The Magic Of Egoism And Bestowal

Heaven and Hell

Question: You are saying that witchcraft is a psychological phenomenon. How does it reflect on those who don’t even suspect that they are the targets?

Answer: This is the way by which our desires are directed towards others. All our desires comprise a pool of forces that impact everyone around us. Our attitude to the world in general and to the surroundings we live in contribute our personal energies to the overall system.

Question: So, witchcraft is a desire of a person oriented to somebody else’s benefit or detriment?

Answer: Desires matter, but why do you call them witchcraft? Each one of us acts within a general network of powers that exists among us. It is an extremely complicated system. We are a source of a whole complex of uncorrected, evil forces that are called ego. We have to correct these powers and transition them from wickedness to benevolence, or in other words, be good to our neighbors.

It means that from the will to receive, which is taking as much as possible from others, we have to end up bestowing to everyone. Accordingly, the key principle, the universal rule of the wisdom of Kabbalah, states, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This principle replenishes the general network with positive energy. Everything we generate has to bring benevolence to others. This is how a positive network is created.

When building such a network, we enter the world comprised of complete benevolence, meaning we enter the Garden of Eden. Thus, heaven is a state in which everybody thinks only about the others’ well being.

At the same time, hell is mutual hatred, a state in which we all suffer.

How to Defend Against Negativism?

Question: If someone impacts us wickedly through the general network, can we somehow defend ourselves?

Answer: Yes. For that, we have to involve positive powers.

Question: Whom should we direct them towards?

Answer: To everyone. Even if I have no idea who exactly sends me a negative impact, it doesn’t really matter. My positive and kind attitude to others turns into a shield through which negativity cannot penetrate.

The mechanism is very simple. I can be hurt only if I am in my egoistic desires and if I care only about myself. If I bestow, contribute, give, share, and love others, nobody can hurt me. I am invincible because I exist within others.

It is very strong psychological armor. Thanks to it, no matter how much others want to hurt me, they won’t succeed.

Moreover, by acting in this way, I neutralize all my offenders since we exist in a unified, common system. This explains why by contributing our sincere attitude to other human beings and a desire to bring benevolence to everyone, we enhance positive energy in the general network. Positivism is capable of destroying all negativism directed against us. Then, not only will nobody be able to hurt us, but nobody will even make an attempt to do so.

This is how the system works. The Torah, particularly the wisdom of Kabbalah, explains these issues to us in detail. We see that when one is a source of benevolence to others, the evil forces are unable to hurt that one.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/18/15  

For Waters Of The Sea To Part…

The Midrash, “BeShalach,”: There was a dispute over whether to give someone the right to jump into the sea first. The head of the tribe of Judah, Nachshon ben Abinadab, first jumped into the water.

Question: Why did members of different tribes begin to argue who should first jump into the sea?

Answer: Every man contains within him the people of Israel, the Egyptians, and all the other properties. It is unknown by which of them he can overcome the sea. So he chooses to move forward with the help of a property or their total unity, a little from the Egyptians and a bit from the people of Israel.

A person analyzes, “These properties I can manifest from the Egyptians in order to move forward, otherwise I will not fear and will be relaxed, and these I can manifest from theCreator to appease the Egyptians themselves and to move towards Him.”

He constantly uses the plus and minus, as an engine that runs on two opposite forces that rotate it. One pushes from the front and the other one pushes from the back or to the sides. A person manages this on his own.

The more opposing forces he can control and properly connect within oneself in order to achieve the goal, the higher one gets. This is why the dispute occurs, and why Nachshon should jump and not other properties or all of them at the same time.

When people from the tribe of Judah saw that the children of Benjamin Ben Nachshon ahead of them, they started throwing stones at them.

Stone (Even) derived from the word “Abana” (stony). Usually during any action, a person overcomes various thoughts, a desire to understand, to realize what was happening. But in the spiritual work it is necessary to move above reason.

A person begins to concentrate on one’s own abilities by forgetting that by just grasping the Creator one can pass the sea, one can enter Him like entering the mother’s womb that will be one’s ark, and the waters of the sea will part.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/30/14

The Torah Brings Life To Man

The Torah, “Leviticus”, 11:13 to 11:21: And among birds, you shall hold these in abomination; they shall not be eaten; they are an abomination: The eagle [or the griffin vulture], the kite, the osprey, the kestrel, and the vulture after its species,  and the raven after its species, the ostrich, the jay, and the sparrow hawk, and the goshawk after its species; The owl, the gull, the little owl; The bat, the starling, the magpie; the stork, the heron after its species; the hoopoe and the atalef;  Any flying insect that walks on four, is an abomination for you. However, among all the flying insects that walk on four [legs], you may eat [from] those that have jointed [leg like] extensions above its [regular] legs, with which they hop on the ground.

We see all the levels of a person’s desires here. Inside myself, I gradually begin to discover my inner essence to the extent that I advance and I begin to see these names above me. They are like captions. I begin to understand that this is the Gematria of the given desire, its name, its attribute. Suddenly I begin to feel that I understand the biology, zoology, and the botany described in the Torah. It is inside me.

