All The World Is A Stage

Question: Why do people like to recollect past events, even if they were tragic?

Answer: If an event recedes into the past, it is no longer perceived as a physical action, it leaves behind only the emotional experience. Moreover, a person now has an opportunity to understand the past and feel it deeply.

People love to read stories or listen to songs that remind them of past trials, to share memories about what they went through in Stalin’s or concentration camps that they miraculously managed to survive.

They reminisce about their unrequited love, about separation from loved ones, namely, about various dramas of their lives. But later, it is all mitigated, since this is how our life works. The whole life is a theater. This is the realization that we come to at the end of our life, we acquiesce, we see that it is indeed so, and therefore we view life’s entire traveled path as a theatrical performance.

We are ready to stop worrying about the past, having understood that it had to happen exactly so. The play is over, the curtain falls, and this life comes to an end.

Theater, therefore, has much to teach us. If it is a truly good production, we are ready to pay high prices for tickets, and we get ready for the outing to the theater as for a special event.

Throughout the two hours of the play, a whole period of life unfolds in front of us along with its ensuing moral. We see life’s situations that we can learn from and draw personal conclusions, imagining ourselves in the place of the characters. The theater has a very high educational potential, the only question is: How it can be used correctly?
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/22/14

Nature Is Unity

We live in a “bubble” of nature, the still, vegetative, and animate.Through this we provide for our existence. And this environment “transmits” or arranges for us precisely those conditions that are required for our advancement.

In this way we are given an abundance of constant changes. Indeed, in general, it is necessary to understand that beginning from the Big Bang this process has continued to this very day, and for its entire length, the general power of development has moved us forward toward its goal, toward complete balance.

During the course of this process, the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate developed on the face of the earth, and after that the human species. And at a particular moment in history, whether it wanted this or not, the human species had to take the “reins,” meaning the management tools into its hands to be properly included in development.

From this moment on we have been involved with the process not as we were before. Until becoming aware of the situation, we developed instinctively in a way similar to the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate, among whom there are also plenty of troubles, problems, and the pressure of circumstances, including disasters.

But the more we have developed, the more we have become linked to the process; we participate in it consciously and with understanding, and this is how we have more problems. For now they are contingent upon this: Do we accept the message ourselves, are we developing together with nature? If so, it will be good for us, and if not, it will be bad for us, depending on our level of development.

Adam was the first to discover the general process of evolution through which we must go, not only on the “beastly” material level, but also on the human level. Beginning from Adam, who lived 5775 years ago, we have moved on to a new phase. We are “embedded” within nature; according to the degree of participation with it, we are ready to arouse and invite upon ourselves, as well as the overall levels of the still, vegetative, and animate, a good, pleasant, rapid, and easy development.

Natural development is generally characterized by very strict stages. They are similar to a difficult birth, they are connected to stress, problems, and dangers, and are accompanied by dramatic natural phenomena. For millions of years the Earth has cooled, hardened, and again warmed, torn by the pressure of magma.

Geological eras were replaced, the nature of the earth was changed, individual species died and others appeared, the warming and cooling alternated, and finally we reached the present situation, which is not final either. We also continue developing; moreover, it is more rapid than in previous eras.

In general, all of this has been contingent on the general force of nature, which thewisdom of Kabbalah explores in depth. The concepts of “divinity” and “nature” are identical, for this speaks about a power that has a precise general plan within which we must be integrated, gradually understanding and attaining it. We must be included within it consciously and with knowledge by discovering a more and more mature participation. This integration is also recorded in it.

Returning to Adam, he was the first to discover this program and understand that nature seeks balance. This means that we balance ourselves with the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate, and likewise build balance between us on the human level such that ultimately every person on the face of the Earth will feel that there is no rift or detachment between us and between everything that is found outside of us; this is called the development of consciousness. I reach an awareness, an understanding, a feeling, that all of nature is a unified system. And with this unified system I am in harmony, in reciprocity, in homeostasis, in a mutual exchange of materials, thoughts, and desires.

In this manner I must ultimately nullify all detachment and gaps between what I feel now as self and what feels external. My skin doesn’t separate me from the world and the environment anymore. I reach awareness and an understanding that everything belongs to a single unified system; it is all the essence of the self.

The human level is like this. Our bodies belong to the animate world, whereas our essence belongs to the human level, which is higher. Its uniqueness is that in it we see we perceive the world as a single whole.

