News Report (translated from K2Kapital.com): “The word ‘Socialism’ is no longer looked down on in the USA” The crisis on Wall Street, loss of savings and pension funds, the real estate market collapse and unemployment have raised the issue of economic survival. The crisis calls for an increase of government regulation and a rejection of liberal methods in the financial sector. The word “socialism,” terrifying to the American ear just a short time ago, no longer seems so scary. What’s so bad about socialism, anyway? Let the government care for its citizens instead of protecting the interests of billionaires.

My Comment: For the time being, the aspiration toward socialism is selfish and egoistic, but it cannot be otherwise. People are gradually starting to realize that globalization is the new reality in which we need to live, that the world is like a small village, like one family.

This concept is readily talked about, but not yet fully grasped. We haven’t yet accepted it as a fact, as a phenomenon that has suddenly manifested in our world, which we cannot escape, and which obliges us to completely change our lives.

It is similar to the feeling of a person who has been sentenced to life imprisonment: he gradually realizes that his life now has to undergo a major change, and how such a change requires him to adopt an attitude and behavior different from before.

Hence, a natural consequence of feeling the effects of globalization, global interconnection and interdependence, is the perception of socialism as desired and superior. However, we will need to correct the way we think about socialism. When we will feel that everyone in the world is one family, we will reveal the Upper Light, the sensation of harmony, delight and eternal life. But before this happens, people will have to go through the path of rejecting egoism. And in order to desire this, they will have to realize that egoism is evil. This can happen through:

• Actual suffering due to egoism (known as “the ten plagues of Egypt,” where the first plague is the financial crisis that is starting to develop as we speak), or

• Through theoretical recognition and the study of Kabbalah.

Either way, mankind will have to consciously arrive at the understanding that “everyone is one family,” where every person takes every family member into consideration. For more on this, see the article, “The Freedom,” and the newspaper, “The Nation.”

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Questions I received on music, false spiritual teachings, and euthanasia:

Question: What’s more important in a musical composition, wisdom or spirituality?

My Answer: Spirituality.

Question: Is listening to music a waste of time?

My Answer: Not if it helps you keep an intention aimed at the goal.

Question: I once heard the following expression: The rhythm of music makes the Earth go round!

My Answer: That’s poetic and romantic…

Question: According to nature, what percentage of humanity will consciously feel the question about the meaning of life so strong that they will be able to study Kabbalah?

My Answer: There’s no specific percentage – it will be anyone with a point in the heart.

Question: What do you think of false teachings that unconsciously use elements of teachings that were effective in the past?

My Answer: Nothing.

Question: I’m asking because it is these kind of teachings that are leading in the “spiritual market.” What’s their purpose?

My Answer: For us to learn from our mistakes.

Question: How do you view euthanasia?

My Answer: Problematically.

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News Report: As the crisis develops, scientists are trying to predict whether a third World War will take place at the end of the “Second Great Depression,” as it happened after the First Great Depression. In the International Security Report 2008, researchers from the Oxford Research Group (ORG) assert that war is inevitable unless immediate economic changes are made. The social unrest will erupt in a violent, armed struggle for survival. Experts say it is necessary to institute social justice and fair commerce, to write off debts and reduce toxic emissions into the atmosphere.

My Comment: Everyone agrees with the scientists that this is better than a nuclear war, but who’s going to establish this new order? For that to happen we would have to have a different nature, and such a nature can only appear in man under the influence of the Upper Light. All heads of governments without exception are afraid of unleashing a war. They understand that it’s possible to “accidentally” trigger a process through a terrorist attack or provocation by a third party, which will sweep all countries involuntarily and uncontrollably toward World War III.

Kabbalah states that there is only one alternative to war: to use all the mass media channels to provide a universal explanation of the new global interdependence and the need to create new global relationships of kindness. Then the social opinion will influence every individual, because man was created such that he is fully controlled by the social opinion. And if any regime will disagree with this global agreement, it will have to be isolated from the entire world.

By undertaking this, mankind will become similar to Nature (the Creator) and will immediately discover Nature’s good influence on all levels of our existence, from ecology to finance. For more on this, see item 155 of the “Introduction to Talmud Esser Sefirot.”

