Question: What is “fate in reward and punishment?”

Answer: At every moment in our life we face reward and punishment. At every moment I must demand correction. If I demand it properly, I get a reward, and if I don’t demand it properly, I get correction.

The reward is getting stronger desires with which I can direct myself more accurately to the goal. I become more sensitive and tune myself more accurately, calibrate myself, and imagine more accurately what the “Creator” is.

I understand this by building myself by myself over again according to Him, and learning about the way I am built. Thus I become more similar to Him and this is my reward—to bestow more. The punishment is in seeing that I missed.

But this also becomes part of the correction, and then the punishment becomes my reward. After all, it makes no difference whether I receive a positive or a negative reaction. The main thing is that it allows me to find out my deviation and to correct it.

I accept all these deviations as good and beneficial, no matter whether they are positive or negative, whether they are repulsive or attractive. I don’t know which additional desires I have to reveal now. All the evils that I have to discover are hidden in me, and when they are revealed, I perceive it as reward. Although I feel bad, I rise above my feeling.

I perceive everything I receive from the reforming Light, no matter how it is felt, as a great reward. This is my direction. But in order to do that, I need the support of the environment, so that I will constantly see myself as part of this system. Only there will I be able to change in order to join it.

Suppose, for example, I have to become a part of the friends in a space that is cone shaped. As I try to fit into the shape, I constantly receive further clarification about what I am lacking and how to do it more accurately, so that I can fit in this special form.

So although every new revelation can be felt as negative, the troubles and confusion become a blessing for me. It says that the wisdom of the Torah is opposite from the wisdom of landlords, because you are happy with these revelations.

This is a “very narrow bridge” that we have to cross. A person who advances by spirituality, finds a reward both in positive and in negative feelings. The main thing is to correct one’s tuning.
[64949]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/12, “Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: The extremist right wing movements in Europe are getting stronger. In general when a person doesn’t see a solution to a problem, he tends to accept the apparent simplicity of radical claims. How can we present our message in contrast to that?

Answer: First, there are many scientific facts. But scientists cannot provide a serious platform at the moment, and so we have to organize it in a way that will show the rational “grain” in our recommendations.

Besides, we shouldn’t forget that radical trends unite people on the one hand, but on the other hand lead to conflicts and wars. Here we have to explain that these tendencies are in contrast to nature. In the present conditions of total mutual connection, any conflict will lead to serious implications.

This is why Europe cannot break apart now. First, it isn’t in Germany’s favor. The Germans are ready to pay billion of Euros only to prevent that from happening. After all, they see where this will lead to: to losing their market. If you seclude yourself, the next day your economy will begin to suffocate. So everyone will lose as a result of the disintegration of the EU.

Day by day it becomes clearer that protectionism isn’t the solution to the current problems. It is used in a very limited manner, but on the whole, everyone already understands the fact that we are all mutually connected and that this connection cannot be broken. It can only be destroyed by war, meaning by extreme actions, but there are no intermediate ways.

I hope that we will be able to prepare our method and wrap it up in a way that will enable people to understand the basic idea. We offer, “Let’s check its effectiveness together,” “Let’s continue to develop it together,” as a result we need to create a platform that will lead the mutual connection among people to a new qualitative level, which is the basis for all the changes that will take place in the world, in humanity. [Read more →]

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Question: In western countries, advertising everywhere mostly uses women in a sexual context that is more or less obvious. Why do the modern day men regard a woman as a sexual object?

Answer: That’s because over the years, our evil inclination (egoistic desire) has reached tremendous dimensions. We haven’t corrected it and it still stays at an animal level. Sexual attraction is the most uncomplicated and natural call that is easy to implement. Practically everything revolves around it; it is very easy to create a whole “industry of love” comprised of movies, TV, music, etc.

Never in the past was such an ideal of “love” built. No matter how we perceive old times, people used to be more straightforward and simple. A man married a “suitable” woman from his neighborhood and created a family without involving such “high matters.” The massive glorification of “love” was launched about 150 years ago; before, no “cult” associated with it ever existed.

This cult-like notion of love didn’t arise by chance—after all, a man must be something to enjoy. What could they get fulfilled with? What good could they find in life? This is how an industry of “wholesale love” was created. It uses a simple, powerful and affordable pleasure, which, unlike others, requires almost no investment. Today, it is overused on the Internet and TV without any restrictions.

Moreover, we force-feed our children with side effects of the “sexual revolution.” With the help of media, society overwhelms a child with adult stereotypes that are unnatural for the younger generation. In conjunction with hormones that children intake with food, we violate a natural process of growth and literally force kids to “mutate.” This is only one side of a general crisis.

We consider ourselves to be a rational intelligent society with certain principles and considerable experience; if so, how can we allow such things to happen? In the past, parents tried hard to protect their children from bad influences; they gave them the best they could and cultivated in their kids high spiritual values. What do we do with our children now? Why do we allow contemporary mass media filled with cruelty, cynicism, and filth to interfere with our children’s lives?

Why do we tolerate vulgarity by silently consenting to it?

