The Force Of Overcoming, Part 2

Question: It turns out that all the overcoming is in the desire that will win in me?

Answer: If my parents punish me, forcing me to do homework, my desire to avoid the blows becomes stronger than the desire to rest, and I go and do all that is required.

We always act according to our desire. The only question is whether it is my desire that obliges me to act or someone else’s desire. If this desire arises directly in me, then I realize it with pleasure and it does not require me to overcome anything.

If I see that the desire in not mine, then it is called coercion. In the end, I also perform the required act on my own accord by making the calculation that otherwise I would be punished or have no money for food. But this is someone else’s desire, not my true desire, that forces me to act, and that is why I do this without joy.

The action itself does not contain any overcoming! I always do everything according to the desire: either emerging in me or that presses and forces me. But, overcoming by myself is in obtaining good desires that are useful for me. So, I purposefully absorb them from the environment.

For example, my parents wanted me to become a musician. And so my father took me to watch movies about musicians. He wanted me to be inspired by their life, glory, and world fame, and he also wanted me to want to be like them. But the only thing I remembered from this, is that eventually they all ended their lives and died because I was a child of 6 – 7 years old.

Using these examples, my parents wanted to instill the desire to study music in me, but I did not absorb it and suffered much from studying at a music school. This shows that overcoming applies to a person who understands that he needs it. He has no choice, and thus he overcomes his original desire and acquires a new one.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/27/14

How Does One Sell Happiness?

Question: When I look at my family and my immediate environment, I ask myself, “Is depression the result of a lack of desire to buy new things or is it created from a lack of money?”

It could be that if there were more money, happiness would return, and it would be possible to continue to celebrate purchases. However, I noticed something else: boredom.

Answer: The world doesn’t have the content that a person is looking for now. In the past, it was enough for us to see an interesting movie, have fun, and have guests. We lived in a more natural way and thought that this would go on.

However, the situation has changed. On the one hand, manufacturers don’t take into account the change in people. So, in fashion shows, designers invent costumes that are far from reality. This is a unique art through which they want to convey their views about a person’s individuality. Their examples are appropriate only for people who weigh ninety pounds, and are six and a half feet tall.

On the other hand, desires are changing fundamentally and have moved on to a new quality. Instead of money, respect, control, education, and even knowledge, a person now wants to know what he is living for. He apparently stops mid-life and begins to ponder things.

This desire comes from within; it is not because we suddenly become smarter or become philosophical. Nature changes us according to its program and thought, and we are not the masters of this.

We must see this trend, but we don’t have any possibility of changing, stopping, or slowing it down somehow. We must agree that this process will not only continue but also will expand. We will feel it more deeply and it will be difficult for us to resist it.

If we understand this from the start and react consciously, then the communications media and advertising gradually will change in the direction of greater flexibility. Then, they will go along with nature. In the opposite situation, they are like two trains, each going in the opposite direction.

We see that the world is returning to a natural form and contracting to its natural consumption. This is expressed more clearly in the financial sector. Paper money is losing its value. Everything is returning toward natural equality.

In other words, very soon, the level of our consumption will match exactly the amount of gold that we have. Then, it will be very important to understand what the new form of production and consumption will be.

We were educated by advertisements that things supposedly would make us beautiful, respected, and successful. This means that they were selling us pleasure, and what pleasures can be sold now for the new desire? It is pleasure from connection and unity! Clothe them in entertainment or creativity and a person will feel them as the source of his pleasure.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/2/14

At The Turning Point

Shamati #1 “There is None Else Beside Him”: Rather, for those people who truly want to draw near the Creator, and so they will not settle for little, meaning remain as senseless children… And only if that person has a true desire…

Is it possible for a person to have a true desire? I must feel inside, within my belly, within my heart, and examine with my mind how much at each and every moment in life I am alert to maintaining myself for my benefit. The main thing for me is not to harm anyone so that no one will harm me. I am only concerned about how to defend myself from all the evil that surrounds me, from all the dangers and bad influences from all sides.

If I feel that I am so focused on protecting myself, I will understand that this holds my entire attention, and even my desire to discover the Creator is derived from the same Kli, from the same intention to further improve my situation. However, I am not prepared to be released from my beastly nature of self-defense.

Here, I make a decision that I must get away from it, simply to tear myself from this concern for self-preservation, and all of this depends solely on this: How much does the importance of the Creator become greater than my own self-importance? When a desire, a decision, an imperative, like this ripens and awakens in me, I will begin to hate “my body,” meaning the ego that obligates me to be concerned about my own self-preservation all the time, and then a desire, a prayer, a scream, a request, awakens within me for the Creator to change what has been created for me, and I will begin to be concerned about the greatness of the Creator—about “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”—more than myself, and I will see myself only as a means for bestowing to others.

