Laitman.com » History

Israel’s Mission

bb_admin — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:23:09 +0000

The mission of the nation of Israel divides into several stages. First we rise to the degree of the end of correction ourselves. This is why we came out of the state of Babylon and then fell into the state of Egypt, and 400 years later received the method of correction while standing “beneath Mount Sinai.” Next, we rose to the level of the First Temple, which is essentially the particular end of correction for this group.

However, this is not yet the end of the world’s development, which is why we descended into exile and then rose to the level of the Second Temple, and finally, went into the last exile on the level of the nations of the world. Altogether, considering the intermediate phases, this was our fourth exile.

All phases of this path remained in our Reshimot, and thus, today we must finally correct ourselves. We will thereby rise to a level that is even higher than before since we mixed with the nations of the world, which will join us in the process of this final ascent. That is how we rise to the level of Israel’s correction and the level of the general correction.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

The Time Of Grandsons Is Here

bb_admin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:34:31 +0000

Baal HaSulam, “Mutual Guarantee” (abridged version): The merit of the forefathers is that from the height of their souls, they realized the principle of love for the neighbor without preliminary actions, which they were unable to realize. Thus, only the nation of Israel entered the mutual guarantee.

The Creator made one receiving desire, consisting of four “layers”—four levels of depth or Aviut. We start to discern the layers of egoism from light to heavy. The souls that have already completed the analysis and correction then help to perform the work on the following, coarser layers of desire of the common, single, broken soul.

First the souls belonging to the level of the forefathers are corrected. We also call them “the house of Abraham.” This is talking about thousands of people who attained the spiritual world under his leadership. Their Aviut was very small and therefore they did not need to attract the Light that reforms during the study. It was enough for them to unite with one another a little because there was no repulsion between them as they did not fall into egoism yet on all of its four levels.

The fall happened later, in the Egyptian exile, and only then did Israel start needing the Light that reforms, meaning the method received on Mount Sinai. After all, a person corrects only what surfaces in him. The Torah, the method of correction, is intended for work with the evil inclination. When it became revealed in Egypt, the force of the Light capable of correcting it became revealed.

However, on the level of the forefathers, there was no need for this yet. This is the most “transparent,” purest degree of level zero of Aviut, comparable to the state of conception. At this stage, the Torah and the Light that reforms are not necessary for correction since there is nothing to reform yet.

Next comes the level of the sons, with the Aviut of the first and in part, the second level. And then comes our turn, the second, third, and fourth levels of Aviut, belonging to the “period of the Messiah.” Every generation in this lineage corrects its own layer of the common desire, the common soul.

Thus, the forefathers did not need the study that evokes Light, being in states of “the desert.” It was enough for them to be in the situation that surfaced in Ancient Babylon. Each of them revealed his evil somewhat, which the Torah describes metaphorically by talking about how Abraham and Sarah came down to the Land of Canaan, how Isaac solved problems with Esau, and other issues.

Next, Jacob and his sons came down to Egypt and died there, in this great, receiving desire. Then the sons of Israel went through the burdening of the heart and wanted to work on unification together to rise above hatred. However, first they descended even lower in their Aviut, which is called “visiting the cities of Pitom and Ramses.” Stated differently, by attempting to unite with each other, they did not build wonderful unity, but instead created something petty, sordid, and dangerous.

That is how they reached the need to run away from egoism and then went through the “ten plagues,” meaning unsuccessful attempts to escape. Every time they asked Pharaoh to “let them go,” they were denied, until the sorrow became unbearable. Only then, in the state of pitch darkness, does a person run away from his egoism, ready to rise above it at any price, “Better death than this kind of life.” A person reaches the final decision, really wishing to unite with others, as one man with one heart in mutual guarantee, and then he receives the method of correction.

This method leads him along the stages of the spiritual path: Tme after time, he discovers destruction inside of him and corrects it with the help of the Light that reforms. As a result, he reveals and corrects his entire, enormous egoism.

This process does not occur in all of humanity, but in a small group of Abraham’s descendants. On the path, it goes through breakings, analogously to the spiritual world, and falls down. And only later, in our days, does the true work of correcting the common soul begin.

Thus, even though since the times of the sin of the soul of Adam HaRishon, the forefathers and sons completed their work and attained their end of correction on the level of the First Temple, nevertheless descents followed after that, corresponding to the spiritual breakages. Both Temples were destroyed, similar to the two Partzufim in the world of Nekudim.

Now, after millennia of intermixing, we are reaching the analysis and correction—the self-realization. Precisely now, after all of the necessary “introductions,” the real work begins. The preparation is finished, and all that’s left is to correct ourselves.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Let’s Attack Pharaoh All Together

bb_admin — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:30:45 +0000

Question: At the December convention, will it be possible to make a huge leap in the inner worlds?

Answer: We do not make a leap at the convention, but we go from our lowest state, which does not even have a name and does not belong to the spiritual ladder, to the first degree on it. This is not a leap.

We have to understand the difference between our preliminary work, which takes place before we step onto the ladder of the spiritual degrees, and work on these degrees. The preliminary work is very group-oriented. I include myself in others, they influence me and I influence them. I don’t have my own spiritual individuality yet. I don’t exist as a spiritual individual yet.

Therefore, if I include myself into thousands of people who are around me, I receive their opinions, desires and forces, and like in our world I use the capabilities that society has, which enables me to reduce my path a great deal. It’s analogous to taking an uneducated person from the jungle and teaching him to be a prince, like in the musical My Fair Lady.

We can all receive support from the common brain and the common heart, from our inclusion in one another. When I become included in the general field that others create and in which all Kabbalists of past generations take part, all souls, the entire common soul, then I receive the forces enabling me to make the leap.

It turns out that others worked for 20 years to attain the spiritual level while I came just a couple of years ago (or maybe 3 or 4 years ago, since every person requires a minimal time period), yet everything depends on my desire. I can become included in this common unity and ascend together with everyone.

There is a saying that goes, “Ask Me and I will render,” which means we can receive the spiritual state in advance and pay for it afterwards. This is possible.

But when a person already starts rising up the spiritual levels, a more individual development occurs there. Even though it also presupposes mutual inclusion with others, there a person starts consciously working with the Light and discerning desires.

Therefore, those who do not have spiritual attainment yet can adhere to society the way a small child holds on to an adult. Everything depends on a person’s efforts: He has the opportunity to participate in the convention and enter spirituality by virtue of the whole system.

Similarly, we also don’t repeat the corrections that the great people of the past generations completed. We are like little children they lift in their arms, allowing us to rise even higher. We are standing upon the platform they created.

And the same thing will happen with the beginners who join us at the convention: They will receive the same kind of support from us, from their “previous generations.”
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

From Grades To Values

bb_admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:35:27 +0000

Question: Recently I took part in a conference which among other things discussed the alternative to the current system of graded matriculation exams. The previous methods are outdated, but still, don’t students have to be evaluated somehow?

Answer: Let’s get right down to the essence of the problem. The only thing we want from a person is for him to be able to correct his soul. This is why people are born and why they live, and if they don’t achieve this, they continue in the next life cycle. Therefore, a child’s recommendations or record should be written only from this standpoint.