A child goes to school, watches TV, and browses through the Internet. The environment carves him in a way that he becomes similar to it. Why don’t we at least become concerned about it? Do we have anything more precious than children?

We cannot confine them in four walls; so the channels that pour poison into our children’s ears must be shut down. Let’s at least take care of our offspring since we have already failed the adults. Society should be held responsible for the content that is being offered to our young generation. Unnecessary things should not be imposed on them.

Returning to the topic of women—we shouldn’t compel girls to think that they were born to seduce men and thus have to look accordingly. By doing so, we enhance prostitution and create wrong standards in relationships between genders only because someone earns money from it. This way or the other everything rotates around money.

As long as we allow media to “educate” people that distorts them instead, we cannot expect anything positive from them. At the same time, the situation can be improved solely with the help of mass media, but we should take their activity under control.

Society must be called to order; among other things, it means that media has to be regulated. We are not talking about the freedom of speech, but rather about the freedom of animal appeal. Media should be organized differently and continue working for the sake of public benefit instead of letting advertisement agencies and their affiliates earn more money.

We have to start with mass education; otherwise there is nobody to talk with. People have already been “carved” and perceive the current state of affairs as the only possibility.

Hence, parents carry vague priorities; they indifferently watch their children degrade.

If a particular person—someone older or an adult —was harming my child, I would do everything in my power to stop any contacts between them. But somehow we do not act against the media. On the contrary, we knowingly allow them to enter our house and agree with what they are doing. The same applies to schools.

People simply gave up. We prefer to keep our good moods by abiding with the situation and thinking that everything is fine. Our common trouble is that we are completely (not partially) consoled.

Altering the environment will bring us relief. But first we have to clean it up a bit. So far, while we are being suppressed by our indifference time passes by….
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, “The Freedom”
[64795]

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Writings of Rabash “Letter 24”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Let There Be Lights,” Item 102, Lesson 26
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“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 18, Lesson 13
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Freedom,” “Taking After the Collective,” Lesson 16
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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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“Love your neighbor as yourself”—this quality is our only goal, the spiritual sensation that is meant to fill all our desires. This means concern for the state of the world, for how much all people, all humanity, will advance toward a good state.

And clearly, certain influences will seem good to them and certain—bad, and they might resist and refuse to accept us, or even look down on us like small children who don’t understand anything. After all, they think we have different views of the goal, of the future of the world.

But this inner worry about the world must be alive in all our actions and thoughts, and it must guide us. If a person feels this concern, that means he is attuned correctly. And if he pursues various other goals and this concern or worry does not guide him, is not present inside, this is a sign that the intentions “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator” (a person aimed straight at the Creator, the Light of correction, and the Creator) do not connect within him. That is the only thing we act and study for.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12

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What are our qualities and how are they connected to the desire? After all, the will to enjoy is the only thing we have.

First of all, it varies in might (P). But is there another parameter by which we can measure it? Yes, there is: It’s the limit (H). Besides different degrees of might, it also divides into different degrees of limitation.

Initially none of my desires are limited. But when I take one desire and begin imposing a restriction on it, the form that emerges gives me a certain quality. Thus, every quality is created from a specific restriction on the force of a certain desire. My desires are distributed along the scale of might, but that’s not enough: Precisely their limitation creates forms or qualities in me.

Let’s imagine our totality in the form of one large crystal that consists of many small crystals. The Surrounding Light pours upon this crystal. How does it penetrate inside and reach every little crystal? How does it expand and spread among them? How does it fill the general structure? Everyone participates in this: Every part limits the others, every one forms the friend and passes the Light to him, and every one receives Light from the friend after it passes through the others.

Maybe the example of a crystal structure will make it easier to understand how the Light passes through everyone and flows through all the axes. This is determined by the total, mutual correspondence of our qualities. Obviously, every little crystal has its own inner structure.

We cannot change it, but we can deform it and distort the connection. Then we will need a long time for correction. That means the only thing the world needs is an optimization of the connection between people. Our connection is the most important thing, which is why we constantly urge people to unite above all the differences.

In reality, all my qualities precisely correspond to the quality of all the others, being an irreplaceable segment of the common system. Therefore, we cannot try to change anything about a person, suppress any part of him, cut off any part, or on the contrary—try to make him grow something extra. We must only make sure that he develops in the right interconnection with others, while everything is tacitly preserved in him until the right time.

Therefore, we don’t touch a person’s spiritual facets. Despair, exhilaration, confusion—no matter what takes over him, we only offer general support, wrapping him in warmth, while unchangeably abiding by the principle, “raise a boy in his way.” After all, all of one’s qualities conform to the totality of humanity, and if anything in him is harmed, the entire system is harmed. This is a very important aspect in upbringing.
[65084]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/12, “The Freedom”

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We have a desire and a thought. If we only had a desire, we would perform everything blindly with no self-control, just like inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature in which the only thought is how to fulfill the desire.

