Question: Whenever you say that people will willingly renounce unnecessary production, I have doubts.

Answer: They won’t renounce it. The environment should influence a person in such a way that he or she would simply stop pursuing that. Just like we are no longer interested in children’s games because we are now grownups and have other interests, the same will happen here. We will involuntarily start pursuing something that is more important to us, more fulfilling.

To the extent that I will change, I will demand more and more refined fulfillments, and that’s why I will no longer be interested in acquiring a cutting-edge car or fashionable clothes from a famous couturier. I will suddenly realize that I am forgetting about all of that, like a scientist who becomes absorbed by his or her work, passion, and feels fulfillment from being occupied by formulas or researching mice, and that’s it! It makes no difference to him or her what to eat or what to wear—that’s how a person deeply submerged in something feels.

In our time it’s trendy to demonstrate a deliberatively dismissive attitude towards fashion (“it makes no difference what to eat or how to dress”), when people of the arts and other circles want to show that all of them are a little bit above our world, so to speak.

There is a certain movement in this, a desire to show that one has other concerns, other interests, and doesn’t care about some tuxedo with a bow-tie. This entire fashion: hole-riddled jeans and so on are hints at allegedly inner aspirations towards something and a contempt for externality. The tattoos, rings, and piercings in various places, these aren’t adornments on a person but attempts to express one’s inner state through this external imagery.

It’s a transitional process when it’s important to really acknowledge the full insignificance and foolishness of these attempts.

Nevertheless, this is a good example of the environment’s influence on a person. All these are offerings to fashion. There is nothing to be done. Until it passes, either as a result of the crisis or as a consequence of an ascent, nothing is going to change.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #6, 12/14/11

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Writings of Rabash, “Come to Pharaoh”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “A Prayer for the Poor,” Item 192, Lesson 55
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, Item 26, Lesson 17
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“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 79, Lesson 36
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Question: People who recently found out about Kabbalah have doubts about whether or not it should be studied methodically. What is the use of regular, systematic study of the science of Kabbalah?

Answer: Throughout history the only people who came to Kabbalah were those who felt a burning worry, a burning desire. A person could not hold himself back. It was important to him to find out what the essence, source, or meaning of life is. And according to this desire, he “ended up” with the science of Kabbalah. And that’s because everything we see in the world is a spiritual force field in which we move. If the spiritual desire awakens in a person, being an aspiration to the Light, to bestowal, to the Creator as the source of Light, then he finds Kabbalah by moving to it naturally, similar to a charge in an electromagnetic field.

This happened in every generation. However, today is a special time when not only individuals, but masses are discovering that our world is empty. They feel this from the suffering and inner emptiness, and then they also ask the question about the meaning of life. However, their question is aimed not so much at the source of life as at the cause of what is happening: Why do they feel bad and where could goodness come from?

This desire is vested into the garments of our world. It does not yearn for ascent or the search for the source of life, its force, its Governor. A person just wants to know how to arrange his life to avoid losing everything. His family is falling apart, his children are strangers to him, he has no job, everything is vanishing into thin air, and who knows what will happen next? This is driving millions and even billions of people to the same Source, although on a lower level of desire.

Therefore, today we accept everyone to the study of Kabbalah. If a person wants to study and find out some things, then let him come and study. At first we present the science of Kabbalah to him in an easy, friendly form and talk about “rights” rather than “responsibilities.” But later a person sees that just like in any other area, here he also has to exert efforts, and he has to do it more and more. In order to acquire something important, one has to work a lot. This is not a secret, but a person first has to see that there is something to gain here.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/12 on Kabbalah Learning

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TV Program “Foundations of the Integral Society”
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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 51: …One concealment relates only to the concealment of the face, while the posterior is revealed to them…. Item 52: Concealment within concealment means that even the posterior of the Creator is hidden from them, as they do not believe in reward and punishment….

Am I on one of these levels? No, in the meantime the Creator is absent from my picture. I don’t feel that He exists and I don’t feel that He doesn’t exist. I simply don’t feel anything. This means that it isn’t the level of concealment yet.

