In the News (from CNN): “Hard times for porn industry” The porn industry in the United States was worth around $6 billion before the recession but now estimates filming on new productions is down by as much as 50 percent.

My Comment: This is happening because people’s sexual desires are of less importance than the desires for food. Apparently the crisis is reducing the value of these desires and the importance of fulfilling them in the face of greater threats.

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In the News (from The Wall Street Journal): “Paul Volcker: Think More Boldly” Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker chastised the largely private-sector group for the timidity of its proposals:

“My overall impression is that you have not come anywhere near close enough to responding with necessary vigor or structural changes to the crisis that we have had. Every day I hear financial leaders saying that they are necessary and desirable, they are wonderful and they are God’s work. Has there been one financial leader to stand out and say that maybe this is excessive and that maybe we should get together privately to think about some restraint?

Wake up, gentlemen. I can only say that your response is inadequate. I wish that somebody would give me some shred of neutral evidence about the relationship between financial innovation recently and the growth of the economy, just one shred of information. I am getting a bit wound up here.

I found myself sitting next to one of the inventors of financial engineering. I didn’t know him, but I knew who he was and that he had won a Nobel Prize, and I nudged him and asked what all the financial engineering does for the economy and what it does for productivity. Much to my surprise, he leaned over and whispered in my ear that it does nothing—and this was from a leader in the world of financial engineering…”

My Comment: Mr. Volcker is stating the truth (a liberty he can allow himself due to being a “former” chairman). The crisis continues because it is not being corrected by the creation of improved connections in our global society.

Kabbalah forecasts further downfall until people recognize the root of the crisis – the human egoism, and until people will be forced to rise above it for the sake of survival.

The only question is: how much suffering and how many world wars will we all have to go through in order to recognize the necessity of building the right relationships in our interconnected, global world.

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In the News (from Political Lore): “Why is “Climategate” Getting Little to no Coverage?” In 2008 Dr. Roy Spencer wrote a book entitled “Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor.” Dr. Roy Spencer is the former Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. In this book he argues that the programs congress creates to “combat” global warming are rushed into law. Laws and policies are easily made when there is a “fear” that needs to be taken care of. Fear is a lawmaker’s best friend. Fear makes passing bills easy, with little opposition.

Why is “climategate” getting little to no coverage? It is all about the money. There is so much money to be made on account of the fear caused from global warming, just ask Al Gore. The more fear, the greater the reward, for congress, for anybody. Newscasters NEED apocalyptic stories to survive. It gives them this story they can add to here or there, whenever they need something to talk about. The people who are promoting global warming just want to put fear and guilt into the American people, and business. Fear produces money, and rushed legislation. How many scientists are funded due to the need to figure out why this “warming” is happening, or the need to figure out how to combat this “warming.”

My Comment: This is another sign of how people are gradually getting frustrated with all their efforts to make life better. Meantime, things are getting worse, and as a result, people are more prone to begin hearing Kabbalah’s perspective.

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What Can We Do To Change The World? (3:25)

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A question I received: Can we even hope for a better future with the bitter taste of the crisis lingering on our tongue?

My Answer: Indeed, we find ourselves in a situation that will not end on its own. A process has begun that must bring us to correction.

Despite all our attempts to ignore the obvious, we are gradually being shown that there’s something in our society that needs correcting. The pressure of the crisis is making us face its cause, the source of the true problem. This crisis is multifaceted, having affected family, education, economy, society, and the individual. Therefore, the solution must be collective, rather than private “fixes” in separate areas.

In truth there is only one question facing us today: What is the purpose for which Nature has created us? Or, stated differently: What is the meaning of life?

If we discover the purpose of our existence, we will be able to understand where the unfolding processes are taking us. Today we are awakened and are asking this question as we begin to consider our life through the prism of the crisis. The sooner we answer this question, the sooner we will rise above our present state. Anyone who hopes that everything will eventually return to the former lifestyle is mistaken. If the crisis recedes temporarily, then it’s only in order to “re-erupt” even worse than before.

We were shattered into many pieces by the Light, and therefore only the Light can correct the breaking. We must only desire this and feel a need for the reunification.

The same situation had first emerged in Ancient Babylon. Back then a portion of the Babylonians, who later became the people of Israel, understood the need to unite, and for a time they were able to do so. Today humanity must understand that we once again find ourselves in Babylon. Except now there’s literally nowhere to run from one another. We sought to build a tower reaching to the sky, but failed. This is a sign of the crisis, showing us that the only thing we lack is the realization that there exists an Upper Force that can unite us.

