Question: Is there a difference between making a covenant with the Creator and with a friend?

Answer: There is no difference, but with the Creator this is possible only on the condition that the covenant is authentic and eternal. However, with a friend this might just be a game for now. This is the entire difficulty, that in spirituality only a perfect desire is accepted, meaning one that is absolute and eternal and that you definitely won’t go back on.

If a person ascends to the next degree, this means that his demand or request for it was accepted as perfect, meaning that he really wants this.

We continually renew our covenant, as if making it anew. But if a person rises to a certain degree of the covenant, then he cannot fall from it anymore. When it seems to me that I fall, this means that I am receiving more difficult conditions to preserve the covenant, like a renewed contract. And I am a loss as to where to get the forces to continue that contract.

The Creator constantly makes the conditions harsher, while we have to adapt to this renewed contract on new conditions. However, if a person uses the group, the studies, and dissemination correctly, then he also finds additional desires and forces, he values the new state as a higher one, and therefore overcomes the difficulties.

We have to view everything happening in life from this point of view. All of the worst and stupidest situations come to us for one purpose: to teach us something and move us forward.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How should one use the workshop in order to see the world through the prism of the group?

Answer: It will happen when you create a point of connection. This means that the force that is created between us will reach such an intensity that it will not let us disconnect from it. I will constantly want to be within it. I will understand that only from there can I judge everything within the light of truth and not be mistaken.

Only what I see through the shared focus of the group, the central point of the circle, constitutes the real world. In this way, I can judge and never be incorrect in my judgment.

All of this will be revealed to a person. Thus, he will not want to leave this connection, but will constantly aspire only to strengthen this same point of our unity. In this way, we begin to ascend the levels.

To the extent that we join together and intensify our connection, both quantitatively and qualitatively, we rise higher and higher on the spiritual ladder until we discover the Creator and the connection between us in the form of Partzufim and Sefirot. Then, we begin to see how everything that is described in the sources takes place between us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions” 

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Question: During the workshop should we stress the point that we want to achieve in the beginning and the conclusion we have reached in the end?

Answer: In general, we should always draw a conclusion. The fact is that we don’t have enough time to ask everyone what conclusion he has come to and to give him an opportunity to share his impressions and what he has accomplished. But in any case, everyone should be making a conclusion.

It would be good if everybody would write about their impressions and wishes and would send them to our general email address. It doesn’t matter if you don’t receive a response. The fact that you are writing to our single general email address and are trying to add it to our common bank, and you reacted to this somehow this will receive a reaction.

At the end of the workshop it is desirable to hear impressions from each group, but if many groups participate in a workshop we at least need to hear impressions from a few of them.

The workshop ends with a common song, a melody. Those who have an opportunity can signify the end of the workshop with a small festive meal.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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From the article “Concerning the Love of Friends,” by Rabash: And so it turns out that if one has love of friends and the attribute of love, the law is that one should want to see the virtue of his friend and not his shortcoming.

So it turns out that if he sees any shortcoming in his friend, it is a sign that it isn’t a shortcoming in his friend but in himself. This means that he has damaged the love of friends and so he sees shortcomings in his friend.

Therefore, he needs to see not that his friend corrects himself, but that he himself needs correction. And when he corrects himself, he will only see the virtue of his friend and not his shortcoming.

It says: “The Lord made an honest man, and they looked from many accounts.” (Ecclesiastes 7; 29). If we perceive the world according to our attributes, thoughts, and desires, we will not be able to get rid of the endless claims and will not be able to reach an agreement, a common denominator. There are egoistic accounts constantly going on in our mind, which do not let us rest and make us run around unnecessarily.

Aiming towards the truth begins from the point in which we feel that we are in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), meaning in “there is none else besides Him.” And if I see anything else, it means that my attributes are not adapted to Ein Sof.

