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Question: How, according to which laws, does world history unfold? Is it cyclic? Does it repeat in every generation?

Answer: This is a complex question, not because it is related to history or geography, but because it is related to our perception of reality.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, there are two basic forces in the universe: the will to bestow or the positive upper force, the Creator, and the will to receive—the lower negative force, the creation. Both desires, interacting with one another, determine practically all of history.

Since their initial parameters and final states are set, we can describe all of these stages of the will to receive (creation) under the influence of the will to bestow (the Creator) in advance. In principle, there can’t be any surprises here.

The first part of the development of history happens completely under the influence of the upper Light, meaning the force of the Creator. In this process, creation feels the pressure of the Light and, being fully in its power, transforms under its influence, going through specific phases of development, the same ones that an embryo undergoes in its mother’s womb for nine months. This is why we understand absolutely everything that is happening.

Because only one factor operates here, the upper Light, we know in advance which stages we will go through and how.

In principle, this is how humanity developed. And this program of creation presupposes a person’s reaction to the influence from above: the extent to which he can advance contrary to his egoism, on the side of the upper Light, the quality of bestowal, love and connection; or he does not desire this, cannot do it, does not understand how to act, and by that he seemingly opposes the Light’s influence.

And if he opposes it, then he naturally feels different. Then history includes greater forces of resistance on the part of creation and greater coercive forces on the part of the Light, the Creator. However, in general, the development of history is strictly regulated from the beginning.

Today we have reached a very interesting stage of development where we can acquire a certain freedom of will, allowing us to change our history and change the speed and type of our development.

In any case, we will develop according to strictly delineated, pre-set degrees. We will either go through them consciously, with understanding and participation, in which case the development will be favorable, voluntary, and welcomed by us. We will see it as good development from our perspective and the Creator’s. Or we will resist it like small stubborn children, not wishing to implement the program of creation.

That is, either it is unknown to us, as is the case for most of humanity, or we are familiar with it, like people who study Kabbalah and are obligated to know it, as those who have already gone through these states thousands of years ago. We have to try to correct our path, making it more conscious and good for us, but most importantly—for others.

Thus, all of world history was written from the beginning. This is why philosophers and scientists, when beginning to examine history, man’s behavior, the present, past, and future, are stumped when trying to answer the questions: Can time proceed backwards? Is everything predetermined? Where is our freedom of will? How does an elementary particle choose the form in which to continue its development—as a particle or wave, meaning light?

Physicists say that everything depends on the person performing the experiment. When he sets up the device to measure the elementary particle either as a wave or a particle, the particle knows about it in advance and behaves in accordance with the chosen device. It’s as if the present determines the past, meaning time that proceeds backwards. This is what physicists assert.

Kabbalah speaks about this much more simply. In principle, it does not relate to the concept of time because there is no time; we realize that which exists in the world of infinity in its final form. But since all of our states are set in advance, there are no surprises here—there is no present, past, or future, as if someone is playing a movie for us and we see its separate shots.

Everything has already been recorded on the film in advance, and we are only viewing it. This is our life. It is being played inside of us, but practically, we can say that it is being played in front of us.

We are the direct participants of this viewing, which is predetermined in advance, and we know everything that will happen and what we will do, except one thing—by being in the group and attracting the upper, positive force upon us, we can elicit changes.

However, we can’t change history itself or the course of events, but only our attitude to it, and then it will look completely different. That is because our attitude to it determines what we will see on those shots: war or peace, good or evil. We determine everything.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/16/17

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There shall be no harlot of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel. [Torah, Deuteronomy, 23:18]

Female and male qualities in a person should be clearly directed to the purpose of creation, to the bestowal and love between all, and in no way to oneself.

Don’t get lost! Don’t turn back all your desires, intentions, forces and qualities for your own sake, but only for the sake of others.

You shall not bring a prostitute’s fee or the price of a dog, to the House of the Lord, your God, for any vow, because both of them are an abomination to the Lord, your God. [Torah, Deuteronomy, 23:19]

You shouldn’t derive any benefits for yourself, even from egoistic actions on the corporeal level. This is a prostitute (an egoistic desire) in you.

If you act egoistically for your own sake, then bear in mind that you won’t be able to build your future Temple (your future state) on this. After all, by this action you are at the moment gratifying your wild, barbarian desires in some way.

This isn’t about the body of a person, but about his soul, because the wisdom of Kabbalah works only with the soul. Therefore, you must feed the body, give it water, wash it, put it to sleep, and give it everything it needs within reasonable limits.

And if you go beyond these limits, you become a prostitute, meaning you move from your spiritual forces to the corporeal ones.

Question: So in principle, all of humanity can be considered prostitutes?

Answer: We have created such idols for ourselves that it can’t get any worse because we think only about satisfying our egoism.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/26/16

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Question: Who called the wisdom we are studying “Kabbalah”? Does this name refer to the time of the writing of The Book of Zohar?

