A question I received: When you were explaining the principles of correction, you said an organization should keep only the minimum needed for maintenance, and transfer the profits to a joint account that would belong to all the people. This account would accumulate a large amount of money. But what will this money be used for?

My Answer: Using this approach, the world will attain balance with Nature because it won’t consume more than it needs and won’t take excess from Nature. Whatever is left will be filled with spirituality. This means that a person will have leisure time, a good salary, a car and so on. And in addition, he will have the right relationships with other people and the whole of Nature – its still, vegetative and animate levels. Therefore, he will not break nature’s ecological balance. Relative to other people, he would consume only what he needs for a normal life, and relative to the whole of Nature, all of humanity would do the same.

If you are in balance with Nature, then you won’t have any ecological anomalies. Health problems will also cease to exist – both the ones that come to us from inside, meaning from the animate level, and those that come from external influences. Since people will be in balance, there won’t be any surplus, since nothing extra would be left over. If everyone consumes only what is necessary for existence, we wouldn’t have to work 20 hours a day, polluting the environment, and we won’t have the problem of not knowing what to do with the surplus. We just won’t have any.

Everyone will live his life righteously, not wanting anything for himself. If I have all the necessities and my mind is occupied with spirituality, then I’ll be in the spiritual world and I will enjoy it. But in the past, all I had to enjoy was 20 pounds of meat that I have stored away! Surplus is only needed as long as not everyone has everything that is necessary. But if everyone is provided with everything they need, then we will not require anything else from Nature. When humanity unites as one person, then it will interact with Nature only on the basis of necessity.

This is how a Kabbalist acts: he consumes whatever he needs for physical life and devotes the rest to spiritual work. In fact, this is the only thing that fulfills him. We have to work 8-10 hours per day only as long as there are people in need. And if there is no one in need, then there is no need to work so many hours. How much will people work?  It will be determined by the necessity. And how will necessity be defined? People will define it according to their feeling of balance.

This way, the world will reach balance, as will the world’s population. We just don’t understand what balance is. It is when “the horse” (the creature) moves along with “the rider” (the Creator), and there is no strain or difference between them.
(From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Precept,” on 03.08.2009)

Filed under: Society - No Comments →

A question I received: What will the relationships be like in a corrected society, and how will the intention “for bestowal” change them?

My Answer: If I were rich, I would buy out all the businesses, banks, and everything possible, and leave all the people at their jobs so they would have an opportunity to study. Let them produce 10 to 20 percent of their normal daily output, since the world doesn’t need any more than that anyway. This would also reduce the environmental pollution.

The remainder of their time at work would be spent studying, like little children in nursery and elementary schools. People would play all kinds of games of goodness, intended to teach them the answer to the question, “What does it mean to bestow?” This way they would learn what the quality of bestowal is, the reason it’s necessary, why it’s necessary to give, and the fact that we have no other choice.

(From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Precept,” on 03-10-2009)

Filed under: Society - No Comments →

Americans should understand that their capitalism has ended. The authorities are still functioning by the outdated principles, which were relevant in times of individual egoism, by the rule, “one’s income depends on one’s personal egoism and efforts.” Today, however,every person depends on a system or grid of forces that govern the world. Today’s problems aren’t caused by individuals, but by every person’s interaction with the global governing system – with society or humanity. To find solutions, we must look to people’s connection with their environment, rather than to the individuals.

Providing huge monetary funds to revive the economy will not give any result because what’s missing isn’t the money, but the connection between people. The problem is how to create the grid that will connect everyone within people’s feelings and consciousness. It is people’s attitudes that should change: each person should be ready to keep for himself exactly as much as he needs for a normal existence. And all the rest should go to society. “A society of consumers” has ceased to exist. We are entering a society of “optimal existence.”

