Opinion (Dasha Gasanova): “The culture of smoking tobacco in the developed countries of the world is more than 500 years old. But the fight against tobacco only started in the 20^th century, in parallel, the creation of monopolies in the sales of tobacco and growth in profit.

“For a long time these processes occurred simultaneously where, as the doctors warned about the dangers the manufacturers filled the pockets. Now there is no doubt that heart diseases, cancer growths and respiratory disease are directly connected to smoking tobacco.

“However, tobacco smoking was never considered as a dangerous practice for the public, in contrast to drug addiction.  It is very difficult to find a junkie who is identified as a positive image in any of the various human cultures. It is long considered that to engage in drug use is despicable, inappropriate, and is pursued rigidly as a criminal offense and condemned by society.

“There is no sensible person who doubts the damage to health caused by drugs. And this is in addition to the physical feelings that a junkie has, and the people close to him who are directly harmed.

“Here it is interesting to see the transformation, the ‘somersault’ of American society and top legislative and executive leadership regarding the use of marijuana, in the direction of supporting the legalization of this habit. Where did the conservatism and continuation of the moral foundations of America’s founding fathers go?

“In the last decade, in many states within the US, the smoking of drugs pushed out the smoking of tobacco – the active fight against tobacco cleaned up the area for use of grass, all according to the law.

“The deadly consequences of the use of grass persist for decades.

“In the case of grass, both the American doctors and those marketing the marijuana, find themselves on the same side of the barricade.  The doctors calmly relate to the subject of drug addiction, even when it is clear to them that it is much more difficult to be rehabilitated from grass than from tobacco.”

My Comment: According to the plans of the American elite, there is a need to euthanize most of humanity until the population naturally decreases to 1-2 billion people. There is no other “quiet” means. Thus, the decision was made on a global scale to make “soft” drugs legal and to market them. The tobacco companies were forced to keep quiet. And the same order was given to the media. The negative attitude concerning tobacco and the positive attitude towards marijuana is spreading from the US to the rest of the world.
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Question: Sometimes it is absolutely clear to me that I am totally dependent on my good or bad feelings. In fact, this is the only thing that worries me, but I listen to the advice that I should ascend above that and try to justify the Creator despite everything I feel. What is my work if I see that I only care about what I feel? How should I exert myself?

Answer: You need to hate your reactions to what is going on.

Question: But I tell myself that it is my nature and therefore I have no control over it.

Answer: This is a true and simple excuse, but I must summon upon myself the influence of a different nature that exists in reality, the influence of the Creator, the influence of the Light that is in the group. Then I will feel to what extent my nature, which is to receive, is opposite from that nature of bestowal, and then I will begin to get to know it.

Question: How can I awaken the second nature?

Answer: It is through the group. I spur the powers that allow me to discover the nature of bestowal by the right attitude to the group, in the relationships between the friends who are connected in mutual love and who speak about a certain advancement that I don’t understand. I look at them and don’t understand what they engage in. I keep hearing everyone talking about the group, about connection, and about frameworks that we have to build.

I don’t understand what they need all that for. It is true that Kabbalists tell us about that, but not explicitly. It is enough. We have read about that and now we can go on to something else. I don’t distinguish the internal changes yet, and the information and the scientific interpretation of things is quite enough for me. But why do I need to change myself with regard to society?

Question: So, how can I sharpen my attitude toward the group in order to be more strongly influenced by it?

Answer: This is the reason we live in this world. It is because here we can perform actions in corporeality and not in our desire. We can feel corporeal and not spiritual shame.

I enter the group, and want to be incorporated in it and to remain there. Then I am told that in order to remain in the group, I must take part in different duties, to come to the morning lesson every day, and so forth. If you don’t want to, you must leave. There are rules, and you must participate in the group together with everyone else. This obliges me to be incorporated, to be among the friends.

Then, whether I like to or not, I find myself in a workshop where everyone talks about the fact that I must see myself as small and all the others as great. This is what is accepted in our group, and I follow the others and speak in the same vein, “Guys, you know that everyone must lower his head before the friends because this is wonderful,” and they also tell me that it is wonderful!

No one does anything yet, but the Light that Reforms operates on us in the meantime and changes us. Gradually I begin to have a new insight that if I really see myself as small, I will benefit greatly. It is actually by annulling myself that I will attain the Creator. This is why it is worthwhile.