I must reach such an inner explosion that I will be ready to do anything. This is a critical point where I decide that I would rather kill myself than live a life like this if I won’t be able to be concerned about others more than about myself. I perceive my egoistic, beastly state as being so despicable that I simply must change it.

Those of us who have not yet passed through it are very close to this turning point, and we must pay special attention to it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/14, Shamati #1

Short Stories: Jacob And The Development of Abraham’s Group

The correct restriction of the ego that leads to the mean betweenAbraham’s attribute of Hesed (mercy) and Isaac’s attribute ofGvura (power) is necessary in order to advance spiritually and to take what they have in common.

What they have in common is the next phase in the development of Abraham’s group called Jacob, since the connection between the right line (Abraham) and the left line (Isaac) gradually depicts the middle line (Jacob).

It is actually at this point that we can talk about the beginning of the real fulfillment of themethod of Kabbalah because now it includes the two lines, right and left, the attribute ofHesed (bestowal) and the attribute of Din (receiving), which create a third force that connects them correctly. The third force is called Jacob.

The formation of the middle line (the attribute of Jacob) in the Kabbalistic group that came out of Babylon is the basis for the development of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Every movement in spiritual development is gradually fulfilled and it is possible to ascend to the next level only when we add the left line to the right line.

If I am on a certain level, I have to add the left line and different kinds of egoistic desires and problems and rise above them in order to ascend to the next level. This is the only way I can understand the next level. In other words, the flat areas on the steps of the ladder are the attributes of goodness and the ascent from one level to the next are the attributes of domination, respect and power, above which I ascend.

This is how the ladder of the spiritual ascent called Jacob’s ladder is built. Jacob includes both good and evil forces and correctly connects them by internally fulfilling the method of the gradual ascent up the ladder. Jacob is actually the beginning of the spiritual development that is purposeful and correct.

This explains the existence of the left line in our world. It stems from the Creator who gives it to us so that we will ascend higher above ourselves until we attain His level.

The right combination between the right and left lines, the attribute of Abraham and Isaac, are included in the attribute of Jacob that is also called Israel. If we take these two forces of nature and connect them correctly and ascend Jacob’s ladder, we thus become Israel(Yashar- El), which means straight to the Creator. When we use these two forces, we can accurately focus on the goal and constantly aim, place, and manage ourselves exactly on the middle line.
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From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/15/14

There Is Nothing But Goodness

Baal HaSulam, Shamati #1, “There Is None Else Besides Him:” It is written, “there is none else besides Him.” This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him. And what man sees, that there are things in the world that deny the Higher Household, the reason is that this is His will. And it is deemed a correction, called “the left rejects and the right adducts,” meaning that which the left rejects is considered correction.

“There is none else besides Him,” means that everything that happens is a result of one domination, one influence, although it seems that there are two forces or even more. People believe that there are many different forces in the world or at least two: good and evil.

But it is all because the upper force, one thought, one goal, which means one domination, operates on us in different ways. These actions of the one providence seem different and opposite to such an extent that it is as if they are in a struggle against one another.

We don’t understand the point in the good or bad, happy or tragic events that we and the surrounding world go through. When we look at what is happening around us, we cannot attribute the two opposite forces of good and evil to one goal, to one domination. It is actually on this point that we should focus all our clarifications. All the commandments in the Torah are meant for this, in order to help us reveal that behind the multitude of forces operating on us and dominating us, there is only one domination. All our work is to clarify that there is none else besides Him. This is our main goal.

Moreover, we discover that this one force is good and benevolent. Every action at every moment in our life is according to the domination of the one, upper providence. Therefore, our goal should be to try and yearn to discover the only domination at any given moment and to justify it as the good and benevolent.

We reveal the good and benevolent to such a degree that we begin to love the upper force, as it says: “Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” This is how we should recognize His actions, by discovering in all my vessels that the upper providence is unique and good.

At the same time, it is actually the opposite form that is revealed in every desire and in every thought that we have, negating the fact that the upper force is good and benevolent and that there is none else besides Him. We, on the other hand, have to work on all our vessels and to ask for corrections in order to discover that the Creator is the only force operating in the world and that He treats us with infinite goodness.

The decision that there is none else besides Him puts a person on the right track of life. He already knows what he has to do at any given moment of his existence.

In fact, this is the only thing a person needs. He only needs to worry a little about the basic necessities of his corporeal body on the animate level, while all his efforts and resources should be focused on that in order to get closer to the revelation of there is none else besides Him and that He is good and benevolent in any possible situation, even if they may be negating each other.