In the time of concealment, I don’t feel that there is someone and that he is concealed from me. This allows me to inquire: Why and for what reason is he concealed? What is this concealment in itself? How can I remove it? Could it be that it is better if I conceal myself from Him so that He will start to reveal Himself? But I won’t conceal all of me from Him, only my desire to receive, my ego. If I conceal the part of the heart, which is controlled by self love, then perhaps I will be able to reveal the Creator and to connect to Him.

So the concealment is already the beginning of the work and the test: I find out under what conditions I can remove the concealment. It is about the preparation period for the action that will reveal the Creator to me. Now, however, we are preparing for the preparation.

Question: What is the benefit of this stage?

Answer: Advancing towards the state in which we feel that He is concealed.

So what should I do in order to discover His concealment? I have to understand who I want to reveal, who the Creator is. The Creator is the attribute of bestowal. That is, I have to discover that the attribute of bestowal is concealed from me. When I really want it, I will feel that it isn’t in me, and to achieve it I have to work with the friends in the group.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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The Creator’s purpose is to do good to His created beings. The pleasure that comes from the Creator can only be felt by two opposites, when we see Him from a point that is opposite to the good. Then, in this gap between the empty vessel and the Light, we can all feel His goodness.

It cannot be done differently according to the way we see it. Therefore, there was the shattering of the vessels as preparation. Thanks to the fact that we work on the correction of the vessels, we begin to feel the gap between the corrupt vessel and the correct one.

The corrupt vessel is called the desire to receive for itself, and the corrected vessel is the desire to bestow upon others. The correction begins from the level of this world, from the complete detachment from the feeling of the connection with the Creator.

All the laws we have to discover, to determine, and to fulfill are the laws of society. In it we learn these laws in the process of our work, as it says: “There is none wiser than the experienced.” Therefore, the moment a person is given the urge to correct himself, he begins to look for the meaning of life that is actually in the corrected vessel, and then he is brought to the group so that he will be able to put together his spiritual vessel and feel the purpose and meaning of life in it.

We learn on ourselves all the laws of reality by our gradual connection in the group. This is what the whole wisdom of Kabbalah is dedicated to: It tells us about how Kabbalists correct themselves and connect with others on the corporeal and the spiritual levels. In fact, there is nothing but the correction on which this wisdom is based.

It takes a long time until we agree to hear this, then there is a long period in which we hear it but cannot implement it, or don’t feel the connection between the world and what we should do.

During that time the Light influences us in small portions, until we finally begin to feel that we have no choice and that we have to fulfill what we hear. In doing that there are many degrees and states.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12, Writings of Rabash

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“The prayer of the poor” is exactly what we need if we want to go to such an action like the convention in the desert: to look for the right deficiency, for the necessity. After all, we don’t need anything besides the deficiency. We exist in the Light of Ein Sof, in the Creator’s desire to bestow. But we don’t have a vessel that can receive this bestowal.

But this is what we need. How can we know for sure what the Creator wants to bestow upon us? What should we ask for? In the Torah it says about the beginning of the spiritual path: “And a certain man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying: ‘What seekest thou?’ And he said: ‘I seek my brethren.’”—the connection with others. How can we reach this connection if everyone feels hatred towards others and they don’t know where they are, they don’t understand that they are preserving their beastliness, going out to the field to hunt or to herd, while the one who wants to resemble the Creator is looking for a human (that resembles the Creator) and wants to see that “human” part in another?

As a result a person begins to discover the exile, Pharaoh, and the need to leave his control. It is all revealed in the connection among people.

Therefore, if we want to go out “to a field that God has blessed,” in order to do this kind of work and to feel that we are in the desert and should reach connection, then in that connection we can reveal that we hate one another and that Pharaoh, the snake, is among us. And this will evoke us to ask for the Creator’s help. Let’s hope for this to happen.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12, The Zohar

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We are witnessing a brand new and fascinating phenomenon: Our society is becoming integral. It’s no longer just about banks and industries establishing partnerships all over the world, exchanging raw materials, merchandise, food and so on. Today even the world’s cultures and education systems are merging into a single, universal blend. All these elements are interconnected and interdependent in every way.

It’s no accident that modern media has made it possible for us to stay abreast of everything that’s happening in the world. In and of itself the knowledge doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it already makes us dependent on one another. If this dependence exists in a good, tight family, then it’s for the benefit of all, as it gives confidence and pleasure. But if it’s not a good dependence, then the family falls apart.

