Predicting Recessions via the Sabbatical Year (Updated)

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More Financial Instability for 2015 Predicted Via the Last 7 Sabbatical Years
This is an update of an earlier blog.
In Judaism, the number 7 is very important. The Menorah in Torah has 7 candles. There are 7 days to each week, with Shabbat on the 7th day. The Sabbatical year, which for Jews occurs 1 in every 7 years, has often been a difficult year for financial markets. The financial difficulties the USA has been through show this trend to be true counting 7 Sabbaticals in a row; 2015, 2008, 2001, 1994, 1987, 1980, 1973.

In the Bible, the command to release debts in the seventh year is in Deuteronomy 15:2.

For Orthodox Jews, this is the year 5775. It is also a Sabbatical year, where according to the Bible at the end of this year debts are to be forgiven. That is 5775 / 7 = 825, meaning this is the 825th Sabbatical year since the beginning of creation. Also, please take note; the Hebrew calendar does not begin January 1st. The Hebrew year begins with Rosh Hashanah.

2015 is already following the Sabbatical year pattern financial difficulties. It is already my first example, and since August of 2014 the market has shown increased instability, where September was the time of Rosh Hashanah, the date of the Jewish New Year’s 5775 beginning.

This does not mean that Jews are to blame for anything. The Sabbatical is Gd’s way. Gd is sovereign. It is up to us to figure how to rule this world. This just happens to be the way Gd makes us work.

Let me illustrate: it is now 2015 according to the Gregorian calendar, a Sabbatical year, the 825th Sabbatical, and financial markets are already showing signs of correction. The pattern is as such, by subtracting 7 years from 2015, as the Sabbatical occurs every 7 years; we end up with the last financial crisis, the Great Recession of 2008.
2015 - 7 = 2008, the 824th Sabbatical and a year of recession.

A 3rd example of this market recession pattern is the “Early 2000s recession” that lasted from March 2001–Nov 2001.
2008 – 7 = 2001, the 823rd Sabbatical year, and a year of recession.

A 4th example of financial difficulty similar to this pattern was a bond market selloff of 1994.
2001 - 7 = 1994, the 822nd Sabbatical year, where there was a bond market selloff.

A 5th example is Black Monday (1987), where there was a historical stock market crash in the year 1987.
1994 - 7 = 1987, the 821st Sabbatical year, and a period of market instability

A 6th example is the “1980 recession” that lasted from Jan–July 1980.
1987 - 7 = 1980, the 820th Sabbatical year, and a year of recession.

A 7th example is the “1973–75 recession” that lasted from Nov 1973 – Mar 1975.

1980 – 7 = 1973 yet another number divisible by 7 that follows the pattern of Sabbatical years.

In Judaism, the number 7 is very important.  The Menorah in Torah has 7 candles.  There are 7 days to each week, with Shabbat on the 7^th day.  The Sabbatical year, which for Jews occurs 1 in every 7 years, has often been a difficult year for financial markets.  In the Bible, the command to release debts in the seventh year is in Deuteronomy (15:2).

For Orthodox Jews, this is the year 5775, and since it is a Sabbatical year, at the end of this year debts are to be forgiven.  That is 5775 / 7 = 825, meaning this is the 825th Sabbatical year since the beginning of creation.  Huh? Maybe there is something to these ancient teachings.  Also, please take note; the Hebrew calendar does not begin January 1^st.  The Hebrew year begins with Rosh Hashanah.

This does not mean that Jews are to blame for anything.  The Sabbatical is Gd’s.  Gd is sovereign.  This just happens to be the way Gd makes things work.

Let me illustrate: it is now 2015 according to the Gregorian Calendar, a Sabbatical year, and financial markets are already showing signs of correction.  It does appear that this year will follow the established pattern.  The pattern is as such, by subtracting 7 years from 2015, as the Sabbatical occurs every 7 years, we up with the last financial crisis, the Great Recession of 2008.  Thus, 2015 - 7 = 2008, a year of recession.

A 3^rd example of this market recession pattern is the “Early 2000s recession” that lasted from March 2001–Nov 2001.  2008 – 7 = 2001, a year of recession.

A 4^th example is the “1980 recession” that lasted from Jan–July 1980.  2001 - ( 7 * 3 ) = 1980, a year of recession.  Thus, it is not only on Sabbatical years that recessions can occur, and more importantly the Sabbatical year does not mandate recession.

A 5^th example is the “1973–75 recession” that lasted from Nov 1973 – Mar 1975.  1980 – 7 = 1973 yet another number divisible by 7 that follows the pattern of Sabbatical years.