Then a person discovers that everything he has been through in life, all the worries and the confusions, were only meant to help him discover in even more depth and breadth, the uniqueness of there is none else besides Him, and of the good and benevolent.

Then we see that the only goal of our work and our existence on this planet in a state called this world is meant for this revelation of the upper force. We will then continue our work on other levels, on all the 125 levels, until the end of correction so that we will all feel in each and every vessel and in all of them together that there is none else besides Him and that He is good that does good.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/14, Shamati #1

The Force Of Overcoming, Part 1

Question: Our life requires us to continually overcome our desires, fears, anger, and crises in finance, personal and family life. This struggle begins with birth.

While being born, a baby already has to overcome much pressure and stress in order to emerge, and the mother also needs to overcome the pain to deliver it.

So it continues throughout human life from early infancy. As he develops, the child is forced to overcome physical and psychological difficulties. Even to get to his feet and learn to walk, he is required to overcome a lot.

In this manner, it continues to the end of his life: kindergarten, school, education, marriage, family, children, and work. Our entire life is a continuous strip of difficulties and overcoming them, from which it is impossible to escape. Why is our life is arranged this way?

Answer: Indeed, our life is a continuous chain of overcoming, and when a person runs out of the power to overcome, he dies. All of life is a struggle. The very process of human birth is the first overcoming. The baby must breathe, expand his lungs and take in air. This is his first action in this world from which continuous breathing begins: the compression and expansion of the lungs.

These actions, pulsations, comprise our entire life: breathing, heartbeat, and metabolism. These processes occur in us unconsciously, instinctively, at the order of nature. The same thing is happening in every state on a conscious level where my desire acts. Indeed, I must survive, and my life is in this overcoming.

If I want to live, I must overcome myself in each case more and more. Our nature is complete egoism that seeks only rest, but “rest” means not just to lie, but to do only what we want.

To do what I want, I do not want to use energy, spiritual energy. Although, I spend a huge amount of calories as a child running around the room, unable to stop. For him it is rest.

We tell him, “Stop running, sit and rest!” However, he does not understand what we say because he is resting by jumping and bustling. In other words, overcoming is simply not possible to measure by an external view of a person. If a person overcomes his desire and does something against it, it is called overcoming.

Since we are created from the egoistic material, the desire to enjoy, then we are drawn to pleasures all the time. If I am enjoying, it does not matter whether I am running or lying, I am resting.

The question is what should I do to act against my desire: get out of bed, go to work, work hard, carry heavy things from one place to another, make money, bring it home and feed myself and my family?

Of course, this is not consistent with my desire, so how do I overcome myself? I do this for several reasons. Either society or parents oblige me to go to school to study, then get married, start a family, and work. My parents’ and society’s desire is stronger than mine, and that is why I comply.

Or, I suddenly find myself in an environment that affects me and changes my desire. For example, my parents sent me to a children’s sports program. Before that, I did not like sports, but, looking at my playmates, I began to envy them, got impressed. Friends pass me their desire, and instead of sitting at the computer, I begin to run and play sports with them.

It turns out that I can take desires and needs from the environment. Thus, I change my desire for a greater one acquired from the environment, from friends, and I can commit myself to such actions that I previously did not think about at all.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/27/14

Short Stories: The Spiritual Father Of Humanity

The name Abraham (AB-am) means “father of the nation.”Abraham is actually the spiritual father of all of humanity since he was not only the founder of many nations but the creator of the spiritual method of the correction of the world. The main idea of his method was the indication that the Creator is the only one unique and united force of nature, which manages all of creation, that “there is none else besides Him.”

The Creator’s attributes were determined by him as the “good that does good.” According to his teachings, the role of humanity was to obtain adhesion with the Creator according to the rule of “love thy friend as thyself.”

He passed on this method to his Babylonian students who joined him and called their community “the house of Abraham” (Beit Abraham), which refers to his students and to his family. Later Abraham took his group of students out of Babylon, which means that he detached from all the other studies and obtained the Creator and established an independent method that he expressed in the Book of Creation (Sefer Yetzira), which largely complemented the work of Adam, Angel Raziel (Raziel and Malachi).

Abraham placed the foundations of the method for the right attainment of the Creator, for obtaining His level and adhering to Him. All the other Kabbalists only developed his theory by adding their practical work to it. Because the ego kept on growing in every generation, this enabled the development of Abraham’s method on the next levels according to the conditions in a certain time.

Therefore, we cannot say that we have something new today. Everything that is revealed is revealed by Kabbalists starting from Adam until our times, but the right path begins with Abraham, although there is the unique spiritual birth on every level along this path called the “sons of Abraham.”
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From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/15/14

A Push Toward Unity

Question: Our sick friend became the reason for connecting and consolidating the world group. Can we initiate and create points like these in ourselves, not derived from someone’s illness, but from ourgoal, from something good?

