I participated in a conversation for an upcoming TV Series: “The Butterfly Effect: A View of the Current Events.” Speaking with me about globalization, the financial crisis and its solution was Shlomi Buhana, Doctor of Economics at Bar-Ilan University.

Summary: For now there is no remedy for the global economy! And there won’t be until people accept the law of mankind’s balance, and the fact that humanity is a closed, global system with a harmonious connection between all of its parts. Gradually, either through crises and suffering or by becoming aware of this objective reality, people will reveal the fundamental law of the entire creation – “Love thy neighbor as thyself”!

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News Report (translated from RB.ru): The global financial crisis, which has brought bankruptcies and countless job losses, has revived the European people’s interest in the ideas of Karl Marx, the founder of scientific communism. Book publishers in Berlin say that The Capital – Marx’s main work – is becoming a best-seller.

Recently the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, was seen reading this book. The German minister of finance, Peer Steinbrueck, said positive things about the book, and even the Pope in Rome praised it for its “deep analysis.” The longer the financial crisis continues, the more confused people become. They are asking, “Why did this happen to me?”

My Answer: I hope that they will come to the idea of Kabbalah just as fast. Universal equality, the idea that everyone deserves to receive what they need and are expected to give according to their natural skills, the idea of mutual guarantee and brotherhood – these are all good things, but only as the means and not the end. They should be a means to make us similar to the Creator, come closer to Him, and attain adhesion with Him. Otherwise these ideas – they way they are usually used – will once again lead to terror regimes and a world war.

Bringing the communist idea to life was a failure because in theory everything is nice and true, but it is impossible to transform man’s egoistic nature into altruism. (See Baal HaSulam’s newspaper “HaUma (The Nation)”). This is where the entire humanity will “stumble.” The crises and globalization will reveal to us that we are tightly interconnected, and hence we must observe the rule of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” However, our nature won’t allow us to do this. We are ready to destroy one another and the entire world, because we can’t live in a mutual guarantee (See the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee).”

Hence, only the method of correcting human nature from egoism to altruism – Kabbalah – will help us survive. That’s because Kabbalah draws the Upper Light on a person, which created us and is the only thing capable of changing us.

Kabbalah will change man, as seen in practice, and will enable us to observe the law of brotherly community within the closed global system of mankind. This is why it is natural for people to be interested in Marx, but his theory cannot be realized in practice. To do this we need the Upper Force that corrects man, and only Kabbalah can provide it for us. I hope that people will soon realize this and will desire to actualize it the good way, instead of inflicting much more suffering on themselves.

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News Report (translated from gazeta.ru): Many countries, including Russia, received a boost of energy and confidence during the years of the raw material boom. For these countries, the financial instability that has swiftly spread all over the world has showed just how interdependent everyone in the world is, and has also outlined the limits of economic possibilities, and consequently – of the geopolitical possibilities as well.

Ideally, for powerful countries around the world, including Russia, the financial crisis can become an incentive to recognize the collective interests and the need for diversified actions as well as a rejection of egoism, which is presently inherent to all the people in the world without exception. However, in order for this to happen, people need to seriously realize that there is an impending catastrophe. Unfortunately, for now they don’t realize this.

My Comment: Of course, we can sit and wait for the crisis to turn into a catastrophe, and to bring about Nazi regimes in the developed countries, as well as a world war. This will make humanity realize our common, collective dependence, as well as the need to reject egoism. They will then look for a way to correct human nature, and finally reveal Kabbalah. But this is the path of suffering.

The alternative path is to spread the method of egoism’s correction around the world today, and to implement it.

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We were visited by the President of the University of Haifa – Professor Aaron Ben-Ze’ev (left in the photograph below). Prof. Ben Ze’ev is considered one of the world’s leading experts in the study of emotions and perception. He has written many books and articles on these topics.

There were no contradictions between us. The only difference is that Kabbalah clearly defines every desire and the sensation inside it, and it graduates the sensations according to their levels and qualities. However, the earthy sciences cannot do this, because we can only research something while being on a level above the object being researched. Hence we can research the still and vegetative levels of nature, and a part of the animate level, but we cannot accurately research man since we are at the same level as the object being researched.

This is why psychology isn’t an accurate science. Kabbalah, on the other hand, lifts man above his animate and psychological levels, allowing him to measure and reproduce any sensation, and to examine its cause, process, and consequences.

One of Professor Ben-Ze’ev’s specialties is the research of the feeling of love. He has an enormous amount of empirical data on this, yet this earthly science does not enable him to systematize them. In the future scientists will discover that it’s vitally necessary to systematize knowledge and to have a clear understanding of the nature of feelings and sensations. Then this “crisis” will lead psychologists to Kabbalah.

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A question I received (my responses appear in bold): You say that that the massive crises – economic, ecological, and others, will eventually bring humanity to correction, though the path will be bitter. But don’t you think that if there won’t be any food left in the supermarkets, this will give rise to many informal power structures on the streets, who will try to survive at any cost – by stealing and killing for a loaf of bread? And all these crises will beget only more evil and hatred between people? I agree!

