Our work is to imagine precisely what the upper force is. And we will have to do many discernments on this path. At first, a person imagines the upper force as a multitude of different forces, godly images, and deifies different natural phenomena that he discovers around himself. A person attributes human qualities to them because that’s the only example he has, and endows different images with the divine power, which is called idol worshiping.

That is an important stage of our development because we exist in our egoistic desire with an inverted perception of reality, sensation and analysis. This way, we scrutinize upper qualities to the point of reaching the correct perception.

An example of that is our forefather Abraham who was initially selling idols. In fact, his story tells us about ourselves. All of us begin our path from worshiping different forces of nature and considering them either good or evil, or partially good or evil. We attribute them to certain people, our surroundings, blind fate, or various incidents.

All our life cycles are filled with these discernments until the point in the heart awakens in us. But even already having it, we still have to discern numerous definitions that draw us closer to the first perception of spirituality.

We still don’t know what the spiritual reality or who the Creator are. But on our path to this discernment, we are prone to the influence of the environment that can turn us the other way, mislead, or confuse because we don’t feel the Creator yet and can’t hold onto Him.

In the end, we reach a state, when all our multiple ascents, descents, and confusions somehow get resolved, accumulate, and combine, and we divide reality into two parts: I, one who feels, and that which I feel. There is nothing else besides it!

But I sense myself as being either in egoism, reception, or in bestowal—there is no third option. Existing in egoism, I relate everything only to myself and my world, and this defines my state. But if I exist in the quality of bestowal, it fills me with something called the Creator (Bo-reh)—”come and see.”

I constantly perform clarifications between these two qualities. Finally, I come to a conclusion that everything comes from the Creator who plays with me either by concealing Himself or by giving me exercises so that I build in myself more fine and precise definitions of who He is.

Essentially, this constitutes our entire work.
[52299]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/22/2011, Shamati #62

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Question: We see that humanity is currently trying to fix and improve the world’s economic systems. But is there any point in changing anything just to become convinced that this doesn’t work and that first of all, we need inner changes?

Answer: We are already revealing the fact that our economic system is flawed. But we are still trying to correct it using the old instruments, and by doing that we only ruin it even more. Gradually it will become clear to people that they are powerless here and that the old way of thinking is no longer effective. The only problem is that we still don’t understand where to get a new mind.

And on their part, Kabbalists still do not know how to get through to humanity and how to transmit this new way of thinking to them in order for everyone to work together to create new systems. The economy is the foundation of our material life, of production and trade, and the provision of all goods. In the material realm there is nothing more important than the economy because this is the program of connection between us, which worked entirely egoistically until today, based on reception of the optimal benefit in every regard.

This is the simple economics formula that has to be realized in every place. Clearly, people are still trying to steal here and there if they can, but this approach no longer accords with the formula. In the ideal form, economics tells us about how to organize relationships in society so everyone would receive the optimal, maximum benefit. This is the economists’ dream.

However, now we need a completely different formula. We have to keep redefining the meaning of “the necessary living standard for a worthy life” and taking care to provide it for everyone. We have to educate people so every person will aspire to attain this level, with some people rising to it from below (meaning, those who are beneath this level) and others—descending to it from above.

This necessary level is not the minimal poverty line, but much higher, one that supposes a normal life. Some people rise to it, while others come down to it, but they do it by their own desire, which has to be achieved by upbringing. All of the remaining excesses should be distributed to the general needs of the government, which can include defense or anything else.

However, if we are talking about the world that is entirely moving toward correction and does not need to spend money on defense, then we can enormously reduce production. According to our similarity with nature, we have to reach the state where we exist like organs of a human body in which every person receives only to the degree it is necessary to live for the sake of bestowal to others. Therefore, we will approach life where production and trade will gradually become more and more restricted until reaching a level where everyone ends up on the level we decide on, and won’t grow from there anymore.

Thus, we will help nature restore itself and will not be sucking its last remaining resources. We will leave something to our children and grandchildren. We will use the natural resources in a way that lets us always be in balance, harmony, and circulation with nature.

This is our responsibility, and if we do not achieve this, nature will teach us by very harsh methods. There won’t be water or oil left around us, not any other resources. In a few decades we will be left with nil. Then, everything we have built will become useless and all production will come to a halt because it won’t have anything to work on. There won’t be lighting, heating, or refrigeration—nothing. That’s because we will have wasted all of the resources on ourselves, on unnecessary things that are beyond the necessities. And there will be no one to blame besides yourself for the fact that your children don’t have anything to exist by.

However, for now we are still trying to snatch as much as we can and suck as much as we can out of the earth. We are even starting to mine in the middle of the ocean in order to extract oil. We will exhaust everything, even reaching the North and South poles. But at some point these resources will have an end, and then we will finally understand….

