Question: We see tremendous efforts that America has taken in order to settle the situation in the Middle East and financial efforts (printing money) that are meant to stabilize the present system. But as it looks, it isn’t connected at all to change in man himself.

Answer: It isn’t connected because they don’t understand what they need to do. They don’t know nature’s plan. They have no concept of the system of integrality, and thus all their attempts bring and will bring only bigger and bigger developments of crisis. The attempts are produced because we will be breaking nature instead of correcting ourselves to match it. This is their mistake.

Question: But according to modern man’s perception, man himself is a closed system and it’s impossible to do anything with it. What is possible is to use this in some way as a buyer and make him work well.

Answer: It’s already impossible to do all of this. You can’t make buyers out of them. First of all, these relations are completely different than before. Secondly, in a person, the desires change not only in quantity, but also in quality. Today, it’s difficult to make people be crazy consumers, even if you require it from them through all the communication media and public relations. Gradually it’s ending since people change, since we develop, evolve.

During many thousands of years, we were realizing our infinite desires. And then afterwards, in the last 50 to 60 years, they taught us to build a society of unrestrained consumption: I work, I buy, I throw away, and again I work, buy, and throw away. What for? So that dollars will collect in someone’s bank account.

It’s now ending. You can’t require a man to work, to buy, and throw away and again work, buy and throw away. He has begun to be tired of this. His ego has begun to be processed, like everything is processed in nature, and to change qualitatively. Our next needs are found in another area.

A person is already tired of serving his body and running from store to store searching for what he saw yesterday on TV. Today, more meaningful desires awaken in him. We are slowly moving towards the next level. The question is asked, “Why do we exist?” And this is the next level of development.

And here you can’t bring satisfaction to people with new rags or the latest phones. You can’t because there is a time production through all means.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

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Question: On one hand, the modern person’s requirements for new desires have been awakened, and on the other hand, people still want to buy an iPhone 5, rest as much as possible and work less; why is it that something new comes along and a person still runs after materialistic pleasures?

Answer: These are not a person’s own immediate desires. Instead they are the influence of advertising and no more than that. It’s a kind of collective pursuit; selling and selling to us all the time characterizes our times. Today advertising is an entire industry that amounts to 60%-70% of the cost of every product, which is to say, vast amounts of money. The problem is not in the manufacturing of something, but rather in its sale. This succeeds in becoming more and more despicable with each passing day and will ultimately explode.

But the matter is not even about the advertising or the disappearance and appearance of these desires. The main thing is the appearance of an immense crisis of the unemployed; people who have lost their jobs cannot find another job. So they must have some kind of pension. If you don’t give them a pension, the millions of unemployed will simply “devour” you.

They say that 1-2% of the workers from the entire world population would be sufficient to supply us with everything we need for existence: clothing, food, housing and the like. Many new technologies exist that we can’t even begin to imagine. They are concealing them from us intentionally because someone is benefiting from it. But if it were discovered that we are already technologically prepared today for some need, humanity would be completely freed from work.

It follows that the crisis is discovered on two sides. On the one hand, all motivation for working has disappeared because more internal questions have appeared for a person: “What for?  What is my entire life for?” He asks more and more questions relevant to the next level of existence, which explain the meaning of life. This always happens during a transition from one creation to the next.

On the other hand, a problem of unemployment has been created which is gradually encompassing everyone, including everyone in China and Russia. And so already there will be a need to do something, to decide something, because millions freed from work will sit at home and begin to descend to the level of the “beast.” If we don’t begin to be involved with educating and re-educating them, they won’t transform into the next level for humans, they will simply transform into “wild men.” A person who is not busy with anything even stops thinking and withdraws.

Apparently it will be necessary to provide a little for the unemployed so that they can live in peace and everything will be okay. Our industries are prepared to fulfill everyone with everything possible. This is no problem. The idea is that with this people will become totally amorphous; the entire human image will disappear from them because without obligations, without work, without interests, a person will simply “fall apart.”
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

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Rabash,” According to What is Explained Concerning: “Love Thy Friend as Thyself”: If everyone is nullified before his friend and mingles with him, they become one mass where all the little parts that want the love of others unite in a collective force that consists of many parts. And when one has great strength, he can execute the love of others.

And then he can achieve the love of God. But the condition is that each will annul before the other. However, when he is separated from his friend, he cannot receive the share he should receive from his friend.

Thus, everyone should say that he is nothing compared to his friend. It is like writing numbers: If you first write “1” and then “0,” it is ten times more. And when you write “00” it is a hundred times more. In other words, if his friend is number one, and the zero follows it, it is considered that one receives from his friend ten (10) times more. And if he says that he is double zero compared to his friend, he receives from his friend a hundred (100) times more.

