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Introductory Lecture: The Mutual Guarantee

admin.bb — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:44:04 +0000

Complete Transcript of the Introductory Lecture: “The Arvut – Mutual Guarantee”

We are going through some very rough times in the life of our country. The problem is that today people around the world, not just people in our country, do not know how to solve the problems that have risen. But the solution suddenly comes in the form of the people; this happens in different countries, and now we can observe this in Israel.

We do not yet know whether this is an epidemic of some sort or on the contrary, a certain good wave, which will bring the world to order. But people, living in different places around the globe, feel the urge to go outside and express their wishes and hopes.

This happens because for a very long time now, almost sixty years, there has been a tendency around the world, which points to the supposed end of our entire history: The world is becoming submerged in crises, which manifests in every area of people’s lives.

People are no longer able to create a normal family; this leads to the multitude of divorces, children not able to live with their parents, leave their parents’ homes early, and use drugs and alcohol. But the crisis does not only manifest in the family unit, it encompasses society, industry, economy, the education system, culture, and even science. Scientists themselves are stating that science has come to a dead end and cannot develop further. We really seem to have hit a wall.

Over the course of thousands of years, we developed from one generation to another with the assumption that our children will have a better life. We suffered, as it were, for our children in hope they would be happy. Our love for them forced us to develop and work hard sacrificing ourselves. But now none of this exists; today we are no longer convinced that they will have a better life than we did. This is why people no longer want to have and raise children: Who needs it and why? What will this unfortunate child be born for, to see this complicated and meaningless life?

And the understanding of the fact that there is no meaning or purpose to it literally penetrates our brain. We do not see a solution; we cannot find an answer. It is as if mankind were suffocating in their inability to somehow move. And the entire world feels this.

But the main thing is the financial and economic crisis because the common crisis manifests in it. After all, economy connects the entire world into a single net. Industrial, commercial, and interbank relations: These are the imprints of our desires and aspirations. In other words, our relationships are essentially measured with money. What can you do? Such is the world. This is why a crisis in economy is a special sign.

At the same time we reveal that our world has become small. Literally within 24 hours, a person can find himself in the most remote place without feeling much of a difference besides for the mentality of the people, which he can gradually become accustomed to. Things are approximately the same everywhere, everyone is connected with one another; people seem to lose their individuality. Besides the fact that the world has become small, all of its parts ended up being tightly connected with one another. And that led to special results: We saw that we depend on one another. For example, when something happens somewhere in Japan, the entire world suffers. And the same is true of the US, Europe, and any other place.

Everyone mutually affects one another. We cannot even imagine what would happen if the US were to declare fiscal default. And in general, can we even wrap our minds around it? The Common Market could fall apart in Europe, and this would naturally affect the entire world. Briefly speaking, we live in an unpredictable world, and on one hand, this causes pressure in society, but on the other hand, people are becoming indifferent towards whatever is happening, since they are not able to change anything anyway.

This indifference comes from the same connection that exists between all of us, because we all depend a lot on one another. But we did not build these connections; simply, the world has suddenly closed in on us. It was separated into a multitude of pieces, and suddenly it became closed in, suddenly we have become like a unified mankind on the globe, one family, and we depend on one another. This is a very big problem.

Today scientists, who study human nature, political and social scientists, already clearly see that we really exist in mutual total dependence to such an extent that no one can escape it. Scientists already started coming to these conclusions in their studies 50-60 years ago. But only recently every one of us started to actually experience it.

And if 30-40 years ago all of this only seemed to be a foggy theory and was only discussed in scientific circles (in the Club of Budapest, of which I am a member, or the World Wisdom Council in whose meetings I participate), now we are all feeling this connection. And this is a very problematic connection.

Essentially, as scientists refer to it, this connection points to the fact that we exist in an integrated system; a system where all its parts, all its subsystems, are continuously connected with one another, like in our body. And if an imbalance occurs between these subsystems, it points to the presence of a problem: an illness, which leads to the destruction of the entire organism, and it dies. This refers to both, the biological organism and the organism referred to as mankind. Even if we wanted to distance ourselves from one another, we would not be able to do it. Scientists confirm this on the basis of their research.

We cannot even imagine how much we affect one another with our mentality, customs, education, culture, and especially industrial production, etc. And we have nowhere to go.

In other words, we are moving towards such an integrated or analog system where every part is interconnected and must move according to a given trajectory, but with the consideration of the movement of every other part. Very soon we will feel so connected around the entire globe that we will be like a married couple, whose small problems and disagreements grow into mutual hatred. The couple is in the process of a divorce, but they are still forced to live in one apartment until they finally run each in their own direction.

On one hand “the walls are coming down on them,” and it is the same in a human society because the globe is small. But on the other hand, they must separate because their hatred is very strong. But when a couple is able to do it, we have nowhere to run from one another. This is the problem: we do not know how to deal with one another. We were not created to be together. It is especially being manifested now, when human ego is becoming huge and has such a strong influence on the personality and qualities that people do not even want to have a spouse or children. They start feeling more like loners.

Must we unite between us specifically when these forces prevail in us? How can we do it?

We see that politicians also want to unite, they organize meetings: G8, G10, G20. Leaders of countries come together and discuss the connections between countries, making the world better and safer, and avoiding disasters. But they are unable to compromise. They gather for several days, discuss things and leave with nothing: They do not know what to do!

And business leaders, economists, the World Bank—all those in whose hands is concentrated the entire power of the world—also do not know where the solution is. Things happen in the world that they cannot control.

All of this is happening because we have come to an integrated world, an analog system with every subsystem connected like cogwheels of a single mechanism, where the movement of a single one causes the movement of the rest. Every one of them makes the other ones move. But we neither feel nor understand how the system operates as a whole.

We have come to a state when we see that we exist in one common nature. Ecological problems literally close in on us from every side. But since we do not understand where we are, we are seized by hopelessness. And here science comes to the rescue and explains how such systems work.

The principle of their work is based on every particle caring for all the other parts of the system, like a cell in our body cares for all the other cells in a human organism, where every organ knows its function and acts for the benefit of the entire organism. No organ works for its own need: The heart does not need blood just for itself, it distributes it around the entire organism. Lungs do not need air for themselves, etc. Not a single organ, including the most important one, the brain, lives for itself, they work for the benefit of the entire system.

This is exactly how we should be connected with one another. There is no other choice! We are moving towards this state; our entire evolution has been directed towards it. Observing the speed of the current development of human society, it is possible to say that in the near future, we will have to become acquainted with these systems. Every person individually and all people together, all countries, and nations will have to learn how to exist and interact within this kind of a system based on the foundation of a mutual connection, called the mutual guarantee.

But this connection cannot be realized without changing one’s nature. In other words, all people will have to go through an inner coup. After all, over the course of thousands of years until now, the desire to acquire, receive, develop, succeed, use everything that can be used, have power, be famous, and have more knowledge grew. In short, our ego was motivating us with increasing intensity.

Over the course of a person’s life, he goes through constant growth of ego, and the same happens when generations change. There is a jump of egoism in every generation, and this is why every new generation differs from the previous generation. This is what makes us different from animals.

So, at the end of our egoistic development, we have come to a state where we feel despair and hopelessness. This is manifested in the family crisis, the inner dysfunction that happens within man, the problems of parents and children, the education system crisis: everywhere.

This points to the fact that our ego has stopped developing; we have become desperate. After thousands of years of developing within our ego, we have reached its saturation, and now our egoistic nature has reached a deadlock. We are standing face to face with nature. And this common nature that surrounds us, within which we exist like within a sphere, appears before us in its global integrated form, when all of its parts are interconnected. And we are not. So it follows that at this time we are in a state of contradiction, a conflict, a state of giant crisis with integrated nature.

Man reveals that he is opposite to nature, to all the forces that affect us. Essentially, this is the reason for all our crises and misfortunes. After all, the still, vegetative, and animate parts of nature develop driven by their instincts; we were developing the same way over the course of thousands of years. Man’s egoistic desire kept growing and was forcing him to look for fulfillment. But if the program of life is initially laid in the still, vegetative, and animate nature, it is not in man; he is always searching for a way to apply himself.

And now, at the end of our egoistic development, the process where everyone did whatever they felt like, now, when we are standing before the face of common nature, withdrawn into one another, we must correct ourselves, change our egoistic nature—become global and integrated—the way our world is now appearing to us.

In other words, if we were changing nature over the course of thousands of years, now it is the other way around: Nature seems to have closed in before us demonstrating its integrity, and there is nothing we can do with it. We must change ourselves.

There are many studies regarding this, which say that the entire future development will be happening through inner changes in man. We must change ourselves to begin to interact between us according to the common nature. And then, to the extent of our attainment of harmony with nature, we will feel the world settle. The first thing to go will be the ecological problems, because global warming and all the climate problems are only external forms of the ecological crisis. If we change ourselves, there will be no crises in any other sphere.

For this reason, taking the events happening with our neighbors as an example (similar things will very soon be happening in Europe and around the world), we see how people suddenly feel that they must go outside and unite between themselves in their protest. They felt that they would gain strength by uniting. Why? Because by uniting they become similar to global unified nature. This is why there is a certain additional force in their unity. This is not simply related to the fact that there are so many of them and, at the same time, they unite between them. The fact that right now they are similar to nature gives them common additional strength. You would think, what can a group of protesting students do? Do not underestimate them. A certain force awakens in people in general and specifically in this protesting group, and the government is unable to resist it.

And this is a special phenomenon happening in our time. In the end, it must evoke changes in man. In other words, if we want to change, we must attain the mutual guarantee, a proper connection between us, a proper relationship. We will feel happier and safer to the extent of our finding this connection, we will have all our fields of action blossom: the education system, the healthcare system, and our earnings—everything.

We will not achieve anything if we act the same way as the protesting students and doctors in Israel. This will not help because the government has no way of getting money, because when they get money somewhere, it is done at the expense of something! And the rich layers of the population have enough power to avoid giving anything. Ultimately, all the resources come from one treasury, raised by the government, and distributed between all the people in a certain way. It is like in a family: You cannot do whatever you please with your earnings, acting on your own desires without considering the interests of other family members. It is the same here.

