News Report (from Federal Highway Administration): “Nearly 10 Billion Fewer Miles Driven in May 2008 than May 2007” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters said that Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) in May 2008 than in May 2007, according to the Federal Highway Administration data. … This continues a seven-month trend that amounts to 40.5 billion fewer miles traveled between November 2007 and May 2008 than the same period a year before, she said.

My Comment: This will not only put an end to a completely excessive production, but will also help clean up the atmosphere. This is one example of nature using alternative methods to force man to become an ecologically integral part of it.

News Report (from The Wall Street Journal): “An Ode to Oil” by Roger Howard: While there are, of course, circumstances in which oil can exacerbate tensions and be a source of conflict, it can also act as a peacemaker and source of stability. … Leonid Fedun, a top official at Lukoil, Russia’s No. 2 oil producer, admitted … that “the period of intense oil production [growth] is over.” Without foreign money and expertise to extract offshore oil and prolong the lifespan of existing wells, Russian production will fall dramatically.

My Comment: And that’s how we get operation “forcing peace” – through oil! The Russian economy is based on oil production, and from now on it will be dependent on foreign investments and technologies. This will force Russia to make peace with other nations.

News Report (from The Economist): According to Google’s annual list of popular search terms, even in these times of economic crisis, people are most concerned with working out what love is.

My Comment: This shows the truth of the verse, “Love and hunger rule the world.” The forces of nature (Reshimot and the Light) acting within us will force us, in accordance with nature’s plan, to ascend from the animate love and hunger to the spiritual ones: hunger for unification, and fulfillment by the common Light of love.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Who Will Be Most Affected by the Economic Crisis?
Laitman.com Post: Oil Instead of Bread
Baal HaSulam Article: The Peace
Kabbalah Today Article: “Love Is the Way”

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News Report (from dp.ru): The famous Russian TV reporter, M. Leontiev, believes that the only solution to the crisis is a global war.

My Comment: This is not a solution, but a way to get into another life cycle that will be much worse than this one! Mr. Leontiev should imagine that tomorrow he will be born into a hungry family in Africa, for example…

News Report (translated from utro.ru): The President of the Russian Federation, Medvedev, stated that politicians have to learn to listen to each other and to make decisions. This is the way to minimize the current financial crisis.

My Comment: Mr. Medvedev is right, if what he means is that only the true, altruistic, mutual understanding will soften our fate.

News Report (from The Telegraph and FOX News): Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, said: “This crisis is one of … the series of American economic hemorrhages after the strikes of September 11… The ones shouldering the burden are taxpayers, whose money was spent to rescue senior capitalists and to protect the fraudulent interest-based system from collapse.”

Al-Zawahri called on Americans to convert to Islam: “To the American people and the people of the West in general … God sent his Prophet Muhammad with guidance and the religion of truth… ”

My Comment: One would think that Ayman al-Zawahiri himself sets an excellent example of a virtuous life – an example worthy of imitating… Still, I am sure that his appeal is sincere!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Financial Crisis May Trigger a World War
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An e-mail I received on December 18, 2008: I am writing to you because I am desperate, even though I feel extremely guilty for taking up your time. I have been deeply depressed for a long time, and the only other thing I ever feel is a lack of desire to live and emptiness. I don’t feel anything else.

I listen to the lessons every day, but even when I suddenly hear and understand something, it instantly disappears before I can even remember or feel it. I participate in the Bnei Baruch dissemination projects, but it doesn’t give me strength. I am rapidly falling. Everyone is thinking about the crisis and how to come out of it, but I can’t even come out of myself. All I can feel is unbearable pain and resentment. I don’t know what to do. Please reply to me on your blog!

My Answer: The two forces acting in creation are the Light and the desire; everything that exists is comprised only out of these two. They interact in such a way that sometimes the Light dominates, and sometimes the desire. We sense this alternation between them as the contrast of joy / fulfillment and bitterness / emptiness.

Since you cannot come out of your depression, my advice to you is to delve into it even more than it really is: artificially push yourself into even greater self-denigration, feelings of anger, resentment and guilt. This way, by pushing yourself down with all your might, you will take control over the depression, and you will then discover just how artificial all your sensations are, how much they depend on your subjective outlook. And then, from the bottom of your descent, you will feel joy and Light!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Only Point of Freedom Is Your Reaction to the Creator
Laitman.com Post: The Path of Light Versus the Path of Suffering
Laitman.com Post: Learning to Understand the Creator Is the Key to Happiness

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Two questions I received on people who want to harm us:

Question: What is your interpretation of praying for your enemies? Our Rabbi put in two words at the end of our service, “and Ishmael,” and I was extremely upset. Is this part of “love your fellowmen as yourself”? And how can I pray for someone who has vowed our destruction?

