In the News (from The New York Times): “Iceland’s Government Collapses” Iceland’s coalition government collapsed Monday… There are also massive demonstrations in Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, and Greece. Disorder is beginning in France, Germany, and Great Britain.

My Comment: Our opposition to the global village is beginning to manifest as massive disorder. Mutual hatred is spilling over into international, class, and intergovernmental sectors, and the only way to repress this hatred is through global education, which must now begin throughout the whole world. Any country’s government that implements this global upbringing is sure to establish peace in all of that country’s activities.

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A question I received: Please show me practically, using examples from history, how do Reshimot change?

My Answer: The periodical change of our attitude to life is dictated by the changing “genes” in us (Reshimot, which comes from the word Roshem – “recording” in Hebrew). The stages of egoism’s changes are recorded inside each of us from the beginning, when the common soul divided into many souls.

Reshimot are revealed in us in an increasing, consecutive order: 0-1-2-3-4. Therefore, at the beginning stages of their realization in us, the Reshimot brought forth a small egoism in us; and in those lives we were “naïve” – slaves and masters. Then, as more advanced Reshimot surfaced in us, when we were born in the next epochs, we desired to be freer, to be workers, such as vassals or serfs. Women were married off without their permission, and this was considered “correct.” They loved their husbands because their small egoism did not get in the way. This was the accepted norm.

And after that, as more advanced Reshimot were expressed in us, we desired to be “free” workers for hire, employers but not masters. We desired freedom and equality (including for women), and so on.

Reshimot elicit desires in us, and the desires provoke the mind to achieve what we desire. Today we can see nations in whom different Reshimot were expressed in the same epoch, and therefore we don’t live in one cultural zone, but in different cultures and formations. However, globalization is bringing about a quick realization of Reshimot in every person and in everyone together.

In regard to choice:

• marriage (voluntary – through love, or forced – stealing the bride, paying a ransom, marrying by the father’s order, and so on),

• power (coercive – although later accepted and loved, like in Russia until today; by election; or inherited),

• place of residence (being attached to the place, having a residence permit, a passport system, free movement),

• and according to other signs, one can tell which Reshimot were realized in a nation or a civilization.

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Filed under: History - 1 Comment →

A question I received: What is the song we sing after every Yeshivat Haverim (Friends’ Assembly), called “Hineh Ma Tov”? It is very deep and very special. What is it about, and what is its Kabbalistic meaning and history?

My Answer: When Yosef’s brothers, who hated him, sold him to Egypt, he became the Pharaoh’s deputy. When the brothers came there to buy food, they did not recognize Yosef and he sent the Egyptians to pursue them, thus forcing them to repent for what they did to him. When this happened, he revealed himself to them, and together, in joy and love, they had a meal where they sang this song. The words are, “Hineh Ma Tov Ve Ma Naim, Shevet Achim Gam Yahad” – “How wonderful and pleasant it is to sit together as brothers.”

And it’s the same with us: at first we hate each other, but then we grow closer and become brothers!

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A question I received: Several years back, AARP (an American organization that cares for the welfare and rights of senior citizens) sent out a request to attorneys to provide services to underprivileged seniors at a discounted rate of $30 per hour (an average attorney charges $150-$300 per hour). Almost every attorney refused. Then the organization changed their strategy. They sent out the request again, but this time they posed the question differently: would the attorneys be willing to help and provide free consultations to seniors in need? This time most attorneys said yes. Why?

My Answer: Because then it’s not work anymore, but charity. Cheap work degrades people, whereas free work (charity) is respected.

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A question I received: Baal HaSulam says that our entire freedom lies only in choosing our environment. But if we were to choose our environment now, wouldn’t our choice be based on what we received from our previous environment?

My Answer: We choose a new environment under the influence of a new spiritual Reshimo: suddenly a desire for something “beyond this world” arises in us, and then we are somehow brought into contact with a new environment – Bnei Baruch. This is where your new path begins. And it’s the same for everyone. This is why we (Bnei Baruch) exist.

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Filed under: Free Will - 1 Comment →

In the News (from Bloomberg): NATO members should consider inviting Russia to join the military alliance as a way to blunt the Kremlin’s challenge to the West, according to former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

My Comment: Drawing closer to one another is always good, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, because it’s a step toward the world’s unity and convergence into one whole. This cancels out our opposition to Nature, which will disappear one way or another according to Nature’s plan. However, if we don’t do this on our own, it will happen as a result of lengthy international conflicts and suffering.

If it weren’t for the European Union’s weakness and stupidity, and Russia’s complex of always feeling degraded, which makes it proud and quarrelsome, then there would be hope for a union, which would evoke Nature’s kindness over these countries (according to the law of equivalence to Nature). But unfortunately, they’re like little boys who need a good beating to straighten them out! Otherwise they’ll start spending their last money on “guns before butter,” instead of investing it in social programs. And then we’ll get the beating right along with them, but our beating will be much greater than theirs.