What’s really important is not what grades a child receives in physics, chemistry, history, biology, and other subjects. Maybe he’s not very quick on the uptake in these subjects, or maybe he has the qualities needed to be a circus performer. Some people are drawn to music but aren’t very good at math.

Yet we put children into a classroom and stuff them all with the same material instead of developing their uniqueness and individuality. We place everyone under one standard, pack them into one stencil, and the press of the education system churns them out without any analysis.

This system was necessary 100-200 years ago to reforge simple farmers into factory workers. But today we are entering a new era. Production and agriculture will require just a few percent of all humanity. We will divide this burden between us, but mainly we will focus on the inner work. The time has finally come to develop man as an individual, to enrich his inner world. The level of attainment in various “external” subjects cannot be a criterion here. We are all different and this approach is simply incorrect.

As for the grading system, it has discredited itself completely. It forces a person to make bitter pittances, “Here’s what you need. Take it, choke on it, and leave me be!” After all, it’s not me developing, but others forcing me to demonstrate my knowledge orally and in writing.

A person’s formation cannot be approached by the common standards. It requires an individual approach. Therefore, the main subject should be the development of the individual: an understanding of life and interpersonal relationships. Who am I? What kind of world am I living in?

A person has to find out about this through conversations and discussions. His eyes have to be opened, showing him the pieces of the general puzzle and explaining their essence. It’s time to stop sitting children down with textbooks that give them knowledge but not understanding. This completely stupefies and disorients them. In the future people won’t be able to tear themselves away from the TV and will continue to live as if under hypnosis. Maybe this would be good for the authorities, but at the end of the day, there is nothing good about this.

Thus, grades have to be revoked. Every instructor and educator will provide his own response about a student. Classes will turn into groups and will take a joint path of study, unification, mutual activities, and most important, upbringing. A person should not be worried about grades, but on the contrary, if you have prepared him, then he checks himself by the right values, understands what he wants in life, what he belongs to, what he is capable of, what he can enjoy and how he can make others enjoy.

Then he will choose a profession that he is drawn to and in which he will be successful. After all, you teach and raise him ahead of time. You take him on trips to different places and show him life in its diversity and unity. During the school years he can already try his hand at different things and find his calling.

In the past people started learning a profession from childhood and learning from the adults’ experience. There has to be personal contact with professional instructors, rather than the formal relationships that exist today.

When people learn to find a profession that suits their personality, the number of people entering universities will decrease, and the universities will change as well. Today many people choose an academic profession by mistake or out of necessity, and then they suffer their whole lives. The education system has to give people more freedom. We are being destroyed by dry grades and study programs that are not adapted to modernity. From childhood they pressure people and limit their development.

Yet a person has to develop towards society and the environment, transitioning from self-evaluation and self-analysis to an analysis of the world. By harmoniously entering the world and society, he will feel that he is an absolutely integral part of it. This is the correct result of upbringing. A person will simply feel, “I am responsible for the world and the world is mine!” He will feel good in the world and the world will also recognize and value his contribution.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/11, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

To The Memory Of My Teacher

bb_admin — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:56:05 +0000

Today marks 20 years since the day of my Teacher’s passing. Baruch Shalom Halevi Ashlag was the last great Kabbalist in the lineage of sages from Adam until our days: Adam – Abraham – Moses – Rashbi – Ari – Baal HaSulam – Rabash, and many thousands between them.

Rabash showed great bravery by transmitting the Kabbalistic method to us so that in this generation we would be able to bring it to the whole world. Without his work we would not have this opportunity. I saw how firmly he abided by this principle: The revelation of the science of Kabbalah to the world is above all other calculations.

During the predawn hours we ascended into Jerusalem and visited his burial place. Of course, this place for us is no more than a symbol or custom because our connection with our Teacher is alive and constant. We all hope to become his worthy sons, which is why we named our group “Bnei Baruch”—the sons of Baruch Ashlag.
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From the TV Program “Conversations,” The Day of Rabash’s Memory

Transition From Material Psychology To The Spiritual

bb_admin — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:48:56 +0000

In the past, Kabbalists who wished to reveal the spiritual world had to start in our world and work through it, through various sciences, with enormous efforts and suffering, meaning they had to pull themselves directly from matter itself to the revelation of the spiritual world and reveal the correct system of connections between people.

But then the compositions of the Ari were revealed, in which he explains about the inner connections that unite us through various special systems of relationships: ZON, YESHSUT, Aba ve Ima, Arich Anpin, and so on. By that he explains to us what forms of connection we can be in, how their different connections influence us, and how we can influence them ourselves and awaken these forms of connection. What happens there is the same thing as in our world, but in the quality of bestowal.

Just like in our world where we are able to activate certain types of connections so they would in turn begin influencing us, the same net of relationships connects us in the spiritual world as well, except that it is more internal. Thus, we go from materialistic psychology to the spiritual one, and then we reveal the true connection between the souls, the people living now and the people who lived before. It does not matter whether a person exists in this world right now or not. What’s important is to tune into this net. Then it’s as if our world evaporates, loses its importance because it is just an external imprint through which we have to enter inside.

The Ari described all of this, and the Baal Shem Tov taught how to work with all of the soul’s loyalty (Mesirut Nefesh), saying, “The Creator is your shadow.” And now, after all of this, by working in the group (which was restored by Baal Shem Tov anew, after Rashbi) we can draw the Light that reforms from this net. We do not simply attain it with our desires and forces, but attract an illumination called the Light that reforms, the Light of the Torah, the Surrounding Light, to ourselves from above, from this net.

After all, if we study the structure of this system and aspire to it all together, wishing to organize the same forms of connection among us, then it doesn’t even matter whether we understand it or not—our effort will awaken the influence of this force upon us.

It’s just like in our world: If we want to attain any system, then we become part of it, study it in various forms, and gradually begin to feel it. Suddenly, a picture of this system comes together inside of us and we understand what this is and how it is possible to connect and work with it. The same thing happens in the spiritual world: Only a person’s intention changes. When he becomes included in the upper system, he does it for the sake of bestowing himself to this system. The more he becomes included in it, the further he advances toward revealing it.

This requires great work with the teacher, the friends, the whole world, and the studies. All of this connects together.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam

The American Dream Boomeranging Back

bb_admin — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:12:09 +0000

Question: Should the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah in America differ from its dissemination in other countries due to the influence of the “American dream,” which we are supposedly able to achieve here—the dream of lots of money, a good life,…? How can we fight this stereotype?

Answer: I think that other countries still have fantasies that it is possible to attain this “dream” in America. Yet, I think all of this is becoming a thing of the past. People have to wake up from the dream. I don’t think this “dream” will last much longer, both for those living in America and for those living abroad.

Look at how Americans are losing respect in the whole world, how people are no longer showing a good attitude to them and are in fact starting to look down upon them. And soon this will even turn into hatred. This is happening particularly because people do not wish to tolerate America’s attitude to them, the attitude of a country that allows itself the liberty to do anything it wishes.

Therefore, I don’t think this “American dream” has any power. As the crisis gets worse, more and more people in the world will reveal that the “American dream,” which has already melted, was built at their expense because America shrewdly exploited the whole world. And this will come back to it as a very powerful boomerang.