Answer: Certainly, we must gather all our problems on the way toward the goal, everything that disturbs our connection, or vice versa, everything that can be used as a push, drive, and incentive toward our unity.

However, on the other hand, the Creator gives us new conditions for every one of our steps toward the Light. So, what will be, will be. We must take all this into account.

However, for now, the Creator specifically chose a sick friend so that we would carry out a mass action of connection for him. For this, we must respect, love, appreciate, and take care of him, for he now has become a means for our advancement.

However, even without this incident, in any case, we should search for other methods of advancement. Generally, we find them in dissemination because within the group itself there is no particularly sharp push or incentive for connection and unity. However, when we are engaged in dissemination, as a general rule we begin to get all kinds of problems that help us unite together to solve them.

Question: When the activity in Sochi was arranged, we all were involved in dissemination there. Now, we aren’t doing activities like these, so, apparently as a counterweight, our friend became ill.

If we plan an activity like this again and begin to be involved with it, then all attention will be directed there. Could it be that the Creator will stimulate us to advance only in a good way then, through dissemination?

Answer: First, I don’t put any conditions on the Creator, and I don’t determine my actions according to what will be or won’t be. None of this is my problem. I am not responsible for this mechanism. It is necessary to do everything to move the system toward correction maximally and most efficiently. This is possible only through dissemination of the method of integral education and knowledge.

Give a general shout into the entire space of Russian speakers that you first are going out for one dissemination activity, then another, and so on. To the degree possible, make a general program that will be accepted in all regions because all of the groups are on different levels of development. However, you can do this and be in constant communication and connection among yourselves.

In fact, the action in Sochi united a circle that was not large. It was a good idea, but how many people were there in comparison to all of the groups? They sat in one place and cooked by themselves as in a big pot, and now it is necessary for something else to appear from all of this cooking and from the Saint Petersburg convention.

You must begin to act in wider circles and not continue with actions on ourselves. I think no one would prohibit actions like these. It is possible to try to arrange them under a pleasant slogan about the unity of all of humanity, a call for mutual understanding and the like.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/14, Writings of Rabash

A Crisis In Familial Connections

In general, nature obligates us to have extended connections in order to form stable environments for a person that will accompany him throughout his whole life, regardless of the processes and situations that he experiences.

However, even though we understand the original specifications of nature, we also see our defects that make it impossible to withstand the demands of nature and don’t permit the building of a normal life, even in merely physiological terms.

As far as it seems, this requires work from our side, hard work that is not easy that is inherent only in human freedom of choice. And the freedom of thought, word, and deed, which makes it possible to construct an independent life, is particularly expressed in the right approach regarding family. Accordingly, we must fulfill what is not activated within us instinctively through our nature.

I must be loyal to family, loyal to the nurturing and education of children until they are able to stand on their own and begin to establish their own families. And according to Jewish tradition, even though a person reaches adulthood at the age of thirteen and truly becomes an adult and independent at the age of twenty, even this is relative. Until then, nature obligates us to take care of him.

Nowadays it is difficult for people to sustain a family for such a long period of time. This again testifies to the crisis we are found in.

Fifty or sixty years ago, divorces seemed like a big disaster. People discussed such cases as something surprising and not understandable, as something exceptional. So as long as there was no social agreement about this issue, divorces were not easy and acceptable. People became divorced in very rare cases. Today it is difficult even to imagine what would have to happen for people to be ready for this type of situation.

However, in the last half century, the situation has changed dramatically. Now most couples get divorced, people get married a few times and raise children from different marriages. This no longer surprises anyone. Women sometimes prefer to have children without a husband and generally don’t want to marry.

When I appear before an audience, I sometimes ask an audience of 2,000 to 3,000, “How many single people are there present in this hall?” In this way they become aware that up to 80% of the participants are not in a familial relationship. And this is about people between the ages of 30-40 on average.

After that I ask: “Who among you is ready to get married?” Then most of those who respond positively are men, not women, which confirms that this is true. Somewhere inside, women don’t feel a need for family and children. Maybe something lacking is somehow burdensome to them, but to decide to marry and begin to create familial relationships, to feel involved and committed, is so difficult for our growing ego that they prefer to remain single.

They can take care of themselves relatively easily. They can provide themselves with all the necessities. Especially in our day, women often work better than men. In addition, they know how to manage home economics. Even though they are busy, they remain sufficiently free of all kinds of obligations and are open to the opportunities that the modern world offers.

