In the News (translated from RBC Daily.ru): The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs is considering closing a reality TV show called “House-2.” The authorities finally recognized that Russia has a problem of low moral values, perpetuated by the TV channels and the entertainment businesses. Instead of showing immoral reality shows on the TV, the experts advise showing positive heroes and ethical behavior.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has proposed a bill that will protect children from information that may be harmful to their health and development. The country’s shame and misfortune is that a police officer has better morals than the actors and producers.

The objective of human culture is to fight the instincts, so we will be human beings rather than animals. It is much more difficult to make interesting movies, to write books, and to create programs than to appeal to the animal in us and to make money by appealing to our base, instinctual desires.

Unfortunately, the television promotes primitive values and behavior. It does not simply clog up our brains and hinder our development, but it is outright dangerous.

My Comment: Kabbalah says that the solution to all of humanity’s problems lies in correctly educating a human being with the help of the right environment. People are the only thing in the world that has to be corrected. All the world’s problems come from incorrect human behavior. The “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” says that it is egoism that causes all the diseases and suffering in the world.

In the News (translated from Utro.ru): Countries are unable to enforce laws on the Internet. The laws that are currently in effect are not working. The need for laws on the Internet has become imminent. In fact, there are no Internet laws in Russia at all.

My Comment: It’s the same in other countries as well. The need to survive in the new interconnected world requires us to introduce new laws that will eliminate animosity, as well as the promotion and display of violence and evil. It requires the media, the school programs, and public organizations to start promoting relationships of kindness among people.

These laws must also become the basis for a new, worldwide court of law. The revelation of the global world is forcing us to establish a completely good bond between us and with the entire system of Nature, including Its still, vegetative and animate levels.

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A question I received: You explain that the reason for the financial crisis is people’s egoism, which acts in contrast to harmony with Nature. Bnei Baruch feels responsible to present the world with an alternative economic model, which is founded on altruism and harmony among all parts of the world’s society.

I am sure that there are economists, businessmen, and executives who could help us to build this social and economic model. We have to schedule meetings with such people.

My Answer: I agree with you completely. However, I have not been able to find people like this yet. There are only a few individuals who are specialists and agree with us on some issues. Evidently, it will take some more development of the current events and the suffering to make people more sensitive and ready for a new outlook on the world.

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In the News (translated from Expert.ru): The global financial crisis has forced the Germans to reconsider their role as the European Union’s milk-cow. The new German egoism can become a serious threat to European integration. “We are not planning on helping everyone,” said the German Minister of Finance, Peer Steinbrück, “Everyone has to take care of himself.”

My Comment: If the EU starts uniting precisely in this situation, if it becomes similar to the global design of the world, it will come out of the crisis faster than the rest of the world. Kabbalah calls this technique, “faith above reason,” which means that you act in spite of your illusory egoistic judgment, making actions toward union and bestowal.

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In the News: (from BBC): According to a new BBC World Service poll across 21 countries, Iran had the poorest average ratings of the countries people were asked to rate… The largest number of countries – 19 out of 21 – give negative ratings to Israel. The two exceptions are Americans (where slightly more are positive) and Russians (who are divided). On average, 51% in countries polled say it is having a negative influence…

In the News (from The Jewish Week): “Worldwide Anti-Semitism At Alarming High, Post-Gaza” The resumption of Israeli-Hamas fighting this week comes at a time of increasing Antisemitism around the world… “It has been the worst we’ve ever seen,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League … there are calls for the a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses in Italy, Turkey, South Africa and Venezuela. This is reminiscent of the Nazi days.

My Comment: People’s negative attitudes to Jews and Israel will keep getting worse as the crisis becomes more severe. The only way to put an end to Anti-Semitism is to reveal to the world the means to come out of the crisis – the means to correct man’s nature and unify humanity through the study of Kabbalah.

What provokes people to attack the Jews is the fact that the Jews have this teaching. And even though none of the Jews or anyone from the nations of the world understand the true reason for Anti-Semitism, thinking that the reason is the Jews’ non-acceptance of Christianity (meaning, they think it’s on the level of religion), Kabbalah explains that the reason for Anti-Semitism is human nature, which is egoistic and hates correction.

