Man is created out of a desire to receive pleasure – a desire to be filled by the Light. This is why he feels pleasure or its absence – suffering. A person is inside the all-enveloping Light of the Creator. To the degree he is similar or dissimilar to the Light, he feels either pleasure or suffering. This is how he determines the state he’s in.

Kabbalah explains how one can reach the maximum equivalence of form with the Light in order to obtain maximum fulfillment, to the point of receiving infinite (or unlimited) fulfillment while being fully equal to the Light or the Creator.

The global nature of the current suffering is moving all of humanity toward uniting into one whole creation that is completely equal to the single Upper Light. Man implements similarity to the quality of the Light – “Good and Does Good” – by implementing the law of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Suffering will force us to understand that it is necessary to fulfill this law, but the science of Kabbalah will help us to understand Nature’s plan quickly and without the blows, and to consciously aspire toward fulfilling this law of similarity to Goodness. This will replace the suffering with pleasure and shorten the time it takes to attain a state that’s infinite, boundless, and absolutely good.

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Editorial News Report (from Executive Intelligence Review): If the participants of the G-20 meeting won’t reach an agreement, the world economy will rapidly collapse, billions of people will die from hunger, and social chaos will begin in the G-7 countries.

My Comment: The participants of the G-20 meeting should at least reach a certain level of mutual trust in order to coordinate their actions in the economic (and perhaps military) spheres. The world needs to see a connection between different countries. It won’t help to simply exercise control over fiscal operations (banks, companies, equalization of different currencies, cancellation of offshore accounts, annihilation of monopolies) and to reach a consensus to refrain from military attacks. This won’t help because Nature is forcing us to become integrated!

Even if they won’t reach an agreement, they should at least agree to meet together in order to solve the problems of global reconstruction, according to the laws of the single system.

A Kabbalistic text says: “The hearts of the kings and their ministers are in the hands of the Creator.” And the Creator is governed by people’s desires to the degree they are similar to the Creator – to the quality of love for one’s neighbor. Therefore, everything depends on the dissemination of the knowledge about the world’s globality and our connection within one family. When we realize this, we won’t feel hatred for others, but for our own egoism, which is the only evil in the world. And after that we will also feel an aspiration for love of others.

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A question I received: What specific, practical measures would you advise the governments to take to combat the crisis?

My Answer: Kabbalah says that the world’s integrality requires that each person receive what is necessary for him to exist, and give the rest for the benefit of the society as a whole. This shouldn’t be done forcefully, like in the Soviet regime, but should come from people’s understanding that it’s necessary to carry out the law of nature that states: “All people are one family.” Every person will be rewarded for this with the sensation of eternal and perfect existence (outside of one’s egoism), just like all of Nature.

The needed actions: In addition to establishing an educational organization, every person must be given whatever amount of money he needs to lead a normal existence. No one should be allowed to have more than this amount in his bank account. Everything else should go into the “common account.”

The result: It makes no difference how much funds or resources there are for this. What’s important is the action itself, because it is integral, global, and harmonious with Nature (the Creator). Hence, it will evoke a positive reaction from Nature upon the society.

Comment:
1. These actions must be carried out together with distributing powerful educational, explanatory material through all mass media channels (see my “Lecture in Arosa“). Bnei Baruch already has the material!

2. If humanity won’t act as described above, with understanding, willingly and voluntarily – through the study of Kabbalah, then nature will force us to do the same thing, but through a long and bitter path of suffering. The situation will be like a stubborn child who doesn’t want to do what his parents tell him to, and who’s only swayed by punishment into understanding that he needs to listen and do as they say. Only later will he come to realize how correct and good his parents were.

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News Report (from Times Online): The maverick economist John Maynard Keynes, whose ideas helped to navigate Britain out of the mass unemployment of the 1930s, imagined a completely different future for us. He predicted that in three generations’ time (the era we are entering), everyone would have enough to satisfy their needs and basic desires. We would then be liberated to explore the greater potential of humankind.

Keynes rejected the possibility that once we had solved the economic problem we would shackle ourselves by constantly chasing ever more stuff – possessions, debt, celebrity, Brand’n’Woss-style infotainment, rather than learning to be satisfied with material contentment and evolving from there.

My Comment: The source of all our mistakes is our ignorance of the fact that human nature is absolutely egoistic. Kabbalah warns that in our time of global interdependence between all human systems, ignorance of these laws will lead to a catastrophe. So stop trusting all the sociologists and economists, because we’ve entered a period of new social laws!

“Mom, who is Karl Marx?” – “Karl Marx was an economist.”

“Like our aunt Dalia?” –“No, aunt Dalia is a senior economist!”

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My old friend, journalist and columnist, Sergei Leskov, had a conversation with the director of the Institute of Philosophy at the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician A. Guseynov. Dr. Abdusalam Guseynov was present at the defense of my dissertation at the aforementioned institute. I am grateful for his position on this process.

His words are as follows (my comments appear in italics): Until now humanity’s fundamental conviction was that scientific and technological progress was good. But these hopes have proved to be illusory.

Philosophy was founded on the possibility of creating a heaven on earth by changing human nature. Now it is clear that the progress has brought about a deadly threat, and this fact requires us to take responsibility on a fundamentally new level.

