Laitman.com » Crisis

Choose A Benevolent Future

admin_bb — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:48:04 +0000

Question: The system of the spiritual stimulator works with people who can realize the principle of “faith above reason.” However, most of humanity cannot act according to this principle, and only very strong blows can force them to do this.

Answer: They still will start participating in it because there is no other choice. We need to somehow rise above ourselves, above our lives, fate, and the forces of nature that compel us to do something with ourselves. We need to act and search for some external, kind governing force which protects and cares about us.

I believe that people will quickly see that there is at least some refuge here. They will sense this with a “sixth sense.” It is written very clearly in Kabbalah that we have no other choice. Either we find a way to unite as one whole and to reach a state of being one society in complete interdependence, mutual help, and, consequently, even mutual love on our own and through the path of the Light, or we will be pushed to do this by the nature around and within us through the path of suffering.

Development of this system and the dissemination of it, its realization for educating children and solving social, family, and other kinds of problems will draw more and more people who now are distant from the goal of Kabbalah. However, both the system and Kabbalah will become meaningful and accepted in the society as a kind and common force for everyone.

It will be a parallel, alternative social system which will not contradict any existing social systems. However, to the extent that humanity begins to understand that this system can be the source of help, support, and a means for a more correct behavior, balance, safety, and so on, people will come here. Gradually, it will become more and more in demand and necessary for humanity.

Which Way To Go?

admin_bb — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:35:37 +0000

The egoistic desire constantly chases delight and knows no boundaries, thus leading itself to death. There is no way for it to survive. Even within the complete righteous, the still, vegetative, and animate degrees strive towards and approach death.

This is our whole life: From the very moment of birth we begin to move towards death. The egoistic desire is unable to exist in any other form since it nourishes itself from death rather than life.

However, we can acquire the desire to bestow. It is completely separated from our egoistic desire to receive and represents the soul that exists apart from the body, regardless of whether the body is dead, alive, or born again. All of these states occur solely at the level of this world, while the soul lives in the spiritual, Upper World.

In other words, we are now transitioning to an entirely new type of existence, which is not associated whatsoever with our previous ways of life. We will not be able to continue based on previous education, culture, or values unless they are directly necessary for our essential bodily needs. So-called “human” values will simply cease to exist because we will no longer find fulfillment in them. And on the animate level we will exist as all animals do, consuming no more than is necessary for life.

Thus, the whole life of humanity will change radically, and no one will force us to it. Rather, all these fulfillments – be it fashion, movies, or mass media – won’t give us the sensation of life. It will be reduced to the necessary existence of the body, and for everything else people will search only on the truly human level. It is a qualitative change that has never previously taken place.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

The New Formula For Success

bb_admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:58:02 +0000

Question: The mechanics of the development of desire in our world is simple, and we have accumulated thousands of years of experience in it. What new knowledge does the science of Kabbalah offer regarding the use of desire?

Answer: Kabbalah offers the intention; nothing else is necessary! The Creator created the will to receive pleasure and He drives it to evolve. This desire is egoistic, making us constantly run after whatever might fill it. Such behavior characterizes the still, vegetative, and animate levels of existence. However, in our time, after millennia of growth, we have finally evolved to the “human” level (Adam), which is a totally different state of existence. A human is independent of the still, vegetative, and animate ways of existence.

To a human being, the most important thing is the intention, or the reason “why” do I possess the still, vegetative, and animate levels? What do I live for? He wonders about the purpose of life, and when a person has this question, he comes to Kabbalah. This is a totally new inclination where I don’t depend on the previous evolution of my desire. I have evolved, but what now? Now something completely new, mysterious, and unknown lies ahead of me.

Today’s human crisis is the crisis of the formula of our previous development which doesn’t work anymore! The previous period of evolution has ended where the only operating forces were Light and desire, pleasure and hunger. Now I see that there is fulfillment and I feel a need for it, but I don’t understand how the two are connected.

Previously it worked very simply: the greater my desire, the greater its fulfillment. But today even though my desire is enormous, I grab and enjoy what I want for an instant and then it’s gone. As a result, I don’t even want to run after pleasure any more. However, I still have to fill myself with something. Yet, I have nothing to do it with. Do you realize what a disaster this is?

Mankind does not know what to do with the situation. This leads to wars, crime, brutality, and terrorism because the moment man experiences emptiness and longing, he is willing to do whatever it takes to find at least some small fulfillment even for an instant!

We are now going through this transitional time. The egoistic desire has completed its evolution on the still, vegetative, and animate planes of existence. Now it has to grow as a “human,” which means “similar to the Creator.” This is an absolutely new form where one works in bestowal, the reverse of everything that one did before.

We neither comprehend this action nor where to get the strength for it. We do not have the mind, the desire, and the environment for it. We only have the science of Kabbalah, and even that is available only for those who have already discovered it. That is why we are making such great efforts to disseminate it because we would like to accelerate evolution and offer a remedy well in advance before the next blow strikes.