This is an incentive to advance spiritually. Perhaps it is a private egoistic incentive, but it is an effective one. Then the environment, the teacher, the study, and the workshops begin to affect me anew. The Creator sends me increasingly more advanced, finer, and more internal new states and situations, and I must sort them out time after time in order to use them correctly for my advancement. So, it turns out that the egoistic nature is not an obstacle. We all start from it.

Question: Do these changes take place in me automatically?

Answer: These changes take place according to my exertion. If I don’t exert myself, I don’t feel the changes. In fact, the changes take place all the time, but I perceive only a small part of them (one millionth) and respond to one millionth of what I perceive. When we advance in our world, we become more sensitive, sensitive to changes.

The whole spiritual world is in very high spiritual frequencies that cannot be perceived. When we ascend toward the Light, we transcend to very high frequencies that are above the attributes of our world. This is the reason that we must be prepared for rapid changes of qualitative states.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 67: When a person from Israel enhances and dignifies one’s internality, which is the Israel in that person, over the externality, which are the nations of the world in him, that is, when one dedicates the majority of one’s efforts to enhance and exalt one’s internality, to benefit one’s soul, and gives minor efforts, the mere necessity, to sustain the nations of the world in him, meaning the bodily needs, as it is written (Avot, 1), “Make your Torah permanent and your labor temporary,” by so doing, one makes the children of Israel soar upwards in the internality and externality of the world as well, and the nations of the world, which are the externality, to recognize and acknowledge the value of the Children of Israel.

If we attribute ourselves to the upper part, to GE, to the part of Israel in the nation of Israel, we have no obligation to turn to the public and to disseminate among those who belong to AHP until we ascend as high as we can by our connection and unity, until we reach actual mutual guarantee, until we receive the Light that Reforms by this unity, which will really connect us.

Then the illumination will flow from us to the AHP, since there will be a contrast in the general vessel: there will be more Light in its GE part while in its AHP part it will be the exact opposite. On the whole, the nations of the world will acknowledge the importance of the vessels of bestowal called Israel. Those who are the external part will be able to recognize the internal part and this will be the direct outcome of our internal correction.

Therefore, if we connect and unite, even those who are against, who have nothing to do with this work, also receive an illumination from it by which it becomes clear to them that we have the Light while they are in the dark.

“And if, God forbid, it is to the contrary, and an individual from Israel enhances and appreciates one’s externality, which is the nations of the world in him, more than the inner Israel in him, as it is written (Deuteronomy 28:43), ‘The stranger that is in the midst of thee shall mount up above thee higher and higher; and thou shalt come down lower and lower,’ meaning the externality in that person rises and soars, and you yourself, the internality, the Israel in you, plunges down? With these actions, one causes the externality of the world in general, the nations of the world, to soar ever higher and overcome Israel, degrading them to the ground, and the children of Israel, the internality in the world, to plunge deep down.”

The nations of the world grow stronger when the part of Israel doesn’t function properly in the vessel. Then the darkness becomes thick, the children of Israel fall from their level, and the externality in them overcomes the internality until the destructive forces totally smash and humiliate them…
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Hard Days Under the Siege of Egoism

The upper system of governance acts in accordance with concrete, rigid laws that have numerous parameters and define our calendar.

The Christian calendar is based on solar cycles; as for the Muslim calendar, it is linked to lunar rotation. Judaism takes both solar and lunar circulation into consideration.

This is why the Jewish calendar is permanent. In other words, throughout all of history, starting with the first man Adam, who lived several thousand years ago, and up to today, any event that ever took place on the face of Earth can be predicted and calculated: Pesach (Passover), Shavuot, Sukkot, etc. It’s possible to tell what year, month, or week these holidays will take place in the future.

All sunrises and sunsets can be clearly calculated as well as in what proportion days and nights will be split into hours of light (day) and night (dark).

The Jewish calendar is very precise. It is built on astronomical formulas and embraces the entirety of nature. It is possible due to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

There are special dates in the calendar, i.e., favorable and unfavorable times that are outlined by either enhancement of egoism or the prevailing of the energy of love. These two forces, the right and left, usually are balanced out and constitute the middle line.

