Question: As I understood, you wish to turn mass media into educational resources as though every individual has to be schooled. But do you really think people will comply? As a matter of fact, they don’t like to study and prefer entertainment instead.

Answer: You simply don’t realize that while you are swallowing the information with which mass media are “entertaining” you, you are schooled indeed, but by a very bad school! You just don’t register it, but mass media do whatever they want with you. They reform you, which means that you are in their school, and it is educating you even more than you think!

You thought that there is no agenda behind them, no politics? Somebody pays for everything and defines in what key it will be presented. From dawn till dusk, people sit and think what the tone of the newspaper should be, what trend it should follow. And this regards all mass information. There is nothing that would be published just to entertain. Step into showbiz and you will see its policies and ties with the newspapers.

A little person doesn’t understand what huge wars are being fought for the right to control him or her. You are being thoroughly schooled day by day; they brainwash and modify you to the core.

This aim at changing a person should remain, but changing him for the better! All of us are the product of mass media, and look at our society, what we have come to. School is not only when I sit at the desk and stare at the teacher. Everything around us is a school, and all of it is arranged by someone, supported by some ideology.

Newspapers should keep being fun and interesting for the readers, but it has to have a good purpose. It requires great skill. It’s easy to photograph and publish murder scenes. It is much more difficult to present it so that a person wouldn’t want it to be repeated, which is against our egoism.

Harder yet it is to evoke in a person regret that this did happen so he might feel compassion, so that the media worked to truly connect people. The modern mass media cultivates man’s ego, everyone’s desire to feel pleasure. And we, on our part, must employ all our channels, use all our interrelations and our ties with the world to work on them, pouring the wisdom of Kabbalah through them.

And it’s alright if people don’t understand or listen, but one day, suddenly, it will start surfacing within them, and they will start talking about it themselves, clueless of whence these new thoughts came to them.

In other words, we need two things: The world ego must mature as quickly as possible, but our dissemination of Kabbalah must grow ahead of it! And when these two components, one’s great egoism and our influence aimed at bestowal, will link within each person, it will produce the right outcome.
[36422]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
An Educational Channel Instead Of Commercials
Who Should Be In Charge Of Mass Media?
Open The Door To Tomorrow

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Society, Television - 1 Comment →

Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

613 Suggestions and 613 Deposits

We should keep the Torah and Mitzvot so [specifically because] it will bring us into purity [and not in order to receive reward in this or the next world or because it was commanded by the Creator]. Purity means purification of the Kelim [vessels] from the will to receive for oneself, which is called “dirt” [impurity] for it is in disparity of form from the Creator, who is all about [the property of] bestowal. Hence prior to cleaning the Kelim, it is impossible to place anything good [exalted] in them [it’s impossible to fill them with the sensation of eternity and perfection] because anything that is placed in a dirty Kli (vessel) will be spoiled [according to the law of the equivalence of form].

Therefore, we must seek good advice [of Kabbalists who already underwent the path of correction] for things that will purify our Kelim [egoistic desires]. This is called “qualification [suitability] and preparation to be able to receive the delight and pleasure” [which awaits us in the revelation of the Creator]. And because of that, we were given 613 Mitzvot [instructions], which The Zohar calls, “613 counsels.” These are suggestions on how to purify ourselves [our desires since man is specifically a vessel of desires] from the filth of our vessels of reception.

It is written in the “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” (p. 242), “The Zohar calls the Mitzvot in the Torah, ‘deposits.’ However, they are also called ‘counsels.’ The difference between them is that there are front and back in everything. The preparation for something is called ‘back,” and the attainment [reception] of that thing is called ‘front.’ Similarly, in Torah and Mitzvot there is ‘We shall do,’ and ‘We shall hear.’

When keeping the Torah and Mitzvot by way of ‘Who do His words [correcting their egoism],’ before they are rewarded with hearing, the Mitzvot are called ‘613 counsels,’ and they are considered ‘back.’ And when rewarded with hearing the voice of His word [the property of bestowal within], the Mitzvot become deposits [the sensation of the Light within], from the word “deposited.”
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “Holiness and Purity in the Work”
[36431]

Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 36
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 35
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 34

Filed under: Kabbalistic Sources, Torah - No Comments →

Question: You said that mass media must change and instead of being a commercial tool, it should become an educational one. What will they teach and how will they raise us?

Answer: A person has to be raised gradually, by way of various articles, information, and a special approach. In other words, the content itself could remain the same, but the key is how to present it and why. Any article in a newspaper, a video clip, a breaking news report, even an ad, everything is accepted and published only on condition that it leads us to correction.

