Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.29.13
Posted on July 29th, 2013
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Our state depends on how we evaluate it, according to what values. A person receives a scale of values from the environment. We started to develop due to the environment when we climbed down from the trees. All of human development occurs because society promotes that it’s necessary to be big, strong, and prosperous. Thus the progress of humanity began.
The development is only possible thanks to the community. If society had not instilled new values in us, in excess of what is required by the body for simple existence, we would have remained as animals. We are no different from them except for the element of competition, which we are engaged in amongst ourselves, a development due to the environment.
The environment is evolving and we are developing together with it. This development is not characteristic of animals, only of humans. A special kind of animal that can grow due to the environment is called a human being in this world. And the kind of human being who is able to develop by means of purposefully developing his environment is called a Kabbalist. These are two stages that rise above the animal level: an ordinary person and a Kabbalist.
Kabbalists specially develop their environment to evolve due to it, as if they pull themselves up by the hair. Average people do not do that. Society develops and pulls them in different directions in the same plane of this world, but not towards qualitatively new values.
Thus, humanity evolves naturally until it comes to a crisis. The development based on competition leads to the situation when a part of humanity is insanely enriched and the other completely impoverished. The situation becomes critical because no middle layer is left. We have already passed the stage when society had hoped to achieve universal prosperity, the realization of the American dream that promised everyone abundance for his work.
But this is impossible; human egoism will not let the rich sacrifice even a bit. It will force them to keep 100% of their wealth. The most they will tear from themselves for the poor is 0.1% only so the poor can somehow survive and serve the rich, but not more.
So, we return to Marx’s theory because our ego separates us to the antagonistic poles between which war is inevitable. The attempt to build a developed post-industrial welfare society has failed because in this case someone has to sacrifice his profit; the rich should share with the poor. And why should they suddenly agree to that if it’s possible to squeeze out of the poor everything and leave only a minimum so they will not starve to death?
Our egoism deprives us of reason; you look at the world and are amazed by what happens in it: The rich are killing themselves by their actions, risking their own lives. But they cannot stop. The ego is growing and forcing them to act in this manner.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: Does the ego continue to grow after the ascent to the upper level?
Answer: Of course! The difference is that now we have an ego on the corporeal level, and in the transition to the first spiritual level, we acquire a spiritual ego. As it says: “He who is greater than his friend, his ego is also greater.”
Very serious desires are waiting ahead, such that will simply tear us to pieces. But they will be revealed in us if we can control them in “faith above reason.” This is why the ascent along the spiritual path is through the Light and it’s a smooth ascent. We advance only if we do everything properly, and if we don’t, we remain on the same level or fall. We can only move forward when we are equipped in advance and have ensured that we have the Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/13, “Faith Above Reason”
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Question: If the wisdom of Kabbalah is a science, how can we tie it to “faith above reason?” After all, faith seems to negate science.
Answer: We are on a corporeal level together with the sciences, the arts, and so forth, and in them we can develop.
However, how do we develop? It is only within the ego. The ego develops, and we develop with it, but as of today, the ego actually has ended its development.
Which sciences and arts are we talking about? We see that today everything seems to be stuck, delayed, and coming to a dead end, to a crisis. It has been going on for several decades now. Perhaps people simply don’t understand, but scientists do.
The ego reached its peak and has stopped developing after 6,000 years, having started from a zero point until today. We have been through a process of evolution during this time and have risen to a certain level in the fields of arts and sciences in which the ego has already exhausted itself.
We actually feel that we don’t want anything anymore. Today, we don’t pay attention to anything, and even space research and other sciences don’t interest us anymore.
So, how do we move on to the next stage now? The next stage is a totally different level, and we also must grow in it since there, too, may be a new unknown ego or certain desires.
This transition must be very special. We don’t even understand what it is. It is a transition to a new dimension.
The new dimension is called the spiritual world since faith above reason dominates it, which means bestowal above receiving. The goal of corporeal existence is receiving. In the spiritual world, however, the goal is bestowal.
So, how can we move to an opposite perception in which the Keter of the lower becomes the Malchut of the upper? How can we move from the egoistic ten Sefirot to the altruistic ten Sefirot? It is only if we perform an operation on ourselves in faith above reason.
“Reason” refers to what I had on the corporeal level, and “faith” is what guides me on the spiritual level. Thus, I raise myself.
This is why it says in all the sources that the most important thing for us is faith above reason.
What is the practical meaning of faith above reason? It means that our previous reason gradually cools down. We are given help here since we cannot advance by our previous reason and immediately begin to rise above it. This is why there is a certain descent after the convention, the addition of ego.