Otherwise no one will know what to do with this life: neither politicians, nor sociologists, nor psychologists, or any other scientists. Mankind will give up and agree to any sort of existence, hoping to conceal what is really happening and to continue living at least somehow.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Today’s Families Need A Common Spiritual Foundation

admin_bb — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:50:52 +0000

Question: Why are there so many problems in family relations today, and so many people are getting divorced or cannot get married at all?

Answer: Egoism is growing all the time. It is no longer the way it was in previous generations where there was almost no difference between one generation and the next. People continued to live on the same land, in the same village, and the son inherited his father’s profession: If the father was a blacksmith, and the son became a blacksmith; if the father was a farmer, and the son became a farmer too. It was customary to live that way. People passed their clothes from one generation to the next, and so on.

Today a person is new at every given moment! In order to change one does not even need to be reborn. And since a person is new, he cannot stand what he had yesterday. Yesterday I got married to someone, and today when I look at her, I am bewildered. I think, “Is this really the woman I married?! Where is the woman I knew yesterday? Where are her qualities?” I don’t see those qualities today. I fail to realize that the change occurred in me. Meanwhile, I look at her and it seems to me that she has changed, and I am unable to live with her anymore.

No one is at fault here. If our evolving desire does not begin to be corrected, the family will be inevitably destroyed. What foundation should people use to come together? Once we stayed together at the “bodily-social” level: a common household, domestic life, children, chores, and the pressure of public opinion. Yet today no one cares about anything. People have risen above all these limitations; they don’t want anything.

Therefore, people are unable to be in and to create a family, and they don’t want to have children. Problems in the family are escalating and they are impossible to solve if the spouses are not united by the common study of spirituality.

No material activities will keep people together. Only this can save a family, as it is written, “A husband and a wife, and the Creator between them.” We have yet to discover to what extent we require the Upper Force, a higher idea, in order to connect at the level of “man.”

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

A Sandstorm Of Our Egoism

admin_bb — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:06:46 +0000

Question: Are you saying that the fact that I egoistically use my neighbor right now causes a sandstorm in India?

Answer: Yes! We need to understand that all problems occur due to a lack of connection among us. And this does not mean that by drawing away from you I immediately cause some hurricane that brings sand. However, by being in opposition to you, I bring disparity into the balance of forces in nature.

All the forces of nature exist in unity, interconnection, balance, and universal harmony. That is, except for the human being whose growing egoism and unwillingness to consider others turns us into an active negative element which disrupts the balance of all the forces (of still, vegetative, and animate nature). The solution to the problem is to become an integral part of nature, like all its other parts.

We reveal that the world is in unity and complete interconnection; it exists as a locked system where everyone is connected to each other. This means that we are obliged to unite as “one man with one heart.”

You could object to this and say that we are incapable of this. However, there is the science of Kabbalah and by utilizing it we rouse the force of unification. Humanity will inevitably reach this conclusion, and we are already close to it. If we have already entered this period, from now on everything will occur very quickly.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

Nothing Is Accidental

bb_admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:15:10 +0000

Question: Kabbalah says that the reason for all the problems in the world is man’s egoistic desire. But what is the connection between me being an egoist who’s opposite to the Creator and the extreme heat in Moscow or the ecological crisis?

Answer: We are all inside a closed system or sphere called “the Creator” where all the parts are connected through mutual bestowal. That is the law of existence of the entire system as well as each of its parts. We can see this on the example of the human body, the ecosystem, and so on. I exist inside this system like an embryo inside a mother’s womb, and I feel good to the degree I am connected and equivalent to the system and bestowing like it. And vice versa: To the degree I am disparate from it and have different qualities, I feel bad.

Proximity and separation are not defined by distance, but by equivalence of form. If I have a small egoistic desire, then even if I am different from the system, I feel small problems. But if my desire increases, then so does my sensation of discomfort.

Since man’s egoistic desire constantly develops, his opposition to Nature’s system, the Creator, also increases, and thus it is inevitable that man will feel worse. This will continue until he begins to understand what the reason for his suffering and problems is.

I will receive blows of fate from all sides until I understand that it is systematic and not accidental. The problems with the ecology are not accidental! I can no longer keep ignoring them. Similar problems will take place all over the world and in all forms. They will shake people up and make them stop and think, “Apparently, there must be a reason for this?”

As the desire grows, it feels suffering and creates a mind by its side in order to avoid the suffering. A person becomes smarter and shrewder. He learns to connect the causes and consequences and inevitably begins asking, “Why is this happening? Where are all of our problems coming from?” Usually people ask, “What did I do to deserve all of this?” And that is already a subconscious question about the Source of what is happening (Nature, the Creator).

People will reveal that what is operating here is the general law of the universe. Call it “Nature” instead of the Creator; either way it requires us to constantly and consciously maintain balance with Nature, which means we have to have the same quality of bestowal as the whole universe since all parts of the universe exist in universal connection and integral unity.

