Question: If fruit needs time to ripen, then maybe man doesn’t need to do anything at the moment but wait until he matures, just like fruit?

Answer: Humanity has already finished its evolution at the still, vegetative, and animate levels. And in the last 5770 years we have been developing the “human” level in us, starting with Adam, the first “man.”

In these 5770 years, we have also been undergoing the still, vegetative, animate, and human degrees within man. Until then, we had lived as animals, but Adam was the first to start the evolution of the human part within us, in this beast we call a “human being.”

Adam HaRishon (the First Man) was a person who discovered spirituality, that is, the “human” within himself that is similar in properties to the Creator. Since that time, all of us have existed at the human degree of development, and that’s where all the “human” problems began. Therefore, it’s not worth waiting until everything gets worked out because it won’t, and we will only continue to fall lower and lower.

The human within us is everything that goes beyond the animate level of existence. A beast needs only food, sex, family, and shelter, and so does the animate body of man. But when a person starts using his ego, instead of his natural animate instincts, this refers to the human part within us, which we have to harmonize. And this is the only part that has free will.

Where is this human within us? Right now it is only a beast.
[30410]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/10, "The Freedom"

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The purpose of education is to explain that to “love thy neighbor” is a common law of nature. Only this forms a child into a human being. This needs to be reflected in every subject being taught; all of them should incorporate the notion of the unity of nature and governance (“there is none else beside Him”) and the absolute interconnection of all the parts of creation (“love thy neighbor as thyself”).

Then the entire course of study will be based upon and governed by the single law, it will move in one direction, and this is exactly what the child will grasp. If it is written that the law of “loving one’s neighbor” is the “main rule of the Torah” (meaning the common law of the universe), then we must educate children based on this law and show that everything that happens in the world is defined by this condition.

The children will grasp this singular law, and both the upper governance and their proper behavior will become obvious to them. When we show that the best and the most horrible events in the world only happen in order to reveal to us the place where we need to fulfill this law, children will begin to have a different, purposeful attitude towards reality.

Those who want to correct themselves and, through themselves, the world are called human. This is how we raise human beings from animals.
[22190]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Question: Why does the Creator allow some people to commit brutal crimes?

Answer: The science of Kabbalah illuminates the questions of perception of reality, free will, and human nature, showing that a person who lives in this world does not possess freedom of choice. Therefore, he doesn’t commit any conscious acts.

A person can attain the freedom of choice only in a Kabbalistic group, which is a group of people connected in order to attain the spiritual goal. In this case a person receives or earns some degree of acting freely. However, those who have not reached spiritual attainment and have not reconciled two opposite forces, action and intention, do not act at all!

They arrive at the end of this life as if they have never lived. In other words, they haven’t lived as “humans.” It is their biological body that lived, just like any other type of animal. It is a life dictated by instinctive nature only. A person can only rise above it by way of “faith above reason,” when he desires to attain a different nature.

The unity of these two natures, Upper and lower, is regarded as the human in him. Only a person who achieves this can be said to have performed independent actions that are worth punishing or rewarding. In other words, only a Kabbalist can be judged for his own actions. An ordinary person cannot be judged since he acts in accordance with Nature’s orders. He follows one route and does nothing using his own free will.

Nevertheless, in our world punishing measures are necessary. However, we don’t administer them at will but under orders from Above, although it happens through the government legislature, courts, and law enforcement devices. All of this exists in order to hasten our development!

This is the Upper Governance over all people, who are like puppets, with the purpose of bringing them closer to the point of freedom of choice.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/10, “What Are the Two Actions During the Time of Descent?”

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The same question arises over and over again: Why couldn’t the Light create a perfect being similar to the Creator from the start? But it can’t be done! It is impossible to pass the property of bestowal from the Creator to the creature directly.

This is why we have to experience the breaking of the worlds (in the World of Nekudim) and the collective soul (the fall into sin with the Tree of Knowledge). There is no other way to connect and bring the qualities of bestowal and reception (Bina and Malchut) into one another except through the sin (the breaking) of Adam and the destruction of the Temple.

But what forced man to taste the fruit (apple) of the Tree of Knowledge? It’s similar to the predicament when you see a pleasure and clearly recognize that it brings harm; you feel shame, yet you are willing to override it because the temptation is too strong. You can’t resist it, even if it’s deadly. Moreover, the pleasure doesn’t cancel shame but forces you to continue!

This is when it’s necessary to arrive at conclusions and learn, since at this exact point you experience Adam’s sin founded on the collective egoism (the Tree of Knowledge), which is described as: “I ate and will eat again!” He can’t resist; this pleasure is greater than him although he knows it is forbidden.

This is the point where the difference between the Light and desire is revealed. And if you are able to sense and wish to correct it, you will realize that you need the Light that Reforms. There is no option; this is the only way to feel that you are doomed and can be saved solely by the miracle from Above. That is when you ask for the Light and receive salvation.

Salvation comes only from this point in a human. As for the “animals,” the Creator doesn’t call on them to come out of Egypt. It is the “human” who exits Egypt and leads the “cattle” out as well.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Let us remind each other of and get inspired by the greatness of the spiritual goal and the environment that aspires to it; let us appreciate the unique opportunity for free choice that we have been presented with. How many people in the world can act freely? If everybody is blindly following the commands of their nature, then nobody truly “acts.” If I’m completely governed from Above, then “I” don’t exist, as it is said, “I came and there is no one.”

There are billions of people in the world, but they don’t exist, as it were, since none of them are free in their actions. Without a person with free will there are no worlds; there is nothing but the World of Infinity. With regards to the Creator, nothing else exists. Only a person who carries out a free action does. Imagine this picture of the world: total emptiness. Only a few desires that arose and are capable of performing free actions protrude into it.

