Article On Regulation In The Italian News

The well-known Italian business newspaper, “Il Denaro,” recently published our article on global regulation:

regulation-in-italian2

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The Creator’s Light Is Infinite

lightTwo questions I received about the Creator:

Question: Can individual souls attain the level of unity with the Creator or is this only possible with the help of all other souls?

My Answer: To unite with the Creator means to be similar to Him. Because He is the desire to bestow and to love, a person attains union with Him to the degree he attains the same quality or desire. The desire (or quality) to bestow and to love that develops within a person is called a soul.

Question: Why is the Creator characterized as Light or pleasure? Doesn’t this make Him limited and incomplete?

My Answer: All the limitations exist only within our desire to receive this Light, whereas the Light Itself is infinite.

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Is The World Heading For Nazism Or Spiritual Development?

when2520it2520comes2520to2520the2520global2520crisis2The egoistic development of our society has reached its natural end. Egoism is the use of one’s desire to receive pleasure with the intention “for one’s own sake,” and we are currently revealing the fact that it is impossible to fulfill. Thus, egoism is being a “Helper against the self” (Ezer KeNegdo) and leading to its own demise.

The next form that society will take on is one of complete interconnection among all of humanity, where all people will be as one whole. Nature offers us abundant examples of this connection, and we too must correspond to it.

However, Kabbalah warns that the realization that our egoism is evil may be insufficient for us to conclude that the only type of society that is beneficial and necessary is one that’s based on mutual guarantee. If we don’t reach this conclusion, we will have to go through additional stages, which will involve fanatical nationalist and religious regimes, as well as a third and fourth world wars. At the conclusion of these wars, we will finally realize that egoism is evil and we will desire just one thing: to part with it.

The current crisis shows us that it is impossible to be fulfilled egoistically. However, in order for everyone to realize that egoism is evil and to reject it, the crisis must also be accompanied by an explanation of its true causes. All mass media channels must be utilized to bring this explanation to the people. Otherwise, humanity will aspire in other directions, such as isolationism, separation, fanaticism, and dictatorships.

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The Recipe For Happiness

soul4Two questions I received on our relationships with others:

Question: Am I correct to understand that those who study Kabbalah will end up happy because they will understand reality and will feel well. But those who don’t study it will be unhappy and will remain in the state of suffering and need. Is this true?

My Answer: It is true, but on the other hand, everyone is connected to everyone within the general system of the souls. Therefore, it is impossible for anyone to feel goodness as long as someone else feels evil.

A person encounters many obstacles in the process of correcting his egoistic nature. These obstacles include those caused by his connection to all people. On the other hand, the world must still experience more suffering in order to desire correction. There is no other way for humanity to advance.

Question: The change we have to make is to create new relationships with people, that will be based on love for one’s neighbor. Will this also solve the problems in the world that are caused by improper relationships between people?

My Answer: This is precisely what will revoke all the misfortunes in the world! There is no problem in the world other than the improper connection between people. When there is a lack of the right connection, the Creator is concealed, and when we reveal the right connection between us, we reveal Him.

The return of the right connection between people is called “the return of the Creator into the creation.” The connection between people is called the Creator, from the word Bore: Bo – come, and Re – see. We see Him inside the connection between us.

This is why the commandment to “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the most important commandment, encompassing all of man’s corrected actions.

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Any Excess We Consume Is Harmful

what20will20help20us20along20the20wayEverything on the inanimate, vegetative and animate levels of nature exists in balance, because they consume only as much as they need to exist. However, human nature is different. A person is willing to consume the entire world just to feel the slightest pleasure, even if he doesn’t need that pleasure in order to exist. By acting this way, we upset all of Nature’s balance.

Man is the only unbalanced element in all of Nature. People take much more than they need from Nature, and this is unhealthy for us as well, because any excess we consume is harmful. But moreover, by disturbing our balance with the entire system of Nature, we cause a crisis in all of Nature. This means that we are the only ones causing all the hurricanes, tsunamis, and global warming, by taking more than we need from Nature.

It is not the amount we take that is important, but whether we take it out of a true necessity. If we needed more resources from Nature in order to survive, then we would be able to take even more than we presently do without causing any imbalance in Nature, because we would be consuming out of a true need. We should use everything we receive from Nature in order to preserve balance and to let every person maintain a normal, generally-accepted lifestyle.

However, each of us wants more than the necessary, and this is why we disrupt the balance with Nature. Nature’s levels are structured as a pyramid, and the next blow that will come at us will happen on the inanimate level, rather than the animate or vegetative levels. We should watch out for ecological problems and blows on the still level of the pyramid (fire, air, water, and soil).

However, there is a way to avert these blows: as soon as we begin to consume only as much as we need to survive, we will bring the whole pyramid into balance. Everything will normalize, and we will receive a positive response from all parts of Nature.