Thus, there is one single solution. We must raise all the social systems to a level where they will blossom and thus acquire additional power—the power of corresponding to nature. We will succeed if we interact with nature in balance and harmony. Essentially, this is exactly what we need to understand and realize.

I am not speaking to you as a politician, sociologist, or a scientist. I am speaking about things we need to realize, things described in the Torah and Kabbalah a long time ago as: “The entire nation of Israel is responsible for one another.” This principle laid the foundation for our nation; we have followed it in our lives until the breaking of the Temple. We also kept close and supported each other in exile. This is how things were until recently, and even though we have created our nation, we still were not able to build it right; this still is a “gathering of outcasts.”

But 100-200 years ago we were in exile, and we were united much better. This was a very high degree of interaction and mutual support.

This is why we need to get back to that same principle. Because if the entire nation of Israel really were to become responsible for one another, we would carry out the required condition, which today is put before all of mankind by common nature.

Essentially, we once lived and observed this condition, and now we need to get back to it. And then we will really feel how much we are succeeding.

“In that sense, we are like a pile of nuts, united into a single body from the outside by the sack that envelops and unites them. Their measure of unity does not make them a united body, and each movement applied to the sack produces in them tumult and separation. Thus, they consistently arrive at new unions and partial aggregations. The fault is that they lack the inner unity, and their whole force of unity comes through an outside incident. To us, this is very painful to the heart…. The only hope is to establish a thoroughly new national education for ourselves, to discover and ignite once more the natural national love that have been dimmed within us.” (Baal HaSulam. “The Nation,” “The Individual and the Nation”)

Over the course of thousands of years, we existed according to the law of mutual support, cohesion, and love of one’s neighbor inside the nation of Israel, our community. Many systems that provided mutual support to the people operated during the period of exile, and especially before it, and we must get back to it. I am not referring to observing commandments and religion; I am referring to a heartfelt connection that existed between the people. There is a reason no other nation has sayings like “All of Israel are friends,” “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” “Do not do to another what you would not want done to yourself.” Gradually this becomes a law, which nature forces us to abide by in any society anywhere in the world.

You can go to our site and my blog, where I collect studies on this topic, and see that this is becoming a scientific fact.

In “Exile and Redemption” Bal HaSulam writes: “As long as we do not raise our goal above the corporeal life, we will have no corporeal revival because the spiritual and the corporeal in us cannot dwell in one basket, for we are the children of the idea.”

We must attain unity, and this will help us solve all the problems. We do not understand how much a person, who is part of the common system, the round mechanism of the round world, influenced the entire world.

And we can succeed more than others in this direction since unity is enrooted in us; we have once become a nation due to it. It is written that we have all agreed to become “as one man with one heart,” in one desire, and this has laid the beginning of the existence of the nation of Israel. In other words, unity is our foundation, and it is fairly easy to get back to it, unlike for the other nations. This is why we are under greater pressure than all the others, because nature forces us to observe this law of the mutual guarantee. We will hope that we will be able to do it.

The events happening lately, when people go out on the square, protest, and speak about the mutual guarantee and helping one another, these things are already a good beginning. We are yet to understand how to behave and what success depends on, but if we attain unity: We will succeed in everything! We have been studying Kabbalah for many years now, and Kabbalah is very precise about this. It is revealed to help us attain unity and thus solve all our problems. There are many materials regarding this on our site and on the Israeli Kabbalah channel 66.

Question: Mankind only destroys, soils, and contaminates the surrounding world, and now there is a threat of atomic destruction. There is no peace in mankind, only wars and murder. Man needs help from the moment of his birth, and spends his entire life fighting for his health and existence. Why did the Creator need to create mankind? Nature would have managed perfectly without us! What is man’s general role?

Answer: Did I say anything about the Creator?

Question: I have been asking myself my entire life, what is the purpose of this “game”?

Answer: The Creator is nature. In Gematria, the numeric value of the word “Elokim,” the Creator, equals the word “Teva,” Nature. When we refer to the notion of “common nature,” we assume the Creator; there is nothing else. The Creator is the law, as it is written, “The law is set and you cannot step over it,” “I did not change my HaVaYaH,” etc.

Man is inside a system of laws. If he attains these laws and acts in accordance with them, he will be successful, but if he does not correspond to these laws, he will be defeated. We really have never felt the good attitude from the Creator, we were never protected, He cannot be bought, and when you come on the bus and throw a coin into a donation box, hoping that this will prevent the bus from blowing up, you only do it for your own consolation.

We need to understand that we exist in nature and that Kabbalah is a science, wisdom. And the Creator is a global Upper Force, which encompasses the entire world and controls it. It is a law, and Kabbalah explains this law to us. Whoever attains it sees everything that happens. It is naïve to think that there is a Creator who does good or bad things to you; little children think this way.

Question: But it is not a good game to create mankind, which only suffers over the course of entire history.

Answer: You are right, but in order for you to understand this game, you need to see the entire path and understand how this law guides the entire development forward. If nature is so smart that it has created our bodies with atoms, molecules, protein, and everything else, and created the force of reason in these bodies, why then does it suddenly leave us to our own devices once we reach the culmination of our development, lets us destroy everything it has created? We must better understand the entire process of development, and today we at the stage when we are able to do it.

The wisdom of Kabbalah reveals to all of mankind the “All will know me from great to the small.” And those who neither know nor understand this process also speak just like you. But we need to rise and see the entire process from beginning to end. This is possible; we can rise above time and see that this is a necessary process. In reality there is a purpose and justice in the laws with which we live, when one consumes another, the third one lies, and the fourth one kills.

Question: I have two questions. I have a feeling that you are trying to convince me that I am very unhappy and have many problems that cannot be solved. Do I understand you correctly? Are you really trying to convince me that I am wretched and miserable?

Answer: First of all, it is impossible to argue with a feeling. If you feel this way, then you are right. But in reality, I am simply explaining the situation that practically the entire society exists in. I did not come up with this; you can go online and find many materials regarding this written by scientists, sociologists, political scientists, and economists.

I can show you dozens of papers regarding this topic. Are you trying to say that there is no crisis, that everything is fine, that we are not conflicting with the common nature, that climate is not changing, and ice caps are not melting? I am listing facts that the world knows of.

Comment: These are your illusions!

Answer: If these are my illusions, then you are right! You are like a child; you close your eyes and say that the problem does not exist! What is the second question?

Question: I have understood from reading books that the Creator created man in His image, and you are trying to change nature created by the Creator! So you are working against the Creator?

Answer: You are right about that. It is written: “The Creator created man direct, but people have invented many calculations.” We are corrupt, and all our bad qualities are given to us by the Creator, the upper force, and we need to turn them into good, correct qualities. Do you agree with this?

Comment: I do not think that I need correction!

Answer: It is written: “I created the evil inclination.” In other words, the Creator created the evil desire and the Torah – the spice (the method) of its correction! He created the evil inclination, a bad person, and gave him a book, a manual, on correcting himself with the help of the upper Light, the upper force that exists in nature.

Question: If we are a unified system, and today many people in Israel know about and watch channel 66, and study Kabbalah, why do we encounter problems around the world every day? Once you said that not every person needs to study Kabbalah, and even a small number of people who study evoke a positive impact on the world. Why is it even though there are increasingly more people wishing to attain spirituality, the situation in the world is becoming increasingly worse?

Answer: This is a very good and correct question. The problem is that we are trying to overpower nature created from above with all our strength. This is a very slow process.

Human egoism has been developing over forty to fifty thousand years. And we started wide dissemination of Kabbalah around five years ago. Until then, we existed as a closed group that no one knew about. Over the course of five years, we were able to address the world, which looks for a solution and does not understand what is happening. We have opened two TV channels, web sites, and Kabbalah centers around the country. People listen to us and already know the purpose of creation, the reason for our existence in our current form, what we need to do to correct ourselves and rise to the level of common nature, to the level of the Creator. We have reached very big results.

I have been studying Kabbalah for almost 40 years, and I see development happening exponentially as every day goes by. This is difficult to believe!

I am in touch with many scientists around the world and other Kabbalists. In my opinion, we are developing with great speed, I could not even have dreamt of this! My personal development was happening much slower.

Today it takes several months for a person to understand what is happening, and it takes several years for him to attain what it previously took decades to attain. This is why you are right to say that there are many people studying Kabbalah, but it is not yet enough. To evoke the manifestation of a positive force in the nation of Israel and then in the entire world, there needs to be a critical mass, the so-called full measure (Seah) quantitatively and qualitatively. I think that we are approaching this, but this has not happened yet.

Question: Baal HaSulam said that all the wisdom of the nations of the world are included in the wisdom of Kabbalah. I know at least three other studies, which speak of the same: These are Druze, Buddhists, and Sufis. I live in a Druze settlement on Mount Carmel and have been studying Kabbalah for over a year. Do you think that the time has come to add all the other methods to Kabbalah to solve the problems of mankind?

Answer: I have met with several great Sufis in Denmark, England, and the US, who have escaped their countries for fundamentalist persecution. I have found a common language with each one of them regarding the method, approach to life, the actual study, etc. There is almost no difference between the studies; we did not even have to look for a compromise.

This wisdom was given to the entire world by Abraham. It is written that the forefather Abraham is standing at the source of all beliefs. This is why all these studies have one root. I do not know which direction you have in mind, but Sufis essentially must be preaching the same method.

Regarding all the sciences of the world, including physics, chemistry, and other natural sciences, they are a part of the wisdom of Kabbalah, since Kabbalah speaks about the principle of the interaction of two forces, which control the world: These are a positive and a negative force and the screen, which connects them. Kabbalah explains this.

For this reason, when you attain this principle, you see its manifestations on the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, and also in the human psychology, a person’s inner world. In other words, Kabbalah is the physics of the common world, and you can use it to find an approach to everything else. We have divided nature into parts: chemistry, physics, biology, and zoology, but nature is one whole.