Due to this state of affairs, there exists an unfavorable period that starts on the 17^th of the month of Tammuz and lasts until the 9^th of Av. This period has been considered negative for thousands of years throughout all generations. For the duration of this period, it is common to mourn since the upper force of bestowal and love conceals itself in this world.

Various disasters happen to the people of Israel because they are connected with the higher power. On the contrary, the nations of the world that are interlaced with the evil force of egoism are especially successful during this period.

Question: It looks fatal and inevitable, is that so?

Answer: Yes, it’s inevitable because spiritual and material roots are connected. The spiritual system that governs this world moves the sun, the moon and the Earth. It rotates the entire universe.

Accordingly, the force of the upper governance influences not only astronomic objects of the Universe that are yet at a still developmental level, but also impacts the vegetative and animate levels.

We see that each plant goes through yearly cycles of flourishing and wilting. Animals as well are subject to yearly cycles; they multiply during certain periods of the year since they are connected with the governing system. Only humans are not subject to the influence of the cycles since they are not limited by inanimate, vegetative, or animate stages of nature.

Humans depend on inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature because this is where they get their nourishment. However, they do not conform to laws of nature the way plants and animals do. Yet, humans also go through good and bad periods because they are governed by nature at the speaking level.

If we rise above our nature, bad periods transform into the most benevolent ones and become immeasurably better than our happiest times. It all depends solely on us human beings. To make this happen, we are granted the wisdom of Kabbalah.

It means that the period between the 17^th of Tammuz and the 9^th of Av is very harsh for the people of Israel since evil is activated strongly during this period. The only reason for the emerging of the evil is to make it transform into the good. So far, we are not ready for that, nor do we have energy for such transformation.

Our unity has not yet reached a degree at which we attract a benevolent power of the upper governance that acts in this world and helps us unite even more and pour out the force of unity into this world, thus changing for the better.

Question: Does it mean that human relationships define the destiny of the entire universe?

Answer: The Creator is nature. The upper force of nature called “the Creator” influences us from above, that is, from outside to inside us. We have an ability to rearrange this situation, make it opposite, thus impacting it by acting from the inside out, from bottom up. By doing so, we change reality. This is our job.

To be continued…
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/5/15

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Preparation for the Lesson 

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Lesson on the Topic: “European Convention,” Lesson #3

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Writings of Rabash “Rungs of the Ladder,” “What Is the Foundation on Which Kedusha (Holiness) Is Built”

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 89

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The Torah, “Numbers” 13:17 – 13:22: And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them: “Get you up here into the South, and go up into the mountains; and see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds; and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes. So they went up, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, at the entrance to Hamath. And they went up into the South, and came unto Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.

This is talking about very strong forces acting against the children of Israel. It is also the place itself, Hebron, and the time of the first fruit of the grapes, which symbolize the fruit of Hochma and also Anak and his three children.

In general, everything is working against the possibility of the person overcoming the obstacles; he has no forces for this. Here this requires a new force, the characteristic of bestowal, which they didn’t succeed in attaining in the wilderness. So how could they get it now on the border? This is not understood. So they go back and tell everything that they saw. From their side there were no sins; the only thing they say is: “With what we have, we cannot control the ego that stands in front of us. We don’t know what to do. There is no answer.”

In principle, they carried out their mission absolutely correctly; they discovered everything that there is correctly. And further, this was not even any of their business. The problem is just that they drew the wrong conclusion in that they decide that it is forbidden for them to go forward. We don’t need to stop. We need to search for another way, to search for the power of faith above reason, do something, but not give up on the next level of ascent.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/30/15

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We are approaching a major crisis—financial, military, leadership, and political—a universal crisis fraught with the collapse of core systems. All of the top universities, a huge army, leading banks, and thousands of tons of gold in the vaults—none of this will help.

If connection between systems is severed, everything falls apart. Likewise, an organism also dies if healthy organs are deprived of interconnection due to a failure of the nervous, circulatory, or lymphatic systems.

This is exactly what is happening today in every country and in relations between countries, and only we can bring back to life the vital systems of the global body. We are doctors who will hook them up to an IV and revive the connections, domestic and international. This is the only way the world can survive.

This method is rooted in us, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, and we are approaching the stage when it will be necessary to implement it within the people of Israel, and then, by way of example, pass it on to others. Everyone will have a need for it: America, China, India, Russia, the Islamic world, and Europe. It will become our core commodity.