To the extent we disseminate the method of correction, which lies in unity, equality, and mutual guarantee, we will save ourselves from blame and blows, as it is written, “Love will cover all sins.” We won’t try to settle old scores, but will create new, kind relationships. Whatever happened happened. It’s not worth raking up the past.

If we start settling old scores, then the whole world will come to America with complaints because that is how its economic systems are built: at the expense of other nations. Only the method offered to us by the science of Kabbalah will cleanse all the old scores until today, and from here on we will begin building something new, without remembering any of what happened yesterday.
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From the New York lecture #2, 9/12/11

All Of Human Development Is The Development Of Connections

bb_admin — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:38:24 +0000

A person cannot exist separately from society. We are deliberately built in a way that obligates us to live among other people. This follows from the breaking of the common soul into many particular souls.

In order to reveal the Creator, we have to reveal the broken connection between us and correct it. Then, by attaining His actions, we will attain His perfection. This is why we are built so not one of us is able to live in total isolation. Otherwise he would slide down to the level of an animal. If a person has developed to the human level, then he has to live like a person, meaning use everyone else and also contribute his part to everyone.

The development of humanity should be viewed as the development of connections between us and of our dependence on one another. First only families existed. Then large familial communities began to develop, followed by tribes, then villages, cities, and nations. A few hundred years ago, active international trade began between many countries.

This is exactly why developed nations traveled to conquer other countries and to discover new lands, feeling that they lack connections. The egoistic desire always pushes us toward interconnection and exchange.

That is how we developed the economy, which is a reflection of our inner aspiration to be connected with one another. This is why the entire economy is built upon our egoism, on the will to enjoy that feels that it must win and profit at the expense of everyone else: I give to you, you give to me, and so on. One person was a farmer, another – a craftsman, and by uniting, everyone gained great profit.

It’s clear that it is impossible to stop the evolutionary development and to produce everything by yourself, maintaining a natural household, the way people once did in ancient times. That is how we built all the forms of connections between us. They all agree with our egoistic character, which developed over many millennia and generations until in our time, we suddenly revealed that this connection is no longer as simple as we thought when we looked at things from our ego! Today a different connection is being revealed – one that’s mutual and universal. That is how it is being revealed from nature’s end.

We built the connection in whatever way we wanted to, the way it seemed best for us for establishing profitable connections with one another. We built it by our free desire, following the demands of our egoism. This is what gave rise to politics, society, economy, family, education, and all of the vital systems.

But suddenly, some kind of new connection is being revealed, which is different and contradicts everything I have done until now! That is why a problem emerges and a crisis is breaking out.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/17/11, “The Nation”

There Is No Love Without Hate

bb_admin — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:07:46 +0000

When we are talking about spiritual concepts, if there is no hatred in the beginning, there will be no love later on. It is written, “I created the evil inclination and I created the Torah as a spice because the Light in it returns one to the source.”

The good source is love. But it cannot be revealed unless evil, hatred, and rejection are disclosed first. We should get used to the fact that love and hatred are always revealed and work together.

This is why we discover both hatred and love in our society, and we should understand that one is impossible without the other. We are not perfect angels, preserved at the inanimate level, but people with all of our cruel egoism.

To the extent that you yearn to feel love, you will discover only greater hatred. That is the only way you will become worthy of “the exit from Egypt” and will come to “Mount Sinai.” The mountain of hatred, “Mount Sinai” is the result of our previous work.

The Tower of Babel is only the beginning; nothing was revealed there. Therefore, 20 generations from Adam HaRishon until Abraham, being the first generations of Kabbalists, are called the forefathers. This is only the initial preparation because a strong desire was not revealed there yet.

The first time that the desire was disclosed was in Babylon, which is where the science of Kabbalah originated. There was already a small mountain of hatred there: “The Tower of Babel” above which it was possible to rise. The science of Kabbalah, the science of connection, was born there, and people who were capable of connecting emerged there as well. Thus, is always revealed above hatred.

Therefore, there is no need to be afraid of the fact that the world today is revealing hatred. We just have to let it be revealed naturally and precede the blow with a remedy so that hatred will be revealed with understanding consciously. And we have to be confident in the fact that we have the precise instructions on how to use it correctly.
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From the lesson on 8/15/11, Selected excerpts on The Day of Love

The Crisis Is Here For Our Own Good!

bb_admin — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:17:38 +0000

Question: At a time when governments are unable to govern, economists are unable to regulate, and nations are in disarray, both on their own and because of the manipulation coming from virtual networks, the world is facing a threatening lack of instability. What can bring this ship that’s out in a stormy sea back into balance?

Answer: Right now the global, integral, universal interdependence between everyone is being revealed in our world more and more clearly, and it’s happening in all areas and dimensions of human activity. This global interconnection is paralyzing all of our efforts to regulate anything by the outdated, forceful political, economic, and social methods.

The only way we know to control things is egoistically, within a discrete system, by considering the source of pressure, the object of pressure, and the goal. But the world has acquired an integral, analog form of universal, mutual dependence. This is the expression of the next level of development in humanity—the state of total interaction between parts of one organism. This is the evolutionary plan of our development by nature, the plan of evolution.

The appearance of the altruistic image of our next degree of development within our egoistic, individualistic society is bringing to light our opposition to that image. This is the essence of the crisis, our lack of correspondence to the next level.

We will have to assimilate our next state either by the path of suffering or through realization and purposeful efforts. Either way, we will have to study it and change ourselves to suit its demands for the same reason that creatures that were unable to adapt to new conditions and demands from nature went extinct. But nature has planned our ascent to this level—the attainment of harmony with nature. To accomplish that, we have to become integrally interconnected as one whole, as all of nature. In our language this demand means, “everyone loves everyone,” and “everyone is included in everyone.”

The way to carry out this demand from nature is by applying the method of our egoistic correction called “Kabbalah,” which comes from the word “to receive or acquire,” to acquire new, altruistic qualities.

Many thousands of years ago, in every generation there were separate individuals who acquired these qualities and felt the new level of humanity’s development. This is described in authentic Kabbalistic sources. We cannot understand them because they describe a different structure of interconnections among people, their relationships of love and bestowal, called the soul, their sensation of unity and commonality, which is called the upper world, the following dimension.

However, we can use their instructions to change ourselves, to make ourselves suitable to the new conditions, and thus to start feeling the next level of the world—its harmony, eternity, and perfection. Then we will be convinced that nature’s goal is perfect just like nature.
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Give The Power To Science!

bb_admin — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 09:29:31 +0000

If we look at different history textbooks, we will see how different their descriptions are. It would seem that humanity went through the same history, including all of its problems, wars, troubles, and successes, yet every nation describes it from its point of view. As a result, textbooks that are supposed to reflect the truth end up contradicting one another.

Sometimes I speak with leaders of different movements in other countries. Each of them is absolutely certain that his movement has to lead the whole world. This includes religious and secular movements, organizations related to ecology, wildlife protection, and many others. While I am among them, how do I differ from them?

Without trying to answer that question, we bring the Kabbalistic message to people in a different form. We do not try to prove who is right and who is wrong, and we don’t dissect different opinions. We don’t try to examine things from the standpoint of history or a religious direction because in each of these areas every person can present his own rationale to justify his opinion.