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The Crisis of the UN:
In the News (from Yale Global Online): Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges nations to select priorities that reshape and improve the world for the common good: “The only lasting and effective solutions to the challenges we face will be those which have the security, opportunity and welfare of all at their heart,” Annan notes. Current political structures have failed to address today’s challenges, let alone tomorrow’s, and immediate acceptance of a new paradigm, as well as global cooperation, is the only way to leave a better world for future generations.

My Comment: The UN has long turned into a harmful chat-room that perpetuates the opposition between nations and the pursuit of local interests. And most important, the UN is there for its employees to line their pockets with the “aid for those in need.”

The Crisis of Davos
In the News (from Sina): The World Economic Forum chief Klaus Schwab said, “What I hope is that we can provide in Davos for the world economy a sanatorium. Once the patient is out of the intensive care unit, he has to recreate his strength…”

My Comment: Although no one likes to remember it, Davos used to be a resort for patients with tuberculosis. Now this analogy is more timely than ever. The world is suffocating, and there is no medicine. Well, actually, there is a medicine, but people don’t want to take it yet. This means that the world will still have to go through more suffering until it agrees to it.

The Crisis of Obama’s Education Plan
In the News (from The New York Times): The economic stimulus plan [proposed by Obama] would shower the nation’s school districts, child care centers and university campuses with $150 billion in new federal spending, a vast two-year investment that would more than double the Department of Education’s current budget.

My Comment: This won’t produce the desired results, because the classes and programs will remain the same – egoistic, which means they will become even more removed from the “new world.” The curriculum is not adjusted to the new world because it doesn’t form a new kind of human being – one who will understand the global world.

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Three questions I received on one’s inner work:

Question: Everyone is in different situations and going through different states. I want to know: what is the essence of our connection? How can we be together? How can we tell what our role in the general system is, and how can we fulfill that role? At every given moment, how do we act in a way that will allow us to maintain the connection?

My Answer: It is precisely in order to create this connection that we study, gather together, and disseminate Kabbalah. Kabbalah is the science about the correct way for us to interconnect, and the Creator becomes revealed within this connection.

Question: What is the source and the purpose of feeling loneliness? Why do I feel lonely, though surrounded by many people (friends, family, colleagues, etc.)?

My Answer: It’s in order for you to develop a desire for a true connection with others and with the Creator – a connection that will be filled with Light, rather than an empty connection.

Question: Why do you say we can only discover things internally? Isn’t that egoistic? And what about the friends? They’re external to someone who is not across the Machsom.

My Answer: You cannot impose correction on anyone, and you also can’t do it for anyone. You can only tell others about the world, its purpose, and how to achieve it.

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In the News (from Science Daily): “Natural Selection Not The Only Process That Drives Evolution?” Why have some of our genes evolved rapidly? It is widely believed that Darwinian natural selection is responsible, but research led by a group at Uppsala University suggests that… rather than being the result of Darwinian selection for new adaptations, many of the genetic changes leading to human-specific characters may be the result of the fixation of harmful mutations. This contrasts the traditional Darwinistic view that they are the result of natural selection in favour of adaptive mutations.

My Comment: Evolution (the constant development of the entire universe) is based on the continual manifestation (revelation) of information, data, or genes. These genes are called Reshimot (which comes from the Hebrew word meaning “record”), and they constantly trigger greater and greater egoism on all levels of nature (the still, vegetative, animate and human levels of egoism). In turn, the egoism constructs external “coverings” or forms of the still, vegetative, animate and human levels, in all their great diversity.

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Our world is now at the end of its intrauterine development. The current crisis is like labor pains – the last stages of our egoistic development. And the way out of this state is the birth.

Baal HaSulam explains that “coming out of Egypt” is a spiritual birth. The whole of humanity is now completing its development as an embryo, and the global crisis is the labor pains preceding humanity’s spiritual birth. These labor pains can last for a long time, like it often happens in our world when the labor pain suddenly lets go of the woman, comes back again, decreases and again increases.

Therefore, we cannot relax when the crisis suddenly diminishes and stabilizes for a period of time, as if things were returning to the regular routine. Everyone may be laughing at Kabbalists, saying: “Why were you trying to scare us by saying that something awful is coming and that this will last forever until we reject our egoism? Now everything is returning to normal and we are back to the celebration of life.” The fact is, we need to be patient, because a second and a third wave are on the way, like labor contractions that will result in the birth – our exit out of our egoism and entrance into the quality of bestowal.

However, we would like to reduce the duration of these pains as much as possible, so the birth will happen quickly, even immediately – in one push. This is possible; the time between the contractions can be significantly reduced, as well as the number of contractions. This is how we can accelerate the process of the birth.

A baby is born when the contractions accelerate so much that they merge into a single contraction, instead of coming one after another. They no longer come little by little, but become concentrated in one effort. So let us make our birth happen quickly, because it’s an unpleasant process and the best way to go through it is in one push – in the current crisis, rather than in recurring crises.

This is how the spiritual process works. In the spiritual birth, the contractions signify that the birth is taking place. It’s not like in our corporeal world, which is corrupted by egoism, where a woman may feel contractions even a month before the birth. In a corrected spiritual object, the contractions quickly concentrate around the embryo and push it out. The labor pains are meant to open the “doors” through which the newborn will come into the new world.
(Excerpt from the lesson on 01.29.2009, from 34:08 – 37:59)

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A question I received: Please show me practically, using examples from history, how do Reshimot change?

My Answer: The periodical change of our attitude to life is dictated by the changing “genes” in us (Reshimot, which comes from the word Roshem – “recording” in Hebrew). The stages of egoism’s changes are recorded inside each of us from the beginning, when the common soul divided into many souls.

Reshimot are revealed in us in an increasing, consecutive order: 0-1-2-3-4. Therefore, at the beginning stages of their realization in us, the Reshimot brought forth a small egoism in us; and in those lives we were “naïve” – slaves and masters. Then, as more advanced Reshimot surfaced in us, when we were born in the next epochs, we desired to be freer, to be workers, such as vassals or serfs. Women were married off without their permission, and this was considered “correct.” They loved their husbands because their small egoism did not get in the way. This was the accepted norm.

And after that, as more advanced Reshimot were expressed in us, we desired to be “free” workers for hire, employers but not masters. We desired freedom and equality (including for women), and so on.

Reshimot elicit desires in us, and the desires provoke the mind to achieve what we desire. Today we can see nations in whom different Reshimot were expressed in the same epoch, and therefore we don’t live in one cultural zone, but in different cultures and formations. However, globalization is bringing about a quick realization of Reshimot in every person and in everyone together.

In regard to choice:

• marriage (voluntary – through love, or forced – stealing the bride, paying a ransom, marrying by the father’s order, and so on),

• power (coercive – although later accepted and loved, like in Russia until today; by election; or inherited),

• place of residence (being attached to the place, having a residence permit, a passport system, free movement),

• and according to other signs, one can tell which Reshimot were realized in a nation or a civilization.

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In the News: (from Fayette Front Page): Senators Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., today introduced legislation to create a Financial Markets Commission that will be charged with fully investigating the near collapse of the banking system and the loss of tens of trillions of dollars. “If our nation is going to learn from history, we must know exactly what happened and why. We need to take a long hard look at how our financial system spiraled downward so far so fast,” Conrad said. “The final report of this commission will help make sure this does not happen again.”

My Comment: We cannot understand any phenomenon in our world from our level. Even Einstein said that in order to solve a problem, it is necessary to rise above it – to its source or initial origin. I hope this commission will be created, and even more than one – that it will be created in all the countries, and that it will be common, international. And I hope these commissions will somehow hear Kabbalah’s explanation of the reason, course, and purpose of the crisis, as well as the way to control it.

Kabbalah reveals that if we want to control the crisis through our actions, there is only one single opportunity in our world for us to influence the events: by continuously creating a better and better environment (society) that will influence every person. This environment will change everyone’s priorities from corporeal (receiving and using others) to spiritual (bestowal and love).

There are no other free actions we can make, because the rest of our actions are dictated by our natural egoism. They are elicited in us by egoism’s constant growth and change, without any participation on our part. Therefore, the reason for the crisis is the qualitatively new egoism that is being revealed in us.

The goal of the crisis is to bring us to similarity with Nature, the quality of bestowal and love. The means of attaining this goal, which is mandatory for all, is to change the environment that surrounds each and every one of us, or in other words, to change the external influence on every person. And to do this, we have to engage all the mass media channels and begin a broad action of worldwide education about the new reality of a united humanity.

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