Most people want just one thing: to feel good. Their purpose is a good, worry-free life: to have a job, a bank account, a social life and medical insurance. They want to have a home with a good supply of electricity and water, a supermarket nearby, and other services. They want their children to receive a good upbringing, and for everything to work like clockwork. This is what they want.

Therefore, their correction occurs through joining others by hearing about the connection between people on the material level. They are separated and they have no other opportunity to unite. However, with time, they will begin to understand that mutual compromise and mutual bestowal hold something much greater than what they initially hoped to receive.

Besides a bank account, medical insurance, a pension, and a paycheck, there is a higher level to life, and it can be felt by every person! When a person feels the Upper Force of Nature, the flow of the eternal life, then everything that happens to him or her before entering this world, everything in this life, and everything that will happen afterwards merge together into one reality. A person then reveals the hidden part of the universe and both parts unite.

People will begin to understand this as a consequence of their unification, because they’ll receive a minor luminance of Light precisely from the unification. However, this will happen at the next stage. For now, we are only concerned with unification, which is necessary in order to live well on the simple, corporeal level. That’s it – there is nothing more! What does it even mean to “live well”? It means you will have anything you desire!
(From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Precept,” on 03.08.2009)

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In the News (from The New York Times): “New Web Site Seeks to Fight Myths About Circumcision and H.I.V.” Two years ago, after three African studies showed that being circumcised could give men a 60 percent lower risk of getting the AIDS virus, the World Health Organization recommended male circumcision to prevent AIDS.

The website of a worldwide public health organization propagates circumcisions as a precaution against HIV/AIDS. Findings show that circumcision reduces the likelihood of being infected by HIV by 60%.

My Comment: Overall, there are no pointless or unhealthy ancient customs. They are all good for you.

Related Material:
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Shamati #168: “The Customs of Israel”

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Two questions I received on what being a woman means in spirituality:

Question: You say that in order to advance spiritually, a woman has to help the male part of the world group, and this is how she will obtain her fulfillment. However, when a woman expresses a direct desire “to be like the Creator,” everyone laughs at this. Should a woman be ashamed of this desire if she has it?

My Answer: Don’t worry. It’s quite the contrary: all of us, men and women alike – all the souls, are the female part of the Kli. We are all the desire relative to the Creator, who is the male part, the One who fulfills us.

Question: In this life I am female. In my past lives was I always female? If I reach equivalence of form in this lifetime, will I be female in spirituality? If so, will a man also be male in spirituality, or female because he will be filled with Light in his vessel which is female?

My Answer: You were always female and you will be female up until the Final Correction.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: On the Men and Women Inside Us
Laitman.com Post: Men, Women, and the Soul’s Correction
Laitman.com Post: In the Spiritual World, Men’s and Women’s Souls Connect Like a Husband and Wife In This World
Article: “Eve – Just a Tool in the Creator’s Hands”
Interview With the Future: Part 6 “The Face of the Future – Between A Man and a Woman”

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In the News (from The Independent): Humanity is facing “water bankruptcy” as a result of a crisis even greater than the financial meltdown, two new reports show. They add that it is already beginning to take effect, and there will be no way of bailing the earth out of water scarcity.

My Comment: We won’t die from thirst! We’ll drink whiskey…

In the News (from The Guardian): “Ten wasted years: UN drug strategy a failure, reveals damning report” Referring to the UN’s existing [drug] strategy, the authors declared that they had found “no evidence that the global drug problem was reduced.” Production and trafficking controls only redistributed activities. Enforcement against local markets failed in most countries.

My Comment: This is happening because people are feeling more and more dissatisfied with life, especially the younger generation, who are trying to find a meaning to life.

In the News (translated from SamaraToday): The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs advises tenants in apartment buildings to unite and organize self-defense brigades in order to protect their homes from vandals and criminals.

My Comment: The cities of the Russian Federation may soon look like the medieval times…

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In the News (from The Guardian): “Communism: a viable alternative?” Birkbeck College this weekend hosted a symposium on the idea of communism. The task is now to think what the concepts of egalitarian voluntarism, self-organization, common ownership of common means of production, abolition of class-structured society, and freedom from state power can mean today.

In the News (from The Independent): “Mark Steel: So Karl Marx was right after all” Sales of Marx’s Capital are at an all-time high.

My Comment: Globalization, integration, and inter-dependence, which are now being revealed in our society, will force all of us to unite willingly and globally.

Related Material:
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Two questions I received on the right way to use the feeling of envy:

Question: I feel the love of my friends, but at the same time, I feel their envy. I have read in Kabbalah books that envy is a positive quality because it forces us to advance. Don’t you think it would be better to be impressed by our friends, since it is the same kind of feeling as envy, only with the component of love? What is the best way to deal with negative feelings in the group?

My Answer: Only to see your complete dependence on the group in order to attain the goal. This will force you to attune yourself to it correctly.

Question: Is envy really such a positive feeling that it can advance a person in spirituality? If so, how can I turn the jealousy I feel toward my spouse into something positive?

My Answer: Being jealous of others’ acts of goodness and kindness helps one to become like them. Jealousy can be turned into goodness only if you use it in order to improve yourself. For example, using jealousy, you can change your attitude toward your correction.

Related Material:
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Article: “What does the Story of Adam and Eve Mean in Our Times?”

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In the News (from Yahoo! News): The president offered advice to people struggling to pay their bills. He told The New York Times that people should be prudent and get back to fundamentals, with an eye on steady savings, reasonable returns and long-term investing. “What I don’t think people should do is suddenly stuff money in their mattresses and pull back completely from spending,” Obama told the newspaper.

My Comment: The only way to come out of the crisis is to transform the social consciousness so all people will feel globally responsible for everyone, like in the “butterfly effect” or in one “small village.” That is also how the economy should be restructured. In this case, many “useless” industries will disappear.

Related Material:
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Three questions I received on daily life and Kabbalah study:

Question: I started watching the morning lessons, but my day has become disorganized. I can’t combine good sleep, the morning lessons, dissemination, the group, and reading of books. 24 hours a day just doesn’t seem enough for it all. What is your advice for structuring the day and prioritizing things?

My Answer: You should go to bed a couple of hours earlier. For example, I go to bed at 9 or even 8:30 p.m. and sleep until 2 a.m. So, go to bed as soon as you get home. And when you’re at the dissemination center, don’t waste even a minute on idle chatter.

Question: Why do some students of Bnei Baruch believe they should purposefully increase their egoism? Where does this confusion come from?

My Answer: It’s because they don’t understand that one has to keep aspiring toward bestowal and love by working in the group. During this work, if one’s egoism towards the friends increases, then this is the egoism he must correct in order to rise above it to the Creator. On the other hand, the original egoism that one has is just animalistic and it doesn’t relate to the Creator.

Question: What “fuel” should we run on to travel the distance from the recognition of evil to crossing the Machsom? And how can I speed up this process?

My Answer: You can do this only by means of the correct environment. See the article, “The Freedom.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Get Through the Night, and Welcome the Dawn
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Laitman.com Post: Everyday Life Provides Us With Opportunities to Ascend In Spirituality
The Path of Kabbalah: “About the Study”
A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: “Group Study”
Baal HaSulam Article: “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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