We invite people only to disengage from everything there is – from the past and the present, and to look into the future from the present moment. In this point we see that nature obligates us to set up the right interconnection, to enter balance, mutuality, and harmony, similar to a single body, an integral, global, pan-human system that senses itself and functions truly as one whole.

Nature obligates and pushes us to this. There is a lot of research confirming this, and we can rely on it. Besides, we don’t have anything else. All we can rely on is science, as it is written, “A person is guided only by what he sees.” Today facts are all we need, and we have to advance according to them.

The facts indicate that whether we want to or not, we are becoming a global, integral society that is internally welded by interconnection and total mutual guarantee. Essentially, this is the tendency of all of nature, and from one day to the next we see how it is becoming expressed more and more clearly.

A question arises: What is our role in this process? Can we now invent anything artificial, following whatever idea some politician, sociologist, political scientist, or other party has suddenly thought up? The world has already tried out all sorts of ideas and humanity has suffered duly due to them.

Perhaps we should simply research nature and be guided by the results of our research, not considering anything else but this? If we advance based on our research, which is conducted in nature, then there is no doubt that out of all the opportunities that little people have on this tiny earth, forsaken at the edge of the galaxy, which is forsaken on the outskirts of the universe, at least we have this one, real chance.

So let’s not sink into philosophy and demonstrate irreconcilability. From experience we already know that when you stand your ground and I stand mine, this only leads to wars and self-annihilation.

Today we desperately need a common denominator, which can only come from the inviolable laws of nature. Based on these laws, we can build the integrated society that is aimed at creativity rather than destruction.
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From a conversation about a new book on 7/11/11

Let’s Take The Good Path To Unity

bb_admin — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:27:39 +0000

Question: What do you think about the current events and the current tendency, and in particular, how do you feel about the events that have unraveled over the last couple of days in England and Chile?

Unfortunately, the whole world will soon be enveloped in a fire of chaos because there is no remedy for what’s happening, and no one will find it either. Why don’t you wait it out until people see that nothing helps, and will then agree to listen to you?

Many years ago, during his post as Great Britain’s PM, the historian Gordon Brown along with many other influential individuals said that the world is one. They understood that only the unification of all people will give this world the solution to all of its questions and crises. Why, then, didn’t they resolve these questions through unification, by introducing a new kind of upbringing and promulgating the mutual guarantee, as you are doing?

Answer: Throughout all of history, humanity was nudged forward by the egoism that developed individually within every one of us. We aspired to realize and fill it. Our entire existence amounted to this. But in our time nature is not guiding us to develop our egoism further because it has developed to the maximum and has been showing us its emptiness for 50 years now.

Our egoism has become interlinked and that is why we are revealing that we are interconnected. This is what we call “the global world.” In reality, it’s not the world, but us who have become global. And therefore, as scientists ascertain, we should not develop egoistically, but globally, meaning we should correct the connections between us.

That is where all of the world’s scientists came to a halt because no one in the world knows how to do that. And the more disorder surfaces in the world, the more it will signify that the world needs correction more urgently.

Once the world became integral and interconnected, it started being governed by two forces: not just the force of egoism, which pushes us from behind systematically, by nature’s program, the way it did throughout all of its history; but also by the force of attraction toward the goal – to our unified state. However, we have to compel this force to influence us similar to how a child would remain an animal if he did not aspire to become an adult.

The method of Kabbalah is intended to evoke upon us the influence of the force that aspires “forward,” toward unity. Otherwise we will be pressured only by the negative force “from behind,” which will continuously evoke greater global suffering, down to wars. That is why Kabbalah is being revealed precisely at this time. All Kabbalists wrote about this. For example, see Baal HaSulam’s articles “The Revelation of Godliness,” “Mutual Guarantee,” and “Peace in the World.”

Besides, we have to understand that the more suffering is expressed in the world under the influence of the negative force that pushes us forward, the more it indicates that the world needs a force pulling it forward so our movement forward, toward unification will not occur as a result of suffering that chases us on, but by the good path, the good force that sweeps us forward.

Because the nation of Israel was created based on the method of uniting people, according to the principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” therefore, even after falling from this moral level it retained an “altruistic gene” that can evoke a force that accelerates progress and sweeps people forward, toward unity. But if Israel does not evoke this force and the world moves toward its goal pressured by suffering, then the nations of the world are right to assert that the nation of Israel is the source of all of the suffering in the world.

Although this nation did not choose to be the conductor of the method of correction, it is unable to free itself from this mission. The suffering of the nations of the world will evoke such great pressure from their end and such fury at the nation of Israel that this will obligate Israel to become the leader in the world’s correction.
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Why Are The Rioters So Aggressive?

bb_admin — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:12:05 +0000

Question: Where do the rioters and pillagers in England and earlier – in France, get such a huge force of aggression?

Answer: For the first time in history, the young generation, along with the previous generation – their parents, both realize that the young generation will have a worse life than the previous. And moreover, it’s uncertain whether it will live at all and for how long.

People have always believed that “our children will be better off than we are.” Particularly from the middle of the 20th century on, the following generation lived much better than the previous. But this tendency ended with the completion of egoism’s growth and its closure into an integral system, which we do not correspond to. Therefore, we do not know how to live from here on.

An enormous feeling of uncertainty has emerged, which evokes feelings of fear and then aggression, and the willingness to make any actions just to bring what is happening to light. The solution to the problem lies in upbringing, meaning an explanation of the fact that if we become similar to nature, we become omnipotent like it.

Equivalence to nature means bringing our involuntary, egoistic unification to a voluntary, altruistic, mutual one, until we reach universal love. Inside that love, we will reveal our eternity and perfection, which are present in nature’s very foundation.
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Are We Looking For A New Message Or A New Messiah?

admin_bb — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:36:31 +0000

Opinion: (John Lichfield on Stéphane Hessel’s book Indignez-vous!): “Mr Hessel’s slim volume – very slim – called Indignez-vous! (‘Protest!’ or ‘Cry out!’) is a publishing and social phenomenon across the Channel. More than 600,000 copies have been sold since October. The ‘book’, 19 rambling pages…, has been chosen by the readers of Le Monde as the publishing event of 2010.….

“Indignez-vous! urges young people to emulate the wartime spirit of resistance to the Nazis by rejecting the ‘insolent, selfish’ power of money and markets and by defending the social ‘values of modern democracy’….

“We know that the growth-led model for economic and political success threatens to destroy the planet. At the same time, we cannot seriously imagine any other model….

“The runaway success of his book suggests that there is a vast, potential followership (and not just in France) for a new political Messiah of the centre-left: someone who could articulate the anger and frustration of the middle classes (the new ‘masses’) and offer a convincing, democratic way through the sinister muddle of the early 21st century.”

My Comment: Unfortunately, no one says (understands) that the “the fulcrum to move the earth” is in man himself, in his change. Having changed, a person will change the world around him or her. As throughout history, man changed and by learning the laws of nature, changed the world, so now, he should first change himself, understand nature more deeply, and only after that, change the world around him.
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The Only Religion Is The Revelation Of The Creator

admin_bb — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:17:54 +0000

Question: Throughout history, lots of people have done terrible things in the name of God, and the question is: Was it their immorality that did it, or was it a correct interpretation of immoral scriptures that commanded it?