In spite of and together with this, we must ascend and advance more powerfully toward the connection between us. This is why we must study, try to connect, disseminate, and do everything to achieve a stronger connection between us.
We should feel opposite inclinations since we must do everything in order to delve more deeply into it. Our global group must connect more strongly. This is why we should study, disseminate and do everything that needs to be done. It is all only in order to connect internally to the same feeling we had in the convention, but on the next level, on a higher level.
What do we lack in order to reach this? We lack the actual actions.
There is Isra-el, which means “Yashar Kel,” (straight to the Creator). This means that Israel is every friend who yearns for spiritual attainment. There is another part called “Torah,” which stems from the Aramaic word “Oraita – Ohr – light.” The concept of Torah includes the group, the connections, mutual guarantee, and so on, everyone’s adhesion to it, our goal. This is the exact path by which we must advance.
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Question: What are your plans for the future regarding virtual groups? Do you see their prospects for advancing in the future on the level of the physical groups?
Answer: Unity is beyond borders: virtual and, in the meantime, physical borders.
Question: How can women unite better? With friends with similar properties or vice versa?
Answer: It makes no difference because we rise above our characteristics.
Question: How is it necessary to behave with those who are listed as friends in a group but don’t take part in the life of the group at all?
Answer: Wait patiently until they change.
Question: Is it possible and in what way, to be in two groups simultaneously, physical and virtual?
Answer: You can be in multiple groups because they merge.
Question: Is it difficult for you to be a Rav?
Answer: I am not a Rav, rather a teacher, a guide, a coach.
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Question: How effective are spiritual processes in small groups of two or three people?
Answer: This is the problem with our virtual friends, with our individual friends and others. We have so many students who are scattered in various corners of their countries in: Australia, New Zealand, China, several European nations, South America, and so forth. Therefore, these congresses still form and connect us and give us the opportunity to focus together.
But the lack of a physical group remains a problem. I cannot imagine the solution. I know only one thing, when I asked Rabash for permission to move closer to him, he first turned me down and he was right; it’s necessary to check if your desire is real. And only two years later did he allow me to move.
Therefore if a student seriously studies with us for a long time, he needs to think about how to move to a place where there is a group or where it is possible to organize one. I don’t see any other way out.
As much as possible I think about this all the time and hope that with the help of a virtual system it will be possible to connect people and give them a feeling of unity, but in the meantime, a computer screen separates them. The person protects himself from others through the screen.
So what is the problem? Making people connect with others. We are found in a state that “connecting with others” means to sit together, to breathe together, to learn together, to hate the friends, to love them, and so forth.
And the Upper Light gives us all kinds of problems here, intentionally “causing friction” between us, rubbing us together, to remove the membrane from the heart. The hearts rub together in order to undress them. How is it possible to do this when you are found in a virtual connection? I can’t describe this to myself. Personally I would be happy to be with everyone in a virtual connection: I “type” some information in an email and that’s it, you are already “in love” with the friends.
Where can you really feel hostility to the point of hatred as those friends in The Zohar felt?! You can immediately unplug the computer or protect yourself with some kind of emoticon (smiley) and that’s it! How could it be otherwise?
I feel this with us in our country. There are groups that maintain a gentlemanly distance. There are those who are closer, participate more, want to integrate with us more, and want to build our center together. When there are opportunities for work, then the participation of each is tested. The idea is not just participation, rather it’s working together. This is what is essential. Therefore you must understand that it’s necessary to gather and organize in groups, and to organize large groups with departments, with an institute for distribution, with children’s groups. In general, all this is imperative.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Two” 7/13/13, Lesson 3
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In the News (from The New York Times): “Once upon a time women seemed more eager than men to marry. Today such generalizations no longer apply.
“Is it women’s preferences (the demand for husbands) or men’s preferences (the supply of husbands) that are driving the trend toward less marriage? It’s hard to tell, but some gender asymmetries are apparent. For instance, a recent poll of unmarried blacks of prime marrying age found that only 25 percent of women were seeking a long-term relationship compared with 43 percent of men. …
“As a contractual commitment, marriage has a price. It offers both costs and benefits to potential partners. The contract involves commitments for financial support and family care on terms that can be completely egalitarian. …
“Women are willing to pay a higher price for marriage than men if they have few alternatives, as when their opportunities for economic independence are restricted. An increase in the supply of women who want to marry drives the price of marriage down for men.
“If the supply of women who want to marry decreases, the terms of marriage move in favor of women. They are likely to receive a larger share of joint income and leisure time. Husbands become more likely to relinquish some decision-making power and do more housework and child care.
