When the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression first broke out in August of 2008, many politicians and financiers in key positions emphasized the need for unity and cooperation. They voiced a need to restrain the egocentric frame of mind dominating Wall Street and expressed a fear of separatist and protectionist tendencies. Headlines such as The Economic Times’ “World Leaders Seek Unity to Fight Financial Crisis” [14] prevailed in newspapers all over the world, signaling a general willingness to unite and cooperate in the face of economic uncertainty.
At first glance, this spirit is understandable, if not called for. After all, the world’s financiers knew that their institutions were linked together so tightly that if one failed, the others would follow, and politicians were warned that if they did not bail out the banks in their countries, their own economies would collapse, precipitating a domino effect that would bring down the entire global economy.
However, in the face of a crisis, it is natural to do the opposite of uniting: close yourself off and protect what is yours. This seems like a safer route than joining forces with “foreigners,” especially when those foreigners may be regarded as culprits or, at least, contributors to the making of your plight.
Thus, America—the country generally regarded as the primary perpetrator of the outbreak and rapid escalation of the financial crisis—is not suffering from isolation, because the interconnectedness of the global economy compels economies such as China’s to buy dollars and thus provide sustenance to the American economy.
For politicians, it would seem more natural to put their own countries first, as with the British Corn Laws tariffs of the 19th century and President Hoover’s 1933 “Buy American” Act. Yet, as the delicate balance of cooperation and self-interest teeters back and forth, we survey the destruction wrought by the financial crisis and find that the majority of voices champion unity and denounce protectionism and separation. Why is this so?
If we consider this question from a purely economic or psychological aspect, we will not arrive at a conclusive answer. However, when we view it from the perspective of the science of Kabbalah, we will see that the forces involved in international relations, and indeed in any relations, are forces of integration, not of isolation. They are far more powerful than any rational or irrational decision-making process, and determine our moves “behind the scenes.”
On the international level, these forces determine global trade, politics, treaties, conflicts, and ecology. On the national level, they determine the trends in education, welfare policy, media, and local economy. On the personal level, they determine our relationships with our families, and on the deepest level of existence, they determine evolution—ours and that of every other element in Nature.
When we understand these forces, we will understand why Napoleon, for example, bit off more than he could chew when he tried to conquer Russia, why Hitler did the same (and in the same country, no less), and why Bernard Madoff could not stop until he was stopped. The “bridge-too-far” syndrome is a typical human pitfall, one that the world’s greatest leaders and would-be leaders could not resist. Indeed, the forces that make us behave as we do are so much a part of us and of our world that not recognizing them is a risk we mustn’t allow ourselves to take.
To understand the forces and elements that create reality and stir it in its course, we must first come to know their origins and their final destinations. Otherwise, trying to understand reality is like trying to grasp the inner workings of a car—its engine, the engine’s connection to the gear, the way the gear shifts the power to the wheels, and so on—without explaining that a car is a machine built to transport people safely, comfortably, and quickly from place A to place B. Without explaining the car’s purpose, what good is any discussion of its structure?
Like science, Kabbalah researches the inner workings of reality. But unlike science, which observes phenomena and offers theories as to their end goal, Kabbalah sees the goal first and from there explains the structure. That goal, as explained by Kabbalah, is for every person in the world to discover the single, fundamental force that creates and governs all of life. In other words, the goal of Kabbalah is for every person to discover life’s creative force, obtain it, and reap all the benefits this discovery implies.
The 20th century Kabbalist, Yehuda Ashlag, known as Baal HaSulam (Owner of the Ladder) for his Sulam (Ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar, described Kabbalah and life’s purpose in the following way: “This wisdom is no more and no less than a sequence of roots, which hang down by way of cause and consequence, by fixed, determined rules, interweaving to a single, exalted goal described as ‘the revelation of the Creator to the creatures in this world.’” [15] Our lives are the vehicle by which to achieve this purpose. Hence, Kabbalists regard our world’s physical, historical, and social phenomena as stages toward an end goal, and it is from this perspective that this book will discuss humankind’s history and current state.