A Basement For A Beloved Son

What is required in order to discover the good? Why does someone who is born into great abundance not appreciate it? You tell children: “See how much you have! How much I have given to you! When I was a child I didn’t have this.” Yet they wave you off and don’t want to hear this.

They cannot appreciate your goodness since they have nothing with which to compare it. So they don’t understand what kind of gratitude you require from them. They want to go to the movies, they can go; they want a computer, they get it; a new mobile phone, to go on vacation, whatever they want. They have everything, and so they also have no desire for anything.

You tell them that when you were their age, you built a car for yourself from a shoebox and played with this car for two years, and they laugh at you. They are right, because everything is measured according to desire.

They feel themselves on a particular level of satiation and will not move from it in any direction. First one must descend to minus infinity to be able to feel plus infinity afterward.

About this it was said in “Leviticus” 26:10: When I break for you the staff of bread, and ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread by weight, and you will eat, yet not be satisfied, meaning that nothing in the world changes except our consciousness. Even now you are found in Olam Ein Sof (the world of infinity), yet instead of that you feel this world because you don’t have the Kelimto perceive Ein Sof.

On one side there is a sack of gold coins, and on the other side there is a mountain of diamonds. In front of you is a table set with a bounty of delicacies, yet you are dying of starvation and suffer from the stench.

Everything depends upon your perceptive Kli. You are in Olam Ein Sof, which never changes. Everything depends only on desire, and desire is built above an abyss that is constantly revealed to a greater degree.

Therefore, it is difficult for our children to feel a reason for living, specifically because they have everything. Baal HaSulam tells a parable about a king who put his son in a basement for 20 years and caused him mental anguish by showing him how everyone else was successful. Others are sitting in a bar or watching the World Cup, whereas you are sitting in a dark cellar full of mice, cursing your father.

This continued until the son discovered that his father was acting from the goodness of his heart and with great love. His father was suffering himself because he had given his son grief. Whereas if you give your children everything that they want from the goodness of your heart, this means that you hate them.

Question: Does it follow that I must intentionally hurt a child in order to educate him?

Answer: You limit him because you want things to be good for him, and you are willing to suffer in order to do this. You do this for his sake so that it will benefit him in the future. It will not be good for him now, as his ego desires, but will benefit him throughout his life.

Or, you want to feel good from the thought of how much you have given him. You think to yourself: “I couldn’t afford any of this in my childhood, so my son should enjoy it.” Is this what you call love?

Tomorrow you will have to give him many times more because otherwise he will not feel that he is alive. You must build a “basement” with great wisdom and put your beloved son in there, and you will suffer many times more than he will. In this manner, you will be preparing him for a good life.

So we have a method by which it is possible to advance towards fulfillment, towards goodness, not by feeling bad, but by being aware of it. This is a very special patent. It is necessary only to understand the principle and that is enough. Then there will no longer be a need to suffer. We are not ready to go through the way of difficult suffering.

The Creator made a special system in which it is enough for us to be aware of the evil that exists in contrast to the good, in order to accept it as a tool and sense fulfillment through it. After all, we are not ready to descend to minus infinity.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Theory And Practical Work

When studying the wisdom of Kabbalah it is necessary to be very careful so that theory does not obscure the practical work. Yet there is a problem here…

The problem is that many people delve deeply into studying Kabbalah, detached from life, and they begin to juggle and manipulate the words: Here it is written this way, there in that way.

This gives nothing to a person. This is because with this he is not changed but only enjoys the mental manipulation of all kinds of facts, but he doesn’t get what each one of them represents.

He is simply playing with empty “boxes,” on which are written: “Atzilut,” “Malchut,” “Bina,” “Zeir Anpin,” the worlds of “ABYA” and the like. In this way he is not in their inner feeling, he doesn’t work with them with his emotions and characteristics.

So it is very dangerous to present Kabbalah to a person in this way because he will begin to be involved with it only artificially, without having a connection with the friends, without being involved with dissemination, without which he will simply “rot.” It is impossible to grow on your level without developing the lower level. All of spiritual development is latent in this because the chain must pass from above to below and from below to above.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/14/14

Painless Childbirth?

The Midrash “BeShalach”: “The Egyptians were defeated by the ten plagues on the sea just as they were defeated by the ten plagues in Egypt. The ten plagues on the Red Sea are not described in details in the Midrash (“The Great Commentary”).

All the attributes and the revelations that are described in the oral Torah are necessary for one’s birth in the spiritual world just as the labor pains and the preparation process for childbirth are. Without what we call such Gevurot (rigid forces) and constraint, the connection between the mother and the newborn wouldn’t be revealed.

During this process different hormones and forces are extracted that later help a child grow. Therefore, children who are born in a natural process are more complete than children who come into the world by a cesarean section.

In other words, the exodus from Egypt cannot take place any other way since it symbolizes a person’s birth into the new spiritual world, into the attribute of bestowal, in which he doesn’t feel himself inside a body anymore, although it still exists.

Therefore, there cannot be a smooth birth, and as a result childbirth in our world isn’t smooth either. But if we didn’t intervene in the birth process by different surgical devices and catalysts, which seemingly ease the delivery process, children would be born much healthier. All these devices are unnecessary. We will gradually understand how inefficient they are and will begin to limit their use.

Question: But is the labor pain really necessary?

