A Loaded Message

Question: Today the crisis has reached all corners of the world and no one sees a solution to it. Why don’t we examine the economic system, analogously to our system of upbringing, and offer it to the world?

Answer: We can provide a wonderful description of the economy in the period of the final correction: a balanced society, consumption within the boundaries of reasonable necessity, conservation of nature and man, the sole development of projects that save time and energy and benefit people’s health…. All of this is logical and is easy to put in writing if you are not writing about egoistic gratification, but basic necessity, the harmony between us and nature.

But how can we transition to this stage? How can we explain it to the modern tycoons who are essentially the ones to decide the fate of the world? They manipulate governments which in turn manipulate people. So how can we present this final goal to them? How can we tell them about the phases on the path to it? They will ask: “What will be left for us?” And what will we tell them in response?

“You will receive exactly the same amount as a regular housewife, and your billions will be returned to nature’s needs in order to fix the mess you have made by proliferating excessive consumption in the world. And beyond that you will enjoy internally, spiritually. You will no longer be ‘the top roosters in the pen,’ proudly parading around the perches. You will mature and this will cease giving you pleasure. On the contrary, it will evoke scorn. You will be fulfilled by the attainment of a higher level.”

Will you be able to explain all of that to a tycoon so he will be enticed by the idea of eternal, perfect life, so he will want to enter the eternity of nature itself, join it, and reveal a higher level of existence in it?… “You will live there like a respectable tycoon. Even when your animate body dies, it is not really you at all. After all, you will become Human in the true, spiritual sense….”

This works only for refined individuals, yet others just might understand it right away. That is why today we are disseminating the force of mutual guarantee to the whole world, and we are not addressing the tycoons, but the people. “It’s worthwhile for us to get closer to one another so life gets better.” And in the meantime, with a view to the future, we inject Light into people, the force of unity. Once they are filled by this force, they begin to understand more and to agree with us, seeing real benefit in the mutual guarantee. That is how they advance.

The path to the heart is not through the mind. You can’t get your mind around this because the mind’s level corresponds to the level of the desire it serves. The mind can never rise above the desire. Deceived by illusions, we might look down on our animate being, but the mind seems like the pinnacle of creation to us. Yet in reality our mind is even lower than the animate desire, being a mere servant of it.

Therefore, the only opportunity we have is to change people’s desires, which can change only under the influence of the Light. This is what we have to provide for them. Your logical conclusions alone won’t help. People will not understand you and will think that you are simply an idiot or a mystic, or in the best case, a great guy dreaming about peace and love on the planet.

There is only one solution: to unite among ourselves and to give people the force of unity. Only this will raise them to a new level of understanding, perception, and agreement with us. Moreover, later, once they agree, they will see that it’s worthwhile for them to follow us because they can’t understand our message fully. By acquiring the force of unity, they will rise to a level where it will become clear that they have to hold on to us, as it is written in the Torah: They will “grab onto your clothes,” meaning the garment, the external vessels, and will say, “Take us there!”

Obviously, you are right in that we do have to talk a little about the economy, upbringing, and the world of the future so as not to push people away at the initial stage. But the most important thing is to transmit the force of unity to them. This is dissemination. In the Introduction to Panim Meirot UMasbirot, Baal HaSulam writes that when the sons of Israel become filled with this force of unity, it will spill from them to everyone else. We have to be ready to receive this force and then it really will spill over to people, who will be receptive to the influence of the Light of Hassadim, giving themselves over to it wholeheartedly.
From the lesson on 10/24/11

The Alternative To Suffering

Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: Four properties are provided for that purpose: mercy, truth, justice, and peace. Those attributes have been used by all world reformers thus far. It is more correct to say that it is with those four attributes that human development has advanced thus far…

It is only by these four attributes that we have to manage ourselves in order to bring ourselves to the end of correction. So how do discern them? Many can speak about mercy, truth, justice, and peace for hours, but can we agree on what these attributes are?

It isn’t simple, but Baal HaSulam, knowing the spiritual nature, wrote that this is what we have to clarify in order to manage ourselves and the world. We don’t know what a corrected world is. We are all corrupt and so it seems to us that any egoistic improvement is already correction. However, for Baal HaSulam, the corrected world is a world in which all the possible deficiencies are totally filled. How is that possible? We will have to find that out.

First, we have to understand that we will never be able to fill ourselves egotistically, but only in bestowal because while there is no restriction on bestowal, there is on reception. So how can we desire to receive in such a way that receiving itself will make us understand that it is worthwhile to bestow?

