Nature Is Our Home

Question: Do the stars influence the personal fate of a person?

Answer: Such a connection exists. But it isn’t the stars themselves that influence humans, animals, or plants; rather, according to the changes in the position of the stars we can understand which correspondent changes are happening on the levels of vegetative and animate. This doesn’t mean that one influences the other, but according to changes that happen in the heavens, on the level of the still, to which we pay attention, we decide that we must be changed too.

But the stars themselves are not the cause of these changes. It is not on the level of the still. It can remain absolutely hidden from us. But it influences the stars, plants, and people. We don’t see the real cause, and so we have no choice except to link our fate with the stars.

Thus humanity has learned throughout all of its history, from experience. They paid attention to particular plants that followed the moon. Others followed the sun. There were those that opened in the daytime and others that opened at night. From this astrology was born.

Astrology is based upon experience that human beings gathered. Over thousands of years they watched the phenomena of nature in the heavens and on the face of the earth and discovered how one depended on the other, how everything was connected. They constructed records, tables, and pyramids in South America and in Egypt. But all of this teaches only about the mutual connection of all the forces of nature that human beings discovered.

Even people who lived 10,000 years ago had already discovered that our world is global and that all things in it are linked to each other: human nature, the plants that are around him, the animals, nature, and the weather. Everything is connected into a single whole and in every part there are signs of all the rest of the parts, so much so is the system integrated.

Question: How does it follow that in ancient cultures this connection was already known, but because it didn’t since then it wasn’t developed and was even lost? Don’t we get the impression that the ancients were more developed than us?

Answer: The ancient people were more developed than us and were closer to nature. They weren’t afraid of nature; rather, they lived within it and so they understood and felt it. They understood nature better because they attributed everything that was happening with them to it. They connected their entire lives to it: The life of the family and their children, the nature of the person, everything that happens within the family and the community, the weather, the behavior of the animals, and the state of the crop yields in the field.

For them this was one world, and from this perspective, they were more advanced than modern man. Through the development of technologies we have detached ourselves from nature and have stopped respecting and valuing it, feeling it as our home. We will soon have to return to this perspective.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/1/15

The Origin Of Dreams

Question: What are dreams? There are many myths and fairy tales around dreams and this phenomenon has concerned humanity throughout its history. The ancient Romans and Greeks tried to decipher dreams. But until now, this phenomenon remains a mystery.

A person spends one-third of his life sleeping and has dreams during all this time, but does not remember most of them. In this way, our brain processes and organizes all the information received during the day.

But there are dreams that seem to convey a special message, to reveal the future. Where do dreams come from?

Answer: Even the Torah talks about dreams: the dream of Jacob and the dreams of Pharaoh and his ministers. Sleep is a natural phenomenon, but sometimes we perceive dreams as something not serious, like fantasies.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that during sleep, the brain summarizes all the information received during the day and that is what we perceive as dreams. This data and some fluids that rise in the brain without any connection to real matter, take special forms, and as a result, we see unusual images of people, animals, and strange events.

All this is due to the fact that sleep, as opposed to reality, has no material basis. This is why everything happens as if in the air and without regard to our specific desires. In addition, a dream can reveal those desires that we would like to realize, but are not able to, fears that torment us and from which we cannot escape, all kinds of fantasies, and pleasant and unpleasant experiences that we have been through.

Among them, there are those that we would rather forget. Perhaps, in real life we managed this, but they still live in us subconsciously. Therefore, while we sleep and break away from the real world and the environment that does not affect us, all these fears and feelings awaken in us and come to life in a dream.

Dreams can tell a lot about a person, such as his inner state, desires, thoughts, all sorts of plans, fears, and obstacles. When he is under hypnosis, it is possible to study and learn a lot information. In this state, a person loses control over himself and opens himself to the study.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/11/15

“Health To All Their Flesh….”

Question: They say that there are unique powers in the letters of theTorah. One of the powers that are connected with the letters is the power of healing. How do they heal?

From what I understand, all of these letters, together, form the lines of a code that manages me (and every person) at every moment and determine everything that happens to me, but in this code there are intervals. If I am sufficiently developed and wise, then will I be able to write these intervals myself and then change the course of the process?

Answer: In the Torah, it is written, “For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:22). These letters, themselves, are forces, but this is not talking about letters that you write on paper. With every letter that you perceive, you are changed. You must change according to each letter to allow these letters to be embedded into you.

Our entire problem is that we are in an egoistic state, always wanting to receive for ourselves. This is the opposite of the material into which the Torah can embed itself. It can be embedded only in material that is entirely bestowal and love, which is the opposite of our ego.

