How Does One Sell Happiness?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At The Turning Point

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There Is Nothing But Goodness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Force Of Overcoming, Part 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Stories: The Spiritual Father Of Humanity

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

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

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

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

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

A Push Toward Unity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Crisis In Familial Connections

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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