The Creator hardens Pharaoh’s heart more and more, increases our egoism, but we are not obliged to fall to the very bottom in order to force the upper force to open up.

We do not have to fall if we attract the forces of nature right now in order to use the desire to enjoy together with the sparks of bestowal and try to walk in the middle line. Then we will see our illness and, right now, we will begin to treat ourselves correctly, without bringing us to death.

Any disclosure is possible only inside of some kind of flaw, but for this it is not necessary to reach real problems because our soul is already broken. Therefore, if we try to unite, then we discover this splitting even before it manifests itself in a material form. We identify this problem in the connection between us and find a solution.

Since we are broken, we can attract the light that returns to the source and solve all our problems. If I can feel the slightest bit of splitting, that is enough to start the fix and complete it. I do not need to get hit all the time, because when I reveal the smallest split, I can already perceive it as a big problem and raise myself up. It all depends only on my attitude.

Therefore, it is not necessary at all to fall to the full depth of the abyss that separates us, but it is enough to make out at least a small crack and begin to rise until the end of the correction. It all depends on the awareness of evil.

This is what all our work is about. Otherwise, we will have progressed only on account of the whip, like animals receive a blow and start running. But this is not the job of a person, because a person must know how to prevent a blow with a medicine.

Here it all depends on what magnifying glass I look through at the small virus in order to see a terrible monster in it that can eat me. It is very tiny, but I examine it through a microscope and therefore I see that it can cause me great harm.

A person can react to the weakest blow if he is attracted to goodness, unification. Indeed, discovering even the smallest disconnection, he perceives it as a huge problem and can avoid it by striving for good.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/25/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: Why is it so hard for us to stop ourselves when a conflict is in full swing? How can you set it up in advance so as not to reach such states?

Answer: We do not need to delve into a state of conflict. We just need to understand that there is a higher, more important, necessary state for each of us, and try to rise above the conflict.

Question: What is better to do: take all the accumulated anger out, knowing that a conflict may arise, or endure and keep everything to yourself?

Answer: Neither one nor the other. You just need to calmly clarify all the points and then begin to solve them toward the ascent to the next common level.

It is important to recognize a critical situation before a conflict arises. Thus, it is possible, as it were, to go through this conflict at the level of thoughts and forces, and not when people are already yelling at each other or a fight begins.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 7/16/20

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To Prevent Movement to Fascism

Remark: Jews, living in different countries, prosper in those places up to the point that discord breaks out between them and anti-Semitism flares up. Then they unite again through the suffering that unites them. And then fascism comes.

The great Kabbalist of the 20th century Baal HaSulam believes that the only way to disrupt nazism is through a religion that he calls altruism.

It turns out that the Jews, as a nation, are natural opponents of fascism in any of its forms. And subconsciously feeling this, all forms of fascism are against the Jews.

Baal HaSulam in the newspaper The Nation written in 1940, emphasizes: “He [Karl Marx] thought that the proletariat governance would be the subsequent step to the bourgeois governance, and hence determined that by negating the bourgeois government, a proletariat one would be established instantly. Yet, reality proves that the step following the ruin of the present government is that of Nazis or Fascists.”

My Comment: Unfortunately, we will see the emergence of fascism in America, in all developed countries, and in developing capitalist and semi-capitalist countries. This is a law of nature. After a developed state, society can either come to the realization that it is necessary to change its ideology or continue the line of fascism.

Question: In other words, in order to survive, people go to nationalism? We see that right wing parties and nationalists are coming to power in almost all European countries.

Answer: This will continue to deteriorate until the method of connection becomes apparent in the world.

Question: If these are the laws of nature, then no one is to blame, no religions. There is a single force that generates all these processes. And we, as observers, should notice all this and draw the right conclusions?

Answer: No. We can move all this forward, starting to unite on the basis of the true religion, the science of Kabbalah.

Thus, we will show all of humanity that there is a path that leads them to salvation from their own egoism. A path that not only makes our life in this world special, but also reveals the upper world, that is, the structure of society based on interconnection.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel”11/18/19

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The land of Israel is called Zion, from the word Yetzia, meaning going out of one’s egoistic properties into altruistic ones.

Besides, it is written: “Out of Zion shall the Torah come forth.” It means that a person who starts to feel a way out of their egoism has conditions for receiving the upper light, the revelation of the Creator.

This upper light is called the light of the Torah. Therefore, it is said that through the attempts to exit our egoism, the light of the Torah will come to us.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 11/25/19

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Question: If I have a small ego, should I study the wisdom of Kabbalah or should I first focus on nurturing my ego?

Answer: Don’t worry about your ego, but just think about how to rise above it. The moment you begin to rise above it, it will begin to expand inside you, and on it, like on a hot air balloon, you will rise higher and higher. Indeed, in order to advance, you must have a large, growing egoism.

You will not lose anything corporeal. On the contrary, you will become a more avid egoist. And this is good because you cannot ascend to the upper world without a big ego. You need both: the left line and the right line.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/11/18

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic of “Bereshit“

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 8, Item 4″

Lesson on the Topic of “The Law of the Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Selected Highlights

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The Times of Israel published my new article “A Noble Ideal for Peace Beyond the Nobel Prize”

Hunger could be used as a weapon of war and conflict in these challenging times. That is the concern over which the Nobel Peace Prize this year was awarded to an organization that fights famine globally: The UN World Food Programme. In response to the announcement, the organization stated, “Until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos.” Regardless of why these “peace” prizes are given and to whom, we should first ask, “What is peace?” The essence of peace is the optimal connection between opposite things, opinions, people, and movements. I see no organization or person in the world acting to fulfill such a goal.

