In the News (from ScienceDaily): A new study co-authored by an MIT professor suggests that many people are, in fact, heavily influenced by the positive opinions other people express online – but are much less swayed by negative opinions posted in the same venues. Certain topics, including politics, see much more of this “herding” effect than others. …

“This herding behavior happens systematically on positive signals of quality and ratings,’ says Sinan Aral, an associate professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and one of three authors of the study. …

“’People are more skeptical of negative social influence,’ Aral says. ‘They’re more likely to ‘correct’ a negative vote and give it a positive vote.’

“While this phenomenon of social positivity sounds pleasant enough on the surface, Aral warns that there are pitfalls to it, such as the manipulation of online ratings by some political operatives, marketers or anyone who stands to profit by creating an exaggerated appearance of popularity. …

“In turn, Aral suggests, we should be as analytical as possible when it comes to harnessing collective judgments.

“’We have to be careful about the design and analysis of systems that try to aggregate the wisdom of crowds,’ Aral says.”

My Comment: So, even though the wisdom of crowds is closer to the truth, but in an egoistic space, no one can be sure that this option is not used by selfish individualists, and we should not trust this indicator on the Internet until we correct egoism and get rid of cheaters.
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Torah, “Exodus,” Mishpatim (Laws), 21:22: “And should men quarrel and hit a pregnant woman, and she miscarries but there is no fatality, he shall surely be punished, when the woman’s husband makes demands of him, and he shall give (restitution) according to the judges’ (orders).”

It refers to two contradictory forces that struggle with each other in a man to the extent that their fight kills the fetus of his next stage.

If this happens, they are obligated to replenish the loss they have caused, but it should not be of a material or physical nature, which is common in this corporeal world, but rather should replenish the state that was lost and elevate it to the same level as before the damage.

By the way, this is a routine problem that constantly happens at transitional stages between levels since there is always a possibility for these forces to collide, thus creating a chance of a miscarriage.

This is why it is said that a woman does not die and can still give birth.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/20/13

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Question: Could you please outline in a couple of words the scheme of our relationships with the Creator.

Answer: The Creator is a source of pleasure. He created us as pleasure-seeking entities. However, His task is to teach us not to pursue bliss per se (since in this case we just turn into thoughtless animals, robots), but rather to teach us to love Him, the One who grants us delight, instead of being attracted to pleasures directly.

What does He have to do in order to achieve this goal? He has to gradually show us, which does not give us pleasure, so that we can build our direct relationship to Him, rather than aspire to the delights that He gives us.

This is a game: more pleasure – less pleasure, and in response to our response: our attitude to the bliss that comes out of the Creator or to the Creator Himself.
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Question: After I have already annulled myself in front of my friends, what else should I do?

Answer: By nullifying oneself, one becomes as a drop of semen that enters a uterus and attaches to its lining. Then, the spiritual fetus has to grow. It starts receiving blood (desires associated with the inanimate level) that adds more material substance to it. Later, this inanimate material will to turn into a vegetative substance, then it will develop into animate and speaking levels.

All of a sudden, one feels hatred toward the upper and thus one has to work on it in order to nullify oneself again. Because of this self-annulling, one shapes oneself similar to the upper, since one becomes receptive of everything that the upper gives him. It’s said that “a fetus in its mother’s waters sees the entire world from one end to another. A candle is lit above his head (the Light of Keter) and he is taught the whole Torah.” The Light hits all of his 620 desires and corrects them by adding the intention to bestow to them.

All of the above happens as a result of self-annulling. There is nothing else we should do, nothing but this: Our advancement starts with self-annulling. Each new step of ours is just a new level of self-annihilation. One rescinds oneself and the upper starts working on him as his mother’s uterus. Same as in regular life, a fetus conforms to its mother. It’s as if it doesn’t yet exist, nor does it understand or feel a thing; All the fetus does is totally annul itself. Later, we start nullifying ourselves at higher levels, Ruach, HGT.

Then, a period of “feeding” (nourishment) begins; it’s about self-annulment that is even bigger than the previous stage. The upper demonstrates to us that He acts and that some of His actions are recognized by our egoism as incorrect and even terrible. Look at what the Creator does to the world, what affliction He causes in people! All our problems are originated by Him.

When corrupt desires wake up in us, we feel them as a manifestation of the Creator’s horrible attitude to creation. It means that real egoistic powers (Klipot) rebel in us. We have to “disregard” ourselves and accept these situations by going with faith above reason and regard them as the best circumstances that could have happened to us.

We receive energy for self-negation from our friends, from our “ten.” There is no other place for spiritual revelation; we exist only in this group. The power comes from the Creator to us only through this group of people. Before, we were all equal, but now we see our friends as very big ones. We were the ones who made them look big, whereas they in fact remain the same, but due to our self-nullification, we start receiving nourishment through them as a fetus from his mother.