That is why there is no choice about the matter. Humanity is a cancerous tumor inside all of nature, and it is obligated to cure itself. Eventually, under pressure from all the problems, we will reach this realization. It’s already very close.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

Spiritual Pleasure

admin_bb — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:31:34 +0000

Question: What is spiritual pleasure? Is it simply very intense enjoyment or something completely different?

Answer: The only difference between corporeal and spiritual pleasure lies in which desires I experience it: egoistic or altruistic. My egoistic desires of reception are limited. They gradually reveal their own emptiness, and I am forced to seek greater pleasure. As a result, I am never satisfied.

I have tried to fill myself with pleasure but failed since pleasure is a “plus” and I am a “minus.” When I attempt to receive pleasure, I only gain temporary satisfaction which resembles a “short-circuit” as it quickly dissolves leaving me empty again, and then the feeling of emptiness is twice as great. It has doubled because the pleasure I so eagerly sought has gone, forming the sensation of emptiness in addition to the emptiness I had felt before. So it follows that I’m always at a double loss. As a result, we evolve in our world from generation to generation, augmenting our empty egoism.

Yet nowadays a new problem arises. The ego that once grew, bringing me a sensation of emptiness, stopped growing. Logically this should have made me content, but I feel that I have nothing to gain pleasure from now. This new problem is worse than the previous one since there is no hope for fulfillment. Beside that, I feel that egoism is integral, representing the sum of all seven billion individual, egoistic desires. I discover that I depend on everyone, and everyone depends on me. For this reason, I find that I don’t know what to do with it, which drives me to extreme desperation.

During this period, a person might find solace in drugs, which only postpones the realization of the total crisis for some time. Yet, even this “solution” expires for it makes a person aware that this path is false, and that to disconnect from life means to agree with death. But nature does not allow it! We are faced with the question, “What to do next?” And the answer lies in transitioning from “pleasure from reception” to “pleasure from bestowal.”

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

Studying Yourself From The Side

admin_bb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 07:09:06 +0000

Question: What is freedom and freedom from what? How do we achieve it if both the corporeal and the spiritual worlds are defined by rigid laws?

Answer: The only freedom that exists is freedom from our egoism. I want the Upper Light to descend, take me over, and replace my egoism. I perceive the power of egoism or altruism over me as necessary: It is either one or the other.

There are only two types of nature: the nature of the lower one (reception) and the nature of the Upper One (bestowal). Both are preset, and function in accordance with invariable laws. The only free action we are able to take is to rise from one nature (egoistic) to the other (altruistic). In other words, we can break free from the power of the laws of egoism (reception) and transcend to the “jurisdiction” of bestowal.

We will not be able to evaluate even our own initial nature until we acquire the second, altruistic nature. We are currently locked within a single dimension, and for as long as we remain in it, we cannot comprehend it.

Look how often we err! For thousands of years, we developed within our egoistic nature, and we still do not know it. This is because we are locked inside it, but in order to understand it, we need to have something opposite to compare it with.

If we possessed an opposite nature (that of bestowal), we would be able to compare it with our egoism and thereby comprehend what reception and bestowal mean. However, in our world, there is nothing but receiving. Whatever we do, we do it solely for our own sake and benefit. This is why we cannot understand our own actions and how this world operates.

You see that humankind continues making mistakes, and doesn’t know what further direction to take. And now that we have reached the peak of egoism, our complete inability to understand this world is obvious. This fact pushes us to the realization that none of us has a choice but to transcend our egoistic nature.

Moreover, in order to simply live well within the boundaries of our egoism, we need to step out of it and study it from above. It is impossible to learn about an object while remaining within its bounds. We have to be above it in order to be able to study it. Only if we rise above ourselves can we learn who we are and what the right way to live is, at least in this world. This is what today’s global crisis is pushing us toward.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/25/10, Shamati #99

The Time For Spiritual Redemption

admin_bb — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:09:39 +0000

Everything that the Kabbalists of the past did, each acting according to his own conditions and time, was the preparation to our present state. Thanks to it, we have all the primary sources necessary today, which enable us to advance: the writings of the ARI, The Zohar with the Sulam Commentary, the writings of Baal HaSulam and RABASH.

There has never been a time like ours before. The Kabbalists of the past were not given the opportunity to work in similar circumstances to what we have today: a global crisis that resembles the crisis of ancient Babylon and reflects the breaking of the common soul in the Upper world.

About 80-90 years ago, Baal HaSulam wrote that we would live in the generation of the Messiah, at the era of spiritual redemption. As the nation of Israel has already acquired their land and established a state, it means that we now have an opportunity to build everything according to the spiritual law of love thy neighbor as thyself and unite together as one spiritual nation.

However, it is impossible to reach this state without the realization of evil, and for this we need either great suffering, or for the Light to reveal our evil. Today we have an opportunity to draw this Light, to see that we are opposite to bestowal and love, and to begin the correction by uniting with society and the nation. Let’s hope that it happens soon!

