Question: How can we be impressed by friends and receive inspiration from them?

Answer: It depends on how much you value your friend, how great he is in your eyes. This way, you can be inspired by him and use his state as your energy. This happens in our lives too.

Question: Discovering that a friend loves me, is this the feeling of Shechina? How can we remember this love in the background of changing relationships?

Answer: When you are feeling the love of a friend for you, you should be able to appreciate it, raise yourself to the same level, treat him appropriately, and he should also treat you in the same way. You must connect your attitudes to each other so that the Creator will be revealed between them.

Question: When disagreements and tensions arise within me toward the friends, should I bring this up for discussion in the group, or is internal work within myself enough?

Answer: Basically, internal work is enough for you to start correcting yourself above things that are happening. However, if not, then you can turn to the group. You have to correct these states either by yourself or with others. But it is necessary to correct them.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

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Question: In ancient times in Israel, people who inadvertently harmed someone were placed in cities of refuge until the special jubilee year (Shmita Yovel). What happened if a person did not correct himself by that year? Was he still forgiven?

Answer: No. In the society where he lived, they would work on him. Punishment, of course, existed, but not in the form of imprisonment.

A person must be in an environment that not directly, but indirectly explains to him how to be a different element of society. And so, after some time, he receives a certain influence.

Give that criminal an opportunity to work and study philosophy, psychology, and other sciences; place him in a different environment so that he is in close contact with the others. This is the only way to influence a person.

And we, on the contrary, throw him into an environment of even greater criminals for whom perpetrating a crime is a brave deed. As a result, he comes out ready for new criminal actions.

Is this called punishment? This is called isolating him from society! You prepare him for more crimes. This is what we see.

We ourselves created such a society and systems of punishment. And according to Kabbalah, there should be a system not of punishment, but of correction.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Presumption of innocence” 3/10/10

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Winning the War (Against the Evil Inclination)”

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”

Selected Highlights

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The situation in the world is becoming more explosive every day. The entire world is rigorously following the rapid development of events in Ukraine. Kabbalists, however, do not deal with politics and geographical boundaries.

Kabbalists want only one thing: to add love or at least to decrease hatred wherever possible and reduce the confrontation between people, and we must help to do that.

Therefore, the main tool is prayer. If with its help we manage to cause greater connection among people, it will be for the benefit of humanity and to delight the Creator. The Creator had to create creatures to be opposite to Him, broken, so that humanity would ask for connection above hatred and rejection. Then we will understand, feel, and discover what unity means.

The main thing is to reveal the force of connection. There cannot be one without the other. Therefore, the Creator suffers more than everyone, but He has no choice, He had to create nature in this form. Our task is to try with our prayer, desire, and plea to force Him to correct everything. He is waiting for our request for correction and He will do everything right away. He needs nothing but our desire.

The only thing that is initially missing in creation is our desire to be equivalent to the good force of the Creator. The Creator needs the desire of the created beings, so He created the entire creation in deficiency. And we need to reveal this deficiency.

Therefore, until we ask for peace, fulfillment, perfection, love, and connection, it will not happen. We need to want connection at all levels to the full measure. By this, all of nature, all the worlds, will return to the completely corrected state where we are all connected and all of us will reveal the force of connection, which is eternal and complete.

The Messiah is not a person, but a force, a spirit that appears and disappears according to our desire. When we want to come closer to each other, it comes, and when we do not want to, it leaves. Messiah is a force that pulls (Moshech) us from our egoism to bestowal, love, and connection.

Therefore, if we understand that we need this force that will pull us from the bad into a good state, from separation to connection, from hatred to love, then we are calling on the Messiah. Let’s do it together.

The main problem is the indifference inherent in our nature. Sometimes a specific incident or a wounded animal touches our heart more than a war between countries. In the meantime, we exist in egoistic qualities that are not corrected.

This is why we care about things that are close to our hearts. A small breakdown in your own home worries everyone more than world events, supernova star explosions, or a hurricane on the other side of Earth. This is how our egoism depicts reality to us.

However, if we together with all our might ask the Creator to let us feel in the tens what it means to exit ourselves and feel the force that operates between us, then we will begin to reveal the upper force that resides among us. Then we will begin to notice things in the world that are more important to the Creator and not to our individual egoism.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/22, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: I have a feeling that the world is heading toward Armageddon. In a bit of time, just another year or two, something will happen that will make the virus that has spread all over the planet seem to us as just a toy. What is happening in the world? What does Kabbalah say about this?

Answer: I speak only from the perspective of Kabbalah as I have been studying it for almost 50 years.

The world is moving toward its correction. It has a certain developmental program, and the program is carried out whether it is wanted or not, either with a little bloodshed or with a lot, but it is still being carried out.

Now we face a big task: to make everyone understand that in the modern world we can exist only if we have goodwill in bringing people closer together. Unfortunately, this is not happening yet. Therefore, we see opposite results.