A person who has developed to the inanimate, vegetative, and the animate levels thinks only about how to attain what he wants. There are different types of people: smart, energetic, violent, shy, brave, etc.—but each one wants to fulfill his desires, from a tiny baby to an elderly person who hides his desires. In each one there is the thought of how to fulfill his desire in every possible way.

This is how we develop in feeling and in mind, like a beast, until the point in the heart is revealed in us and begins to ask: What is all this for? Why? From that moment on, real science begins; when I begin to ask about the essence of my desire: What do I need it for?

This isn’t simple. People come to study, they become a group, but years may pass until they begin to ask this question, that is, that they want to know the desires they feel: where they come from? They begin to look for the reason, the root, the source.

Then they understand that the thought was given to them in order to reach the Creator by studying their desires. If I, through thought, correctly perceive the desires, I can reach the source from which they come, will understand who is sending them and why, what he wants from me, and how I should regard Him.

Through the group and even directly, I begin to demand from Him to change my desire: “You gave me such a desire, but I am asking for another desire!” then I will really be able to change it. The thought is given to us so that thanks to it we will be able to know our desires and demand new desires.

The thought exists so that I can check and prove to myself that I can’t do anything with my desires! Even when I seem to overcome, it isn’t that but simply changing one desire for another, which is also egotistic: for respect, for control, and pride. I simply find another desire that beats the first one and change values.

As a result of my thoughts, or under the influence of the environment, I begin to imagine that another desire is more important than the one I just had. And so I decide to change it to another. It is the game of egoism. This way I can change any desire I have.

But I can truly change the desire only with the influence of the environment that will give me other values. Then, as a result of its influence, I will demand from the Creator to change my desires. These desires can already be super-natural for me, meaning against my ego.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/11, Writings of Rabash

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Since our relationship towards the world and life will completely change, then all of man’s resources—the mind and the heart, desires and thoughts— besides the bare necessity for the existence of his physical body will be thrown out in order to reach harmony with nature. And then we will fully understand its initial plan, its flow, its highest thought, and we will rise to the same level accordingly, meaning, a level higher than birth and death.

We only need to picture what we are talking about. Since if I get to know the whole of nature, then I get to know such a level of it from where I will be looking at myself like at a small temporary element. However, I am already looking from another level, since I rise higher than myself, so to speak. Here, man finds absolutely clear answers to the questions about the meaning of life, existence.

Naturally, this influences his mentality, behavior, and his cultural, social, and public relations. He sees the world and himself differently. He begins to think not based on temporary, defective points of view: I am here today and tomorrow I am not, so if I won’t be here anymore, what do I do?

We can’t even imagine the huge change that happens inside of us, when we begin to see ourselves existing on the infinite time axis. Then, we perceive our body as an accompanying animal.

Inside of us, such a psychological system begins to develop that changes at the root how we relate to others, to ourselves, and towards the world, and so I already begin to relate towards myself and to others from an eternal position. And this changes me completely, raises me, and makes me a serious, man of the world.
[64800]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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Question: If the correction has to be an internal one, why do we take all these external actions hoping to achieve internal changes through them?

Answer: This is exactly where the difference lay; we want to use external actions (those recommended by the Kabbalists) in order to achieve the decisive point where we start demanding the Light of correction because we will understand that nothing will help us if not for the Creator. And we have to achieve this point as quickly as possible.

And the most effective thing to become sure of one’s inability to do anything on their own and their lack of desire is to try and include themselves in a group. Then you will quickly reveal that you’re not worth a penny, you can’t overcome yourself, you push your friends away from you and are proud of this, hiding the truth from yourself. Try to look at yourself from the outside and you’ll see all the ways in which you avoid internal connection with the group.

But, at the same time, if you’re attached to your friends, you’ll understand that you can’t go on like this! You must be together with them, at least in order to reveal the spiritual world with egoistic intentions. And you can’t get closer to them, so what is there to do? And then you start shouting so that the society and the Light would influence you, the more the better! You demand this egoistically, one hundred percent for yourself, Lo Lishma.

The Light keeps working and working on you, sometimes more, sometimes less, altering your states, and you start valuing closeness with the group, connection, and development. You start noticing a correlation between the states of enthusiasm and the connection with the friends.

You watch parts of the convention and you’re full of feelings. Because you already have this readiness, this is already close to you, you put a lot into it and you understand what attracts all these people. You feel their hearts. Maybe each person’s individual desire is small, but together we achieve huge power that impresses everyone.

By these actions we arrive at two conclusions. First, I really want to reveal the spiritual world: Give it to me! I want it egoistically, who wouldn’t want to exchange this hell for heavenly paradise? Second, I understand that I cannot do this without a connection with the friends, inside which I can reveal the thing I want so much.

That unattainable place I hate so much is where the treasure is hidden. So what do I do? I have to enter the dungeon; there is a lion at its entrance and at the bottom of it there is a treasure chest. I cannot avoid this lion!

But this treasure is everything to me! How do I beat the lion? I get closer and it’s about to attack and eat me. He can’t break free from his chains; otherwise, he would have already swallowed me.

But when I approach him, he suddenly gets up and takes me straight to the treasure chest….
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/11, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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