However, if it is to the contrary, and he says that his friend is zero and he is one, then he is ten times less than his friend 0.1. And if he can say that he is one and he has two friends who are both zeros compared to him, then he is considered a hundred times less than them, meaning he is 0.01. Thus, his degree lessens according to the number of zeros he has from his friends.

If I want to receive something from someone in our world, I have to pay for it in return or to take it by force like the big takes from the small. In this case the bigger I am, the more I can extort the other and receive more from him. That’s the way it is in the corporeal world, when we speak about receiving in the desire to receive.

But if it’s about receiving spiritual powers, it works according to an opposite law. The more important I consider my friend and the greater I see the friend, the more I can receive from him.

I cannot receive anything from someone who is equal to me since he is on the same level as I am. But if he is even a little bit higher than me, I can already receive something from him, and the more I raise him the more I can receive.

It has nothing to do with the friend himself but only with how I treat him with regard to me. It’s just like the students of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma who had no idea how their teacher worked with regard to them. He saw himself as relatively smaller than his students and so he received spiritual powers through them.

Everything depends on how great your friend is in your eyes. The greater he is, the more I can receive the force of bestowal from him. But if it’s about receiving egoistic powers, then it’s about a different principle according to which the greater I am the more I can extort the other in order to fill my ego.

So the spiritual power you will receive from the environment is only up to you whether it’s 1000 or 0.001. We have to be in a group of ten that is working on connection and in which each one is somehow connected to the desire to bestow like the students of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma. But this is enough since everything else depends on you and the extent to which you subdue yourself!

You will never have the power to advance if you don’t receive powers from the environment. So the rule of subduing yourself before the friends, even by physical actions is the most efficient means to advance. We mustn’t think that Kabbalists tell us about this only to establish good relations the way we teach kids in our world to behave morally since this approach is opposite from the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We do this only in order to receive the force of bestowal from the Light, from the Creator, through others. Since I subdue myself, the Light can flow into me through the friend. If I treat others as if they are really greater than I am, I will receive the power of bestowal through them. It’s enough to treat them with the intention of in order to bestow and in the relations between us I will begin to feel the Creator and will be able to bring Him contentment. Through the bestowal upon the friends, I will be able to feel how I can reach bestowal upon the Creator. He will be revealed to me through the image of the group that I will see in the Light of my bestowal. Thus the rule “love thy friend as thyself” is the main goal of our work, which is a constant feeling of humility towards the friends, and accordingly we build up the powers of bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/13, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “The Love of the Creator and the Love for the Created Beings”: We should not be mistaken with deeds, for they are set before one’s eyes. We know that if we precede the needs of our own, it is bestowal. For that reason Hillel does not define the goal as “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might,” because they are indeed one and the same thing.

It is so because one should also love one’s friend with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, because that is the meaning of the words “as thyself.” After all, one certainly loves oneself with all one’s heart and soul and might, but with regards to the Creator, one may deceive oneself; and with one’s friend it is always spread out before his eyes.

We were given great help and a valuable chance to make the transition from the desire to receive to the desire to bestow in this world, meaning a state where we constantly see the corporeal reality, the corporeal desire to receive and all the boundaries that it depicts for us. Instead of the attempts to work with an attribute that is detached from us, which is the desire to bestow, we can work with what we actually discover, with what we can attain and feel, which is how another fellow being seems to us.

In other words, the spiritual world that is concealed from me appears before me in a corporeal form, and I am in contact with it. This allows me to change my attitude toward what I see and feel by mutually cooperating with the other. Together, we can reach such corrections so that through the corporeal world, in its depth, I will find the spiritual world.

Eventually, the attitude toward others and the attitude toward the Creator are the same thing, although if seems that these are two different things, they are actually the same thing. The more we discover spirituality, the more we see that it is totally “dressed” in corporeality.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/03/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” “Concerning the Importance of Society”

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “The Vision of Rabbi Chiya,” “You Are Partners with Me,” Item 63, Lesson 28

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 18, Lesson 55

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Rabash, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”: For this reason, we mustn’t underestimate the importance of the work in love of friends, for by that he will learn how to exit self-love and enter the path of love of others. And when he completes the work of love of friends, he will be able to be rewarded with love of the Creator.

We should know that there is a virtue to love of friends: one cannot deceive himself and say that he loves the friends, if in fact he doesn’t love them. Here he can examine whether he truly has love of friends or not. But with love of the Creator, one cannot examine oneself as to whether his intention is the love of the Creator, meaning that he wants to bestow upon the Creator, or his desire is to receive in order to receive.