Life in a Post Capitalist World

If I remember correctly, in high school my teacher taught me how the invention of the assembly line was supposed to revolutionize the idea of capitalism. Things would be made much faster, and by everyone in the assembly line having a small but focused job, there would be extra time for stuff like fun. I don’t think many assembly line workers have free time in mind when they go to work these days.

First of all, assembly lines are usually no longer profitable in America, although we do farm them out oversees to people that we are allowed to pay whatever we want, and there always seems to be takers for these jobs. Let’s look at why? First of all, these workers lack skill sets, so when American Corporations defend the wages they pay overseas they play this card saying offering that we pay them so poorly essentially because we can get away with it. Fast forward to the modern era and now we are closing in on the idea that we don’t need anyone at all, and therefore there is no reason to pay someone anything, because everyone is replaceable.

And, now that I think of that, I don’t agree that people are replaceable just because we can get a machine or another person to do their job based upon a mere whim. A job can be found in Him merely though worship of Him. Yet, that day has yet to fully come, so don’t yet quit your day job. Most people probably like to think they are valuable, and they are, but the difference in today’s world is that their value is not going to be determined by their occupation. Those that accept that people are replaceable are probably going to be the first to say, something like, “Gee! Now that I have realized that I am useless, what can I do now?” For some that thought is pure bliss, for others that thought is a reason for suicide. Unfortunately, some people worship capitalism, as if it was a Gd, and the thought of life without capitalism brings nothing but the greatest sorrow of sorrows.

These are probably the people I least worry about: If you have the knowledge to know you can probably be outpaced by a machine, or someday in the near future, that that is right around the bend, you’ve probably taken some time to entertain yourself spiritually. Possibly, like me, you have gone on the quest to find the one true Gd, or something similar. These will be the types of escapades that will go on more often starting in about year 6,000 on the Orthodox Jewish calendar. This will be the 7th millennium, which in Judaism is known as the age of Moshiach. I like to explain this age as if it were Eden. If you paid it forward and did your good deeds, in the age of Moshiach, there will be no more work for you, although life will be better than just good.

In the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages times were much tougher. Now we have the time to explore the world at our leisure because really, few people need to work more than 40hr weeks, unless they want to. Just as the inventions from 1990 to 2000 where greater in number (and downright amusingness) than we have seen in the entirety of the rest of all other time periods, so too will technology cause us to all be obsolete if we allow ourselves to believe the lies about life in an atheist world.

As we head towards socialized healthcare in America, as well as for places that are more impoverished, such as in Africa through charities such as Heifer International, I think that it is safe to say that we are headed to a world that might be described as being like the Garden of Eden. In my mind, the rules of the universe will remain the same. Live by the golden rule and karma, and chances are that somehow you will come out on top.

If I had to refute the late Christopher Hitchens, then I would say, “Live a life of superstition because I can guarantee you that doing good deeds is the best way to choose no matter how superstitious it may seem.” Ozzy Osbourne was spot on in his song, “I don’t know,” in which he rather ironically claims, “Nobody ever told me, I found out for myself. You got to believe in foolish miracles.” Thus, it is such with reality; if we are able to make peace with our Creator, then indeed He will probably allow us a share of life in a peaceful world for our good deeds. Likewise, I should importantly say, good deeds are not always easy to do. I have spent a good deal of my lifetime trying to communicate over the net the blessings of doing what is moral, and upright. Learning to write didn’t happen in a day, a month, or even a year.

My take home message is to go study, be it books or baseballs, etc., with the aim of making yourself useful, and eventually, though you may crawl and cry, eventually things will work out for Gd. Take for instance the passage in Genesis that Joseph says, “You intended to harm me, but Gd intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” I guess that makes me a priest of sorts. So, when I go to write, I share what I know for the sake of helping people that I don’t know. In my darkest hour, You were there for me, Gd. You told me of your anger saying, “I am punishing you,” which was as music for my ears because I thought that not only wasn’t there a Gd, but also the Gd I had been told of was a wimp, so I dismissed my knowledge of a wimpy Gd. Gd you were there to accuse me, such that my soul repented out of love for your voice, and I realized that You, Gd, are a vengeful and wrathful Gd. He, Gd, reached out to me, so following that pattern, to imitate His just ways, I reach out to you, in the hope that Eden will be for all of us, from the greatest to the least, and none will be able to say, I am not important, because we can derive that Gd is reasonable because His creation is reasonable, and for His creation to be reasonable, each soul in it must have a share in the World to Come, as each soul has a share from the breath of Gd that came from Him in the creation week of Genesis Chapter 1.