The ARI Online Learning Center
The ARI Online Learning Center reports that several thousand people from many different countries have already signed up for the new semester, “Fall 2008.” Presently the top ten participating countries are: America, Mexico, Columbia, Argentina, Romania, Canada, England, South America, Australia, and various countries in Europe.

International Book Fair in Frankfurt
The world’s largest international book fair was held in Frankfurt on October 15-19. This year marked the 60th anniversary of this famous book fair, and visitors had an opportunity to acquaint themselves with the book industries from one hundred countries.

A book stand with Kabbalah books was organized by our friends Daniel Lange, Martin Wieczorek, Urlik Hammer, Mark Daniels, Eddie Yusupov, and Uri Laitman. It elicited great interest from the visitors of the exhibit. Over thirty publishers from the most diverse countries have already started negotiations about translating and publishing Kabbalah books.

Among them are publishers from Brazil, Switzerland, Israel, Hungary, Italy, Germany, China, Croatia, Korea, Holland, Turkey, Sweden, and even Saudi Arabia.

New Publications in Mexico
The editorial staff of the Mexican magazine “Medicable,” with a circulation of 70,000, has decided to start printing our Kabbalah articles. The magazine comes out once every two months and is distributed in cities such as Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey.

Kabbalah in Finnish
Finland isn’t lagging behind either. The first issue of the newspaper Kabala Tanaan, (Kabbalah Today in Finnish) has been published. The newspaper’s publication was timed to coincide with two large annual exhibits held in in Helsinki in October of 2008. Our newspapers, brochures, and books in seven languages will be presented at the stands of both exhibits.

Online Education in Moscow
An international conference dedicated to online education was held in the “President Hotel.” Representatives of the Moscow branch of the Kabbalah Academy were in attendance. They gave a presentation on the online learning classes that the International Kabbalah Academy has been successfully teaching for several years. To date over 20,000 students have taken part in the classes.

This presentation was of great interest to the conference participants. During the discussion, the participants exchanged opinions on methods of increasing the efficiency of online learning, and the role of online education in the conditions of modern globalization.

Book Fair in Zaporozhye
A book fair was held in Zaporozhye, Ukraine, called Khortotzki Djerela – 2008. Visitors showed a lot of interest in the books, brochures, CDs, and newspapers about the wisdom of Kabbalah that were on display. The book Kabbalah – It’s Very Simple sold out on the first day of the fair. Many visitors became acquainted with Kabbalah during last year’s fair and came back to learn more this year.

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A question I received: How long will the crisis last?

My Answer: The crisis will continue until people recognize its causes and purposes, and start correcting themselves and the society, bringing it to the correct form as the united, global system that we have become today. There is no way back. We have risen above the level of individual development and have become connected globally. Hence we are obliged to obey the laws of the global system. Today nature is treating us as a single organism, all of whose parts are connected together – and that’s what we have to become. In fact, this is necessary for our survival. However, in the meantime, people do not recognize the true cause of the crisis.

For example:

The Secretary of State of the Vatican: “The cause of financial crisis is the godless economy.”

The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko: “The cause of the global credit crisis is the corruption that has infiltrated the highest echelons of government in the Western countries. The global financial crisis will give the ruble a chance to become a worldwide currency.”

World Bank: “The cause of the food crisis lies in the production of biological fuel, which has raised food prices by 75%.”

Bloomberg: “The cause of crisis is the rising oil prices.”

The human rights organization “Freedom House”: “The cause of crisis is the lack of human rights.”

There is no way back. If we try to “split up” – to avoid being so globally dependent, then we will push ourselves toward the emergence of Nazi regimes in the developed countries, and as a result, a nuclear world war!

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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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A question I received: It follows from the articles “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” and “The Future Generation” that from the economic point of view, a Kabbalistic society is one of collectivism or communism, and that this is a necessary condition for everyone to receive the Torah and reveal the Creator, since only then can people stop thinking about themselves completely. Are there plans being made regarding new economic relations within the framework of the “Virtual State of Kabbalah?” Or is it still to early for it? Maybe we can implement transitional economic schemes and incorporate them into the modern capitalistic global economy? Generally speaking, how do you think the world economy will develop toward the ideal state?

My Answer: We should not change society and its institutions artificially, but rather we should correct the connections between us from egoistic to altruistic, by means of the Upper Light. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how we can become similar to nature. Hence, by studying it we evoke upon us the Light of correction (the Surrounding Light, Ohr Makif) from above. It changes us, giving us the desires, thoughts, and forces to change everything in us and between us.