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News Report (from Columbia Journalism Review): Those hoping for a quick rebound are likely to be disappointed. Economists and other pros generally say home prices won’t bottom out before the second half of 2009, and some don’t see a bottom until 2011 or 2012. Even when they stop falling, prices may scrape along the bottom of the rut for years.

Dowell Myers, a professor of urban planning and demography at the University of Southern California, warns that the retirement of boomers over the next two decades is likely to depress house prices in many areas. … there will be a lot more sellers than buyers.

So how long will this crisis last?

My Comment: There’s an expression in Latin: Quantum satis – “as much as necessary.” For example, it can be used to designate an unspecified amount of dilution, where the intended meaning is: as much as can be absorbed, or as much as will suffice.

So, the crisis will continue until we realize that it is but an expression of our mutual, shared egoism, and that the only way to come out of it is by correcting our egoism. Hence, time won’t heal us, but will only bring greater crises. For instance:

News Report: 11,000 delegates from 185 countries have gathered at the The United Nations Climate Change Conference, where scientists are expressing the concern that mankind has a time table of only one year to develop a realistic plan to save the Earth from the fatal consequences of global warming.

My Comment: It’s possible that we will experience several different manifestations of the crisis at the same time. That’s because there is only one underlying cause for all the crises: our egoistic relationships, which can only be corrected by the Light that descends during the study of Kabbalah. So study and watch Kabbalah TV. This is not an advertisement, but advice! Kabbalah tells us about our corrected states. When you study them (whether by reading, hearing or watching), you come in contact with those states and draw energy from them onto yourself, or in other words, you draw the Light from those corrected states. This Light corrects you, and then the crisis disappears!

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News Report (translated from utro.ru): Following the economists, who are predicting a total crash of the current global financial system, the ecologists are sending out another warning. The World Wildlife Fund warns that the number of plant and animal species has been reduced by up to 50%. The possibility of a financial recession pales in comparison to the looming ecological credit crunch.

My Comment: This is the next plague of Egypt, but first it will be preceded by unemployment and hunger! We have to go through all ten plagues! However, we can also go through them in another way, “smoothly,” by evoking the Upper Light upon ourselves.

News Report (from World Wildlife Fund): “Humanity’s demands exceed our planet’s capacity to sustain us” According to the Living Planet Report 2008, the world is on the brink of exhausting the earth’s natural resources. Humanity’s demands for resources exceed the planet’s capacity to sustain us by 30%. By the mid-2030s we will need the equivalent of 2 planets to maintain our lifestyles.

My Comment: Over the course of the next ten years, humanity will have to decide whether it wants to take the path of correcting its nature – and then Nature’s treatment of us will change instantly, or to start a war of annihilation. This won’t be a war of conquest, but of annihilation, because it will be necessary to annihilate up to 90% of the world’s population.

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A question I received: You always taught that Kabbalah is a path of individual spiritual development, but now it seems like it requires an individual to dissolve in the mass of humanity.

My Answer: I will answer with a quote from Nikolai Berdyaev’s “Philosophy of Creativity, Culture and Art” (V.1, p.115, M., 1994):

“Freedom of individualism does not create the cosmos but opposes the cosmos. Freedom of individualism is the freedom to separate and be alienated from the world, and separation from the world makes one a slave of the world. For an individualist, the world is always oppressing.

Individualism lowers a person, suppressing the global, universal human essence. The individualist is an enemy of individuality. A person is an organic member of the global cosmic hierarchy and the wealth of his internality is directly proportionate to his connection with the cosmos.”

By working to serve the entire system of souls – the only thing that was created by the Creator, a person merges with this system. It becomes his, and in fact – it becomes him. He then merges with the Creator, realizing his individuality and uniqueness.

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Without a doubt, every kind of suffering comes from the concealment of the Creator. Therefore His revelation will be the answer to the crisis.

Kabbalah states that the revelation of the Creator fills a person with pleasure and the sensation of eternity. How does the Creator become revealed to a person? Gradually, through the influence of the Upper Light that is drawn during the study of Kabbalah.

And don’t be surprised that one person can cause an ascent or a descent of the whole world, for there is a law that states: “The particular and the general are equal.”

In our times there is a need for Mutual Guarantee between all the people in the world. Hence, a global education is the biggest priority compared to all other issues.