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters), Letter 38

The System Of The Future, Part 3

admin_bb — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:03:18 +0000

A question I received: There are Internet systems where one comes to download the information they need. Maybe that is how we should attract people’s attention to the method of correction?

My Answer: Let’s say a person visits our site and downloads the information. Then what? We want him to visit the site for the sake of communication! Of course, we can display a certain pool of information about the necessity to communicate with each other. But then what will happen? Suppose we provided our user with additional information about what we learn at the lessons. What’s next?

What is the best way of providing people with information about Kabbalah? We have to involve them in the system and offer them an example of, the need for, and the possibility of communication. People should see that our way of solving worldly problems is all about making the right connections between us. We have to show our users that we trigger confidence, safety, and love into our lives; they have to see the way we advance and find new properties within ourselves that further allow our perception to rise to a new dimension, up to the level of sensing the Creator.

Where else can these properties be found? They are found only within the right communication among us.

In The Beginning God Created Community

admin_bb — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:14:45 +0000

The story of the creation of Adam shows his creation and subsequent division and multiplication. Biologists maintain that sustainable existence of the biosphere is possible only if bio-geochemical cycles are closed. Otherwise, living creatures will quickly consume all resources and will be intoxicated by byproducts of their vital activities.

However, for the cycles to be closed, there must be a community of microorganisms of different species that share bio-geochemical functions among them. Some microorganisms use resources from the environment and supply it with products of their vital activity, while others use these products and return, as their waste products, the original resource back to the environment. No microorganism can close the cycle by itself as it would be a perpetual motion machine.

It is even more obvious in the chemical pre-life stage. There is no single organic molecule that could persistently self-replicate and maintain homeostasis in the environment. Only complex organisms consisting of a large number of different molecules that have established “mutually beneficial cooperation” or symbiosis are capable of achieving this.

Thus, it is obvious that the first living species was not a single microorganism but a polymorphous community characterized by the active exchange of genetic material. Diversity, symbiosis, task-sharing, and information exchange – rather than the qualities that evolved from a single, organic molecule – are the primal qualities of Earth’s life. Today it is becoming clear that community rather than a single, microbial species stood at the beginning of life’s development on Earth.
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Explains The Big Bang
Laitman.com Post: Have We Reached The End Of Classical Science?
The Point In The Heart: “An Interview with Dr. Michael Laitman”

A Means Of Last Resort

admin_bb — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:29:40 +0000

Correction begins with the realization of evil, as it said: “I created the evil inclination and Torah as a means for its correction.” If the evil that the Creator purposefully created was not revealed, who would want to correct himself? The sensation of evil and suffering pushes us to change. At first, we want to change everything on the outside; we want to change the entire world. Later, we do agree that we need to change ourselves. Every person, nation, and society, and our entire civilization as a whole needs to go through this change.

Correction cannot begin without the need for it. In other words, I need to feel that I’m miserable without correction. This is why we must develop and cultivate our egoism, experience in it various blows and problems such as emptiness, loss of hope and fulfillment, and be completely unable to change it. We search for ways to change the world until we discover that the evil in us is to blame for everything. Then, seemingly by accident, we discover Kabbalah.

However, someone had to prepare it for us in the form of books and websites because our nature, confined in the desire to receive and fill itself, is incapable of contact with the Upper World and directly feeling the Creator. In order to do this, we first need external methods: a teacher and books.

Usually this knowledge is passed from one person to another through people who have already acquired the connection to the spiritual world. This connection with the spiritual world has to be already present in our world. Otherwise, we, being complete egoists, would never be able to even think of the spiritual world. We would search for a way to free ourselves from suffering only on the level of this world.

This is why it is necessary to circulate the wisdom of Kabbalah. The people who feel empty in this world will discover it as the method of absolute fulfillment. Then, the following two conditions of the beginning of correction will be carried out: 1) people feel bad, and 2) it is revealed to them that there is a method which will make things well. Gradually, people will begin to correct themselves and realize the purpose of their creation.

Our generation is still revealing the first condition. People are looking at different methods and techniques in order to fulfill themselves. Sometimes they even turn to drugs and alcohol, but gradually, this passes. Soon, even the desire for drugs, violence, and fanaticism will disappear. People will feel and understand that they are not able to fill their inner emptiness this way.

The desire for pleasure changes. It rises to the next level, and it is impossible to continue as before. People can no longer find comfort in drugs. They begin to search for a deeper solution. But we need to develop until we reach the state when people will be left with no other solution but the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We can shorten their search by spreading this method so everyone will understand more quickly that we have to reveal the Upper Force that governs us. Only this can help us.

Man Begins With Experiencing The Breaking

admin_bb — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:19:38 +0000

In the beginning, Malchut is merely a point. Then the Upper Light comes and develops it. Malchut adopts the properties of Zeir Anpin, expands, and thinks that it is able to receive in order to bestow. It receives this Light and breaks. However, as the result of this breaking, the desires of Zeir Anpin penetrate Malchut, and now she contains the properties of bestowal that she hasn’t thought of before.

