Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” (50): However, before that, when the writing speaks only from the perspective of one concealment, the text ends, “they will say in that day: Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?”

In other words, a person feels that he has no connection with the Creator because he lacks the equivalence of form with the Creator, and as a result he feels bad. It could be that he made a lot of money in the stock market and that everything is fine, but he feels bad because he has no contact with the Creator, meaning that he lacks the equivalence of form with the attribute of the general bestowal called the Creator.

“This means that they still believe in Providence of reward and punishment, and say that the troubles and suffering come to them because they do not cleave to the Creator…”

This means that I understand that I am bad, that I didn’t bring about the correction, and so I was “punished.” I have sunk into concealment. But on the other hand, we can also see it as a reward because I feel a negative response and thanks to that I can correct myself. This means that I have to “kiss” the stick that helps me be aware to how low I deteriorate. Otherwise I could deteriorate without even feeling it.

So the difference is in how I judge: according to how I feel my present state, or according to the state itself, as is. I have to determine the state as bad in relation to the required correction of the desires in which I am not adhered to the Creator. These vessels are broken, and the evil can be felt in them in a different way. I may feel bad because I am empty, and I may feel bad because I am detached from the Creator. I can also feel empty and feel good about it because I feel the shattering that way. Finally, I may feel bad because I feel the detachment. In any case, I feel that I am detached from the Creator.

So everything is determined according to the present state. It doesn’t depend on you and you can’t randomly jump from one state to another (like the arrows in the drawing). Rather, you have to examine what you have: “Do I feel good or bad? Suppose I feel good, what do I feel: detachment from the Creator or a connection with Him? Detachment: Does it bother me? No, I feel good. But can I still see the evil in this situation? Not at the moment.”

You should determine your accurate feeling and your attitude to the real state. This is the inner clarification of the state you were given. Then you feel the demand: “How can the group and the reforming Light and the other means help me correct my attitude?” It’s impossible to correct a good feeling or a bad one, or the state of detachment. The group can only correct my attitude to the situation.
[67224]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/12, Shamati #1

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There is a concept called “opening the Book.” To open means to attain its depths, its essence, to come to know whose force is contained within it. After all, a book is the source of wisdom, the source of knowledge, and the revelation of what stands behind it. A book is a concept consisting of three components: the book, the storyteller, and the story.

So, who is the storyteller, what is the story about, and who is telling it? There is the one who wrote the book. He wrote based on his impressions of something. That which he was impressed by has the source, the source that created this image from which he was impressed and that he described in the book. And there is the one who opens the book, the so-called Book of Heaven, reads it, and explains and tells you about it. He can tell you something by describing it in the book. And you read what he wrote.

It can also be so that you do not read it, but already enter inside this author, this storyteller, and have to identify yourself with him. If you do not identify yourself with Rabbi Shimon, you will never know what is written in The Book of Zohar. After all, it comes dressed in him.

That is why there are two constituents here (although there are actually many more of them since it is the Creator who “wrote” it). Minimally, we must clothe into Rabbi Shimon. To the extent that we can identify ourselves with him, respect him, reach toward him, and try to merge with him, we begin to receive impressions, to feel and attain what he conveyed in The Book of Zohar through various hints that can be conveyed in a written form.

We must reach such a state where we won’t be able to listen to The Zohar without the concept called “Rabbi Shimon.” Also included in this concept are his students, as his students are included in him.

The spiritual vessel from which we receive the impact is called “Rabbi Shimon.” This is not a person, but a sort of cloud of qualities, forces, and spiritual definitions. This system, as a whole, is called Rabbi Shimon.

I am connected to this system. I receive nourishment from it, and so it is very important for me to adhere to it. The more I merge with it, feeling that I am in contact with Rabbi Shimon in particular, then, accordingly, the more I will perceive what is inside of him. Moreover, it won’t be the external impression of reading the text of The Zohar, but a more internal attainment.

The fact that we separate something that conveys spiritual impressions to me into several components: the book, the storyteller, and the story, helps me to unite with this impression; it does not distance me from it. This is one more way to use the concept called “opening the Book.”
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/12, The Zohar

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Question: How should we come out of the daily Kabbalah lesson in order to continue the internal work during the rest of the day?