“Where there’s no bread – there’s no Torah,” – this is something you said. If a person is desperate, if his friends and family are dying from hunger and disease, and it’s too dangerous to show your face outside, will he really go and start studying Kabbalah? Keep in mind that there won’t be any Internet when there are no computers and electricity. I can tell you for sure that in this situation people will not study Kabbalah – neither now nor in 232 years (at the end of 6000 years). I agree!

Even if I understand that the science of Kabbalah is necessary, even if I have a point in the heart and I know about this science and the method of studying it, still, if someone in my family will be starving to death, then I won’t be sitting and reading books. And this is truer for the people who don’t even know about Kabbalah’s existence. I agree!

The point in the heart appears when you already have everything and realize that it hasn’t fulfilled you, and that there’s nowhere else to go. But when you’re thinking about how to get your hands on a glass of drinking water in order to survive, then no one will care about any points in the heart. I agree!

My Answer: I agree with you completely and I myself have underlined the rule: “When there is no bread – there is no Torah.” This means that there are situations when people are only concerned with survival, and then all the laws are abolished and everything is determined only by the necessity to survive (with the exception of murdering others in order to save your own life).

However, your arguments overlook the four phases of the development of desire. It is not the size of the desire that grows, but its ability to recognize the source of its emptiness and fulfillment. It’s because everything takes place under the influence of the Light. You will discover that your acquaintances don’t merely suffer, but they will suddenly begin to understand the reason for their suffering – that it is purposeful and has a final goal.

You should help them reach this realization quicker – then the suffering will recede. After all, it’s being revealed in us only to provoke this realization! This is why the dissemination of Kabbalah is so essential: when the masses understand the Creator’s plan even slightly, this will defer great suffering – and suddenly affluence and peace will appear in the world.

I suggest that you review the book From Chaos to Harmony, my lecture in Arosa, and the materials on the article “The Future Generation.” One spark of the Upper Light was enough to give rise to our entire world and the entire universe. And this one spark is sufficient to correct this world, which it had created in the first place! All that’s needed is our collective desire!

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Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Peace,” the section “The Necessity to Practice Caution With the Laws of Nature”:

It is vitally important for us to study the commandments of nature and know what it demands of us, lest it would mercilessly punish us. Nature obligates man to lead a social life, and we need to examine the commandments that nature necessitates us to observe in society. There are in fact only two social precepts to observe: “reception” and “bestowal.”

Meaning, nature obligates each member of society to:

1) Receive his needs from society, and
2) To benefit society through his work for its wellbeing.

And he is obligated to observe both commandments correctly, for if he breaks one of them, he will be mercilessly punished.

When one violates the commandment of reception, the punishment is carried out immediately, which prevents any neglect and forces us to observe it. But in the other commandment, that of bestowal upon society, not only does the punishment not occur immediately, but it is given indirectly. Therefore, this commandment is not properly observed.

Nature, like a competent judge, punishes us according to our development, for we can see that to the extent that mankind develops, so increase the pains and torments of providing for our existence. And the suffering will continue to increase, until the global crisis will show us that the Creator’s providence has commanded us to observe with all our might the commandment of bestowal upon others with utter precision.

And as long as we are idle in performing this law to the fullest, nature will not stop punishing us. And of course, nature will defeat us and we will all be compelled to join hands – as one man – in the following of the commandments with all the required measure.

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A question I received: I read an interesting work by researcher A. D. Panov entitled, “The Crisis of the Universal History’s Planetary Cycle.” In it he uses the method of interpolating the times of civilizations’ revolutions and reaches the conclusion that the next and most significant crisis in the development of nature and man is scheduled to happen in the year 2027 (the Snooks–Panov vertical). After this crisis the entire development of human civilization will change fundamentally. What do you think about this, and that this will happen in 2027?

My Answer: There are many hypotheses about the crisis, and people’s premonitions are justified. However, do they understand the causes of the crisis, its process and its purpose? It is pointless to predict dates, because we cannot take into account our participation in becoming aware of the process and of our conscious self-correction, which will immediately introduce positive changes and accelerate the whole process.

This is because the “crisis” is the process of restoring our balance (similarity) with Nature – with the quality of love and bestowal. As soon as we reached the level of global egoism, we started being influenced by the general force of nature (the global interdependency between all of nature’s parts), which forces us to become similar to it (like parts of one body, to be in harmony all together).

If we recognize that this is what Nature demands from us and aspire to correspond to it, then to the extent we strive to become a harmonious part of the general system of nature, we will not need its negative correcting influence, which we feel as suffering (war, hunger, destruction).

Because it is impossible to calculate the degree to which we will participate in our correction, we cannot predict the flow of the entire process. The prophets – the Kabbalists of antiquity, described this process without incorporating the human constituent into it. This is why their descriptions are full of terrible suffering on the global scale. However, it is within our power to alter its flow, and this is why we’ve been given Kabbalah. This is also why it has been concealed until our time, and why it is now being revealed to everyone.