We can develop in this direction by blows: Every time that I want to receive something, I receive more and more blows, until I finally come to the conclusion that it is better not to want to receive egoistically. Then I begin to hate my desire to receive, and I don’t know what to do with it anymore. “So, perhaps I will enjoy bestowal?”

And so different flaws bring me to a point where I ask for the desire to bestow, for the power to bestow, the power to connect to others. This is the road of suffering and asceticism about which it says: “Eat bread with water sparingly and sleep on the ground.” In the past people used accept this and thus advance to bestowal.

It is the same today, if people don’t accept the wisdom of Kabbalah and the explanation about the development of the world, they too will advance in the same way. They will want more and more, but will get less and less, and as a result of suffering, people will begin to feel that it is worthwhile to be together, to bestow upon each other, to connect, to restrict our ego, and even to totally erase it.

We see that in wartime, when the troubles descend upon everyone, people begin to connect. Even animals are not afraid of one another when there is a fire in the forest or an earthquake, and they all escape the danger together. The common problem unites them because the fear of death is greater than the fear of hunger. Clearly, they don’t become “righteous,” but the desire to satisfy their hunger is pushed aside by a greater desire to survive.

We are the same. Of course, we can advance towards correction by suffering. It will compel us to aspire to bestow and to destroy our ego, the source of all the evil in our world. But this is a long and painful way.

This is why we were given an alternative—the way of the Torah. Why? Why do we need this other way? It is because we don’t reach free will by suffering. We only run away from it, like animals. Out of despair, we are even ready to bestow, but it is only because we feel bad when we receive. We don’t choose bestowal by own free will, but as a result of our suffering as we have no choice. This is the degree of a beast, not man.

In order to bring us to the human level, we need two forces: the force of bestowal and the force of reception, with free will lying between the two. This is the path of people who have the point in the heart.

People who don’t have the point in the heart will also have free will: They can choose to follow those who can lead them forward.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/4/2011, “Peace in the World”

The Patient Agrees To Surgery

Question: Is the understanding that we are part of the general integral system and should make every effort to take care of it considered the first step into the spiritual world?

Answer: Yes, it is. As much as possible, we should disseminate the knowledge of it and the inner basis, the support for this view. In other words, working with people, we employ two channels: on the one side, studies and information, and on the other, education and upbringing.

A person should know the system in which he or she exists. Similarly, children should be taught about the laws of the country and the work of various government agencies. The most important thing for a child is to understand in what world he lives. Thus, humanity should be collectively taught integral laws, to bring it closer to the real case.

Then people will understand the principle of the global system in which we find ourselves and will be able to accept the new principles that we should adopt. Their implementation should be desirable to me so that I happily agree to the impact of the environment that will “operate” on me. I am ready for anesthesia in order to wake up refreshed again and again. Time after time, I will discover the new forces of bestowal in me, and thus, I will be included in the integral world.

Alone, I am not capable of anything. The only thing that I can do is to want to be cured, like a patient who is admitted to a hospital to be healed. He doesn’t know the healing process, and everything else except for his consent doesn’t depend on him. So, I turn to the environment to help me, ready to trust it: “Produce changes in me.”

In principle, this is my job. It is not difficult. I need only not to waste myself on those areas in which I will not succeed on my own. There is no need to enter the system, where strict laws act. I have no chance to learn its gears. Only one thing is required of me: to want and to give the environment an opportunity to bring me into motion so that my gear starts turning as necessary. More precisely, my mind and feelings should coincide with its rotation because it turns correctly. I only reveal what is already there.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/2011, “Peace in the World”

Acceleration Above Reason

We are required to always accelerate time since a constant speed does not count in spirituality. What matters is an addition to the usual speed, acceleration that constantly increases the speed. From this we have to draw a conclusion on how we are required to act.

Baal HaSulam explains that this addition to the usual actions is called faith above reason. One cannot make this addition by his own, human effort. However, we are trying to reach it, and therefore, we cry out to the upper one, and our scream draws the Light that Reforms upon us.

This Light doesn’t just come when you are doing something. It comes when you open for it a new, empty place—and then it appears! Another empty place, and once again the Light appears. However, if everything remains the same way, as usual, then there is no reason for the Light to come since it already did its work and performed some action within you.