You need to train yourself to evaluate the success of your spiritual advancement by how much you think it depends on the relationship with the environment. The environment is not just a means of our advancement towards the Creator, but precisely inside it, within our unified homogenous connection with each other, completely as equals, we will find the Creator.

If our entire attention is directed at the center of unification, we begin to understand that this environment is Shechina, Malchut of the world of Atzilut, the central point of creation, in which our advancement, spiritual birth, and growth must be realized. The entire spiritual life is perceived only in the center of the group. And depending upon how powerful the unification is that we are able to achieve, both in quantity and quality, by this we measure our ascent on the spiritual ladder and correct the whole of reality from the point of our soul.

All the work is in preparation so with the help of the Reforming Light we bring ourselves to the feeling that we fully depend on and get life only from the point of our connection with each other, which is the center of the entire universe. This is the point that we discover as “the eye of the needle,” and the common force of bestowal and love that is the Creator is revealed in it.

We become the helpers, friends of the Shechina and the Shochen; the Creator is revealed. Everything is only there. The main thing is to understand that all the accidents and troubles are caused by a lack of correct connection between us and to concentrate all our responses and efforts on strengthening our connection in this central point. When a person binds himself to the environment in this way, this connection becomes more sensitive, energetic, and unconditional; he already begins to advance correctly towards the revelation of Shechina, becoming its inseparable part.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/13

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In the News (from EUbusiness): ”… European Union president Herman Van Rompuy on Friday called on Europe’s leaders for help in fighting youth unemployment, now at record levels across the 27-nation bloc. …

“‘The number of unemployed people in our Union, especially of young people, is at record levels,’ he said. ‘It has become one of the most pressing issues in most, if not all, of our member states. That is why we must do our utmost to deal with it together.’ …

“The June summit ‘will be an opportunity to mobilise efforts at all levels around one shared objective: to get motivated young people back to work or education,’ he said, urging leaders ‘to actively contribute’ to fight youth joblessness.

“Fears are rising of ‘a lost generation’ with almost two out of three under 25-year-olds out of work in Greece and in Spain.”

My Comment: It is good that there are calls because the problem is growing, but as usual, funds will be allocated, plans will be created, hundreds of jobs for office workers will be created, and then one day they will remember them and see the result: wasted money… The only way out of unemployment is to occupy young people with integral education: It is inexpensive, reliable, promising.
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Opinion (Elena Galkina, historian): “Violence among children is multiplying. They have much more opportunities today to immerse into the virtual space, in the TV world, computer games; between the ages 5 to 15, they see approximately 20,000 murders, horror movies, thrillers, a huge amount of blood, and treachery. They conclude that he who is successful is a rapist, a murderer, one who views others as stepping stones, steals, and take bribes.

“A child needs to see an example of a good behavior towards others. Otherwise, as a biological creature, he sees how he should compete and, of course, he will choose this path of crime, violence, and social dominance.

“If we don’t resolve this issue, our society will turn not just into beasts but into a population that will not be able to reproduce because for reproduction even animals and birds require an element of altruism, an element of social cooperation for the common good, and not for the benefit of just oneself through the misery of others. If no attention is given to this, we will be faced with social collapse and the collapse of individuals.”

My Comment: This is the path of the realization of the evil of our nature, and only after recognizing it as evil will we be able to begin our correction as the only inevitable, sensible, and desirable action. The realization of evil can be long and cruel if we persist in remaining in egoism, or it can be fast and easy if we study it as a tendency to realize it as evil in order to rise above it by means of integral education, and then replace it with kindness and love with the help of integral upbringing.
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Our every action must be directed toward the final correction. Otherwise, this action is imperfect. We always seek the end and on this basis consider all the states.

In his time, Abraham sent envoys to eastern countries. The forefathers had to deal with Hagar and Ishmael (representing the right line), with Esau (representing the left line), and with Laban and other characters (symbolizing various properties). All this was necessary to introduce specific details of perception that will be manifested at the end of the generations. The wars with Amalek, with the nations who lived in the land of Israel, were not limited by that “place,”—that is, part of the desire—above which it was necessary to rise and overcome at that time. No, everything was initially aimed at the final correction. All the efforts are gradually accumulated and added to the overall total.

The forefathers realized the necessary preparations to receive the Torah, and then the preparation continued by the way of correction of the people of Israel, with the same intention, to be ready to correct the world.

There are more calculations it seems. All the stages through which Israel has gone are caused not only by the needs of its development, but also by its purpose: to become the means of correction for the world. These people received the Torah not only to correct themselves, but also to be ready to help the world later.