The Kantian “ethics of goodwill” must be supplemented with the ethics of responsible action. This puts greater emphasis on the role of absolute prohibition, embedded in the ancient code of Moses – first and foremost on the prohibition on violence, or in other words: “Don’t do unto others what you don’t want done to you.” This rule is a stepping stone to the rule, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” For more on this, see Baal HaSulam’s articles “The Revelation of Godliness (Matan Torah)” and “The Arvut.”

On the other hand, the process of individualizing morals continues. In other words, the society delegates the right to decide what’s right and wrong to individuals. If these individuals are Kabbalists – those who have already attained “the future of humanity,” then they can be trusted, but those who “don’t live in the world of tomorrow” must not be trusted under any circumstances. They will be wrong, as they always are, because they are governed by their egoism.

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A question I received: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations stated that “The world only needs 30 billion dollars a year to eradicate the scourge of hunger.” Yet 700 billion dollars have been allotted to solving the credit crisis. We easily found 700 billion dollars to cover the financial crisis, but we can’t find 30 billion to solve the problem of worldwide hunger. Why is that?

My Answer: Obviously, the bankers feel that their problems are more important. But may I ask: How did the UN distribute their funds in the past? Why didn’t they help fight the problem of worldwide hunger, or at least to improve it?

The fact is that you can’t feed the world this way! People shouldn’t go against the Creator (Nature). The only thing that needs correction is human nature, and if it is corrected, there will be plenty of everything for everyone!

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A question I received: The great Kabbalist Baal HaSulam calls upon people to not violate the laws of nature, as if laws of nature are like traffic rules where a person can cross the street in the wrong place or drive onto an oncoming lane. For example, humanity has been violating the law of gravity since the times of the Wright brothers. Nonetheless, this law is still in effect; we simply go around it. And so what?

Is it possible to make a list of nature’s laws, or are they known only to Kabbalists?

My Answer: Every time man violates the laws of nature, his actions evoke a negative influence upon him, to the point of death. The law of behavior in the global community did not manifest as a law of nature until our times, but it is now starting to manifest because we are now entering the final phase of our development, the level of “human,” whereas before we were going through lower levels called still, vegetative, and animate.

The laws of nature are stricter than traffic laws because nature has no pity and demands the “exact payment.” We cannot go around the laws of nature, but we can study them and learn to use them correctly. Globalization obliges us to unite in order to match the governing forces of nature. If we will do this, then we will be using the laws of nature to our advantage. But if we won’t act as a global community, then we’ll crash like the poorly constructed original airplanes, until we learn how to use the laws of nature correctly!

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News Report (from The UK in the USA): The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown, believes that the global financial crisis can become a catalyst for the creation of a new global society, one that is united through shared aspirations. He is calling upon all the world leaders to start laying the foundations for the new global order.

In his annual foreign policy speech to the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “Historians will look back and say this was no ordinary time but a defining moment: an unprecedented period of global change, a time when one chapter ended and another began – for nations; for continents; for the whole world.”

My Comment: This shows us how suffering helps people to understand the things taking place. However, it’s also possible for everything to happen without the suffering, through conscious understanding of the world’s development. Then we would strive toward a good future ourselves, with a sensation of comfort, by anticipating a bright future instead of being “pushed to happiness” by the blows of nature.

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A question I received: Lately I need to listen to the lessons and read materials on Kabbalah just like I need to eat and drink. Every day I feel as though I just cannot go on if I don’t do it. When I study, I feel great for the rest of the day. But then when evening comes, I have to study some more, or otherwise I will feel like I’ve lost something. What is going on? Is this to my advantage or do I have to overcome these feelings?

My Answer: We were created in this world in order to reveal the Upper World while living in this world, and then we will exist in both worlds as one. Hence, according to Nature’s plan, we must devote all of our free time (free from acquiring the necessary things for existence) to the revelation of the second part of our existence – the Upper World. We must enter the Upper World before our physical bodies die, and then continue to exist there even after our bodies die. If we don’t do this in time, then we will continue the revelation of the second, concealed part of our life in the next life cycle.

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A question I received: What is ”The New Society” written by Rav Ashlag? This is almost word for word the Communist Manifesto:

1. The acceptance of the religion of “love thy neighbor as thyself” (meaning the religion is “love thy neighbor as thyself”!).
2. A just distribution of the profits, so that each works according to his skills and receives according to his needs.
3. Private property exists, but its owner must not profit from it more than he really needs.
4. Property owners will be under public supervision, or under self-trusteeship, or through bookkeeping.
5. The unemployed will receive their needs equally with the employed.
6. Profits will be utilized for building public assets.

Question: Why does Kabbalah preach Communism when it has been proven that it does not work?

My Answer:
1. “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is the general law of nature, since nature is a single organism.
2. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” is the law by which any interconnected system operates.
3. The owner benefits from realizing himself for the sake of the society because he receives respect and dignity.
4. He remains under the supervision of society until he rises to a degree above his egoism in every respect.
5. Those who are unemployed for reasons that are not in their control will receive the same as everyone else.
6. All the profits, except those necessary for every person to live, are collective and will be used for the benefit of the entire system.

The difference between this and the Soviet structure is that every person receives the Upper Reward for the common unity – adhesion with the Creator, an eternal and perfect existence! This is the reason why people will observe the commandment of “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” with everything it implies.

However, humanity will come to these conditions gradually and willingly, not by force. That’s because the revelation of the concealed world gives people the strength and the desire to exist in it!

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