Therefore, we constantly have to add within ourselves new empty and dark voids in order to ask only for the force that will allow us to work as if we were full of Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/2011, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Tied In One Network

Question: How do you see The Study of the Ten Sefirot? To me, it seems like something totally abstract. How could someone write it?

Answer: You are right. When I first came to Kabbalah and saw that it uses incomprehensible terms to describe some unclear interrelationships between who knows what, I didn’t understand what kind of wisdom, belief system, or religion it is. It was simply very strange, just like reading about something that is totally unfamiliar, just like finding a diary of total strangers.

Then, for a long while, I read and studied it by heart and tried to make sense of it. Thanks to the close relationship with my teacher and my dissemination activities, I began to understand that by studying the totally unfamiliar ties between unfamiliar objects, I evoke their influence upon me. By the way, this is quite ordinary in our world: We begin to deal with something that is totally unfamiliar to us, we learn about it, and it becomes clear to us.

After several years of studying, the same thing happened to me: I began to feel much more clearly that I exist in some network of connections between people. They were certainly not among the bodies, but rather among their essences, among their desires and their thoughts. Everyone is part of this network: those who lived in this world, are living in it now, and haven’t been born into it yet, and they exist there as equals, regardless of their physical bodies.

Everything I learned in the wisdom of Kabbalah turned into the explanation of these ties, from the strongest to the most broken ones. It explained the conditions under which these ties improve, what the quality of the ties depends on, the limitations on our deeds, and more. This perception was very theoretical, in the form of the network of connections between the “self” of every individual. By the way, I wrote about this network created by the upper force, upon which all the worlds including ours rest, in my first Kabbalah book in 1983.

The more you exert yourself so that the network between your “self” and everyone else’s “self” is revealed, the stronger is the influence of this network that you evoke upon yourself (the Surrounding Light, the Light that Reforms, the Light of the Torah), and this network, the mutual connections of all of creation, becomes clearer and clearer to you. Thus, our world grows pale in contrast to the upper network of forces that determines everything.

Afterwards, it becomes quite clear which of your efforts (desires) evoke certain reactions in the network. Thus a conscious movement begins (conscious actions) through the correct inclusion (bestowal) in the network.

By attaining this network (the spiritual world, these ties), we begin to attain the entire development of our world: to draw closer towards this network and reveal the self (the Creator) in it. We begin to understand the reasons for the global crisis and its solution in order to hasten our inclusion in the network—in the upper world, in the attributes of love and bestowal that reign there.

Big Things Begin With Small Steps

Question: Isn’t it possible that the global, integral system is egoistic? Why does globalization reveal to us specifically the system of bestowal?

Answer: If we depend on each other, we can’t help but to be considerate of each other. And egoism is namely my indifference to everyone but myself. Today I discover that I exist in a system of cogwheels, and my negative influence over others comes back to me. Therefore, I must consider the interests of others as my own.

This is mutual bestowal—a very simple, egoistic altruism. We don’t speak with people about faith above reason, but we use facts from this world: “You see it for yourself that all of us are dependent on each other. In the general mechanism, all evil indeed returns like a boomerang. This implies that there is no other choice, and everyone must influence in a positive way in order to receive positive feedback.” What isn’t clear here? What’s more, if we are in danger, the connection between us becomes even closer.

From this we reach an obvious conclusion: Our ego disturbs us. If we were connected above our ego, absolutely and in a nice way, then the system would be ideal. We would reach a state where we would never receive anything negative from any place. All the cogwheels would turn as they should: I relate positively to everyone, with all my soul, and in response, I receive only good from them.

So, does it mean that we need to reach some unrealistic situation where everyone goes around with good desires for each other, like ants in an anthill? After all, they work together instinctively. Must we connect in this way against our ego? Is that possible? It seems that this will happen only on condition that the crisis, which in the meantime gets worse, will oblige us to reach specifically this: a mutual, complete connection in spite of all our hatred, envy, and rejection. But from where will we get this strength?

Let’s begin the advancement to a state of connection between us, let’s sign a “declaration of intentions” that we, nevertheless, want to be connected to some extent. Let us first sweeten the situation a little.

If this is the case, we will need to think of how we need to operate systems of connection between us: education, matrimony, social relationships, relations to nature, and especially the financial-economic system. We must reach a certain degree of social justice, of a balanced economy and to decrease the gap between different sectors of society. We will need to consider others as we do ourselves at least a little bit.