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In the News: The Institute of Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya will be hosting the 9th annual Herzliya Conference, on “The Balance of Israel’s National Strength and Security” on February 2-4, 2009. The program includes:

– Coping with Hamas

– Dealing with Asymmetric Islamic Terrorism

– Iran on the Nuclear Threshold

– Israel’s Legitimacy under Attack

– Weathering the Storm: Israel and the World Economic Crisis

– Why Do Israeli Students Fail? Can the Digital Revolution Change the Educational Reality?

– National Sustainability and Israel’s Green Safety Net

– From R&D to Commercial and Economic Application as Part of National Policy

– Reconnecting Israel with its Expatriates

My Comment: For the time being, not one of the problems is nearing a solution, and the problems are only becoming worse. The Israeli people’s lack of understanding of their role in the world is bringing about further deterioration of the state and its people.

The nation of Israel can only exist by the principle of, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” It was created under this condition by Abraham, 4,500 years ago, and was comprised of his students. But as soon as they fell from that level into “unfounded hatred,” they ceased being a nation and were exiled from their territory.

They returned here in the 20th century, but – as explained in Kabbalah – they can stay here only under the condition that they will restore themselves through the rule, “Love your neighbor.” This is how we will become a nation once again. However, if we won’t carry out this condition, then we will once again be expelled from the land of Israel, since we will not be suitable for it.

This should be the topic of the Herzliya Conference. By the way, at the same time, on February 2-4, we will also be hosting our Congress, where we will actually unite into a single mini-humanity. This will create enormous changes in the world, because qualitatively speaking, this will be the most powerful and influential unity in the world.

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In the News: (from Fayette Front Page): Senators Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., today introduced legislation to create a Financial Markets Commission that will be charged with fully investigating the near collapse of the banking system and the loss of tens of trillions of dollars. “If our nation is going to learn from history, we must know exactly what happened and why. We need to take a long hard look at how our financial system spiraled downward so far so fast,” Conrad said. “The final report of this commission will help make sure this does not happen again.”

My Comment: We cannot understand any phenomenon in our world from our level. Even Einstein said that in order to solve a problem, it is necessary to rise above it – to its source or initial origin. I hope this commission will be created, and even more than one – that it will be created in all the countries, and that it will be common, international. And I hope these commissions will somehow hear Kabbalah’s explanation of the reason, course, and purpose of the crisis, as well as the way to control it.

Kabbalah reveals that if we want to control the crisis through our actions, there is only one single opportunity in our world for us to influence the events: by continuously creating a better and better environment (society) that will influence every person. This environment will change everyone’s priorities from corporeal (receiving and using others) to spiritual (bestowal and love).

There are no other free actions we can make, because the rest of our actions are dictated by our natural egoism. They are elicited in us by egoism’s constant growth and change, without any participation on our part. Therefore, the reason for the crisis is the qualitatively new egoism that is being revealed in us.

The goal of the crisis is to bring us to similarity with Nature, the quality of bestowal and love. The means of attaining this goal, which is mandatory for all, is to change the environment that surrounds each and every one of us, or in other words, to change the external influence on every person. And to do this, we have to engage all the mass media channels and begin a broad action of worldwide education about the new reality of a united humanity.

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Filed under: Crisis - 2 Comments →

In the News (from VOA News): “Researchers Investigate Biology of Social Conformity” According to researcher Vasily Klucharev of Erasmus University in the Netherlands, the study shows when people hold an opinion differing from others in a group, their brains produce an error signal, making people think they made a mistake.

My Comment: Kabbalah explains that a person is always under the influence of the environment and unwillingly perceives others’ opinion as his own (see the article “The Freedom”). We cannot avoid being slaves of our environment. Our freedom lies in finding an environment that will give us the correct opinion – one that’s directed at the goal of creation.

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In the News (from Higher Education Center): New research examines how group processes alter the impact of alcohol on a judgment task requiring vigilance. Alcohol significantly impaired the performance of individuals, but not groups. Group members make fewer errors than individuals in the alcohol condition… The evidence highlights that group process can compensate for the cognitively impairing effects of alcohol on individuals.

My Comment: It turns out that “splitting it three ways” is not just a way to save money, but also necessary for spiritual unification!

In the News (from RT): As the economic crisis bites, Russians have started to prioritize spending, saving money on food and daily necessities. According to a survey by the Nielsen research company, about 95 percent of Russians have noted an increase in prices this year. 73 percent declared that they have begun saving on groceries and products of daily consumption while 10 percent said they no longer buy sweets and cakes and 8 percent said the have excluded meat and vodka from their shopping basket.

My Comment: If people correct themselves, then the world will be filled with abundance. Right now, even though there is more than enough of everything in the world, our corrupted connections create the crisis, and hence we are unable to exchange the products of our work correctly.

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