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This was sent by my student R. Tzarev:
The financial crisis in the United States is conducted forcefully and is controlled. Russia, Iran, China and the Emirates possess the world’s largest gold and foreign currency reserves. Russia, Iran, Venezuela, China, India and Brazil have begun creating their own alternative global economic system. Together they are beginning to pressure Europe, which is dependent on energy resources, causing it to break away from the US. By now Germany, Italy and France are lobbying for Russia’s interests, speaking out against the US. The European countries, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Kuwait are using the Euro instead of the dollar in their business dealings related to energy products. This rejection of the dollar in the energy dealings will bring about a catastrophic drop of the entire US economy. The US must not allow this to happen. America must not allow itself to be bullied or bankrupted. There’s your reason for the “crisis.”

This was sent by my student O. Yahalom:

In our world there is a system of interaction of two opposite forces – positive and negative, altruistic and egoistic. Otherwise there would never be any growth, change or exchange. Of course, in our world the altruistic force is also egoistic – giving for the sake of greater profit. The dynamics of the current events can be explained by the interaction of these two forces in the world.

The entire global economy is structured in such a way that a person does not hope to receive from a specific source, but from the system as a whole. This leads to the formation of long chains of exchange: one person exchanges with another, the other with someone else, and if the end of the chain gets lost somewhere, man’s animate egoism can no longer motivate him to work, because he no longer sees when he will receive the reward and from whom. The only thing left is a vague “altruistic” intention to receive something from someone. But it gets weaker, because egoism constantly grows – and that’s how an economic crisis starts.

An economic crisis cannot happen within the boundaries of a city, state or other kind of region, because even if the end of the chain is not seen physically, a person still feels that it’s there. However, economic crises take place regularly in the context of a country, yet none of the economists know exactly what causes them. The fact is that they are caused by the undulating changes of balance between egoism and altruism in large groups of people. When egoism recedes – business flourishes. But when egoism continues to grow, altruism grows weaker, and egoism suddenly takes over the people’s consciousness, telling them that they shouldn’t trust the system, but instead receive more and “to the point” – the more the better, and all for themselves!

The first true crisis of altruism on the level of a country happened in the US, in 1929. Back then the American economy came out of the crisis because Roosevelt pumped all the foremost leaders of production and economy with optimism.

The first true crisis on the global level happened in September 2008. The true causes of the crisis lie on the spiritual level, on the level of the opposition between egoism and altruism in every single person and in humanity as a whole. Accordingly, the solution, the way out of the economic crisis can only be found on the spiritual level – humanity’s work towards evoking the Light that corrects egoism.

The Baal Shem Tov (a great Kabbalist who lived in the Russian empire at the end of the 18th century, founder of the Hassidut movement): “If only the Russian Tzar knew how beneficial the study of the Torah is for his country, he would set a guard with a sword beside every Jew, who would stand over him and keep repeating: “Study the Torah! Study the Torah!”

The countries that will lose most from this crisis will be those with energy resources. All of the earth’s resources, no matter where they are, belong to all humankind (see Baal HaSulam’s newspaper, “HaUma (The Nation)” and the article “The Last Generation”). That’s because the Upper Force sees us – humanity – as one single body, the creation. And to the extent that every country (every organ of this body) acts against this unified altruistic organism (reveals that it is ill), to that extent it will eventually be punished (be influenced by negative, correcting feedback, which brings the system to harmony, to recovery) or rewarded (be successful in this world and reveal the governing force).

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The last issue of “The Economist” features the headline: “World on the Edge”:

The purpose of our world is “To bring the creature to equivalence with the Creator,” and it is attained by observing the rule – “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Nature (or the Creator – whatever you prefer) will force us to do this one way or another.

People who do not know about this see the world’s present condition as catastrophic. However, it’s in our power to quickly change the direction of the process. For more on this, see Part 2 of the book From Chaos to Harmony.

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News Report (from Press Room and SvobodaNews):Henry Paulson said during a press conference: “It is critical for governments to continue to take individual and collective actions to provide much-needed liquidity, strengthen financial institutions, enhance market stability, and develop a comprehensive regulatory response …

We must continue to closely coordinate our actions and work within a common framework so that the action of one country does not come at the expense of others or the stability of the system as a whole. In addition, in consultation with Brazil, the G-20 President, I am calling for a special meeting of the G-20 to discuss how we might coordinate to lessen the effects of global market turmoil and the economic slowdown on all of our countries …

We see evidence every day that world economies and financial markets are more connected and interdependent than at any time in history … This really is a global market and a global economy. Economic growth and strength of one country makes everyone else stronger, while weakness of one country makes all of us weaker. This is why we need to work together. This press conference is very important.”

My Comment: I was glad to read this news report, and I am happy that people are quickly recognizing the need for unity and mutual efforts. However, the proposed solutions are still out-dated, like trying to inject a prosthetic limb.

We need to treat the human society as an independent, live organism that lives by its own laws, rather than the laws we invent. It lives by the law of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

We are once again entering the “biblical” times and their demands of man. We have come full circle. For now it is still ridiculous even to speak about observing this law. But nevertheless, even our thoughts about it will already start changing the condition of the world.

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