Let’s say, I will always give a part of what I take for myself to others. Let’s say everyone would pay a tithe, and then afterwards the money from the tithe would be divided between everyone, according to their situation. This won’t be like Social Security, which at times grants allowances regardless of one’s real income. No, we would all pay and then divide it according to the income of each and every one so as to somehow bridge social gaps between us.

Every big thing is done in stages, and it needs to start with realistic, simple steps, to be followed, of course, by additional ones.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/2011, “Peace in the World”

Being Grateful For The Concealment

We need to clarify why the Creator has created everything exactly the way He has. Everything was in His hands, and He could have done it differently, couldn’t He? He is not an inhabitant of our world who needs to accept everything as given.

Yet why did He establish a reverse order of desires and Lights, due to which the desires that attract the Light and reveal it through great effort receive only a tiny illumination? While the biggest Light, which they do not know or feel, becomes revealed at a completely different place? Why does it need to be this way?

The biggest benefit from concealing the enormous work that we carry out is that it does not confuse us. It’s terrific that the great Light that we summon is concealed from us.

I perform a small action within myself, revealing my connection with everyone else and pushing them toward being connected, and thereby awaken a huge Light in the upper worlds. However, I do not reveal it And this is good because if it were to be revealed, I would close myself off. I would become so proud that my spiritual path would be over. That is why I must be grateful that the Light is concealed, protecting my desire.

On the other hand, I must develop the desire for bestowal. Although I see that I do not receive any benefit from my work, I nevertheless want to continue. There is no reward and so be it, but I connect to the group, to the environment, and I do not demand anything for myself besides the ability to give.

Such an opportunity always exists in front of me. If I really want it, all paths are open to me. Don’t say that the skies are closed in front of you; everything is open! There is no restriction on bestowal, and you have nothing to cry about. If you do, it means that you are crying about egoistic receiving. You can do anything you want, but you won’t be able to grab anything for yourself.

At the time of bestowal, the desires and the Lights filling them are hidden from us. This serves us well in every sense, and we need to be grateful for it. First of all, it allows us to not block ourselves due to the huge Light, and secondly, it allows us to develop the quality of bestowal in a place of complete darkness.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/2011, TES

What Is Required Of Us?

Question: The world already sees the collapse waiting for it in the near future. However, except for us, no one is doing anything, and nothing good is happening.

Answer: If we had worked correctly, the world would have woken up from the dream. They won’t awaken, if we won’t wake them up. It is only us who are guilty of what’s happening. People are unable to come to their senses themselves; they awaken only if you shake them up.

This concerns everyone without an exception, including the world leaders and the experts. Some of them already have a spark of understanding. They see the real situation at least a little bit, but still do not change their way of thinking, still don’t grasp that they are the ones who must change, and not the world. We used to change the world egoistically, while now it is man who needs to change.There are scientists who are already writing about this, but their words are still very external, as they themselves don’t understand what stands behind them.

Thus our work is needed until these scientists decide to come and sit together with us at a lesson.

Only we can “shake-up” the substance of humanity. That’s why I make no claims to anyone. The creation of mass media that influences the environment correctly is also up to us. Everything is placed upon our shoulders, and not somebody’s else.

Hence, looking at the world, I only learn how to approach this “baby” and bring a spoonful of nourishment to his mouth. Here everything depends of us.

Question: So what is it that we are not doing?

Answer: We do not disseminate. How do you influence the world? How do you convey to it what you receive during the lesson? We are not doing enough. After all, we are entrusted with the work of correction: to organize ourselves, to organize the connection network between us, and to stretch it over all our worldwide groups. We have a hundred groups, and millions of people listening to us without establishing contact with us.

But for some reason we lack the strength and wisdom in order to build the structure correctly. We still cannot present the message so that it will attract people and introduce the new program into them. They are not guilty of anything. In fact, they are ready to absorb more than we give them.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/23/2011, “One Commandment”

The Real Work Is Only Just Beginning

Question: Today, the people in Israel agree with the idea of mutual guarantee. It is as if we are convincing those who are already convinced. What concrete steps can we offer them?

Answer: First of all, we need to include them in the network of dissemination. The message passes on better via contacts and talks between people, rather than through the Internet. Besides this, we need to create various virtual games and formats leading to unity so that they make a strong impression on a person, similar to films and video clips. Finally, invite people to the conventions and festivals for an evening or for a few days.

As for the Internet, it presents tons of opportunities such as games (adults love them as much as children) and theatrical plays. The entire culture must cross over to that path. Even simple theatrical skits that visually illustrate our messages and give the right examples are very important.