Question: In the saying: “Only the wisdom of Kabbalah directs man toward the goal of creation,” why is the word “only” there? Does this imply that Kabbalah has this monopoly-like right?

Answer: Monopoly is not the problem, but the fact is that Kabbalah speaks precisely of this. We only need to understand where Kabbalah came from. It was discovered by Adam 5,770 years ago, and he immediately wrote the book, The Secret Angel (Raziel ha Malach), which we also study. The countdown began then; our calendar started from that moment.

This wisdom explains to us what the spiritual (upper) world is, the world of forces, which control our world. For this reason, everything that exists in our world are consequences of the things that happen in the upper layer, which surrounds our world and controls it through an entire system of forces.

For this reason, if you know and study this net of forces and the way this common force controls the world and its laws, you understand deeds and actions, cause and consequence, and everything that happens in the world in general. This is why only it can explain any phenomenon to you.

And all the other sciences are included in it, since every one of them only examines a separate part of nature, and only on the level of the possibilities of our five senses.

Question: I started watching channel 66 because I have found that it has many things in common with transcendental meditation, which I have been practicing for almost a year. I have heard that you do not negate it, but you say that overall meditations or “New Age” practices, as you call them, lack something that exists in Kabbalah…

Answer: I have said that? You have heard me say these things?

Question: Possibly. I have heard that a person who practices this kind of meditation can eventually achieve results, similar to those that can be achieved through studying Kabbalah.

Answer: Never.

Question: Why?

Answer: Because there is nothing a person can derive from his brain. Our brain has the same animal origin as our body. You will not be able to derive anything from it, except for animal fantasies.

What do you base your imagination on when you work with it? Why do you think that by imagining something, you attain upper layers of attainment?

And if you want to know my opinion, I do not recognize a single similar method, as well as other methods, including religions and everything else.

Question: Can you explain in simple words what I need to do in order to attain harmony with nature, all of mankind, and reach the state of “all of Israel are friends to one another?” I also practice meditation and try to bring love to the world. What do I need to do according to Kabbalah?

Answer: At first you only need to study. You need to slightly learn about our nature, perception of reality in general: how we perceive it, what happens here, why I see reality in this specific form, why it exists inside me, and not outside of me, does anything happen and exist within me?

How do I change myself to see reality in its true from? How do I see the forces that influence everything around me, and how they paint this image of reality to me, for me to perceive it this way? And how do I reach a state when, by changing myself, I can see reality perfect and eternal, in addition to this world?

The sages have said: “You will see your world in your lifetime.” I must attain eternal existence yet in this life. And this pertains to everyone present here, including the very elderly, since everyone has the opportunity to attain eternal life.

Everything depends on the person: If he already hears us, this means that this is intended for him. In other words, I must make an effort to come to the level of eternal and perfect existence.

Question: What can we guarantee to one another and what will unify us?

Answer: We guarantee for one another like cells in an organism, and our interconnection keeps revealing more with every passing day. The global state of the world keeps manifesting where, as people say, every person is connected with everyone else through five people, the “butterfly effect” is being realized; all of this refers to the fact that mankind exists in a unified system.

This system of connectivity between us is becoming more revealed every day, and we feel that we are connected between us to a greater degree. But when we do not correspond to one another and do not have a good connection between us, we suffer. And in the end we perceive this as a crisis in all areas of our existence.

So how do we realize this? There is only one thing left for us to do: Change ourselves. And a change of relations between us towards the better will contribute to the fact that we will discover the spiritual world within our automatic connection (which we did not invent).

Let us say that I suddenly reveal that I depend on you. This means that I should have a good relationship with you, otherwise, how do I retain a good connection with you? I do not have another solution because essentially, every one of us determines what happens to any one of us. For this reason, it is very difficult to observe the mutual guarantee, and it has a lot of obligations.

But how do we connect ourselves and rise to this connection? After all, we have the ego, as it is written: “I created the evil inclination.” The ego was initially inherent to us by nature, and our hatred of one another will still be revealed, since we continue to advance and develop.

But there is a solution to this problem. This is why there is a method in our world referred to as the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is very simple: We reach a proper connection between us through the study and its realization. And those, who have been studying for some time, know that they begin to feel changes within them as soon as they begin to study.

A person begins to hear things that are new for him. Then he either agrees or disagrees with it, clarifying certain things, and at the same time he changes. And this is what matters most. What matters is not the knowledge we fill our heads with, but what we begin to feel on the inside, the acquisition of new feelings.

And when these feelings, impressions, connection, sensation, and qualities become revealed, it helps us have a stronger connection between us. And if we are not yet connected, we at least understand that there is no contact between us, and this already is the revelation of evil, of the absence of communication between us. And there is a specific instruction for this, the directions to accomplish it.

Question: What do you think, should people who study Kabbalah go to college when they feel that doing it does not give them any spiritual fulfillment? How can I help my husband so he would not leave his studies, when he says that nothing else interests him but spirituality?

Answer: Naturally, college studies do not provide anything spiritual. My students and I have many growing children. And I urge everyone to study.

One of my daughters has a PhD in genetics and biology, my second daughter has completed her studies in philosophy and Kabbalah, and she is starting her dissertation. There are several people among my students, who are in the process of writing their dissertations, and I push them to do it.

When I see a gifted child, who has the abilities to work in education, I urge him to go to college, because Kabbalah is close to education, since its purpose is to educate the people.

Anyway, we urge everyone to acquire a profession. If a person does not want to go to college, they at least must go through some training. And then we can be sure that once a person completes his studies, he will have no problem providing for himself and his family. This is a must.

All the parents in our group urge their children to study. Right now we are talking to the Open University administration to allow our fourteen-year-old children (before completing high school) to begin their studies there, and have higher education (a bachelor degree) by the time they graduate from high school. I have great respect for education. So tell this to your husband, and I wish him success!

Question: Today there are many companies that have encountered economic difficulties and are on the verge of closing. What can they do to survive and connect with the global law? Is there something that can be done?

Answer: No, the purpose of Kabbalah is not to improve the situation of bankrupt companies. It cannot provide a private individual with a personal, immediate solution, because we depend on one another.

A certain private egoistic company, which was once successful and made money and is no longer able to do it, wishes to make even more money. So what should it do?

We do not give out blessings, we do not use “miraculous remedies,” we do not take money for this, and we do not have red strings, which I see on some of you.

Briefly speaking, Kabbalah teaches people the laws of nature, the laws of the universe. This is the way it always was, and it has nothing to sell. But I can explain the process a person wishes to go through in order to change. And he will succeed by becoming like nature and his environment.

I can give an advice regarding fixing the situation of such company. All the employees of this company need to study an hour a day. They do not need to study Kabbalah specifically, simply coworkers need to study to be as connected with one another as possible, have friendly and kind relationships, and be closer with one another.

And if they change the overall atmosphere in their company, then we can be sure to say that it will come out of the descent. I can even help with finding the materials for free.

Question: Why is it now that we are observing the disappearance of happiness from our lives, the emergence of insecurity in the society, and the lack of harmony between man and nature?

Answer: I already spoke about this. This is happening because our ego has locked itself up. We constantly developed according to a linear function, and our ego kept growing. But the process of satiety has begun several decades ago. People turned to drugs and alcohol, they “broke,” they became helpless and indifferent to everything, and they started getting tired of life. A crisis has manifested in education and the family unit. Today over 50% of young people do not wish to get married, they do not even want to be in a relationship. All of these facts are symptoms of the fact that the human ego stopped growing. And scientists, concerned with social issues, confirm this. It is as if our ego had nowhere left to advance; it is as if we have exhausted all its possibilities.

Question: What is impeding its growth?

Answer: Its growth is limited by the uniformity that is being revealed. The ego has reached a certain sense of fullness and became global. And we suddenly feel dependent on one another. Right now our problem is in our need to develop in our global connection. If a person wanted to develop even more, a possibility of marvelous development opens up before him, but this development is only through the connection with others. He will need to turn this bad connection between us into a good connection.

Question: There is a conflict here. On one hand you say that we need to unite, but on the other hand you say that unity blocks your individual development.

Answer: Why? Keep developing personally and individually, while you remain connected with others. Before, you used to develop in relation to others to use them as much as you can for your own benefit. But now, it is the other way around, your development is internal. Before you constantly worked on realizing your ego, but now you need to turn your ego into a good attitude.

It is true, this is problematic, but on the plus side, this allows us to acquire the spiritual world. We rise above our world and perceive the world of forces, the worlds that exists beyond time, beyond nature, and beyond our animal bodies.

And by rising above it, it is as if I come out of my ego, and I become a person and begin to perceive that reality exists outside of me, above me. And then I feel like I am in the flow of eternal life, but at the same time my body and I myself remain: the two levels of development.

Question: Rambam speaks of how limited our intellect is. Can this impede me from coming out of myself?

Answer: No, because we acquire higher perception, new senses. Everything we feel within us and are able to absorb is called this world, and we cannot perceive more than this.

But if we come out of ourselves, we will be able to reveal the world of forces, which governs us before our birth in this life and after our death, all the reasons for everything that happens here and now. When we acquire the altruistic sensation, which will allow us to perceive the world outside of us, we will begin to perceive higher reality.

For this reason, the condition of “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” a need to sort of come out of yourself, all of this is not for me to serve others, but to bring me out of my inner restraint into eternity.

Question: My question is about people who do not study Kabbalah. They behave and think well, they raise their children well. What should these people do? They also need to study Kabbalah?

Answer: Are they completely fine? If so, then wonderful. When I look at the world I see that the majority of people neither have a good nor a bad life, they have a very calm life. What should we do about them? Nothing.

But when a person feels bad, and he begins to analyze where this sensation came from and what it means, in the end, he develops painful questions and a bitter feeling, which bring him to the search for the solution.

But when a person feels good, or he wants to avoid unpleasant sensations, let him run, because there is no forcing in the spiritual. We do not pressure anyone. We do not pull people in; people are free to come and go.