I hope that in the next two or three years, if not sooner, humanity will realize that this is the only thing it needs. Moreover, people will see that only Jews have it, and they will come to us with the most important demand, the age-old grievance of anti-Semites, “This is what you have, but you are not giving it to us.” At last, we will be glad to share our assets.

Question: What exactly is this commodity?

Answer: It is a method of connecting people from which arises the unity of people and governments, of all parts of a nation, of all parties and movements. Let everyone have their own opinion and their own direction, but we will learn to unite above everything, as it is written, “love covers all transgressions.”

Then, every country will become unified as one, after which it will understand how it can complement the others, and thus international unity will arise. Thus, all of humanity will become truly one whole.

It is written about this, “…for they shall all know Me from their smallest to their greatest,” and “…My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” This is what we need to come to. Therein is the salvation of the nation of Israel. It is not with America, but with each other that we need to build correct relationships, and only then will we save ourselves and the entire world.

Our real weapon, the true means of salvation, is the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah. It structures our relationship with the world through a higher system of governance and through the providence of nature itself, the nature of creation. Through it, we can truly influence the entire world for the better.

People accuse us of wielding a secret power over the world, and indeed, we truly are capable of leading it, but only on condition that we do so responsibly, if we bring humanity to a good interconnection and a true universal unification.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/4/15

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Exiled for Thousands of Years

After destruction of the First Temple, the Babylonian exile began. Purim events described in Megillat Esther took place during this period of time.

The hardships of exile forced the Jewish people to return to the land of Israel and enhance their unity.

They managed to build a good, strong connection among them even though their unity was not quite the same level as it was previously. They returned from Babylon with a new higher degree of egoism and strong selfish desires that they picked up from other nations.

It was as if they returned to Babylon that they once abandoned, submerged in the bubbling egoism, and then again returned to Israel. However, this time they were unable to build relationships as faithful, strong, and wonderful as they had initially. So, they decided to build something less complicated, that is, to create the type of connection called the “Second Temple.”

They were intertwined with each other but still divided into various confronting groups and clans. As a result, a new round of collapsing began. It’s very important to realize that unity can be reached only for a moment; after this moment, for centuries people slid down from the height of unity.

This is what happened to the Second Temple. The First Temple lasted for several centuries and then collapsed. The Second Temple repeated this pattern.

Great Kabbalist, Rabbi Akiva, lived at the time of the Second Temple. He made every effort to strengthen unity among the people of Israel.

Unfortunately, an unexplainable hatred instead of brotherly love suddenly appeared among his disciples who numbered 24,000 people. Distorted connection among them didn’t allow them to sense a magnificent “circle” that embraces the entire universe.

Detachment among Rabbi Akiva’s students accelerated the collapse of the Second Temple, i.e., hastened annihilation of their internal connection. This explains why they once again were exiled. The exile has lasted or two thousand years, until now.

To be continued
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/5/15

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Question: What do you mean by the term “group”? Are these the people who are around us all the time: family and friends?

Answer: A group is an association of people who have one goal, one purpose. They eliminate all kinds of misunderstandings between them and act like a single fist, all of whose fingers are different but connected together into a single unified force.

In addition to this, our group must possess a particular characteristic. If they have a common goal, then they gather together to create a force for attaining this goal. This force can only give Light, and we can only get the Light needed for advancement with the help of Arvut (mutual guarantee).

This means that when I take the desires of someone else and want to correct and fulfill them, then I am like the Light, it shines within me and I am included in a group as a source of Light even though I am getting it from a higher power station because I want to give fulfillment to others.

If all of us act like this, then we become connected through mutual Arvut and advance towards a common goal. On every level of our growing spiritual advancement we get more Light, which connects us more tightly and we advance forward. This is what is called a group.

I think that we have already begun this action and have truly begun to feel that the foundation for our success is inherent in this. It used to be that some of the people understand this and some of them not as much. Now we “comb” everyone with a single comb, a single size, a single style. Now all of us have straightened the line, we know and understand the same thing. This is very important because everyone will now have an identical understanding of the material and the goal of the movement.

This was the biggest problem for everyone because there are many groups among us that are far from each other, and on the one hand, this created a great potential opportunity for advancement, but on the other hand, all the groups were on different levels and didn’t understand each other.

But now we are doing this for one single whole and have truly become one big group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/14, Writings of Rabash

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