News Report (from the International Herald Tribune): “The chance for a new world order” by Henry A. Kissinger The very unsettled nature of the international system generates a unique opportunity for creative diplomacy. … Every country will have to redefine its national priorities. An international order will emerge if a system of compatible priorities comes into being.

My Comment: Compatibility is being imposed on us by the very nature of the crisis. We have to stop picking fights with each other, like little kids. We must realize that we are faced with the question of mankind’s survival.

There is just one answer: for everyone to unite in one system, on equal terms; to be as one body or one family in order to attain balance with nature. This is the only priority, and we shouldn’t try to invent any other. Learn from nature!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Classical Wisdom of Kabbalah and the Evolution of the Urgently Needed Planetary Consciousness

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News Report (from Physorg): “Reverse evolution in real-time” Evolutionary biology tells us that replaying life’s tape will not look at all like the original. Now, scientists provide the first quantitative genetic evidence of why this is so. In this study, to be published online this week in the journal Nature Genetics, scientists recreated natural selection in real-time, in the laboratory and provide the first quantitative evidence for natural selection on so-called standing genetic variation. The researchers used laboratory-grown populations of fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster)… some of the ‘reversed’ flies may be phenotypically identical to the ancestral flies, but they are genetically different.

My Comment: Creation descended from the highest level to the level of our world in order for man to consciously ascend – along with our entire world – back to the perfect level of bestowal, love, harmony, and balance. All movement is pre-programmed in advance, so as to advance only toward the final goal. This goal will necessarily be attained, and everything is moving along just one path.

However, man can either slow the process down or accelerate it. By doing the former, he evokes suffering and crises, and by the latter – abundance and comfort.

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News Report (translated from InoPressa): An Internet store is selling stale products for a third of the price. This is legal in Great Britain, and the number of people willing to consume expired goods just to save money is growing at an enormous rate.

My Comment: Why eat food that has expired!? We have to produce the exact amount of goods necessary, so we won’t have to destroy them. The crisis will teach us the best way to treat nature, life, and the integral system of nature and society. It will teach us to produce and consume only what is necessary for the body, and to direct all the “extra” energy toward bringing all of humanity to one level of bestowal and love, both physically and spiritually.

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Lesson on Fundamentals of Human Nature
Shamati #30: “The Most Important Is to Want Only to Bestow”

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News Report (from Reuters): “UK advertising budgets cut at record rates” British marketing budgets were revised sharply lower in the fourth quarter… The Bellwether Report said companies had cut back on spending after seeing their financial prospects deteriorate at a record pace. Hardest hit in the fourth quarter were main media advertising.

My Comment: Consumption will continue to decrease; there’s no going back to the rampant pursuit of excess. Besides, the essential goods don’t need any advertising.

What we do need to advertise is the correct global behavior and the explanation of the new interconnected world. In other words, we need educational advertising. This is what people will need, and therefore advertising will develop in this direction.

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News Report (translated from Utro.ru): Just as everywhere else in the world, one of the consequences of the financial crisis in Russia is the rise of unemployment rates. During the days of the holiday vacation, unemployment in Moscow increased by 100%. Moreover, experts from the Social Opinion fund report that the actual number of Russians who have recently lost their jobs exceeds official data by 5-6 times.

My Comment: The same thing is happening all over the world. We must produce only what is necessary for a normal existence, and distribute the work among many people. As for our free time, it must be filled with education: we must all learn how to live in balance with nature. This is something we have to learn, just as a small child has to be taught how to live in our world. Similarly, all of us – the entire humanity, must get down to studying. This is what the crisis is pushing us toward.

We have found ourselves on a different planet, one with different external qualities. On this planet, the only thoughts, decisions, desires and actions that will prove successful are those aimed at the common good!

Therefore, the television should create and broadcast educational programs or “classes” that everyone will have to take. And then everyone will have to take exams, just like when we were in school. The whole world must “take their seats in the classroom.” We must use all means of communication to teach people how to live in the new natural (altruistic) conditions. The sooner society begins to understand and actualize this, the sooner we will begin to feel that we are living in a world that’s bountiful, safe and comfortable. Kabbalah offers you the wisdom of how to exist in the new world.

