What Will Be?

The governments of the world are pumping huge amounts of money into the banking system. The money that was destroyed in the credit crisis was not government-issued, but generated by the financial system. The governments are forced to replace this money by government-issued money, to prevent a general loss of monetary savings, which would lead to social chaos.

This government policy is likely to stabilize the financial system. Healthy companies will yet thrive. That should yield a big economic boom, as there will be lots of money available. Banks will soon be able to restart lending and multiply the money that they are receiving now. We will then re-encounter the limits of fossil energy resources. The high oil prices must return. The boost won't last long, because huge inflation will cause another financial crisis. The governments will try to prevent this by taking money out of circulation, at the cost of proper government expenditures. Whatever they will try, social chaos will become inevitable.

I believe that the next collapse will be three years from now. You don't want to be a Jew living in Exile at such times.

מ

Science Reveals TzimTzum

The first verses of Parshat VaEra read:

וידבר אלהים אל משה ויאמר אליו אני יהוה
וארא אל אברהם אל יצחק ואל יעקב באל שדי ושמי יהוה לא נודעתי להם

And God spoke unto Moses, and said unto him: 'I am the Lord; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name hwhy I made Me not known to them.

How can HaShem reveal his Name, his Nature, in this world? HaShem is One. He is beyond time. The features of the physical world are utterly opposite. The world is complex beyond measure and subject to the flow of time. The Universe seems independent, ruled by and only by the laws of Nature. The Universe does not seem to need a Divine power. It does not even seem to leave room for Him.

HaShem is One – what does it mean? Here is how the Universe reveals what it seems to hide.

Quantum Mechanics establishes that a physical system can be in what is called a pure state. A pure state is timeless: At all times the pure-state system is completely characterized by its properties at any particular time. In scientific jargon, time evolution of a pure-state system is “unitary.” Examples of pure-state systems are elementary particles such as electrons, protons, or neutrons, or atoms in their ground states.

In principle, pure-state systems can be of any size, and can consist of any number of particles. Even if consisting of many particles, the pure-state system must be treated as “one” in order to describe its unitary evolution. Unitary evolution will generally not apply to its subsystems in isolation, as each subsystem will be “quantum-entangled” into the rest of the pure-state system. Subsystems cannot be completely understood by themselves.

This is the lesson: The physical Universe is but a subsystem (not in a spatial sense, obviously) of the whole of reality. It cannot be fully understood in isolation. It is “quantum-entangled” into the higher worlds. The total of reality is One. Ein Od Milvado. There is definite Hanhaga. The future is certain. The chaos is illusionary.

לט

Until Shiloh

We read in Parshat VaYechi, Bereshit 49:10:

לא יסור שבט מיהודה ומחקק מבין רגליו עד כי יבא שילה ולו יקהת עמים

The scepter shall not depart from Yehudah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until men come to Shiloh; and unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.

Rashi, following the Targumim and the Midrash, interprets Shiloh as Moshiach. This interpretation leaves the question why Moshiach would be called Shiloh.

Rashbam explains the verse differently, explaining that Shiloh refers to the well-known place with that name (as the above English translation has it). He explains that the mention of Shiloh refers to the division of the kingship, which occurred in Shiloh, when Rechavam became king of the tribes of Yehudah and Benyamin only.

Chizkuni takes the approach of Rashbam and explains in the light of Divrei HaYamim II, 10:1, that the above verse describes the main period of greatness of Yehudah as being from David until Rechavam, the son of Shlomo.

Ba'al HaTurim identifies Shiloh as Achiyah HaShiloni, the prophet from Shiloh who told Rechavam that his kingdom lost control over the ten tribes - an approach also mentioned by Chizkuni.

If this light, the verse would relate to a period of merely two kings - David and Shlomo. As the hefty formulation clearly suggests a longer period, in my humble opinion, the explanation of Chizkuni strengthens my contention that the period of Shlomo lasted a thousand years.

All this relates to the Pshat of the verse. At the level of Sod, the verse refers to Moshiach, as Rashi states in the name of Chazal. Ba'al HaTurim notes that the gematria of שילה equals the gematria of Moshe while the gematria of יבא שילה equals the gematria of Moshiach. I suggest that the Pshat sheds light on the Sod.

לח