Every letter is a symbol, a form or a manner through which I provide the best to others. Both the form of the letters and their combinations indicate how we can take the material, the desire to receive, and make from it a desire to bestow. We work with the desire to receive in the form of a desire to bestow, and then the letters are created from the desire to receive.

It is said that you had a formless heap of the desire to receive like a mountain of sand, and now, by adding water and cement to this sand, you make a solid mass out of this mountain, and from that, you already can make the form of the letters.

However, what does every letter symbolize? In this form, your formerly egoistic desire now wants to bestow to others, to give something to them, to help in some way, to arrange something, and it is the same thing even for the Creator, for the general program, so that it will be realized and will be good for everyone. This is what you make out of your natural substance.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/21/14

On A Wave Of Calm

Question: At the time of the Exodus from Egypt the Creator hardened the heart of Pharaoh and sent Moses to him. Is it possible to compare this to today with the relentless military actions of the past few months? How can one explain this process to the public?

Answer: An introduction is needed here first to explain the principle of “There is none else beside Him.” Everything is sent and caused from above; everything comes to us from the upper force. It is from “There is none else beside Him” and the “good that does good.”

So why is that so bad for us?

The problem is that we, the people of Israel, are responsible for the world. And all evil happens because all the good and the pleasure that comes from above are not received correctly in our Kelim. We don’t prepare the Kelim, the desires of all of humanity, such that they will be in equivalence of form with what is sent and reaches us from above.

The Light comes from above in precise amounts as if some kind of “clock” is ticking and secreting the Light according to a precise algorithm, a little more and a little more, every moment more and more for three thousand years until the completion of correction. And we human beings, gathered from all the ends of the earth, are responsible for it in order to accept it specifically as goodness and pleasure, as great abundance that is meant to fill us on every level, at every moment, with heavenly delight.

And in the next minute, the “hardness of the heart” comes again and we must again go to Pharaoh. In this way, time after time, we must correct the hardness of heart and receive the abundance in it.

Ultimately, the troubles and plagues come and don’t pass over the characteristic of “Israel” in us but over the egoistic characteristics of “Egypt” and “Pharaoh.” What is called the “Sitra Achra” (other side) swallows them again. And that is how it must be, and later it will “vomit” out the abundance that it swallows, which is called, “He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again” (Job 20:15).

So we are responsible for the world. Nobody has freedom of choice except for us. We are the ones who left Babylon, who fled from there and were molded as a people who became connected among us and connected with the Creator. We transformed ourselves into a transitional link between the Creator and the entire world. This means that we need to become the “light” for the whole world and give it the method of correction so that at every moment what comes from above will be revealed truly as a paradise on earth.

But we are not doing this. And so we look at everything that is happening and we must understand that, in fact, it is all kindness; the Creator is still frightening us from a distance and playing with us. Thousands of missiles fall on the land of Israel with minimal consequences.

The problem is that this doesn’t wake people up; instead it relaxes them. Look at what a blow we can take. So come, let’s feel the blow as if it didn’t happen, and on the other hand, understand that the Creator is protecting us so that we will approach Him in a good ways, so that we will have the strength for it.

But the people are indifferent. So what else is there? What must the Creator do?

And so we, the people who understand this and have freedom of choice, must go out to the people and bring this message to the people with all our might. The message is that we must change, that through the connection between us we will bring about the connection of the whole world.

That is specifically what we are prepared to bestow to it. It is because we want everyone to be connected with each other well, the far and the near, including our enemies. So ourconnection is required for this, and we will see that it will pass to everyone.

Unity and the connection begin from the center of the group and will extend to more and more external circles. And then we will see how everything relaxes, as if a wave of calm passes over the world. And everyone will look at the people of Israel and will finally understand that they are prepared to bring goodness and pleasure.

“Previously the evil stemmed from them and so we hated them. But now they live with love. So let’s go and help them with this! Come, let’s carry them on our shoulders and bring them to the goal. If they have such an intention, then we are with them.”

This is what must happen, and we are the key for this.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/22/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Such An Unexpected Person

Today, we begin to realize more and more that all of creation is one system and that there is nothing coincidental about it. Everything works according to a general plan that is not known to us. We don’t know who invented it and who manages it, but at least it is clear that everything works according to some upper plan.

Therefore, we can predict what will happen in one place or in several places according to what happens in a certain place. Eventually, we begin to examine the entire system as one whole.

This leads us to the question of why we can be so successful on the level of the still nature, but, at the same time, cannot predict anything when it comes to the human level. We can launch a spaceship to explore another planet and make sure that it lands there, takes pictures, and sends them back to us, or even sends it to some more distant stars.

This means that we know how to calculate its movement in relation to the stars, and this indicates that we know the laws of nature at least to the depth of the physical level.

