A question I received: What kind of “just” social framework does Baal HaSulam write about in the article, “The Nation”? Is he really concerned with organizing a more comfortable, well-fed life within the boundaries of this world? How can this be the concern of a Kabbalist who knows that everything is governed by the Upper Force, and we are temporarily placed within this world only in order to correct our soul?

My Answer: Despite what you say, Baal HaSulam also knew that people will reach a point in their development when they would reveal that they lack the Upper Force to correct their relationships. Then they will need the science of Kabbalah because only the Upper Light can correct the relationships between people. There cannot be a good relationship between people unless they are connected by the Creator. Only through Him can people unite with one another. In other words, life itself will force people to reveal the path and forces of correction.

Two people can never be connected with one another directly, but only through the quality of bestowal, which is called the Creator. Baal HaSulam understood this very well since he possessed the highest spiritual attainment. However, in order to bring the regular reader closer to this, he starts his explanation from afar. When a person understands what kind of unity and connection we have to attain according to nature’s plan, and that this is inevitable, the only thing remaining for him to do will be to reveal the means of implementing the correction: the Upper Light that Reforms.

Of course, Baal HaSulam did not think of socialism or communism as a goal in and of itself in order to create a well-fed life for the average person in this world. Rather, he had great understanding and personal attainment of the goal of creation.

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A question I received: Baal HaSulam writes about things that humanity went through a long time ago – socialism and communism. Aren’t these things ancient history now, and we don’t want to go back to them?

My Answer: Our entire reality takes place inside our egoistic desire, which develops and undergoes different stages as it gradually grows under the influence of the Upper Light. This is also why the desire invents various theories regarding what kinds of relationships are more beneficial for it to have with its nature and with human society. It is according to this that its attitude to socialism, Marxism, and all other periods’ changes.

This is not determined by how “developed” or “undeveloped” we are, but only by the Upper Light’s influence upon us. It leads us through various social structures in order to develop our egoism. Therefore, we have to understand the way by which the Upper Light leads us through all the socio-economic formations because then we will understand what Baal HaSulam writes about in the newspaper, The Nation, and this will also help us to understand the things happening to us today.

Baal HaSulam thinks that Marx reached an awareness of the process of correction by the Upper Force, but thought that people would reveal their spiritual birth, which is inherent in nature, on their own, through practice. However, Baal HaSulam ascertained that this theory can only be applied in a developed society, rather than Russia, which was socially and politically retrograde.

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The House of Assembly (Beit Knesset – synagogue) and the House of Study (Beit Midrash – request) are the rungs inside a person where he can fit all his questions, explanations, desires, and thoughts. The House of Assembly is a place for gathering all the means for achieving the goal. It is where he tries to pray near the Amud (column), the middle line. The House of Study is an even higher rung, like two rungs: return in trembling and return with love.

In the beginning, we acquire the forces of bestowal and after that we already can work with them by receiving for the sake of bestowal. The House of Assembly is a place where I gather all the forces to ask for and to achieve the property of bestowal, while the House of Study (Midrash - request) is where I am the one who begins to request and reveal the Light of Hochma inside the Light of Hassadim.

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Preparation to the Lesson - Shamati #10 “What Is Make Haste My Beloved In The Work”
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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 159
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“Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 46, Lesson 15
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Article – “The Individual and The Nation,” Lesson 5
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The Zohar tells us about the upper system which includes all of us. However, there is no need to explain it in great detail, because we simply follow the story and wait for it to influence us. Then the picture becomes clearer, as though appearing through the fog. It’s like a child who gradually becomes familiar with the world, learning about various things around him, how they’re connected, and how to use them.

Similarly, we naturally grow this way in the new world. Now we’re approaching that world and it is beginning to emerge more clearly before us. First we begin to “hear” something, and later on we start to recognize these sounds. This is the way we enter the sensations of the spiritual world.

Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to explain a lot since spirituality must be revealed in sensation, inside the desire rather than inside the mind. Instead of studying spirituality theoretically and being satisfied with that, we have to enter the spiritual world.

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Question: I would like to know if I started to study Kabbalah in this life and don’t achieve correction before I die, will I come to Kabbalah again in a next life? Will I remember something about this wisdom in my next incarnation?

My Answer: You must be confident that you will attain the full correction now! If not, then in the next life you will quickly return to Kabbalah on the level that you have reached now.

Question: How should friends of a fellow Kabbalah student, who has died of an illness, relate this to the Creator?

My Answer: We cannot judge about the reasons because we do not see the system of souls and do not understand why death happens to each of us, as for example to the Ari who died at 38. When you will reveal the system of souls you will understand the role of bodies.

Question: What is the best and easiest way to explain death and incarnation to children according to Kabbalah?

My Answer: Explain it in the same way you explain it to an adult. They will accept it, be satisfied, and won’t be scared!

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A question I received: What happened during the breaking of the common soul that enabled correction to be possible thereafter?

My Answer: The breaking brought about an inter-inclusion, mutual penetration, and true unity between different qualities. Prior to the breaking there were two incompatible qualities that did not overlap and even repelled each other: reception and bestowal. Later they came closer to one another and started to be expressed within one object – Nekudot de SAG. However, this closeness was similar to oil that’s poured over water, or two pieces of metal that are glued together; they still don’t have anything in common.