Invariably however, despite it being completely unrelated to the question, people will point to the terrible atheists throughout history, such as Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao, and erroneously, Hitler.

Hitler certainly didn’t like Catholicism, and he certainly did toss priests and Catholics into camps. He tried several times to impose his type of Christianity on the country during his regime, he thought of himself as doing God’s work (according to Mein Kampf and several speeches), his soldiers had to take an oath to God of allegiance and many featured the phrase “Gott Mit Uns” (God with us) prominently on their uniforms. His regime even banned books that “belittled” the faith or God, or that advocated Darwinism.

The question is: “Are there fundamental elements of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, that result in such events, even (or especially) when correctly applied?”

Answer: According to Kabbalah, the only religion in the world is the firsthand revelation of the Creator to all people in the world as the sole controlling force. We can disclose the force only in its material manifestation. This matter is us ourselves.

If we try to change ourselves from egoism to bestowal and love, then according to the law of equivalence of form, the upper force of nature is revealed, which is called “Boreh,” from the words “Bo” or “come” (reach) and “Reh” or “see” (discover). All the rest are human inventions, and thus, there are so many of them, and they are not based on a study of the world or nature.
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The Time Has Come To Complete Our History

admin_bb — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 07:16:58 +0000

Until now, humanity has not written its own history but fit into it instead. However today, in our new stage of development, we will be the ones completing our history. This opportunity is being given to us for the first time after thousands of years of infancy.

Over the entire course of history, man developed under the rule of egoism, the constant growth of which automatically obligated us to search for the means and ways to satisfy our desires. In this way, nature directed our movement by basically stripping us of the freedom of will. Man did not change himself consciously; rather, nature changed him according to its program.

From our point of view, it appeared as though we changed the environment according to our requests whenever needed, but now the time has come for man to change and correspond to nature. Scientists are beginning to agree with this.

In general, what is “nature” which we have tried to conquer in vain for so long?

When a mother leaves the nursery, leaving her baby to play with his toys, does the baby feel free? Yes. He really enjoys his time alone and doesn’t understand that she is watching him with her attentive and loving eyes. He senses that he is free.

This is how “nature,” the system of governance where we exist, is concealed from us as well. It begets our sensation of freedom, although in reality freedom simply does not exist. This illusion was specifically planned by evolution so that we would develop freely in our egoism, using and following our desires as much as our nature, qualities, and possibilities would allow us.

And we thought this was good, that we could and should develop this way. Social relationships and technologies changed; we constantly changed things, hurried somewhere following the command of our essence, our growing egoistic desires. At the same time, we wanted even greater power over nature. Man did not think about what he was doing; he simply acted on his desires.

When nature gives us certain desires, we can only work within their boundaries. We cannot go beyond them. Food, sex, family, knowledge, fame, money, and power, every person has his own combination of these desires and realizes them accordingly. Nature moves us gradually from the inside, “from behind.” The impulses it awakens in us in combination with the surrounding environment determine everything.

Essentially, I represent an administrative mechanism. Desires awaken within me, certain circumstances happen, but I am limited by my morals, my physical and mental abilities, as well as the norms of my environment, and the common laws of a global nature. In the end, I merely try to realize my desires as much as possible under conditions that were not set up by me. Thus, it turns out that I am no more than an administrative mechanism. The desires and conditions are predetermined, and all this pushes me towards self-realization.

This was our path: Man’s mistakes, his good and bad actions, all of these were necessary and unavoidable in the previous stages of development until the current time. Against his will, man received innate properties and found himself in a particular environment without a choice.

And still, he did not think that all this was predetermined. Like a child, he was simply playing and feeling free due to his mother’s absence, while she simply slipped away from his field of vision.
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From the Talk about a New Book 7/18/2011

In The Zone Of Choice

bb_admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:19:23 +0000

In the past egoism spurred us on from behind and from the sides, always leaving the path forward free. However, today the barriers are not arising along the sides, but in front of us. It’s as if a wall rises up before us, leaving us no place to run, nothing we can do.

This state is becoming more and more apparent: I don’t really want anything, I don’t feel that I can keep growing in my egoism. It is incapable of giving me answers to the questions that arise in me today. I have outgrown the previous phases and have entered the next level of questions, the level of adulthood and new necessities.

Food, sex, family—all of these are falling apart, taking on strange, “mutated” forms. Wealth, fame, and knowledge don’t seem to promise me a lot either.

Science is in a crisis and does not answer my questions, even though a mere 50-60 years ago it still seemed like it would give us answers to everything.

Power has become petty in our eyes: We see that its only objective is money. And money…. Is it really worth wasting your entire life on!? My questions have already outgrown any number of zeros that a bank account can display.

When a person loses the necessary “fuel,” emptiness emerges inside of him and he finds himself asking, “What is worth living for? For myself? But I lack fulfillment. For my children? But when they get older, they will leave the nest. And besides, why raise them at all? What bright future do they have ahead? Disintegrating families and a decomposing society?” A person does not feel attached to anything and does not have hopes for anything. That is the kind of impasse that our questions have led us to.

But there is also a completely different reason for the dead-end state: We are exhausting the natural resources. Today it is already clear that human progress won’t be infinite, both from the point of view of our demands and from the point of view of our existence as a whole. If we continue squandering the natural resources at the current rate, then very soon we won’t have any raw materials left even for the vitally necessary products.

90% of what we produce today consists of oil, be it energy, plastic materials, and so on. When the oil reserves end, we will be left with nothing. But nevertheless, we still keep on squandering it.

Thus, on one hand nature places a barrier before us in the form of ecology, climate, and resources, and on the other hand, egoism no longer pushes us forward. It asks questions that we cannot find answers to here, in our world, in this small children’s room where we had so much fun playing until now.

Today the situation already resembles suicide: We are irrationally using up the last remaining resources.

We have to understand that because of this, we find ourselves in the zone of choice. This is where freedom of will emerges, the freedom for us to start understanding the program of our development: “Who are we? Why are we here? What for?”, and together with us, the rest of the world. Now is exactly the time for us to solve this challenge. Otherwise humanity will find itself in a truly hopeless impasse.

In reality the gist of the problem is not the financial crisis, the technology crisis, or the crisis of families. We are in a crisis with ourselves. We have to understand who we are and what we are here for, both from the point of view of nature, which obligates us to this, and from our own point of view. Only then will we be able to set things right inside of us and in the world.
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From the Talk about a New Book 7/11/2011

An Appeal To Correct The World

bb_admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:10:09 +0000

The Book of Zohar, written in the 2nd century CE by Rabbi Shimon and his students, is intended for humanity’s spiritual correction. In this book, the authors revealed a system of controlling the universe, but they did so with great caution.

The book is written in a certain style so it could be understood only by those who are in spiritual attainment and who penetrate into the inner meaning of the words. Others perceive The Zohar as a book about various miracles or as a historical narration.

The initial revelation of The Book of Zohar in the 10th century CE elicited many negative consequences, which are felt to this day. Humanity did not understand this book because it was not ready for its emergence. People decided that it spoke about miracles and mysticism, and began using it to produce amulets, poisons, antidotes, and so on.

