We shouldn’t strive to correct the world or ourselves; we just need to study the actions which the Upper Light performs on us. It’s as the Creator told Moses: “Let’s go to Pharaoh!”

Moses is small and frightened – meaning this is a very weak quality in a person. There is a creature of monstrous proportions standing opposite to him; this is all of creation, the whole world, egoism, which holds all the power, nourishment, and oxygen. I receive all of these things from Pharaoh; he is my whole reality. Meanwhile, a tiny quality or desire called Moses rises up against it wishing to escape, to come out from its control and begin to live in a different world!

We almost don’t feel this tiny opportunity within us to rise and come out of our egoism. We don’t know how to come out of this Egyptian slavery or where to run from it. However, the Creator tells us, “Let’s go to Pharaoh together!” And like a little child who takes the adult by the hand, Moses and the Creator walk together.

From the side of the human being, all that’s needed is consent, a request, a demand to the Creator for help. One does not need to battle evil on his own. However, people don’t understand this and think that they are able to do something on their own. But whoever thinks himself a hero is a fool.

All the religions and allegedly “spiritual” methods err with regard to this, teaching people to eradicate the evil inclination. Kabbalah, however, says that the left side (egoistic desires) is given to us precisely in order to help us adhere to the right side (bestowal) – after all, this constitutes the whole goal of attaining the Creator through our efforts in the middle line.

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Two questions I received on unfortunate circumstances in our world:

Question: It really does seem that even as the computer/technological age affords us the ability to be with each other across many miles, to connect with all our friends no matter where we are in the world, there is a huge lack of soul connection between us! Why is that?

Why are we feeling so much fear, needing to grab whatever power or space or whatever it is that we need at such an alarming pace? Why is there so much anger, and mistrust in the world? Why are there so many despotic leaders with power gone awry? I’m sure that influence has always existed, for there has always existed those who “have” and those who “have not.”

My Answer: It’s because we follow the principle “Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.” Egoism forces us to close our eyes to tomorrow because people see no way out of the situation.

Question: Dear Dr. Laitman, I especially liked the way you described to us the way children should be educated in the future (but really now, as it is urgent). My question is: How long will it take for the kindergarten schools up to the universities and colleges around the world to catch up to the idea? Maybe 5 years? I am worried that it will be more than 5 years.

My Answer: I hope it won’t take longer. Otherwise, things will get worse.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What Will The Next Decade Bring?
Laitman.com Post: What Is Hell?
Laitman.com Post: US Schools Are Creating Worker Robots, Not Human Beings
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: “Correcting Egoism”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Peace in the World”
Know the Solution to the Crisis? (0:42)

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In the News (from The Wall Street Journal): “Paul Volcker: Think More Boldly” Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker chastised the largely private-sector group for the timidity of its proposals:

“My overall impression is that you have not come anywhere near close enough to responding with necessary vigor or structural changes to the crisis that we have had. Every day I hear financial leaders saying that they are necessary and desirable, they are wonderful and they are God’s work. Has there been one financial leader to stand out and say that maybe this is excessive and that maybe we should get together privately to think about some restraint?

Wake up, gentlemen. I can only say that your response is inadequate. I wish that somebody would give me some shred of neutral evidence about the relationship between financial innovation recently and the growth of the economy, just one shred of information. I am getting a bit wound up here.

I found myself sitting next to one of the inventors of financial engineering. I didn’t know him, but I knew who he was and that he had won a Nobel Prize, and I nudged him and asked what all the financial engineering does for the economy and what it does for productivity. Much to my surprise, he leaned over and whispered in my ear that it does nothing—and this was from a leader in the world of financial engineering…”

My Comment: Mr. Volcker is stating the truth (a liberty he can allow himself due to being a “former” chairman). The crisis continues because it is not being corrected by the creation of improved connections in our global society.

Kabbalah forecasts further downfall until people recognize the root of the crisis – the human egoism, and until people will be forced to rise above it for the sake of survival.

The only question is: how much suffering and how many world wars will we all have to go through in order to recognize the necessity of building the right relationships in our interconnected, global world.

Related Material:
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Kabbalah Today Article: The Little Prince Explains the Financial Crisis
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: “Eradicating Egoism”

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We start out advancing to the goal egoistically. Because we don’t see any other way out, we unite like soldiers in the army in order to attack new frontiers. But then, as we work internally and yield to each other, we become more sensitive and find that we don’t have the property of bestowal. We realize that we would be happy to unite with our friends, but we are unable to.

In regular life, we find the strength to unite and reach the desired goal together because the goal is egoistic and we see mutual benefit. But the spiritual goal is opposite to the familiar egoistic unity. There is a contradiction between the set goal and the separation that rules among us. We gradually reveal that we are not joining together, but, on the contrary, we hate each other. That is how we reveal the evil inside us, which we did not notice before.

As a result, we are left helpless, not knowing what to do. From then on, we come to a state called “prayer,” where we begin to cry and entreat with the Creator to give us and our friends strength – the strength to unite.