On the other hand, it is not so easy for men. They lack the feminine care, they feel a bit more “suspended in air” than women, and often they are not prepared to take care of themselves. However, they also see family as a burden, a heavy yoke. If it were possible, modern man would prefer his mother over his wife. Family and children with all of their implications are not for him.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/22/14

The Role Of The Nation Of Israel

Question: What is the role of Israel today and of the Jewish people in particular?

Answer: The role of Israel was first discovered in ancient Babylon when one of the great sages of that generation, the Babylonian priest Abraham, provided an answer for what was happening there.

At that time, Babylon was undergoing the same processes that the world is undergoing today: a small society of three million people, which was almost the world civilization at the time, suddenly began to sink into mutual hatred because of the sudden eruption of the ego.

Until then, the Babylonians lived as a small society between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and everything was fine. But when the great ego erupted, it turned out that, on the one hand, they were integrally connected to one another, and on the other hand, they couldn’t exist together egoistically. Therefore the term the Tower of Babel symbolizes the ego that literally grew up to the sky.

This is what is happening today. On one hand, we discover that people are mutually connected to one another and on the other hand, they hate each other. The two forces that mutually operate inside us require a solution, since otherwise we will reach a dead end.

One of these two forces, the force of nature, ties us together and shows us the globalization and mutual connection between everyone to everyone. This force closes us integrally and shows us that we are one whole body. The second force is the egoistic human force that tears us apart from the inside, separates us, and doesn’t allow us to be one whole.

These two forces were first studied in ancient Babylon and there were two answers to the question of “what should we do?”

The first answer was given by Nimrod, the king of Babylon, who decided that the Babylonians had no choice but to break up and move away from one another. He disintegrated his kingdom fearing that his subjects would begin to destroy each other. This is where the concept of building the Tower of Babel comes from and its outcome was the dispersion of the people and the mixing of tongues, which was a sign that people ceased to understand one another.

That was one way of solving the problem, but today we, the modern Babylonians, have nowhere to go since we have no other planet. Therefore, we cope with the question that we have to answer.

The second solution was given by Abraham, one of the leading priests in ancient Babylon. Abraham understood that the ego separates us from the inside, while the external forces of nature, which bring us closer, were given to us on purpose so that we will ascend above them and resemble nature. This means that we will work against our ego on the connection between us.

How can this be done? How can person oppose his own nature? Abraham suggested organizing small groups of people that would begin to connect, and in their attempts to connect, they would draw the external force of nature that would be revealed internally among them and correct and raise them above themselves.

The main goal of nature is to bring humanity to a state of “love thy friend as thyself,” whether we like it or not. The problem of our separation should be solved immediately, and only in this manner.

About five thousand followers joined Abraham. The great 12^th century philosopher, Rambam, writes about this and it is also contained in earlier writings like inMidrash Raba and other sources.

The Sefer Yetzira (Book of Creation) is the only remaining book written by Abraham, and it tells us about the whole system of nature that affects all of human society.

Led by Abrahan, 5,000 people left Babylon and came to the land of Canaan, the modern land of Israel. Abraham taught them how to ascend above the ego in the connection between them according to the ancient Jewish commandments of “love thy friend as thyself,” “don’t do unto others what is hateful to you” and “be as one man in one heart,” etc. This group is known by the name Israel, which means Yashar-El, straight to the Creator, resembling nature. After all, the Creator is not a picture on the wall or a grandfather sitting on a cloud. The Creator is nature! All of nature is called the Creator.

The 5,000 people who left Babylon with Abraham were called the nation of Israel, stemming from the word “Yashar -El,” straight to the Creator. It is a nation that did not grow out of biological roots like all the other nations but according to an ideology, a purpose that defines where it is headed and how it is going to establish society.

Although we are the biological descendants of those people, unfortunately, we don’t resemble them at all because we have lost that ideology. Therefore our current state is called exile from the spiritual level they had achieved.

When the Jewish nation left Egypt and wandered in the desert, it constantly worked on its connection. Their ego kept on growing, just as the ego of humanity grows from one generation to the next (which is what makes us different from animals), and the people worked on it.

This continued until the ego suddenly erupted as it developed. It happened on the eve of the destruction of the Second Temple in the last year BC. People could not ascend above it in the good connection between them and they fell to the egoistic level.

A Temple refers to holiness, bestowal, love of others, and to the incorporation of everyone into one whole. When the Jewish nation fell from that level, it determined the rest of its history of 2,000 years of exile.
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From the interview with V. Kanevsky in Toronto, 8/5/14

Eliminating Disparities In A Nation

Question: You talk about the necessity for consolidating all people into one family, but isn’t this the dream of the European far right, “We are a family, and they are not”?

Answer: The problem of the far right faction is that it places its own people in a special place above all the rest of the peoples. However, we aren’t talking about elevation above others here, but about unity among the people. So, what’s wrong with that?