Answer: I receive everything from Above and I should prepare myself for the maximal independent clarification. Every state should be divided into two parts. On the one hand, it comes from the Creator and I don’t want to spoil it with my desires, thoughts, and feelings. On the other hand, I understand that there is nothing to feel except my own vessels. So how do I do it?

The assessment can be done only in one way: comparing one feeling to another, comparing one intention to another. In order to not be biased, I should always calibrate myself according to a certain standard, according to the group. So I should make efforts to be incorporated with the general spirit of the group, and in relation to it, I should check: Do I feel good or do I feel bad, and how I do interpret whether it’s good or bad so that I will advance?

I constantly clarify things internally, demanding the reforming Light through the group, trying to clarify things with its help so that I will feel myself in the opposite state. In order to do that, I need to try and justify the Creator first, even if I feel bad. Then I try to rise together with the intention to the good state, not for pleasure, but because I resemble the Creator according to equivalence of form. After all, His goal is to do good to his created beings.

Thus I end my clarification. And this is how it happens each time.
[67218]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/12, Shamati #1

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The Creator is pleased that the created beings advance, although their advancement is full of great problems and worries, just as parents of a mentally retarded child are happy that he begins to progress and grow wiser. He is the one who has prepared all these problems for us; He is the one who has hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

This is how we advance until a person begins to feel that he is in a world that is totally bad. First, as long as he was in a state of “total retardation,” he thought that the whole world was good. Now he feels that he is in a bad world and begins to search for the meaning of life and what we are living for.

He continues to develop through the environment, the group, and the right books and begins to discover why he feels bad. It turns out that this bad feeling is purposeful. After all, it says: “I have created the evil inclination.” There is an upper force that worries about him and takes care of him. It isn’t just the environment, but something more sublime.

He learns not only about himself and his dependence on the environment, but also about the upper force, a third factor. He understands that the upper force intentionally makes him feel bad so that he will want to exit this bad feeling and he tries to exit it.

He sees that there is a method that enables him to wake up from the dream everyone else is in. He is not “retarded” any more; he reaches the recognition of evil and wants to rise above it in order to understand why he feels bad.

He begins to search the reason for this bad feeling and discovers that there is probably an upper governance. Here he reaches correction and connects with the environment.

He discovers that all these problems were intentional. The upper force didn’t create evil in order to bring him pain and sufferings, but so that when he rises above the evil, he will attain the upper force itself, and will be able to control, to understand, to feel, and to determine everything.

It is all thanks to the fact that he used his evil nature purposefully. Then the good force is revealed in contrast to the evil force. A person begins to work with these two forces, when he is above them, and thus he becomes a partner of the upper force, the Creator. Just as the Creator manages all our life and this world by these two reins: good and evil, he also wants to manage the whole world by himself, by the good and the evil. He wants the Creator to teach him how to do that.

Thus from being totally detached from life, like a retarded child who grows thanks to the egoistic environment that develops him and supports him this way, he begins to rise above this environment to an upper dimension. Eventually, he learns to use all of the environment, all of his nature and the upper force itself, in order to become like the Creator. He does all this in order to attain the upper force, to discover It.

At first he does it unconsciously, like a mentally retarded child who is dominated by the upper force. Then he begins to gradually exit this state, thanks to the evil force, that discovers the egoism inside him. He developed this way to a certain level, until he asked himself: What is the reason for all this evil? If everything were good, he would have no questions.

He has no choice but to search for the good force in contrast to the evil force. Then he grows wiser until he learns to use the two in order to rise above them.

This whole process takes place under the motto: “There is none else besides Him.” There is one upper force in everything, which helps a person go through the whole way. By recognizing and feeling the whole process, he understands what the upper force has done for him, and that It suffered much more that the person did. Because when a person suffers, the Shechina suffers much more.