In this single and unique world we discover the unique power of nature that manages everything, and we identify and merge with it. Anyone who has tried to attain nature as balance of a single whole has discovered and attained this process precisely to its final state where we join and merge with the surrounding force of nature.

The last “station” on the way of our development is like this. We don’t know what will happen after this. Indeed there is also some further stage…
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/21/14

From Shabbat Page 24/10/14

The Place of His Glory

The Torah corrects us all the time, depending only on to what extent and with what we participate. This means that there is such a movement here in which I apparently don’t participate but react. My body necessarily reacts to what is happening, to what the Torah brings me, and this is called the way of “in its time.” More or less, this is the way in which all of humanity is found. There are also people who have the opportunity to advance consciously, with understanding and awareness, with sensitivity. According to the awakening that they get, they are called “Israel,” “Yashar-El” (Straight to God). So they can assist in their own development and advance more rapidly. But their advancement is that they are concerned about the world. They take upon themselves the task of the Creator, bringing all of creation to adherence with Him. And so these people who receive an awakening must examine the awakening they received, what it is for. This is not for their own benefit; rather they must be representatives of the Creator and convey, on whatever plane they exist, His Torah, His task, to be the conduit to all of humanity and to bring them closer to the Creator. So they have a big job of scrutiny and correction, specifically for this purpose. So they don’t want to correct themselves and advance towards being for the Creator and adherent to him, no. Rather, they must first of all be concerned about everyone. So they begin to understand that the Creator is not found alone. There is nothing like this; rather, the Creator is found within corrected humanity. They must reach this. So it takes a long time until a person scrutinizes where the place of the glory of the Creator is. And after that, he already begins to act correctly. He understands also that nullification for the sake of bestowal and adherence with the power of bestowal can only exist through the creatures, “from love of the creatures to love of the Creator.” Then he arranges all of his actions according to this.

From the Morning Lesson, The Writings of Rabash, “What is the Torah and the Work in the Way of the Creator?” October 23, 2014

Many Things Exist In This World

Question: I read your materials and was amazed concerning the issue of the development of the ego and its intermediate steps at the level of inanimate – coral, the level of vegetative – the “dog of the field,” and the level of animate – the monkey and the human being.

Many ask themselves what is the “dog of the field?” Is it a squirrel in the Arava desert or another kind of squirrel? After all, you are referring to a vegetative animal. Could you please present an exact scientific name, preferably in Latin if possible?

Otherwise, we will seem naïve and ridiculous, and there isn’t any such scientific subcategory. The children in school are taught that the monkey is also an animal. While the monkey is similar to a human being, it belongs to the animals but can constitute a kind of bridge to people. All of these materials should be presented through scientific editing.

Answer: I will leave the search for scientific confirmation of the words of the Ari to you. He was a great Kabbalist who attained the upper world and from there describes its structure in the language of the branches, which is the result of our world.

What does he mean exactly, I don’t dare argue with, but I am sure that if he wrote it from within his attainment of the upper roots, then a plant-animal, like the “dog of the field,” exists, although it hasn’t yet been discovered by science or known with these attributes.

I also don’t know exactly what kind of monkey from our evolutionary ancestors he means. The scientists try to test which of them is closest to us, but they also can make mistakes.

I only bring the words of the Ari whose opinion is correct beyond any shadow of a doubt. On the other hand, man will gradually discover all the upper roots from within his spiritual attainment and, accordingly, the corresponding branches.

Opinion (E.P. Fridman, Interesting Primatology): A man has twenty-three sets of chromosomes, and superior monkeys have twenty-four sets. However, one mustn’t think that the other monkeys, including the more inferior ones so distant from man in their chromosomal structure, determine a great similarity between types of man and many types of inferior monkeys.

However, it is understood that the greatest similarity of chromosomes is determined in man and the chimpanzee, as much as 98%. There is less similarity between the other types of monkeys as compared to man and the chimpanzee.

According to the basic principle signs of similarity between man and the monkey, according to chromosomes and genetic systems, the closest is the chimpanzee and the gorilla. After them comes the orangutan and, after that, the gibbon.

