Question: Why are there so many problems in family relations today, and so many people are getting divorced or cannot get married at all?

Answer: Egoism is growing all the time. It is no longer the way it was in previous generations where there was almost no difference between one generation and the next. People continued to live on the same land, in the same village, and the son inherited his father’s profession: If the father was a blacksmith, and the son became a blacksmith; if the father was a farmer, and the son became a farmer too. It was customary to live that way. People passed their clothes from one generation to the next, and so on.

Today a person is new at every given moment! In order to change one does not even need to be reborn. And since a person is new, he cannot stand what he had yesterday. Yesterday I got married to someone, and today when I look at her, I am bewildered. I think, “Is this really the woman I married?! Where is the woman I knew yesterday? Where are her qualities?” I don’t see those qualities today. I fail to realize that the change occurred in me. Meanwhile, I look at her and it seems to me that she has changed, and I am unable to live with her anymore.

No one is at fault here. If our evolving desire does not begin to be corrected, the family will be inevitably destroyed. What foundation should people use to come together? Once we stayed together at the “bodily-social” level: a common household, domestic life, children, chores, and the pressure of public opinion. Yet today no one cares about anything. People have risen above all these limitations; they don’t want anything.

Therefore, people are unable to be in and to create a family, and they don’t want to have children. Problems in the family are escalating and they are impossible to solve if the spouses are not united by the common study of spirituality.

No material activities will keep people together. Only this can save a family, as it is written, “A husband and a wife, and the Creator between them.” We have yet to discover to what extent we require the Upper Force, a higher idea, in order to connect at the level of “man.”

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

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Before Rosh Hashanah (New Year) it’s customary to repent for one’s sins and ask for forgiveness.

From Rabash’s article “Request for Forgiveness”: If a person asks the Creator for His forgiveness, it means that he realizes the true reason for his sins. If he lacks complete faith, then he prays to the Creator to give him power to obtain faith in his heart.

Herein lies the difference between someone who has already obtained faith (property of bestowal) and thus is called “Israel” (aspiring towards the Creator) and someone who hasn’t obtained faith and thus is called “Gentile” (“stranger,” meaning the one with a different set of desires since the desire [Ratzon] comes from the word Aretz [land] and therefore, “Gentile” is the one who doesn’t aspire towards the Creator).

Those who attained permanent faith are able to tell the difference between two levels of spiritual development and bless the Creator for being able to ascend from the level called “Gentile” to the level “Israel”: “Thank you, my Lord, for not making me a Gentile.”

A “stranger” is a person who acts for his own sake; “Israel” or “Yehudi” is the one who wants to unite with the Creator in order to bestow to Him. Both parts are present in each person: the uncorrected part (where egoism rules) and the corrected one (where the property of bestowal governs).

This constitutes the difference between a “stranger” and “Israel” and is an indicator of all our sins. We have to always keep to the middle. This type of self-analysis signifies the beginning of a New Year (new change).

Everybody has to feel like a “Babylonian” who faces the choice of where to go: follow Abraham and become “Israel” (the one who seeks the Creator, the quality of bestowal) or follow the path of the rest of the world, the path of egoism.

Everything is measured only relative to the property of the Creator (bestowal), that is, the extent to which we want this property to control and direct us in everything we do, consciously or not. We have to imagine the Creator only as an internal force that governs a person, rather than as an external influence.

It is obvious that a person sins not by having egoistic desires since he was created this way. However, if he chooses to stay within his egoism, then it is called a sin. The first time it happens it’s not called a “sin” (as it is said about Adam HaRishon’s sin); it is only the first clarification of the action, its cause and consequence. But when I have already revealed my sin (ego) and agree with its governance over me, then it means that I’ve “sinned.” This is a test that shows what I really strive for.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/10, “Preparation for Repentance”

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “And You Shall Know the Day and Return to Your Heart”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shoftim (Judges),” Item 11
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 22, Lesson 13
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“Kabbalah Today,” A Lesson About the Role of the Nation
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Why don’t we gather only those around the world who belong to the most active part called “600,000 souls” and work on their spiritual correction? Why worry about the rest? It is because today we must be in the general, integral flow from the very beginning.

We see that global cataclysms are affecting the whole world and there is a general awakening. All the phenomena are starting to be so connected and related to everyone that it forces us to worry about the general organism.

The general, full, spiritual redemption (Geula) is the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah among all the nations, and for this reason all parts of the common soul must help the other. Some of them do it by attaining mutual guarantee, another part supports them, and there are many other circles.

The active part called “Israel” must be the first to complete its correction in order for this wisdom to then spill over to the whole world. However, the rest of the world must also help this part accomplish this because we thereby accelerate our path. The choice between the path of Light and the path of suffering does not depend only on those who have a point in the heart. We see in practice how mutual help influences everyone and strengthens all of us.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/11/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Don’t blame the Creator if your spiritual progress is very slow and unnoticeable! We must first and foremost reveal the desire inside ourselves. Without it we will not be able to feel a change in our states.

If I don’t feel the spiritual world yet, it means I still don’t want it! It is here, right next to me, but I don’t want to see it and that is why I don’t reveal it. There are no presents from Above. How I reveal the spiritual world depends only on me and my desire. As soon as my desire grows and reaches the level of the next, higher spiritual world, I immediately reveal it. But if I don’t feel a need for it, then I can’t reveal it.

Everything is up to a person. Our only task is to influence each other in order to discern our desire correctly. We may be yelling and burning with desire, but it’s a desire for the wrong thing, both in quantity and quality.

What we need is a clearly discerned desire where the most important thing is the quality of the desire: What exactly do I want, rather than how much I want it. In spirituality the quantity is not important, only the quality is. We call the quality of a spiritual desire, “force.“ The force of a desire in spirituality is defined by how sharp and precise it is and what exactly it is aimed at. This requires constant worry to make sure that your desire has the right direction.

If you ask people how they imagine spirituality and what they desire, you will get a different answer from every person. This can only be discerned by working in the group and using help from the Light which we all attract together during the study because we understand that for now we don’t have the right desire for bestowal and faith. Therefore, we want the Light to come and explain it to us, to show us examples and create a desire in us! This is called a necessity without a necessity, the prayer before the prayer.

However, once a person is brought to the group, from then on everything is up to him.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/11/10, “You Should Always Discern Between Torah and Work”

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Kabbalah TV Channel 66’s Kabbalah for Beginners, “Nation”
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Question: Are you saying that the fact that I egoistically use my neighbor right now causes a sandstorm in India?

Answer: Yes! We need to understand that all problems occur due to a lack of connection among us. And this does not mean that by drawing away from you I immediately cause some hurricane that brings sand. However, by being in opposition to you, I bring disparity into the balance of forces in nature.

All the forces of nature exist in unity, interconnection, balance, and universal harmony. That is, except for the human being whose growing egoism and unwillingness to consider others turns us into an active negative element which disrupts the balance of all the forces (of still, vegetative, and animate nature). The solution to the problem is to become an integral part of nature, like all its other parts.

We reveal that the world is in unity and complete interconnection; it exists as a locked system where everyone is connected to each other. This means that we are obliged to unite as “one man with one heart.”

You could object to this and say that we are incapable of this. However, there is the science of Kabbalah and by utilizing it we rouse the force of unification. Humanity will inevitably reach this conclusion, and we are already close to it. If we have already entered this period, from now on everything will occur very quickly.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

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