A quote by Karl Marx from 1867: “Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more expensive goods, real estate and equipment, pushing them to take more and more expensive loans until the loans end up in default. The defaulted loans will cause banks to go bankrupt and nationalized by the government, and this, in turn, will lead to the emergence of communism.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Will Capitalism Survive the Financial Crisis?
Laitman.com Post: In the News: Is Communism the Way Out of the Crisis?
Laitman.com Post: What’s the Surest Bet to Save Your Money In Time of Crisis?

Filed under: Society - 4 Comments →

We are living in a generation when our interconnection is being revealed, although we don’t understand this yet. In previous generations, this connection was not openly expressed. But today we are connected through the Internet and the international radio and television networks. We exchange information through these channels and are aware of all the news in the world.

The events taking place in one part of the world affect the other parts because of the speed with which information and rumors are spread through the various networks. There are also different networks of power. When something happens in one part of the world, someone either gains or loses, whether in sales and money, industry, commerce or economics.

We depend on each other. We are bound together by a common net, which is now being revealed as an obvious fact. Humanity is making this discovery today. We are revealing our connection on the level of thoughts and desires, and we are finding ourselves in a situation we cannot escape or ignore. Every day will reveal more things in the world which will be completely new. We will see how when people in South America are thinking about something, then the next day people in Europe will think about the same thing, and the next day – in Asia.

First it reaches you as a strange, obscure thought, and then it becomes your own thought. Your former desire fades and a new desire emerges. Great changes will occur literally from one day to the next, or even quicker. And that’s because the world is completely intermixed, which was not the case before.

This makes progress happen at a completely different speed. The speed of our development is not linear or even exponential, but is rocketing upward. It grows exponentially because it is multiplied by the number of people in the world and the number of connections between them. And each person in turn multiplies it again by his connection and dependence on others. Hence, this multiplication, which happens over and over again, makes our development happen faster by seven billion to the seven billionth power.

(From the lesson on Rabash’s article, “The Activity of the Greatest of the Nation” on 03.17.09)

Filed under: Society - No Comments →

A person in this world is just protein matter, enacted by the Upper Force that can change him at any given moment. There’s no point in looking at how we appear on the outside, since the externality depends only on the Light’s influence on us. The Light that influences us completely changes this creature called man from beginning to end. Therefore, if we don’t see or understand something today, that’s fine – we will begin to see and understand it tomorrow. Everything can change in an instant.

A person is a consequence of the Creator’s actions. He has no actions or understanding of his own. As soon as a change occurs within him, he immediately changes on the outside, like a hand puppet that replicates the movements of the puppeteer’s hand inside it. Therefore, we shouldn’t try to predict how much time humanity will require to change its entire attitude to the world. This can occur very quickly, instead of happening through the path of natural development and evolution, which takes thousands or millions of years.
(From the lesson on Rabash’s article, “The Activity of the Greatest of the Nation,” on 03.17.2009)

Filed under: Society - No Comments →

In the News (from The Financial Times): “Now is the time for a less selfish capitalism” What is progress? The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has been asking this question for some time and the current crisis makes it imperative to find an answer. According to the Anglo-Saxon Enlightenment, progress means the reduction of misery and the increase of happiness. It does not mean wealth creation or innovation, which are sometimes useful instruments but never the final goal.

So we should stop the worship of money and create a more humane society where the quality of human experience is the criterion. Provided we pay ourselves in line with our productivity, we can choose whatever lifestyle is best for our quality of life. And what would that involve?

The starting point is that, despite massive wealth creation, happiness has not risen since the 1950s in the US or Britain or (over a shorter period) in western Germany. No researcher questions these facts. So accelerated economic growth is not a goal for which we should make large sacrifices. In particular, we should not sacrifice the most important source of happiness, which is the quality of human relationships – at home, at work and in the community. We have sacrificed too many of these in the name of efficiency and productivity growth.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Money Can’t Buy Happiness
Laitman.com Post: Humanity Is One Integral, Interconnected Organism
From Chaos to Harmony: Chapter 3 – Altruism is Life’s Law

Filed under: Society - No Comments →

The below is an excerpt from Albert Einstein’s essay “Why Socialism?” (from the Monthly Review). This essay was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review, in May 1949. Today the magazine is the oldest and largest Marxist magazine in the US.