The Torah, “Leviticus”, 11:25: And anyone who carries their carcass shall immerse his garments, and he shall be unclean until evening…

Clothing is an external Masach (screen). If I touch an uncorrected desire, I fall and lose the Masach. Therefore, I have to correct this desire, wash it in water, in the Light ofHassadim (mercy).

But if I cannot correct it, since it suddenly grows weak, and I cannot work with it in order to bestow; I need to draw away from the source of temptation, meaning to remove myself from the source of temptation.

When I begin to attain that, all the texts in the Torah arise in me and become clear, since, after all, how did the author of the Torah write it? He wrote it by what he discovered inside himself.

He wasn’t a biologist or a zoologist and he didn’t stroll in the forests and the fields. Did he see these attributes, especially the ostrich and other animals that didn’t even live in these areas? It is all revealed within a person.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/22/14

Being Directed Towards The Friends Is Being Directed Towards The Light

Our spiritual study and dissemination are derived from correction of the shattering of the entire Kli, the Kli of the collective soul. This process can be divided into three stages of development.

When I came to my teacher, Rabash, I met five or six people who had studied with Baal HaSulam.

They had a particular approach to studying: sitting quietly, reading, and speaking between them a little. They exchanged only a few words between them because they understood what was said in the books, and while reading, they were doing internal spiritual actions. That is how they advanced. Like people who walk together in the woods or in a field, that is the way they exchanged impressions about what they “saw” on the way while they were reading.

The tension among them and the internal work during which they corrected their desires was palpable. That is, they were working both together and separately.

At that time we studied only The Study of the Ten Sefirot and The Book of Zohar with theSulam Commentary. There were no articles or letters by Baal HaSulam and Rabash then.

When I brought new students to Rabash, he began to write articles because this created an opportunity to speak about the correction of people, and the main thing, what we could add to the Upper Light.

The Upper Light presses on us and moves us through those stages that we must go through. If we aren’t ready for it, we receive its influence as a blow and against our will; we twist and dodge to reduce the suffering. After all, when you press something, the object that is being pressed will adopt the most suitable form for its condition.

On the other hand, I could put myself under the influence of the Upper Light and attract it in the most effective way. The Light doesn’t change, but in this way I change its influence on me.

In addition, my position, my location, taking on the most comfortable and correct form appropriate for the Light is not found artificially; rather, I must more or less accommodate myself to what I must get to. I don’t merely dodge and run away somewhere, instead I intentionally search for the influence of the Light.

How can one do this when, after all, we don’t see, don’t understand, and don’t feel spirituality? So the group helps me since in it I can find my most optimal position regarding the Light. I don’t accommodate myself to the Light because in our world, in the same plane in which I am found, I have the most clear and precise possibility of directing myself towards the Light. This is not in regard to the Light, but in regard to my friends.

This is the reason for the “Shevirat HaKelim” (the breaking of the vessels); it is so that I will have the possibility of working with them. Accordingly, I don’t force myself on the Light, instead I can reach it through opposite characteristics because I am not working with it but with my friends. That is how this works.

The main thing is not to miss the opportunity to choose each time the optimal form of mutual accommodation between us. Each of us begins to perceive his maximal position towards the others, and in this way he enters into a unified picture like a mosaic or a kaleidoscope.

I already begin to think about how my friends will reach their optimal form. This “togetherness” is called the “center of the group.” Where everyone is involved in this, they stabilize themselves with each other to aim towards this state. When we enter into it, it will close, and at that moment we become like the Light and immediately feel it. The shared characteristic of bestowal—this is the Light, the first level.
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From the Convention in Sochi “Day One” 6/11/14, Lesson 2

Who Will The People Follow?

The Midrash “BeShalach”: Moses began to pray, and the Creator opened the heavens. The enlightenment came down upon the nation of Israel, and they saw an army of angels by their side. Moses continued to pray, but the Creator said to him, “This is not the time for prolonged prayers. My children are experiencing a critical moment. You don’t have to turn your voice to Me since the prayers of my sons come before yours, and I hear them. Tell them to go into the sea, and I will perform miracles for them!”

Comment: The matter is that, if you want to invite the upper bestowal, you must request it from your level, and only after that will the Creator begin to act.

Answer: In the beginning, it needs to be an awakening from below, and then, according to this, will come the awakening from above.

But the people are led and instructed by spiritual leaders that show it the correct way. Without them we wouldn’t know what to do so we need to listen to the spiritual teachers and carry out whatever we are told.

Today leaders and politicians are completely dependent on the people. If the people so desire, then they would do anything they want with the people. Thus, the main thing for the leaders of today is not to give the people this opportunity. They try through all means to suppress the desire that awakens in them, to block and quiet their ambitions.

However, very slowly, the wise ones will replace the politicians; the time of the revival of the Sanhedrin when the wise ones will decide together and, from within their unity, will come one, complete whole.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/30/14

Harmonious Complement

The Book of Zohar, “Tazria,” Item 23: “If a woman inseminates, she delivers a male child.” The woman, Malchut, delivers the souls, and delivers a male child. It is not included of male and female, as it is usually when the souls are born male and female, since through the sins of the lower ones, they cause the souls to not join male and female in Malchut, as they emerge above, in couples—male and female. This is why it is written, “She delivers a male child,” since what appears to this world is only a male, who is not included with a female.