On the other hand, the dissemination of The Book of Zohar played a positive role by accelerating humanity’s internal development. The force concealed in this book gave a powerful impulse to jump-start technological and social development, eventually bringing our generation to the need to get rid of egoism.

Today, when global interdependence is being revealed in the world, The Book of Zohar is intended to help humanity adapt to the new system and to understand the essence of its existence. The success of this process depends on the dissemination of the exalted wisdom in the masses.

Kabbalists’ current actions to unite are “pushing” the method of correction through into the world. An enormous Light emanates from us, even though we do not even feel this ourselves yet. The world is beginning to see, feel, and understand what kind of state it is in. Many scientists are already writing about the necessity to change human nature, but don’t know how to do this.

Therefore, our task is to disseminate the method of spiritual correction in the world. Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Messiah’s Horn” (meaning, an appeal to correction) talks about this mission. Without gaining basic knowledge about the goal of its existence, humanity will fall into despair and is at risk of making many grave mistakes, even to the point of letting another world war break out.

The dissemination of the method of correction in the masses is called “a horn” (Shofar) because it is similar to the sound of a ram’s horn, which expands to great distances. The correct study and adaptation of Kabbalah, the right kind of work with friends in the group elicits a special Light, called “the prophet Elijah.” This is a force that reveals the secrets of the universe to us. Under its influence, the upper world begins to come through, to emerge from the veil of concealment. It is written, “Elijah will come and solve all the questions and problems,” meaning, this force will open up our eyes to the true picture of existence.

The revelation of Kabbalah to the masses is a preliminary and necessary condition of the total ascent from the egoistic level to the level of bestowal and love. Therefore, in our time the opportunity has emerged to create a full commentary to The Book of Zohar, with whose help we attract the upper Light and realize the method of humanity’s spiritual correction.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 7/31/2011

Could It Be That Pharaoh Was A Jew?

bb_admin — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:57:15 +0000

Question: I was shocked by your statement that American Jews are against Israel and its existence as a nation. What are your words based upon?

Answer: There is a purely psychological effect: When a person lives in a certain environment, he wishes to justify his existence in it. But if he has an additional environment, that means he is not entirely loyal to the one in which he exists, and therefore the environment perceives him as “not one of us.”

For example, this is apparent from people’s reaction to the Pollard case, and from my contact with many American Jews. They are very critical of Israel because it would be more comfortable for them if it were different, more attractive to Americans. The prevailing opinion among them is, “Israel is not acting right!” Not to mention their love and support of Obama…. And what about his Jewish advisers, who are bothered by Israel’s very existence in the context of their global plans….

Generally speaking, I suggest you look at history, at how America closed itself off to emigration of European Jews, indirectly sending them to the gas chambers. Yet President Roosevelt was known as ‘President Rosenfeld’ because of the great number of Jews in his administration, and Bernard Baruch, Roosevelt’s financier and adviser, was known as the ‘unofficial president.’

A while ago there was a documentary film about the history of television, called “The President of the Jews” which showed a full blown conflict between Bernard Baruch, the State Department, and Jews in the Treasury Department and the courts. Finally, the State Department created additional bureaucratic obstacles, such as a requirement to present a certificate of good behavior from the German police.

See: Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization, Nicholson Baker, 2008

Page 83: “Millions of strong, courageous European refugees could settle, proposed Baruch, in a place to be called the United States of Africa—a large nondenominational republic assembled from pieces of Kenya, Tanganyika, and Northern Rhodesia… ”

Also see: American refugee policy and European Jewry, 1933-1945, Richard Breitman, Alan M. Kraut, 1987

Page 233: “Baruch would be more likely to consider colonization of Jews on some undiscovered planet rather than Palestine.”
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A Systematic Discrepancy

bb_admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 09:31:35 +0000

We have never been in the situation that we are in today. We have never experienced a discrepancy between two systems. Today all of us together constitute a common, integral system (“We”), but it is egoistic. And at the same time we are inside of the natural system, which is permeated by bestowal and love. The difference or gap between these two systems is what creates the sensation of a crisis.

This difference keeps growing because we are developing in our egoism, while the upper system is coming closer to us. In particular, the crisis is being expressed precisely due to the revelation of nature.

In the past we expanded our system over the course of history, until we reached today—integrality and interconnection. However, every person continues to operate within his narrow interests, even though he can no longer shed the global bonds and is entirely dependent on others.

As a result, we end up with interdependence and mutual hatred, which stand in extreme contrast to the force of bestowal that influences us. Moreover, on the inside we are bound together with one another and at the same time, disunited to the maximum. And in addition, we are opposite to the Creator.

This opposition and difference in qualities brings us troubles. They are only starting, but at the same time they are inciting man to discover the reason for what is happening. After all, if something bothers or harms us, we pay attention to it.

Therefore, today, for the first time in history, the science of Kabbalah is being revealed to us. The time has come for us to consolidate so the Creator and creation would unite by a single force, a single connection. In other words, the time has come to correct the crisis, to get rid of the troubles, and to achieve discovering the system we are in, which is impossible without attaining the upper force.

We do not see the integrality of the natural system because we are not integral on the inside. We are discrete, disunited, and singular—each of us is by himself. I don’t have an integral mind, an integral way of thinking, and I cannot take the whole world into consideration.

But on the other hand, we constitute one whole, and by the law of a single body, I cannot make a single action unless I am sure that it will have a favorable affect on all of my systems. That is why we cannot attain success in anything.

In the modern world, no matter what system you look at, everything is falling apart: education, culture, the economy, relationships between people, families, children’s upbringing, and so on. Everything that we have created in the process of our development is crumbling. And this process will keep growing worse, becoming expressed more and more.

The problem here is not that we “screwed up” somewhere, because everything was initially programmed. It’s just that today all of our systems are opposite to the integral, correct system. Now I have to take the whole world into consideration, but by my nature, I am not accommodated to that. So what should I do?

I care only about myself, or at most—about my family, environment city, or even country…. But caring about the whole world? Even if I wanted to, how can I make this happen? I don’t have any preliminary base for that. For that I would have to be different on the inside. I must have an integral system inside of me so I would naturally think about the world as a whole just as I think about myself. That is the only way I will attain success in the economy, industry, and trade—in everything.

Otherwise, there will be no success. Today this is still weakly expressed, but soon the picture will begin becoming clearer.

Thus, nature or the Creator is obligating man to feel that he is part of the whole, a particular soul that belongs to the common soul. We suffer because we are not parts of the whole yet, and by this suffering each of us is being pushed to unite with others. However, the path of suffering is very difficult. As we know, it can bring us to death, and we’ll still have to suffer a lot until we get there.

That is why the science of Kabbalah is being revealed, wishing to explain the current state of affairs to us, to show us the system we are in, and to teach us to change ourselves, transforming from discrete fragments into integral parts, each of which contains all of the others.

For the first time in the history of human development, man no longer changes nature on the outside, does not make external egoistic actions, and does not use all of his knowledge to change something outside of him. The external changes have ended. Everything has become finally formed on the outside, has frozen, and won’t change any longer. From now on, I am the one who has to change.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/22/11, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence”

The Fruit Has Ripened

bb_admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 08:34:14 +0000

Why do we need the science of Kabbalah? What’s the need for it?

