1. The Light is the Creator. The Light is always the source of everything! In the beginning the Light created the creation, and hence creation is completely subject to the Light. If the Light were to disappear, then the creature would cease to exist. Every movement and change that takes place in the creation happens only under the influence of the Light.

Creation is lifeless and motionless when the Light influences it with the smallest possible force. If the Light shines stronger, then to this degree the creation undergoes a qualitative change, transforming from “still” to “vegetative,” where it starts to sense and perceive. And so on.

2. The Light is the Actor. The Light is always the source of everything! This is why it is written: “There is none else beside Him” and “The Creator is your shade.” You must “find” the Creator in every circumstance and definition, since He is the one who made this state happen.

3. I Control the Light! When you strive to change something in you, you must evoke the Light upon you, and It will change you. The Light can influence me and my Reshimot, and it will change me only in a way that brings me closer to the goal of creation. In other words, the only thing that I can ever do in my life is accelerate my spiritual development. Or, through my lack of desire to evoke the Light’s influence upon me, I can evoke the Light’s absence, and then I will experience all kinds of suffering - because the Light is life.

However, if my desires come from the Light, then I cannot exert a return influence on the Light with my desires. I must receive a desire for the goal from a source other than the Light, and then I will be able to influence the Light with this desire and evoke an additional influence of the Light on me, accelerating my path. This is why I am given the correct environment (the group), which is the only opportunity for me to evoke acceleration toward the goal.

4. The Woman’s Role. The group isn’t influenced physically, but through one’s desire. Hence, a woman who participates in the group’s work (by studying virtually and disseminating Kabbalah) and desires to receive the correct influence from the group, receives it and uses it to involuntarily turn to the Creator (the Light). With the exception of physically participating in communication with the friends and studying virtually, she does everything else just like a man and goes through the same states.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Overcome Yourself by Raising the Importance of the Goal
Laitman.com Post: A True Desire Is Always Answered by the Light
Laitman.com Post: Woman = Desire
Shamati #1: “There is None Else Beside Him”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Lord Is Thy Shade”

 

 “Kabbalah Revealed” Episode 5: Introduction to the Four Phases of Direct Light [25:04m]: Play Now | Download

 

 “Kabbalah Revealed” Episode 15: Inanimate Vegetative Animate Human [24:38m]: Play Now | Download

 

 St. Louis Congress 2008: Lesson for Women [1:18:45m]: Play Now | Download

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Two questions I received on what will happen to the Internet during the crisis:

Question: In this great international crisis, plus everything that is apparently still in store for us, it is reasonable to assume that many different infrastructures will be affected, including the Internet. How do you think this will affect the role of the virtual group and our dissemination in the entire world, which happens primarily through the Internet?

My Answer: If we use the Internet correctly in order to correct the world, then it will remain, or be replaced by something even more suitable for this goal.

Question: Are you still working on materials to submit to the Google 10^100 project? At first everyone was excited about it and there was a lot of talk about it, but now it seems like everyone forgot about it. Will Bnei Baruch participate in it or not?

My Answer: We did what we could, and the rest does not depend on us. In the midst of it, the crisis struck. It looks like Google has forgotten about it, or perhaps something is still happening there, but since no one is contacting us, we are keeping quiet as well.

To be frank, I don’t believe that such undertakings have good intentions or integrity from the start, but I’m obligated to participate if there is an opportunity. In addition, working together on these projects helps us unite!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Internet Is a Reflection of the Society
Laitman.com Post: Virtual Lesson on Google’s Project 10^100
Laitman.com Post: The Creator Will Become Revealed Inside the Unity of Our Virtual Meeting Space
Shamati #72: “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light”
Shamati #131: “Who Comes to Be Purified”
Kabbalah Blog Post: Make a Difference, Cause a Social Change!
Kabbalah Blog Post: Better the World Campaigns Strike a Chord
Kabbalah Blog Post: Will Project 10^100 Change the World?
Kabbalah Blog Post: Project 10 to the 100th by Google

 

 The Table of Free Voices [07:54m]: Play Now | Download

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A question I received: In considering the first commandment of fear of the Creator, do you know why the Kabbalists wrote the Niggun (melody) “Gesher Tzar Meod” (A Very Narrow Bridge) which suggests that the main thing is “not to fear”?