Suppose that I am French and other nations don’t interest me. France is absolutely enough for me, and I don’t want those who are not considered French to live in France. Moreover, this refers to French according to culture and not nationalism.

Belgians will come and even Jews. The main thing is that we have a generally uniform culture, a shared view of things. So, France is our common nation. We agree with its constitution, with its legislation, with its customs, norms, and language.

So, if a particular sector enhances this unity, then it doesn’t matter what it is called: right, left, center, etc. This approach is good as long as it is not realized at the expense of other nations. I don’t look at the others. I simply want my nation to live in peace and quiet, to be happy and prosperous.

What is bad about that? A person cares about his nation. He wants his people to live as one family. Even though he doesn’t have a broad vision or the moral force to be concerned about the inhabitants of other nations, and even though this is called “nationalism,” it is in a good sense. He is not a chauvinist. He has no hatred towards others, toward foreigners. He is only concerned about his own people, and not at the expense of others either.

It is true that, in a case like this, the nation is not ready to enter into some kind of partnership as in the example of the present European Union, but there is no need for it either. First its people pass through the new education, strive for equality, to unity, to a common general level accepted by all. Gradually, people will absorb new values in that they, themselves, already want to attain some kind of optimal average, a basket of necessary products and services that are uniform for everyone.

Certainly, we don’t say one size fits all. Prosperity can vary by two or three times as much. However, in sum, this is a small difference, the social “play” and not a social abyss as it is today.

Question: If the extreme right will accept an approach like this, will they increase their success?

Answer: Certainly, for this it is necessary to change the legislation in the appropriate direction. In a big way, it is necessary to record what is essential. All of the inhabitants of the nation must accept its culture. They must be, let’s say, French, regardless of religious faith. The person must be loyal to the homeland to which he has come.

For example, the African-Americans in the United States don’t act against their nation. They specifically feel themselves to be Americans. Yes, they have differences of opinion with other sectors, but they live in their nation.

In accordance with this, in Europe, even if you are a Muslim, you must maintain your allegiance to the nation in which you live. Otherwise, you invalidate your right to live there.

Question: Is national unity like this a prerequisite for world unity?

Answer: No, but now we are talking about a specific region, about European nations in which the tension between sectors has grown, and in this context the European Union is not found on the agenda for the meantime. It is possible to speak about economic and military cooperation, but this is not unity. Rather, these are joint activities on a contractual basis.

On the other hand, true unity represents a transition to familial relationships. This is something that is much denser, more intimate, deep and comprehensive, when all of Europe truly becomes a common home for its inhabitants. However, they are not ready for this today because they are very distant from each other.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/9/14

Under The Blazing Sun

Rabash, writes in the Torah, there are three modes. On the one hand, the Torah is called a resource that helps specifically as a resource for the strength of the person, and after that comes the Light that Reforms that corrects a person, and the Light that fills his corrected Kelim. That is how he completes the level.

However, until the completion of correction, this struggle continues. Written in the words of the prophets is the terrible war of Gog and Magog that happens in the last stage of correction, and this doesn’t just affect the physical world, but the same thing happens in spiritual work. Physical wars become a projection of spiritual processes and observations.

To the degree that one advances, the closer one comes to the Creator; a person is thrown into a burning fire of states as if he is approaching the sun. So, he is thrown much more strongly from ascents to descents. In this way, he exhausts his strength.

He must understand that all of this is done to help him leave the depths of his ego, from sinking deeper and deeper and more strongly into it, in order to move on to “for the sake of bestowal,” to the sacred, to spirituality, to greater and greater bestowal and love.

The gap between these two poles, between the descents and the ascents, grows more and more. Until a person hasn’t completely drowned in the sea of his evil forces, he cannot scream and ask for his correction.

So, the Torah exhausts a person’s power. If he is not illuminated by Light, but is under the control of egoistic forces, Klipot, his desire to receive, then he cannot do anything. Our mind only serves our feelings and is not prepared to help us.

So, a person must prepare himself for states like these from the start to the degree possible, as far as he is capable. However, in any case, he will fall and get up again, fall and get up.

The group must supply him with the right environment so that through it, he immediately will begin to ascend in that he draws energy like from batteries. Throughout the entire time of ascent, he charges the battery so that when needed he can use it.

That is how it is necessary to relate to an environment. For this purpose, the Shevirat HaKelim (shattering of the vessels) was made for we apparently cannot get along without an external battery like this. We invest our energy in it, accumulate our investment, the effort, and after that, it is possible to use it. It is impossible to advance without a battery of energy like this.

