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Opinion (Michael Khazin, economist): “Modern society is characterized by an extreme contradiction: its control system is based on the feudal principle (a rigid vertical), but the elite is built by tribal lines. One can enter the tribal elite only by blood, that is, through marriage.
“As a result, various problems arise. They used to be solved by increasing the number of wealthy people – the financial elite. Due to the stimulation of lending, the number of wealthy people has increased ten times, compared to the amount that the economy can sustain.
“That calmed talented and energetic people. Their real role is to serve the elite. Their emergence was a mechanism to reduce social and management tensions.
“This situation has ended. But what can be done with the active, but not yet rich? After all, if in the last decade the share of total income, which the financial sector redistributes in its favor, increased by five times, and as the crisis developed, the economy of the developed countries drops by half, then the financial sector will be reduced by ten times.
“They can undermine the modern state and its elite, at least under the pretext that the elite have allowed the crisis, with which they do not know what to do.
“The servants that were nurtured by the elite are becoming its worst enemy.
“The conflict between the elite and those whom it nurtured will become the basis for the destruction of Western society and liberal ideology. A traditional society can become an alternative to the nouveau riche.”
My Comment: There cannot be any alternative; there is no place for guesswork; there is just a single solution: restructuring society itself towards truly liberal values, through the method of integral education and the wisdom of connection.
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Question: What is the difference between the joy in the Torah and the joy we feel in this world?
Answer: It is impossible to compare them. First the corporeal joy is temporary and not eternal, it is limited by the vessel of the desire. It is so tiny that it is as if you were locked in prison in solitary confinement and you rejoice at a piece of bread and some water that you are given.
It is impossible to compare the pleasures of this world with those of the spiritual world because they are fulfilled in different vessels. The most real and candid joy in this world is the joy of a baby who clings to its mother, feeling her warmth and receiving physical and emotional pleasure from her. In her arms, he feels that he is in heaven, breathing her scent, suckling her milk, totally adhered to the upper.
There is not a better feeling than this in our world. Otherwise a baby would not be able to grow. But it is impossible to compare this pleasure with spiritual pleasure. Our world is fictitious and temporary. We can only compare concepts that are linked in some way, that have a common formula, as in mathematics or physics.
There must be some link between them, so that it can be checked and measured in comparison to the standard. Here, however, there is nothing we can measure.
[135496]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/14, Writings of Rabash
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Baal HaSulam, “Letter 43”: …It is written, “And Moses would take the tent,” etc. Why did he pitch his tent outside the camp?…
However, it is to the contrary. It is a true remedy for opening the fountains of wisdom to a faithful source, since once Moses had pitched his tent outside the camp, the craving for him inside the camp increased, as one who has bread in his basket is not like one who, etc.
As usual, we don’t appreciate what we have and so Moses has to leave. It is written: “The Torah will come out of Zion (the exits).” We have to exit a state in order to appreciate what was and what will be. It is only by the feeling of deficiency that we attain the importance.
A person has to work on raising the importance of the current state, like an old man who walks bent down as if looking for something he has lost, by increasing one’s deficiencies through the group and dissemination. We must not wait for the deficiencies to awaken inside us by themselves and complain why we aren’t burning, why we don’t yearn, why we are asleep.
If a person doesn’t look for additional deficiencies by himself, by the connection with the friends, the study, and dissemination, he will dry up, wither, and lose interest. There should always be “bread in his basket.” If a person knows that he has a slice of bread for the future, he will not fear being hungry since this stock will satisfy him. But if he has nothing for the future, then even if he is full, he will already feel a deficiency and worry. It is because the future vessel is gradually revealed and he doesn’t have the expected filling.
Therefore, we must always yearn for the future filling, which means for the desire to bestow. The Light of Hassadim, in contrast to the Light of Hochma, fills the empty vessel with joy by yearning to fill the others. Although I have nothing of my own, not even a shirt, like someone who only wants to be Hafetz Hesed, I don’t need anything either.
This is the perspective we have to look at concerning what “bread in his basket” means. It means that on the one hand, a person prepares himself for greater and greater emptiness, but on the other hand, he has to feel a filling in it.
[135350]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Question: What kind of help must be sought in concealment?