The Kabbalah for the Nation locations, as well as our video channel, try to make everything free to the people. By the way, this costs us a lot of money. And those who want to watch, watch, and those who do not, do not. People do not get registered. People act according to the way they feel, they study however long they want to study.

This is why I have no advice for these people. We have students around the world, and I can say with all certainty that right now our lecture is being watched in over one hundred countries.

We need to understand that our world is a space with a net of forces operating in it. We are like an electrical charge in it. We move in this field of forces according to our potential (the way we pertain to the common field of forces).

When questions arise in man, he begins to move in this field until he reaches a place, where he finds his balance with it. It is the same law as in physics.

Thus a person can live anywhere; for example we have large groups in Chili. Suddenly, a person acquires a certain desire. And he finds specifically our website in Spanish, he finds us and begins to study.

Why? It is because his correlation to the entire collective force of this field brings him to the point of contact with us. And he feels that this connection helps him be closest to balance. And this happens to every person.

How did you all find us? Or, how do we find anything in life? All of this is realized according to a certain inner feeling of the place, where I will be able to be fueled.

But we do not force. And this is why all the people in the world will also reach this point in their development, when they regrettably will be unhappy. And they will ask questions: “Why, what for, and where does this evil come from?” Then they will develop a need to answer themselves, and they will reveal our method. But so far they have not yet discovered their need for this.

Question: You say that the people’s dependence on one another and nature submits to fundamental laws. These laws exist and they cannot be denied. Could you give an example of this law, which sciences of our world do not speak of, but which exists in Kabbalah? And is it possible to test the operation of this law and get the same result?

Answer: The entire problem lies in the fact that all the scientists of our world also conform to their egoistic nature. This is clear; they are regular people after all. This is why they study and discover only the one layer in nature, which their ego can grasp.

A person cannot experience a phenomenon outside of him, if he is not in a state of homeostasis with it. A radio can only reproduce the wave it creates within itself, according to the law of resonance.

The same happens with us: We only catch the smallest and very limited part of all the phenomena that exist in nature. And when these phenomena go through me, I perceive and feel them through my ego. It follows that instead of revealing the actual nature, I only reveal whatever I am able to catch with my senses.

But if I change and become global and integrated instead of an egoist and individualist, a giver instead of a receiver, a loving person instead of a hater, then I will stop filtering reality through the sieve of my ego, and will take it the way it is. Then I will see the world without the disturbances of my nature, and this is the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Since now our egoism has grown and became global, scientists will not be able to continue examining the world without developing in the direction of integration. There is nothing to examine in egoism: In the end we examine whatever happens in our desire.

Man is desire, and all his efforts are directed towards fulfilling this desire. This way we develop. Our brain grows alongside our desire, trying to find a way to achieve the desired! If a person does not want anything, his brain does not develop.

This is why a person who receives blows becomes smarter. Why is that? Because he wants to escape them. Our brain corresponds to our desires: if they do not cross the boundaries of animal existence, then it does not develops beyond that point.

Question: Where does Kabbalah come from?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah comes from a person rising above his egoism and ceasing to only perceive things within him. Special exercises help him begin to perceive reality outside of egoism. How does he do it? It is very simple, he does it according to: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

You are brought to the group and you are told: “Do you want to develop another sense in order to perceive things outside of you, in addition to the five entrances you have, which enable you to perceive the world? Go ahead! Study in a group, and these exercises will help you begin to develop an external sense, which will help you feel other people. And then you will begin to perceive things outside of you.” The group is like a special antenna, which helps us perceive the things that happen in all of reality. We have never perceived it with our egoistic senses.

Question: If I understand you correctly, I need other people to come out of my five senses. This means that I will never rise above me on my own, and I only have an additional channel of perception and understanding when there are other people around me?

Answer: Exactly! This is why it is written: “The group or death,” “All of Israel are friends.” In other words: It is impossible without the group. It is written: “If you unite like one man with one heart, you will succeed, if not, this will be your burial place,” there is no reason for you to live.

Question: How do we strengthen the mutual guarantee between us and spread it to a wider circle of people in the process of preparation to the unity convention, which will be taking place in Achziv in a month?

Answer: To tell you the truth, I have not yet joined the preparation for the Achziv convention. Right now you need to do it, and I will join later. The matter is that I am going to Germany next week. There, in the city of Bremen, people, who are seriously looking for spirituality and who also practice meditation, are gathering for a convention.

Representatives of this movement have been here and have invited us to participate in this event. We will work two full days with them: I will do the first day, and our friends from Berlin and Vienna will do the second day. This work requires a lot of preparation.

Then North American conventions will follow in September: Toronto, New York, and Miami. I must concentrate all my strength to awaken people, unite with them, and act in one desire. This is why I cannot be thinking about the convention in Achziv right now. You are preparing for it, and I am not yet. In any case, every group operates in their specific conditions.

Question: You are speaking about changes in man in the relationships between people. This is not a new idea, it was even proclaimed in the times of the October revolution in Russia. Everyone knows what it led to.

Answer: You would like to find out what is happening here? By the way, this idea was not only proclaimed in Russia, but also in Israeli communes, called Kibbutzim. There are enough examples of the failure of this idea.

It was not an accident that Kabbalah was hidden for thousands of years: It was waiting for the world to become global and for the connection between us to become so apparent that we would not be able to deny it. Our connection with common nature has also become apparent: We exist in a single system and are unable to escape it.

This is why Kabbalah is being revealed now and it states that changes cannot be made in a society by having the government impose orders from above; instead, people need to be educated and changed from below. And nothing must be built until man changes.

Who do we have to build a new society? Egoists? This was done in Russia, Israeli Kibbutzim, and other places. They held on while it benefited them, and then they fell apart. By the way, Marks did not think it was possible to realize this idea in Russia. He said that first man needs to change and become integrated, and Baal HaSulam confirms his words in the “Nation” newspaper. Such people can form a proper net without being forced to be friends by the KGB. How can love be imposed with force?

Now we must do it because nature is obligating us. But we are not pushing people: Do it if you want to; if you do not want to, do not do it.

Question: Why do achievements in science, including the Internet, not only provide good results, but also do harm?

Answer: Since things like the Internet are in the hands of egoists, they become destructive. This is the first reason. Second, people need to be educated from a very young age, and little children need to be brought up treating each other well.

We are trying to do it. We are publishing many books on childhood education, where we explain how to give children a view of the global wholesome world from childhood. When they grow with this kind of worldview forming in them, it becomes easier for them to deal with the world.

For example, I work for a certain company; I was already asked today about what can be done when a previously successful company suddenly finds itself on the verge of bankruptcy. I will not achieve success when dealing with other manufacturers without taking the interests of the entire world into consideration.

After all, when the world is global, such should be the attitude. Right now this is becoming increasingly manifested, and this is why the world keeps sinking into a crisis without seeing success anywhere.

But I am unable to consider the entire picture. In order to do it, I myself must be connected with everyone so this would be obvious to my nature, instead of happening according to certain calculations and external knowledge. For this reason, every person, who wishes to be successful, must be connected to nature.

Question: I completely agree with this. But what can be done when a scientist comes up with a pill that extends human life, and thus creates big problems for mankind?

Answer: First of all we must think about people benefiting the most from our actions. This is why we must continue our regular lives until we correct ourselves. Gradually, we will naturally transition from an egoistic worldview and connections to a different life.

In this process, we will not establish new laws; instead, we will be moving in accordance with the changes happening in us. Kabbalah guards from extreme artificial measures. But once man changes, he will change his world.

This is why there is no pressure, sudden actions, prohibitions, or anything else here. I do not criticize anything, and I am only concerned with helping people as much as possible to change in the direction of mutual connection. This is the only solution.

Question: And still, I see a problem in the development of sciences with all its wonderful inventions; this process is no longer controlled by mankind. The question is how to solve this problem with our very scarce forces?

Answer: There is no question here. We are dealing very well with science and scientists. As I have mentioned before, there is only one solution: education of man. And everything else should develop as people please, because they will only find a dead end and failure in all their endeavors. And for now, people should develop their relationships with other people; this is what I expect.

I will conclude today’s meeting with the following: Nothing else leads to success besides corresponding to the system of nature, which is now being manifested—unity, connection, integration, and globalism. This is why all our actions and plans must be related to this.

If those people, who are now protesting demanding housing, wages, lower prices, etc., connect all these things with common unity, they will succeed. But if they keep trying for their own sake, they will fail. Let us hope that we will achieve good relations, a good life, safety, and success through unity. Thank you all, I am very happy to meet with you!
[51345]
From the Introductory Lecture 7/26/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Israeli Bank Governor: “The Situation Is Difficult and Bad”

admin.bb — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:15:59 +0000

Opinion (Stanley Fischer, Governor of the Bank of Israel): [Dr. Laitman’s comments are in bold.]

“The International Monetary Fund predicts 3.3% growth in the global economy this year, and when I was at the IMF ten years ago we considered 3.5% growth in the global economy as the borderline between normal growth and recession. We are on the brink of a global recession.”

My Comment: We have been talking about the crisis for years; there is nothing new. It speaks only of shortsightedness.

“The big question is whether there will be a recession in Europe or whether we are facing a financial crisis. If there is a financial crisis in Europe, then so many things could happen such as Greece going bankrupt, or actually leaving the euro bloc with other countries following after. It’s hard to know.”

My Comment: The crisis will be financial; so be prepared for the worst because today none of the “decision makers” thinks about the transition towards an integral economy.

“The good part of the story is that they realize that they too don’t know what will happen to them if they keep the current framework. I was certain when I returned from the IMF Annual Meeting that the situation was difficult and bad, and they that didn’t understand what was happening there. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank has taken creative steps to deal with the liquidity and debt problem. There’s an improvement, but there is still uncertainty.”

My Comment: They will do nothing and will be able to do nothing, as has been the case in recent years due to lack of understanding of the trend of human development.

