for a cure for him in every possible way? Wouldn’t you do anything to find a way to convince him to take the remedy?

Do you also worry about the world this way? If not, then you are not fulfilling your job. The group doesn’t awaken you, and you are not awakening the group.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/12, Writings of Rabash

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If a person’s point in the heart was not evoked, he would never wake up and would remain on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature. Thus, we see how important it is for those in whom the “point in the heart” was evoked to fulfill this yearning in every possible way and not to hide from it behind any other dealings.

We must help all those who were awakened because they are really the special, chosen ones in this world. It is possible to annul the partition that separates humanity from the Creator only with their help. All the others will join them and help them to the extent that their readiness to do so is revealed in them. This is also a holy work. To the extent that we annul the partition, its force will change from the force of resistance to a force that assists connection.

Just as in an electronic schema where every component has a resistance, and if this schema were to be connected to a power generator, the particle would begin to operate according to its resistance, which means that it would become a beneficial part. The more it resists, it performs greater work and brings more benefit.

The same thing happens with the evil inclination. It is thanks to it that we ascend the 125 degrees when it turns into the good inclination. We connect 620 times more strongly than before.

First, in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) we had no idea whether we were separated or connected. We existed like an embryo in its mother’s womb that was created that way, and knows nothing else.

However, after the shattering and the separation, we discover all the depth of love and connection by revealing the partition on the left side, each time, annulling it and correcting it on the right side, and then use the “middle line” in order to connect. Thus, all the evil changes to good, and the “angel of death” turns into a “holy angel.”

We must regard the ego as a real angel, that is, as a special force that raises us to the human level. This whole separation was needed only so that we would discover the depth of connection, understand it, and feel it to its full depth.

We will not exist in it passively, like an embryo in his mother’s womb that knows nothing and understands nothing. Instead, we will cooperate in it like the “two great Lights,” like equals, like two lovers, mutually connected into one whole. It is only then that we can really make each other happy.

So, the reconnection of the organ that was cut off the body is not just a reconnection. It allows them to become one whole, according to the attraction and the inclination between them. Therefore, it then is called “adhesion.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/12, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Connection determines everything in our life, and if we achieve it we will rearrange our entire life, but without it life is worth nothing. But a person is lazy by nature and will not accept connection until life grabs him by the throat and he feels that it is a matter of life and death.

Indeed, connection is against our nature, and we are capable of rising above our nature only at the threat of death. But how can we unite and reach a good life before we are on the brink of death? This is possible only through the environment.

The environment can make a criminal of you, but can also turn you into a good person: It all depends on the environment in which you find yourself.

One will be hanged for his crimes and another will become famous, a great man. Your whole life can be changed in an instant because you entered the wrong door once, and what happened afterwards did not depend on you.

That is, we must build a good environment. We need another earth that will have different kindergartens, schools, relationships at work, home, between neighbors, and the government. Then everyone who enters this world will be immediately affected on all sides from this environment that will definitely make him a good person.

How do we start to save ourselves now, in our present state, when we are steadily heading for catastrophe? Let’s build this new world in the virtual space of the Internet. It was given to us for this purpose; this is our earth that can be good. We will make such a virtual capsule out of it, and we will only live on good terms with each other.

Everything that we do in the real world, we do only when necessary. Then we come into this virtual world and there our real life begins. Let’s create a special, wonderful country for ourselves and live in it. Everyone will feel as in a dream, a fairy tale, like a child caught in a great adventure.

You will see how much this will influence those who will be involved. Then we will attract more and more people on the condition that they do not destroy this country that we built and decide to live in it. Thus, we will cure the world.
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From a Talk About Dissemination 9/7/12

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