But I know that the program will still lead us forward, either by blows or carrots, to the understanding that we can exist only with the mutual support of all people around the world. We will have to come to that.
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From KabTV’s “Meetings with Kabbalah” 1/5/22

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My new article on Linkedin “Between Despair and Hope”

Tens of thousands of civilians cross Ukraine’s borders every hour, a mass of people laden with bags on their backs and children on their shoulders, with suitcases and memories dragging behind them.

I have many students and friends in cities all over Ukraine, from Kiev to Kharkiv, from Odessa to Lviv. I receive reports from them and follow their situation with concern. They tell me how they sought shelter in cold basements or fled to nearby villages, others sped westward in their cars for hours, praying that they would not run out of fuel and manage to escape.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that more than 500,000 Ukrainians have fled their homes as a result of the conflict, crossing the borders into neighboring countries such as Poland, Hungary, Moldova and Romania.

I have no doubt that the refugees will receive support and a warm embrace in Western European countries. I also believe that they will eventually return home and not stay permanently in host countries. Canada among others may open its doors to permanent immigration.

Israel, too, will surely act in accordance with the Law of Return, which gives Jews the right to relocate to Israel, and open its arms to welcome them. Israel has a place not only for the thousands of Jews who will emigrate from Eastern Europe, but for all Jews of the Diaspora.

Meanwhile, the world, including Israel, is helping with humanitarian aid to those affected by the conflict. But besides meeting people’s basic needs, the most important help is inner support. We must ask that the spirit of love, bestowal and positive connection will soon prevail.

Disagreements and wars come so that we can unite above them. Only the unity of hearts, when each cares for the well-being of the other, will save humanity.
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Medium published my new article “Heal the Wounds”

An old wound between the Russians and Ukrainians is being aggravated. It is sore and bleeding but not fully reopened. Just as Eastern European countries are now experiencing conflict, this will be felt throughout the world, in all of humanity. Eventually, everyone will experience the revelation of this war firsthand: man’s control over man.

Just as Eastern European countries are now experiencing conflict, this will be felt throughout the world, in all of humanity. Eventually, everyone will experience the revelation of this war firsthand: man’s control over man.

Before this war broke out, this ill feeling was not visible or tangible. It was deep and even slightly dormant. I remember images from the past when Russian and Ukrainian soldiers met; there was a faint inner connection between them, as if they already knew each other. And they are indeed psychologically close; they have an extensive common background.

On the other hand, with the outbreak of this war, acute hatred between them has risen to the surface, a sort of hatred so strong that you can feel and sense. It is literally palpable.

Two peoples who are not very different from one another, but actually are very similar, are discovering pure, clean hatred between them that precedes all ideological views. It is a natural hatred that springs from the power of human nature, which does not dress itself up in the guise of race, gender, nationality, or religion. It is not wrapped in history, language, or cultural differences. It is simply the inner sensation that one hates the other.

This sensation is deeper than any other kind of hatred we know. It is a spiritual hatred, and its only aim is to reveal the extent of the gulf in the relations between the two peoples and to learn from the uncovered chasm how to bridge it with love.

The discovery of fractures and differences, crimes and wounds, points us to the place of repair and helps us to focus on the core of the problem. Mediation and correction are part of a long-term process that works according to the plan of creation of bringing all conflicts into harmony.

We now see before us the first stage of this process. It is a fierce revelation of the power of hatred, the negative force aimed at bringing us closer to understand that there is a system of forces in nature working in us and with us. But against this revealed hatred, love should be awakened. Stable love can be evoked only with the help of a common prayer.

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The essence of love and unity is in the desire, when each one pleases his friend, there is no disparity of desire among them, and all are incorporated in one desire, by which they are incorporated in the upper desire, which is the purpose of the unity (Rabbi Nachman of Breslev, Likutei Halachot [Assorted Rules]).

Precisely by incorporating in each other’s desires and filling each other, we gradually reach the Creator and become incorporated in His desire, in His oneness.

There is no other way to come to this state. We just need to turn a blind eye to everything else as secondary and do only that! Throw yourself into it, and you will succeed!
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

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Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 57: Everything, small or great, meaning everything we have, everything we can attain in spirituality, is obtained only by the power of prayer. All the labor and work to which we are obliged are only to discover our lack of strength and our lowliness—that we are unfit for anything by our own strength—for then we (we are convinced about it) can pour out a wholehearted prayer before Him.”

By revealing that we do not have the strength and intention, that we cannot do anything, do not know anything, do not understand, and do not remember that we are just little egoists—that is all true, but it must be perceived correctly.

Despite the absence of a real desire in everyone, we gradually begin to connect and feel that nothing can help us except a cry. Like babies, what do they have? —crying. This is the only thing that saves them, and thanks to this they survive and grow. And, on the other hand, they have a mother who thinks about them all the time.

It is the same with us. We must shout and demand for the Creator to take care of us. The more we make efforts, the more we will feel like insignificant losers. And this is only in order to achieve perfect prayer.

And the Creator is constantly occupied with us until we realize and feel His work on us, His care for us.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Asking the Creator to Fill the Place Between Us” Lesson 7

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