We can receive the entire world of infinity through them, since as we speak we are in it, but we don’t see or feel this endless Light only because of our corrupt properties. So, if we continue working correctly, we can receive everything through our “tens” to the degree of our self-nullification. This process doesn’t depend on our friends at all. Their task is just to stay ready to do the same thing to at least some extent, this will already be enough so that through them we will achieve the state of the world of infinity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/13, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: But because of the descent of human nature to the lowest degree, which is the self-love that unrestrictedly rules over all of humanity, there was no way to negotiate with them and persuade them to agree to take upon themselves, even as an empty promise, to exit their narrow world, into the wide spaces of the love of others. The exception was the Israeli nation because they were enslaved in the savage kingdom of Egypt four hundred years in horrible torments.

These torments were caused by the attempts made by the sons of Israel to rise above their egoism (both individual and collective) in order to achieve the state of love among them. Would Babylonians really follow Abraham if he had told them exactly what they would undergo if they joined his group? Nevertheless, gradually, out of hopelessness, we come to a state at which all we aspire to is bestowal. We strive to give, although it’s irrational and illogical. We simply feel like giving and that’s it, since we are under the Light’s influence. This desire is so huge that we cannot run away from it. We look at our friends and each of them looks close, dear, and beloved. Afterward, it’s the entire world that we regard similarly.

Question: Still… Will I get rid of afflictions on my way?

Answer: By all means you will, but it will happen when your desires and plans will exactly coincide with the Creator’s wishes and ideas. So far, they are opposite to the Creator’s, so what can you expect? We all are in a state of a constant confrontation with Him.

At the same time, it doesn’t mean that we have to surrender and simply wait for the time when we enter spirituality. Even now, way in advance, we can make a decision from now on to view the world from the Creator’s point of view, from the angle of the property of bestowal. If we act this way and get used to this approach the world will suddenly change into a benevolent place in our eyes.

Moreover, after we manage to get rid of the obstacles, we will regard this world as the world of infinity. Today, we see it generally as a corrupt and dreadful place, but that’s how we currently regard infinity. This is the way we envision infinity… At the same time, we don’t want the Creator to change us, but rather the “picture” drawn in our imagination. Then again, it’s the Upper Light! It doesn’t change! Only our internal properties are subject to modification.

Let’s go back to affliction: They won’t go away immediately since we are not “jumping” into infinity by making one huge and powerful leap. Instead, we climb the stairs that sometimes are associated with quite unpleasant material conditions. However, at the other level there is a different type of calculations that are interlinked with the general system, not only with us personally.

We see that even the righteous people suffer, for example Rabbi Akiva. However, in fact, we cannot take the place of those who are already in bestowal.

When we watch their sufferings from aside, we don’t understand their internal world and their vision. Baal HaSulam writes about this in his article “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/13, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of  Baal HaSulam,“Igrot,” Letter 47

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 6, Item, Part 15

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace“

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Evil forces have no free will. It seems to us that some people or nations intentionally cause us suffering, having committed crimes in history. But all of this is a direct consequence of the system’s work, which in addition to the Creator has only one element able to influence the system—us, the ones who have the opportunity for independent work, free actions, thoughts, and intentions.

So, don’t blame anyone. The Creator is good and brings good, and the laws that He has established work in the world and cannot be transgressed. It turns out that in the whole system of worlds, in the entire universe, just we alone have the power to change something in reality.

We are in the vast ocean of Light, reason, wisdom, and the program of creation, like on a tiny raft. And we can influence this ocean so that we would feel confident in it, safe, and calm, but we can also cause a violent storm in this ocean. Everything depends on us!

All the other parts of creation, except us, do not change. The Light is in a state of absolute rest, and the vessel, desire, is completely dependent on the Light. And only we in the middle between them have freedom of choice. Therefore, apart from us, no one can change anything because they fully obey the higher management. It is the system through which the Creator influences us in order to straighten our paths and bring us closer to Himself.

It is said that “Pharaoh brought the children of Israel closer to the Creator.” Each sacrifice (Kurban) brings closer (Karov) to Him, and it depends only on how we use our own free choice.

So, we cannot wait and waste a moment; we are obliged to do our work as much as possible. In reality nothing will change, except what we change by our own efforts.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/20/13, Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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Question: How can we hold on to the group if we get a new form, a new burdening of the heart, and it is difficult to justify the Creator?