There is a place for everything, but let’s focus on how we use it: What do we wish to achieve with it, what transformations in a person? Instead of chewing on all negative events and screaming, “Look what is happening in our schools, with the police, in the slums,” we should use it for correction and analysis of why this occurred, how to resist it, what can be done so that tomorrow it won’t happen again.

Mass media has to organize human society since they are called “the means of communication,” and our salvation lies in the connection between us. They have to mobilize us all to unify and, together, put these fires out, heal all these sores that are opening here and there in our society.

Mass media must build society, rather than fish some tiny accident out and blow it out of proportion in order to sell themselves at a higher rate. We need a completely different approach and media hosts. Mass media should be in the hands of wise men that understand the purpose of creation and know what humanity must be moving toward.

They must be great guides in order to use everything that exists in the world. After all, we can publish information about anything (nothing must be hidden), but the key is how to explain it in reference to the spiritual goal: Where it is rooted and where it leads to, how not to repeat the same mistakes, how an event that took place in one region impacts the entire world, why it occurred, why there and not here, and so on.

It has to be an explanation accompanied by explanation and not merely an exaggeration of a certain accident; on the contrary, it must be a call for sympathy, connection, and realization that the world is global and we are totally interconnected.

I spoke of this in Arosa, Switzerland, as long as five years ago. Mass media will keep reporting the same news as they do today; the only difference lies in how the information will be presented, how it will be approached, disclosed, and served. That’s what the focus should be on!

It is a very delicate thing. It could be just a few lines, but they will be presented at such an angle as to point a person in the right direction.
[36425]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
A Big War For A Little Person
Who Should Be In Charge Of Mass Media?
The Future Of The World: What Does It Depend On?

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Society, Television - No Comments →

Question: Can pleasure that one gets from spirituality be egoistic?

Answer: It surely can. Spirituality is love and bestowal. I’m willing to bestow to you and love you if it’s going to benefit me. And if not, then why should I? This is called Klipa (shell), and this is corporeality, not spirituality.

Each one of us is able to love in this way. I love my kids because they are mine. But if they are not mine, I have no regard for them. I can love someone if my well-being depends on them, but if it doesn’t, I don’t need them. In other words, I love and invest because I receive a personal benefit from it. However, this isn’t love and bestowal; this is using others.

Love and bestowal described by the wisdom of Kabbalah has nothing to do with receiving for one’s sake. I simply love in order to benefit the other person. This is even greater than our love for our children because we love our kids instinctively.

I must reach the kind of love of a fellow man that doesn’t benefit my egoism. But if my egoism receives something from this love, it’s not love: I simply love myself and fulfill myself in a round about way. Hence, it is all defined by my intention. But how can I check myself?

I have to rise to the kind of love where I’m only concerned about a fellow human being, not about myself. It’s something we must know because nature will force us to attain this level. According to the program of creation, we must become similar to the Creator. The Creator is good and does good without any regard for Himself. He desires to fulfill us and this is called love.

How can we draw closer to this state? My current intention can only be corrected by the Light that Reforms. It created my egoism and now it can lift me above it, perform a miracle: take me out of Egypt. When I ascend, I begin to correct myself.

This Light can only be sensed by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. While reading The Book of Zohar, a person begins to notice it acting upon him. The study itself contains a force that transforms him. It is said in this regard: “I created the evil inclination, and I gave the Torah for its correction, the Light that brings one back to the good.” This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed in our time and is becoming available to everyone.
[36355]
From a TV program “Ask the Kabbalist” 4/4/2010

Related Material:
The Materialistic Psychology Of Love
The Law Of Upper Love
True Or Egoistic Bestowal

Filed under: Egoism, Inner Work, Love, Q&A - No Comments →

The nation of Israel is a collective definition of people whose ancestors inhabited ancient Babylon and received awakening to “the work of the Creator,” to reaching adhesion with Him. Abraham chose such people and organized them into his group. We are joining the same group consisting of people who exist in our world as well as the souls that don’t have material bodies.

In essence, it’s the very same group, the same souls, connecting to each other to reveal the spiritual world, the Creator, to achieve similarity with Him, and to bring Him contentment. All of these souls together are called the group of Abraham.

Part of these souls has fallen from the spiritual degree and is completely lost; nobody knows where they are. It’s said that 22 million people have been discovered in Pakistan, who, allegedly, once belonged to the people of Israel. It’s impossible to know now, and it’s not that important. We are thinking not in terms of “headcount,” but in relation to the souls, desires.