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News Report (translated from gazeta.ru): Economic and political calamities on the global scale have a way of making people talk about the fact that the current era is ending and the future will be radically different. The current financial crisis is no exception. However, this time around we won’t be able to think of any clear plan for “lasting universal happiness.” If anyone hopes to make such a plan, it will only demonstrate their arrogance.

Moreover, one of the most wonderful things in life is the impossibility of predicting the future, because it gives individuals and mankind the chance to develop.

The predictions people make about life after the crisis can be grouped into three categories:

1. Some people assume that we are dealing with a case of history repeating itself, that crises like this one have happened before, and therefore the global economy will be restored. At some point in time, mankind will resume life just like before the crisis and the world will be the same as before.

2. Others think that the crisis is not really a crisis of the economy, but a crisis of our value system, and that the human civilization has reached some kind of a threshold. We can’t keep living the old way and we urgently need to create a new plan for how to exist. We will never be able to go back to the “golden era” as before the crisis (whether or not it really was a “golden era” is a separate question).

3. Scientists warn us that if people won’t change their lifestyle, they will soon need another planet in order to survive.

…We must be honest to ourselves and admit that we don’t know how and when the current crisis will end. No one can take away our right to construct our personal and universal future. However, it’s important to realize that such constructions will always be founded on mistakes.

My Comment: Here are are my comments on points 1, 2, and 3 above:

1. With crises that happened in the past, it was fair to say that history was repeating itself because they all took place in the same egoistic, individual plane. However, the current crisis arose due to a transition from an individualized world to a globalized world. Hence, none of our attempts to return to the past, to the old laws and rules, will succeed. Moreover, we will not be able to envision a new world structure based on past experience, because the world will now be based on different laws – the laws of globalization. They are opposite to the laws of individualized behavior, regardless of whether it’s a person, an organization or a country.

2. This thought is correct. However, the future is known. We can and must study it. Then we won’t have to go through so much suffering! Kabbalah is open to everyone!

3. Scientists are correct in their understanding that our planet’s resources will eventually be depleted. According to their calculations, this threatens us with complete extinction in the next few decades. However, if we begin to correct ourselves, to become more balanced with Nature (the Creator), we will elicit Nature’s positive influence upon us, thereby restoring harmony. In addition, it will happen very quickly and take on forms that we have never experienced in the past!

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Baal HaSulam, article “Peace in the World”:

Man feels that all the creatures in the world should be under his own government and were created for his own private use. And this is a law of Nature that cannot be breached. The only difference between people is their choices of how to use the creatures: One chooses to exploit people by attaining the lowest desires, one chooses to attain power, while the third – to attain respect. Furthermore, if it could be done without much effort, every person would agree to exploit the whole world for attaining all three together: wealth, power and respect. This law is called the “Law of Singularity,” and is felt in the heart of every person. And there is not a person who can escape it, although each and every one takes his own share in that law: the great person according to his greatness, and the small person according to his smallness.

And although the attribute of singularity contains a sublime, beautiful and gracious meaning, since this attribute extends to us directly from the Creator, who is single in the world and the root of all creations, still when the sensation of singularity sits within our narrow egoism, its action becomes ruin and destruction and the source of all the suffering that was and will be in the world. And indeed there is not a single person in the world who is free from this attribute, and all the differences between people are only in the way it is used: whether for satisfying the passions of the heart, or for power, or for honor. This is what makes people different from one another.

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A question I received: I feel repelled by spirituality. I feel that I want to go through my life as a separate person, not as part of a group. I get this picture that the purpose of spirituality is to reject all pleasures. I mean, what is there to enjoy in the spiritual world? I’m not ready to reject my regular life for spirituality. How can I pray for another desire when, in fact, it isn’t my desire at all?

My Answer: The Creator (Kabbalah) won’t make you do anything forcefully. Instead, He forces us by giving us suffering in this life, and it pushes a person forward. However, it’s possible to accelerate our path of development and make it easier by using Kabbalah.

Either way, everyone will attain the goal they were created for: they will become equivalent to the Creator by uniting within one integral desire. This will happen either through The Path of Suffering or The Path of the Light that returns one to the source – to equivalence with the Creator (the quality of love and bestowal).

Right now everyone in the world is revealing a common suffering, which has just one cause – a lack of connection between all people within one desire. But the Creator will force us to unite!

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