There is concealment from Above, the diminishing of the Light according to the 125 degrees. Therefore, I am not in the Light of Ein Sof but on some level of its concealment considering the next higher level as Ein Sof, because I cannot perceive it in my desires. If I perceive such a difference between the ideal and the possible, I understand that instead of the world of Ein Sof, I see this world before me in which there is both good and evil, but this is merely an imprint of myself on the background of the white Light. It turns out that there is nothing to correct but myself, and this is the second point that determines my direction.

This means that I am in the world of Ein Sof and I only need to correct my perception, as it says: “One judges according to his own flaws.”

In order to help us attain correction, there was a very serious preparation called the shattering of the vessels. Because of that, each of us feels that he is detached from others, as if they exist without any connection to him and are strangers to him. This is why we feel that the world is full of details: the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking, each of which has its own way of existence, its own fate and purpose, and I am just one of them.

But if I want to attain the world of Ein Sof, I must connect everything to myself, which means to correct my perception to such an extent that I will be able to see that everything is actually in my hands. Everything depends on me, and I have to tilt the whole world to the scale of merit. If I correct myself, I will see that I have corrected everyone.

The world is depicted to me as full of different attributes and differences, but this is because I haven’t attained inside me the agreement and the connection of all my attributes, desires, and thoughts.

Therefore, we see such a big, wide, and complicated world, so looking from the side will help us connect all the matching details inside me, because everything I see on the outside is actually inside me. I perceive everything through my different egoistic thoughts and desires, and so I see so many components in the world. But if I unite all these attributes inside me, then all the attributes will merge in harmony into one whole, as one integral global world, as one system. We all have to reach such a perception of the world.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/12, Writings of Rabash

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Opinion (Smitha Mundasad, from BBC News): “Half a century ago, in the drug industry’s golden era, we were bestowed with countless pills to lower blood pressure, control blood sugar and get rid of infections. But today it costs about $1bn to bring a new medicine to market, a process that can take 15 years.

“The industry faces multiple crises as budgets are squeezed and tough scientific challenges loom.

“Academics and patients’ groups are concerned we will not have the drugs necessary to treat future ills.

“Last year, the World Health Organization’s director general, Margaret Chan, warned that the world was heading for a ‘post-antibiotic era.’

“She raised fears that many common infections might no longer have a cure and could once again ‘kill unabated.’

“Major problems, Dr Chan suggested, included growing resistance to antibiotics.

And as the population ages, many of us will battle with neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, where new drugs are also lacking. …

“Prof Paul Workman at the Institute of Cancer Research points to another pressing issue: “With the problems of the financial crisis there has developed something of a vacuum that many of us describe as ‘the valley of death’.

“This is the valley between basic research and innovation on the one hand, and patient benefit and commercial success on the other, with this chasm in between into which there is a lack of funding and a lot of failure.

“He points out that they don’t do the whole thing alone, often partnering with smaller and larger companies in later stages. …

“What all these newer models of drug development have in common, it seems, is collaboration – perhaps presenting a cultural change for an industry that many people believe has had competition at the centre of its working.

“But, says Prof Vallance, while there is need for more collaboration in the early stages of drug development for some of the more complex diseases, that will turn into competition at a later point.

“’There will be fierce competition to get the best drug first, to make sure you do the right trial and show you’ve got the best medicine.’”

My Comment: Medicine and the pharmaceutical industry appear as the largest commercial organizations, opposite to the Hippocratic Oath. What can you expect from them!? People no longer trust doctors, who prescribe medication profitable to their organizations but not helpful to the patient. In everything, egoism works against us!
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In the News (from GALLUP): “In the U.S., one’s marital status appears to have an impact on one’s wellbeing. Americans who are married have higher wellbeing than those who are not married, with those currently separated or divorced lagging far behind. …

“Clearly, marriage has economic benefits and ending a marriage can have serious economic consequences, which helps explain part of the gap in wellbeing by marital status. …

“Marriage also brings companionship, emotional support, and partnership in dealing with life’s ups and downs that can foster a higher level of personal wellbeing. Social interaction is inherently part of marriage, and Gallup analyses have clearly shown that time spent socially and social networks themselves are positively associated with high wellbeing.”