Answer: Yes, but it depends on the mother. If she has proper spiritual preparation for childbirth, she will not feel pain. There will be pressures but pressures like doubts and like clarifications. She will go “through the water like on land.”

On every level all the spiritual transitions are a kind of birth.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/30/14

Forefather Of All Cohens In The World

“Aaron is the forefather of all Cohens in the world” because the Creator chose him to establish peace in the world and because Aaron built it to this.

Each day of his life, Aaron exerted to multiply peace in the world. The Creator ordained him to lead consecrations so he brings peace to the upper congregation. By ministering consecrations, Aaron instigated mating (Zivug) between the Creator and His Shechina; thus, bringing peace to all worlds.” [“Let There Be Light,” the book “VaYikra,” (Emor)]

Aaron is the highest step in human actions, which connects the Light with the matter of creation. It is the root, the basis, the reason, the final goal of creation.

It is not about a human being. We do not deal with notions such as “protein entities” or “discrete desires.” “Aaron” is a structure that gradually establishes the closest possible connection between the properties of bestowal and receiving.

Bestowal is a quality of the Creator, whereas the will to receive is the property of creation. So, both properties are always involved in some kind of relationship with each other since one cannot be manifested without the other and can be seen only on the background of its opposite.

Thus, Aaron personifies the system that balances both forces and completely connects them. The result is something in common so that the property of bestowal and the quality of receiving can no longer be distinguished because they complement each other. Attainment of this level is the goal of creation.

Question: How can black merge with white to the extent that it is impossible to distinguish between them?

Answer: When black acquires the properties of white or vice versa, they can reciprocally connect and complement each other.

Aaron’s work is to connect the opposite properties. It is said that he was the forefather of all Cohens (priests) in the world because he didn’t personify one single action associated with one concrete state; rather, Aaron exemplifies constant, meticulous work in all types of enormous matter that consist of two forces (bestowal and receiving), in each “knot” where both forces are correctly connected.

It is said in the Torah that the Creator chose Aaron to establish peace in the world. “Peace in the world” is a state inside a huge, complete desire. In this context, “peace” has at least two meanings:

• Connection of everybody and everything
• Correct interaction among opposite properties

The world is an association of absolutely different properties. “Coming to peace,” means entering into a benevolent unity with the upper. This is the purpose all Cohens work for.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/14/14

When The Desire Agrees To Connect

Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Rabbi Akiva depicts two kinds of people: the first are the “open store” type, which regard this world as an open store without a shopkeeper. He says about them, “The book is open and the hand writes.” Meaning, although they do not see that there is an account, all their actions are nonetheless written in the book, as explained above. This is done by the law of development imprinted in Creation against humanity’s will, where the deeds of the wicked themselves necessarily instigate the good deeds, as we have shown above.

The second type of people is called “those who want to borrow.” They take the shopkeeper into consideration, and when they take something from the store, they only take it as a loan. They promise to pay the shopkeeper the desired price, meaning attain the goal by it. And he says about them, “All who wish to borrow may come and borrow.”

And if you say, “What is the difference between the first type, whose goal comes to them from the law of development, and the other type, whose goal comes to them by self-enslavement to His work? Are they not equal in attaining the goal?” In that regard, he continues, “and the collectors return regularly, day-by-day, and collect from a person knowingly and unknowingly.” Thus, in truth, both pay their daily portion of the debt.”

It says that the righteous inherits double and the wicked lose double. After all you work and acquire vessels. You cannot remain the same way you are since the press of evolution is getting nearer whether you want it or not. If you are ready to run ahead in order to acquire the right vessel and discover the next world in it, go ahead. If not, then you are using an egoistic vessel that is very small. It seems that it is a great desire that can oppose the vessel of bestowal but in fact the size of our ego is not suitable for bestowal because it is isn’t deep enough. The Kilpot (shells) are merely a replica of Holiness.

Question: Can we say that paying the debt is the attainment of the ultimate goal?

Answer: Paying the debt is the ascent up the spiritual ladder. When a person ascends the ladder it makes no difference where he is exactly because he doesn’t take himself into account but rather takes into account how to delight the Creator. If, for example, the Creator prefers that he should remain in smallness now and serve others, that he should go through different states, then a person gladly looks for such an opportunity.

Spirituality is bestowal in which there is no egoistic account. Therefore, it makes no difference what state I am in. I value and measure everything according to the opportunity to delight the Creator, the group, or the friends. On the one side of my inner scale there is the group, the friend, and on the other side I measure my ability to do something for them. My self is actually to what extent I can bestow unto others. I only have a point in the heart and I weigh how I can delight the group, humanity, the general soul, or the Creator. The ego is erased and I disregard it, although my point is in it. This is the reason it is called the point in the heart, since my heart is an egoistic heart.

Question: I understand the idea of delighting the friends, but how do I take the Creator into account if I don’t perceive Him yet?

Answer: I begin to see my friends as one whole. When I get closer to the idea of one, I distinguish the force of unity in it.

We are all units (1). There are seven billion units living in this world (7 X 10⁹), but I am drawn to unity, and if I reach it at least in a minimal level (1/125), I become equal to one, to the Creator. In other words, my vessel becomes similar to the Light.