From that moment on, one can take two different directions. The bestowing desires can be used to try to receive as much Light as possible for one’s own pleasure, in other words, to bestow in order to receive. This is exactly how mankind develops until it begins to reveal that this is a bad way to go. When it comes to this egoistic reception everything is clear: It is bad and people frown upon it. But when I bestow, I need to check if this bestowal is not egoistic. Maybe I give to others only to benefit from it?

At the end, we discover that our entire “bestowal” is egoistic. This requires thousands of years of development. Only now do we begin to understand that the true bestowal is to bestow in order to bestow and receive in order to bestow.

However, the breaking was a necessary preparation for the entire, marvelous correction to unfold. Otherwise, we would never be able to understand that there is something higher than our nature, our egoistic matter. We would forever remain in it, like the entire still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature. But man begins with experiencing the breaking! It cannot be any other way.

At first, the bestowing desires fall into the receiving ones. Egoism can still rule over them for a period of time, which is exactly what happens in our world. We develop sciences, culture, and education, and all this is due to the desires to bestow that have fallen into us. We advance with their help until we begin to see that nothing good comes out of it.

We can use the bestowing desires to bestow, but as soon as we wish to receive pleasure through this, we discover that our desire to receive pleasure is not able to receive any pleasure within. So then why should I bestow? Then the entire development gradually begins to slow down, as we are now experiencing, and ultimately illuminates the truth: We can only operate for the sake of bestowal.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/10, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

The New System Of Education

admin_bb — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:17:19 +0000

A question I received: How can the failure of our education system be due to a lack of unity between people? I don’t see it.

My Answer: What people call “education” gives knowledge, but does not foster the development of a human being. Schools do not raise children to be a human, but merely provide a certain amount of knowledge in physics, chemistry, and so on.

Society refers to the education system as an upbringing, but as a matter of fact, it doesn’t do the job. It is clear from the results as well as the subjects studied. How many lessons and class discussions are aimed at nurturing a human being? Does anybody care about this? School schedules are filled with physics, chemistry, reading and writing, and later we wonder why we have such difficulties with our children.

Schools produce robots trained to work in various enterprises. The task of the school is to prepare a worker (engineer and so on) for a position within the industry “pipeline.” The board of education does not concern itself with the kind of person one becomes or how he will live. This is because the education system has nothing to do with the system of rearing a person.

The education system has never been aimed at raising a human being. It was formed during the Industrial Revolution with the goal of turning peasants into industrial workers. The school as we see it today was invented then for the purpose of teaching people who worked the land and raised cattle to read and write so that they could work with machines, understand basic laws of physics and chemistry, and follow instructions. Such was the foundation of the modern school and it remains today.

Today we must move to the true “educational” system, and this is something entirely new. It is not defined by how many physics or math classes a person has taken, but by how human a person becomes. A human is one who is connected with all others. Only this connection allows a person to be called a human being, not the amount of knowledge obtained.

If a person continues to succeed in gaining knowledge alone, it will only assist in the design of more deadly weapons because a person will only be adding the knowledge received in school to an uncorrected ego. A person learns how to use others with this newly acquired information; this defines his success in life. An education determines only what profession one chooses and how much it pays. Is that education?

If people see that there is a new system that offers true education for their children, they will immediately respond because the problem of education is obvious to everyone. Today people don’t even want to have children because they have nothing to give them. They would rather not bring them into this world of suffering and pain.

Therefore, we must show people that all problems in society and their personal lives are caused solely by a lack of connection between us. We can arrive at that connection only though the path of Light.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/30, Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

Let’s Pull All Of Mankind Through The Eye Of The Needle

admin_bb — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 06:58:50 +0000

We don’t yet fully comprehend what a serious task has fallen into our hands. Billion of years of the evolution of the Universe, all of Earth’s nature, and the accumulation of human history up until our time are pressing on us so that we (with the still, vegetative, animate and human levels of nature standing behind us) establish a connection between the Creator. The whole mass of this will to receive must merge with the Creator through a tiny hole: the quality of bestowal that we must attain. The responsibility to pull all of the egoism created by the Creator through the “eye of the needle” has been laid upon us.

We sense that we are facing the wall of our egoism, but we don’t yet understand what kind of wall it is. This wall is the force of the Creator. Our ego is the force of the Creator! We think that it is an ordinary vice that we can beat or discard. That won’t work. We will have to recognize that only the Creator can change our egoistic nature. He must do it, but only at our request, our prayer.

In fact, the entire path of the descent of the spiritual worlds from the very World of Infinity, from Above downward, including all the human evolution in the corporeal world that followed, is now coming to the point of culmination, to merging with the Creator. It is our duty to draw it to the Light. Just imagine how much creation has gone through, and now we must implement this merger.

