Today’s problems stem from our attitude. There is no doubt that we are building all the systems of human society correctly, but there is also no doubt that we are using them the wrong way. And the reason for this is our wrong attitude towards one another.

Apparently we have created systems that are good and necessary for everyone: healthcare, educational, national security systems, etc., but the outcomes are grim. For example, the more medicines we consume, the better it is for the health care system and for the pharmaceutical industry. Their profits grow and the state receives more from taxes. “We wish you to be ill more often.”

The same thing happens in the food industry: the more we eat, the more profitable it is for the industry. The abundance of unhealthy food brings about illnesses. “So be greedy and a glutton, buy as many food products as possible and by that help the economy“.

The systems are good but they are used against people’s wellbeing. The banks, in fact, have to make the “blood” flow through the system, but instead, they “suck the blood” from the system. The military industries provide jobs and technological and scientific progress, but it’s all implemented to arm different states and eventually they will have to make use of these arms. So the result is endless conflicts and wars.

So it turns out that we have built necessary systems and mechanisms, but we use them in an increasingly more destructive way. There are circles, which, in fact, are interested in a person suffering, being ill, and living a poor and miserable life; all this is determined by the system itself.

Economists scare us: “We have to increase demand and consumption otherwise everything will come to a halt!” But a person doesn’t want to continue this chase, and internally he has despaired from this kind of life and doesn’t see any point in shopping, even if he has the money.

Our desire to receive has been upgraded and has moved on to the next level and the neighbor’s lawn isn’t greener any more. The desire has changed, perhaps not in everyone yet, but the process continues; fashion, temptations, incentives and enticements are all disappearing.

So what’s next? Is the world really coming to an end? No. It’s simply that capitalism is coming to an end; it doesn’t work any more and in the next few years we will see that. It’s about a natural unavoidable process.

Question: How can that be that the system was built correctly but we are using it incorrectly?

Answer: It says, “God has made an honest man and they asked for many accounts”, (Ecclesiastes, 7, 29). Straightforwardness turns into confusion and discord in every direction, but of course, this is also part of nature’s program so that we will reach the recognition of evil by ourselves and will “straighten it out” ourselves.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: How is external dissemination connected to internal work?

Answer: Today internal work is impossible without dissemination. In fact, the general pyramid of humanity is divided into two parts: the upper part called “Israel” (Yashar—El – straight to the Creator), and the lower part called “the nations of the world.”

The people who belong to “Israel” have a “point in the heart” (•) and as a result they are in contact with the Creator. Those who belong to the “nations of the world” have only a big void (-) and they feel bad, but don’t know what to do.

So “Israel” has to bring the correction to those called “the nations of the world.” This is why they exist, otherwise they wouldn’t exist at all.

The “created being” is actually the lower part of the desire to receive, while “Israel” are “the Godly part from Above.” On the whole, “Israel” is called “a point,” “a spark,” in the desire and not the desire itself. On the other hand, “the nations of the world” are the main “matter” of creation. It is for them that the world was created; everything exists for them, and the correction should take part in them. It is here that the third Temple will be built. “Israel” is the link, priests and educators. Every person with a “point in the heart” belongs to this group.

On the whole, the whole pyramid is called “Babylon,” since everything in it is confused (same root in Hebrew) and mixed after the shattering.

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Question: I graduated from the online course and currently belong to a virtual group. Is it necessary for me to go to a physical group?

Answer: I understand that a person already got used to studying online. He has friends, instructors, and a network there—everything he is connected to and is constantly in touch with.

However, a physical group brings a person to the new level of relations since it shows him that he is full of egoism in a more clear, powerful, and effective way than any virtual group. Therefore, one has to join a physical group realizing in advance that he is going there to battle not other people, but his own egoism so as to understand it, to see the snake sitting within him and how he has to pull it from there.
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From the Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah, 02/03/2013

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter 56

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Shlah Leha,” Lesson 25

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 9, Lesson 35

“A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar” Lesson 9

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Question: What is a sin in the internal work that corrupts its outcome?