It is because the vessel and the Light are the same. I don’t perceive anything on the outside. I always discover the reactions of my vessel, its impressions and its experiences. Therefore when the desire agrees to connect, it is the Creator for me.

Question: So why is it so important to delight the Creator and not the friends? Why is the emphasis on the Creator?

Answer: Because you have to discover His basis in the vessel, the force that operates in the created being, the one who operates your vessel. You have to adhere to it, to theKeter. We don’t attain Him and therefore we discover the commandment of love through actions. You attain something that is above you. When the human level adheres to the Creator it attains a much higher state. It isn’t just adhesion, but it is the internality of the idea of the Creator is revealed here.

We don’t know what comes after that, but apparently this is only the beginning of our evolution…
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

The Future Is A Homogeneous Society

First of all, we must get a general idea about the state of our world today to understand where it is sliding to, to what precipice it is heading. Secondly, we must realize that we, humanity, have no way of overcoming any problem.

The only solution is to become like nature. Nature is entirely global and integral. We are all mutually linked around the world. So, we need to have the same form as nature. Only then will we reach wholeness.

All of nature is drawn and attracted toward wholeness, reciprocity, and equivalence of form. Similar to the atmosphere where masses of cold and warm air are balanced, the wind arises between pressure and lack of pressure, bringing everything into balance. So, we also must connect amongst us so that society will become homogeneous, absolutely united.

We must reach this state. Otherwise, we will enter into a collision with nature, something that will lead to an inevitable explosion.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/15, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Everyone Wants Things To Be Good For Them

Everyone wants things to be good for them in this world. But we need to understand that in this world things will not be better. They will only get worse.

Why do all of these bad forces come into the world? They force us to search for a solution, and there is only one solution. All of these forces press on us so that we would rise to another level of existence.

Until now, we have developed on the level of the still, vegetative, and animate. Nothing else exists in our world. Our entire existence is like the animate level, as it is written, “They all seem like beasts” (Baal HaSulam, Letter 8; Psalms 49:13). All our existence is like an animal, we are almost on the same level.

If we want to rise to the level of Adam (Man), then we must become similar to the Creator, for it is specifically this that indicates being Adam, from the word “Domeh” (similar). This is a new level of existence.

At the present time we are compelled to rise to a new level. For that, all of the forces of nature are concentrating on this. They are pushing us and force us to rise, and the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed and helps us to rise and exit to the next level.

In our current form we are never going to have a better life. I’ve warned about this for the past ten years.Before when I started talking about the crisis, everyone laughed and no one would believe me. I had the opportunity to talk about this with expert economists and scientists, and they just  laughed when they heard me speak about the crisis. They all argued that there was no crisis. But today no one disputes that there is a crisis, and that is has no solution.

In fact, nothing special is required of a person. We just need to engage in our method of integral education, and through the unique bond that it forms between all of us and through this connection, we attain the Light that Reforms, and our lives will be miraculously changed.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/15, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Bringing Benefit To Society Until One’s Last Breath

Question: If a man became famous in the world thanks to his exceptional achievements, does it release him from the fear of death?

Answer: I don’t think that there is a man who is not afraid of death if he understands that death is the end. Only beasts don’t have a fear of death. They have only an instinctive fear of what can harm them, and they live according to the instinct of self-preservation.

However, people are afraid of death because they have an imagination, feelings, and they can learn from their experiences and events that occur.

After all, the man who was my friend is dead now and there was nothing left except a lifeless body; the breath of life left him. There is nothing more to do but to bury him, and I understand that this will also happen to me.

The feeling of losing life is a unique experience. On the one hand, we must, if necessary,  go to battle, and one might be killed. However, in this case, we have the opportunity to overcome the fear of death.

We fly into space and risk our lives in all kinds of dangerous situations, and it is not because we are forced to, but simply because of the internal pull. There is a special attraction to feeling yourself on the brink of life and death. This is a known psychological phenomenon.

Man is built in such a way that the opinion of society obliges him to heroism and guides him in all kinds of situations. However, in old age, death scares a man and invites a feeling of despair, uselessness, and brings out the concealed fear within him. Man tries to suppress this fear and does not let it break through; what helps is being among people in their midst of their lives.

The worst thing that we can do to an old person is to put him in a nursing home, in the company of old people like himself. We think it is good and more comfortable for him. But it is not good for anyone. An old person needs to be in a normal society among young and old that are full of life.

By gathering all the old people in one place we harm them, no matter what medical treatment they are provided.

Question: What do you think is the ideal life for an old person?

Answer: I think that as long as he has the strength, a person should work and bring benefit to society until his last days. Perhaps he cannot walk and can only sit, but if he is able to do work that matches his ability. And everyone will thank him for that; he will know that he is valued, and will continue like that almost until his last day.

Question: How can a person overcome the psychological fear of impending death?

Answer: I think that man needs to be engaged in work and be occupied in it in such a way that, until the last minute of his life, he will bring benefit to society. I’m not talking about very weak people that can’t see, hear, or perceive anything, but as long as a person has even limited power, he can bring great benefit in the dissemination of integral education. If he integrates in a group of young people, he will bring them great benefit, and they will also bring him benefit.

When we teach the method of connection, we mix people from all ages in groups and try to give each age group the opportunity to express themselves in relation to other age groups. By that, we bring benefit to the old and young. Old people can teach the young, support them, and thus provide and strengthen the spirit of life.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/22/14

It Turns Out That There Is Sunlight!