My Answer: You should pray for them to stop wishing to conquer or destroy everyone who is “wrong,” because the infinite and eternal Upper World isn’t attained through violence, but through love for everyone.

Question: You said in a previous blog post that “Any person can harm your spiritual path with his thoughts and desires, even unintentionally.” Does that mean only among the points in the hearts in the spiritual world? Or are we talking in the world of “beasts,” in the corporeal world as well?

My Answer: There is one world, but in our consciousness it divides into the part that’s revealed to us and the part that’s concealed from us. We influence both parts as one whole.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Is It Possible To Love Everyone?
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Two questions I received on the after-effects of the financial crisis:

Question: If we don’t attain correction, will the coming blows correspond to creation’s stages of development? We are currently witnessing a financial crisis. Does this mean that the next crisis will happen on the vegetative level, and so on?

My Answer: Certainly, the crises will become more and more intense, qualitatively speaking.

Question: The Top Heavy Corporate Greed is a major contributing factor to the financial problem. How can any business or country operate efficiently when capitalistic greed and ego is the primary driving force? What will happen to these individuals when they can no longer receive their Million Dollar per year salaries and yet they’ll try to continue with that life style?

My Answer: They will realize that they were never really fulfilled, but only had the illusion of fulfillment. They will then turn to the Source of the true, eternal and perfect fulfillment, first out of necessity, driven by suffering, and afterwards – through sensing harmony and infinite delight.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Little Prince Explains the Financial Crisis
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News Report (translated from chaskor.ru): The concept of ecovillages has gained popularity because people are hoping to escape the trap of civilization that has cornered them. Only yesterday such communities seemed extremist and sectarian, but today they’re regarded as a way to survive the global crisis, which is turning into global chaos. In addition, it’s easier to survive a crisis in a commune.

My Comment: Separating from the global civilization to save one’s own neck will bring any commune to a terrible crisis – one that’s greater than in the rest of the world. It’s because a commune will isolate itself from everyone in order to survive on its own, and this goes against unification, globalization, and Nature’s plan to unite everyone. These aren’t eco-villages, they’re EGO-villages!

News Report (from World Net Daily): …the U.S. is moving closer to a Nazi-style totalitarianism, warns a former German member of the Hitler Youth in a new book. “Every day brings this nation closer to a Nazi-style totalitarian abyss,” writes Hilmar von Campe…

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, if we’re not moving toward global integration, then we’re moving toward mutual isolation and the emergence of Nazi regimes in the developed countries.

News Report (from National Post): More singles are turning to the Internet as a cheap, convenient way to find love during trying economic times. A poll by Opinion Research Corp. found that 57% of Americans said the credit crunch made them worry about their love lives… similar surveys in Australia and Britain came up with the same results.

My Comment: Suffering and fear are showing us just how fragile we are and how much we need the support of the environment. We were created as social creatures and we have to create a friendly and supportive society around us. And if we don’t want to, nature will force us to. Then we’ll want it and therefore build such a society!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Reflections on the Crisis
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Kabbalah Today Article: The Divine Conspiracy

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A question I received: Why does the Torah justify Jacob when he lies to Esau? Esau comes to Jacob with open arms, yet Jacob turns away from him and tries to buy himself off with gifts.

My Answer: The Torah speaks about a person’s correction, whereby he becomes similar to the Creator. Jacob represents the intention of bestowal and Esau represents the will to receive, our egoism. Esau doesn’t understand that he always remains empty because his intention is “for the sake of himself,” and that only by changing it to the intention of “for others” will he instantly be filled by the Upper, eternal fulfillment – the Light. This is something egoism doesn’t understand, and that’s why a person must trick his egoism. He has to entice the ego to work on spiritual development by telling it that it will avoid suffering and to be filled by spiritual fulfillment and revelation.

This way, one’s egoism helps one to study Kabbalah, because it expects fulfillment from it. It studies Lo Lishma – for the sake of oneself. However, in the process of studying, connecting with friends, and thereby receiving the Light of Correction, the person ceases valuing the intention “for himself” and instead starts valuing the intention “to bestow” – for the sake of others, for the sake of the Creator.

This happens by virtue of the Light’s influence. And when one’s intention changes, he can begin to use his egoism (Esau) in order to receive for the sake of bestowal. This is how one attains eternal, perfect fulfillment. This maneuver is similar to the way we trick or entice a child to study, and eventually he comes to understand that it was done for his own good. This is how the Creator plays with each and every one of us.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Preface to the Science of Kabbalah. Items 13-16
Laitman.com Post: The Only Point of Freedom Is Your Reaction to the Creator
Laitman.com Post: The Goal of Creation Is Perfect Fulfillment
Article: “One Law”
Lesson on “The Introduction to the Book ‘From the Mouth of a Wise Man'”
Shamati #20: “LISHMA (for Her Name)”

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Questions I received on interpreting Kabbalistic terms and phrases:

Question: What is Shechina?