Because of this, three elements come together: I, my friends and the Creator, who links us together and provides the connection between us and the Light, which starts to fills us. That is when the spiritual world opens up to us.

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When reading The Book of Zohar we have to remember that “There is none else besides Him” and He Is Good and does Good. This is the only way we should approach our lives and everything that happens in the world. We have to understand that there is only one force behind everything.

There is no devil or evil spirits trying to trap us, drag us into hell and roast us on an eternal fire. When The Zohar describes various evil creatures, it is in order to show how a person feels when he reveals the egoistic forces within. He feels as if he is burning in hell and wishes to escape the control of these horrible, dark forces which control him. He sees that they prevent him from advancing towards the Creator, but he cannot fight them and is forced to follow them.

The Angel of Death comes to a person and hands him a sword whose tip is smeared with a drop of deadly poison, and the person obeys, opens his mouth and swallows the poison. The Zohar explains that the Angel of Death is our egoistic desire in its final, cruelest form. All of these qualities are inside us and they are killing us. There is nothing worse than this state, even though we don’t realize it.

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Opinon (from IPS): “ENVIRONMENT:  Rethinking Jobs for a Sustainable Economy” John Talberth, president for the Center for Sustainable Economy said, “…there’s no reason everyone should work their butts off 40 or 60 hours a week. There’s got to be more incorporation of leisure time.” Judy Wicks, founder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies said, “Maybe if we changed our values, you don’t need as much money, you don’t need to work as much… that’s something [good] about indigenous cultures. They spend a lot of time talking to people and making music together… we lack [this] because we’re on this treadmill of making more money to buy more stuff.”

My Comment: Egoism won’t let us relax and go back to a more primitive lifestyle, or be satisfied with the necessities, because it was created by the Creator, and its intended purpose is not to find satisfaction with life on this earth, but for our advancement to the Upper Goal. All the statements and wishes made in the news story above are nice, but they are naive. The program and the Goal of Nature is to bring us to the level of the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Yes, We Will Survive Without Egoism
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Laitman.com Post: Reemerging From Noah’s Ark Into A New World
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Future Generation” – Talk 2
Video: How Do We Get Rid Of The Ego? (5:04)

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The Zohar: They came out of the Land of Israel and descended into Babylon, saying, “This is the place we will stay.”

We will rise to the heavens and will fight the Creator so that He doesn’t flood the world as he did in the beginning of time.

Parsa under the World of Atzilut is a special correction that was made deliberately to prevent the Light from descending lower. This is why they said: “Let us rise to the firmament and fight with the Creator so as to remove this border and allow the Light to descend from above downwards.”

A person gradually learns and begins to understand that he has to strive towards bestowal, but he doesn’t want to stay “in the Land of Israel” where everything is done for the sake of bestowal, since he can’t see the benefit in doing so. As new egoistic desires are revealed within him, he leaves the Land of Israel and moves towards Babylon, the land of reception.

He then starts to think that the wisdom of Kabbalah can be used for egoistic purposes, for personal fulfillment. He wants to conquer the Creator and make Him serve his own egoistic purposes rather than the other way around, just like in the Grimm fairy tale about the fisherman and his wife.

He starts to look for a lower, less noticeable place where he can hide from the Upper Force in order to avoid getting rid of his egoism. Thus, he builds a “city and tower” (ZON de Klipa) and lives in it. He thinks that the Creator has to fill his egoistic desires with Light, instead of fulfilling his clean desires, since the latter would require him to ascend and attain the property of bestowal, Bina. He wants his egoism to be fulfilled and argues with the Creator.

Each one of us can find these properties within ourselves. This is described in the Torah when addressing the builders of the Tower of Babel: “Rise to the heavens and fight the Creator!” “Fight” means to demand the Light from the Creator, to ask for revelation while remaining in one’s current egoistic state. One asks, “Why hasn’t the Upper World revealed itself to me? The Creator is unfair! I have waited for so long, so why hasn’t it happened yet?”

This is what is referred to as “building a city (Zeir Anpin of Klipa) and a Tower of Babel (Malchut of Klipa), which happens to us on every level. Each time, we have to make a choice of whether to follow the path of Abraham – the path of bestowal, or the path that the whole world chooses – the path of Nimrod.

There is a rule: “The whole is equal to any of its parts.” The whole Torah is present even in our smallest and lowest states, including the states called Noah, Babylon, Egyptian slavery, wandering in the desert, construction and destruction of the Temple, and the entire path until the end of correction. It repeats itself again and again on each level.

This is why when studying The Zohar I can find everything I read within myself, in every state I go through: an Egyptian slave, the people of Israel, the High Priest of the Temple, the Pharaoh, Bilam and his donkey, and so on. They are all inside me.

Our role is to try to imagine and sense these metaphors like a child that’s studying the world around him. The most important thing is to not stop making an effort. There is no other book in the world and no other way to lift ourselves into spirituality.

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A question I received: Will the receiving force disappear when we come to final correction?