The resemblance between man and monkeys can’t be compared with the rest of the animals according to the structure and attributes of the many hormones. In the hemoglobin chain of the gorilla, there are a total of two substitutions of amino acids. The biochemist, Zurkerkendal, commented, “The gorilla is considered justifiably as an abnormal man, or man is considered an abnormal gorilla.”
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A War Over The Taste Of Life

Question: Millions of people read and study the Torah, but what are they looking for if the Creator can only be found in the connectionbetween people?

Answer: Their study is not in vain. Any study of the Torah helps a person advance and enables him to clarify things. Millions of people both religious and nonreligious have studied the Torah in many ways: the Bible, the New Testament, Islam and Christianity. Any form of studying that is somehow connected to the Torah, whether directly or indirectly, helps people advance and prepares humanity for the right connection, for correction, for the revelation of the Creator to all the created beings.

Everything that happens leads to certain outcomes. All the religious struggles and wars in the past and those that are going on today were meant to clarify the right spiritual vessel. It isn’t clear why our desire to receive has to suffer, but it is a fact that the afflictions a person undergoes develop him.

How many people die each day and what terrible diseases are revealed! New viruses will appear in the world to which modern medicine will have no answers and it is all in order to clarify the right desire.

After all, it is impossible to advance towards revealing the right desire unless you are totally disappointed of the previous desires. You are disappointed not because you cannot fulfill these desires but because you want something more meaningful.

If I suffer now, the pain doesn’t enable me to sin because I have no desire, no power, no time left, or the opportunity to do so. The afflictions force me to feel disappointed of the state I am in and to start clarifying the taste of life and of my existence.

I cannot reach the question of “what is the point of my life?” without sufferings. All the extremist streams that existed in Christianity in the past and which are rising in Islam now are meant only for this purpose: to clarify the taste of life. By demanding that the whole world accept their religion and putting their flag in every continent they are fighting for the purpose of human existence.

It is all the subconscious clarification of the thought of creation. At the moment they are clarifying it this way, but we who study Kabbalah must allow them to advance by the Light that Reforms.

This Light is revealed in our desires. If we draw the Light and begin to reveal it sufficiently, it will begin to flow from us to the rest of humanity since all the souls are connected, like connected vessels. Then they will begin to clarify these questions on a totally different level.

Then the extremist Muslims will not have to fight the corporeal bodies and will try to understand more deeply the meaning of life. In the meantime they are looking for the answer to this question by killing one another, but we can raise them to another level of clarification, to the next level.

Then they will understand that the issue isn’t bodies but desires. This clarification will be by the connection to the source of life, to a state that the Light comes from, that we all have to attain. We have to illuminate this way for them and show them that it exists, that it is open for everyone, and that the clarification is actually by the connection between different people, actually between those who are most distant and different.

Thanks to their connection above all the differences and covering all the sins by love, they will discover the upper force, which means that they will attain a deeper meaning of life.

It all depends on us. We only have to teach humanity how to connect in order to discover the Creator in the connection among us. This is the goal we are fulfilling when we organize conversation circles for the public all over the country. Thus we will be able to express the power of unity rather easily since the Israeli nation has been in this state in the past. Later this force will spread from us to the other nations.

Then we will suddenly discover that the moment we manage to connect the nation to the wisdom of truth, which means to connect thanks to the Light that Reforms, the world will suddenly calm down: the wars in Iraq, the Ukraine, and in other places will stop and so will phenomena like the Ebola virus, etc.

Our whole life will work out since we will bring people to a state in which the Upper Light will begin to clarify their desires and they will not need to clarify them by killing each other. Those who can draw the Light are only those who study the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/14, Writing of Rabash

The Root Of Ebola: My Health Is Not In My Hands

We ourselves produce phenomena such as Ebola; we ourselves cause such outbreaks, spikes of imbalances. Much was told about this in the framework of ancient healing practices, including Eastern ones.

Modern medicine has evolved over the past few centuries and before that a real doctor was not limited to giving remedies.

Many ancient sages and healers pointed out at the importance of a person’s mental equilibrium, which has an effect on his bodily balance, on his health.

However, then times were different, we weren’t yet so interconnected with each other and so every person individually could determine the state of his health, taking care of the balance of his internal system with nature, with the environment. Accordingly, a doctor could treat him with tinctures and other natural substances, which had a real impact.

Today, they are powerless because we have been poisoned by the environment and are on a completely different level of development of egoism. But in the past, natural remedies, consisting of the elements of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, did their work, along with the measures to maintain or restore the patient’s balance with the environment on the human level.