Baal HaSulam writes about this in his articles, “The Giving of the Torah” and “The Mutual Guarantee.” Everything is interconnected and the end of action is inherent in the original plan, and that is why we must keep the course at Infinity (Ein Sof).

After all, at every rung of the spiritual ladder, at an increasingly higher resolution with higher definition, we attain the world of Infinity, a round, integral, analog system in which everything is interconnected. Be it a fetus in the mother’s womb, an infant, a child, or adult, we always are talking about a perfect system that has all the necessary parts. It’s only that some of them are incorporated in the potential for further development, while others already have been formed.

It does not really matter what is before us, a “spiritual gene” (Reshimo) in which the world is hidden or the entire world itself. They are one and the same. It’s just that first we attain the Reshimo, and then it opens in our perception.

So, the system is always perfect. It is the same Infinity. It only is revealed depending on the one who attains it. That is why in wanting to attain spirituality, I must imagine it completely corrected. Otherwise, I do not reach it through my desire, I do not intend bestowal.

The calculation is as follows: In the corrected state, I bestow upon the Creator. For this, I must prepare the receiving vessels, that is, the “nations of the world.” For this, I must prepare myself in order to be connected with them. Thus, stretching the thread from the end to the beginning, I proceed to any action.

Conversely, if in my every action I do not intend the correction of the world in order to bring it to the Creator, if I forget that He is revealed and enjoys precisely in the desire of the world, if I do not pervade my actions fully with bestowal, then I do nothing. Then I am like a plug that obstructs the path for everyone and represent the forces of impurity.

With every step, we must create this mental picture, this calculation, constantly adding to it and expanding it. At first, I calculate to benefit myself, then my family, then my city, then my country, and, in the end, all of humanity. As Baal HaSulam writes, today we are all one family. So, could I isolate myself from the world? In that case, I am not going toward bestowal.

So, every time, to the extent of my strength, I need to imagine the entire chain to the end. That is enough to become similar to the Light and draw it for correction.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We must yearn to actually see the friend as the greatest in our generation, to actually feel it “within reason” as if it were the truth and not as it seems to a person’s desire to receive. The desire to receive always wants to feel good and comfortable and so it instinctively diminishes everything around it so as to be “on top.” The most important thing for it is to rule.

So accepting the thought about the need to connect with the friends as a means for reaching connection with the Creator is only possible in “faith above reason” since we certainly don’t see things as they really are. It’s only according to this minor external condition—that a person yearns for the same goal and is ready to accept all the necessary conditions to advance towards it—that we begin to relate to the other as a friend as a means of connecting to the Creator.

According to these external signs, we decide to start working on our attitude towards that person. If he is ready to work together we dismiss all the other demands of our ego and we get closer to that person and connect with him in order to actually discover the connection between us, not only in “faith above reason.”

To the extent that we actually communicate, we approach the building of the spiritual vessel in which the Creator is revealed. The connection can be “‘above reason” when I don’t see that the friend is “worth it,” but I still connect to him. I use it as a means, which is called the time of preparation when I respect the friends not because I see that they are great. According to my senses I feel that I am greater than them, but I work above my senses and don’t agree with them and imagine that the friends are greater.

In order to transcend from a state of “faith above reason” to the state of “within reason,” which means to truly respect the friends, I have to correct the vessels, my perception. The correction of the vessels is when we begin to work on the connection between us, despite the fact that we know the opposite. We establish a society in which everyone impresses the others with the feeling of the greatness of the group and the goal.

By working together, we draw the Light that Reforms, and eventually we move from “faith above reason to “within reason,” and thus we continue to rise. The next levels are more difficult, of course. First the friends seemed quite average, having some good sides and some bad sides. When I had to work “above reason,” I could easily do it and accept them as equal, as partners along the spiritual path and even as the greatest in our generation. Their goal seemed important, and they seemed great.

But then came the hardening of the heart and I began to see different flaws in them, it became difficult to accept them as great and to see the Creator behind them, to warm myself by the fact that I don’t pay attention to anyone except the friends who become the most precious of all for me. Thus, each time becomes more difficult until I manage to overcome these interruptions and fill my measure.

Then all my efforts of working “above reason” turn to “within reason” and become the right vessel in which the first revelation of the attribute of bestowal takes place, which means that a person is filled with the feeling of the Creator inside him. Thus “faith above reason” is a gradual process, as we ascend from one level to the next, but when we build our vessel we have to yearn to have it within reason as much as we can.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 06/03/13, Writings of Rabash

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