Answer: The word “Kabbalah” first appeared in the book of Abraham. It means “receiving,” because the most important quality of the created matter is reception. Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah means a special quality of receiving the revelation of the Creator.

Question: Does it mean that such terms as “the science of Kabbalah” or “the wisdom of Kabbalah” were already known in the time of the First Temple?

Answer: Long before that, about 1,500 years before the construction of the First Temple. And whether before that, I cannot say.

In addition, a lot of books from Adam to Abraham were lost. We just do not need them and so they gradually disappeared. We do not know the books written by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob except The Book of Creation (Sefer Yetzirah) of Abraham. Rambam mentions that Abraham wrote many books; however, we do not know where they are.

Question: Is Kabbalah a method or a book?

Answer: Kabbalah is the method of the revelation of the Creator. The Torah (from the word “Ohr – Light)” is the knowledge about the upper Light. And the rest: the Mishnah, the Talmud, and other holy writings are an addition to it, commentaries and so on. The Book of Zohar is also a commentary on the Torah.

All of it together is called the Torah, that is, the instruction for revealing the upper Light.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/4/17

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Question: The earth is our common home but lately chaos has been ruling in it. Over the past year, a record number of natural disasters has occurred: severe fires, floods, and hurricanes that impacted entire countries as well as individuals, and resulted in enormous material and emotional damage.

The quiet life is coming to an end. It is known that the earth has gone through various geological periods, some of which were very unstable. Are these ecological catastrophes inevitable as a result of the earth’s natural course of development or are they something exceptional that can be avoided?

Answer: All of these catastrophes could have been avoided since nature only becomes unstable because people cannot balance it. Nature has always pushed us toward development by creating difficult conditions for us, such as heat, cold, earthquakes, and epidemics. After all, a person only begins to move when he feels bad.

We are egoists and we do not make the slightest movement if we do not feel that it will produce some benefit for ourselves.

Therefore, nature is forced to send us suffering in order to encourage us to develop. Then we begin to develop science and economics, and begin to study ourselves and the environment around us in search of a way to organize safer and more comfortable lives for ourselves.

All of this development is necessary only because of the problems we experience. It is known that if we want our children to succeed, we have to demand this from them and force them to study well. This is the same way nature has developed us throughout the thousands of years of human history. From the moment humans climbed down from the trees and left the caves, we have been continually developing as a result of the “human” problems, which are one level above animalistic ones.

This means that nature does not just beat us like all the animals, forcing us to seek food, burrow, and take care of our offspring, but it loads us with all sorts of problems designed to develop our minds and sensations. Due to this, we live, not just by animal instincts, but we have developed into a more human society. We must build our lives because our children need care for ten to twenty years as they grow up.

Nature pushes us, not only through the primitive desires such as food, sex, and reproduction, but it also directs us to develop science, economic systems, and education. It forces us to discover and explore new continents and to explore nature in order to improve our lives.

That is, nature pushed humans to become smarter. Human development is, thus, in contrast to the development of inanimate matter, plants, and animals. Besides, nature has directed humans to develop sensually and so we develop in the areas of culture, education, and art: painting, music, and literature, which all are determined by the present state of humanity.

We do not live like animals that meet for a short period of time to produce offspring and then split up. People build families and countries, and use language to communicate and pass knowledge from one generation to another. This is a whole system that differs qualitatively from the animate level of development.

However, all of this intellectual development is not enough because nature demands even more from us. It wants us to be connected into one general kind system, mutually complementing each other. Yet, we are not capable of this because, by our nature, we remain as egoistic animals.

Within each person, the same animalistic egoist remains hidden, and all of the knowledge that he has acquired through thousands of years of evolution has only helped him to use his environment more cunningly and for the purpose of greater personal profit. We create social systems that deter us from eating one another; however, we still try to profit from each other. That is, we implement boundaries that state: what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours.

Yet, this also does not work very well because egoism constantly grows and burns within us. Everyone wants to bend the whole world to suit himself. Thus, we are not able to unite into one common, harmonious system. This is the whole problem: human society, instead of progressing and becoming smarter, is beginning to descend and turn toward the source of all evil, becoming the most harmful creature on earth.

Humans destroy the inanimate, vegetative, and animalistic forms of nature, and poison the soil and the atmosphere. There are thousands of tons of cosmic debris that rotate around the earth, the remnants of satellites. We do not do wise or rational things because of our egoism and, therefore, we cannot be correctly included into the system of nature.

The general, integral system presses in on us according to the level of our development. From year to year, we were supposed to develop further and connect with each other correctly, in a beneficial way, thereby positively influencing human society as well as all the other levels of nature.

However, instead of this, we have revealed our complete oppositeness to nature and have become increasingly corrupted. Accordingly, our influence on nature has become worse and it is, therefore, not surprising that nature brings us many more blows than before.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/10/17

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace,” “Necessity to Practice Caution With the Laws of Nature”

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