Education means feeding the students from one day to the next with a certain portion of material in quantity and quality. The quantity and quality change every day according to the changes that you want to bring about in them from day to day. This means that the changes that take place in people and the changes in the material must be mutually synchronized, as one affects the other.

We must establish an open university that will provide a simple daily portion on TV and the Internet. Education cannot be completed in five sessions but should be a continuous process. We must take that into account because this is our job.

It involves updating the material, songs, and clips daily, in order to keep shooting at one point until an opening is made in the heart of stone, and a deficiency is created.

Question: Does a person need to be aware of the fact that he is undergoing an educational process?

Answer: Yes, he should know that. After all he is taught in order to adapt to the upper force that manages his life or his death and arranges his existence in all the worlds. Thus, he learns how to succeed at every moment in both small and great matters.

We should not conceal anything from people, as it is written, “For they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.” Otherwise, we will be like those about whom Baal HaSulam writes who conceal the wisdom of Kabbalah from the Israeli nation, thus keeping them behind an iron wall.

We must open people’s eyes. We will be surprised by the depth at which people’s perceptions will suddenly open up, although today they may seem totally blocked and interested only in food and football. This will be despite the absolutely corporeal passions that occupy them today.

All of this isn’t their fault but is a result of the concealment that everyone is in these days. There is a curtain placed before them that creates a shadow, and they say that there is no sunlight. If the curtain is removed, they will say, “Wow, it turns out that there is sunlight!”

What they say now is a result of the concealment;  a person is a consequence of the upper providence.
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How To Assemble A Perfect Humanity

All of humanity is divided into an internal and an external part. In order to bring the creature to the state of perfection on one hand, we need the creature to be completely independent, separate from theCreator, but on the other hand, being independent allows the creature to change and become like the Creator. That is, the creature must attain Creator’s main qualities so it can figure out what belongs to it and what belongs to the other, since nothing else exists besides the Creator and the creature. It must absorb the Creator’s qualities, understand what is important, sort and select things using freewillnot force, and reach a state where it changes its own egoistic qualities, the qualities of reception, for the Creator’s qualities, the quality of bestowal. In this case it reaches equality and similarity to the Creator, and ascends to the level of eternity and perfection.

This is attained by dividing one big desire into many small desires, like a cardboard image of a puzzle that is cut into pieces. These pieces represent parts of one creature whose pieces are distant from each other and do not feel any connection; this is why every piece assesses and perceives its own state, its own life, separate from everyone else. This perception of a private life exists in each of us. There are many other people around us, other elements of this common picture, that we do not perceive due to a lack of connection between us, and this is why we do not perceive the actual universe, its enormous, whole life.

For example, if we were to divide the human body into a multitude of pieces, which existed separately, then every piece would exist on the vegetative level perceiving only its own consumption of beneficial elements and the release of its unnecessary elements. But when these parts connect and begin to interact with each other as one collective whole, they become the animate nature instead of the vegetative nature; they rise to the next state, level, and perceive the movement of all of the parts. Thus, the connection of each organ with the others provides each one with the perception of existence on the animate level.

In other words, the existence of separate elements is characteristic of the vegetative level of nature. But when they connect and work together in harmony, support each other, and when each part is concerned with connecting to others, understanding their needs, providing them with common elements, functions, and the nourishment necessary for a mutual existence, then they perceive this collective harmony and attain their shared interaction in the next level of existence—the animate level.

And it’s the same on our level. When each of us exists on our own, then our organism exists as an animate body; we do not think about the way it exists. But when we feel the need to connect into a single system, when we support one another, care about having harmony between us, when every person thinks about helping others in a system of mutual support so that our body, community, will exist in harmony, then we begin to perceive a harmonious life in this one body, the next level of the universe called Adam(Man). And this level of existence gives us the perception of the upper force of nature, its next level, and the next dimension.

This is what nature is now pushing us towards; however, we have developed gradually. Once we were minerals, then we began completing one another through connection, by grouping according to special characteristics. We started making certain connections, which acquired new qualities, and through their interaction live molecules appeared. In other words, a certain system of mutual support appeared in them that already contained a certain program of its development, and thus the vegetative nature developed from the inanimate nature.

Next, the animate nature developed from the vegetative nature on the next level of connection. And in our time, the animate nature is now connecting on the social level in a new quality, and when we connect properly, then the next level, the human level will appear from us.

Nature pressures us hard whenever it pushes us to develop. We constantly experience huge problems, pressure, and are obligated to look for solutions to somehow avoid the suffering, and this forces us to develop. As evolution continues, we are reaching our next state, which is causing us to suffer, not allowing us to remain in our current state, and this is why we must abandon it.

This time, our next state will be born not only under pressure from the force of nature driving us from behind, but also by the need for us to understand what is happening. We’re not just unconsciously being pushed towards our next state like in our previous stages of development. Today we must choose it and come to it consciously. In other words, we must evaluate our current state, understand that nature is offering us a perfect state, and try to create it on our own. It’s not nature giving us this goal, pushing us in the right direction as it did in our previous stages of development because we must now reach the next state consciously. We need to develop a conceptual tool; we are required to prefer the next stage of our development with the understanding of why we must come to it.