If we won’t change under the influence of the Light, but will instead change in whichever way we want to, then we’ll create a big mess all over again, like what happened with socialism in Russia and with the Kibbutzim in Israel. America is now compelled to nationalize businesses, and thus it is becoming socialist instead of capitalist. However, this is not the kind of socialism (or communism) that Kabbalah speaks about.

We, the members of the International Kabbalah Academy (the Bnei Baruch group), must do the following:

1. Provide ourselves with the necessary level of existence;
2. Correct ourselves by studying Kabbalah in the right environment (in our environment – see the article “The Freedom,” which explains what lies in our power of action).

The rest is done by the Light.

Our objective is to create a virtual society, which will serve as an example for the entire world.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Creator Will Become Revealed Inside the Unity of Our Virtual Meeting Space
Laitman.com Post: The Condition of Entering the Upper World Is Mutual Guarantee
Baal HaSulam Article: “Building the Future Society”
“Freedom of Will” – Lessons

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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.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: My Article on Ynetnews – A Kabbalistic Interpretation of the Economic Crisis
Laitman.com Post: The Remedy for the Global Crisis
Laitman.com Post: The Beginning of Enlightenment
Lesson on Baal HaSulam’s Article: “Exile and Redemption”

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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).

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Humanity Is One Integral, Interconnected Organism
Laitman.com Post: The Financial Crisis – an Analysis
Kabbalah Today Article: Humankind and Human Kindness
Article: “On Roots and Branches”
Article: “A Kabbalistic Interpretation of the Economic Crisis”

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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.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: When It Comes to the Global Crisis, We Cannot Afford to Procrastinate
Laitman.com Post: Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself
Laitman.com Post: Humanity Is One Integral, Interconnected Organism

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Questions I received on the global financial crisis:

Question: Everyone is saying that the financial crisis was caused by the United States, but you say that it’s systematic and is happening because we are in a system of global interconnection. Who’s right?

My Answer: Both opinions are correct, because America – the most developed country in the world – was first to discover this financial crisis, which is global and not just local to the U.S. If it hasn’t reached some countries yet – such as Israel, for example – then it will reach them later on.

Hence, people shouldn’t scold America. In fact, Europe, China, Japan, the Emirates, and even Russia are all prospering thanks to the American economy, because America buys everything from them.

But now it will stop buying, and everyone will understand how good things used to be! You will be able to answer many questions yourself if you accept the fact that the financial crisis and everything else taking place is actually happening in one, single organism.

Question: Why did the financial crisis start with the banks?

My Answer: It’s because the banks are the foundation of the entire American system; they are an example of a free market. But now the government is buying them. Freedom of the market will become limited like it is in Europe.

However, precisely money or wealth is the equivalent of corporeal fulfillment. It “connects” people, helping us faster realize the common basis of the crisis – people’s egoistic attitudes, as well as the fact that it’s necessary to transform these attitudes, for the sake of survival, into ones of care for one another.

Question: But won’t the care for others be selfish and egoistic, just like today employers “care” about the health of their employees?

My Answer: The system of absolute interconnection between everyone in the world, both people and businesses, is being revealed so fast that soon each one of us will literally feel the vibrations of our attitudes to one another – first the national ones, and then the personal ones as well. This analysis of how our luck and safety depends on our attitudes (inner, not outer ones – what we feel in our hearts), will force us to search for the means to correct hatred and transform it to love.

Question: Who has an easier time living through this time of financial crisis?

My Answer: Those who are least connected with the rest of the world. It works just like an organism: when a leg, stomach, or arm are hurt, the pain is felt in the head. Hence, countries will try to move away from globalization. However, this won’t help them, because then they will stop developing. Without full communication and exchange, they will cease developing and regress to feudalism! Everyone will instinctively try to return to the past, but by doing so they will only slow down the process and receive even greater blows of fate. It’s like trying to sweep an illness under the rug by treating it incorrectly or taking sedatives instead of medication. After all, human society is a live organism!

Question: What kind of currency will remain?

My Answer: The post-crisis world will be radically new. Nevertheless, the United States has accumulated such great scientific and technological potential, and such an exceptional industrial base, that it will remain the world leader – the largest economy in the world. Even though it will fall more than any other country, when it comes to the numbers, people will still have enough to live (compared to others).

Everything will crash, with the exception of the American high-tech industry. The United States will begin real production; it will return to it from abroad, from China. This will cause foreign countries and China to “fall.”

Question: Why is everyone so afraid of the financial crisis? I personally don’t feel afraid.

My Answer: All previous financial crises were different – understandable and not general. However, this one is global; it is happening all over the world and it is unlike any previous financial crisis. There are no known remedies to eliminate it. People are trying to do the same thing they did in previous financial crises – to help the banks, but nothing will help. The situation will force them to reveal the true cause of the financial crisis: that the egoistic attitudes of the parts of a closed system bring about the system’s destruction.

