Leaders Of The New Century

Question: A charismatic leader always gives direction to and encourages people. As a rule, he is quite authoritarian and in some cases even tyrannical. Will this trend be evident in the leaders of the 21^st century or will their qualities change due to human evolution?

Answer: Leaders will use all the human and superhuman qualities necessary for and according to the new paradigm to which we are heading. But they must change. They will be educators because humanity needs to be re-educated, and this is the main problem of our time. After all, the masses of unemployed will require re-organization, to be placed in open universities, schools, and to be provided with television programs, scholarships, etc.

Human life will be subject to a strict schedule. The perceived need that will arise in people will lead them to the state that all their life they will be engaged in self-improvement:  public, national, and global, and everyone will have to contribute.

Everyone will have his own responsibilities, changing his egoism to collaboration with others in the shared global, integral society. He will have to achieve a sense of a different existence “outside the body” where I don’t live caring about my animal body, but am occupied with “the human being within me.” This requires very serious, great leaders, meaning educators who understand human psychology and aim their leadership precisely at raising people to a new level.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/18/13

Believing “Above Reason” That Bestowal Is Above Receiving

Question: How can we create the right atmosphere in the group of ten so that each of us will feel that everything that happens in life is only for his own good and that this what the Creator wants?

Answer: We need the society’s support in order to accept everything in “faith above reason.” It doesn’t mean you should just say everything is for the best without thinking, like people who feel they are righteous do. We want to accept everything that happens as beneficial and to see everything in the Light of the Creator as a means for the correction of our vessels. We try to reach correction so that we will really see that everything is for the best, that it comes from “there is none else besides Him,” from the good and the benevolent.

Everything that I have at present is good and I have to rise to the next state by the actions that are taking place in me. The environment has to help me feel the Creator’s actions as good and beneficial.

In order to do that I have to rise to “faith above reason.” This is a very confusing concept, since one can just blindly say that everything is for the best even if he feels like he is torn to pieces. But “a judge only knows what his eyes can see.” So “blind faith” is not “faith above reason” even if a person is confused and has received the power to act for a certain idea from the environment.

We have to organize the whole system correctly so that it will operate on us and help us yearn for bestowal. “Faith above reason,” which means bestowal, should be more important for us than receiving. But a person cannot reach this feeling since he doesn’t have the power to do so and so he shouldn’t just lie to himself.

We have to turn to the group so that it will provide us with an increasingly growing feeling of importance of the advantage of bestowal instead of receiving. I am impressed by the environment as to how important this attribute is just as I copy all its corporeal values. Society is strong in quantity and quality and I submit myself before it and absorb the feeling of the greatness of bestowal from it.

After I am impressed by it, I have to connect with the friends and with them to develop a great deficiency for acquiring a new attribute for self-change. This is already a different type of submission before the society.

First I had to receive the importance of the goal, the importance of the Creator, the importance of the teacher, the importance of the study. These are ordinary things, just as if I want to be a tailor and have to be in the society of tailors in order to learn the profession from them and to be inspired by its importance. But if I want to attain the force of bestowal, I have to be incorporated in a group and to submit myself differently. Self-submission is the inner connection between us following all the conditions that Kabbalists have set, submitting to the friends, the teacher, the study and the way for attaining the goal. I don’t just have to be incorporated in this society but actually submit myself before it and thanks to that to receive the Light that Reforms.

The Light that Reforms influences me, and thus the group, the teacher, the study, the goal of creation, and the concern for all of humanity all become dearer to me. It all becomes more important. This means that I am already in the process of correction.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, Writings of Rabash

A Heroic War Against Weakness

Rabash, “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends”: …that a person should make an effort to obtain love of others. And this is called “labor,” since he must exert above reason. Reasonably thinking, how is it possible to judge another to a scale of merit when his reason shows him his friend’s true face, that he hates him?

It turns out that we must exert ourselves when we don’t want to. I don’t feel any urge to work, have no desire for it and no interest in it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be considered exertion. I am not attracted to love the friend and value him. Perhaps, I actually must look for such states when the friend doesn’t interest me, and I don’t enjoy being with him, and I feel that I am opposite to him. Then, I can see to what extent I can love the other and can check whether it obligates me to exert myself.

Sometimes, during a big convention or a special event I am impressed by the general spirit that is shared by everyone. Then, of course, I feel fine. However, the moment I leave this external influence, I immediately fall. This means that I don’t wake up by myself. I don’t feel like thinking about the love of friends and about connection. The greatness of the goal also disappears, and I pass the time aimlessly until I feel another awakening from above again.

However, it is during this time when we feel lifeless that we must exert ourselves since when I am revived from above, I have nothing to add of my own, and I am totally operated on from above. It seems that I operate myself, but I totally am operated on from Above and am under the domination of the upper. Therefore, everything that I do is not on my account at all.