In Ancient Babylon, Abraham urged the people to unite, but instead the people decided to disperse. Today dispersion can take the form of protectionism and isolationism, both on the national and individual levels. If we take that route, we will undergo more suffering until we realize that it’s not the answer.

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The science of Kabbalah was revealed by Abraham in ancient Babylon. He revealed it as a method of uniting the souls and offered it to the Babylonians at the time of the first global crisis.  The world is once again facing the same situation and crisis.

The purpose of Kabbalah is the correction of the entire world, without exception.  We therefore cannot confine it to artificial limitations and a restricted environment, since all of the souls have to unite into one Kli and return to the state of Infinity.

Correction of the souls has nothing to do with our activity in this world. Each person can begin to correct one’s soul irrespective of where he lives and what he is doing. No special preparation is required. A person that senses inner emptiness comes to Kabbalah, whereas the one who is “full” is still waiting “down the line.”

“All of humanity in the end of its development is bound to come to the revelation of the Creator”

Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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A question I received: Based on the fact that they follow to the letter the latest political decisions concerning the financial market and its regulation, and after having received a few billion Euros from the French government, the bank, “Societe Generale” will distribute primes of up to one billion Euros to its traders! As you say, “as long as the printing facilities are operational.”

But isn’t considering any particular case just about acknowledging the illusion of the separation of the bodies, when in fact, we all want to reach the same goal? After all, anyone can, in his own way, “equate,” more or less on “love,” but few on “specialties” like banking or financial practices. Even a perfect financial system would not be very exciting, would it?

My Answer: The crisis will put everything into place. The alternative is war and other calamities. There is no other way. Relief is possible only through the explanation of how to correct ourselves.

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A question I received: The current global crisis has affected many people. However, when the blows were over, people did not listen to the science of Kabbalah. Instead, they decided that the difficult times have passed and now a good period is starting, which will make everything fall back into place.

My Answer: This is understandable. The crisis is worsening, but since no one has a solution, people just keep quiet about it. This is the same in every country.

We receive many blows for performing dishonest actions, but we still cannot stop doing them. That means that the blows were not strong enough to teach us the correct way to behave.

Why don’t we learn from our past mistakes? You would think that it’s as simple as one, two, three. If only minor blows could immediately help us reach correction! However, our egoism is constantly developing and becoming bigger. And since we become more egoistic, the previous blows cannot force us to act properly.

Let’s say I stole ten dollars and was punished. Now when I look at ten dollars, I remember the punishment, and this holds me back. However, what will happen if suddenly I find 100 dollars in front of me? I’ve never been punished for 100 dollars before, so 100 dollars is not connected to punishment in my mind. So I steal the 100 dollars and receive punishment.

But what about a thousand dollars? It’s the same thing! This is how we are built – like animals that only know the things they’ve felt. This is why it is written: “A person cannot carry out a commandment (an action of bestowal and love for one’s neighbor) unless he first breaks it (finds the opposite action in him).” First you have to stumble and fall, you have to “steal,” and then you have to repent and correct what you’ve done. This is something that happens only after one receives blows. Without them, it is impossible for a person to change.

The science of Kabbalah explains that each desire develops according to four stages, from the time it is born to its final form. We consist of a desire and an intention. Therefore, there are four possible combinations of the desire and the intention, because there is a total of four combinations from two variables: “you desire something and intend it, you don’t desire something and don’t intend it,” and so on. (See “Inner Reflection” in Talmud Eser Sefirot).

A person has to go through four stages of blows and clarifications in order to reach the last stage, where he desires to use his egoism only for the sake of selfless, unconditional bestowal and love. This is why it is impossible to learn from one small blow. It’s because there is a law acting between the desire and the Light.

The Light creates a desire, and the desire acts precisely according to the program that is placed into it by the Light. If it is the desire to enjoy, it wishes only to receive pleasure. In order to teach it to be bestowing, the Light always has to influence the desire through four stages.

Only on the last stage does the desire realize that it is receiving. As a result, it feels shame and performs a restriction. This happens with every spiritual action.

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The hard times are still ahead of us. Let us hope that the world will have time to go through them by way of realization, before they are expressed in matter. In that case, we won’t have to go through the correction in matter, but in our awareness.

One way or another, this will all happen in a few months. What I expected to happen a year ago will still be revealed. There are great cataclysms approaching, and it’s important to make them be expressed through our understanding of the situation, rather than through material suffering that will last a long time and affect us in the flesh.