Our mission seems too grand, but the Creator has placed it on all of us. How many times in the Torah does Moses complain to the Creator that he is incapable of completing his task, but the Creator orders him to continue? Today, we are in Moses’ shoes; we have received strife to rise above our nature. We are to play his role for our generation. ("Moses" or "Moshe" comes from the verb “Mosheh," to pull.)

This is why we have to understand that our task is extremely delicate and subtle; it works through the eye of the needle that we can barely discern. However, if we focus the efforts of all who are studying within our system around the world, we will succeed.

We are given all that we need for this from Above; there is no doubt. We just need to have a clear vision of our goal and ask the Creator to assist us. We are that very creature that must come to adhesion with the Creator, and through that, we give all souls an opportunity to ascend to the state of perfection. Unlike the Kabbalists of the past who were only preparing the path for us, we must complete this path by realizing it on ourselves and the others.

The wall before us is the Creator Himself. He stands and waits for us to "break" Him in order to rejoice that “His sons have defeated Him.”

From the Talk during Friday’s Festive Meal 6/25/10

Karl Marx On The Influence Of The Environment

admin_bb — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:00:24 +0000

Karl Marx, Wage-Labour and Capital, Chapter 6: Our wants and pleasures have their origin in society; we therefore measure them in relation to society; we do not measure them in relation to the objects which serve for their gratification. Since they are of a social nature, they are of a relative nature.

My Commentary: The difference between Kabbalah and Marx’s methods for attaining a perfect society is as follows:

According to Kabbalah, a person is transformed with the help of the Torah (the Light that Reforms). According to Marx, human nature can be changed only by the influence of the surrounding environment and social relations.

It is possible that Marx was aware that he was only describing the first stage of correction: unification. And that afterward, in the attempt to unite, people would understand their inability to overcome their nature. Then they would reveal that they can use the Upper Light to unite. (See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Criticism of Marxism,” in the “Hauma” newspaper.)

The Future Of The World: What Does It Depend On?

admin_bb — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:55:01 +0000

People are beginning to recognize the potentially destructive influence of mass media on one’s environment. Mass media, in particular, rather than money, financial situations, or our plans for humanity’s future, determines everything. This generation and future generations depend on the influence of the environment that affects our entire life. Let us hope that humanity will realize it, and first, will limit the negative influence it exudes today, and then, will redirect it properly. The task of Kabbalah is to help humanity see it faster.

The world is gradually developing a critical outlook toward itself and all the global systems that have been built around us and that now affect absolutely everybody in all areas of life. Particularly because this global system has become so universal and influential, it arouses a lot of concern. Humanity will have to take serious care of it.

We can no longer let everyone do whatever they please in the mass media. The force of the mass media should be in the hands of wise people, Kabbalists. The mass media cannot be controlled by dictatorship. Humanity’s development makes it break all limitations and obstacles.Yet, there is an opposite tendency whereby we must somehow restrict mass media. If we don’t, we will learn of this need by suffering.

There is a constant fight between the left and right lines, each of which insists that it is better than the other one. But both of them are neither good nor right. There has to be a middle line which doesn’t simply unite them, but rather rises above them. It is not their mixing or a compromise between them; it is not like a some centrist political party that is above the left or the right.

Rather, this middle line is an approach that is altruistic, in bestowal, and extends above all egoistic approaches. Such an approach will be able to unite everyone and bring peace.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

Apocalypse 2010

admin_bb — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:48:40 +0000

An old friend of mine, a famous physicist whom I’ve known since my studies in St. Petersburg, Yuri Magarshak (USA), and another physicist, Eugene Levitch (Israel), published an article entitled “Apocalypse” in the Russian online magazine “Vremya.” In the article, they argue that the tragedy in the Mexican Gulf may result in a blazing tornado and bring about an apocalyptic turn of events. In response, I would like to make a few comments:

1. A recent catastrophe of previously unseen magnitude can change life on our planet, and by all means, will cause changes in global economics and politics. All we can do is to watch what’s going on because humankind has no remedy to quell this disaster.

2. Things happen not in accordance with apocalyptic forecasts, but according to a Kabbalistic scenario. It predicts that our generation will go through such tremendous affliction that it will be forced to seek an answer to the question, “What is the purpose of our existence?” After we discover the answer to this question, we will have to build our future accordingly.

3. According to Kabbalah, Nature executes its own plan of human development and forces us to transition from unconscious existence triggered by suffering to conscious development. The ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is only one link in the chain. As a result of our development, people will reveal the hidden part of Nature and will attain perfection and eternity.

4. Kabbalah shows us how to pass this stage of our development without suffering. Instead, it shows us how to be driven by a benevolent goal. We have a chance. Let’s pray to God that the authors’ call will be heard.

Awakening The Forces Of Good

admin_bb — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:37:54 +0000

A question I received: I’m amazed at the profound changes that are taking place these days. Numerous new Kabbalistic groups are surfacing like mushrooms after a rain. How did we manage to bring forth such results through our inner work?