Answer: If a person is already incorporated in the internal work but is now too lazy to constantly support it and to add to it, it’s considered a sin. Since if he doesn’t advance, it means that he is going backward. It’s impossible to stop and stand in the middle.

We sometimes think that we can allow ourselves to take some time off and to rest from this work, but in spirituality there are no days off, the clock is constantly ticking and the counter constantly counts our efforts, so it isn’t like our world where we can stop and be idle, to go to sleep and not do anything until the next day.

This does not exist in spirituality. Perhaps I don’t perform any physical actions, but during this time many Reshimot (spiritual genes) go through me, and if I don’t fulfill them, then it means that I go backward. So I have to make sure that I constantly do something.

My advice is to place yourself, even passively, under the maximal influence of the environment: to listen to tunes and songs, to read our material, to see a lesson one more time or to listen to it, to be among friends. But we have to be very careful in using this means of communication, since along with the gain and the great benefit it can also bring about great loses and harm if we don’t use it correctly.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Why should a person be careful not to humble himself before strangers, but only before the friends along the spiritual path?

Answer: The friends want to act with the intention of in order to bestow and so you can humiliate yourself before them and thus adhere to them, connect to them, and get close to them spiritually. Therefore, you should humble yourself before them.

But if you try to humble yourself before other people, then with regard to what do you humble yourself? Do you do so with regard to their corporeal desires and egoistic goals? They don’t operate towards the direction of the spiritual goal. When you annul yourself before a friend, it helps the two of you since you are serving as an example for him. If he is your friend along the spiritual path, then he will understand you correctly. He will see that you are working on self-annulment, on bestowal, and that you are giving him an example. This means that your action of self-annulment is correct in every sense: both towards the one who performs it and the one who sees it.

But if you behave that way with regard to a stranger, he will think that he is greater if you lower yourself before him, and he will take pride in it and his ego will begin to grow. He may also not understand why you are suddenly ingratiating yourself before him and would think that you want to deceive and to use him. From all these examples, we see that it’s only before a friend along the spiritual path who will understand me that my annulment can be beneficial for both of us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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You have to humble yourself not before certain people but before the means for attaining the spiritual goal—the study, the teacher, the friends, and the group. It’s because these are not just people, but a system, and if you annul yourself before it you will enter your first spiritual state: Ibur (embryo). Of course, there has to be a different kind of annulment with regard to every means; with regard to the study, you should examine its essence and why it’s needed and what it is that you study.

The system is revealed to you in the image of the teacher and the friends. It is one upper system, which by its revelation to you depicts in you the images of Kabbalists throughout the generations and of the friends. It’s you that builds these images, and they are in you. It says, “Thou shall not make statues or images,” in the sense that you are forbidden to perceive them externally, that they exist outside your feeling. You are in front of the Light that depicts all these discernments in you.

So the work is in imagining only the Creator’s bestowal upon you instead of all these images. But in this general behavior of the Creator, you are allowed to discern all the individual manners with regard to which you can focus yourself.

It’s as if you are playing a chord on a musical instrument and you need several strings that are perfectly tuned relative to one another. In order to do that, you have a teacher, friends, this world, and the study. If you tune all the “strings” correctly by perceiving everything as coming from the Creator, you will be able to come to Him.

If you regard the teacher, the friends, the group, the study, and the world as coming from one upper source, then everything that you do to tighten the connection with them allows you to tune yourself more accurately. It’s as if you are checking every one of your strings according to the sound of this tuning fork and thus advance.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Does dissemination help in overcoming inner obstacles?

Answer: There are many different “objects of support” on the spiritual path, places where you can find help. I think that dissemination helps because we constantly descend – ascend, and again descend – again ascend.

Inner pressure gives us an opportunity to be in the process, which does not only happen within us, but also outside of us, and then we sort of dampen and compensate it. This really used to help me.

Moreover, when you are preparing for a lesson, a lecture, when you are working with materials, you are occupied with something external. You do not spend your entire time within yourself, and this helps.
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From a Virtual Lesson 2/3/13

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