Only when I don’t feel the spirit of life and I obligate myself to exert myself is it considered on my account. Then, it is called exertion, a prayer, an intervention from below that draws the Light that Reforms. This Light will make me feel attracted to others, to love the friends, and this already will be on my account.

This is all true provided that I have brought about the intervention from below, in response to which there is an intervention from above, which is the Light that Reforms that I have drawn. Thus, my correction also will be mine. When I feel distant from the friends, low and uncaring, I revive the spirit of life. The problem is only in how to exert myself, how to yearn for the love of friends in times when one feels totally lifeless.

Thus, as it is written, “Everything that is within your power to do, do.” You should think about this, discuss it, and consult one another as to what needs to be done. This is actually considered our exertion.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/13

We And Time

Question: We live in the flow of time. There are people who waste a lot of energy learning how to plan their time. Does this depend on how much a person has to do?

Answer: It depends on a person’s desire. Essentially, the internal self-organization of the person depends on his psychological setup, and everyone has their own.

There are people who are very organized internally: They consider each step from the start, they are compelled to plan their day, sometimes even long before they materialize their plan, and this is how they operate all the time. This is “in their blood.” But if there is a desire, it’s possible to learn this.

There has to be a clear task set before an individual, the obligation to carry it out, the desire to fulfill it, and the influence of the environment on him or her. All of it has to be organized in a way that it will work within a person.

On the other hand, there is a worldwide trend of evolutionary development, which changes our desires and values. And therefore, even if we obligate a person to work according to the previous values for attaining goals that are no longer important to him today, it will be very difficult for us to get a good work yield out of him.

This also depends on time. A very serious change in man and society is taking place today. Every people, every civilization (today there are  six or seven civilizations in the world) has its own sense of time, and therefore we need to take this into account.

For example, the inhabitants of Africa, China, and South America comprehend time completely differently than the inhabitants of Northern Europe and North America. They have an absolutely different approach, internal sensation of time, and they ascribe different value  to time. For some time is money, like an immense potential they were given and now must realize, while for others time flows calmly and they flow together with it.

Question: If the representatives of various civilizations feel time differently, does it mean that the amount of activity done by them will also differ?

Answer: Certainly! If I employ a worker from India, with his mentality and with his relationship to time, or I take a person with a Nordic character, they will have completely different requirements for themselves, for those around them, and for everything.

We need to understand that the sensation of time in various modern civilizations is different. In accord with this we have to plan our interrelationships, attitude to general connections, associations, and so on.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

Elevation Above The Differences Between The Sexes

Question: Not long ago they proved the existence of group intelligence scientifically. Several of the leading universities in America arranged an experiment in which they divided people into small groups. It was established that one of the essential factors that influenced the results was the amount of women in the group. Perhaps you can respond to this?

Answer: I have not learned about these experiments, therefore I cannot respond to them. I personally have no data on this subject.

I can say only one thing: Since our society is composed  mostly of women, certainly we need to include them in discussions. Groups could be divided into groups of men, women, and mixed groups.

The idea is that it’s desirable to divide the groups composed of ten people according to sex. In spite of it all, differences between the sexes influences the course of our thinking too significantly; therefore, it’s necessary to try to do this so that the men will not divert their attention from the discussions because they feel obliged to play a particular role regarding the women or the women regarding the men.

We need to accommodate them to this kind of condition, where they won’t pay attention to each other’s sexual character, but will see only friends in front of them in order to form a new level of mutual relationships that doesn’t depend on sexual relationships. By the word “sexes” I am referring to both mental and physical characteristics, everything connected to the terms “man” and “woman.” This is not just external, rather it’s a complete image: a form of thought, approach, everything. We are very different from each other.

Therefore, it’s first necessary to conduct separate workshops for men and for women and only after this, to the degree that they rise above themselves and connect to the importance of the task, will it be possible to have mixed groups. This will happen only after discussing many times questions about education, knowledge, relationships within society, the relationship of the person and nature, or even better, what is uncomfortable to them.

If a woman is facing me, I immediately pass to another level of communication; I try not to hurt her, to relate to her with respect, in some kind of discussion in the meantime, to listen….This is a complete system. Completely different levels of communication are included here, which are not according to the intellect, not according to the essential nature. We are different and a special communication adapter appears between us. We need to rise above this difference so it will not exist in this form so I will look at a person with whom I am conversing as “unisex.” This means that we become equal in everything despite our physical differences.

