Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: To avoid having to use both tongues from now on—nature and a supervisor—between which, as I have shown, there is no difference regarding the following of the laws, it is best for us to meet halfway and accept the words of the Kabbalists that HaTeva (Nature) has the same numerical value (in Hebrew) as Elokim (God)—eighty-six. Then, I will be able to call the laws of God “nature’s Mitzvot (commandments)” or vice-versa, for they are one and the same.”

This is very important and leads to numerous consequences. In the past Baal HaSulam was accused of being close to Spinoza in his views and that he didn’t consider the upper force as “God” in the conventional religious sense, but rather compared the Creator to nature, which is mindless and lacks any feeling and develops according to “mechanical” laws.

Actually it is very interesting to see how Baal HaSulam describes his attitude to the Creator and to nature. This should also be our attitude. If we combine these two concepts, we will achieve the greatest thing in life, revealing the Creator as “nature” and in all things. Indeed, we are part of nature, which is the Creator.

“In general examination, we find that there are only two Mitzvot to follow in society. These can be called

1. reception
2. and bestowal.

This means that each member must, by nature, receive his needs from society and must benefit society.”

Science confirms the fact that on every level in nature there are two opposing active forces: In the inanimate it is in mutual physical chemicals and mechanical actions, in the vegetative world it is photosynthesis, and in the animate level it is in the cells and the organs… these forces are revealed especially on the level of man, that belongs to the spiritual world. The higher we rise, the more they diverge from each other as a result of the differences in creating the wealth of attributes that separate the human race from the inanimate, vegetative, and animate.

The data of the wisdom of Kabbalah aren’t different in any way from scientific data. Thus the “Creator” and “nature” is actually the same thing.

But there is another question here: Is there a preliminary goal in nature which determines the process of evolution and the final state? According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, “the end of the act is in the initial thought.” Let’s call it not a plan, but by the scientific term: “law.” So is there a general universal law? In this case Einstein also spoke the same language as Baal HaSulam and Spinoza. He also spoke about the unity of nature. Thus the views of people separated by three centuries come together.

Let’s come back to our times. Today we speak about mutual guarantee, adhesion, love, unity, common fate, mutual incorporation of desires, and the influence of the environment on the individual and the influence of the individual on the environment…. If we could explain all these concepts on the level of nature’s laws, it would be easier for us to disseminate. We will also feel more strongly to what extent it obliges us. After all, we are talking about a law and there is nothing one can do against a law. Everyone understands that there is no point resisting nature.

We have to adapt our language. Terms that seem religious, spiritual, and mystical should be changed to scientific terms and definitions. Thanks to this, our message will flow in the right channel and we will be regarded as researchers of nature. Humanity’s general situation today requires us to do that.

We must shift from the terms Kabbalists used to parallel scientific terms. We won’t be able to tell people about Reshimot (informational genes), the direct Light, the returning Light, or HaVaYaH…. We have to try and express all that in modern scientific terms, and then we will be able to approach humanity.

The second system for this approach is to translate the language of Kabbalah to psychological terms.

Thus, through the mind and feeling, we will convey our message to people. The technical terms, the “mechanism” of the forces, and the laws will pass through the brain and the emotional part will be expressed in psychological terms. Thus we will free the wisdom of Kabbalah from this complexity that stems from being “lost in translation.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/12, “The Peace”

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Opinion: (George Magnus, senior economic adviser at UBS): “The main problem is that European leaders have misdiagnosed the underlying causes of the crisis, ending up with a flawed agenda and inappropriate policies. They attribute the crisis to fiscal profligacy and the lack of adequate institutional fiscal mechanisms, rather than to the large external and competitiveness imbalances between member states. So, instead of coming up with an economic and debt adjustment strategy that distributes reform responsibilities symmetrically between debtors and creditors, leaders continue single-mindedly to pledge institutionalized fiscal discipline as the solution to the crisis. They have, in effect, sealed a pro-cyclical austerity zone.

“But such ECB actions will only gain traction if political leaders are willing to go beyond their austerity-depression pact to prevent zombie economies.”

My Comment: For the time being, I don’t see the correct diagnosis of the crisis and, consequently, the right means to correct it.
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Opinion: (Stella Dawson, Reuters): “Dysfunctional politics threatens to deliver a protracted period of slow global growth, possibly lasting well beyond 2012, which will only deepen the political and economic problems for the West.