This is how a person reaches the love of the Creator.
[67253]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/12, Shamati #1

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Question: How can I, as an individual organ of the general soul, feel the harm that I am causing the whole body by my corruption? How can I feel the sufferings of the general soul?

Answer: You will feel it according to how much you feel the sorrow of the general soul. You should feel the harm; try to be incorporated in society and to connect to it. Then you will feel what it suffers from, its illness, and you will attribute all this harm to yourself.

The feeling of cooperation is all the result of the connection: both the collective joy and the collective sorrow, the commitment towards society and the freedom from it. It all depends on a person, and on how much he exerts himself in order to attain his state and his feeling.

It is said that one should feel sorry for the sorrow of the Shechina. We see how humanity suffers. Can we help it?

Kabbalists say that the Creator wants to be revealed within the created beings, that is, He too seems to be suffering because others suffer. His suffering is completely unlike ours.

Imagine a family that has a mentally retarded child. How much does the child suffer? Sometimes he doesn’t even feel that he is sick and that he is different in anyway from the other children. We too, are living a peaceful life at the moment, not worrying about anything. We think that everything is fine, and we are surprised when we are told about a crisis and different problems.

People protest: “What is all the noise about and what are these claims that people are suffering? No one suffers; everything is fine. Don’t disturb us and let us enjoy life!” But this kind of life is like the life of a retarded child who isn’t aware of his condition. He plays with something and is happy. To others his condition is physically apparent, but the child is happy, he doesn’t suffer. Those who are near them suffer.

This is because they know his condition, how ill the child is, and how much he is lacking in life. Everyone who sees him suffers. This is the “sorrow of the Shechina,” which sees us like that retarded child.

But if he begins to improve, to get better, to understand and to feel more, then as he adds knowledge, he adds pain. He begins to feel problems and pressures; he sees that not everyone wants to be friends with him. First he felt the whole world as good and he was all right, he lived as if in a dream.

Now, the more he wakes up, the more strongly he feels the different states and his dependence on others. Only now does he understand where he really is. It turns out that this whole world is full of worries and problems and that you have to get along with people and to be careful of different dangers.

But the parents are happy! Why are they happy? After all, the child isn’t happier. True, he isn’t happy yet, but he has begun to live!
[67527]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/12, Shamati #1

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Opinion: (Bruce Krasting, a former hedge fund manager): “Issues related to subsistence have replaced the fervor for demonstrations.

“The closing of stores and shops is escalating. Apparently, 20% of all retail establishments are shuttered. Nearly every block has one reminder of the ongoing depression in the economy.

“The Greek Diaspora is in full swing. People are leaving the country, old and young alike.

“They leave their homes, as there is no future there, but all the time they wish they never left.

“As the shops close and the people leave, the economy shrinks. …The country is imploding.

“People are feeling hopeless, and the situation is getting worse. …there is not a chance in hell that Greece will avoid a default.

“A transition from the Euro to the Drachma would cause huge additional pain. It would devalue the pensions of every citizen by at least 50%. …a default would mean that Greece would be a debt pariah. In spite of this, [many prefer] that it would come sooner rather than later. … There is nothing desirable about this choice. It’s now just inevitable.”

My Comment: This is how a hurricane, tsunami, mudslide, or any other disaster is approaching us slowly—so as to give us time to realize that the reason for what is happening is the lack of correspondence of our egoistic connections with unified nature. As soon as we start considering and treating the world as a single whole and ourselves as its part, we will immediately feel that the blow is retreating and giving us time to adapt.
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In the News (from ABCnews): “The so-called SOPA blackout — protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA for short) in the House of Representatives and the Protect IP Act in the Senate — has spread across the web today, perhaps the most widespread online lobbying effort ever coordinated by Internet entities.

“Sites checked by ABC News did not actually ‘go dark’ as originally threatened. Instead, they posted appeals to users to get in touch with their Congressional representatives to argue against passage of the two bills.

“The bills were intended to protect movie makers, music publishers, and other providers of online content who fear that in the digital age, people can copy what they’ve created and spread it without paying for it.