Sometimes it’s the opposite: Suppose when we are discussing questions like family, we need to “highlight” problems. So we are no longer equal in building something higher, we clarify in what way we still remain unequal on the level of our integral unity: men – women, husband – wife. After all we don’t completely rise without a body! We rise within our nature and this will give us a whole range of problems. We clarify differences between men, women, and children in a format different from the “roundtable” and gradually bring them to where they will rise above their differences and begin to work for the sake of the next goal, integral unity.
[108253]From KabTV’s  “Wisdom of the Crowd” 5/14/13

It Is A Great Honor To Be In The Company Of Such Great People

Question: How can I constantly see the friends as greater than me?

Answer: The friend is great especially because I depend on him! The goal I want to attain depends on him, and therefore he is so important to me. Second, he is great since it’s the Creator who has brought us together, and has given him to me as a means to attain the goal.

Third, I respect the “Godly part from Above” in him, since the Creator is in it, evoking him and leading him towards the goal. So this is what I respect, the Godly part and not his corporeal attributes. We will gradually discover what the concept of a “friend” actually means. When we begin to see the truth, we will see what it is.

I don’t value the friend himself, but the Godly part in him that gives him a great weight and makes him the greatest in our generation. It’s not an exaggeration and not just nice words. Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma undoubtedly saw his students as the greatest in his generation and greater than himself.

In order to not see the deficiencies in the friend, I have to awaken the love in me. Therefore, it says “love will cover all the sins.” You shouldn’t consider who is more clever, you or the friend. Love should come first.

The lesson should start when each of us sees himself sitting among great people. You should feel that you are like a tiny baby who luckily happened to be in the company of great Kabbalists, trembling with excitement before their greatness. This is actually the way it’s felt, and I am not exaggerating.

This is what the inner feeling should be, while externally we can show disrespect and play an opposite game. Just like the Creator conceals His love and shows us the opposite attitude, so can we show him the opposite external attitude. We will later learn this game when we grow stronger, but in the meantime it’s still too early to play this game since we will be attracted by the disrespect.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/13, Writings of Rabash

An Invitation To A Meeting

The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet reflect the attributes of the 22 spiritual Sefirot by their form, the way they are drawn, and their signs: nine in Bina, nine in Zeir Anpin and four in Malchut. Each letter stands for a certain Sefira and reflects the way it differs from the other letters, so while reading The Zohar, we can be impressed by the text as if we are in these spiritual Sefirot.

This is what our inclination should be while reading, since the letters are like musical notes for our inner strings, for the attributes of the Creator that enter the created being’s desire to receive and summon in him feelings and impressions. The desire begins to calibrate and tune itself, like a musical vessel, according to the spirit of The Zohar and that spirit touches the strings of your soul and plays on it, like on King David’s violin.

This is how we want to feel The Book of Zohar, so that the Light that comes from it will reach us, fill us, and vibrate our desires. These letters are an invitation to a meeting, to a mutual impression with the Creator. So let’s try it!
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, The Zohar

To Be Divested Of All Problems

Question: After the Integral Education lessons, people sit in circles and begin to discuss problems. How is this done?

Answer: Generally a lesson with the presentation of clips, pictures, and even breaks goes on for a maximum of one hour, more than this would be difficult for people to keep up with it. After that they must internalize the material that they have learned.

After the talk, comes the workshop, which must include those questions that were touched upon during the talk in perhaps a slightly different form. So everyone will internalize them, people need to talk about them with friends in the circles. They need to be discussed, felt in the form of questions, in the form of doubts, in the form of some direction, intention, so that the people can reach that opinion to which we wanted to bring them to from the beginning, but now through discussions with others.

From the start we can say to a person that even if he doesn’t agree with something, now he must give a secondary importance to his disagreement. Suppose that he has pre-existing prejudices from the society in which he has been educated and has lived. He must put these prejudices to the side and try, on the contrary, to be an advocate for our opinion and to convince everyone else that the future for which we are now yearning is the only correct and possible one from the present condition in which we now exist. We give him time for this, some advice, and carry on a discussion in this spirit.

That is, we are not trying to lead students into a discussion, but rather to put them into a state where they will imagine the next world, the coming state, play with it, protect it, and convince others that it is correct. Through discussion a person will begin to see that he gradually truly agrees with it. Therefore we always direct the student not to be defensive and resistant, not to argue; rather, we direct him with positive influences to rise to the state to which we want to bring him.

Question: Is it possible to use the integral method to solve specific problems?

Answer: When we begin to use the integral method, then specific problems will be solved on their own. If I reach a collective where there are differences of opinion and problems, I don’t talk about them at all, I don’t touch upon them. In no way am I going to awaken the “beast” who sits in every one of them; for one “match” can set fire to the whole world. This would be the wrong approach. Only by divesting (shedding) ourselves of all problems will we direct ourselves towards our connection.
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From KabTV’s “Wisdom of Crowds” 5/14/13