Answer: Anyone who is included in the group, from time to time gets new forms, passes through ups and downs. And between them, he passes a breakpoint on the top of the wave crest and on the lower, the point of rupture, breaking. It is possible to stay in such conditions only if you are connected with some kind of support that will hold you. If you have nothing remaining of the old form and you have no new form, but only one Reshimo, then you are as if suspended in the air.

There are several such moments in the states of ascent and descent, when a person loses any orientation, completely breaking away from the old form. It’s like he begins his life anew, from a drop of semen, he starts from the state that he has nothing, from “nothing” (Ayin) because our material is being updated, “emerging out of nothing” (Yesh mi-Ain).

The Reshimo is a pure information gene, without any material. When the material, emerging out of nothing is updated, you seemingly go through an energy barrier. As if you come with your material to a wall, run into it, but only the Reshimo, energy, can pass through that wall. And behind the wall, the Reshimo acquires material again—up to the next wall. Only some information passes through another wall, and so you advance.

When you turn into an information gene, it is no longer you, but the very Reshimo that “emerged from nothing,” created by the Creator in the original act of creation (Maase Beresheet). Now, a part of this initial action of creation is happening to you, and the same thing with any other. It means: “Every day updating the actions of Creation.”

A new form is a new life, new heaven, new earth, everything anew. Even a person just starting out his path feels the first such change in himself, as if changing his clothes—10 Sefirot. This is a new perception, a new sensation, a new attitude. Sometimes this transition takes a long time and the person gets in a vague state, as in a fog. The main thing is to understand that this development is typical for the human, unlike animals.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We must learn from nature in everything because nature resembles the Creator. Perhaps I bring too many examples from nature: from infancy, childhood, and the period of embryonic development. Yet the revelation of the Creator is expressed in our world in this form. And only if we rise from this physical form to the spiritual form will we attain everything.

Confidence must be solely and only by our dependence on what is higher—only the Light—and all clarifications are through it. Meanwhile we only nullify ourselves in its presence. After we attain more advanced states, our desire to receive will grow to the next level, then we can become more actively nullified before what is higher through practical actions. I mean, I myself carry out actions similar to what is higher.

Yet first of all I need to grow. The embryo doesn’t know what actions its mother is carrying out. And the infant doesn’t understand at first what that which is higher is doing with him. He doesn’t feel where he is. After that, gradually he begins to absorb what is happening, he reacts, smiles at his mother in response. These are levels in the discovery of what is higher by what is lower.

When we were in the “embryonic” state, the embryo doesn’t yet feel this in and only needs to be nullified in relation to what is higher. With this we provide ourselves with a level of confidence.

Confidence, like all phenomena in our world that are felt due to a desire for pleasure, is aroused through the Light, through illumination from above. But if I depend upon what is higher, there cannot be any insecurity in me; on the contrary, I am sure that I am found within Him. And if I am not found in it but near it, then this is an even higher level of confidence, since I am sure that I am already prepared to go out from Him and become like Him.

From this we need to understand, that all of our work is carried out in conditions of darkness and detachment from that which is higher. And the more we advance, the more we feel detachment from the upper, so that we will attract illumination from it ourselves, which is called “confidence.”

The more a person advances with the descents that the Creator sends to him, the more he will feel himself detached from the upper, more empty, foolish, dependent, lacking understanding and feeling, becoming more like a “beast.” And suddenly all the previous knowledge and feeling that he had before disappears. In moments like these, a person feels terrible, yet we must understand that specifically states like these are most useful for acquiring “faith.” In them, we are completely cut off from the upper, are on the level of the “beast,” and therefore we require the Light of “faith”— like every life form in our world, like an infant who wants to cling to his mother. Otherwise, he will feel lost and will not know how to live and what to do with himself.

Indeed, when we later rise from a state like this, the Light gives us a bit of confidence and a little understanding of what needs to be done. And then it’s up to us to pass from the level of the animate to the level of the “speaking.” We no longer want such a degree of confidence like an infant, lacking understanding, or like an animal completely dependent on its owner. We want the Light of confidence so that we will give ourselves over to the higher power, so that we will be attracted to it, so that we will depend on it, not out of our weakness but the opposite. Even though I have the power of confidence and understanding, in everything I still nullify myself absolutely in relation to the Creator!

I require confidence not so as to feel sure and good with my desire for pleasure; rather the opposite, I want to feel more insecurity and dependence on the Creator. This is so that I will cling to Him more and more. Not in order to gain peace of mind, rather to show Him how much I value His position, His height, renouncing all egoistic fulfillments.

I renounce these pleasures and only want to cling to what is higher with all my heart and soul. I want my confidence to become clothing for the Upper Light, and not use it in the name of my personal pleasure. It is in this form that we grow to even higher levels in the spiritual worlds.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/09/13, Shamati #72 “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light”

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