However, I hope that we will nevertheless manage to develop new a formula of economics whose objective is not immediate egoistic gratification, but the attainment of balance. We have to discern what the new economy has to be within a nation that exists among other nations that have not corrected themselves yet. And then this formula will spread to the whole world.

I think it will be much easier to implement this formula than what is happening today because in essence, we have to simplify everything, achieve balance, and restore the normal circulation.
[53818]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/11, “The Nation”

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It is extraordinarily difficult for us to change the ideas we have formed over the course of our entire lives until now. In fact, it’s simply impossible. One way or another, we remain with our old perception, even though it seems as if we are already changing. In fact, nothing is moving. However, now we have to change our old perspective to a new one, and this change has to happen in the whole world. So where can we get this new perception, an integral view?

Suppose that tomorrow the whole world wanted to turn into an integrally connected network where every person devotes his full energy to work for the sake of society (even though today no one wants this and no one feels this way, but let’s be dreamers for a moment). How will we find out how to build this system, how we should be connected and interact with one another?

How can we build such a government and society, production and trade, since all of this must exist as long as we live in the material bodies? Therefore, we are obligated to organize the entire system of relationships that ensures our life on earth in order to satisfy the needs of our animate bodies.

To do this we need many systems, but how can be build them by the laws of bestowal where every person is free and freely acts to maximally bestow to others, where every person knows what he should be doing in this ideally organized machine, in which all the cogwheels are spinning in harmony? This seems like a utopia, so how is it possible to actually make this transition?

It’s possible to write a novel about this, but how can we rationally envision an economic system that is necessary in such a society, the government and judicial structure, this entire mechanism, from the large elements to the tiniest bolts, including the supply of goods, care for the elderly, families, children, construction, and culture? The organization of all of this is very complex because everything has to operate in “perpetual motion” without the fuel that we are used to!

Everything has to work upon a different source of energy—love for the neighbor. But where will it come from? If I simply receive it from above, the way I now feel love for my own children, then I will be working automatically again, like a machine. So what’s the difference? Instead of egoistic love, I will be driven by love for the neighbor, so what will change?

Therefore, we have to build one thing upon the other so it would work upon resistance, ascent, the sensation of ourselves between two worlds or two desires where every person constantly rises above his egoism, which pulls him back toward the earth.
[53827]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/11, “The Nation”

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

All Changes Are in the Desire, Not in the Light

For themselves, all the worlds are regarded as simple unity and there is no change in them. This is the meaning of “I the Lord do not change.” There are no Sefirot and Behinot (discernments) in the Creator since the essence of the Light itself, the Creator, cannot be attainted. Rather, all the discernments speak only of what a person attains in them.
– Baal HaSulam, Shamati (I Heard), Article No. 3, “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”

The proliferation of the names is only with respect to the receivers. Hence, the first name that appeared, that is, the root for the creatures, is called Infinity. And this name remains unchanged. All the restrictions and the changes are made only with regard to the receivers, and He always shines in the first name, “His desire to do good to His creations,” endlessly.
– Baal HaSulam, Shamati (I Heard), Article No. 3, “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”
[52272]

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Shamati #109 “Two Kinds of Meat”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled)” “The Firmaments Over the Garden of Eden,” (Start with: “Once, the river that comes out of Eden…”), Item 310, Lesson 17
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 2, Chapter 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Chapter 7, Item 80, Lesson 26
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 117, Lesson 51
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Nation,” (Start with: “While it is still possible to sit idly…’”), Lesson 14
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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

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The Creator created creatures in order to bestow them with good because His nature is goodness. By virtue of His perfection, He has the property of bestowal and wants to bring us to the same perfection, the same bestowal, but we have to want this bestowal, to feel the need for it.

A need is felt only from its lack, its opposite. I feel like I need something that I do not have; I want to be somebody else, not myself. This difference is called the need. This need comes not from the Creator but from the creature itself. It is called aspiration.

In order to reach an aspiration, that is, to reach a conscious desire, we need to put in efforts. If we work to achieve something we know of in advance, it is called “work within reason.” If we work to achieve some reward that is unclear to us, it is called “work above reason,” meaning, against the mind. That is why our work is to aspire to that state which we have to achieve. In order to enable us to develop this aspiration, we are confused by the impression that we want to achieve fulfillment.

However, in reality, we must achieve equivalence of form, and this is an entirely different goal. We feel the need to fulfill ourselves. Everyone does their best, to the extent of their own abilities, to realize it at the still, vegetative, or animate levels, but the true contentment that comes to us is called “human” and is not simply to satisfy our desire. Desire at the human level is filled by a sense of similarity to the Giver, similarity to the Creator.

This is called the Light, fulfillment. The more I am like Him, the greater the feeling of fulfillment. This is no longer a little light, but the full Light of NRNHY (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida).

Our task is to look for this fulfillment, imagine it and the desire for it, and to discover the methodology that enables us to approach it. Instead of searching for contentment for your animal body via various pleasures beyond what is necessary, we need to aspire to fill the human within us by bestowal, similarity to the Creator.

If I ask to make myself similar to the Creator, I reveal Him. If I ask to satisfy my animal inside me, then, depending on the level of my development, I usually get the opposite effect in order to turn me toward the purpose of creation.

That is why a person always is between two forces leading him to one goal: the force of holiness and the impure, egoistic force. They both operate on a person and direct him, but most likely, we are driven by the evil inclination because our nature constantly forces us to look for egoistic fulfillment. Through all kinds of shocks, disappointments, and unpleasant adjustments, we hold to the right direction and, thus, advance.

Therefore, the impure force is called the “kingdom without the crown” because it does not aspire to reach the royal bounty and wants only to fulfill itself. It confuses a person and cultivates his egoistic desire along with his feeling of emptiness and helplessness.

Gradually, next to this feeling, our mind begins to grow. Eventually, a person sees that his desires, as well as his mind, have grown due to the fact that he has not gotten what he desired for a long time, and now he finally sees that this is not the path of advancement. He sees that he should go in a different direction. Thus, through the “opposite” force, we advance toward the purpose of creation.
[53602]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/2011, Shamati #17

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Opinion: (Prof. Ruslan Grinberg, Director, Institute of Economics, Russian Academy of Sciences, from itar-tass.com): “Financial markets are in a very volatile state. Financiers are in panic, not knowing what to do. The risks are high. But in my opinion, …this points to the crisis in the financial sphere. I think it will not spread to the real sector.

“Our global economy is hostage to the dollar as the world’s currency. Of course, it is unfair that a national currency has become global. In this case, gold was a fairer choice because gold is independent from the place where it is mined… To go back to gold today, as many people erroneously suggest, is unwise in my opinion. I cannot envision the replacement of the dollar… [as world’s reserve currency].”

My Comment: There is no substitute for the dollar because it is the equivalent of modern world egoism, and that is why it will remain the only accepted currency. But at the same time, its volatility will demonstrate the egoistic state of the world.
[53461]

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Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “Self-Realization”
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Only the last, fourth phase (Behina Dalet) is considered to be a receiving vessel because it possesses two qualities: It is “possible” for it to refuse fulfillment, but it “intends” to receive it. If the fourth degree received fulfillment as unconsciously as does the first phase, it would not have free choice. However, the fourth degree does choose to receive.

It is a common mistake to think that every one of the four phases exists independently from the others and that everything before it was forgotten. However, the third phase (Behina Gimel) is the result of the second phase and is even more refined. All the qualities of the second phase (Behina Bet) exist within the third phase and are added to it without erasing anything from the past. For this reason, if Behina Bet said that it was free and did not wish to receive, this quality, with all its definitions and understandings, exists in the fourth phase, Behina Dalet.

Before turning into the fourth phase, the third phase receives all the wisdom, Hochma. Then, as if it neglects this wisdom; it rejects it and wishes to become Zeir Anpin: have the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) with the illumination of Hochma (Wisdom). All of these definitions exist in the third phase at the moment it turns into the fourth phase.

This is why Behina Dalet can choose to either receive or not, but it makes the choice to receive. In other words, it is defined by the “possible” category because both are possible. Behina Dalet is able to do both, and it is not a will-weak robot like the first phase that automatically receives everything that Keter gives it. Behina Dalet says: “I will receive because I want to.”

In other words, it is not subject to this fulfillment; it chooses it. It has free choice as to whether to receive, and this is why it is called “possible.” After all, it is possible to escape without receiving. However, no, it wants to receive, and it does it “intentionally.” It is absolutely free in the choice of its state.

Every subsequent degree contains the Light of all the previous degrees. When it is said that the Light has disappeared, this means that it does not want to consider it as its main fulfillment. For example, Bina says that it does not want the Light of Hochma, but it does not disappear anywhere. After all, if it did not have the Light of Hochma, how could it say that it did not want it? Then, it would not be Bina. It is much the same way as a woman likes to sit her husband next to her and tell him how she does not need him at all. Such is the female personality of Malchut.

It’s only if you were rich that you could have the right to say that you did not want any of your riches and be in a state of pure bestowal, Hafetz Hesed. Otherwise, if you have nothing, what could you rise above, in bestowal? You cannot be a righteous one if you have not a penny, but talk about sharing with everyone as if you were as rich as Rothschild.

First, reach the degree of “Rothschild.” Receive all this power and might, all the money. Feel everything that you have, not like a little child without the understanding of bills, but attaining the full power in your hands that can buy all the pleasures of this world, everything but love.

Then, give it all for love. Then, we really will see that all you wanted was bestowal, Hafetz Hesed. It will not work any other way.
[53421]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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