Entries in the 'time' Category

As A Result Of The Crisis, Only The Necessities Will Remain

g201In the News (from AFP): Japan’s Sony Corp. said Tuesday that it was cutting more than 8,000 jobs worldwide and shutting plants as part of an overhaul of its business to cope with the global economic downturn. The electronics giant said it would axe about 10 percent of its manufacturing sites, cut investment in its electronics business by about 30 percent.

My Comment: Only the necessities will remain!

In the News (from The Daily Telegraph): Pubs are closing at a record rate, with six closing every day because of the economic downturn. The British Beer & Pub Association says that 39 pubs a week are closing in Britain, a rate 20 times faster than three years ago. It is estimated that 44,000 jobs in pubs and bars have been lost in the past couple of years and that 60,000 more jobs will go shortly.

My Comment: Could anyone imagine this happening?! Truly, the world will be different…

In the News (translated from Newsland.ru):Will the crisis turn women into wives and mothers?” Being mother and wife is the only worthwhile way for a woman to realize herself. Most women toil in order to earn a salary, but not for self-actualization. Meanwhile their children grow up lacking a mother’s attention and develop inferiority complexes. However, the crisis is forcing women to return home.

My Comment: Kabbalah views the crisis as correction. The disappearance of excess will help us to better prioritize life and its values.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah’s Solution to the Financial Crisis Differs from the Common Sense Solution
Laitman.com Post: When Freefalling, Make Sure You Have a Parachute That Says “Kabbalah”

New Scientific Discovery: The Universe Is A Giant Hologram

The Reshimot Surfacing Today Demand Spiritual Ascent of All HumanityIn the News (from The New Scientist): According to physicist Craig Hogan, GEO600 [a detector of gravitational waves] has stumbled upon the fundamental limit of space-time – the point where space-time stops behaving like the smooth continuum Einstein described and instead dissolves into “grains.”

If this doesn’t blow your socks off, then Hogan has an even bigger shock in store: “If the GEO600 result is what I suspect it is, then we are all living in a giant cosmic hologram.” … Our everyday experience might itself be a holographic projection of physical processes that take place on a distant, 2D surface.

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, “The particular and the general are equal as two drops of water.” Everything consists of ten Sefirot, which in turn divide into an infinite number of parts, each of which repeats the same structure of ten Sefirot. This was even described by Abraham in his book, The Book of Creation (Sefer Yetzira), where he writes: “Ten Sefirot: Ten and not nine, ten and not eleven.” It’s the same in all parts and in the entire creation.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Speaks Only About How Man Can Attain the Creator
Laitman.com Post: Quantum Physics: A Journey to Flatland
Laitman.com Post: We Are In the Center of All the Worlds
“Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot”

The Global Crisis Strengthens The Connections Between People

drugsIn the News (from World News): “Divorces are down because of economy” The recession and economic turmoil are creating a new class of casualties: married couples who can’t afford to get divorced. In these tough times, many people are finding it’s cheaper to stay together, even when they can’t stand each other.

My Comment: Similarly, the nations of the world will also realize that it’s necessary to stay connected. And then they will realize that any connection yields such benefits that even if they have the option of separating, they never will!

In the News (from Pew Research Center):Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Outlet” The Internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as an outlet for national and international news. For the first time, more people say they rely mostly on the Internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). For young people, the Internet now rivals television as a main source of national and international news.

My Comment: People want a multi-faceted, interactive connection rather than one-sided information. The Internet makes it easier to uncover the lies that pervade all the mass media, because the users create a multi-polar source of information and commentary. When technology will enable television to be broadcast on the Internet, all other news outlets will disappear.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Let’s Start Seeing the Crisis for What It Really Is
Laitman.com Post: Why More People Trust Online News
Kabbalah Today Article: Floating In A Sea of Information
Kabbalah Today Article: Are You Connected?

The UN Perpetuates The Israeli Palestinian Conflict

MeetingIn the News (from The Wall Street Journal):Ending the West’s Proxy War Against Israel” The reason for Gaza’s endless youth bulge is that a large majority of its population does not have to provide for its offspring. Most babies are fed, clothed, vaccinated and educated by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. …Many of Gaza’s young – like in much of the Muslim world – dream of leaving anyway. Who would not want to get out of that strip of land but the international NGOs and social workers whose careers depend on perpetuating Gaza’s misery?

My Comment: On the one hand, there is all of the above mentioned, and on the other hand, they instigate Hamas and Iran. And this is how they create the problem of the Palestinian nation. But there is hope:

In the News (from Asia Times):The failed Muslim states to come” The present [financial] crisis is leaving the economies of the largest Muslim countries in ruins. …Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad controls Iran through a kleptocracy … What will Ahmadinejad do now that the oil price has collapsed? Despite the oil-price collapse, the government has not reduced energy subsidies [worth] more than a fifth of gross domestic product (GDP). Iran is eating through its $60 billion of foreign exchange reserves, unable to adjust to a collapse of its only significant revenue source.