“Yossi Bachar [Israel Discount Bank Chairman] wants to send me messages, and finds it more convenient to use this stage. That’s fine. He wants to tell me that the capital adequacy ratio must not be raised. So I say to him: The Bank of Israel must not avoid raising it. There is the question of the rate of increase; we are aware of the problem, and I’m not fond of the expression ‘choking credit’, because that creates an unpleasant feeling, as though I’m strangling something, and I find that distasteful. We are aware of the problem.”

My Comment: This might be possible for a different small country, but not for Israel because it has the method of correction of the world, and without its interference the world will continue to slide down towards a Nazi regime and a world war.

“I respect Judaism, but this must change, the situation in which the Haredim [ultra-orthodox Jews], the fastest growing section of the population, does not participate in the workforce. Fewer than 40% of them work. This cannot continue, and it must be stopped. If it continues in the long term, it will be very hard for the economy to provide what people expect: life at a respectable standard.”

My Comment: If they enter the market now, you will get another half a million unemployed people, which will cost much more than today. We need to restrict various “political” subsidies instead of inviting them to the labor market.
[68463]

All In Good Time

admin.bb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:33:12 +0000

Question: Many people in Israel support our message, so why doesn’t the whole country hear us?

Answer: The message cannot be heard in a vacuum. There must be “air,” the attention of the hearts, through which the sound waves are transmitted. Otherwise, you’re just silently opening your mouth and no sound comes out. The desire that can pick up your words and carry them to a distance isn’t ready yet. This is the whole problem.

So what can we do so that this desire will appear? We can distribute our materials in the streets and at the events we hold, which is what we do, but this is not enough. It isn’t by chance that Kabbalists kept quiet until our time, until the egoistic desire started taking on the form of the general crisis. It wasn’t even a prohibition, but simply an inability to communicate something to the people.

Even if the wisdom of Kabbalah were opened before them, they wouldn’t have seen anything. Using the example of current events, we have been talking about the problem of unemployment for a long time, but only now it is beginning to emerge. Everything is delayed; we are always ahead of things.

We can only make efforts to do our best in dissemination, making sure that it doesn’t turn into “unripe fruit.” Everything must happen all in its time, so that people will understand our ideas correctly. Otherwise they will have the impression that it is just empty talk.

Therefore we should wait a while. We don’t want them to suffer, of course, but still the serious problems must reach the headlines, so that we can come out with our ideas. People need to hear from us what they are ready to hear.
[68316]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Squandering

admin.bb — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:40:26 +0000

Question: Israel is facing the question of free preschool education, which will require great cutbacks in other areas. Each time we are faced with a choice between one thing and another and it is always one at the expense of the other. How can such conflicts be solved?

Answer: We don’t see things correctly. Actually there are such surpluses that we could build another state of Israel, but we don’t see them. The point here is not how to save, but to distinguish where our resources are being squandered uselessly and wasted.

On the whole, we shouldn’t touch the budget and increase the deficit. We only have to find the billions that are wasted, go nowhere, and help no one. It all stems from negligence and carelessness, from the fact that we aren’t concerned about the situation as a whole. Each one considers and loves himself and as a result great wealth is being squandered.

There is no secret here. Observe yourself and how you use electricity at home and somewhere else, how organized and thrifty you are when it comes to your property for which you pay dearly, and how indifferent you are to wasting at the expense of strangers. In another’s place we are happy to splurge, but at home we are happy to save. So if we treat the whole national economy like the home economy, we will find such excess that we didn’t even imagine.

If you really check things in the Ministry of Education you will find such breaches into which not just some but a great percentage of our resources are pouring. Sift everything that isn’t for the benefit of the students, shake the system, and you will see how much will “fall” out.

On the whole, the attitude is that we don’t have to sacrifice one thing for another. No aspect of life should be deprived in order to strengthen others. If our major concern is mutual concern for the state like as for our family, then by changing our attitude and as a result of our desire to be efficient, we sill discover such great surpluses that we will have to think of how to spend them.

But since we don’t do that, the crisis will do it for us. It will “shake” us against our will. If we don’t put things in order, it will be done for us.
[65848]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/12, “The Freedom”

Connection—Above All The Differences

admin.bb — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 08:43:46 +0000

Question: These days the tension between the Orthodox and the secular is growing. Your dissemination doesn’t pay enough attention to explaining to the non-religious community the essence of religion, its spiritual roots, etc. How do you help society deal with this “civil war” in a practical way?

Answer: We are busy explaining the next level of development to society in which everyone, every member of society, has to rise above all the differences and to unite by understanding the uniqueness of each individual.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we have to put all the differences among us below the unity among us as nature’s law requires us to unite despite and above our differences.

This can only be achieved by gradually educating people to mutual guarantee as each one is given a chance to live according to his own laws and unity is achieved above the different groups in society and above their customs. We should know how to separate the different communities that live according to different laws, as it is done between the Muslim and the Jewish communities.

City planners and public transportation planners have to take this into account. The external media should exhibit mutual respect. In a young state such as Israel, it is simply irresponsible to build cities without taking into account future potential conflicts.
[65216]

Bring Your Half Of Infinity

bb_admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:49:57 +0000

Israel (Yashar-El) is a person who has a point in the heart, pulling him toward the Creator and forcing him to begin this work. The work comes down to acquiring a desire, because only it is necessary from man’s end. We usually look for fulfillment – this is our natural aspiration. But here we must change our approach completely.

In our world we always lack fulfillment because we always have a desire for material fulfillment: I want one thing, another, and a third, and I look for ways to satisfy my desire.

But in the spiritual world, everything’s opposite. The fulfillment is always present, but there is no desire! Therefore, I have to work on the desire, the necessity, instead of working on the fulfillment as in our world.

Therefore, Israel, called “A head for me” (Li-Rosh – derived by changing the order of the letters) is a person who understands that his work lies in searching for the desire, building it, and forming it correctly, so it would suit the second half – the fulfillment, which is already present. After all, the Creator already fills the entire earth.

100% of man’s work is called half of the perfect state, of the world of Infinity. The second half is 100% of the Light, which fills these 100% of desire.

On every level it is possible to attain a 100% desire according to that level, in order to be filled with 100% of the Light belonging to that level.

Therefore, first of all we need understanding and mutual support, realizing that we must work on the desire rather than the fulfillment. Years go by until a person changes his approach, leaving behind the one he got used to in our world.

It turns out that there is nowhere for a person to run, but only to delve deeper inside himself. That is why it is called “inner work” or one’s inner world. It’s because one has to delve deep inside one’s heart, instead of chasing some external effects. Everything depends on the desire in the heart.
[65425]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/12, Writings of Rabash

Pouring The Light Onto The World

admin_bb — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:04:57 +0000

Question: I read the book The Kabbalist, which among other things talks about how Baal HaSulam tried to reach the world. He told people everything but they didn’t listen. Why should the world listen to us today?

Answer: Baal HaSulam lived at the beginning of the present era and really wanted to hasten time. Before WWII he tried to arrange for 300 Jewish families from Poland to come to Israel. He wanted to establish a special group in Jerusalem, whose members would work in a small factory in order to make a living and be together all the time, connect all the time. He wanted to unite the people with his newspaper “The Nation.” He went back to Poland when the workers’ uprising began, hoping to direct them all to unity….

Baal HaSulam saw that the next level, the next state, is global unity. There are no intermediate levels. We have to rise from here straight to connection. But in his time there weren’t the right conditions for that. People ridiculed the Soviet Union in which a new society was formed by oppression. As a whole, the world has advanced the American way, towards attaining the “American Dream,” and it was impossible to talk about correction according to the method of Kabbalah.

However, today things have changed. I would like to emphasize that we are not talking about our accomplishments. On the contrary, we are small compared to all the groups that preceded us. However, considering the state of the world, we have to succeed. After all, today the world is helplessly facing all the emerging problems. The world has never been in this situation which seems like a dead end. It’s now clear that we are sinking into a total economic crisis and that we can’t do anything about it. There’s nothing to hope for and there’s no way out.

This is why the method for correction is being revealed now. It turns to the world not by calling it to bestow upon the Creator, but by a message of mutual guarantee that’s being revealed very clearly on the part of nature itself. Everyone sees it, but they don’t know how to reach compatibility with the Creator; they don’t know that it’s by equivalence of form with Him that we can have all the abundance in the corporeal world.

We are working together on our level, aspiring for the upper force to be revealed in the point of unity between us. For us mutual guarantee is unification at the higher, spiritual level of Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), thanks to which we, Israel, will pour the upper Light onto the world. All of humanity is actually one system, and hence, if the Light will be in us, it will certainly flow onto others.

This is exactly what our convention is for: We draw the Light from the Source so that it will be revealed between us. Then after the convention we’ll see great changes in the world. People will feel a special force: “Perhaps we can connect after all?” Suddenly this will be the real solution for them. There is no need to “escape,” there is no need to break up the common market and international relationships. On the contrary, with the help of all the present institutions, we have to change the approach and to aspire for unity and not for anything else.

The previous mechanisms are being destroyed and we have to provide everyone with a minimal reasonable standard of living and a sense of security. Everyone should receive the basic necessities. Humanity that feels so helpless now should adopt this approach. The developed countries are in a state of economic, industrial, and financial decline.

According to what is written in Kabbalah books, today, considering our investment in the world’s needs, we have a very good chance to reveal the upper force in order to correct ourselves. We only have to use our intentions as much as we can.

Clearly we are all egoists, and each of us thinks about his own well-being. Even in the group each one looks for his gain and not for bestowal upon the Creator. If we are lucky, we remember Him occasionally. But this doesn’t matter. All our efforts are accompanied by an egoistic desire “Lo Lishma” (not for Her Name), and we aren’t demanded to do more, just like babies. We try, we really make great efforts, and so the convention can really unite us.

Then we’ll be able to reveal the upper force for the first time, in order to correct ourselves and to pass on the correction to the whole world. All the signs and Kabbalistic writings indicate that it’s possible, and we simply mustn’t doubt that.
[62272]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

From Infinity To Infinity

admin_bb — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:03:07 +0000

Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee) (abridged version)“: The Torah was not given to our fathers because the commandment of “Love thy friend as thyself,” the axis of the whole Torah and around which all the commandments revolve, cannot be observed by an individual, but only through the consent of an entire nation. And this is why it took until they came out of Egypt, when they became worthy of observing it. And then they were first asked if each and every one of the nation agreed to take that commandment upon himself. And once they agreed to it, they were given the Torah.