“Niall Ferguson, a prominent economic historian now at Harvard, calls this an historic power shift.

“’For the better part of 500 years, it was Westerners on both sides of the Atlantic who could say that they had the best economic system, that they developed the best political system and so forth. And those claims have sounded increasingly hollow in our time,’ Ferguson said in an interview.

“The breakdown in public confidence caused by the financial crisis has revealed a deeper problem. ‘What we’re seeing in government is part of a wider crisis of Western institutions,’ he said.

“Heather Conley, a former U.S. Under Secretary of State for European Affairs, now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said this near political paralysis seen in the United States and Europe is common when governments are at an inflection point.

“’Without decisive direction and leadership, we march in place or attempt to muddle through, uncertain of which path to take. The West is at such a moment,’ she said.

“’Only an external shock I fear will force us to take the uncertain (new) path. Or we will become so frustrated that the West will choose leaders who will take us in a radically new direction.’”
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Opinion: (Joshua Muldavin, professor of human geography at Sarah Lawrence College): “Like China’s leadership, the world should continue to play close attention to Wukan and to the tens of thousands of incidents of rural unrest that occur each year in China, the vast majority resulting from land grabs. Why? Because what happens to China’s peasants is crucial to our collective future.

“The Wukan incident reveals the shaky foundation of China’s rise to economic super power. It is built upon an unresolved land struggle with hundreds of millions of lives in the balance. Anything that negatively alters the quality of life of China’s rural majority has the potential to impact the already fragile global economy, sending ripples across the world.

“The result is the complete loss of land for approximately 75 million peasants who join the over 200 million rural residents migrating around China daily in search of work.

“Land loss leaves many rural families — still the majority of China’s population — without access to enough land to produce their food. …Their rising anger and desperation is seen in other rural areas nationwide.

“Land grabs are part and parcel of growing social inequality in China. …China today rivals the most unequal countries in the world. The 400 million Chinese at the bottom face continual threats to their livelihoods through land loss.

“Beijing’s success in quelling daily unrest around the country, mainly through the use of local officials as scapegoats, fails to address the fundamental problem: a development path built on an eroding foundation of unjust land grabs, environmental destruction, social polarization and the resulting vulnerability of the country’s poorest and most marginal people. Until these structural issues are addressed, the Wukan incident will only be a harbinger of things to come.”

My Comment: In this case, too, we see that only the gradual creation of correct social relations of mutual guarantee will be able to bring peace and prosperity to this fragile society.
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In the News (from BBC News): “The Japanese word “kizuna,” meaning bonds or connections between people, has been chosen as Japan’s kanji of 2011.

“The kanji, or Chinese pictorial script, for ‘kizuna’ emerged top of a public poll for the character that best summed up the year.

“For Japan, 2011 was dominated by the earthquake and tsunami in March. The disasters led to unprecedented numbers of Japanese helping one another.

“In April the then prime minister Naoto Kan thanked the world for its help in a letter entitled ‘Kizuna – the Bonds of Friendship.’”
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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee), (abridged version): But the end of the correction of the world will be by bringing all the people in the world under His work.

Indeed the world will be corrected when it reaches complete adhesion with the Creator. This end is guaranteed.

But the role of Israel towards the rest of the world resembles the role of our Holy Fathers towards the Israeli nation: Also, it is upon the Israeli nation to qualify itself and all the people of the world to develop until they take upon themselves that sublime work of the love of others, which is Dvekut with Him. Thus, each and every Mitzva that each person from Israel performs in order to bring contentment to one’s Maker, helps to some extent with the development of all the people of the world, until it increases to such a degree that it can bring all the people in the world to the desired purity “shifting the balance to virtue.”

The general structure of reality is divided into several levels: the forefathers, the sons, Israel, and the people of the world.

The forefathers, according to their nature, yearned for the Creator. They didn’t need to be a people. It was enough for them to be in a small group. Some of them perhaps even managed without it, like Adam HaRishon, the first Man, for example. In Abraham’s time there were already groups, and his students were connected like one family. Still, it was a person’s individual work.

Later, since the days of the exile in Egypt, it was the sons’ turn. The egoism grew and now working with it demanded not just a group but a people, the people of Israel, that corrected itself by the Torah in the states called the desert, the Land of Israel, and the first and second Temples.

Then the people of the world join this process with the shattered part of Israel that is incorporated in them. Today we are all on this level together, and we should do the same thing the Fathers did for us. First we have to correct ourselves, and then pass on the correction to the people of the world.