In these cases, it’s possible to apply an external force in order to overcome the mutual repulsion. This will force one quality to enter inside the other. Yet, even then, both qualities will still continue to exist. For example, we can mix liquids together by way of vibration, or cause metals to merge together by way of fusion. This produces different types of metal alloys that are soft or hard, malleable or rigid, as well as the type that can be made into thin sheets. However, this is not true unification.

In spirituality we have to attain true unity between opposite qualities. We don’t yet understand what this means. This isn’t just simply taking a little bit of Malchut and a little bit of Bina and mixing them so they would exist side by side. Spiritual unity is when each one helps the other and each enters inside the other. The qualities of Bina penetrate the qualities of Malchut, and the qualities of Malchut enter Bina. Thus, they exist together, complementing each other for the sake of attaining a mutual goal.

First their qualities grow closer, until reaching a common boundary during Tzimtzum Bet. Only then can they intermix with each other and penetrate one inside the other. However, they still don’t unite, as the Zivug takes place over Tzimtzum Bet, in Nikvey Eynaim Rosh SAG. But then, under the influence of the most powerful Light, which comes from Zivug AB-SAG, they receive a blow and break. That is when their qualities “melt” and a new, mutual quality is born.

This is how the unification of Bina and Malchut takes place as a result of their striking unity and breaking (Shevirat HaKelim). New spiritual Patzufim of the Worlds ABYA come out, in which Bina and Malchut work together, jointly. This is why it is called “unity” of the qualities of reception and bestowal, where you are “instead of me in every way, and I am instead of you in every way, and both of us are together.” This unity is possible only when the Upper Light maintains it and does not let it disappear.

Thus, the Worlds of ABYA, which conduct Light through the quality of Malchut and Bina as one whole, are able to correct the broken soul of Adam – his parts, our souls.

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In the News (from The Guardian): Scientists have learned that selection of a sexual partner depends not on the person, but on the preferences of the species in general. “People are usually attracted to partners with similar facial features to their own, but after a brief but stressful experience, men’s preferences changed to include a wider variety of women, the study found…Lass-Hennemann speculates that stress might increase men’s tendency to “outbreed,” or reproduce with more genetically dissimilar women, with the potential benefit that any children born from the relationship might be better equipped to cope with a stressful environment.”

My Comment: We see that our actions are controlled not by our individual consciousness, but by the consciousness of our biological species. This biological consciousness gives us commands directed towards benefiting the whole organism. In other words, the world is structured so that on the level of biology we obey the laws of Upper Governance as methodically as robots would. Yet we don’t have such programs on the level of social connections, thus we use primitive egoistic programs of our physical body in interactions with other people.

However, these programs are not directed toward survival of the species as a whole, or even us as people. They are directed only towards survival of our biological body and raising the level of its physiological comfort. When we take the same biological mechanism protecting our body, and apply it to interactions with other people, then that protection system prevents us from getting closer with the other person.

At the end of the 20^th century, the use of this biological protection mechanism toward social interaction evolved into an egoistic problem for all of humanity. The reason is that we (the human species) are approaching a new level of self-organization that we must move toward in the 21^st century. Therefore, if we will not mindfully overcome the forces of repulsion among us, the transition will arrive in a dramatic way.

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Our entire work is carried out by the Creator, who fills the space between us. So you can imagine how fruitless all of humanity’s attempts to unite on its own, are.

Today humanity’s global problems are revealed, and we find ourselves tied together. We thereby witness the revelation of the Upper system, the connection among us. We try to reach some agreements, establish certain connections on this level,  but to no avail. Reaching compromises was possible until the global system became revealed. Today it no longer works.

That is why we have to reveal Who fills the space among us. Without this “middleman” – the Creator – nobody will manage to establish a connection with the others. Hence we experience the crisis in family relationships, relationships with children, relatives, and virtually everybody. And these problems will only intensify.

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If you acted correctly at your current stage meaning that you “practiced the Torah” and thereby you attracted the necessary amount of Light, then the stage you passed becomes your “grave” and in its place a new stage will emerge. In fact, the new stage is the same as the old but at a much greater depth. This is so that when we reach it we experience a higher level of clarification that leads to attracting more extensive Light. While staying in Malchut of the World of Infinity, we gradually reveal all the worlds, one by one, from older ones to newer ones. The process of advancing progressively uncovers the whole Universe to us. We all are already present in this Universe, but we don’t see much of it.

In order to do so, we make efforts. “Applying enough effort” means that we were able to pass our previous step and transform it into the next. It won’t emerge by itself unless we work hard. Where will it come from? We have to develop it ourselves by sharpening our vision and perception.

If we are all present in the World of Infinity at this very moment, then why don’t we see it? Why do we see this world instead? It is because we lack the correct desire! In order to develop it, we should attract more Light. Only then can we start sensing the World of Infinity.

To attract the Light, we need the group. The group is what we call “practicing the Torah.” This situation arises each time we transition from one level to another. As it is written, when a person dies, the Higher Judge asks him these questions: “Did you practice the Torah? Did you await salvation?” The true meaning of these questions is: “Did you find the right method to reach the correct goal?”

If the right question arose within us, if the right desire was formed, then the following stage will reveal itself. And if not, then we will “die,” and there won’t be a “grave” in which we are buried. It means that we won’t reach the state where we sense that we have the grave needed for the spiritual birth of the next state. And as a result, we are unable to see yet our next state which then gives us birth.

When we complete our previous stage, we leave it. This is what is called “the grave.” It is not scary at all! Let’s pray that the Creator grants us prompt transformations.

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