You, too, have an opportunity to acquire freedom and become Human. May we recognize the greatness of this unique opportunity.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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When the souls unite together, a person discovers a new reality. Currently we experience ourselves as living in this world, which is at the level of individual existence; each part is disconnected from the entire organism. Yet, despite the fact that all these parts are alive and

aware of their individual existence, there is a difference between a body that is whole and a body whose parts are disconnected.

Right now, each disconnected individual is receiving a lifeline and life support, like an organ extracted from the body for transplant into another organism. Consequently, they are like “ready-for-transplant organs” on life support, which ensures they don’t descend below the animalistic existence. These organs perceive themselves as living in this reality. That’s who we are.

If we, a group of such organs, desire to unite and we ask for it, then our collective desire (the prayer called MAN) draws from Above (from a higher level) the force that unites us. Subsequently, in our unity we perceive the spiritual reality, as a body whose organs begin to connect with each other.

Thus, the entire organism experiences a different life, not the existence each of them once lived separately by striving to survive on its animalistic level. We ascend from the animalistic level of existence to a new level called human.

The sensation of this collective life of all “bodily organs” (the collective soul) is called the spiritual world. We will no longer even be able to perceive the previous existence as life because we’ll no longer live to survive, but instead will support each others’ lifeline. The Light gives us a completely new and different reality.

Our previous life on the animalistic level will look extremely low and undesirable. We’ll need it solely in order to absorb the desires of others who are still living in our world as animals; these are the desires that haven’t joined our connection yet. Gradually they will also begin to ascend. However, once having attained our spiritual life, this lower level will be unnecessary since we will all have ascended to a higher dimension.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: What is the fundamental difference between humans and other creatures?

My Answer: Unlike animals, we humans have the opportunity to attain a connection higher than our bodies. There are two forces or desires at my disposal: I feel my “self” or my life, and I also feel the need to find the source of my life – the Creator.

In the physiological sense, humans do not differ from animals in any fundamental way. Man originated from the animate level. At some point in the past, we used to be apes, and we later developed into “modern apes.” Everything happened due to the development of the Reshimot in us. For more on this, see Part 3 of Talmud Eser Sefirot.

So, there is no difference between humans and animals, except for the spiritual desire that is instilled in us. This desire is a part of the Creator, and it is above and beyond our lives. If this desire awakens in me, then I become a human being. Meanwhile, in every other respect, I still remain an “ape.”

Granted, it’s an ”ape of the best sort” – one that’s more complex and more adapted to carrying out the human function: to attain the Creator through its desire. Our bodies are smarter and more sensitive than animals’. Yet, whatever a person in this world has that is above and beyond the animate level, he needs it for only one thing: to develop and understand what his soul desires.

You have received a point of spirituality that bears absolutely no relation to the body. It will remain even if you were to replace all parts of the body. It would still want to advance forward!
(From Part 2 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, on Baal HaSulam’s “Introduction to the Book, ‘From the Mouth of a Sage’”)

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A question I received: The science of Kabbalah explains the law of roots and branches. Knowing the laws of this world helps us in our everyday lives. But how can knowledge of spiritual laws help us? I am referring specifically to the law of roots and branches.

My Answer: The law of roots and branches is the main and most important law in the entire science of Kabbalah. According to this law, everything that happens in our world comes down from above in a unilateral, absolute order.

It is written: “There is not a blade of grass that has not an angel above it that strikes it and tells it to grow.” Angels are forces, and any action, thought, desire, event or occurrence, from the most elemental particle to the biggest stars and entire galaxies, is managed by an Upper Force.

This force divides and within it, is included a number of forces on the various levels of the inanimate, vegetative, animate and human. These are physical and biological forces that influence all levels, with all of them coming from Above.

This is why the law of roots and branches is very important. With the science of Kabbalah, and learning the law of roots and branches, we can rise from the branches of our world toward the roots. We will begin to see our world as transparent and behind every object, we will see the force which manages it and brings it to action.

A person will begin to sense where his thoughts and desires come from and why things happen to him and to others. He will begin to see how a net of forces acts on this world and how it playfully and through various wavelike movements, organizes everything that occurs here for us. In this way, a person begins a dialogue with this Upper Force, with the root through which its own force operates everything in our world.

A person begins to understand where he can step in and have a dialogue with the Creator who is behind these forces, in order to respond, participate, change and consciously intervene. This is the only place in this entire net of forces that acts on him from the inside and out and where he can actively participate.

Although we are not conscious of it, we are inside of a picture prepared and formed for us by these forces. I have to come to understand how I can actively take part in this picture. In other words, how I can control my fate.

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Recently, while in Madrid, I had a meeting with a reporter, and he asked me, “Can you tell me, where is my soul now?” I felt uncomfortable letting him down, but I had to tell him, “What soul? What are you talking about?” He didn’t get it: how can there be a person without a soul? Yet it doesn’t surprise him that a cow has no soul. But why should he have one? Right now he may be eating a steak that was made from that cow, but he doesn’t ask what happened to its soul. So how does the cow’s body differ from his own?

The soul is one’s connection with the Creator, with the Upper Light, and it only appears to the degree one is similar to Him. A soul appears in a person once he is above the Machsom, but prior to the Machsom, a person does not have a soul. All our other desires do not constitute a soul – at least not yet, while they’re not corrected.

When a person receives a point in the heart and develops it, then a soul appears within him, which is called “human.” But our animate bodies are not called human. Their only purpose is for us to raise a soul within the body, which will be called our “I.”
(From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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