These laws of the mutual connection do indeed exist and it isn’t by chance that everything in the universe revolves, but this is only on the level of the still nature, while on the vegetative and the animate levels of nature on this planet, we encounter problems. As long as we remain on the level of the still nature, we can predict outcomes, the influence of still nature on plants and animals, and the influence of animals on the vegetative and still nature.

However, when it comes to man, everything is much more complicated. We don’t understand how he is incorporated in the general system. As long as we study only plants, we can predict what will happen during the year, in two years’ time, in five years or even in fifty years according to the seasons and the climate. We also can predict to some extent what will happen in the animate world.

However, when we speak about man, we cannot even say what will happen to him tomorrow. The more complicated the object of our study is—the still, vegetative, animate, and the speaking nature—the more such unexpected forces and factors influence it, and we cannot predict its fate.

It is because the most important thing for us is to predict the future. Currently, we exist somehow, but it is interesting to know what will happen the next moment or in another thousand years.

We do understand the connection between the still and vegetative nature to some extent, such as the effect of sunlight on how a plant grows until it withers. Even here, we may be surprised and encounter phenomena that we don’t understand. Suddenly certain species of plants disappear for reasons that we don’t understand.

However, we have no idea at all as to how man affects the whole system of nature. The main thing is that every human being is an individual, a special personality. There is no such thing in the vegetative world where the entire field withers together. This is because we don’t pay attention to one plant but look at the field as one whole. Plants are indeed all connected to one another that way.

Every human being has his own, unique destiny that is different from others. We see that even newborn babies are very different. One is perfectly healthy and the other is very clever. Each one is an individual.

However, we cannot say that about animals. Interestingly, even people’s physical bodies, which belong to the animate level, are very different from one another. The human level radiates on them and gives them a special individuality so that each body receives its own unique psychological and physiological attributes.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/1/15

All Of The Planets Sustain Life On Earth

Question: Stars, success, fate, astrology, a map of our lives, all of this awakens a strong curiosity in people, but it remains covered in the darkness of ignorance. So each one is free to imagine anything he wants about this area, and there are a multitude of astrological currents. But first of all, I would like to know, does a connection really exist between the arrangement of the stars and the fate of a person?

Answer: It is absolutely clear that if we live in an integral world that emerged from the singularity of the Big Bang 14 billion years ago, from then up until this moment, it has expanded according to absolutely strict and clear laws of which we have discovered only a minute fraction. But in what we have discovered, we see iron-clad laws and inseparable connections between all parts of nature.

Our solar system was created under particularly favorable conditions that made the appearance of life possible. It is not by chance that the Earth was created as the third planet from the sun, under unique conditions that provide it with the two planets before it, Mercury and Venus, and all the planets that come after it, starting from Mars and beyond to the other plants.

It is interesting that together with Earth, all of the planets that orbit the sun have their own function in relation to it. They absorb and swallow waves of radioactive rays from the sun and don’t allow them reach the Earth.

By changes in location, the planets balance all this great system. It seems to us that the Earth rotates in empty space, but actually all of the planets are linked by rigid connections.

For example, not long ago it was discovered that Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, plays a gigantic role in our lives. If it were not for its immense mass that attracts, like a magnet, all the fragments that are flying around, then millions of times more meteors would have fallen on the Earth. In this manner it is our defensive shield.

Some of the planets shield us from harmful radiation, others work as absorbers that swallow sharp fluctuations and provide for stable conditions on Earth by which life can exist. Other  planets attract cosmic objects to themselves that threaten to fall on the Earth.

All of this works as a single system that we still don’t fully understand. The wisdom of Kabbalah shows how much all things are connected and depend upon each other. From that moment when the universe emerged from a single point until today, everything is managed within it by means of a single, general force that holds together the natures of the still, vegetative, and animate levels and all of humanity.

So without a doubt, there exists a connection between our fate and what is happening in the heavens if we are in a single system. The only question is can we discern and discover it?

Are we ready to come to such conclusions on the basis of thousands of years of observation and records that have been transmitted from generation to generation? In such a case, we explore this connection in a practical manner. Or, we don’t rely on experimental data but learn the main laws. Based on these laws, we will understand what will happen.

There are two ways to investigate nature: either experimentally or by attaining its laws. By attaining the laws without experimental data, we are able think about the future and predict what will happen.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/01/15

How To Interfere With The Code Of Life

Question: Is it possible that I interfere with the upper governance’s code that descends to me in the form of a letter? In any other system, writing codes define the way the material the system is made of “behaves” and outlines what processes will take place.

Answer: The code includes everything. At the same time, there are certain gaps left for us deliberately in order for us to contribute our reaction. In other words, we don’t move blindly as robots without having any freedom of will, solely following the immutable laws and forces that govern us.

We accept the program that works within us and that leaves a certain space for our independence.