“Marriage market dynamics mean that a bride’s bargaining power is partly determined by the number of other choices her groom has (and vice versa). The changing terms of marriage complicate the effects of women’s improved economic position. On the one hand, men should like the prospect of sharing income with a high-earning woman. On the other hand, they may find it difficult to adjust to a new social role. …
“These economists also contend that couples in which the wife earns more than the husband are less satisfied with their marriage and are more likely to divorce. …
“The demand for long-term commitments seems to be steadily declining among both women and men. Philip Cohen persuasively asserts that we should stop bemoaning this change and adapt to a world in which fewer adults marry.”
My Comment: The family is the foundation of civilization and it will exist as long civilization exists. In the past, Bolsheviks dreamed of free sex and raising children in boarding schools, but nature always returns everything to its place. The main thing is to constantly try to strive for harmony with nature by studying it.
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Question: As a general rule, rejection is not with respect to the group but a friend. What is the working program in this case?
Answer: I don’t think that this is so. A person must see that he has an aversion to working with the group, to connecting with the friends, to dissolving into them. And if there is any kind of special prejudice against someone, it may gradually pass. Therefore there is no need to focus attention on this. It is not worthwhile.
First of all, what should interest me is how to “get into them,” to adhere to them. The main thing is that I shouldn’t manage myself, rather they manage me. This is what is called dissolving into them. This is to say I don’t have my own thoughts and desires. This is what is with them. And this is everything.
The moment that you make such movements, the Surrounding Light immediately acts and influences you. Experiences like these bring this, the Light cleanses you all the time and adds all kinds of contradictions to you, but you try to do it again. And after you pass through a necessary amount of attempts of this kind, attainment eventually arrives. And the group might not even know anything about it and may remain at the same level in which it was before, as in the example of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Two” 7/13/13, Lesson 3
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Question: When I come to pray out of total despair, do I need to ask that I will change, or do I need to ask that a friend will advance spiritually?
Answer: Prayer is called a desire in the heart, the uncontrolled yearning of the heart. I can say whatever I want, nothing will help, and it’s just all movement of the lips. I could dance, cry, or roll on the ground; this also yields no results. The main thing is what I am feeling in the depths of my heart.
A desire is called heart and the fourth phase of my desire is what is most concealed from me. Sometimes when it is revealed I tremble from what is there. And this aspect is felt by the Light, contacts it, because it’s like the four letter name of the Creator.
The last phase is actually found in contact with the upper phase Keter. A yearning for connection appears in it which is opposite that of “Keter”: It either wants to control it completely (in which case this phase is called “Pharaoh” who wants all the Light held within itself), or the opposite, it wants to resemble “Keter,” the characteristic of bestowal.
We have no control over this phase, in fact we don’t sense it and don’t feel it. Here all kinds of practical actions are required! This is not just sitting and meditating; the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t recognize this! All this doesn’t exist! You can go deeply into yourself, think that you could have all kinds of intentions, but all these are internal investigations that are ultimately determined by preliminary work and work that follows. These investigations are compulsory only to understand what I have attained, how much I can feel who I am at the present moment.
Therefore, if we truly want to summon the surrounding Light onto ourselves, action is required; as a result, the influence of the Light gives form to the right yearning of our desire in its latest aspect. As it is written, “The Creator puts the prayer in my mouth.” Even if the person is not thinking about anything, but mechanically carries out what is necessary, in the end, it will result in his most normal thoughts transforming into the most wondrous thoughts.
And the opposite is also true. The warning exists: “His wisdom exceeds his actions.” This is not allowed! It is believed that when a person’s wisdom exceeds his deeds, he kills himself spiritually. All kinds of philosophies, intentions, thoughts, and studying from morning to night is not good. Our world is a world of action. We are found in the last phase of the world of Assiya, translated as “action.”
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Two” 7/13/13, Lesson 3
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The Creator vacates a place for Himself within us, giving us a feeling of coldness. But essentially this is not coldness or distancing. We were in a state of cohesion in our small group. Now the Creator extended this circle, and we feel that we don’t have control over the empty place that is created.
If it keeps on going this way, ultimately all the memories of the past will disappear and we will return again to the beastly state. Why does the Creator do this? So that now, while we are feeling how He is moving away from us and how the feeling of our unity dissolves, we will want to fill this empty place with the Creator. Because we understand that we are not ready to retain and keep the warm feelings that were there with our own powers and that it’s going further and further away. That is how the Creator empties a new place within us where His presence and His control must be felt.
The first thing is that we want to return to a feeling of connection. The second thing is that in order to remain in it, we need the Creator’s control instead of the emptiness that was created.
Our goal is connection, and the means for attaining it is the Creator. And now we need to switch their places, the Creator becomes the goal and the connection becomes the means. So we make a new clarification all the time and implement the opposite.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/13
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