My Answer: It is the desire to reveal the Creator, and if the desire is whole, then the Creator becomes revealed inside it. The Creator is called Shochen – one who fills this desire.

Question: What is the recognition of evil?

My Answer: It’s when you get to know you own egoism!

Question: Is suffering the same as falling behind in realizing the Reshimo?

My Answer: Yes!

Question: Can we envision humanity’s path of development as a ready-made, paved route from the point of “Adam” to the point of “the Creator”?

My Answer: That is absolutely correct!

Question: How are we to understand this verse: “Rabbi Shimon said: ‘Kill the best of the Egyptians, and split the head of the best snake’”?

My Answer: Egypt and the snake are your egoism.

Question: What is the Kabblistic meaning of the verse, “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk”?

My Answer: Don’t mix the developing egoism (the young goat) with bestowal (the quality of Bina, milk). If you do, not only will you fail to correct egoism, but you’ll make the egoism even bigger due to the quality of bestowal (Bina): you will get “bestowal for the sake of reception” instead of “reception for the sake of bestowal.”

Question: Can we say that the inanimate matter, plants, and animals are angels? They are like angels (spiritual forces that influence us) because they have no freedom of will.

My Answer: That’s right!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Why Do We Feel Suffering?
Laitman.com Post: Angels in Kabbalah
The Path of Kabbalah: “The Recognition of Evil”
Lesson on Shamati #2: “Divinity in Exile”
Foreword to the Book: “The Tree of Life”
Shamati #86: “And They Built Store-Cities”

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News Report (from the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center): Public opinion experts report that Russians have lost their optimism about the future. The turning point in their mood occurred in August-September. Before then, the optimistic contingent was on a steady increase, while the pessimists decreased in number. However, with the arrival of autumn, the trend took a 180 degree turn.

My Comment: And this is happening before the real crisis has even begun. The layoffs are only starting, and people still have savings and the inertia of the past. The real crisis will begin in January-February of 2009.

On the whole, people do not understand that they are already living in a different world – one that’s global, and whose laws they don’t know. These are the laws of the spiritual world that we aren’t following, which is why we are experiencing our discrepancy with them as a crisis. None of the previous methods to outlive or out wait (while stocking up on salt, matches and soap) will help us.

But perhaps we will suddenly wise up, and just by desiring to learn about the law of globalization (“Love thy neighbor as thyself”), we will cast all the evil away from us and draw closer to goodness.

News Report (from supportproject.eu): A recent study in six EU-countries found that problems such as depression, anxiety, phobias or alcohol dependence affected 11.5 % of their population. More people in the EU (almost 60,000 per year) die from suicide than traffic accidents.

My Comment: This is happening because a desire that’s above our world is surfacing in people. This desire is for something beyond the the corporeal things (food, sex, and family) as well as the social things (money, power, and knowledge). When a person has generally gone through these desires, a new desire emerges in him – a desire to receive the Light into the common desire of Adam. However, the only way to receive the Light into this desire is by restoring one’s unification with others, according to the rule, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Before we appeared in this world, we were united together and filled with the Upper Light. Then, our unification was disrupted (broken), and each us was left inside his individual desire and perception, wherein we perceive only a small luminescence called “our world.” When we reconnect with each another, we once again begin to perceive the common Light – the Upper World.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Reason for Our Suffering, and the Alternative Path
Laitman.com Post: What Would It Be Like To Live in a Perfect World?
Laitman.com Post: Countries Closest to Integration and Globalization Will Suffer Least from the Crisis

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Everything that was created, and everything taking place, is necessary for us to understand the Creator. If a person does not forget this, then he focuses on understanding how the Creator communicates with him through everything that’s happening inside him and outside him.

This is similar to how an infant learns to communicate with his mother. Have you ever noticed how intensely he looks at her, trying to understand what she is saying to him, trying to learn her language? It is precisely through the current crisis that we are given an opportunity to detect what the Creator is clearly trying to tell all of us.

In the past, He only communicated this way with select individuals. But today, all of humanity must start paying attention to the Creator’s actions. This is what we lack.

If the world would understand this, we would avoid all the unpleasant events taking place today, as well as those still in store for us. That’s because instead of fighting wind mills, we would communicate with the cause of it all – the Creator.

The faster we begin to discern the Creator’s communication with us through the things taking place, the sooner we will understand Him. We will then discover what it is we need to correct and change – and the world will be filled with Light.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Path of Light Versus the Path of Suffering
Laitman.com Post: A Kabbalist Feels the Same Pleasure As the Creator
Laitman.com Post: Preface to the Science of Kabbalah, Items 10-12

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