This is the guarantee of our mutual love “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Guarantee is not something that someone else needs. Rather, we need it ourselves. This is because we cannot get out of the descents if we don’t rise all the time in levels of mutual participation and connection.

So, these descents are necessary to teach us how to behave correctly so that we won’t flee and shatter into fragments. I understand that there are descents where it is impossible to get out of bed, where you feel physically dead. Everyone goes through states like these and stays alive. There is nothing to be concerned about or to fear.

However, ultimately it is necessary to understand, organize together, and struggle with them. We are standing before a mountain of thoughts, Mount Sinai (hatred) that you cannot ascend without mutual guarantee.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/14, Writing of Rabash

True Prayer

Baal HaSulam, Sages Fruit, Article “Wrong Time to Gather the Herd”: It’s prohibited to separate oneself from the society and ask for oneself, even for the sake of pleasing the Creator.

One should address the Creator, having the purest thoughts and ideal desires that are not for one’s own sake, but for the sake of others or for His sake. But if one prays to the Creator on one’s own, alone, the prayer won’t rise to Him. Rather, it will stay with the person who prays.

We can continue screaming for a thousand years, but it won’t help us at all. The spiritual system doesn’t hear solitary requests. A single person is unable to raise the desire to be connected with others, the desire that elicits the correction from Above. This demand has to be raised together with other similar desires, as part of a common desire to unite. Then the Light that fulfilled these desires before the shattering took place, when all desires were one whole, will automatically descend.

Praying for the entire society is the only possible type of prayer. Those who are detached from their surroundings as well as those who pray only for their own sake harm and destroy their souls. The Light won’t respond to such an appeal. It is said: The Creator says to all proud men: “We cannot dwell in the same abode you and I.”

It’s impossible to get out of one’s surroundings if one doesn’t wear the vestments of pride. One’s separation from the group automatically implies that one becomes more selfish. Detachment from the group is a result of various spiritual “moves,” not physical ones. No matter how justified one’s separation looks, it always is an outcome of one’s increased pride, wickedness, and egoism.

Praying alone makes one involuntarily abandon one’s community, thus ruining one’s soul, an aspiration towards the Creator. A sensation that one’s soul is implanted into a corrected community, in each of our friends not as a discrete part, but as an inseparable element of the whole system signifies a complete correction of the body (the general desire).

The category “we” becomes the only one that really exists. The sensation of “I-ness” vanishes since it is given to us only to make us understand that we are placed outside of the spiritual ladder.

“I-ness” exists only in this world. The lowest spiritual degree, as well as all other 125 spiritual steps, is based solely on “we” and the sensation of “we” becomes higher with each next step. The “I” disappears at the level of this world that is called the imaginary world since it exists only in our shattered desires.

Spirituality is felt only in the “we.” This notion includes me, you, him, and other friends connected together. It is quite a weak spiritual level of the world of Assiya at which clarifications and shatterings still occur. The world of Yetzira is nothing like that. There, in the world of Yetzira everything is truly connected into one whole. The world of Beria is a preparatory link for attaining a complete correction in the world of Atzilut.

This explains why we should never forget that spirituality can be felt only through the connection among us. It is said, the minimal Kli (vessel) is comprised of two. Ten people constitute an ideal structure. This is stated in The Zohar and Rabash’s articles.

For thousands of years, humanity did not have such wonderful conditions! We have to take advantage of our developmental stage and implement the transition from “I” to “we” as efficiently as possible.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, Lesson 4

Networking On Correction

Question: If we connect in caring for a friend’s healing, the outcome will be positive and then we will feel proud of that. It turns out that it would be an egoistic receiving of reward.

Answer: It makes no difference. We must look at things realistically since the egoistic awakening and the reward are also necessary. We need to be sure that we are a force. We are not on the level of working without feedback, yet when the mere effort or working for the Creator without a reward is the reward for us.

At the moment, we cannot even do that and don’t feel the system on a level that allows us to work in a void. I operate and all my efforts disappear, while I must feel bestowal and certain limitations. Therefore, we need feedback.

Question: How can we improve the quality of our concern for our sick friend?

Answer: First of all, the concern we feel for him should teach us to be together in one thought, on one level. At the same time, we must hope that we will learn to add ourintention to this thought, that we unite thanks to our concern and use this connection on the next level in order to think about the Creator and to establish the necessary conditions for His revelation. The Creator is not revealed in each of us, but in the connection between us.

Thus, when worrying about a sick friend, each one should feel not his own personal concern for him and how we should spur each one to feel that, but how we all are mutually connected. We want to feel the network of connections among us and the revelation of our concern for a friend in it. This is the only thing we care about since our networking is working on the correction.