My Answer: The lyrics of this song are as follows: “Our entire world is like a narrow bridge, and the most important thing is not to be scared of anything!” It means that all the disturbances on one’s path come from the Creator, and one attains Him only by overcoming them.

As for fear, there are different kinds of fear:

1. Fear of this world, when one desires everything for himself, and the more the better, and so he won’t have to pay or be punished for it.”
2. Fear of the world to come, when one thinks, “I don’t want to go to hell, but to heaven, and to the best possible heaven.”
3. Fear of “Will I will be able to reach similarity to the Creator?” - for my own benefit.
4. Fear of “Will I will be able to attain bestowal to the Creator, without any thought of myself?” This is the real fear of the Creator. Everything else is fear for yourself.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How Can We Overcome Fear?
Laitman.com Post: The Four Kinds of Fear
Shamati #38 “The Fear of God is His Treasure”, Lesson 1
Shamati #38 “The Fear of God is His Treasure”, Lesson 2
Shamati #138 “About Fear that Sometimes Comes Upon A Person”

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Two questions I received on Kabbalistic texts:

Question: On your website you published a quote about the Segula (special quality) of studying The Book of Zohar, and that studying The Book of Zohar is necessary in our times in order to defend and save ourselves from all evil.

You took this quote from the “Introduction to the Tree of Life” by Rav Yaakov Tzemah, but I wasn’t able to find there one of the parts you quoted, that the revelation of this wisdom will happen during the time of the worst generations, so we would have protection to hold onto in our hearts.

My Answer: Read Baal HaSulam, I was quoting him.

Question: Why do the books of Baal HaSulam and books of Rabash say so little about the process people go through beneath the Machsom? If I am wrong, then please direct me to the appropriate materials.

My Answer: Everything besides Talmud Eser Sefirot and Pticha is written for people who are beneath the Machsom! Talmud Eser Sefirot and Pticha are also for them, in order to study and thereby draw the Light of correction.

Related Material:
Purchase the book: The Zohar
Purchase the book: The Science of Kabbalah (Pticha)

 

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 Kabbalah Books [2:59m]: Play Now | Download

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The beginning of the spiritual path starts with the question about the meaning of life. Actually, one asks about the meaning and purpose of one’s suffering: Is there any point to it?

If one’s desire to find the answer is genuine, then he is led to a place where he receives the answer. From that point on, everything depends on him - he has to realize his freedom of will, because spiritual development is absolutely free. In every other respect, we are like robots!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Special Power of Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Intention in the Prayer”

Filed under: Suffering - No Comments →

Editorial News Report (from Executive Intelligence Review): If the participants of the G-20 meeting won’t reach an agreement, the world economy will rapidly collapse, billions of people will die from hunger, and social chaos will begin in the G-7 countries.

My Comment: The participants of the G-20 meeting should at least reach a certain level of mutual trust in order to coordinate their actions in the economic (and perhaps military) spheres. The world needs to see a connection between different countries. It won’t help to simply exercise control over fiscal operations (banks, companies, equalization of different currencies, cancellation of offshore accounts, annihilation of monopolies) and to reach a consensus to refrain from military attacks. This won’t help because Nature is forcing us to become integrated!

Even if they won’t reach an agreement, they should at least agree to meet together in order to solve the problems of global reconstruction, according to the laws of the single system.

A Kabbalistic text says: “The hearts of the kings and their ministers are in the hands of the Creator.” And the Creator is governed by people’s desires to the degree they are similar to the Creator - to the quality of love for one’s neighbor. Therefore, everything depends on the dissemination of the knowledge about the world’s globality and our connection within one family. When we realize this, we won’t feel hatred for others, but for our own egoism, which is the only evil in the world. And after that we will also feel an aspiration for love of others.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Another Unfortunate Meeting of the G20

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News Report (translated from gazeta. ru): Does the stock market have rules or is it governed by a divine whim? A great deal of research has been done on this question. A “divine whim” is defined as the difference between real prices and those set by the rate of return and liquidity. In other words: the stock market operates at a low return, but prices keep growing or dropping according to the prevalent opinion at the moment: “everything will get back to the good old times” or “this is the end of the Western civilization.” This would mean that the process we are dealing with, which is turning the world around, is accidental.

My Comment: There is no going back! Our egoism has grown and we have risen to the level of global interconnection. This is happening for the first time in human history, just as Kabbalah predicted thousands of years ago. I invite you to verify this by going into our old lesson archive and listening to our lessons from many years ago.

Nothing will return to the good old times. Everything taking place marks the end of Western civilization. Ahead of us lies a global, single, common world. We are all one family; we can’t run away from it and we depend on it completely. Even dying won’t help, because you will have to come back to complete the correction!

We need to create a stock market that will be based on the rules of the world’s global system. Everything has already been described. Study Kabbalah!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Present Crisis Is a Crisis of People’s Trust in the Egoistic System of Relationships
Laitman.com Post: My Article on Ynetnews - A Kabbalistic Interpretation of the Economic Crisis

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News Report: The Telegraph reports that the UK Government intends to obligate internet providers to report every e-mail and website visited. This information will be submitted to a database, such that not a single phone call, e-mail or website visit will remain unnoticed. The bill is expected to appear in 2009.

My Comment: There is no doubt that this is the wish of every government in the world. However, they would be better off educating their people. According to the law “The general and the particular are equal,” the government must treat its people as parents treat their children, and that means not to just restrict and punish them, but also to take care of their education and upbringing. And it shouldn’t matter how expensive or difficult this is.

Kabbalah talks about the need to manage the public opinion. However, this shouldn’t be done in order for the government to manipulate the citizens more easily, but for the sake of creating a correct hierarchy of values in society - values that include the meaning of the existence of man, the family unit, the state, and humanity. We think that the masses cannot adopt such high values, but Kabbalah asserts that everything depends on the public opinion! See Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Freedom.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What Will Happen If Countries Draw National Boundaries on the Internet?
Laitman.com Post: The Internet Is a Reflection of the Society

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News Report: Scientists at the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford have begun research that aims to find a scientific answer to the question: Why would anyone believe in God? The £1.9 million project is made possible by a fund from the John Templeton Foundation.

The researchers’ objective isn’t to find out whether God exists. They want to find out whether belief in a higher power is a natural phenomenon inherent to human mentality, a product of upbringing, or of social evolution.

My Comment: According to the science of Kabbalah, everything was created by the Light and contains information about It, since everything originated from It. (See Part 1, Ohr Pnimi, of Talmud Eser Sefirot.) However, the general desire that was created consists of four levels of development: still, vegetative, animate, and human; and only the desire of the “human” level is able to develop to a point where it feels a need to perceive the Creator. Hence, this desire is natural.

This created desire to feel the Creator – to feel its Root, to know “Where did I come from?” - also has four levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human. Each of these levels can be satisfied by revealing the Creator to the degree of the desire:

• Simple acceptance of His existence;
• Connection with Him through actions;
• Complete personal devotion to serving Him;
• The need to reveal the Creator;
• The need to completely attain the entire universe and hence to reveal the Creator in His entirety.

Additional information will be disclosed upon receiving our part of the grant! (That’s a joke.)

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Scientific Theories Cannot Prove that God Exists
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Laitman.com Post: Will God Want to Repeat the Act of Creation?

Filed under: Science - 1 Comment →

A question I received: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations stated that “The world only needs 30 billion dollars a year to eradicate the scourge of hunger.” Yet 700 billion dollars have been allotted to solving the credit crisis. We easily found 700 billion dollars to cover the financial crisis, but we can’t find 30 billion to solve the problem of worldwide hunger. Why is that?

My Answer: Obviously, the bankers feel that their problems are more important. But may I ask: How did the UN distribute their funds in the past? Why didn’t they help fight the problem of worldwide hunger, or at least to improve it?

The fact is that you can’t feed the world this way! People shouldn’t go against the Creator (Nature). The only thing that needs correction is human nature, and if it is corrected, there will be plenty of everything for everyone!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What Does a Fallow Year Have to Do with Rice? - an Article about the Food Crisis
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Kabbalah Today Article: Mankind’s Growing Hunger

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