My Answer: It doesn’t depend only on us. You see how many new, serious people are joining us. This means the time has really come and the Creator is drawing people to Kabbalah. After all the twists along the spiral of evolution, they’ve finally arrived at the spiritual gene (the point in the heart), and the Surrounding Light has started working on them. We only need to help them arrange their own environment, group, and entire support system. When we start demanding the Light that Reforms all together, they won’t need the three to five years of preparation that Baal HaSulam wrote about. The correction will come quickly and easily.

Imagine the difference between a person waking from an unconscious state with all of his systems still asleep and not functioning and one waking with many parts and body systems already functioning with only the need to complete the processes. Today, it’s not only one organ that wants to wake up in the non-animate body, but many parts are being revived. So, it is understandable that now there is a greater possibility to regain consciousness. I’m sure that in the near future, we’ll see tremendous changes in the entire world.

The world is in a very dangerous state as the crisis still looms. What a horrible oil catastrophe it is taking place in the Gulf of Mexico. We don’t even realize yet its potential consequences. It’s impossible to stop this geyser of oil. Can you imagine what could happen? Right now, a sea of oil is pouring from deep within the earth leading to catastrophic pollution. It will impact not only Florida and America, but the entire world. They’re now considering a nuclear explosion to interrupt the oil passage, but they’re afraid that it may open in other places. We have released evil forces into the world.

Therefore, I hope that, with the help of all our Kabbalistic groups that are forming around the world and the individuals who are joining us, we’ll be able to awaken the forces of good in order to counter the exposed evil. We have to act and correct ourselves. Then, we will definitely succeed. We’ve received the power of the Torah, the Light that Reforms; everything depends on us now.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

The Fundamental Difference Of Today’s Reality

admin_bb — Sat, 29 May 2010 19:21:32 +0000

A question I received: Many people in the world now suffer from depression; they don’t leave their homes for months, and require psychological help. What can help them?

My Answer: Depression is the most common illness in the world today. Only one remedy can be advised for it: the Light that Reforms. No psychologist can help in this regard for it is due to the Creator being revealed to us in the opposite form that is prompting rampant depression.

Once each of us felt that he or she was one little person around which the world was revealed in different layers of our egoism: 1, 2, 3. As our ego grew bigger and bigger, we developed in accordance with it by creating a new environment: a world of new technology and social relations. This is how we developed over the course of our entire history, stage by stage, 1 – 2 – 3, toward wealth, honor, and knowledge.

However, today we have come to the fourth level, which is a special one. At this level, what is becoming revealed is the Creator, the quality of “bestowal,” and not our developing ego, our property of “receiving.” This is the fundamental difference of our epoch, which is the epoch of revealing the Creator.

Previously, nature (the Creator) forced us to develop, that is, to grow and become smarter, more knowledgeable, understanding, and powerful. But now human beings have completed their development at the level of this world. People are recognizing the pointlessness of new discoveries, and everything gradually fades, the development of science, space research, and so on. We have completely depleted ourselves.

Today, in contrast to this, the Creator – a new nature – is revealed. And here we need to proceed in a different manner. We cannot enter a new stage with our egoism; we will only harm ourselves. We need to realize that a completely new approach has begun, and neither our strength, nor advanced technologies and scientific discoveries can help us.

Suddenly we will discover that all the systems that we built in this world have stopped working. All the former goals (money, power, knowledge, family, education, and culture) have lost their value. Darkness and despair are coming into the world, but this is because the Creator, the Force of bestowal is being revealed in it. We don’t want it, since it cancels out our egoism, our nature, and all our desires!

It is like a child who ran around wanting to play, and suddenly he is told “That’s enough. Now you have to give and to love. Go play with your little sister.” This is contrary to his nature, and hence his life becomes dark; he immediately loses all his energy.

Therefore, we can understand why people are sitting around depressed, unable to leave their homes for months at a time. Antidepressants are the most popular medicine today. However, I can advise that the Surrounding Light is the only medicine.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/10, Shamati #16

Transition Toward A New World

admin_bb — Fri, 14 May 2010 06:55:43 +0000

In the News (TheMarker.com): We’re entering a new phase of development of which we know absolutely nothing. The only thing we know is that transition is the most problematic state, and may be fraught with tremendous losses and suffering even if it eventually leads to a better future. So, how do we pass through this phase?

My Comment: People are beginning to think correctly. Indeed, we’re transitioning from a world based on egoistic reception toward a world based on altruistic bestowal. We’re transitioning toward the realization that we need this new kind of world whether we get there via the path of endless suffering or through understanding nature’s plan. The former, the path of suffering, is the one on which we began.

By explaining to people the reasons for what is happening, we can accelerate the realization of the need to change ourselves and society, and to change our attitude toward the world. However, a mere understanding that the ego is evil and that it must be changed to altruism, love, and bestowal is not enough to continue our life here on earth. We need the power to change ourselves, and this doesn’t exist in our world.