I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis of our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence.

Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Some Quotes by Albert Einstein

Filed under: Society - 1 Comment →

In the News (from The New York Times): “In Downturn, Americans Flock to the Movies” Hollywood could get used to this recession thing. Attendance has jumped by nearly 16 percent. If that pace continues through the year, it would amount to the biggest box-office surge in at least two decades.

My Comment: This solution is nothing new: the government just provides bread and exciting shows for the homo sapiens, and forces the TV to broadcast non-stop shows made by the “dream-producing factories,” which are so in demand during these trying times. This will calm the masses down and lull them, until things really break out. After all, the crisis is necessary to take us to the next level of our development, and if we still refuse to develop, Nature has a more efficient stimulus in store for us.

Definition of “stimulus”: in ancient Rome, this meant a sharp rod, stake, or stick for pricking cattle. It is a powerful stimulating device, an inner or external factor that causes a reaction or an action.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How Can We Stop Being Slaves of the Advertisement Industry?
Laitman.com Post: Will It Help Moving from a City to a Suburb?

Filed under: Society - No Comments →

In the News (from The Telegraph): “Britain has produced unteachable ‘uber-chavs‘” Britain has produced a generation of “uber-chavs” who are unteachable and unemployable, a senior teaching official has claimed. Ralph Surman, a national executive member of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said a significant number of young people … are now doing nothing with their lives, have no work ethic, few social skills and cause higher crime rates… They are not doing anything productive and are costing taxpayers a fortune. “It is very difficult, almost impossible, to take these people now and provide basic social and work ethic skills… Unemployment rates among 20-year-olds alone have rocketed by almost 50 per cent since 2003… The rise is vivid evidence of the deep problems in our education and training system.”

My Comment: These young people have big desires, but not for anything that the consumer society, created by the past generation, can offer to them. They don’t want to live just to work. They have greater needs, and when they don’t see a way to fulfill them, they prefer to do nothing.

The only thing that can cause them to become active is an explanation of how they can fulfill their specific desires. Therefore, when Kabbalah will be revealed to them, they will acquire a meaning in life.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How to Help the Vulnerable Young Generation
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah’s Model of a New World
Kabbalah Today Article: What’s Happening to Our Youth?
From Chaos to Harmony: Chapter 2 – “The Boundaries of Joy. Fooling the Desire to Enjoy“

Filed under: Society - No Comments →

In the News (from Times Online): “Hitler returns to front page as Nazi era papers hit the streets” The headlines leaping out from German newsstands yesterday were shocking… “Hitler Chancellor of the Reich!” was the lead story… Masterminded by a British publisher, facsimiles of original Nazi-era newspapers are being reproduced… kiosks in Berlin are reporting brisk sales… Mr. McGee has been given special dispensation to reproduce the Nazi propaganda with all its insignia for its historical value.

My Comment: Kabbalah explains that there are two ways out of the crisis:

• “The Path of Suffering” – Nazism in the developed countries and terrorism in the third-world countries;

• “The Path of Light” – correcting ourselves to become similar to nature.

Actually, the path of suffering isn’t really a path, but a brief period until we realize that this path leads to a dead end. It may also include the third and fourth nuclear world wars, which will last until we realize that it’s necessary to correct ourselves.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Nazism Is Back In Germany
Laitman.com Post: Nazism – The Future of Humankind?
Laitman.com Post: The Path of Light Versus the Path of Suffering
Baal HaSulam article: “Building the Future Society”
From Chaos to Harmony: Chapter 5. “Obeying Nature’s Law. Changing Our Attitude Toward Others Brings All of Nature into Balance”

Filed under: Society - No Comments →