Instead of all this, people can awaken immediately, understand what is happening, and respond to it maturely. The modern communications systems give us an opportunity to let the masses quickly understand the essence of things and to elicit changes in their consciousness.

In any case, there are great changes coming our way. In the first half of the 20th century, Baal HaSulam already wrote that the whole world is one big family and people have to unite. Even though a Kabbalist is not subjected to time, he nevertheless saw and felt this, but we still don’t.

The world has been able to lie to itself, pretending that it’s not in crisis. But all the money has been burnt up and the cash register is empty. The world’s bankruptcy has gone global. I believe that the upcoming year holds a great deal of work that we will have to do, and people will sincerely start paying attention to the method of changing the world – Kabbalah.

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To all  questions about the crisis, I answer that I have not changed my opinion: I still believe that the crisis continues, and that it will end only when people correct their nature. The crisis is happening due to the disparity between humanity’s global, integral egoism and Nature (the Creator).  The following news stories demonstrate the ongoing crisis worldwide:

The Skies Are Not Clear In Spain
In the News (from The Financial Times): “Spanish unemployment rises as tourism suffers” The labour and immigration ministry said the number of jobless claimants rose by nearly 85,000 to 3.63m, 1.1m more than in August last year, with services and construction recording the heaviest job losses.

Unemployed Chinese Have Nowhere to Go
In the News (from SecretChina): “Over 24 million people unemployed in China!” The Chinese government indicated on August 23 that total unemployment in the country will exceed 24 million people in 2009. In 2008, many manufacturing plants were shut down, leaving about 30 million migrant workers jobless.

Americans Committing Suicide In The Workplace
In the News (from BusinessInsurance): “Employers grapple with rise in workplace suicides” There was a 28% increase in the number of suicides committed in the workplace last year—251—compared with the prior year, according to a census by the U.S. Department of Labor. Those who commit suicide at work may have felt significant stress from their increased work load as well as worries about job security…

Is It The End Of The Crisis Or Just The End?
In the News (from TruthOut.org): “Unemployment Jumps to 9.7 Percent, as Economy Loses Another 216,000 Jobs” The 10.1 percent unemployment rate for adult men equals the prior post-war high. The number of discouraged workers is almost exactly double the August 2008 number. And the U-6 measure of labor market slack rose to 16.8%. Hours for production workers have been reduced by 8.5% over the course of this recession. This is the largest percent reduction of hours during a recession since the Great Depression.

Asian Countries To Work For Themselves
In the News (from VOA): – “Nobel Economist Says Asia’s Economies in ‘Remarkable’ Recovery” Joseph Stiglitz says Asia’s economies are in a good position to reduce their dependence on exporting goods to the United States and Europe. He said, “You have a robust large economy here in Asia and so you have the basis of developing a regional economy.”

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A question I received: Why is it that when a point in the heart awakens in a person, he still has a long and difficult path to go before reaching spirituality?

My Answer: Why do you think the path is difficult? I look at the world and see so many people struggling to get money, power, fame, and knowledge, all to eventually experience a tiny pleasure. They waste their years on empty worries and false values.

When you engage in spiritual development, however, then even if you don’t move as quickly as you would like, but you still want to advance toward the goal, you will make progress. Isn’t this better than how the entire world is living?

Today, there are more and more people awakening to spirituality. It is impossible to even compare the number of students learning Kabbalah now to a mere few years ago.

When Rabash told me that the general awakening of the world would begin in 1995, I found it difficult to believe him. Who could have thought that the world would change so quickly? But suddenly, we do see that people are feeling empty and are experiencing a global crisis, including crises in nature, education, science, politics and economics.

It doesn’t matter that the media is lying and trying to hush up the crisis by assuring us that everything is alright. I am speaking of what is being revealed to us by nature.

Besides, it is understandable that people want to spruce up the situation. Everyone is instinctively trying to lessen their suffering and pain. This is why they close their eyes to the problems and tell themselves that everything is OK, that there is no crisis.

In the meantime, everything is crumbling and people continue to be laid off. But man is built in such a way that he does not want to see the truth.

The fact is that the Creator (Nature) is revealing to us that we are at a very advanced state. And this is all happening just twenty years after the general awakening has begun. Yet, you want to receive everything now, like a little child. You simply can’t understand what a huge, in fact – infinite desire we are dealing with, and how quickly it is changing.

The development of our desire dragged on gradually for thousands of years, but now it’s changing day by day. All you need is a little patience.
(From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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