We learn about the structure of the spiritual world, the creation of the soul, which is the only creature, and about the shattering of the soul that got divided into many parts from Kabbalistic sources like “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah (Pticha),” “The Study of the Ten Sefirot“, and the Ari’s “The Tree of Life”. We can say that these parts of the soul also existed before, but they were merged together in one intention, in one thought, in a special state.

In the first state there was the one notion of Infinity, which included the vessel that was equal to the Light. Their equality, connection, and adhesion were provided by the power of the Light. All the souls, parts, and desires were there previously, but the Light held it all together and so they remained imperceptible.

Then the second state was created: the shattered vessel that is totally different from the Light and exists under its own authority—the desire to receive in order to receive. Thus, the shattering of the vessels brought the creature to the state of “this world.”

Finally, as the third state, the vessel once again becomes equal to the Light. We reach adhesion, but by ourselves now.

Eventually, we go through this whole process consciously, we understand and feel it. The descent into our world was prepared from Above, and the present state of ascent is the time of correction. Therefore, today we feel that we are at a very special point in history, which Kabbalists designate as “1995.” It is the border after which the general spiritual ascent of humanity begins.
[61447]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Between Heaven And Earth

admin_bb — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:42:29 +0000

Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” (abridged version): The purpose of Creation lies on the shoulders of the whole of the human race. But because of the descent of human nature to the lowest degree, which is the self-love that unrestrictedly rules over all of humanity, there was no way to negotiate with them and persuade them to agree to take upon themselves, to exit their narrow world into the wide spaces of the love of others.

The exception was the Israeli nation because they were enslaved in the savage kingdom of Egypt. Because of these two forewords, they were qualified for it, as it is written, “and there Israel camped before the mountain,” as “one man in one heart. This is because each and every person from the nation completely detached himself from self-love, and wanted only to benefit his friend, for only then were they qualified to receive the Light that Reforms.

The correction of the world is done gradually. It cannot take place in one person, but must be divided among many souls. It cannot be realized in one time, in one generation, but rather in a sequence of generations. The correction cannot take place if everyone is the same. On the contrary, there should be different kinds of people. All these conditions were intended to ease the way.

The correction is always done by two forces: The force of suffering pushes us from behind, and the force of the Light pulls us forward. It makes no difference what kind of people are involved. Thus, we can understand why the souls are not the same. Some begin the correction first—they are called Israel, meaning those who aspire “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El). They correct themselves before all the other souls join the process.

People who belong to the category of Israel feel the evil of their growing egoism, which is called “the Egyptian bondage.” They want to acquire the spiritual world, but encounter resistance: They are thrown backward, and weights are tied to their feet, which prevent them from rising. It is namely Israel who feel many interruptions on their spiritual pathway.

Accordingly, they are given a burning spark of the spiritual desire. Eventually, they find themselves between two opposing forces that pull them forward and backward, practically tearing them in two. On the one hand, they feel a pull upward and, on the other, the Egyptian exile.

This contrast is accompanied by difficult conditions in a difficult historical process, in hostile relationships on the part of the world, and so forth. However, all this helps us fulfill the correction faster than others and then help them. If it weren’t for the final goal, to perform the Creator’s actions in our world, one could only pity us. We can justify this way only if we understand the mission we have been given.

There are forces that push us forward, and there are other forces that won’t let us advance. We experience a very unpleasant development, “between the hammer and the anvil,” but we must understand that we are actually in the center of the corrections, and it all depends on us. Humanity already needs us.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Stanley Fischer Reassured The World

admin_bb — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:30:38 +0000

Opinion: (Stanley Fischer, Bank of Israel Governor): “Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer believes the Israeli economy is in a ‘relatively good condition’ compared to the global economic crisis.

Speaking in a press conference he convened on Tuesday to discuss the recent economic developments in the world, Fischer said Israel ‘can ride through this period successfully if we run the economy in a responsible and organized manner.

“As for the global economy’s situation, Fischer said, ‘The situation in the US is reasonable. It’s not good, but there is growth and no foreseeable danger, at least in the short term, for the US to enter another recession. Talks are of a 2.5% growth in 2012 – that’s not impressive and not close to the potential growth rate, but it’s a relatively good growth rate.’

“‘The forecast for all of Europe hasn’t dropped much since the beginning of the year. The expectation for European growth next year is less than 0.5% – that’s not a recession, but an undesirable situation.’”

My Comment: I present a variety of “opinions” so that later we can see how mistaken a person is in the vision of the world he lives in.
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All Interaction Happens On The Inside

bb_admin — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:45:31 +0000

Question: In the group, we need interaction, contact. That is the only way I can reveal love and hate for my friends. When we work together on dissemination, I receive a real inner response. But in all other regards, we just sit together at lessons or meals, sing and dance together. I don’t find any interaction there….

Answer: Still, try doing this together with the group more and more. In reality, this is the work: to sit together with friends, to eat with them, to dance and sing with them. This will cause greater repulsion to be revealed inside of you. Overcome yourself and try to submerge deeper into the group—and you will discover your weakness.

This is already the expression of the truth. The more you try to take control of yourself, the more negativity you discover toward the friends. This is the entire essence and nothing more is necessary.

The sons of Israel received the method of correction only when a strong egoistic desire ripened in them. This was no longer a clan or a family, but a great number of people who felt that they didn’t belong to one another. That is how a nation emerges: I am part of a group, I was brought to it, and I participate in the life of the friends, who are connected by a common goal. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t harbor any warm feelings for them.

And now I must form the deepest connection that can possibly exist in reality—the same as the connection with the Creator. Can you imagine: to cleave to the friends like to the Creator, without any excuses, and to feel them closer than myself. Is this possible? Yes. You make efforts, and in response, Light comes from above and corrects you.

In mutual actions, everything that’s important is inside. You can take physical measures only if you can vest the intention into them. Otherwise, you shouldn’t. We need actions that will become an expression of our interconnection. This includes conventions and dissemination work. But in reality, if a person is really dear to me, then I invite him to a coffee shop or to my house to socialize with him in a friendly setting. I try to be as close as possible to him.

The gist of the matter is not for every person to prepare for the convention in his own niche, hoping that these external efforts will unite us. Rather, we must feel a much greater proximity, which is what we were slightly able to achieve at the convention in the Arava dessert. After the December convention, we will continue acting in this direction to come even closer to one another.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/11, “Mutual Guarantee”

The World Depends On Those Who Reach Upward

admin_bb — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:07:59 +0000

Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” (abridged version): The role of the people of Israel is to prepare the world to a particular purification so that it could accept the principle of love towards the fellow man, similar to Israel. Everyone makes a contribution to this, and thus, each of the people of Israel brings the whole world to good.

The correction of Malchut of Infinity occurs in stages. Some of its parts are more “transparent” and others more “coarse,” as there are more and less important organs in the body. This difference is characteristic of the period of corruption, while after correction more corrupted parts may reach a greater height.

Now, we do not see the real situation. For example, the nations of the world are the most “coarse” vessels; however, after being corrected last, they will rise above the rest. And vice versa, the vessels that are starting correction today are simply purer, and that is why they wake up first. On the other hand, they are “coarser” than previous generations.

Thus, the process goes in stages. Baal HaSulam writes at the end of “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” that corrections are carried out from light to heavy, and they are started by those who came to this need, in other words, by Israel, which means “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El).

If in the general desire there is an impulse to move forward, the point in the heart (•) that feels this calling, then this layer of desires is called “Israel.” The next layer feels pains in life and suffers from the lack of the meaning of life (?), but it still does not feel enough aspiration to reveal the purpose of creation. Finally, there is a layer that simply suffers, albeit perhaps not a lot, and that can be satisfied with little.

In essence, it all depends on the upper layer: If it corrects itself, the Light comes from it to others because AHP can be corrected only by connecting with the carriers of the upper force, with those who have the vessels of bestowal.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Our Amazing Generation

admin_bb — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:44:23 +0000

Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 13: You should believe that there are plenty of sparks of bestowal in each friend, and if we gather them all in one place, in brotherly unity, love, and friendship, of course, it would be enough to reach a significant spiritual level now and for life.

Nothing was created in the world but one soul. The parts, sparks, of that one soul wake up from generation to generation and achieve correction. All the generations, which have completed their correction, unite in the last generation, which begins with us.

Our generation is special. It should connect within itself all the previous generations: from Adam HaRishon, through Abraham and Rabbi Shimon, the Ari, and Baal HaSulam who have performed big corrections in one soul and have prepared its significant, special, and lightest part for us. But besides that, we must connect to ourselves all the future vessels or desires (Kelim) that complete correction.

We connect within ourselves those who are behind us, our forefathers, and those who are ahead of us, our sons, all of them together. We have reached the condition when the world begins to demand correction; souls begin to awaken. And although people do not understand this, it is not necessary because they belong to the part of the collective soul that reaches correction unconsciously, thanks to the connection with us.

Our duty is to unite, to connect within ourselves all the holy sparks of bestowal, which corrected this system before us—and to complete correction.

This is an extraordinary time; we feel that this is a special state. And we see how the Creator helps us, that is, makes it possible for us to unite and purify ourselves so that what we desire so much becomes realized.
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From Lesson 1, Arvut Convention at the Arava Desert 11/18/2011

Let The Light Reveal Itself And Illuminate The World

admin_bb — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:43:05 +0000

We are standing at the threshold of a very important event: We will ascend and even leap up. We have all the conditions for that.

It truly is a unique state we have been given from Above. It’s not an event that is planned, organized, and thought out for a long time, and then it finally arrives. Rather, there is an “awakening from below” (Itaruta de-Letata) and an “awakening from Above” (Itaruta de-Leila), when an opportunity comes from Above, and the main thing is not to miss that moment!