We should remember that the people of the world will not begin to operate on their own. All those who belong to the other levels, the shattered part of Israel and the part of the people of the world that were mixed in it, awaken towards the correction. The ten lost tribes about which we know nothing are also incorporated here.

Thus, the people of the world come closer to the correction by those who can wake up, those who have the spiritual point lit in their hearts. There is no point to sitting and waiting for the general awakening of the people of the world. It won’t happen by itself, not now and not in the future. Our participation is needed here: We correct ourselves, and according to our level of correction, the Light passes to them and thanks to it they are corrected.

It is a relatively passive part of the general soul. It says that the people of the world will carry the children of Israel on their shoulders to Jerusalem, but we have to begin the correction. There are always two parts: the part that corrects and the part that is corrected by the forces that come from Above.

Of course, great preparation is needed for that, which is done by dissemination. Passive readiness to receive help and to take part in the process as much as they can is required on the part of those who are corrected.

But the correction itself comes from the people with the point in the heart who can pass the necessary forces though them from the top down.

So we shouldn’t expect only “an awakening from below.” Even the smartest and most intelligent people will not wake up by themselves. They may only agree to some extent, join the work a little, but passively.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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“Forefathers,” the highest degree of the common soul, have made the main corrections in the system in order to activate it (marked in red). Others, “sons” (marked in green), can also join it.

They already have something to rely on, that is, the teachings of our forefathers who have left a functioning, interconnected system, which operates according to the laws of similarity of Lights and vessels. This is the “teaching,” the Torah. And the “Creator” is something that is revealed in the system.

Overall, the system that exists on a certain degree of inner balance and unity is called the “Torah.” Moreover, it can manifest on different levels, ascending as we gradually manifest it and more clearly reveal the Creator in it.

So who are “we?” We are the components of the spiritual system, which we want to reveal.

Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” that the forefathers have prepared a system and left us a method. This now enables us to evoke illumination from the degree they have attained. No matter where you are, you have an ability to establish a connection and connect to this system that they have built between them.

How do you connect? Through Kabbalistic books, the group, the study, and the teacher. By using these tools I connect to the system, and it begins to influence me until I completely connect with it. And this is so for all.

We build a test system between us in order to do this, and in this way we begin to correspond to the forefathers, which activates very powerful forces. On the other hand, it is very difficult to do this individually; only a few individual souls were capable of this.

Thus, there are people with a point in the heart (•) who aspire towards a connection with the common system, even though they do not know for sure what drives them. By building a net, similar to the system of the forefathers, they connect with them, and then both nets merge into one.

And then the correction of the third level—the nations of the world—begins until this entire space becomes completely filled, without leaving a single empty space.

So how do the nations of the world become corrected? They are corrected through connection. At first they are drawn towards education, a message about correction is spread through them—and then they are pulled up. In the end, the vessels of the AHP support the vessel of Galgalta ve Eynaim, and everyone merges into one single Kli, which becomes entirely filled with Light: the revelation of the perfection of the Creator by His creatures. This is the purpose of creation.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: It’s easy to imagine introducing integral education in America and other European countries where the country’s culture seems conducive to going through the process of self-knowledge; however, there are societies entrenched in ancient traditions where it appears the implementation of integral education will be difficult. In your opinion, what must happen in order for these people to start “gathering in a circle”?

Answer: Within the next 10-20 years I see such societies changing into something completely different.

Just look at what’s happening in India and China with their secluded way of life in villages far removed from all civilization. Just look at the way people are living: sleeping on a cot in a dormitory in a factory where at least 50,000 people work.

Everything has changed. Now these people are losing their jobs. Where will they go? A person loses his cot in a dorm and that is it, he has lost his corner and has no other place in the world. It is terrible what’s happening in these countries. China and India are enormous lands.

We must understand that changes can occur very sharply and suddenly. I see how fast the Gulf states are changing, the Arab Emirates for example. This is an educated country where the entire population lives at a comfortable level, but their way of life and their clan system is changing very quickly. All of a sudden they are losing the basis for it.

Closed societies still exist here and there; however, they are beginning to include themselves into the general masses that are living a more or less modern life.
From the Fundamentals of Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/11

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Question: These days the tension between the Orthodox and the secular is growing. Your dissemination doesn’t pay enough attention to explaining to the non-religious community the essence of religion, its spiritual roots, etc. How do you help society deal with this “civil war” in a practical way?