The main thing for us is to feel the connection since it is our only collective soul in which the Creator later will be revealed. Thus, we move on to the next level, to the system that is external to us, and begin to feel the cobweb of the actual connection, not ourselves and our egoistic desires that are in its meeting points and its connection.

If we begin to work this way, we begin to affect the whole system. By reviving the cobweb of the connections between us, like the web system on the Internet, we begin to prepare it for the revelation of the Creator because the force that goes through the system that ties, revives, regulates, and manages everything is called the Creator.

When we begin to tune into this system of mutual connections, we will be able to feel the Internet web system that was created by people. Our connection will begin to affect it according to the law of equivalence of form and people all over the world suddenly will begin to wake up.

Can you imagine how everything will change? Just as a person’s thoughts constantly change, so will the mechanical, electric system of the mutual connections between people begin to change. The general egoistic human brain—the mutual connection that includes everything that is revealed today in the Internet web system—will begin to change in form thanks to the fact that we are becoming active parts in our spiritual system.

People all over the world suddenly will feel the new current that the system of the relations between them has entered: a new force, new thoughts, and a new moral state. They will feel it since the spiritual system will affect the lower web system like a root affects the branch. Therefore, we soon will discover very interesting options.

However, going back to the question about the sick friend, it is important that we understand that he is the factor that spurs us to collective bestowal unto the whole system so that we will be able to connect and bestow unto the Creator a form of bestowal that He expects of us so much.

We really want our friend to be with us constantly and to recover and return to the group. We constantly must think about it seriously together. The Creator provides us with a reason from above so that we will connect and focus all our thoughts and actions on our unity and eventually for the sake of the Creator.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/14, Writing of Rabash

The Common Point In The Heart

Question: What does it mean to be Moses with respect to the friendsin the ten?

Answer: Moses (Moshe in Hebrew) is the one common point of the entire ten. You collect your points together and feel as one single point. This is your Moses which draws you out of egoism. The concept of Moshiach, that is, one who draws, pulls out, comes from the verb “Lishmoh,”to pull, to draw out.

Question: If one of the friends is in a descent, does it mean that the others are Moese for him?

Answer: They pull him out, yes. But this action is not called Moses.

Moses is specifically the sum of all aspirations of the points in the heart aimed at attaining the Creator. In other words, they are aimed so the property of bestowal and lovewill start to develop inside this point. But it is merely a point, and only to the extent that you begin to attach egoism to yourself, like AHP to Galgalta ve Eynaim, will you begin to grow.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, lesson 3

A Wonderful View From The Upper Floor

“Circles” are bestowals that arrive from above. But when this bestowal comes to us, to the desire to receive, which is not equivalent to its form and is unable to accommodate its characteristics, then it is perceived by us as something bad. It is like when your mother forces you to do something that you don’t want to. She is bestowing good to you, but it seems as if it is something bad.

Our role is to pass through so many “lines,” so many capillaries in our collective body, that we will reach each and every cell. Every living body works like this. All of creation, the still, vegetative, and animate exist in complete and wondrous harmony between “circles” and “lines.” We only need to correct a person’s attitude.

And this correction must begin from below, from the lowest strata. We see that changes have already begun from above, the governments will be obligated to make “circles” for the distribution of benefits to everyone, like social security, and so forth. But all this comes from above in the form of “circles”—as in the upper worlds, so also in our world. A corrected nation is one that somehow organizes its work in the form of a circle regarding the people.

Therefore, we need to begin integral education from the lowest strata. First of all, this is because they suffer more than everyone, and improving their condition is possible only though the Light that Reforms. They have nothing else to rely on, and therefore we can reach them.

Besides this, correction must be from below to above, from the smallest and simplest deficiencies and desires, which begin to be linked in the form of a circle. When I am linked with a group of ten, with my group, then I fill it with this. The group, which transforms into a complete unit, a “1,” rises to a higher level, to a new qualitative level, and begins to work as a line in the circle that exists on a higher level.

We always rise like this. A circle that is constructed by us on a lower level is equivalent to a direct one at the next stage. That is how we rise all the time, by transforming the line into a circle.

At the moment that we begin to be linked to a circle, we reach wholeness and receive bestowal, the Light. We don’t lack anything. As Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “The Creator’s Concealment and Revelation,” a person sees friends suffering from diseases of poverty, and after correction he suddenly sees that they are all successful, healthy, and rich. A change like this takes place at the time of ascent to a new level, a new state.

We do not understand how this is possible, but it will happen. There is no other way to correct the world except to correct the perception. Infinite bestowal exists in the world, we only need to ascend and see the entire world from a higher level. Don’t try to make some kind of change or correction to the world on your level, this will not help. The more you invest, the more you will suffer and lose.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot