Question: What is “Truth and Faith”?

Answer: Truth is a fair reward and punishment, when I work and receive what I’m entitled to for my work.

However, we see that life is not always arranged according to this principle. And a person who works more than everybody else does not necessarily receive more than everybody else. If that was the case, the world would be relatively straightforward.

But in order to pull us out of this egoistic straightforwardness, the Creator makes His additions and greatly confuses us. Thus, we see that a fair, true calculation does not always transpire, and there is a place for faith, meaning hope for good luck or some upper help beyond one’s understanding.

Faith destroys the principle of fair truth. This is why people get so confused in this world and hope for a miracle, a blessing, or a miraculous cure. The same confusion exists on the spiritual path as well: On one hand, everything is given to the measure of one’s effort, but on the other, everything depends on luck.

A person should work in order to join these two principles into one. It is written: “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named, but sacrifice him.” Meaning on one hand, you will see him giving birth to your “grandchildren,” all the new successors up to the end of correction, but on the other, he needs to be annihilated. How is that possible?

It is not clear to us now, but it constitutes the very first principle of entering the spiritual world, which Abraham had to adopt according to this story. A person corrects his vision in such a way that for the first time he is able to join two opposites into one.

It means that he ascended to the first degree and mastered a spiritual principle according to which two opposites merge into one whole. And now, he understands how to work with reason and faith above reason simultaneously—with hatred, the sins of which are covered by love.

If a person begins to grasp this principle and takes it into account in his or her work, even without having realized it yet, he will no longer experience difficult obstacles that push him backwards. He feels that these obstacles in particular are meant to advance him and sees that all these contradictions are an opportunity for him to ascend. And then he rises.

On the contrary: “Man’s pride shall bring him low.” If he does not accept this condition and is not willing to join two opposites into one, this becomes an impassable obstacle. That’s why he gets off the track and leaves the path.

Therefore, it is important to direct oneself correctly: straight to the world of Infinity, understanding that the difference between this world and the next one is in our ability to join two poles into one. That sets us a direction, just like taking an aim.

This principle is expressed in various ways: “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one”; ascents and descents that have to become one whole; the group and I should work together so that I invest into it at the time of ascent and receive from it at the time of descent, meaning so that the group serves as my electrical current “rectifier.”

The main conclusion that follows from it with respect to this world is that we must not destroy a single quality either in ourselves or in the world. We need to bring them all to correction and combine them into one—to rise above them by uniting with the Creator.

We won’t be able to establish a good life and a fair society in our world if we don’t unite among ourselves as equals. Meaning, everyone will work for the benefit of society to the extent of his or her ability and receive according to his or her needs.

But we can fulfill this condition only if we aspire to it for the purpose of uniting with the Creator, meaning for the sake of the quality of love and bestowal that unites our opposite properties into one, infinitely perfect state.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/2011, Shamati #43

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Question: Why does the egoism in our world  keep the mind and feelings from connecting?

Answer: It is an obvious fact that when we are very worried about something, the mind vanishes into thin air. And when we try to understand or examine something, then feelings disappear. These two different approaches, sensory and rational, cancel each other out.

This is a consequence of the breaking. Our root is in the breaking, when the screen that used to connect the mind and the heart, calculation and pleasure, disappeared. That is why in our world, we are unable to make a correct calculation based on feelings. And the more we can leave our feelings behind, the faster we can look at them from aside. The more we move away from our feelings, the more we are able to make a sound calculation in the place which has been freed up, on that same interval that is not filled by feelings.

It appears to us that we are able to connect the mind and the heart, but in reality we cannot. If I were 100 percent inside my sensation but started coming out of it by 30 percent, I would be able to work with my mind in the place that is 30 percent free from feelings.

In our world, feelings and the mind cannot work together. If the mind and feelings were connected, it would be the Reflected Light, a spiritual action. Before this occurs the Restriction (Tzimtzum) must happen, the reception of the Light that Reforms, the merger with the upper one by faith above reason so as to acquire the mind and the heart of the upper one, or to work above one’s feelings with the help of  a higher reason.

This already relates to spiritual work. It’s exactly the purpose of the screen: to connect the sensation and the mind, “The Torah and the work.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/8/2011, Shamati #45

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Opinion: (Noel Gallagher, formerly the lead guitarist and principal songwriter of the English rock band Oasis): “Noel Gallagher has said he believes ‘brutal TV and videogames’ are partly to blame for the riots that have taken place this week.

“‘We live in this age of violence – and I don’t care what other people say: Brutal TV and brutal videogames are a reason for this pointless violence as well. The people are immune to violence, they are used to it. …It’s just violence for the sake of violence.’”

My Comment: As a child grows, a global and integral education is meant to create in him or her models of integral behavior in society, specifically by employing the right games and TV shows. Essentially, the same applies to the education of grown-ups. Mass media in particular has to assume a central role in transforming the old, egoistic society into a new, integral one.
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Opinion: (David Dapice, Chief Economist, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Associate Professor of Economics, Tuffs University): “When European leaders interrupt their August vacations, they’ll return to their offices and learn just how bereft they are of ideas in dealing with the economic crisis threatening the world. From Washington to Brussels to Tokyo, leaders have been squabbling and fumbling, seemingly oblivious of the global threat. The farce in the Capitol Hill leading to the downgrading of U.S. debt by Standard & Poor’s, the feckless response of the European Union to the spiraling sovereign debt crisis and the trade surplus prompting Japan’s devaluation of the yen all point to a dangerous bankruptcy in leadership.

“In the U.S., bickering politicians drove the country to the brink of default, and their last-minute compromise failed in stopping the downgrading of U.S. debt.

“A grudging and feckless response of European leaders to the crisis thus far has reduced rather than restored confidence.

“In Japan, the debt to GDP ratio is an astonishing 200 percent, meaning its debt amounts to two years’ worth of wealth created by the country.

“China managed to boost lending for questionable investments…. Indonesia, Russia and Brazil rely on commodity exports to an uncomfortable degree, and many of these prices have begun to slide—oil has dropped 15 percent from recent highs.

“Perhaps the most disconcerting element in this is that few leaders or even intellectuals have ideas for solutions likely to be considered.

“Despite frequent talk of an interconnected world, the myopic leadership in the world’s leading countries seems oblivious to the fact that all are in one boat.”

My Comment: Leaders can only pretend that they are in control because it’s no longer possible to govern using the old methods. The reason is that the upper world is approaching us, as if descending upon us, but its qualities of complete interconnection, bestowal and love are opposite to those of our world. This is why we feel the crisis—we sense our oppositeness to the upper world.

The situation won’t improve until we realize that we have to change in similarity to the upper world, its governance, to become similar to it in full interconnection, bestowal and love. You say it’s unfeasible? By inflicting suffering upon us, Nature will compel us to it. Or, we will want to change ourselves, and then we will need the wisdom of Kabbalah. At some point in the future, we will meet….
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Question: I first became familiar with Kabbalah through the Kabbalah Centre. I have a set of The Zohar translated into English by Michael Berg. I really enjoy your site and receive your email, but recently I saw a video on your site that says, “no red strings.” Do you stand apart from the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles (the Bergs) and if so, what is the difference between your information and theirs? Also The Zohar I have, do you feel Michael Berg’s interpretations are accurate?

Answer: There are many organizations that study Kabbalah. If you study authentic materials of Baal HaSulam with the intent to rise above your ego, not for the sake of health, business success, or prediction of the future, but to achieve a modest existence in this corporeal life and come to the complete bestowal of everything to people, you’re in the right place.

Nowhere in Kabbalah will you find information about amulets being a method of egoism’s correction, and the ARI criticizes them. How can money buy the future, if all of Kabbalah is the method of correcting egoism?
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Everybody knows that habit becomes second nature. Let’s say I want to learn some craft and offer myself as an apprentice to a turner or a carpenter. I’m not familiar with the material yet, and I am gradually taught how to work with it. That is, I acquire skills (habits) in the work and start to feel the material: How it behaves in response to what I’m doing with it and how best to work with it.

With the experience, I get an additional feeling from the material I touch. It is when we say that habit becomes my second nature. And the things that were previously unfamiliar, incomprehensible, imperceptible, and indistinguishable to me, I start to feel and recognize better. I even discern the details that I previously did not pay attention to at all and which escaped me.

Clearly, nothing happens without a cause, so why does habit suddenly become my nature? There is always the Light that is working on our matter, our desire to enjoy. According to man’s aspiration, his desire to reach a certain state, the Light works on him and brings him closer to this state, enabling him to understand and feel it.

This is how we have developed throughout our evolution for thousands of years: All due to the habits that were part of our nature. The Light stood behind our every desire and helped to implement it. Desire attracts the Light, man evolves thereby, and in this way we grow.

We see how many times a little child repeats the same action, until he or she finally gets used to it (learns) and stops. Young children seem to do such silly things, but for them it is absolutely necessary, and it is nature that pushes them to it because this is how they are supposed to grow.

We, too, constantly grow on the contrast of opposing states, the ups and downs, a feeling of deficiency and its fulfillment. Such is the path.

We find it hard to believe that even now we are in the world of Infinity! But with the help of the ups and downs that we undergo, we begin to gradually get used to this idea. After all, we see that the world appears as it is depending on which eyes we look at it with. When I wake up in the morning in a good mood, it seems to me that all is well and the whole world is good. And if something spoils my mood, the world immediately turns bad.

And yet at the same time, our properties don’t change; it’s only their balance that shifts slightly. If we start changing our properties, then, as Kabbalists say, we see very different worlds, a different reality.

Everything depends on a person attaining it. But reality itself is the same Light of Infinity, and you see what you can currently draw for yourself on its background. This defines your world: a degree of concealment of the Light of Infinity, in which you’re currently present according to your properties. So, if we want to be similar to this Light and bestow as it does, we can draw the Light that Reforms that will correct us and transform our desire to enjoy. And it will want to exist in the form of bestowal.

These actions will become our habit. But this habit always opposes our desire and requires effort until we will reveal in ourselves such properties in which we will experience the form of bestowal, the form of the Creator. This is called the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.

Everything happens by virtue of habit that becomes second nature. We train ourselves to arouse in ourselves desire with the help the environment and the studies in order to come closer to bestowal from a state very distant from it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/19/2011, Shamati #7

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

Attainment Results from the Interaction between the External Essence and Our Senses

We have no attainment or perception whatsoever in any substance as all of our five senses are completely unfit for it. The sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch offer the scrutinizing mind mere abstract forms of “incidents” of the essence, formulating through collaboration with our senses.
– Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part One, “Inner Reflection,” Chapter 10
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Shamati #101 “A Commentary on the Psalm ‘For the Leader Upon Roses”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled)” “The Meaning of the Sabbath,” Item 247, Lesson 13
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 2, Chapter 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Chapter 4, Item 50, Lesson 22
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 101, Lesson 47
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Nation,” Lesson 10
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