The male and the female elements in the spiritual world are the attribute of bestowal and the attribute of receiving and they are in the correct states. They are mutually connected and they complement each other, which means that they inseminate and give birth to new life by the connection of the right and the left lines. But since the conception and the birth do not occur simultaneously, the correction is performed alternately.

This is the reason that the woman gives birth both to the male part and to the female part.

A woman is the upper level that absorbs the Reshimot (the spiritual genes) and develops them inside her. This is how the soul is born, but only if our body, which means our desires, and our intentions accompany the whole spiritual process.

Human beings in our world do not have a soul on the corporeal level, which is an animate entity. If we want to possess something human, we need to develop our soul, and then we can be called Adam, human.

There are Reshimot (spiritual genes) in each of us and we can assist their nine months intrauterine development inside Malchut by raising our desires and our wishes to that level and by doing everything so that the Reshimot should develop properly. At the end of what we call a spiritual period of nine months, nine consecutive processes that they undergo, the soul is created in them.

Therefore, we should exist on the animate, corporeal level the same way nature, history, society, etc. obliges us to function and we should focus everything else above that in order to develop the Reshimot.

Question: The male and the female elements in the spiritual world are connected while in our world everything is shattered, divided and born separately. Does that mean that we have to connect the two elements and restore the spiritual state?

Answer: All the spiritual forces are aimed at that in order to fulfill every person’s spiritualReshimo and to create one whole body, one unique soul from them. There are no divisions in it and by itself it resembles the Creator!

There are no concepts like a female soul or a male soul in the upper world since there is perfect harmony there and mutual complement.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/14

We Need To Pray For Everyone

Question: How do we direct ourselves correctly at the time of readingThe Book of Zohar to heal all the problems of every individual person, the people of Israel, and the whole world?

Answer: It is necessary to pray, to ask, to be integrated into the pain of the people closest to us and also those who are far away. But we don’t pray for a particular person who is sick, but for correction of the general illness that is revealed before us now through the problem of a particular person.

One should pray for general correction, because what we see is only a particular expression of the general problem. This is how the prayer must be organized.

Question: Why is a prayer for everyone more practical than a request for a particular person who is closer to my heart?

Answer: A request for a particular person is closer to your ego. On the one hand, you are stimulated more by what is closer to you. But on the other hand, what is the difference if the desire to bestow is bestowing to someone close or someone far away?

There are no limits to the Ohr Hassadim (Light of Mercy); it extends to all places with the same intensity. So why do you want to pray for someone in particular?

We know that everyone is connected with everyone and there is only one soul. So every defect that is revealed in someone is the result of the general illness. So how is it possible to heal a particular person without healing the general illness? It is necessary to pray for everyone.

If you are ready to correct everyone through your prayer, then the person in whom you saw some kind of illness will also be healed. Otherwise this doesn’t work. After all, we are in a global system, a single system. Suppose that someone is sick with the flu, you cannot heal just him; rather, you must heal the epidemic throughout the world because it is a general system.

It cannot be that there is a defect in one place, even if it seems to us that we see only one damaged component. The damage is not only in him, but also in the whole system. And only in regard to you is this presented as a defect in a friend. You must take care of society in general, and the particular problems that you see are only a response to the common problem. An isolated component doesn’t exist in any form, not in me or anyone else. If I see it, it is an indication that the system is sick.

We see this in the world. If we want to correct some part of the government or the society, then nothing will help because we don’t approach this correctly.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/14, The Zohar

When The Dream Comes True

Question: People love to fantasize about a better life. Some indulge in these sweet dreams all the time, escaping reality and living in a dream.

Can a person develop the ability to stay in the midline and properly connect the positive and negative forces of nature, like Jacob and Joseph, about whom the Torah tells? Will he have the opportunity to imagine the desired picture of the future and actually achieve it?

Answer: This is possible if a person develops a very strong desire for some goal, defining it as the goal of his life. It is only necessary to find out from where he suddenly gets such a strong desire. Perhaps, he is in this world with a special mission.

The purpose of one person is to become a great doctor, the other – a prime minister, the third one – to achieve high spiritual development. Such aspirations come from our very root point, called the point in the heart. It awakens in each person his respective desire to become somebody.

We can also get these aspirations from the environment, as if by chance having found ourselves under a certain influence. There are plenty of people around us; however, everyone is impressed by something of his own. All this data we get from the general program of nature.

Question: If there is a higher program that determines my fate, how can I change it so that the future is the way I want it to be? How can I make my dreams come true? How can I change this hidden program?

Answer: Everything that is written in this program is going to happen nonetheless, whether you know about it or not. The general program must be realized. And how do thoughts come to you every second, how do people appear with whom you come in contact, how do things happen? All this takes place according to the general program. We operate within it, like obedient puppets.

But if we want to rise above this program, we need to reach the level at which the forces that control this world act. Today, the science of Kabbalah allows us to do this, but it requires a very strong desire.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/11/15