We perceive the world through the five senses. We see the “picture” of this world, live in it, and arrange our lives in it. We develop the sciences in order to attain it. We have enough mind and feeling for that. We study the world and accommodate ourselves to it in joyful and troubled times. Then why do we need the science of Kabbalah, even if it’s not fantasies or lies? Is it to know how many angels there are in the sky? Or to become acquainted with the upper force, the upper world?…. Maybe it’s time to go visit a doctor?

We don’t understand why we need this. Even the people who admit that Kabbalah speaks about the spiritual world still don’t feel a need for it. Some people are a little afraid of it, some feel repulsed by it and are negatively disposed to it. There are plenty of hindrances. And no one puts them there deliberately. It’s just that this is how we are built, this is our nature. We erect the obstacles on the path ourselves: We neglect it, don’t desire it, and reject it. After all, we are driven by the egoistic desire, which is far from the spiritual world and opposite to it.

As a result, the science of Kabbalah appears unrealistic to us. When we come to it, we don’t understand how this happened and what keeps us here. We often leave it and return to our regular lives, to the place where we have strength, money, and power in our hands, instead of a “fog.”

When Kabbalists attained the spiritual world, they understood how important and great it is. After all, it opens up the true life to a person, instead of the perishable existence on the animate level. We act on the level of the animate nature and depend on the body: I am alive as long as it is alive, and I die together with it. My “I” is inside of it. On the other hand, Kabbalists master the human level—the level of being similar to the upper force, of existing in attainment, in the sensation and power that is equal to the upper force, and of being equal to it to some extent.

Thus, the science of Kabbalah is a great asset that gives us eternal existence instead of our current miserable, short lives. But there’s no one you can tell this to. That is why the science of Kabbalah was concealed for a long time, until humanity starting feeling a need for it instead of neglect, fear, and dislike. That is what happened to us as well: We did not think or plan on it, but suddenly we felt a need for it. It turned out that without this, our life is base, animalistic, and empty. We lack fulfillment.

In reality, Kabbalists did not care what people were saying about the science of Kabbalah and how they viewed it. The world was always confused about it and believed in all sorts of fables. Kabbalists knew about this and did not pay any attention to it because their primary concern was to guard people from the “unripe fruit.” And the unripe fruit is not the science of Kabbalah, but man’s desire. Man is the unripe fruit. He is still unable to “digest” his ego and transform it into something good, so it would benefit him.

When unripe egoism that isn’t able to correct itself yet encounters the science of Kabbalah, it rehashes it into mystical teaching, philosophy, religion, New Age, and so on. Baal HaSulam writes that the revelation of The Book of Zohar by Rabbi Moshe de-Leon’s widow caused great damage, all sorts of obstacles and problems. That’s because people took the wrong path to spirituality, following their egoism instead of the desire to correct themselves.

However, today we have entered a new era. Kabbalists assert this and we see this in our world as well. The world already realizes that it has found itself in a foul situation. The universal crisis is enveloping the worldwide village in which everyone is interconnected by egoistic bonds. We are discovering that our egoistic network has become global, that we are inseparably and incorrectly interconnected.

We cannot come out of this situation and we don’t have any possibility of being saved from egoism’s clutches, which are pressing on us more and more strongly.
In these conditions, we are revealing the need for the science of Kabbalah, which is the only method that offers the real solution to the problem.
[48943]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/22/11, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence”

The Wind Of Change

bb_admin — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:16:46 +0000

I have a positive view of the globalization and integration that are being revealed in our times. Previously the world was driven by an egoistical impetus, which grew inside of us from one generation to the next, from one year to the next. Man developed egoistically, changing society, technologies, his life, and nature. But today this “trend” is coming to an end and now, with the emergence of the new tendency, everything will be different.

Nature has suddenly become closed and has expressed itself as “round,” integral. We won’t change nature any longer, but on the contrary, it is telling us: “Now you have to start changing.” Nature will not change anymore. It has reached the global, integral state. This has become a given, a new, indestructible format, and from now on we have to make ourselves match it.

This process is happening under pressure. Nature is constantly expressing itself as more and more integral, and we must also become more integral in the relationships between us. Otherwise we will have to suffer due to our lack of similarity to it.

For example, nature is showing us warming, and in response, we have to express more warmth. The winds on earth are blowing stronger, and we have to become imbued by “new currents.” It is necessary to have an equivalence of form, an equality of characteristics.

Therefore, shocks will pass over all of human society because whether we want it or not, a global format is “dressing” upon us. And what’s the first thing we are discovering? That our egoism is no longer working. Dictators and stand-alones are losing their power, isolated governments are ineffective, and separated organizations do not achieve results. The only ones making real actions are the people capable of unification.

As a result, power is shifting from separated, single governments to the people, who know how to unite. After all, they are “round” and integral, while the government is not.

A movement is starting all over the world now: the people will pressure the government more and more. Their actions might be disorganized and spontaneous, but they are interconnected. And the government will suddenly discover that it is standing before these people in fear and does now know what to do.

It would seem: Why not drive the people away? However, the balance of inner forces has changed and you cannot do anything about it anymore. In the past everything was simple: Let them shout on the streets to their heart’s content, let them tear apart a few shops, and a week later, when the food runs out, they will be on their way. But today this approach is not working. In some places the rulers and governments are already being forced to resign and even to escape.

This is the global, integral format that is more suitable for the people who unite than for egoistic governments, which are disunited and conflicting between each other and inside of themselves. The previous system is so opposite to the new model that not a single government will stay in power while playing by the old rules. It will be finished off by that same, highly praised “democracy.” A dictator would last longer by correctly choosing whom to attract to his side, whereas a clutter of parliamentary democracy is the opposite – it will rebuke its demise everywhere.

That is how every completed level nullifies itself: It expresses the inability to hold us back and becomes replaced by the next. All the best things we achieved at the previous phase not only become useless, but harmful, and thus, the old order gets buried beneath. This is what we will see.

Thus, bringing the people to unity and mutual guarantee means bringing them to similarity with the new natural format which is being revealed in our days. By attaining this similarity, we will succeed, flourish, and rise – even in the material sense, and especially in the spiritual development.

As for Israel, here too the commotion won’t settle and the protests will only keep mounting. The people will unite on every issue and will come forth against the government. This comes from the inside. People feel that those who are in power are worthless. The time of acclaimed leaders is gone. The politicians have become so mired by the “market relations” that you can’t reverse this anymore. The people are feeling a surge of energy because all of the global nature is standing behind them.

What will this global process finally lead to? To a world government. The regional differences will remain, being defined by the population’s personality and religion, but the boundaries will be erased completely. They are already blurred. The common government will be a government of sages, and it will be united, without any division into small or big. Everyone will enter the common union and will only care about unity.

After all, nothing more is necessary: If we are united, then we correspond to the upper Force. Unity is equality and mutuality, mutual guarantee. This way, the recent developments in the world are the beginning of a new phase of development, a new reality, a new social formation.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/11, “Arvut”

One Principle From Abraham Until Today

bb_admin — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 09:42:49 +0000

People come to Kabbalah with many illusions and incorrect ideas about this science, imagining it in whatever way their egoistic desire depicts it to them based on all kinds of rumors. People present it as mysticism and think that it is related to astrology, healing, blessings, miracles, holy water and red strings, and that it can be used to reveal the past and the future. After all, our ego is looking for some special kind of fulfillment for itself.