Our egoism pushed us to develop in our previous stages; we did not resist the next state, it was desired. Nature showed us that the next state was a better state, and we strived towards it; we built our societies, created revolutions, developed technologies, and because of this we have reached our current state through thousands of years of development. But today, there are two opposite forces that develop us: One is the force of development, which pushes us through motivation; we don’t want to remain in the same place, but a contradiction arises, we don’t have the desire to develop in the direction that nature proposes.

It is proposing that we should develop in a direction opposite to our current state, our current egoism. It’s showing us that we must connect together with absolute care for one another, an absolute connection, a mutual composition, and create a picture, a scheme, a system where everyone thinks about the others, supports the common homeostasis inside this system, so it harmoniously exists as our animal body.

But in our animal body, the elements and the organs have gathered this way and operate automatically. And we must come together against our egoism. In other words, there are egoistic forces that manifest in different types, forms, and qualities between us that are constantly growing and pushing us apart.  And we must use these egoistic forces to build our addition precisely against them, put our plus where there is a minus, in order to have a proper input of negative and positive, convex and concave pieces in this puzzle, and make one common picture.

This is very difficult because every one of us must act against his egoism. I need to understand that the egoism in me is either convex or concave, that when I take from another without giving to him, it creates convex or concave pieces out of our forms, like pieces of a puzzle that can be put together. I must arrange for my egoistic, positive (giving), and negative (receiving), impulses and possibilities to connect harmoniously with the egoistic, positive and negative qualities and movements of others.

And if everyone takes each other into consideration, then we will mutually add up and create a common continuous picture of our new state. This is very hard work. In the process of this work we must clearly understand who we are, the forces that operate in us, the location of our convex and concave pieces, the desires and qualities that exist in us, we must fully understand our entire nature.

Moreover, we also need to understand the nature of all the other elements of creation, not just the ones I’m in contact with, like in my puzzle picture where I only connect with my neighbors. It turns out that when we all connect together, then we create a certain n-dimensional image where absolutely everyone connects with everyone else. In other words, we are not just a flat image; we are an n-dimensional image: each of us has an enormous number of dimensions, and everyone must connect with absolutely everyone else in these dimensions.

It’s a very complicated and complex holographic system in which everyone really examines his nature, the nature of everyone else, and his nature in relationship to everyone else; only then do they begin to connect to the others properly. We end up interconnected in all the projections and planes, just like one holograph; everyone acquires the quality of the entire image at the end. We achieve perfection this way, each of us, and all of us together. We must come to this.

This is a special development; no examples of this exist in the past. We must learn, attain, feel, and plan everything, see our mistakes, analyze and synthesize our every movement, and compare it to what exists in nature. And this way we correct ourselves and make ourselves fit into this mutual picture.

Moreover, when we really examine nature and the way we must match it, we actually examine the Creator because our combined nature is the Creator. Through the mistakes we make while matching ourselves with others and the Creator, an interesting phenomenon occurs. While trying to connect, we compare ourselves with Him and connect together with Him simultaneously—a simultaneous connection between us and the Creator. This way we reach the state called unity, the state we must attain.

Our corporeal social development has brought us to this current point; we see that we need to seriously start achieving this. Our global crisis is pushing us towards it and is beginning to show us this broken picture. We don’t understand it yet, but we feel that we must start corresponding to one another inside it.  We can no longer continue to exist as a separate element of this puzzle or try to somehow egoistically connect with others; this will no longer help. It is necessary to find certain connections, the proper ones.

But we are unable to build the proper connections between us because we only know how to consume or use each other egoistically as much as we can. We either receive everything from others, or give to others in order to receive from them in return; reception has always been our objective, our goal. We have always done things to benefit us by receiving more than we are willing to give. This is what gave us the energy to move.

And now we do not have the strength to move because we cannot even imagine what we would gain by connecting with others in order to attain mutual harmony. And this is why our egoistic nature does not give us any energy to make this move. It follows that whenever I make any move today, whenever I do anything, I do it only out of my egoism; in other words, I move in the wrong direction. So how can we move correctly?

A group helps us learn to move correctly. A group can be tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people like us that come together with this objective: to find a proper form of connection, to find the upper force, the Creator inside this proper form of connection, inside our connection with others. The Creator will help, He will give us energy to form altruistic connections, to understand how to connect together inside this enormous picture that consists of seven billion separate egoistic beings, to know how to act in general, to find those who are closer or more distant, but to connect with everyone in the end.

It is the first time humanity is facing such interesting, difficult, and creative work. And the wisdom of Kabbalah has become revealed precisely for this reason. Without it we cannot even imagine how we could ever approach this problem. I hope that humanity will avoid suffering and advance without a “sharp stick,” without evoking harsh blows that come from behind in the form of enormous suffering, wars, illnesses, geological problems, ecological problems, and various other problems that will force people to understand the “reason” they need to identify the proper picture, the program, the plan in this model, and then we will be able to move according to this plan.

It’s the same as assembling a puzzle. When we look at separate puzzle pieces without seeing the entire picture, then we don’t know how to assemble it. Where do the pieces go? This is why we need to see the whole picture first in order to assemble it.