My Comment: The crisis will force us to stop sustaining the UN, and then the UN’s “charity” will come to an end. The emissaries who line their own pockets will disappear, and so will the Palestinian problem, which they created for their own enrichment.

Additional Comment: There are many similar examples of how people “intelligently” destroy other people in order to make money. For example, up to 40% of the medications being distributed are inactive or even harmful. This fraud, perpetuated by those who sell us medicine that either doesn’t work or harms us, will only stop once they are reeducated. Basically, the crisis is our only hope!

Latest News: (from MyFreeze): British government ministers on Saturday criticized the BBC for refusing to show a charity fundraising appeal for Palestinians in the war-hit Gaza strip. The national broadcaster said BBC had rejected the ad because showing it might harm the BBC‘s reputation for impartiality and because it could not be sure humanitarian aid would reach the needy in the chaotic territory.

Britain’s main private broadcasters also turned down the ad.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The UN – a Stronghold of Anti-Semitism
Laitman.com Post: Charity, Nobility and Other Superficial Measures Won’t Help Us Cope With the Crisis
Laitman.com Post: Money Is at the Core of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict
Laitman.com Post: The Gaza Conflict Is One More Step Toward Revealing Man’s Evil Nature

Why More People Trust Online News

From Our World, to the Virtual World, to the Upper WorldIn the News: (from TNS): Online news is ‘highly trusted’ by two fifths (40%) of those polled” Online news seems to be globally widespread with an average of two fifths (40%) across all 16 countries in the report trusting online news, while traditional press is decreasing (39%). 10% of respondents trust blogs, Wikipedia (24%) is as highly trusted as newspapers.

My Comment: In the future, as we will try to minimize our actions and expenses, the printing industry, including books, will become replaced by the electronic industry. The informational sectors of the Internet, such as Wikipedia, will become more objective and will gain people’s trust. But for the time being they are ruled by egoism, envy, competition and prejudice.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: From Our World, to the Virtual World, to the Upper World
Laitman.com Post: the Internet In a Time of Global Crisis
Laitman.com Post: Interview with the Future

Darwin’s Theory No Longer Works In Our Times

longerA question I received: You are a scientist, Kabbalist, philosopher, and practice religious observances, but your explanations of evolution are unclear. Do you agree with Darwin’s theory?

My Answer: According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, one of nature’s principles is, “the fittest survives.” However, this theory worked only during the initial stage of life’s development, when the simplest organisms were developing and before they began to unite into complex bodies and distribute the functions between separate organs in a body.

Darwin’s theory can justify any method of enslavement, exploitation, and extermination, which are all done to provide maximal enrichment and safety for specific individuals. This principle justifies our actions when we wage a battle against everyone else, and when we wage a battle against Nature, taking away everything we possibly can from It, draining It of all the natural resources.

Today we find ourselves globally and integrally connected and interdependent, and we cannot continue to behave “according to Darwin,” in a battle for survival. Just like the biological forms of life, humanity has already gone through the stage of the egoistic battle for survival, and now – when it has revealed its interdependence, it must recognize the need for everyone to unite into one whole. And this no longer happens according to Darwin!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: There’s No Going Backwards In Evolution
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The Open Book: View on Evolution from the Perspective of Kabbalah
Basic Concepts in Kabbalah: Chapter 4. Perfection and the World

The Solution To The Global Crisis Cannot Be Found Without Kabbalah

withoutA question I received: You used to participate in many international conferences, but then you stopped. Why? Isn’t this a good way to disseminate Kabbalah? How can you give it up?

My Answer: We are facing global problems: a disruption of the climate, mass starvation, epidemic outbreaks, the threat of nuclear wars, fights over oil and water, religious wars and terrorism, environment pollution, and so on. In other words, the crisis is becoming so inclusive that we cannot afford to keep ignoring it. We are obligated to change the situation before we’ll have to start “solving it” with dramatic military measures.

The way out of the crisis is much simpler than we think. Initially I thought that it would be possible to gather scientists such as sociologists, politicians, businessmen, economists and other renowned people who feel responsible for what is happening in the world. I thought these people could come together in a big Forum that would solve the current problem, and in general, this Forum would have to work all the time.

However, the problem is that eventually all the participants will have to reach the conclusion that science does not understand the true solution nor does it have the means to implement it! And in so doing, they would have to negate their own importance. But people’s personal egoism does not yet allow them to overcome it. The suffering is still insufficient and people’s desires for fame and glory are still too great.

This is why I stopped participating in different international gatherings (such as in Arosa, Switzerland; Tokyo, Japan; Dusseldorf, Germany; Monterrey, Mexico, and so on). I also saw that I cannot speak as a representative of Kabbalah at these forums, because by speaking as a Kabbalist, I repel the scientists from this idea even before they can comprehend its essence. People’s preconceived notions and incorrect views of Kabbalah are still too great.