We should diversify the explanations and vary their depth relative to what a person can absorb. For example, at first, he will watch a movie revealing the concepts in general. Then, an historian will tell him how things used to be earlier and how we arrived at where we are now. Then, a psychologist will make it personal, and so on.

A person is brought up by their environment that affects our senses differently. A big role is played by films, plays, and texts. All of these are factors of inactive perception, while games are an active format. Today, everyone plays with the help of joysticks, gadgets, add-ons, and touch screens, and the games are becoming ever more interactive.

Pretty soon, the world will be unemployed, and a lot of opportunities will arise for working with people. The integral upbringing will turn into an entire industry, which will involve cultural events, game formats, and everything necessary to engulf people, creating a general atmosphere which no one will want to leave.

Today, a person does not have the time to rest, and that is why we are working through the Internet. However, in six months to a year, there will be a lot of unemployed. It will give rise to problems, worries, and unrest, until it will become clear that there is no way back, and it is time to renounce the paradigm of the past. Then, the necessary work will be divided among the people so that it takes half of a day, three to four hours at most, and the rest of the time will be dedicated to education about how we unite with nature.

Part of our time will be utilized for material work and part for spiritual work, for correction. This is not leisure or entertainment at all, but rather real work compulsory for everyone. A person will not be able to provide for himself without fulfilling this condition. He will be studying in the full meaning of this word: He will take exams and move from grade to grade. We are not only talking about an educational program, but about the program of creation. It is impossible to absent oneself from it.

We depend on each other, and that is why I cannot allow anyone to be left aside. People will have to realize it to the full extent. They will be spending four to five hours a day doing the most important work in their lives, and these hours will lighten up the rest of the day. Besides this, while returning home, a person will receive the same message on the TV, radio, Internet, and mass media. They will be talking only about correction everywhere.

This is the only way. We are destined to ascend to Infinity, toward unending pleasures that we have been wanting so much. It is precisely now that such an opportunity has arrived. Thousands of years have passed by on a big mistake, and now we have found the right channel. We only need to open it.

It is not an accident that Nature is liberating us from all of the excesses. It wants us to understand that we need to stop everything that we were doing up until now. Otherwise, we will deplete the Earth and finish off the ecology. We need to pass toward correction very quickly.

Thanks to correction, we will repair the still, vegetative, and animate levels. Fish will return in the rivers and the seas, corals will once again cover the ocean floor, the disappearing species will revive again, and greenery will cover the dried-up land. Everything suddenly will start blooming, and the forests will rise within mere weeks and months.

We will awaken Nature on the human level, and then the Light will pour down. Everything will return to order in the shortest time. Even the plastic containers will disappear from the ocean. We will bring a new energy into the world that will correct what man has done to nature in the same way that he will be correcting his faults by himself. Everything depends on the portion of Light with which we will illuminate the world.

However, let’s get back to integral upbringing. It imposes a responsibility on everyone to study and participate in the work of the system of correction, to become exposed to the influence of the environment, and create integral unity with everyone.

The most important thing is to change the approach, to transfer the focus to the area of my development, and to choose the kind of activity where I can give more and receive more positive influence, to unite more and feel the fulfillment in this. We simply have no alternative.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/2011, “The Nation”

The Only Method To Change Oneself

Question: How should I relate to material pleasures?

Answer: You need to think about nothing else but how to bow your head and become included in the correct environment. After all, we are designed particularly for this; we were born and exist in this world only for this purpose. And this is especially true in our time! Therefore, in our life there is no other goal, action, or calculation except to adhere to the environment that can lead me to a connection called mutual bestowal and guarantee.

If I suddenly find such an environment and I am brought into it, it is organized from Above. This is how the Creator helped Abraham to gather people and create a nation. We receive this example of building the environment and society from our teachers, from Kabbalists; however, it is built from Above as we cannot do it ourselves. But once there is some initial state, we need to strengthen it and invest our effort into this society.

We evaluate and check ourselves according to this criterion. All our work is only relative to the society: To what extent do I want to get the force of bestowal out of it, which will change me?

A person cannot change anything in himself. The problem is that we get confused and hope to change ourselves. A person thinks: “Now, I will check myself, I will gather all my strength and change!” But this is impure work called idol worshipping because I see in myself the Creator’s forces and believe that I will be able to do something without Him.

In reality, I have only one freedom: to stick to the right environment.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/28/2011, Writings Of Rabash