It is necessary to identify the Creator in order to see the entire picture. The Creator is the collective plan of nature, the common goal, its mind, dynamics, quality, and movement. When we begin to see the overall picture as depicted on the puzzle box, then we discover the method of connection with others. We reveal the order of connection, the strength to connect to become closer with each other inside this picture; we start assembling the pieces together, the convex and concave pieces in a way that allows us to connect in a proper manner, to connect altruistically based on the correct combination, balance, and unity between them, instead of connecting in an opposite egoistic manner.

The proper connection between us is called the mutual guarantee; it’s when we convey the mutually necessary forces, which must attract us to each other and not repel us in spite of our egoism. We must reveal this action that is hidden in the manual inside our box of puzzle pieces. This is why the Torah is called a manual, which comes from the word “Orah.” The Torah is our manual of the proper mutual composition, which we must now realize between us.

Naturally, there is a certain order in this act of assembling the entire scheme that consists of seven billion pieces. Where do we begin? This is why Baal HaSulam says that everything is divided into the internal and the external. First we need to see the internal pieces.

The internal pieces are those friends and members of our group from all the countries and continents who are experiencing this movement, maybe even subconsciously, still undesired.

They are thinking about entering this new state on the next level, rising from the animate level to the “human” level, but they may not realize that they need to work against egoism for this yet. They talk about connection, but yet they are unable to imagine how we can really connect. In general, we have these problems before us, and we must gradually solve them between us. And of course the solution is the connection and the realization that our connection is only the foundation, the basis for all the other members and parts of this picture; the entire puzzle pieces join us.

And it turns out that this inner part that we represent is the main part of the brain. When it assembles itself, all the strings of control, incentive, explanations, and the revelation of all the other parts come from it. And then they begin to understand, develop, come closer to us, and assemble together with us. Like a magnet, we begin to attract them to the extent that we are able to connect between us.

Everyone will continue to gather tightly together in bigger circles, a greater, more magnificent combination, which in the end reveals the perfection of the creature. As we gradually reveal this perfection on the 125 degrees of consecutive actions, we’ll reveal a greater manifestation of this plan, this force called the “Creator” that exists within, inside it, and moves everything forward. This force emerges gradually. We will see our entire history: how we initially appeared from a small force of Light that created the inanimate level of life.

The inanimate level began developing into the vegetative level and the animate level of life, and today with our awareness and our conscious participation, it is turning into the “human” level of development. The wisdom of Kabbalah was concealed throughout this entire time so we would not have the opportunity to connect or we would have assembled this picture egoistically, incorrectly, the wrong way, and it would have turned us into horrible monsters. This is the reason why Kabbalah was concealed.

It is specifically being revealed today because the time has now come. We see that we can no longer continue to remain on our level, our degree, in our current state; the forces of nature, as usual, are beginning to push us from behind in an unknown direction towards our next state of perception and understanding. I hope that we will manage it, and at the same time show the way to the others who will gradually come closer to us and join us.

Our preliminary state in which we exist is called “a handmaid that is heir to her mistress.” In other words, it is an egoistic state full of rejections, disagreements, and contradictions, but it is very necessary because we’re able to change our egoism through its manifestations. We change the convex for the concave pieces and the concave for the convex pieces, and thus, we very gradually examine and change our egoistic nature to an altruistic nature within us, within all our desires, impulses, thoughts, and qualities. This way we use ourselves to create the next level and attain the Creator’s plan in its entire depth and capacity—to attain Him.

By participating together, we can achieve this very quickly because the next level that we consciously attain will pass very quickly. When the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature must change on their own, then they operate under the stimulating, compelling force of nature, and changes are very slow and constrained. We can see that the inanimate level of nature took billions of years to develop, the vegetative level took hundreds of millions of years, and the animate level took hundreds of thousands of years, and what we refer to today as a “human” has existed in its animal state for around fifty thousand years.

This is why what we are experiencing today is the contraction of time from the inanimate to the vegetative, animate, and human states. We see time accelerate from day to day. For this reason as soon as we begin to work correctly on our proper connection, then we’ll see and realize an enormous amount of actions in it every second. And we will be able to reach this entire enormous unified structure literally over a few upcoming years. So, we are facing a very interesting and intense time, and it is the greatest and the best that could be.

We must value the fact that we are in a state when we can speak about it; we understand where we are, what our mission consists of, that we must try to carry out this program to correct ourselves, and help the others do the same. This is our motivation today, but it does not push painfully from behind, obligating us like animals, it is an incentive that directs us forward towards building our next beautiful state.

It is written in The Zohar that Rabbi Shimon cried because he wanted to give the people everything that he had prepared, but he couldn’t because they were like fruit that is not ripe yet. In other words, mankind would have gathered in an incorrect manner, and then they wouldn’t have been able to “get themselves out” of it.

This is why this book was written in this special “concealed” way and hidden away. It was gradually revealed over the course of many centuries until it finally became revealed to us in our time through the “Sulam Commentary.” Only today are we actually beginning to talk about its proper use.

I hope that we will really come to this realization and will experience all the advantages of this method, this guide called the “Torah” (“guide” – “Orah”), or the Light that exists in it, the revelation of the Creator that happens inside us when we use the group and what the Kabbalists have written for us correctly. Essentially, their books tell us about the proper connection between us and how the Creator becomes revealed inside this connection.