And that is why we did everything so unexpectedly, and it’s good that our friends from around the world understand that. I truly feel it is a mercy from Above shown to us so that both at the December convention and afterwards, we are prepared to fulfill what has been placed upon us in order to correct the world. That is why such opportunities open to us.

We are very excited. You asked how to maintain the excitement, but it will come from all the friends that will join us here; we will all be excited. And you will be even more excited when you begin to catch these drops of mercy trickling from Above.

Out of this entire state, we have to receive a great deal of strength that will make us ready for the correction of the world. This coming year is truly an extremely decisive and fateful year. Let’s hope that together we’ll actually lead the world out of the deep precipice of the ego in which it finds itself and elevate it to the degree of Bina. Then, we will merit to ascend as well.

Among us are friends who have been with us for many years, and they still maintain that same hope. It’s because they await the collective awakening, the collective realization. It is like a couple with no children, who all the time maintain hope that they will finally have children. So now we are reaching a situation when we will finally be able to carry it out!

I am certain this convention will turn out nicely and well, and we will feel great excitement. And most important is to carry this on to the big convention in December and to reach a great force of connecting there. Connecting is up to us, and what will fill the connection is up to the Creator.

So, let’s hope that we will reach such a big force, such a pressure of connection between us, that the upper Light will truly be revealed to us, at least in its first measure. And then we’ll be able to illuminate the entire world, which is called “to become a light upon the nations,” to all those who still don’t understand or feel much. And then this will draw them near, will attract them. Accordingly, we’ll carry out the order of the Creator and bond with Him. To Life!
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From the talk during the meal before the Convention at the Arava Desert, 11/18/2011

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)”

Women’s Support

bb_admin — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:22:36 +0000

Question: A convention in the Arava desert will be held this weekend, which will be attended by several hundred men from Israel to unite, to crystallize the inner force of mutual guarantee between us, and to become the nucleus for unification at the December convention. How can we do this?

Answer: Indeed, there has to be a special inner nucleus in which all the points will gather into one. This point is surrounded by a more passive part—the women of Bnei Baruch, and the widest circle is the external world.

On the inside, all of our friends from the whole world merge together. Why men? Because that’s the nature of creation: They are the ones who need correction to attain love and unity, whereas women reach this differently. Then, when we attain the desired state, we will be able to pass it on to others.

Question: How should women support men at this convention?

Answer: They have to think about our success. We need this support as without it we will have a very hard time. It’s exactly the same as how “the sons of Israel came out of Egypt by virtue of the righteous women.”

Women are a very powerful part of the common system and their support is simply indispensable. When a woman worries about a man, this gives him great forces, a great impetus to realize her yearnings. Without women’s support, we will not succeed.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Along The Path Of Correction

admin_bb — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:57:16 +0000

The people of Israel received the Torah when this group agreed to be as one man with one heart, in mutual guarantee. Because of their connection, they first received the ten basic commandments, the “Ten Commandments,” the plan of our complete correction against the ten full Sefirot.

This means that I have to be corrected according to these ten laws: respect that, don’t do that, and so on, that is, fulfill the ten conditions. Then I begin to adapt myself to the other laws that are revealed to me.

I discover that I as if build the “golden calf,” then the “waters of dispute” manifest to me, then the “sin of the spies,” or I may miss the onions and garlic that I ate in Egypt. This means that a person discovers different states, which he tries to correct. He must be immersed in the shattering and feel all these attributes. This is why the Torah describes so many sins.

So instead of the details of the ten main laws, we receive a whole book that gives us advice on how to gradually go through ever new corruptions and corrections within ourselves. If you act correctly, the Light that Reforms shines upon you, awakening you, showing and clarifying various dark hollows.

Then you begin to understand who you are, and you cry out, trying to connect with others as one man with one heart every time. And the forms of connection that you need for that are revealed to you.

Eventually, you complete all the corrections, and it means that you have fulfilled all the “ten commandments” that have been clarified to you through this process, made up of 620 corrections or “commandments.”

If you agreed to connect as one man with one heart, you have to move forward now, to keep this line, and in every step to be connected as “one man.” Then you will begin to discover one fall after another: the golden calf, the waters of dispute, the sin of the spies, and so on. Each time you will discover a problem and will correct it.

This way is called “the path of the Torah” or the “path of the Halakha” (the word “Halakha” comes from the Hebrew word “Alicha” or “walking”), which is a set of laws that one is supposed to follow. When you come across a problem and you don’t know what to do, the Torah tells you how to perform a correction. Thus you put together the whole vessel of the collective soul.

The book of the Torah tells us about the internal process you have to go through, about clarifications and corrections. If you read this book and feel what it says, you see the way.

The path is long, and you haven’t started to advance yet, but you can read about it, hoping that some correction from the future corrections will shine upon you. Then from there, you will receive the illumination called the Surrounding Light or the Light that Reforms.

This will happen if you want all these corrections and if you comprehend what you are reading about. Perhaps you are reading it like some historic novel or some law book? It all depends on your attitude.

It is the same when it comes to The Book of Zohar and The Study of the Ten Sefirot. All the books tell about the same thing: how to reveal the evil within oneself and how to correct it. This is called the “Torah” since both the revelation of evil and its correction happen thanks to the reforming Light. If a person works on these corrections, it means that he studies the Torah. Without this he simply studies in order to acquire dry knowledge.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Work In The Barren Desert

bb_admin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:52:53 +0000

The work begins with the question: “What is the meaning of our life?” This point already contains the desire to attain the goal of creation, whose meaning is adhesion with the Creator. This is the final point.

We have no idea what this adhesion means, what kind of understanding and sensation it brings. But it is written that we have to cleave to His qualities. There are qualities of the Creator, which He gradually reveals to us, and we have to bring ourselves to similarity with them.

All of the Creator’s qualities are essentially just the single quality of bestowal, “absolute good.” This is the quality that a person has to adopt, “good that does good.” To the extent the Creator reveals His goodness to him, this is what a person should become like.

This goodness becomes expressed in relation to the neighbor, in order to allow us to attain true bestowal and not to bestow for our own sakes, egoistically. Therefore, we have to go through a rather lengthy preliminary path, advancing gradually, step by step along the chain of cause and effect states.

We begin from the state that is diametrically opposite to the Creator and we move with the help of the upper force, with the help of the Light that unnoticeably acts within us. This is called the Surrounding Light, the concealed illumination that returns us to its source.

By attracting this illumination to us, we correct ourselves and advance. And it can only be attracted by equivalence of form. Just as the Creator conceals Himself from us for now, allowing us to perform the correction and attain the true quality of bestowal, so we have to agree to work in concealment. In that case, we can aspire to His quality of bestowal rather than the pleasant fulfillment it gives us.

Yet the final correction, the goal of creation is to delight the creatures, where delighting is above our egoistic quality of reception.

Therefore, this work takes place in the “desert,” on barren land, meaning we do not feel any pleasant results from our efforts. This was done deliberately, so a person would look for possibilities to work without a reward, above reward. One must agree with this and desire only this because one aspires to the truth, to the quality of bestowal, rather than trying to attain a pleasant sensation this way.

This entire preparation is called the preliminary correction, before entering the Land of Israel. First we receive the force of correction, the quality of faith and bestowal, which is called “40 years of wandering in the desert.” And after that, we begin working with the desire to enjoy itself, and even this desire works in the direction of bestowal. This is called working in the Land of Israel.

Work on correcting our desire and raising the quality of bestowal above the will to enjoy is called work in the desert, the preparation phase. It is described by the commandment, “Do not do to another what you yourself hate.” This is work with the bestowing desires (Galgalta ve Eynaim), the small state (Katnut).

But work in the Land of Israel is already work with the actual desires: not above them, but directly inside of them. This is called “work in three lines.” This work is done with the actual receiving desire, which is called AHP, in the great or adult state of the soul (Gadlut).

When working with the receiving desire for the sake of bestowal, on its four levels, we reveal the names of the Creator. That is, we are already able to express qualities inside of us that are equal to His quality and to impress His name inside of us. The desire begins behaving like the Light, and that’s how a person attains similarity, unification, and adhesion with the upper Light until he goes through all the levels of the soul’s maturation and attains total equivalence and absolute adhesion, which is the goal of creation.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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)”

Nobody, But Us

admin_bb — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:29:29 +0000

Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” (an abridged version): Rabbi Elazar said that the whole world is included in mutual guarantee, but first, only Israel (those who have an aspiration for it) begins the correction of the world… (while others, due to a big ego) do not agree to exit self-love.

The first ones who are willing to be corrected are those who, besides egoism and usual troubles of this world, also have a special calling, spark that beckons forward. They take the direction straight to the Creator (Yashar-El) and therefore are called “Israel.”

The 99% of humanity develop only under the pressure of suffering from behind. This circle is called the “nations of the world.” And there is also an inner circle, which besides suffering, also has an aspiration to move forward. These people are called “Israel.” Of course, those who have both the pressure from behind and are also pulled forward come to the realization of mutual guarantee sooner. However, the entire world will have to enter the framework of mutual guarantee eventually.

The “nations of the world” also have parts that will connect with “Israel,” by suddenly discovering a spiritual calling or the point in the heart. But others will not enter inside. So one way or the other, the central group must correct itself, becoming a home for those who are attached to it and who support it from outside.

The conclusion is simple: It is our duty to realize correction. Everything is entrusted to us: to correct ourselves and the world. There is nothing to add.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Fanning The Spark With Mutual Guarantee

bb_admin — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:54:06 +0000

Baal HaSulam, “Mutual Guarantee” (abridged version): Mutual guarantee means that all of Israel became guarantors for one another.

“Israel” means “straight to the Creator” (Yashar El). This is every person who has a spark of spiritual desire given to him from above. Besides the desires for food, sex, family, money, honor, power, and knowledge, he feels one more desire, which belongs to a higher dimension. This desire sends him off to search for the meaning in life, its source and essence. If a person has this spark above the material, earthly desires, then he aspires “straight to the Creator” because this urge directs him toward the source of life and of all reality.