As to desire, those who are aspiring to attain the spiritual world today as well as those who have attained it in all the generations, together, are considered to be part of the group of Abraham. Besides, those who were once at the spiritual degree and then fell from it, forsaking “the work of the Creator,” are now in a “dormant” state, waiting to re-attain what they have lost. They, too, belong to this group.

It turns out that “Israel” (Yashar-Kel or straight to the Creator “) is a rather numerous group since a lot of people “passed through” it over the past generations. That group needs to constantly strengthen itself. We are all working to attain spirituality while still in this world, and we are joined by all the souls from the upper world, from another dimension, which are assisting us, working together with us in a unified system to pass the Light into the common soul of Adam HaRishon.

By doing so, we are awakening all the souls that have fallen from the spiritual world during the destruction of the First and Second Temples; we are helping them to come back. After all, they have become entangled in other desires and souls, which is called “being in exile.” In addition, we are awakening souls that have never been awakened before.

We are not working alone, but together with the souls of the Patriarchs, of Abraham, of the group from ancient Babylon! It’s an immense system.

But even if the system connects to itself all the souls, all the people in the world, and if all the souls in the spiritual world pass the Light to correct their desires, all that will only be a thin line in the world of Infinity, Nefesh de Nefesh. That’s how enormous Malchut of the world of Infinity is.
[36087]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
The Mission Of The Nation That “Aspires To The Creator”
The Wandering Sparks Of Bestowal
Israel Of The Soul

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Israel - 1 Comment →

Writings of Rabash, Preparation for the Lesson, “What Is Torah in the Work of the Creator”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “General Explanations for All Fourteen Commandments and How They Divide Into the Seven Days of ‘Creation’,” Item 9
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 5, Item 1, Lesson 1
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Lesson About Money, Lesson 2
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice for the Week

Filed under: Group Work - No Comments →

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

By the recent events in the world we see how the masses are being set in motion, rising up in waves. In the same way a huge flock of birds wavers in the air making synchronous movements together as if welded together by a common thought.

Thus, the masses in the world will demonstrate increasingly greater consensus, and a united force will suddenly begin surfacing in them. People won’t even understand themselves why this is happening. The fact is that they will acquire the ability to unite more than before in anticipation of the world’s correction. Exactly like birds, they will perform synchronous actions without realizing the reasons for it, doing it by nature’s inner orders.

Then we will see thousands and hundreds of thousands of people on the streets uniting and going somewhere. This will happen suddenly, seemingly without a reason, without an initial preparation of several months. Their waves will roll from one place to another in many points all over the world.

Today we already see how this is happening and how it’s being passed from one country to the next, similar to a virus. These are external signs of an inner phenomenon: These masses are rising up in order to correct themselves by way of unification and mutual actions.

Gradually, that is how the common effort will get organized and discerned. Obviously, people do not understand the essence and causes of what is happening. They attribute the desire that awakened in them to external factors, but this is just a band over their eyes so people wouldn’t see what is really happening. In the meantime, their desire for pleasures matures, going through the regular phases of its development: still, vegetative, animate, and human.

And this process is no longer happening in separate individuals, but in a great mass of people.

[36709]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The World Is Awaiting Your Verdict
What People Demand When They Come Out Into The Streets
What Has Changed Today?

Filed under: News, World - 3 Comments →

When preparing for the lesson, I have to imagine that I am going to a meeting with the Creator in order to come closer to Him and to enter His field of vision. That’s because I come to the group, the place where the Creator becomes revealed. He will not become revealed outside of the group.

It is written about this in Scripture, “I dwell in the midst of My people.” To the extent of the group’s height and force, meaning the quantity and quality of its efforts, I will be able to enjoy the Light that I receive through it.

The group is the Shechina, Malchut of the world of Infinity. The group is my ark, my motherly womb, and my soul in the true sense. That’s because it is the collection of all the desires that I lack in order to correct them and attain correction.

Therefore I have to imagine that Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one, that I am one whole, one Kli together with the group, as one man with one heart in which mutual guarantee reigns. This Kli attains the single Light.

Whether there is one Light or several Lights depends on how closely welded together we are. If we are welded, then the Light influences us, and its might increases in accordance with our unity, which also grows stronger. Then we reach correction.

What does the correction amount to? It amounts to unity itself. As soon as we attain unity, the Light comes, correcting and filling us.
[36718]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
From Words To Real Feelings
We Work With The Friends, But We Mean The Creator
Bound Together

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Unity - No Comments →