Answer: If the final goal is adherence, which is possible only with equivalence of form, then it is good that darkness is revealed to me now. All my ego, all desire to receive, is taken from me and the egoistic joy from one of its parts is taken. Now, it is from this part that I can carry out some kind of altruistic movement directed towards bestowal, closeness to the Creator.
It follows that concealment comes specifically to make it possible for me to do something, to take a step forward, to determine in what form I want to be. Of course, I must work together with the Light that Reforms, yet I can use it as a means that is at my disposal all the time, like a vehicle that travels in any direction that I want. If my request is for the right thing, then the Light will carry it out fully, both quantitatively and qualitatively, meaning that the Light will do everything that I want.
Question: In what is my independence expressed at the time of concealment?
Answer: My independence is to act in a group and with dissemination in order to connect with the friends as strongly as possible in the state of concealment, and this is due to previous preparation. I don’t know what the right form for me should be. I only know that I want to build contact with the higher power together with the friends and the group in order to feel how I give pleasure for the Creator. I want to discover the happiness from His side; this is disclosure.
And this is not to make myself happy but to discover connection with the Creator beyond concealment. This will be called my future “head of the Partzuf,” meaning the beginning of the soul.
Question: How is a request in a state of concealment different, indeed in any state where I am asking for power?
Answer: In a state of ascent, I ask for for the force that will allow my mind and heart to justify and praise the Creator. In every state we are searching for clarification of adhesion, so that I will have signs, clear sensations, in order to know in which impressions, desires, and thoughts I am in connection with the Creator, adherent with Him, where He embraces me and I embrace Him.
Spiritual adhesion is like adhesion between physical bodies where there is protrusion and indentation, bestowal and reception, matched one to the other. Yet what is unique about spiritual adhesion is that with every desire I both receive and bestow. All of the desires that bestow are like protrusions and receptions are like indentations. That is how we connect absolutely and reach a shared sensation.
I seek full adhesion and want my partner to feel pleasure from me. He is good and benevolent and I want to be like Him. This is my goal.
[135340]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/14
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Question: What is the work in concealment?
Answer: A black spot, a dark place, is revealed in Malchut of Infinity, which I have to fill with the greatness of the Light, the greatness of the Creator. Everything around it is Light, but I was given this picture of darkness so that I will add bestowal on my part there.
It is like a small part of person’s heart that doesn’t function because the blood flow is blocked. The medical term for this is “myocardial infarction,” and I am required to fix the blood flow by adding the Light of bestowal there. Thus the parts are gradually shown to me one by one so that I will add the Light there.
I cannot do it by myself, of course, since I am not the source of the Light, but I can ask that the Light of bestowal will appear there instead of the Light of receiving. The concealment gives me such an opportunity.
So we shouldn’t see the states of concealment as darkness, unpleasantness, or punishment. Punishment is actually the opposite—if I am not given such states of unpleasant concealments and am dulled by good feelings that turn me into a well-fed animal that needs nothing and doesn’t want to hear about anything.
There is nothing worse than that. In this state I am doomed to remain on the animal level because I receive all the fillings while lacking the ability to reveal any deficiencies and to get closer to their correction by myself: to do something independently, to respond and to participate by myself.
It is like being invited to some important conference in which great experts take part and where I am greatly respected but am not allowed to speak. How would I feel? In the state of concealment, however, I am allowed to respond.
We mustn’t forget that all the manners, limits, and forms of concealment must be clarified only with regard to the group. Everything else belongs to the animal level: all the issues that belong to food, sex, family, money, respect and knowledge. All this has nothing to do with spiritual darkness. Spiritual darkness applies only to the mutual guarantee in the group.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/14
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Question: If all the friends are also part of my soul, what do I have to learn about my attitude toward them from every picture that the Creator shows me?
Answer: It is through the friends that the Creator gives us the tools by which we can contact Him. Then, the same must be done with the entire world, as required to reach the level of “There is none else besides Him.”
Question: Why is it so hard to think that there is none else besides Him? I constantly want to leave this thought because it is so difficult.
Answer: First, the Masach (screen) is very thick, and it is very hard for us to penetrate it in order to constantly hold on to the thought “There is none else besides Him.”
However, the Masach gradually becomes thinner, and then it becomes easier to overcome it. Eventually, we understand that it is even a good thing for the Masach to remain since it provides us with the letters of the work, the feelings and the ability to hold on to the Creator.