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Equality And Individuality Are Not Mutually Exclusive

Dr, Micheal LaitmanA question I received: The universal equality that you talk about is a little scary. If everyone is the same, then where is my uniqueness?

My Answer: Your uniqueness lies in the fact that everyone is incorporated inside you and you desire to bestow to everyone. You are the only one who can give them what you have to give.

However, if you want to bestow to them, you must first acquire all of their desires. You must make everyone’s desires become your desires. You will then transmit Upper Light to these desires, connecting them to the Creator. By doing so, you will be unique, like the Creator.

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Redeeming Our “Sins” Depends On Our Intention

authorA question I received: I’ve been reading your books for a while now. I grew up in a Christian family, but all my questions went unanswered. You mentioned many times that the Bible is not to supposed be interpreted literally because it is written allegorically. I was convinced of the same thing a long time ago. But why does the Bible use the notion of sacrifice for sin? Why is there a need for the commandments of the sin offering, considering that the most important belief in Christianity is that Christ offered himself in sacrifice for the sins of the world?

My Answer: The entire Bible (Torah) speaks about how to correct man’s egoism in order to reach the level of complete equivalence with the Creator. When the Bible enumerates all the possible sins, it is speaking of the revelation of the human ego.

This means that when a person reveals his own egoism, he feels that he is a sinner because he uses others for his own benefit. However, the Bible (Torah) also offers a solution, telling us how to correct our egoism. It explains the different levels of the ego (still, vegetative, animate and human) as well as the method of correcting the ego. More exactly, it tells us how to correct our intention from “for my sake” to “for the sake of others.”

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The Spiritual Meaning Of Theft

upper20worldA question I received: Baal HaSulam wrote that the nations of the world “stole” the wisdom from Kabbalists. What does this mean?

My Answer: To “steal” means to use one’s egoistic desire. It is written that Adam HaRishon stole from the Creator, which means that he wanted to receive the Light of Hochma without clothing it in the Light of Hassadim. To steal means to receive for oneself, without the intention to bestow.

In the past, before the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jews did not conceal the wisdom of Kabbalah. They shared it openly with the nations of the world, which is what gave rise to all the earthly sciences that study Nature (the Creator’s hidden form), as well as philosophy (a system that uses the egoistic mind to make guesses about the Creator, who is concealed from the mind). Rav Kook wrote about the fact that philosophy originated from Kabbalah, as did Johann Reuchlin, a great philosopher of the 16th century, and many others.

When did Kabbalah become concealed? This happened after the nation of Israel fell from the high level of love for the fellow man into unfounded hatred. This, in turn, led to the destruction of the Second Temple. Rashbi, the author of The Book of Zohar, expressed great sorrow because from that point on, Kabbalah would have to be written in a form that concealed it from people, and this concealment would last until the 20th century. At that time, it would be revealed to the entire world, in order to benefit all the people.

Before the Second Temple was destroyed, there was no need to write about Kabbalah because people felt the Creator directly and the science of Kabbalah was simply their means of communication. However, if Kabbalah had not been “stolen,” humanity could not have developed. In order for humanity to develop, the egoistic desire has to contain a spark of Light that revives and sustains it. So, this spark of Light is what enabled humanity’s egoistic desires to develop from one generation to the next, causing progress in technology, culture, education and other social institutions.

Today, however, everything that the spark of Light had to give us has been realized. The ego has grown into one unified structure or system. It turned out that when egoistic individuals reached a connection among one another, they are no longer able to evolve egoistically, but can only degrade. This becomes expressed as a universal crisis in all areas man delves in, including culture, upbringing, science, trade and the economy.

From this moment on, we can use the science of Kabbalah to correct ourselves and our participation in the global system, until it will reach complete harmony.

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Friends Are The Key To A Long, Healthy Life

the2520condition2520of2520entering2520the2520upper2520In the News (from NY Times): What Are Friends For? A Longer Life” Researchers are only now starting to pay attention to the importance of friendship and social networks in overall health. A 10-year Australian study found that older people with a large circle of friends were 22 percent less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends. A large 2007 study showed an increase of nearly 60 percent in the risk for obesity among people whose friends gained weight. And last year, Harvard researchers reported that strong social ties could promote brain health as we age.

My Comment: This is because the energy of life lies in the unification of individuals. To the extent people unite as one whole, in spite of the egoism that pushes them away from each other, they become similar to the Unified Upper Force, the Creator, who is the Source of Life.

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Unified World System: Physical Or Spiritual?

godA question I received: Why should people unite politically and create a unified world system, if the true alliance has to take place in people’s hearts. This is where the unity has to take place, and not in a new world order. Why not just unite the hearts and let each country stay the way it is?

My Answer: Kabbalah speaks about internal unity, rather than physical unity. It is the internal unity that determines humanity’s external form and institutions.

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