The problem is we quite simply cannot divorce one another, precisely because we’re united on the global scale. We may hate and reject one another, but we’re entirely dependent on one another at the same time. Nature has imprisoned us on this earth, this tiny surface, and we have nowhere to run from one another.

With each passing day our interdependence grows stronger. When people or nations conflicted in the past, the worst they could do is kill one another. Today, however, if we begin to fight, we will take down the whole world with us, as the modern weapons at our disposal will destroy all living things. It follows that we are entirely dependent on everybody else in all aspects, both good and bad.

This is a big problem because our ego feels no fear and refuses to compromise in any way. The ego grows and develops, but our reason does not evolve with it. As our weapons grow in destructive force, we remain filled with envy, thirst for power, cruelty and the like. This mutual hatred clouds our minds, and if it continues we could easily end up destroying everything.

We see that nature is bringing us to greater mutuality and interdependence, which we cannot escape, like a family that cannot get divorced. So what do we do about it? We must find a solution. And the solution is both clear and unequivocal: to restore peace “in the family,” in our home, between all nations and all people. This mustn’t be done via aggression, but in a way where everyone does their part with complete integrity.

By actualizing this one solution, on which our survival hinges, we will undoubtedly see exactly how to organize everything in the world and the relationships between us with the globe living as one society. We will realize what everybody needs to complement everybody else. We will know how to educate ourselves, the “grown-up children,” and the actual children, the next generation, to make it easier for them to enter into a good, warm, gentle world. We will know how to make sure that no one will be able to stir humanity against itself going forward.

Many scientists are talking about the fact that the world has become round due to its interdependence, that we cannot run away from one another, and that, on the contrary, our interdependence is constantly growing moment by moment, day by day. They warn us of the dangers of adopting policies of protectionism and isolation in an effort to disconnect one nation from another.

The reason is that such attempts oppose the process we’re undergoing from the time we became human to this day. Looking at human history, it’s clear that any attempts to go against the laws of nature have never been successful, and that’s putting it mildly.

This behavior is tantamount to knowing but not observing the laws of physics; the upshot is that I cause immediate harm to myself. All the technology, science, and wisdom we have compiled amounts to us learning to follow the laws of nature. We upgrade our tools of research to discover more of nature’s laws with the aim of using them for our benefit.

The better we know nature’s laws, particularly those that pertain to the environment, society, humanity, and human and social psychology, the better we’ll be able to actualize them in our relationships, and the more we will gain thereby. The only other option is to initiate a “divorce” and all that it entails which means a world war, which could be the end of all mankind on earth.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 1, 12/27/11

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Question: When young people, a man and a woman, are making their plans for the future, they dream about the way they’re going to live. Could spouses discuss the ideal picture of an integral family in an integral education group so that everyone could contribute their own vision to it?

Answer: This is useful even today. When creating an image of an ideal family, we need to understand our egoistic nature and have a completely objective attitude towards it. If I can objectively open up to my group, to “dissect” myself before it, and in addition, the group could also explain to me from its point of view who I am and otherwise, then by understanding the viewpoints, habits, and motivations of one another, all the things given by nature and instilled in us, then we would attempt to rise above that into a completely new system of mutual relationships.

We wouldn’t try to break each other because we are creating something mutual: that which is comfortable and good for us. And all our negative inner egoistic impulses would conversely automatically transform into unification above them.

We begin to see that if this egoism of ours didn’t exist, then we wouldn’t have been able to enter into contact with each other. But thanks to the fact that we build this common superstructure above it, the egoism is actually our partner, friend, and helper, acting seemingly against us while in reality demonstrating that precisely through resistance to it, by turning it inside-out in our mutual relationships, we create a new family, a new anti-egoistic society.

Egoism plays a crucial role in this society because without it, we wouldn’t be able to achieve anything. It is the very fabric of nature intentionally instilled in us. What differentiates a person from an animal? It is precisely the fact that year after year, generation after generation, egoism grows within man. By using egoism, except in the opposite direction, we create mutuality between us: Instead of repelling us, we come closer; instead of rejection and hatred, there is love. Everything is contained in this.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #6, 12/14/11

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