The program needs us to learn the letters and enter them correctly in the empty spaces that are specifically left open for us at the time the program was keyed into a typewriter or computer.

We are supposed to place the letters in the empty places in such a way that we work in unison with the author of the text, thus helping the program advance nicely in accordance with His and our desires.

Question: So, is it right that the letters can be split into two separate parts:

1.   The letters that are printed within us and that define what will happen to us, and

2.   The letters that we add on our own when we attain the wisdom hidden within them and begin actively participating in the process, i.e., when we write the letters ourselves.

Does it mean that I learn how to control things that define my reality?

Answer: Yes, it is true. What do those empty spaces in the text (the program) mean? You are given a power from above, the will to receive, and the power of bestowal. When they are combined together, the gaps in the text are filled.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/21/14

War With Pharaoh

The Midrash “BeShalach”: Why didn’t the Jews continue their journey? Why did they camp in Pithom even though this decision involved additional risk for them? The answer lies in the fact that they were stuck because there was a sea in front of them; nor could they run to the desert, since wild beasts were waiting for them there.

But the people of Egypt did not agree with the Pharaoh’s plan: Recent losses were still too fresh in their memory. Therefore, Pharaoh used every means of persuasion and various tricks to force the Egyptians to agree. “Know! he told them. Even though according to the royal tradition in order to protect myself I should be riding in the rear of my army, in this battle I’ll be at the head!”

“Why are you going to behave so unusually?” they asked the Pharaoh. “Because this war is not against the Jews, said the Pharaoh. It is against their very G-d! So I’ll be at the head of the battle!”

This extract is about a very serious degree of detachment in those who are engaged in the Torah religiously, but study it for their own sake, i.e., for the sake of the Pharaoh.

The Pharaoh is not against the Creator since both of them help identify each other. This explains why the Pharaoh says: “Blessed is the Creator! I am a sinner…” There are many interesting developmental stages that oppose this state, but the major thing for Pharaoh is preventing a human being from engaging in altruistic actions and detaching from selfish fulfillment.

Regular egoistic inducements that are originally built in us do not count since they are given to us by nature. They are not considered “Egypt.” Only the actions that one does for one’s own sake and that are mentioned in the Torah, in the Pentateuch, are considered to be of importance.

This explains why, when exiting Egypt (rising from one’s egoistic intention), actions are annulled and Egyptians die as a result of the ten Egyptian plagues. The desires and people who follow the instructions of the Torah for their own sake remain under the power of the Pharaoh because they aspire to this kind of power. They are seriously engaged in the Torah and all earthly commandments for the sake of their own fulfillment and hold on to them very strongly. They are the ones who stay in Egypt and chase those who really want to run away from it.

The Pharaoh says: “I’ll be at the head of my army,” i.e., this is the moment when their oppositeness manifests itself: either for one’s own sake (Lo Lishma) or for the sake of the Creator (Lishma). “For one’s own sake” means for Pharaoh, “for the sake of the Creator” signifies those who exit from Egypt. At this point, a struggle between them begins.

Usually, Pharaoh follows his army. It means that all egoistic actions “feed and nourish him.” When his confrontation with the Creator starts, he heads the army since the most important thing at this time is ideology: whether you do it for your own sake or you do it being completely detached from yourself, i.e., for the sake of the Creator. That’s why the Pharaoh considers it a sacred war that is directed “against their very G-d!”

Right after that, Egypt starts withering since Pharaoh nourishes himself from the source other than Egyptians, from those who aspire to being with the Creator but so far are not there yet. This is why anti-Semitism emerges; however, this kind of “fuel” is absolutely essential.

Pharaoh gets stronger with the help of the desires that “are afraid of the Creator but work for the Pharaoh,” i.e., that follow everything that is commanded, however, they are doing so for their own sake. When they tend to change the intention and start working for the sake of the Creator, Pharaoh immediately feels that this might be his end and starts a war with their G-d.

At this point, our egoism faces a huge problem: What if the Creator wins? The mere fact that there are people who exited Egypt and then returned irritates Pharaoh since our egoism is afraid that the intention for the sake of bestowal might win. Egoism doesn’t have any other way but to reveal itself and try to survive, otherwise Pharaoh stops being the Pharaoh. It won’t be an intention for “one’s own sake” any longer.

Comment: They return and frustrate the Pharaoh.

Answer: They don’t return to Egypt, though! It’s a different level even though they have already reached the cities of Pithom and Ramses that were built for Pharaoh. At some point, they worked “for his sake”; however, now they return to the same level, but with an intention “for the sake of the Creator.” This is why the Pharaoh (our egoism) is not able to accept the fact that people return liberated and attack the Pharaoh’s “jurisdiction,” i.e., their own egoism.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/23/14