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News Report (from Bloomberg): Barack Obama’s choice of a Nobel Prize-winning physicist as energy secretary will redefine the way policy is made… Obama plans to invest $150 billion in alternative energy technologies… In particular, how to store energy when the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining. Battery technology has to be improved, carbon sequestration has to be developed and cellulosic ethanol has to be made more affordable. …new nuclear and other power plants that would cut emissions of so-called greenhouse gases. “…He’s going to continue to keep an international portfolio, but the message this sends is we are going to have a science-driven, fact-driven energy policy…”

My Comment: Nature will pressure us to reduce our irrepressible demands to a level that’s necessary for a normal and optimal existence, without any excess. Hence, it’s a good idea to invest government capital into developing the above directions in science, technology, and industry. This will prove successful because it is harmonious with Nature. The criterion for success is balance with Nature.

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News Report (from WebWire): “A Crowded World: Researchers use computer scenarios to study crowd behavior in time and space” The scientists at the School of Geographical Sciences at Arizona State University have created a model of crowd behavior. Their results were as follows:

1. There is rapid exchange of nonverbal information in crowds

2. The actions of a single individual can shape the dynamics of an entire crowd

3. Individuals who would never ordinarily engage in anti-social behavior such as looting might do so anyway when associated with a riotous crowd; and, conversely, anti-social individuals may see their bad behavior checked by other members of a well-behaved crowd.

My Comment: The science of Kabbalah has been explaining the same laws of individual and social behavior for thousands of years. It explains these and many other laws, how to use them to benefit the individual without infringing on his freedom and while enabling him to develop harmoniously, and how to use these laws for the benefit of society in a way that avoids conflicts between the individual and the society. It explains how the two can come to an ideal coexistence, where individual gain is equal to social gain. This is possible if the importance of the individual is equal to the importance of society as a whole, by observing the law, “The general and the particular are equal.” This observance is possible when everyone is equal and interdependent, and every person strives only to fulfill the desire of the single whole, seeing this as his mission and receiving absolute fulfillment from it.

This is the state we exist in from the very beginning. It is called the “World of Infinity.” We must desire to ascend (morally) from our present state, called “this world,” to the level of the “World of Infinity.” This desire will draw onto us the Light (feeling) of bestowal and love, which fills us in the “World of Infinity” – and this Light will then correct us, giving us the quality of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This isn’t inconceivable. Even scientists now prove that an individual’s qualities can change instantly under the society’s influence. Therefore, everything depends on our decision to create the right influence over each and every one of us. Therein lies our freedom of will.

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Baal HaSulam: “Introduction to the Book of Zohar, Item 68”

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Today, I discussed the role of women and children at the upcoming Congress.

Read a transcript of the first part – “Children at the Congress”

Read a transcript of the second part – “Women at the Congress”

In addition, I had a conversation about how children all over the world should prepare for the Congress. Speaking with me was Gila Itsekson, coordinator of the children’s groups worldwide.

Read a transcript of the conversation

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News Report: An article that appeared in today’s The New York Times, called, “2 Years After Campaign Began, a Different World,” shows how different the world was when Obama became the Presidential candidate in February of 2007. It was before the economic crisis, and the situation in Iraq and the Middle East was just beginning. The article poses the question, “While the world has changed, has Mr. Obama changed along with it?”

My Comment: Life will force him to change. However, I wish for him to go through the change as quickly as possible – after all, he is the Creator’s angel.

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News Report (from Marketwire): “Global Economic Meltdown: Systemic Shock” The present economic crisis is systemic and global. Consumer optimism has dipped across the globe, leaving no region untouched… Emerging Markets – heretofore stalwart guardians of global consumer confidence – have shown a precipitous decline in optimism as well. Case in point is China, registering a 42% decline in optimism from 2007 to 2008… In response to the crisis, a super-majority of the world’s consumers have already made cuts to their family budgets.

My Comment: Because some politicians don’t understand the fact that our world has become integral (one interconnected system), they say that “the crisis is happening over there, not over here.” Indeed, the world has become a single whole, and hence, regardless of any country’s level of development (whether economic, industrial, or other), anything that transpires in any part of the world will now reverberate everywhere. In addition, we can’t even tell how powerfully this will happen in different places, because we don’t know the true structure of each country and nation in the general system of souls.

The crisis began with something that is a common, unifying factor for all of us – money. However, we will soon discover that we are completely interdependent in all other respects as well! There’s only one piece of advice to give to anyone, from governments to average citizens: don’t do anything that’s against others, lower your pride, give in, and help others. At the very least, these actions are contrary to the crisis.

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