Therefore, at first everyone has a difficult time grasping the Kabbalistic principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Even if they agree with it, they approach it egoistically. This is the basis of all kinds of “spiritual” methods.

However, it takes special people to come closer to the true realization of the method of Kabbalah. This requires great endurance, many efforts, and mutual support from a group of people who are ready for this and who understand that otherwise they don’t have any chance of realizing themselves. Only through this mutual desire, the “common vessel,” can they receive the opportunity to become people and do something with themselves in order to rise above the material, animate existence to the “human” level.

The spiritual action that we have to do is expressed in the execution of the “613 commandments,” meaning actions of unity among people who have decided that they have to unite.

This is what happened during the times of Abraham and during the times of Moses as well. And it’s the same in our day. The principle is still the same. If fragments of the broken soul that was created by the Creator are ready to unite together in order to restore the common vessel, then it becomes a great summary of the Torah – the vessel for the Light. The Light becomes revealed inside of that common desire, the common efforts, the mutual support and guarantee.

Therefore, it’s pointless for a person to think about spiritual attainment and his self-realization unless he perceives all of this through unification with others, with “neighbors,” meaning with the same kind of people as himself, who also desire to unite and who understand that only by uniting will they acquire a second nature.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/11, Writings of Rabash

Living To Escape The Question About Meaning

bb_admin — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 10:33:33 +0000

We are in a reality where we have developed over thousands of years. At first we were savages, not knowing what for, how, and why—real animals. Then we started having human relations with one another, formed a society, and started developing technology.

And thus, gradually, through all of these events, we are discovering a process that was goal-oriented from the onset. New facets of desire were always revealed in humanity, continuously pushing us to a new turn in our development in order to fulfill ourselves. However, once we achieved a specific state, a specific level of development, we started experiencing desires that could not be realized in our world.

Man is suddenly contemplating things that you cannot find here. Food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge, in different variations and combinations—this is the entire selection. It would seem: What else can there be? And yet, one sunny day, man starts having new questions: about his root and about the reason for existence. Suddenly he notices that every object has a reason, a process, and a result—a beginning, development, and end. Apparently, I am not an exception?

This question no longer belongs to the animate level, but to the human in us. Until it appeared, creatures having the form of humans did not ask about life, or if they did ask about it, then they were satisfied by different methods of self-appeasement. But we are talking about a person wishing to know, “What am I for? Why am I here? Where did I come from and where am I going?” So how can he receive answers to his questions?

First he has to uncover the actual question because it is not simple. Any person can ask it, but the entire matter here is the depth of the question, its direction. After all, a question is a vessel, a Kli.

In the end a person becomes completely confused. Besides, by our nature we aspire to self-appeasement, which we accomplish by means of all sorts of actions, customs, and habits. I do something and I feel good. So let’s establish customs that will help us receive psychological compensation and fulfillment. That is how we lull ourselves, not wishing to reveal our question in its entire depth and to use it to develop, to get down to the truth. We don’t care about the truth, but about comfort.

Stated differently, I am not happy about the emergence of this new vessel or new desire in me, which sends me off to search for something, forces me to make an analysis, and evokes inner suffering. Ideally I should be enjoying it because that’s how I develop, and development is more important than transient sensations. However, what do I need this for if I’m able to fulfill myself and dampen my ardor without it just as well? What I have is enough for me.

And soon after, I am overcome by fatigue and vexed by life’s difficulties. Old age is creeping on and a person agrees to the small instead of the great.

Thus, our problem, and a great obstacle for us lies in rising from the regular level of development to the spiritual level —the human level.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/11, Matan Torah

A Question Of Proportion

bb_admin — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:38:39 +0000

Question: Life in our world appears as one endless heartache, with small breaks to give a person time to get back up on his feet after a blow, just to receive the next one. This is human history and the life of a separate person. What kind of progress is that and where are the gifts that the Creator gives to creation?

Answer: Imagine that I am in a faraway galaxy where I gaze at infinite reaches of space and look for something in that infinity. I accelerate to the speed of light and slowly move through billions of light years, coming closer to our galaxy, our solar system, and our earth. I land on the earth’s surface, and here I discover people.

It’s difficult to imagine the scale upon which I could compare such different proportions. Analogously, we do not understand what kind of system we are in. We know how to make measurements and to do research on our own scale, according to our proportions. We compare weight to how much we can lift, distance to how far we can see, good and evil—with what is good or bad for us. Our entire spectrum is a tiny fragment of the enormous total scale and our distinctions are miniscule.

However, now we are talking about the spiritual system in which our entire universe is imperceptibly small. We are talking about mechanisms that are enormous due to their qualitative characteristics. Compared to them, our entire world is in one quality—a small egoistic desire that is enlivened by a small spark of Light. The matter of this desire is created as “something from nothing” by the Light that broke through to here, outlining an exact projection of the spiritual creation.

And now, from this state, you are speculating about the suffering of all of humanity. True, that is how we feel. Every person negates things according to this own imperfection and judges according to what his eyes see. But what can you do? That is how we have to advance, and right now we are unable to perceive anything more. There is a gigantic canvas unraveled before you, but you cannot make it out.

We are only able to slightly catch on to the simple fact that there is a lack of desires, a lack of vessels. The questions abound, “Can the unchanging Creator change? Can He create a stone that He can’t lift? Why did He initially make us imperfect?” But all of these riddles are useless.

We have to understand one principle from our lives: We have to go through opposite states. Only from these opposites, by recognizing the advantage of the Light from the darkness, do we form the vessels for a higher, more elevated sensation. When I acquire the vessels that are ready for it, the world will open up to me. Nothing is hiding from me behind a stone wall. I must simply build the vessels inside of me in order to see reality.

This development is necessary and the Creator cannot make it happen ahead of time. Why? For now, I do not know why. I can make certain conjectures, but that won’t give me anything. I will brush everything aside, saying, “I don’t believe it! He could do it!” And there are no other facts in front of you.

Yet there is a rule: The advantage of the Light is attained from the darkness. Any thing is evaluated only from its opposite. That is why we must go through these states step by step, forming the vessels for revealing the reality we are in.

We are in the world of Infinity, but you do not feel that. So develop your vessels. You have been given the opportunity to develop them, or stated otherwise, to correct them. You were deliberately given broken desires that are opposite to the corrected ones. What for? So you would grow and collect them, understanding and revealing the world.

There is no other way to go. And later you will justify the creation. The lengthy process, lasting several thousand years throughout which we suffer, is the truth on our scale. However, in reality we do not realize what kind of proportions we are in. Besides this tiny “room,” there is an entire world our there that you have never seen. You are like a worm living in a radish—this is the example Baal HaSulam gives.

Question: But why is this worm told about the Giver and His love?

Answer: In order to aspire to this, in order to let him understand that there is a goal for which it’s worthwhile to climb out of the radish. Moreover, not only do you receive the understanding of this, but also the means to do it. We are all like worms in a radish, but if each one of us starts to push the others toward the outside, we really will come out.

Therefore, there is a solution. As long as you were satisfied by life in this world, no one offered it to you. But now you are being placed in a new, global system and given the solution.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”