I hope that the widest dissemination of the Kabbalistic idea, specifically through the masses, through the environment that surrounds every person, will gradually cause people’s attitudes to Kabbalah to change. They will realize that Kabbalah is the initial, ancient source of all sciences and philosophies. Without revealing the fact that the solution comes from Kabbalah, we won’t be able to explain the solution to the crisis correctly and fully.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Crisis Is a Step Toward Eternal Harmony

Ecologists Should Take A Kabbalah Course To Learn About Nature

The Machsom Can Be Crossed Individually and as a GroupIn the News (from Associated Press): Removing cats to protect birds backfires on island” It seemed like a good idea at the time: Remove all the feral cats from a famous Australian island to save the native seabirds. But the decision to eradicate the felines from Macquarie Island allowed the rabbit population to explode and, in turn, destroy much of its fragile vegetation that birds depend on for cover… Removing the cats from Macquarie “caused environmental devastation” that will cost authorities 24 million Australian dollars ($16.2 million) to remedy… They have targeted dozens of islands over the past few decades with mixed success.

My Comment: Ecologists need to take a Kabbalah course in order to learn how to implement correct projects within a closed, harmonious ecosystem.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Financial Crisis Pales In Comparison to the Looming Ecological Crisis
From Chaos to Harmony: Chapter 10 “Balance With Nature”

Charity, Nobility And Other Superficial Measures Won’t Help Us Cope With the Crisis

charityA question I received: The Vice–President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs said the following about the outcome of the financial crisis, “You can’t run away from the crisis. The world today is globalized, so it’s stupid to suppose that in the great ocean of instability, there are islands of prosperity that remain. First of all, people have to reduce ‘show-off spending.’ Over the last one hundred years, Americans have developed the notion of ‘noble behavior during a crisis,’ which includes charity.”

My Comment: This is not enough. What we need is a complete overhaul of human consciousness and attitude toward self, the world, and the Creator. Nobility and charity cannot correct anything.

Gradually the world is gaining a recognition of the “non-earthly” tasks it must now resolve, and people will then discover the method of solving them, Kabbalah. But for the time being the world is still comforted by thinking that it’s possible to go back to the past by making superficial changes.

Here is what Martin Wolf wrote in The Financial Times: Choices made in 2009 will shape the globe’s destiny” Welcome to 2009. This is a year in which the fate of the world economy will be determined, maybe for generations. Some entertain hopes that we can restore the globally unbalanced economic growth of the middle years of this decade. They are wrong. Our choice is only over what will replace it.

It is between a better balanced world economy and disintegration. That choice cannot be postponed. It must be made this year. We are in the grip of the most significant global financial crisis for seven decades. As a result, the world has run out of creditworthy, large-scale, willing private borrowers. The alternative of relying on vast US fiscal deficits and expansion of central bank credit is a temporary – albeit necessary – expedient. But it will not deliver a durable return to growth.

Fundamental changes are needed.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Global Crisis Brings the End of Glamour
Laitman.com Post: Wishes for the New Year – 2009
Kabbalah Today Article: What Happened?
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Baal HaSulam Article: “Peace in the World”

The Great Sages Of The Past

Dr. Michael LaitmanThree questions I received on the great sages of the past:

Question: You quote writings from sages other than just Baal HaSulam, Rabash, and Ari, although Bnei Baruch’s teachings are founded upon these. Is it permitted to study other sages’ works beside those three? Are there any sages whose writings should not be studied?

My Answer: Before Shelah (Isaiah ben Avraham Ha-Levi Horowitz, also known as Shelah HaKadosh – the Holy Shelah, 1565 – 1630), all Teachers and authors of books were great Kabbalists, but not so after him. However, you won’t be able to understand any of the books by any author from any period, except the books of Baal Hasulam, Rabash and myself. Go ahead and try it! But be careful of wasting your time.

Question: Was Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (Rambam) a Kabbalist?

My Answer: Yes, he was a great Kabbalaist.

Question: Tradition says that Moses is the author of the Torah, the book where his own death was described in advance, and that the Jews were given the book containing a description of their future as well. Do you have any rational explanation of how it was possible that Moses and the Jews could get the book with a detailed description of far reaching future events, so they were able to know their destiny, but were not able to change anything about it!?

My Answer: It is written that Moses was writing the Torah while the events unfolded in the desert during their 40 year long journey. The Torah describes only those events, allegorically telling us about what happens inside a person during his correction. And because “the particular and the general are equal,” as both consist of ten Sefirot, we can also read what is written as a description of all humanity’s development.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Shamati – The Most Valuable Book In the World
Kabbalah: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
The Open Book: “About the World”
Baal HaSulam: “Introduction to the Book of Zohar, Item 68″