At this point, we begin to realize why the science of Kabbalah with the method of correcting our nature has been given to us in such an unusual way. We begin to realize why true inner change and, hence, survival is impossible without this method. All past attempts at change have led to the emergence of religions and various belief systems. The results are clearly evident: Evil has remained and continues to develop along with them.

Peaceful Unification Of Opposing Forces In The Middle Line

admin.bb — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:04:44 +0000

The Zohar, Chapter “VaEra (And I Appeared),” Item 41: Also, the south grips to the east because the warmth in the south grips to the warmth in the east. And the east grips also to the north because its moisture grips to the moisture in the north. It turns out that south and east are tied to each other through the warmth in both; the east and north—through the moisture in them; north and west—through the cold in both; west and south through the dry in both; and all are included in one another, hanging down in one another.

If we are not building the middle line, then forces (of north and south) which are opposite one another are growing. Because they don’t come to reconciliation through the middle line, they collide and try to cancel each other. This causes an explosion. Then just like a volcano explodes in Iceland in our world, a war becomes ignited within a person or outside between people. Everything happens because these two lines, the right and the left, reached some magnitude and collided rather than united peacefully into the middle line.

People are the ones who have to perform the connection through the middle line at our level. Then peace will also come to all the previous, lower levels. We have ready the capability for us to create the middle line. If we are not building it then a short circuit occurs between the two poles and this leads to disorders on all levels: inanimate (problems with ecology), vegetative, animal, and human, or at all levels at once. This all happens because we did not reach the correct connection in the middle line.

The left and the right lines conceal a great danger when they are in direct connection with one another. If the Light and the vessel connect without the screen then the “breaking of Kelim” occurs, but only at lower levels. The Zohar says that even though North and South, East and West are opposite to one another, each of them still has a capability to complement the other. However, if we don’t provide a connection for them through the middle line, they will meet anyway, out of balance and lacking peace, like enemies….

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, The Zohar

Perpetual Gain

admin_bb — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 08:01:07 +0000

Egoism, which is rooted in our nature, is the reason for our suffering. Since nature is inescapable, people attempt to limit the use of egoism by reaching all sorts of agreements, realizing that otherwise egoism will lead to confrontation and war. Countries make all possible efforts to sign treaties while at the same time they realize such treaties won’t radically change the situation, yet they understand that it is necessary to counter-oppose the power and the egoism, to curb it by force.

If only people knew that it is possible to correct our nature, that evil reveals itself through us specifically so that it could be corrected and bring us to something great and supreme! If only we knew that we can escape hardship, rise above death, and attain eternal and perfect life!

This is the knowledge that we try to bring to others, since merely understanding it will bring humanity tremendous relief. No one knows how much time it will take since nowadays time accelerates exponentially. This is why we have to keep working and not despair; we will see the fruit of our work in the nearest future.

We have to explain to the people why everything happens (for our correction), what the goal is (eternal and perfect life), and the good path to it (how to realize the goal with the Light’s help). Then people will understand what real life is, that it’s not just something we perceive at a given moment in our limited egoistic desires.

We sense transition from one Partzuf to another as death and the loss of everything there is. But if we perceived the world through the desire to bestow, this transition wouldn’t be felt as a loss since we would sense a larger, general system. Upon losing one’s Partzuf, a person still stays within the system and enters a new Partzuf. If one connects other people to his desire, he feels the eternal flow in everything that he undergoes.

Today, we don’t perceive eternity and it seems a disaster for us to lose our Partzuf and the ten Sefirot that we envision as “this life.” We don’t know anything except it.

It’s not so hard to explain this. Any person gains so much from listening to this information that he would want to know more. Ultimately, everybody dreams of eternity and perfection.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, Article “The Peace”

Life On A Blazing Volcano

admin_bb — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:42:03 +0000

A question I received: First there was an earthquake in China, then a plane crash, and now everyone is talking about the volcano erupting in Iceland which left all of Europe covered in volcanic ash. There’s a feeling that we’ve entered a streak of global catastrophes.

My Answer: Tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions are natural phenomena. However, everything that happens depends on human beings or, rather, on our alignment with the Creator, on our balance with nature. Since we’re becoming more and more egoistic, we’re interrupting the balance of nature’s forces more and more. This is why we feel the negative influence of nature in us and on us.

The consequences of the spiritual imbalance of forces that we create are unknown. Our opposition to nature, the Creator, is revealed on all levels (inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking) of nature. An eruption can occur anywhere since we’re living on a burning volcano. Our entire planet is a fire ball covered by a thin layer of the Earth’s crust; there’s a blazing volcano within.

These occurrences are a slight hint at the fact that we’re not taking care of our home, the Earth. Human beings need to bring the forces of nature into balance. The science of Kabbalah discloses to us how to do this.

However, at the present time, humanity doesn’t want to realize that everything that’s happening is a consequence of our own qualities and that everything depends on us. If our imbalance with nature intensifies, more serious problems will occur.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/10, Article “The Freedom”

Solution Of The Crisis: Recognition That We Are One

admin_bb — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:37:30 +0000

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.