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, the institution of marriage is the basis for sustainable development and existence of a person, protecting him from stress and creating a special kind of inner stability. Throughout time, Kabbalists did not accept unmarried students, considering a man who has no family underdeveloped, at least socially, and that doesn’t let him fully realize himself in this world, for what Kabbalah is intended.
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Question: If a town that is introducing integral education has a university, can it be used as an element of the infrastructure for this process?

Answer: I think that here, of course, we need to act through the federal departments in order to receive permission to add integral education as a required subject in institutions of higher learning. Otherwise it would be impossible to enter into any educational system. And when such a directive is received, then accordingly there will be allocated, say, an hour a day during which each student will be required to study this methodology, to take part in it.

This is sufficient for students. I think there won’t be any problems: They absorb everything very quickly and work with books easily. In this manner, integral education will become a mandatory subject.

Question: And for how many hours a day should school age children be engaged in the integral methodology?

Answer: We have extensive experience with schoolchildren. After school, the kids come to our integral upbringing center and spend a few hours there. The atmosphere in the center differs greatly from the one in the school where all the kids have “daggers drawn.” Therefore, a child needs an hour in order to gradually switch from one environment to another. For them, it is a transition from one world to another.

The learning takes place in the form of lessons with games and discussions. I think that children, educators, and the entire school system will be very happy about this because our method radically softens the criminal atmosphere.
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From the “Talk on Integral Education” #23, 3/3/12

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Question: Can the method of integral upbringing be applied to cases of man-made or natural catastrophes? For example, if a catastrophe takes place and people become disoriented, then the entire country participates in restoring the affected region, but the process is difficult and lengthy.

It requires enormous resources, and people quickly become accustomed to being dependent. But on the other hand, they are so psychologically disoriented that they are ready to change their lives. Can this situation be used to change the problems of a given region?

Answer: I have thought about this a lot because the crisis brings this thought to one’s mind. Let us say that 50% of the young people in Spain are unemployed, or Detroit has become a ghost town. A catastrophe is the most appropriate situation for explaining the cause of our local and all other global problems.

People immediately perceive the integral method; it helps them “warm up,” get together, and feel the community. Naturally, people start helping each other and all pressures decrease: criminal, family, etc.

The atmosphere immediately becomes completely different. People are willing to live in tents, and they even perceive it as sort of an adventure. Their psychology changes so much that they stop seeing the negative sides of life; they do not concentrate on them. The interesting thing is that their perception of life changes. This is why I think that integral upbringing is psychological support as well as great social support in these cases.

Question: It often happens that professional builders come to restore a region while local residents sit and wait for their houses to be built and food to be brought to them. The integral method envisions a different organization—mixed brigades of visiting builders and local population?

Answer: Both immediately begin to participate in working and learning. This way, the same builders will also be touched by integral learning.

Question: Then the visiting builders will also need to be taught?

Answer: During the time they are free. At least the builders will be provided with voluntary heartfelt help from the local population. People will be glad to take part in the restoration of their city.
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From the “Talk on Integral Education” #23, 3/3/12

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Question: What should I do if during the seminar I’m thinking a lot about unity, but it’s difficult for me to feel it?

Answer: Our work is happening between the feelings and the mind, in the middle line. One needs to keep to this middle line in one’s thoughts, desires, intentions, and relationships, in everything. A one-way bias in any direction is not acceptable. Since all of this is being revealed in creation opposite to the Creator, it must be revealed in the middle line.

The whole of the nature exists only thanks to the fact that it is in some medium, the intermediate states between the absolute plus and minus, in a balance between extreme states.

However, on the human level, balance is not reached by averaging, like it is on the still, vegetative, or animate levels, but by the means that the minus and the plus are uniting together! The left and the right lines do not balance themselves out in the middle, but are united at the center, and that is why this middle line turns out to be on a higher level than their simple sum. This is the difference between the middle line in our world and in the spiritual.

It needs to be understood that all of these concepts, which we are studying on ourselves, will arrive at a balance and will provide the right approach for us towards the solution of any kind of problems.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

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