Regardless of how our attempts to explain the true cause of the financial crisis are received, we should not despair and continue fulfilling our duty. We can only accelerate the world’s understanding of the cause of the financial crisis and the method of correction. It takes patience, but the suffering, attempts, and failures will teach people, forcing them to heed what we are saying.

Here’s a concise explanation of the crisis, including its causes and correction:

Part 2 of the book From Chaos to Harmony – Israel’s Role
Brochure: “Lecture in Arosa – The Crisis and Its Solution”

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News Report (translated from BBC): The head of IMF, Dominic Strauss-Kahn, announced that the world is “on the brink of recession.” He appealed to world leaders to act “quickly, decisively, and together” in order to overcome the global economic problems. On Friday the President of the United States, George Bush, is expected to speak to the American public about the economic situation of the US. What are we to expect?

My Comment: Relax, the world will never be the same as it once was. Accept it and don’t try to bring it back! Through our egoistic natural development (and no one’s to blame – such is the implacable dialectic of nature), we have reached the revelation of the integral, global system of human interaction in our world. Moreover, since man is the most egoistic of all creatures, he also incorporates all of the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, and everything requires its own solution, or the proper regulation (balance).

In this case, we become dependent on everyone else. There is no way back, and there cannot be. The forces of the common and single civilization are now surfacing, and they will make us understand that different laws are at work here – the laws of a single organism. Those who will understand this faster will be able to come out of the collapse quicker. By becoming properly connected to the common system, they will be able to cure themselves economically, socially, morally, and so on.

I am not a prophet, but following Baal HaSulam’s texts, for the past six years I have been speaking and writing books and articles about the crisis. There was no way to prevent it, but there is a means to come out of it. I’ve spoken to important people about this, telling them that it is necessary to institute “global education,” or in other words – “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” because otherwise things will get bad. However, they laughed at my naivety.

Now we have to start the work of explaining the situation to people, and we are running late with this. While people learn how to change things, the blows of fate will keep on coming.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: When It Comes to the Global Crisis, We Cannot Afford to Procrastinate
Laitman.com Post: The Remedy for the Global Crisis
Laitman.com Post: The Last Generation – A Song By the Bnei Baruch Band
Kabbalah Today Article: What Is Happening to Our Economy?

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A question I received: Why do you draw a connection between the financial crisis and a “global Kabbalistic revolution?” Isn’t this going a bit too far?

My Answer: There is a state of standalone objects, and there is a state when they unite into a system. That is when new and special laws are revealed – the laws of globalization, communication, interaction, and interdependence.

Standalone individuals in the animal kingdom are egoists, but as soon as they join together, a law is revealed that enables their system to survive. This law obligates them to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the system, for their society. Of course, in the animal kingdom this happens unconsciously; it is embedded in the animals by nature and they follow it blindly. The human level differs by man’s self-awareness. Man must carry out the same laws of nature consciously and willingly.

Hence, as long as we were not united, there was no need to take the system into account, nor to follow Nature’s law of “bestowal and love for one’s neighbor.” However, as soon as a tight interconnection emerged in Ancient Babylon – the first global civilization (global with regard to that time period, in a compact area), then a crisis was immediately revealed – our imbalance with the natural law of the human community, “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

In Babylon, we managed to solve this problem by annulling the very system or civilization. We separated from each other and scattered all over the world. However, today we are connected and there is no place to run. We can try, but by so doing we will only go back to the past. We can’t even imagine what comforts we will lose, because no country in the world today can be self-sufficient. This would be like going back to feudalism. Our development, its forms and pace are predetermined by nature and its integral law. Hence, if we go against it, we will perceive our opposition to it in the form of terrible suffering.

This is why Kabbalah says that the only option we have is to recognize the natural law of the human community, which is “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Of course, this type of relationship can be adopted only when every individual will be corrected from “for the sake of oneself” to “for the sake of others.” This can be done with ease if:

1. The society and the mass media will support and encourage this, and look down on those who do not do this (however, not by means of punishment);
2. People will study Kabbalah (for the masses, superficial familiarity with Kabbalah will suffice) and thereby attract our future state, which already exists.

I think that “procrastination is like death” – in the literal sense of the word.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How Do You Get the Wolf, Goat and Cabbage Across the River? (How Do You Solve the Global Crisis?)
Laitman.com Post: The Solution – Excerpts from the Writings of the Last Generation by Baal HaSulam
Article – “Lecture in Arosa”

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