7.17.2015

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH EVIL IN THE WORLD NOW?



The first decade of the 21st century was dominated by terror and terrorists. No one man was responsible although the pre-eminent face was that of Osama bin Laden. The global jihad of terror struck from New York to New Delhi. The centre of the storm was South Asia, and the epicenter of the storm Pakistan. India was often ground zero.

Terrorism is on the rise, with an almost fivefold increase in fatalities since 9/11, in spite of US-led efforts to combat it in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world, according to a report published on Tuesday.

So we must ask ourselves, “why is there so much evil in the world now?”.

"In the (Jewish) year of 5760, the depths will rise up and flood the world, and there will remain the Land of Israel, which will be like the Ark of Noah." (Yalkut Shimoni)

"And the secret of the matter is that at the end of the year 5760 of creation, the verse from the Prophet Zecharya 13:2, 'I shall remove the impure spirit from the world,' will come to pass, and the verse in Leviticus 26:6: 'And I will abolish the evil animal from the world,' will be fulfilled. This refers to the removal of the forces of impurity, as mentioned in the Zohar." (Chesed l’Avraham)

Rabbi Yechiel Weitzman explains in his book The Ishmaelite Exile;

In short, at the time of “the footsteps of Moshiach”, evil will increase in the world and be readily apparent.  This is good news for the approaching redemption, for many will learn to identify it for what it is.  Then they will abandon it and improve themselves in the direction of absolute good.  Others, who also search for perfection in their way, will become more evil and will distance themselves completely from Judaism.
The conclusion to be arrived at from this idea is very clear.  In the introduction to this book, we dealt at length with the matter of Adam’s eating from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.  We explained that when he did this, he joined good with evil, which had until then been separate, thus bringing the evil inclinations inside man.  As a result of this, G-d decreed that man must die, and He set a period of six thousand years for rectification of the sin.  Only at the end of this period will good and evil again be separate.
However, to arrive at this point, good and evil must be separated in Creation itself.  As we have explained, this will come about through an intensification of evil so that it can be discernible in the world.  Then those who wish to can recognize it and distance themselves from it.
This is also linked to the coming of Moshiach, for when people’s choices are not clear, good and evil remain a mixture in the world, and the time is not yet ripe for Moshiach’s arrival.  But when good and evil are clearly distinct and separate from each other, redemption will arrive.

 “The Son of Dovid (i.e., Moshiach) will not come until the generation is either completely worthy or completely unworthy. (Sanhedrin 97b)”


One opinion is that this means, not that the whole generation will be completely worthy or unworthy, but that the generation will be divided into two groups one, completely worthy and the other, completely unworthy. 

Rabbi Weitzman continues;

In addition to this objective, there is another point in making good and evil clearly distinct from each other.  Hashem created the force of evil in the world so that man can realize his potential.  Just as physical activity leads to physical development only after difficult training that entails overcoming obstacles, so it is with spiritual development.  When man contends with various challenges that stand in his way, he becomes stronger.  It turns out , then, that the evil that exists in Creation actually serves as a means to attain goodness, for it is the cause of man’s putting forth effort to overcome it.  As a result of this effort man realizes his potential and rises to higher levels of goodness.

May Am Yisrael be worthy to greet the Mashiach.


7.08.2015

THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRASH; THE DAM IS ABOUT TO BURST

The Economy started it's downfall in 2008 it just hasn't hit bottom yet.  It is like a dam ready to burst. Whenever it sprouts a leak a patch is put in place but eventually there are too many holes and the whole thing bursts.  That is where we are now.


THE collapse of Lehman Brothers, a sprawling global bank, in September 2008 almost brought down the world’s financial system. It took huge taxpayer-financed bail-outs to shore up the industry. Even so, the ensuing credit crunch turned what was already a nasty downturn into the worst recession in 80 years. Massive monetary and fiscal stimulus prevented a buddy-can-you-spare-a-dime depression, but the recovery remains feeble compared with previous post-war upturns. GDP is still below its pre-crisis peak in many rich countries, especially in Europe, where the financial crisis has evolved into the euro crisis. The effects of the crash are still rippling through the world economy: witness the wobbles in financial markets as America’s Federal Reserve prepares to scale back its effort to pep up growth by buying bonds.


Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, a prominent student of the Great Depression, contends that the 2008 financial crisis was actually worse than its 1930s counterpart.Mr. Bernanke is quoted making the statement in a document filed on Aug. 22 with theU.S. Court of Federal Claims as part of a lawsuit linked to the 2008 government bailout of insurance giant American International Group Inc. “September and October of 2008 was the worst financial crisis in global history, including the Great Depression,” Mr. Bernanke is quoted as saying in the document filed with the court. Of the 13 “most important financial institutions in the United States, 12 were at risk of failure within a period of a week or two.”Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is quoted in the document offering a similarly apocalyptic assessment. From Sept. 6 through Sept. 22, the economy was essentially “in free fall,” he said.Starr International Co., a company run by AIG’s former chief executive, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, sued the U.S. government in 2011, seeking billions of dollars in damages over AIG’s rescue. Starr’s suit alleges that parts of the government’s $182 billion bailout and sale of AIG assets were unconstitutional.Asked why he thought it was essential for the government to rescue AIG, Bernanke said, “AIG’s demise would be a catastrophe” and “could have resulted in a 1930s-style global financial and economic meltdown, with catastrophic implications for production, income, and jobs.”




The European debt crisis is a multi-year debt crisis that has been taking place in several eurozone member states since the end of 2009.  Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Cyprus were unable to repay of refinance their government debt of to bail out over-indebted banks under their national supervision without the assistance of third parties like the EFSF, the ECB, or the IMF.