Answer: We are busy explaining the next level of development to society in which everyone, every member of society, has to rise above all the differences and to unite by understanding the uniqueness of each individual.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we have to put all the differences among us below the unity among us as nature’s law requires us to unite despite and above our differences.

This can only be achieved by gradually educating people to mutual guarantee as each one is given a chance to live according to his own laws and unity is achieved above the different groups in society and above their customs. We should know how to separate the different communities that live according to different laws, as it is done between the Muslim and the Jewish communities.

City planners and public transportation planners have to take this into account. The external media should exhibit mutual respect. In a young state such as Israel, it is simply irresponsible to build cities without taking into account future potential conflicts.
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All corrections are done according to the principle of “from easiest to most difficult.” And this is logical: At first Light corrects the purer vessels, which are closer to it, and then with their help, it moves onto the coarser and more complicated vessels.

Every vessel has five categories, or ten Sefirot—the structure of HaVaYaH in other words. This structure divides into five parts according to the Aviut (coarseness) of the vessel: from part zero to part four.

The vessel is broken in a special way: The higher its parts, the lower they fell, while the lower ones, on the contrary, have suffered fewer changes. Now the reverse order of Lights and vessels determines the path of correction. Vessels are corrected by the Light, which returns to the Source or surrounding Light (Ohr Makif). It is activated according to the stable and invariable law of similarity of qualities.

Vessels are corrected one step at a time. The vessels, which awaken towards correction on their own—“light” vessels of bestowal—do not need any special system. They do not need any special instructions; they naturally are drawn towards unity on which the entire correction is built. These vessels of the zero and first degree of Aviut are called “forefathers.”

Vessels of the second and third degree of Aviut require a more methodic correction in the work of spiritual attainment. They are called “sons.”

And finally, the vessels of the fourth degree of Aviut, which cannot yet be corrected, are called “nations of the world.”

As Baal HaSulam writes, forefathers needed a “preliminary consent of the entire nation.” Their souls were neither coarse nor separated between them, and this is why it was enough for them to understand the need for unity without having to do difficult work on self-correction with Lights.

But sons are coarser vessels, which work with egoism. They received the method called the “Torah,” which allows them to correct themselves—at first in the vessels of bestowal (“forty years of wandering in the desert”), and then the vessels of reception the (“land of Israel”). Then, while they were mastering the “land of Israel,” they broke twice, as they fell from the degree of the first and the second Temple. In other words, they have created vessels with an altruistic intention, but they were not able to hold them.

Then the sons mixed with the nations of the world who did not participate in this process.

And today the time has come for a common correction. Accordingly, everyone who awakens towards ascent is called “Israel”—according to his aspiration towards the Creator (Yashar-El). In the past, forefathers referred to themselves as ‘Israel,” because they came out of Babylon and escaped to Land of Canaan—in other words they rose from the degree of egoism to the degree of bestowal. Then they fell into the state of Egypt and once again rose to bestowal, having passed Mount Sinai and having continued corrections in the desert and the Land of Israel.

However, after the final breaking, the notion of ‘Israel” disappeared, because no one had the intention for the sake of bestowal, except for separate Kabbalists who lived in every generation—the last islands in the ocean of egoism.

In our days, every person, who awakens towards correction, is called “Israel”—according to the desire, which the Creator has ignited in him, his future role. And the rest for now remain in the category of “nations of the world.” For now they neither want to nor are able to hear the message about unity. However, after thousands of years of mixing, everyone is basically capable of spiritual ascent.

Briefly speaking, this is what the process looks like. At first mankind was in the common state of “Babylon,” and then that state divided into two parts: “Israel” and “nations of the world.” Then Israel descended into Egypt from there, which means that it acquired the evil inclination, and four hundred years later it managed to ascend to the degree of the Torah, build a Temple on the level of its private end of correction.

Then a breaking took place, and the sons of Israel have fallen down, into a two thousand year exile at the end of which all of us will come to a common end of correction.

Our simple countdown begins at the point of the beginning of correction when the fallen qualities of Bina have combined and mixed with the qualities of Malchut: Whoever awakens is ready for the spiritual path. Correction happens according to the principle of “from light to heavy”—but not by the means of the Torah, which is the method of past generations, but with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is able to bring the Light to us, which returns to the Source (Ohr Makif), from the end of correction. This is why it is becoming revealed in our days.

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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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