My Answer: If it disappeared, then creation would disappear as well. Is receiving really a bad thing? Kabbalah (receiving in Hebrew) is the science of how to properly use the force of reception.

Everything began from the Light that is the quality of bestowal or the giving force that created creation, the will to receive, or receiving force. In reality there are only these two forces, and this is why creation always has to receive or strive to receive. The will to receive is a necessary and enduring force. Otherwise, how can I possibly give? It is possible only if I learn how to properly receive; then I will be able to acquire the force of bestowal.

The One that purely gives is the Creator. I am the one who receives. The receiver can thoughtlessly swallow up everything that is  given to him, in which case he will find himself in an intolerable situation. In this case, anything a person receives will only leave him feeling more and more drained. It is  because delight is opposite to one’s desire and it neutralizes the desire. The next moment after I have filled myself, I feel empty. Why is this so? It is because delight is felt only during its brief encounter with the desire, which vanishes once it’s full. For example, I was hungry and anticipated a treat, but now that I am full, I can’t even look at food.

It follows that egoism kills itself and gives way to despair. Whatever I do, nothing remains. What else can I think of in this world to delight myself? How many different foods, movies, cars, or jets do I need? At some point, it all stops satiating me.

This is why the world has come to a crisis. The crisis is due to all of us having forgotten how to use our desire to enjoy, and therefore not being able to employ it as before. The world is at a dead end. So what should we do?  This is when a new desire called the “point in the heart” emerges in man. It says, “It is possible to enter a different dimension of pleasure. Let’s try it.”

This is how one comes to the science of Kabbalah. It teaches a person to give by means of the desire to be delighted. How does this happen? Only through love for others. Love towards others will be revealed in everyone, and people will suddenly feel that this love gives them fulfillment that does not vanish, is always there, and always increases.

When you begin to wish to give, you will sense that you are being fulfilled, and this never-ending fulfillment will be a sensation of eternal life.

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A question I received: In the corrected state, I will love my neighbor as myself. But will his desire in relation to me still remain “not my” desire?

My Answer: We do not erase the differences between us; we preserve all of our desires. It is written, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” not “nullify yourself and disappear.”

“As yourself” implies the depth of each person’s desire which remains between us, our differences and the hatred that we rise above, like over Mount Sinai (Sina means “hatred” in Hebrew). We use our ego, the entire depth of the egoism, in order to turn it into bestowal. If we were to cancel our desires, we would have nothing to rise above.

Therefore, we should not destroy anything about ourselves. Even the worst qualities have to stay. We just add correction to them without creating anything new; we simply use what exists in us initially. Until the World of Infinity, we ascend by the degrees of our egoistic desire, transforming it to bestowal.

We can fall at any given moment, as it is written, “Don’t believe in yourself until your very death (the death of egoism).” If you lose the screen, you will fall back into these desires, since the screen restrains your egoism – all your hatred. However, the hatred remains, and it can burst out at any moment.

Even in our ordinary lives, we see how people unite, and then suddenly and unexpectedly, hatred erupts between them and a war breaks out. This happens because people build connections with each other based on “corrections” that can fall apart at any moment. It is like a “united” Europe, where there are 30 different countries, all being torn apart by mutual oppositions. No matter how much they try to build a “common home,” it can explode and bring them to a third world war in one instant!

Suddenly terrible hatred will be revealed, a kind that they have never experienced before. All of the unification that they are trying to reach right now will serve as fuel for hatred. And all that’s needed for this is one match.

In our spiritual ascent, only the Creator serves as the guarantor of the fact that this will not happen to any of us, provided that we include Him in our union!

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From your studies, you need to expect changes that are brought to you by the Correcting Force – “the Light returning to the Source.” Kabbalists who wrote books were present in our world and the Upper Worlds simultaneously.

Therefore, if you desire to acquire the Kabbalists’ properties and vision, then by using your aspiration, you can draw the force of correction upon yourself and soon feel the result of its influence. This will be expressed as a gradually increasing feeling of the properties of bestowal within.

Under the influence of the hidden Light in the studies, you will gradually recognize that you don’t have even a bit of the quality of bestowal within you. All the good that you attribute to yourself is just egoism, which attempts to fulfill itself in this manner. This will be a clear recognition that whatever you do is only for self fulfillment.

At the same time you will feel that this is not good. It is seemingly okay, yet you will feel that it is actually bad because it limits you. Through bestowal, you will open up the infinite spiritual world, and by receiving, you will stagnate in this world. This realization is a step forward.

Then you will feel that there is actually someone, the Giver, filling all space around you. You are not familiar with Him as yet, but you want to feel Him, be equivalent to Him, become as Him, and unite with Him through the quality of bestowal.

In this way, you can gradually change under the influence of the Correcting Force that you draw upon yourself during the studies. This Force influences you, especially while studying The Book of Zohar. If you are ready and want to unite with other souls, then together with them, you will attract the most powerful Correcting Light from this book.

Only this Light will help all of us. All other efforts will be useless, other than uniting together to draw the correcting force upon us.

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