Nowadays, this factor barely depends on the person himself. The close ties of the “global village,” the universal interconnection, do not allow him to balance and heal himself really just by natural means. In a global world, balance depends not on one person, but on society.

Therefore, I would recommend international organizations such as the UN, UNESCO, WHO and others to take care of this problem. But they should take care properly, understanding that from time immemorial to the present day, in the end everything depends only on the balance between people, which from this degree “spreads” downwards, to the lower levels of nature and our being.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/19/14

Atonement, The First Step To Correction

It is customary to read the Selichot (atonement) in the Siddurbefore Rosh HaShana and to ask for forgiveness for all the mistakes and sins that we committed in the previous year. A person usually asks for forgiveness if he has done something wrong to someone, not in order to correct evil. But the Selichot are the revelation of the recognition of evil that was caused intentionally or unintentionally by us.

We all know that even in court asking for forgiveness or an apology from one side to the other is taken into account. Sometimes the court decides that the offender should apologize to the offended and if he forgives the offender the sentence is mitigated.

This means that asking for forgiveness is already a correction since a person admits that he has caused harm. Although he has not corrected it yet, he already commits himself to correcting it. Asking for forgiveness is the first step of the correction, so we have to value it and to take it into account.

We say Selichot at the end of the year, at the end of a cycle, at the end of a spiritual level. We complete the spiritual level in a good state since the Torah always speaks about an ascent but at the same time we reach destruction. At the end of the year there is the Ninth of Av together with all the troubles associated with it: the destruction of the First and the Second Temples and more. Then there is the time of the Selichot in which we discover the outcomes of the shattering and realize how shattered, lowly, and loathsome we are, and then we ask for forgiveness.

Interestingly, the month in which we cry and ask for forgiveness brokenheartedly because of the recognition of evil is called “Elul,” which is the Hebrew acronym for “I am my beloved and my beloved is mine.”

But if I realize that I am evil, it is the Creator’s fault because He created my evil inclination. So why should I ask His forgiveness for that.

It turns out that the desired outcome of our work, of the new level we have acquired, is the revelation of the evil inclination in us. We discover the evil in us and attribute it to ourselves, realizing that it is inside us and we want to get rid of it. Otherwise, it isn’t called the recognition of evil.

If a person feels the evil in his ego (his desire to receive) he immediately wants to get rid of it. If I regret my actions I thus commit myself to getting rid of the attributes in me, but, in the meantime, I don’t know how to do that. In the meantime, I cannot do it since I lack the power and the understanding to do so. But I realize that it is bad, which means that I determine my state.

It is about the connection between us because the whole correction begins with that. This means that all the evil is revealed in contrast to the unity, which we don’t want, reject, and try to escape in every way we can.  This is the whole evil; this is our evil inclination.

Of course, the evil inclination was given to us from Above by the Creator. We don’t cry over the fact that it is part of us but over the fact that we don’t want to get rid of it! We cry because we identify with the ego and are ready to stay in it forever! We don’t regret the evil but the fact that we agree to live in it.

We should direct all our complaints to the Creator, “go to the craftsman who made me.” And what is my own sin? Is it my fault that I haven’t worked enough with the means that He gave me in order to be free of this sin? This is what I cry about, about my helplessness and about my reluctance to be free of my ego.

We cry about our inability to get out of our ego and ask the Creator to help us, realizing our weakness with regard to the evil inclination that is revealed.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9.7.14, The Zohar

Learn To Work On Others’ Desires

Question: How can one pass from artificial, cognitive fear to emotional fear?

Answer: It is possible to do this by immersing oneself in thought and emotion. If I am among friends and listen to them all the time, immersing myself in their words, trying to sail on the waves of their thought, I absorb their characteristics and emotions.

Even though inside me everything may be dead, as a result of such mutual influence, my own emotions begin to appear.

If a person is full from the start, this isn’t good. The best situation is when you are empty; you have nothing, not even the smallest desire. You come to the group mechanically and begin the work on yourself from an absolutely dormant state, from a completely empty state.

But it is not worthwhile to immerse oneself in such a state intentionally and worry about that you are not in it. Learn to work with others’ desires and bring yourself to a state of awe because you are absorbing the feelings of your friends. This is very good.

If you are not ready, then invest some effort in others; try to do something physical, or just speak with the friends so that somehow they will awaken you and give you inspiration.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/19/14, Workshop 1