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.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Crisis Will Make Everyone Kind
Laitman.com Post: The Crisis Won’t Be Solved by Protests, Nazism or “Waiting It Out”
Laitman.com Post: Will Countries Be Able to Work Together to Save the World from the Crisis?

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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.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Preparations for the 2009 International Kabbalah Congress

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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.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What the Global Education System Should Teach People
Laitman.com Post: The Crisis Will Turn Advertising Into Education
Laitman.com Post: The Media Must Help Turn Our World Into a Giant Classroom

Filed under: Crisis - 2 Comments →

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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In the News (from The Wall Street Journal): “His Empire in Tatters, German Billionaire Takes Life” Adolf Merckle, one of Germany’s wealthiest men, committed suicide. Mr. Merckle’s body was discovered Monday night near train tracks… In a rare interview last month, Mr. Merckle told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung he had survived “many so-called stock-market crashes” but that he “couldn’t calculate a banking and financial crisis of this dimension.”

My Comment: He’s right: there’s never been a crisis like this in all of human history, because the current crisis is “qualitative.” It was caused by the human society’s opposition to Nature. Society has become global and interconnected like a “small village” where everyone is completely interdependent (“the Butterfly Effect”). However, our mutual egoistic hatred destroys all the connections. The effect of broken connections in a single system manifests as a crisis in the system – a crisis in all areas of our activity.

The crisis will not end until we find a solution – a way to be together, united by bonds of bestowal and love. This is what is required of us by the system that we have found ourselves in. We cannot escape these closed connections. We will have to observe the rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We can do this through suffering (as we always have) or by realizing that it’s necessary (the method of Kabbalah). The choice is ours.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: People Don’t Realize That We Are Living In a New World
A Conversation about the World Crisis
Article: “The Law of Love”
Kabbalah for the Student: “What Does Love Thy Friend As Thyself Give Us?”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Introduction to the Book, The Tree of Life”, Item 4

Filed under: Crisis - 1 Comment →

A question I received: I am non Jewish, and I have been studying Kabbalah for several years. I am considering the path of conversion. However, I am trying to find information on the concept of Chasid Omot Olam. All I know is that this is a non Jewish person who lives his life according to the precepts and the cause of spreading Kabbalah. Is this correct? How can I find more information on this concept?

My Answer: There’s no need to convert. You have to correct yourself to “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and today this is required of all people. Nationalities and religions will vanish, and our world will disappear from our perception. The only thing that will remain is the one common soul, united with the Creator in the state of the World of Infinity, just as it was at the beginning of creation. Read the section about the three states in Baal HaSulam’s article, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah’s Model of a New World
Lecture: “Unconditional Love”
Talk: Perception of Reality
Lesson on Shamati #140: “How I Love Thy Law”

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In the News (from The New York Times): “In Effort to Build Support, Obama Details Stimulus Plan” The White House envisions using loan guarantees and other financial support to leverage $100 billion in private sector investment in so-called clean energy projects over three years. The plan would help 8.5 million Americans keep health care coverage by providing workers who lose insurance with tax credits to pay for continuing coverage… The plan would modernize 10,000 schools, improve security at 90 ports and build 1,300 wastewater projects. It would bolster Pell Grants to help seven million students and offer a new tax credit for four million college students. And it would increase food stamp benefits for 30 million Americans and increase Social Security benefits $450 for 7.5 million disabled and elderly people…

In his speech, Mr. Obama said he knew that some worried about the size of his plan, “We won’t just throw money at our problems; we’ll invest in what works.”

My Comment: Investment alone will not work! What’s needed is a gradual change of the social consciousness, making it planetary, global, and integral. It must approach the rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which is the condition of the global world’s existence.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Obama Will Have to Change Along With Life
Laitman.com Post: Obama’s New Energy Policy a Good Step
Laitman.com Post: In His Holiday Greeting, President-elect Obama Speaks of Unity

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In the News (translated from Lenta.ru): A hotline offering emergency psychological help for people affected by the global financial crisis is now operating in Moscow. People can receive free consultation from a certified psychiatrist over the phone. The phone calls will be answered by specialists from the national center of social and forensic psychiatry.

My Comment: In addition, there should be a “hotline” that will disseminate the global (anti-crisis) education for the whole world. Instead of just offering people consolation, it will explain that this problem is shared by all humanity, and that the transition from disconnection to unity is embedded in the foundation of Nature. We must go through it, either under Nature’s pressure (via the path of suffering) or consciously (by using Kabbalah). Moreover, we have to come out of the problem together. Then it will be easy, because it will happen in harmony with Nature’s movement, rather than by isolating ourselves and being opposed to each other.

You can start doing this on your own, without waiting for it to happen: just by thinking about everyone and about our common connection, while studying our materials (available free of charge online), you will not only feel more relaxed, but also cause an improvement in the world, as this will bring us closer to balance with Nature. As a result, it will improve people’s health and well-being.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Family Gives Us Consolation from the Worries of the Big World

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In 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

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Questions I received on smoking, evil, hell, and great desires:

Question: Does smoking interfere with spiritual development and the study of Kabbalah?

My Answer: No.

Question: Is the existence of Kabbalah related to the existence of evil?

My Answer: Kabbalah was given to us in order to transform evil to goodness.

Question: How can you explain it when a person desires to absorb everything that exists and constantly strives to feel the Creator?

My Answer: He is aspiring to the goal of creation!

Question: Is there a belief in Kabbalah that one who blasphemes God can go to hell after death?

My Answer: Hell is shame that “burns you up.” Everyone has to go through it in order to reach Heaven – the feeling of similarity to the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Commandments Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen”
Rav Michael Laitman’s Interview with Writer Edward Topol
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: “The Evil Inclination”
A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: “At the Top of the Ladder”
Lesson on the Article: “Attaining the Unity of the Universe”

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