If people want to grow their spiritual desire, they have to unite. After all, this urge can only be developed by means of bestowal, by ascending above the material desires in which only our material reality is felt. Standards of food, sex, family, money, honor, power, and knowledge form the picture of this world for me and require the fulfillment of the corresponding desires, whose various combinations differentiate people from one another. However, the spark of the upper desire develops according to the opposite tendency: above the material desires and in spite of them.

The “bestowal” to which this spark aims us is just a term, underlining that here we operate differently, not the way we do in the earthly desires. We have to rise above them and satisfy them only on the level of vital necessity, while in all other regards we develop the spark, the embryo of our soul, the part of the Creator from above.

Thus, a person who has such a spark is called “Israel,” and the means to develop it is called “mutual guarantee.” That is why all of Israel are initially guarantors for one another in the upper system. And in our world we have to realize this state, but we are invited to do this by our own desire, without anyone being forced to do anything.

The Torah was given only once every person from Israel agreed to accept the principle of love for the neighbor as for himself.

People who are able to unite their desires get together, having awakened to the source and purpose of life. In their unity, they must attain love for the neighbor as for themselves. Previously they wanted to satisfy their own desires for food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge, but now to the same extent and in the same form, they take care of their neighbor, wishing to provide him with everything necessary for spiritual ascent.

This means we have to take care of every friend’s vital necessities, and in all other regards—of his spiritual path. I build all of the support systems for him and provide him with all the means which allow him to attain what he desires.

As a result, everyone takes care of one another’s vital needs and of each other’s spiritual needs. I wanted to provide myself with the necessities, but now I take care of the friend the same way. I naturally wanted to fill my soul, but now I care only about the friend’s soul. I looked for personal profit in everything and used others for it, but now I have to make a 180 degree turn with regard to my friends and switch to their vital needs, both spiritual and material.

Thus, by means of mutual guarantee, all of Israel have to attain love for the neighbor as for oneself. That is how they form a single, whole vessel to the extent of the desire that becomes revealed in them, and according to the equivalence of form, they feel the general bestowal, mutual love in that vessel. And above that love they feel its Creator—the source of the level on which their vessel with the Light filling it is found.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Questions About Israel And The Will To Receive

admin_bb — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:16:02 +0000

Question: What organ of the “body” of the collective soul will Israel become? Or is it the embryo of Adam?

Answer: It will be its head since “Isra-El” means “Li Rosh” or “my head,” as said by the Creator. All people in the world who aspire to reveal the Creator belong to this part of the collective soul.

Question: Did the creation of the awareness of the existence of complimentary desires expressed as the will to give and the will to receive create egoism? Does egoism in its extreme form exhibit similarity to a singularity that, in analogy to the astrophysical “black hole,” only receives? Can the breaking out of the cage of egoism be compared with the breaking of a vessel, where the breaking of egoism is the turning of the desire to receive into the opposite desire, namely the desire to give?

Does the breaking of egoism and the combination of the desires to give (expressed by individual souls) evolve a creature that has the desire to give? Can this combinatory process be compared to the spiritual equivalent of the big bang that created the material world? Is the creation of the will to give and the will to receive the breaking of a “spiritual singularity” manifested on the human level of reality as the breaking of a material singularity (also called big bang)?

Is the purpose of our lives in our reality to drive the evolution of a spiritual reality by virtue of an individual’s intentional breaking of the vessels of egoism (imbalanced awareness of the will to give and receive)? Is an individual’s willful intent to break his own vessel of egoism similar to the original intent of the Creator creating these desires?

Answer: I’m leaving your questions, and my answer to all of them is “yes!”
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Love Will Cover All Deficits

admin_bb — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:27:19 +0000

It is said in the Talmud that all in Israel guarantee for one another. But why is it only in Israel? Indeed, according to the purpose of creation, the entire world must come to mutual guarantee.

The fact is that Israel should do this first, as Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.” The sons of Israel receive a special state in their development: They stand at Mount Sinai, meaning they discover evil between themselves, the abyss, rejection, true hatred, caused by the shattering that occurred at the root of our soul.

And then, rising above all this, they can achieve unity, mutual guarantee. It is said: “Love will cover all sins.” This force of love will be revealed in them above hatred.

And then, it will be poured to all others, who cannot reveal hatred and love so much. These souls belong to the category of the “nations of the world”: Their desires are less strong, and the force of breaking is weaker in them. The chasm that has opened within them is not as deep, and the passions raging in them are not as cruel, although they are the carriers of the receiving desire.

Of course, at the end of correction, everyone is united in one vessel, without any distinctions. However, on the way, there is a category of souls that carry out correction first. This category is called “Israel” (ישראל), which also means “my head” (Li rosh - לי ראש). And the others get everything ready and are called the “nations of the world.”

Today, we are standing at the threshold of the final ascent. So everyone who feels the pull towards correction and the need to unite for the sake of this are called “Israel.” They stand at the head according to the mission that they must carry out in the process of correction. “Israel” also means “straight to the Creator” (Bo-rehישר-א – ל) since the purpose of correction is to come to the upper force, to attain complete bestowal.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

What Will Make Me Love Others As I Love Myself?

admin_bb — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 09:20:01 +0000

Baal HaSulam, “Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”: It is said that anyone who buys a Hebrew slave, it is as though he buys a master for himself. It means that if one happens to have but one pillow, … one must give it to one’s servant.

“Love thy neighbor as thyself” is the second rule that we face after we have learned not to do to others what we hate. This condition has especially high demands.

At the stage of “love thy friend as thyself,” it is not enough to refrain from criticizing or considering your friend as lower than yourself. You must raise your friend above yourself so that he will become the most important thing in the entire world for you. From now on, I must worry about him first, like a mother who devotes herself naturally to her child and renounces herself in order to provide him or her with everything necessary. We must relate to everyone this way.

Of course, we are not able to even think about that. This condition is so hateful and repulsive to us that we can’t even imagine to ourselves how we would come to realize it.

However, the Light that Reforms exists in the world. It operates at its own pace, according to the plan of creation, and it draws us closer so that we will accept this condition. Whether we want it or not, in the end we will need to fulfill it either willingly or through pressure by suffering. One way or the other, we are speaking about the law of nature that today is bringing everyone to the first stage of the spiritual path, to the principle of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

We all need to feel that we are together in the same system, we are mutually connected to each other, understand each other, and are dependent on each other. The integral system unites us in all intentions and meanings. We yet will discover that each desire and thought of a person is connected to the rest of the souls.

Of course, we are not able to fulfill this condition, and we surely don’t want to. Instinctively, we reject and ignore it. I don’t agree with this condition to such an extent that I immediately forget it. So, what am I to do?

One needs to carry out exercises in a group by which he will want it nevertheless. No one tells me that I need to realize the condition that I forbid myself to do to others that which I myself hate. I can’t perform that against my desire, and even more so I can’t love others as I love myself. It is impossible to force me since I have no control of my heart. However, I am able to perform actions that will change my heart.

Questions arise here: How can I want something like this? What do I need it for? This is where a point of choice is: I can invite the Light that Reforms for either good or bad, one of the two. In the end, I will want it to come, but what will cause me to want it?

On one hand, we can build an environment that will impress me with the greatness and importance of the goal and will direct me to bestowal and mutual love. Under the influence of the friends, I will want even what is not important to me now. Then, the Light will come.

Or on the other hand, we can feel the lack of our efforts as suffering, even a world war, until in the end, we will need to ask for the Light that Reforms anyway, to ask for correction, and ask for good relationships between fellow men.

For example, today, Israel’s existence is under threat, and this negative situation should awaken us to correction. Do you want to get rid of the threats? Invite the Light that Reforms, and it will do everything for you. Nothing will help except that. After all, a hero doesn’t win by force.

We only need to unite. Our unity will attract the Light into the world, and it will correct everything. It will do so gradually, in accordance with its program that we don’t know. But in any case, the manifestation of the Light in the world will bring us to good.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Not Just Like Nuts In A Bag

admin_bb — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:12:07 +0000

Question: When there is a disaster or a war, people unite and help each other, they take in people who are hurt, and it’s as if there is mutual guarantee between us. How can we explain that mutual guarantee should simply be between us and not against some third party?

Answer: I think that now our interdependence will be revealed not because some disaster unites us. In the past we felt our mutual guarantee under the pressure of threats around us, and so we clung together, like nuts in a bag. We didn’t want to unite, but the bag held us together, and as we had no other choice, we had to exist inside one bag.

Today things are different. Today we are facing nature, the upper force, and not some corporeal enemy that surrounds us and can be killed and destroyed. Nature shows me that I depend on and am tied to everyone else. If I just lived next to some enemy, it wouldn’t be a problem. The point is that I am totally dependent on him. I am so dependent on him that I can do him no harm. As I harm him with my hatred, I inflict harm upon myself.

A system of interdependence is being revealed to us everywhere in the world and with regards to everything. In every situation that I cause someone harm, I harm myself in return. This is how the general integral system is revealed. Essentially, every person in the world is part of me, and through him I feel all the evil that comes back to me.

Doesn’t Germany want to dump Greece or to be cut off from it? But it can’t! They can’t just “cut off” Greece, Italy, or Spain because there is already a connection that makes them dependent on everyone. You can’t just hate others because by your hate you are simply “shooting yourself in the foot.”

This is unprecedented, and so everyone feels so helpless not knowing what to do: “I hate his guts, but I can’t even touch him because of the blow that will immediately come back to me.” We can’t “fix” the situation by breaking up our connections. It is impossible!

If I harm someone, the harm will come back to me in much greater magnitude than if I harmed myself. It’s also the same in the opposite direction: If I do good for others, the goodness comes back to me 613 times more compared to the starting point, meaning instead of Nefesh of Nefesh, I receive the Light of NRNHY.

So I shouldn’t say or think evil things about anyone, not even half a word. It’s better to curse myself. This will become clear to everyone. This is how globalization will oblige us to change.

To reach this by ourselves, we will have to go through a long way of suffering, while the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals this to us much more quickly.
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From Lesson 1 at Arava Convention 10/27/2011