If the Masach disappears completely, we would certainly say that “There is none else besides Him” in everything, and the picture of the world will show a person how to hold on to the Creator.
[135332]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Question: Why can we only advance in concealment, but on the other hand, concealment is a bad?
Answer: Concealment is not a bad state because it allows me to reveal the Creator by myself. It is written: “There isn’t a place that is vacant of Him,” but for me there is such a place because the Creator is concealed from me. And I have to behave as if I am in a state of revelation.
The difference between concealment and revelation is that the revelation determines what I do, leaving me no choice. On one hand, it is a good thing because it doesn’t require any effort, like a car that rolls down the mountain without fuel.
This is of course, very convenient for me, but should I be happy about such simplicity or should I be happy that I can add my own effort in order to adhere to the Creator? Is He the only One who contributes to our adhesion or do I also add my part?
Question: How does the concealment become a desirable state that allows me to tighten the connection with the concealed?
Answer: Everything depends on the preparation. In the state of concealment I am given the opportunity to resemble the Creator, like a baby who is left alone in the middle of a room so that he will make his first step. But he cries and doesn’t want to move, complaining that he has been left alone, like a person shouting: “Why have you forsaken me?” But it is actually from this state that he begins to advance.
Otherwise he cannot resemble the Creator, that is, want to resemble Him and to ask for the help of the Light that will give him the power and will format him in a certain image so that he will resemble the Creator.
If I forget where everything comes from, it is a sign that neither I nor the group are properly prepared, and that both the group and I have to make sure that we are prepared. Everything is arranged that way so that I only need to arrange what depends on me. It is like a tango: one step forward, one step back; one time the Creator makes a move and one time I make a move, and thus it continues, each one in his turn.
However, if I don’t make a move on my part, it is a problem and the Creator is compelled to somehow complete my movement. Then He has to turn me by force in the right direction so that I will understand which movement I lack and so that I will make it the next time.
It turns out that if I don’t participate in the concealment properly, the Creator performs the action instead of me, but a double action. I have to descend to a lower level in order to penetrate more deeply into the concealment so that I will still want to get out of it.
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From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/14
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Most important is the relationship of a person to concealment, to darkness, even though the darkness is very exhausting. It is precisely according to the attitude toward the darkness that closeness to revelation is determined, not the attitude toward the Light, to the time when you are in ascent.
At the time of ascent, everyone wants to go forward, as if they just got a shot of energy. The main thing is when in darkness, losing strength, taste, and desire, to nevertheless you organize yourself at this stage in order to be Domem de Kedusha (still level of holiness). You are now given the opportunity to manage your Kelim (vessels) by yourself, as much as possible.
In ascent, in the elevation of mood when the goal illuminates and attracts a person and pushes him forward, he doesn’t advance through his own powers. It is from within the darkness and the descents,specifically from the departures: For out of Zion shall go forth the law (Isaiah 2:3, Micah 4:2), that you require the Light that Reforms, which is called Torah.
Then, you say, Thou hast made the LORD who is my refuge (Psalms 91:9), meaning that the Creator covers you. You begin to see a higher mercy in this darkness because it conceals you from those physical pleasures, which you would have pursued and forgotten about holiness. And so concealment comes, and from this concealment, you need to draw the importance of spirituality inside yourself and to work on it.
Now, you are given the opportunity to discover yourself, like a child whom they stand up and let take his first steps alone. There is no choice but to try to take these steps alone, for they are for your own good. You must understand that all the concealment prepared for you by the Creator is only for your own good.
Certainly it is impossible to do this alone. It is best if you get to some meal, event, or dissemination activity where you join with others. This is a wonderful remedy that acts faster and better than anything. The main thing is not to remain alone at this time; you should schedule participation and integration into all kinds of events and activities in order to get out of the descent as quickly as possible with the help of others.
For He will give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways (Psalms 91:11), and in the darkness that is sent to you, you must believe that everything is arranged by the Creator. However, you specifically are given free choice within this state. The Creator is seemingly concealed and removed. This gives a person the opportunity to act and participate independently in a state of O thou that dwellest in the covert of the Most High (Psalms 91:1), meaning in single concealment.
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From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/14
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