On one hand they speak about the correction of desires, the so-called proper connection between us, and on the other hand, about the way life begins to manifest in this proper corrected state. At first the connection on the inanimate level is small until the vegetative movement appears, then the animate connections, and finally the human connections. Everything depends on the quality and the quantity of the connections between these separate, egoistic elements in one common altruistic system.

We study all these actions and degrees in Kabbalah. Each of the 125 degrees represents maximum unity according to its degree; the ten Sefirot is the complete connection between them, the proper synthesis of each of the separate parts and the Light that manifests in this state, the essence of the Creator, His program, the common force of life. Individual parts can exist separately like in our body, but when they connect together, they form one single organism. But it’s not just one animal or organism because the perception of life manifests inside it, and then suddenly, the purpose of life, certain actions, a certain inner and external world is perceived. Why does this happen? It happens because the entire body is working in unison.

And once we assemble the inner part of this enormous puzzle we’ll be able to begin to add the external pieces to it since this single creature consists of the inanimate – the most external part, the vegetative – an inside part, the animate – a more internal part, and the human – the innermost part. We represent the most internal part. In other words, all those who have an independent aspiration for attaining the purpose of creation represent the inner part. And everyone else follows the circles that branch away from us: the animate, vegetative, and the inanimate.

As we very gradually disseminate Kabbalah, it’s why we have to reveal it to all the other parts, to help them connect to us. This is because the other parts have a very small part that will also have to realize the program of creation, attain the plan of creation, the plan of correction. They will need our help, just like a body that has both major and minor organs.

In a whole perfect organism, every cell matters because otherwise there is no perfection. Naturally, the crucial part in the process of creation and the repair of an organism is its major parts. In other words, the most important thing for us right now is to first correct ourselves.

I hope that we will be able to achieve this fast. Everything only depends on us.

We went through all the previous stages of our development unconsciously, without knowing where we were going. Our egoism was pushing us somewhere and we tried to develop this way, constantly colliding with one another, pushing each other, but now we need to develop another way. The main thing is to direct ourselves inside towards connection and greater adhesion with one another, instead of directing ourselves ahead somewhere.

This is why we need to simply move inside, towards unity, an inner aspiration towards a single, continuous connection. It will reveal the Creator inside us, and then we will have the inner strength to correct everyone else.

A Look At Globalization

Opinion (Vadim Kayuzhny, Candidate of Pedagogic Sciences, Instructor): “The three dimensions of globalization: globalization – a constant historic process, globalization – the universalization of the world, globalization – the destruction of national borders.

“Globalization – an objective typical phenomenon. Current globalization is the universal distribution of cultural, social, economic, financial, political, technological, and informational mechanisms of the western civilization. Global processes take the form of the net of interactions of the entire community of the world.

“Globalization is the process of transition to a new state of the world, when countries consciously make the traditional borders less significant, which implies a greater collective responsibility, including for safety.

“Globalization affects all countries, ignoring their independence, types of political regimes, and their level of economic development.

“Positives of globalization: accelerated implementation and distribution of technical achievements and modern control methods; formation of a single world market space; integration of the market of goods, services, capital, and international trade; leveling of the prices, and ability to provide a higher level of life for the population.

“Negatives of globalization: interdependence of national economies; fear that major gains will go to the more developed countries and transnational corporations, without the consideration of interests of the peripheral countries; loss of sovereignty of the underdeveloped countries; appearance of transnational corporations and semi-criminal web structures on the political arena; imposing of western cultural models on the world community.”

Altruism Of Cells

Question: I can’t find any material that speaks about cells destroying themselves for the sake of saving the entire body. On what facts do you rely, except for the wisdom of Kabbalah, when you speak about this happening?

Answer: I refer to a conversation between Sergei Keslev (Director, Cell Technology Laboratory, General Institute of Genetics, Academy of Russian Scientists), Uri Penzion (Director, Laboratory in the Institute for problems in the transfer of science) and Valdamir Bogterev (Assistant President, Association of Clinical Cytology):

” … As it turns out a cell never just dies with no reason…. When any changes occur in a cell, a special mechanism is alighted in it that leads it. To say it crudely, ‘Hara-Kiri.’ And this is one of our most important defense tools.

“If it understands that something is not right, then in the interest of the general body, it ends its life by suicide?

“Yes, that is the meaning, suicide for the sake of the society, like in Japan in the Middle Ages. In general, that is one of the impressive discoveries that were made lately. Other than the regular characteristics of the cell to divide, split, and change its structure, there is another important thing: to be killed.”

A Pill Against Love

In the News (Theory and Practice): “Love is not always good; it can cause pain of loss, provoke violence. In terms of brain physiology, love is just a hormonal process that can be controlled by desire!

“The desire to get rid of love occurs when this feeling is similar to a disease.

“Love, which can bring people together and keep them close to give birth and bring up offspring, is the basis of survival of the species. It runs: 1) sexual desire, 2) sympathy and 3) attachment.

1) Sexual desire drives us to meet with potential partners, 2) sympathy lets you choose among them the suitable one, 3) attachment helps to create a long-term relationship and gives us the strength to work until the parental duty is fulfilled.

“The work of each of the three systems is based on hormones, produced by the body. Sexual attraction is associated with estrogen and testosterone – sex hormones in men and women.

“The ability to assess the attractiveness comes from pleasure and stress hormones (dopamine, serotonin, adrenaline), which direct us to the object of desire, causing a sense of excitement in his or her presence.

