Everything that was created, and everything taking place, is necessary for us to understand the Creator. If a person does not forget this, then he focuses on understanding how the Creator communicates with him through everything that’s happening inside him and outside him.

This is similar to how an infant learns to communicate with his mother. Have you ever noticed how intensely he looks at her, trying to understand what she is saying to him, trying to learn her language? It is precisely through the current crisis that we are given an opportunity to detect what the Creator is clearly trying to tell all of us.

In the past, He only communicated this way with select individuals. But today, all of humanity must start paying attention to the Creator’s actions. This is what we lack.

If the world would understand this, we would avoid all the unpleasant events taking place today, as well as those still in store for us. That’s because instead of fighting wind mills, we would communicate with the cause of it all – the Creator.

The faster we begin to discern the Creator’s communication with us through the things taking place, the sooner we will understand Him. We will then discover what it is we need to correct and change – and the world will be filled with Light.

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CONNECTING TO GOODNESS
The International Academy of Kabbalah invites you
To the international Kabbalah Congress
Which will take place in Israel on February 2 – 4, 2009

The eighth international Kabbalah Congress opens its doors to 6,000 students from 52 countries. This year’s Congress will be devoted to revealing a new, globalized world. It will be dedicated to unity, which will elevate this small “global village” above the flood of crises and into the spiritual world – unity with Nature or the Upper force.

All information and registration for the Congress is available at the Congress Blog.

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A conversation between the Little Prince and a businessman (from the book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, cited at home.pacific.net):

“And what do you do with five-hundred millions of stars?”

“Nothing. I own them.”

“And what good does it do you to own the stars?”

“It does me the good of making me rich.”

“And what good does it do you to be rich?”

“It makes it possible for me to buy more stars, if any are ever discovered.”

Nevertheless, he still had some more questions.
“How is it possible for one to own the stars?”

“I administer them,” replied the businessman. “I count them and recount them…”

The little prince was still not satisfied.
“If I owned a silk scarf,” he said, “I could put it around my neck and take it away with me. If I owned a flower, I could pluck that flower and take it away with me. But you cannot pluck the stars from heaven…”

“No. But I can put them in the bank.”

“Whatever does that mean?”

“That means that I write the number of my stars on a little paper. And then I put this paper in a drawer and lock it with a key.”

“The grown-ups are certainly altogether extraordinary,” he said simply, talking to himself as he continued on his journey.

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News Report (from AFP): A summit of Central American leaders on Friday agreed to adopt a common regional currency and passport, among other measures to bolster regional integration in the face of global financial uncertainty, they said in a statement.

My Comment: Integration is always a good thing. Hence, they will feel some improvement and rejuvenation. However, they should take care to ensure that in the aftermath, their integration won’t become opposite to the whole world, but will facilitate everyone’s unification.

News Report (translated from newsru.com): The Russian Federation’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, S. Lavrov stated that nations should cast aside their geopolitical games and work together to save the world from the financial crisis. Lavrov noted that salvation can only be collective, by creating a single economic space between Russia, the USA and the European Union. The global financial crisis has clearly demonstrated that international cooperation must come before politics if we are to overcome economic disasters.

My Comment: We’re beginning to see the good consequences of the crisis: hunger is compelling us to make peace with each other. Do you see how the Creator toys with us!? Whether by goodness or suffering, He will force us to grow up, stop playing war, and bring the world to happiness instead of destruction.

Related Material:
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Questions I received on egoism and its correction:

Question: Almost every day we read news reports from different countries about parents killing their children, children killing parents, wives killing their husbands and husbands – their wives, grandchildren – their grandparents and so on. What is this? Is this one of the expressions of the global crisis?

My Answer: It’s the expression of the last stage of egoism at its initial stage. The prophets wrote that there will come a time when “compassionate women will boil and eat their own children” (Eikha 4:10). This is what will happen unless we heed the prophets’ warning and go through these times in a different way, in the Light of Kabbalah that corrects egoism.

Question: One way or another, the Creator compels us to develop through suffering. So a person doesn’t develop according to his free will, but out of necessity. But isn’t the Creator’s plan to create someone equal to Him, a partner? What kind of equality is this?

My Answer: The entire period of free will and independent development is still ahead of you. However, you can only be brought to it through suffering. Otherwise your egoism will push you to everything but spiritual development. Throughout all previous times, we developed only through the development of our egoism, but now we have been given the opportunity to develop under the influence of the Light. So now you have freedom – freedom of how to develop.

Question: “I want to be good to You in order for You to be good to me” – this is a quote from your book in Russian, To Be a Chosen Nation, p. 324. Isn’t this an egoistic intention? Or is it the corrected egoism?

My Answer: It is the corrected egoism. However, it isn’t always possible to understand the intention, because the words can only convey one’s desires. In other words: “I ask You to correct me and I will do anything for it.” And “good” means the quality of bestowal and love.

Question: Today every one of us egoistically feels like an individual. What will every one of us feel after the correction? Will each of us feel that the Common Kli is him?

Answer: Definitely, because this is how we were created: as parts of one whole. Instead of perceiving ourselves, we need to perceive the whole organism. The perception inside oneself is our world, whereas the perception outside oneself is the Upper World.

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A question I received: You wrote that when the Israelis living in America felt the crisis, they scurried to return home to Israel. But at the St. Louis Congress you said that in order to influence the world, the dissemination of Kabbalah has to come from America because Israel isn’t strong enough to do it. If all the Israeli Americans will return to Israel, then who will disseminate Kabbalah here? As an Israeli, what should I do? Should I return to Israel before it’s too late, or disseminate Kabbalah in America in the English language?

My Answer: Israelis living in America have never done anything beneficial for their nation, Israel, or Kabbalah! They have been the most egoistically repulsive tribe in America! And as long as they stay that way, I don’t care where they live. Now they’re returning to Israel so others can take care of them here! They’re still completely unfit to disseminate Kabbalah in America.

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A question I received: Are we done with this crisis?

My Answer: I’m not an economist, but in my opinion, the real crisis is still ahead of us. This opinion is based on real data and the fact that we still haven’t drawn the conclusion that we have to correct ourselves. After all, the reason for the crisis is to awaken us toward correction.

For now we’re observing the crisis at the stock market, but it may take another year for it to manifest in the economy. The tsunami wave of the financial crisis has not reached humanity yet. For now all the stock market plunges are mostly assessed by the anticipation of the financial crisis.

How will it manifest? There will be a wave of unemployment, wage reduction, the virtual disappearance of high-tech, a drop in real estate prices, growth of inflation, bankruptcies, nationalization of banks, and annulment of investors’ savings. And this will continue until we recognize the reason for this crisis – us!

News Report (from zibb.com): The Saudi Arabian King, Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz stated in an interview: “Monetary experts and the leaders of major countries which were affected by the crisis expect the crisis to end within a year and a half. According to them, they need to restore confidence and reassure people. I think that if these international gigantic economies cooperate, they will be able to get through this crisis, as they had done in previous crises.”

My Comment: Long live the king! He’s right, as long as he’s talking about true cooperation, as befits a small village or a family. This shows that man is starting to change.

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News Report (from The Telegraph): “Russians turn away from vodka in hard times” With retailers struggling to find credit and ordinary Russians being forced to change their spending, a vast lake of undrunk vodka is accumulating in distilleries across Russia.

Official statistics indicate a collapse in demand for vodka over the past two months. November inventories of unsold vodka stock have risen to 82 million liters, a 600 per cent increase from 2007, according to the National Alcohol Association.

“People are spending less money on alcohol and other products because of the financial crisis,” said Pavel Shapkin, the executive secretary of the National Alcohol Association.

My Comment: Of course, Mr. Shapkin is right. However, people will still find ways to get drunk, such as resorting to the low-grade black market brew, which will harm them even more. Russia’s national question is: how can it find balance between the optimal amount of liquor for everyone, and making it available at a reasonable price, so the people won’t quench their thirst with poisonous substances?

A question I received: Where will the crisis be felt the least?

My Answer: This question isn’t related to Kabbalah, and I’m not a specialist in economics. However, I think that the crisis will be least harmful for countries with the most developed economies: the US, then Europe, and then Japan. According to Kabbalah, those closet to integration and globalization are better off. The same is true for their currencies.

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Globalization is the revelation of a new level of connection between us. It should be beneficial, but we see that it only brings us more and more problems. Why does this happen? It’s because we are using the global integral system backwards: in order to build ourselves up by bringing others down, instead of learning to work together. We are always trying to defeat, degrade, and be better than others.

This is happening because we have evolved to a point of total interconnection with each other, yet out interconnection is opposite to Nature, which is united. That’s because the interaction between us is absolutely egoistic: every person is ready to devour everyone else. However, the law of the system states that all of its parts must work together, in a coordinated fashion, according to the principle of “consider others as you consider yourself.”

When we attempt to build our interactions according to the most honest principle: “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours,” humanity as a system will deteriorate and we will elicit an even greater crisis. That’s because today, in our global interconnection, an egoistically honest person, business, bank, government, or regulator just “don’t work.”

So what should we do? We should consider the laws of the integral, locked system, which is like one body, and gradually correct ourselves according to it. In practical terms, this means:

• Arranging distribution so every person will receive only as much as he needs,

• Instituting a universal education system that teaches people about the law of humanity’s existence in a closed system.

Even the first movements we make in this direction will put an end to our opposition to Nature and bring us to harmony with it. Then the crises and suffering will vanish. Actually, the present crisis frees up enough people and forces in order to realize this project. Knowledge about the world we have suddenly found ourselves in will be met by everyone with understanding. The crisis taking place now has prepared us for this. Today we have to be reeducated about how to live in a closed, interconnected system, where “everyone is in one boat,” where the salvation of every person depends on everyone. We have to learn – and teach our children – about the new world.

Related Material:
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Questions I received on spirituality during the crisis:

Question: I’ve been studying Kabbalah for several years. It was very easy for me to say that everything that happens, no matter how bad, is only meant to shows us where we strayed off the path – until something bad happened to me. With the possibility of being fired looming over me, my thoughts immediately strayed from the study and I’m having difficulty perceiving the lessons correctly. How do I keep moving in the right direction when all my thoughts are about how to pay rent and feed my children? And on a larger scale, can’t the crisis push many people away from Kabbalah? I mean, who cares about spirituality when your belly is empty?

My Answer: Evidently we have to continue building our path toward the Creator precisely out of these states and doubts. You will feel the rest for yourself from your states, and you’ll feel it even stronger than before.

Question: The Torah states that the Egyptian plagues passed over the houses of the Jews. Does this mean that now, in the time of imminent blows, people who study Kabbalah will feel these blows (plagues) in their corporeal life to a lesser degree?

My Answer: There’s no doubt that every person in the world who studies Kabbalah and aspires to draw nearer to the Creator, evokes the positive influences of Nature (the Creator). He is then drawn closer by these positive influences, instead of the negative corrective forces that push others from behind.

Question: You speak of the ten Egyptian plagues. What are the rest of the plagues that Kabbalah predicts will happen next?

My Answer: I hope to see a world that will “fly over” these plagues with the help of Kabbalah, by aspiring to acquire the quality of love and bestowal to others.

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