“The companies said the bills could require your Internet provider to block websites that are involved in digital file sharing. And search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing could be stopped from linking to them — antithetical, they argue, to the ideal of an open Internet.

“Congressional staff, meanwhile, sent out messages defending the bills. ‘Websites “going dark” today in protest of the PROTECT IP Act will not be affected by enactment of the legislation,’ said one. ‘None of the following websites meet the definition of a site dedicated to infringing activities: Wikipedia; YouTube; Flickr; Twitter; Google; craigslist; eBay; The Huffington Post; Yahoo!.’”

My Comment: There are two ways: censorship or education. Censorship is not correction. If we do not begin to correct, to educate ourselves, the Internet created by us will “eat” us alive because it represents our own ugly reflection. Instead of limiting the Internet, we need to educate humanity. This is what the Internet should be engaged in! If an alien entered our Internet and saw who we are, wouldn’t we be ashamed of ourselves?
[67185]

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Opinion: (David Rubenstein, managing director and a co-founder of The Carlyle Group): “Countries teeter, protests rage, unemployed multiply, deficits abound the virtues of capitalism are questioned.

“I always felt there were two principal flaws – and we saw them come to a head over the past few years. The first is that unfettered exuberance about wealth creation will produce unsustainable booms and inevitable crashes. The great recession, fueled by cheap credit, is a textbook example of this flaw.

“The second is the inequality that results when the charge towards wealth creation leaves behind those less able (in most cases through no fault of their own) to adapt or to compete with the hard-chargers.

“While there is no simple cure to capitalism’s two big flaws, here is what I would do in 2012 to get the system back on its feet and to modulate income disparities.

“1. Save the euro and the European Union. A functioning and vibrant EU – the world’s largest economic unit – is essential to global prosperity.

“2. Fix the US debt and deficit. …This is not acceptable, nor is it good for capitalism.

“3. Integrate the emerged markets. The world needs to acknowledge that the centre of capitalism is shifting to the emerging markets – where most of the growth will occur in 2012. …If they are not, the capital needed to solve many of the developed markets’ current problems, especially residual issues of the great recession, will not be available on tolerable terms. Again, this will hurt the poor more than the wealthy.

“4. Educate. Educate. Educate. Perhaps the greatest cause of income inequality is the dismal state of primary and secondary education.”

My Comment: Capitalism has exhausted itself; it cannot be integral as Nature requires because it is built not on reasonable consumption, but on the continuous growth of production and consumption, which is unfeasible due to limited markets and natural resources.
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In the News (from BBC News): “US-based scientists found that the last four pandemics all occurred after La Nina events, which bring cool waters to the surface of the eastern Pacific.

“Nevertheless, the last four pandemics – the Spanish Flu that began in 1918, the Asian Flu of 1957, the Hong Kong Flu of 1958 and the swine flu of 2009 – were all preceded by periods of La Nina conditions. What pandemics have in common is that they all feature novel strains of the virus to which people have not developed immunity.

“The link to La Nina events is not clear. But recent research has shown that some wild birds’ patterns of flights and stopovers during migrations, or moulting times, differ between El Nino and La Nina years.

“‘Now we can look at viral gene flow in a number of birds, pigs, and people – and we might be able to get something more statistically robust, to get a better sense of the mechanisms.”’

My Comment: We have entered a new phase of the revelation of the world to us, the revelation of the world as a single whole, and this obliges us to become the same. For this reason, we will constantly discover greater connection between all parts of the world.

If we started to unite, we would change ourselves, and in our new property of integrality, we would discover the world as integral. Otherwise, “everyone judges according to their flaws,” and we, not seeing the world as unified, relate to it incorrectly, not like to an analog system, but like to a discrete one and thus, feel the discrepancy between it and us like a crisis. This is a more dangerous “pandemic.”
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Shamati #148 “The Scrutiny of Bitter and Sweet, True and False,” Writings of Baal Hasulam “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot, uMasbirot,” (To: “Let me explain it to you in an allegory”), Item 16
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Moses and Jacob,” Item 155, Lesson 43
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, Item 8, Lesson 7
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“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 52, Lesson 27
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