“Affection is born of the action of neuromodulators (oxytocin and vasopressin); they inspire us with a sense of calm and confidence, ease in relationships.

“But since these three subsystems operate simultaneously, we may desire one partner, consider the other attractive, maintain an ongoing relationship with the third one.

“Testosterone creates attachment, and oxytocin binds attachment to attraction – so that the most favorite is the one who is closest.

“In the first months, love resembles obsessive-compulsive disorder. But a year later serotonin levels go back to normal, and the idealization of the partner disappears.

“The hormones that are responsible for attachment and reducing stress (vasopressin, oxytocin and dopamine) are produced during touching, cuddling, sex, breastfeeding. They hold together couples, mothers and their offspring.”

My Comment: The main thing is not to interfere in a natural process with pills. Education in line with global good relationships, as the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us, will balance the secretion of hormones and lead to improved relationships—friendship, love, and family.
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The Wisdom Of Kabbalah—A Preface To The System Of Mutual Bestowal

Question: I read the The Study of the Ten Sefirot with you, but I don’t understand anything, although sometimes when I tie the definitions together into images and different connections I get some kind of scheme. Am I doing the right thing?

Answer: Imagine that you are an alien who has arrived from outer space and you are told about the relationships between people: These are hard-wired connections and not up to us who our parents will be, who we will meet, and who controls our fate. We are all closely connected in one system, like nodes in a net.

In this network we treat each other egoistically, and as a result the connection among us is minimal, and we feel it as our life (as this world). Gradually, we give up on our unfulfilled desires and on the idea that they can be filled with quality, quantity, and understanding and that they will enable us to feel anything above our life.

But it all depends on how connected we are and how good our relationships are and on how we mutually fill one another, despite the initial feeling of mutual rejection. We are incorporated in this network of bestowal and mutual love in which our only free choice, our only true action, is to fill each other despite the fact that each of us only wants to fill himself at the expense of others.

All our other actions, when we fill ourselves, are not taken into account as actions. We are punished for them, so that we will understand how hopeless they are. But we are punished subtly, so as not to deprive us of our freewill, so that we will grow wiser and understand the connection among us and will want to fulfill it by ourselves, first out of necessity and then willingly, out of love.

The authentic Kabbalah books tell us about the types of connections among us and about the way we fill each other, which is our participation in this system: how to use it so that each of us will bestow more and will fill others more. Just as there are endless connections and conditions in the relationships among us in this world, so it is in the upper system. But it is perceived in our senses , as an introduction to a new society when you are introduced to its members and their relationships.

I am an egoistic desire, a soul that wants to correct itself and which is asking the higher level, Malchut of Atzilut, for that. Malchut of Atzilut turns to Zeir Anpin with my request, and it turns to Aba and Ima, and thus the whole system is activated and spurs the power of correction, which I need, and brings it down to me. Then as a result of the power that I get, I become righteous and I can bestow actively, which means to participate in the general connection of the “society” of the upper world. I attain the significance and all the actions of this system, its thought, its plan, and its goal and gradually become like it, eternal and infinite.
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The Perception Switch

Question: What is, in your opinion, the most difficult point of ascent to the revelation of the upper world for the beginner Kabbalist?

Answer: The biggest challenge, I would say, is the revolution in the understanding of myself and the world, that happens in me when I realize that the whole difference between this world and the upper world is only in my perception, my attitude towards the world:

When I relate to it naturally, as I was born, egoistically, the world that I perceive is called “THIS WORLD.”

And since all the people perceive it in this way, we call it “OUR WORLD.”

When I treat the world as if it and I are the same thing, with love and with bestowal, then the world that I perceive and feel in this case is called “upper,” “spiritual,” and “future” with respect to my previous, past perception.

So, the understanding that there is only a “switch” of perception, and it is inside you: ”the desires and thoughts for myself” is “this world,” and “the desires and thoughts for others” is “the upper world,” I consider this realization the most difficult in a person’s life.

It is unthinkable to imagine this, and to feel this so it becomes “yours,” is so difficult, that it takes many years, and in my observations, dozens of years!

We can easily and naturally imagine “another world” as existing outside of our world, the universe, or beyond the limits of our life, after death. It is natural to imagine it like the Earth, or in the form of other creatures and images, but not like what appears in my perception as the objects and people surrounding me, as my parts, as parts of me.

We cannot accept this even if we have repeatedly heard and read that the difference between the worlds is in our attitude towards the surroundings: towards myself – I feel this world, away from myself – I feel the upper world.

We are so accustomed, rooted in the sensation of the surrounding world as a firm, unchangeable reality that we cannot imagine that everything depends on our attitude towards it.

Kabbalah says that I perceive the world inside me, and it does not exist outside of me. Hence, I “figured out” that I have to change only myself. To change myself means to not change my desires and qualities but my attitude towards the world, my intention, how to use it, that is, using myself and the environment towards myself (for myself) or away from myself (for the sake of others).

It took me a long time to form this switch within myself. But after you feel it as existing, you work with it, switching it from towards myself to away from myself becomes the only important thing in life. The real spiritual work starts from here: self-analysis and the action of correction.

Today, this revolution in consciousness happens in the whole world; everyone should feel this switch inside oneself, and since this realization occurs in masses, it will be relatively easy for each person.
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