The number of people facing hunger worldwide will double from 135 million to 265 million this year—the particular result of the Covid-19 pandemic—according to UN estimates. Predictions forewarn of starvation of “biblical proportions” as a result of the economic and food crises caused by the spread of the virus. Even if the work of The UN World Food Programme and other organizations is important, I do not see anyone in the global arena who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, no person or organization that strives for real peace and whose actions focus on bearing fruit in uniting people.

The peace agreements between the Arab Emirates, and Bahrain with Israel this year under the umbrella of the US was spoken of as a historical event that deserves the international prize. However, I’ve noticed that the recent trend has been to move away from political actions toward peace and to give the award to global organizations instead of individuals.

Why, despite so many efforts, does humanity repeatedly fail in its attempts to make true peace? The reason is that we do not know how to rise above our egoistic human nature which obstructs any possibility to attain tranquility. Every action we make is for our own benefit. We manipulate ourselves and others into believing that we act in their favor, while deep down, self-interest guides our every move.

The essence of the term “peace” (in Hebrew, Shalom), means “wholeness” (Shalem). Is the mere absence of war a sufficient enough achievement to claim that we experience wholeness? Certainly not. A deeper analysis of the term “peace” brings us to the need to understand the forces acting in reality and how to balance them properly to achieve true peace.

Two forces coexist in nature: the negative force of self-interest, and a positive force that promotes mutuality, consideration, and thinking about the common good. Ecosystems naturally balance these two forces so they complement one another. The apparent competition we observe in nature actually generates homeostasis, a harmonious coexistence that fosters life and development.

In humans, the negative force creates a crippled society which needs to enforce binding restrictions to stop us from destroying one another at the first opportunity. Worse yet, we see how the negative force within us keeps growing and intensifying. We are quickly nearing a point where the tensions will be unbearable.

Today we number billions of people. We each perceive ourselves as separate from the other, and are often not even at peace with ourselves. This lack of understanding of how to arrive at peace is humanity’s central problem.

We humans are the sole violators of the delicate balance of nature on the planet with our narrow egoism, i.e., the desire to benefit ourselves at the expense of others. And in precisely this, we harm humanity, the world, and nature. Therefore, only by changing our viewpoint from being self-centered to an interconnected and rounded perspective will we bring peace to the world.

As our sages observed:

“Do not be surprised if I mix together the well-being of a particular collective with the well-being of the whole world, because indeed, we have already come to such a degree that the whole world is considered one collective and one society.” (Yehuda Ashlag, “Peace in the World”)

Kabul, afghanistan.- In the photos, WFP authorities work to deliver food to the most vulnerable families. The UN World Food Program (WFP) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this Friday (9), announced the Nobel Committee in Oslo, underlining that the need for multilateral solutions to major problems such as hunger is “more evident never”.
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My new article on Linkedin “Pandemic Fatigue – A Symptom of the Virus or a Proof of Senselessness?”

The more time passes without a vaccine or a sure cure in sight, the more impatient people are growing. They are refusing lockdown and curfew orders, congregating recklessly as if there is no virus, protesting without maintaining social distance or wearing masks, and filling up restaurants, bars, and other places of recreation.

Changing the center of our attention from the “me” to the “we” changes everything: our behavior, our caution with ourselves and with others, our attitude toward others, and even our feelings toward others. There is nothing we can’t do today that we did before; the only thing preventing us from doing it is our attitude toward others. If we change it from negative to positive, we will guarantee the health of everyone around us, and they will guarantee our own health, and then there will be nothing that we won’t be able to do. So the bottom line is this: Let’s think about each other; it’s healthy!

But the virus has not changed. If people behave recklessly, contagion increases. And indeed, all over the world, where countries and cities relax closures, infections rise again. As the tension rises between understanding that there is no end to the virus in sight, and the inability to remain in permanent lockdown, people are driven toward the breakdown point of hopelessness and helplessness. At that point, social order will collapse and mayhem will take over the streets.

Without a medical cure in sight, the only cure we have is each other. This is also the one cure we haven’t tried. It’s not that we should disobey orders to keep 6 feet apart. On the contrary, we should be very strict with our observance of health regulations, but we should also remember that this will not kill the virus. If we stay apart, infections will decrease; if we resume our connections, infections will increase. This is what’s happening now and people won’t be able to sustain this in-and-out mode much longer. In fact, they already can’t.

But what this pattern does show us is that the problem lies—in our connections. Staying apart for good is no solution, so we have to find a way to connect in a way that does not resume infections. To do that, we must reverse our thinking. Instead of thinking, “How can I protect myself from catching the virus,” we should start thinking, “How can I prevent from passing the virus to someone else.”

Changing the center of our attention from the “me” to the “we” changes everything: our behavior, our caution with ourselves and with others, our attitude toward others, and even our feelings toward others. There is nothing we can’t do today that we did before; the only thing preventing us from doing it is our attitude toward others. If we change it from negative to positive, we will guarantee the health of everyone around us, and they will guarantee our own health, and then there will be nothing that we won’t be able to do. So the bottom line is this: Let’s think about each other; it’s healthy!
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Medium published my new article “Between Left and Right, It’s Everyone’s Plight”

On the morning of November 4, some people will smile and some people will cry. Hopefully, the aftermath of the election will not be as contentious as the months leading to it have been, and the president will be able to do his job in a more constructive atmosphere than in the past four years. I’m not hopeful, but perhaps the challenge ahead will convince the parties to cooperate. And that challenge is the coronavirus. Whoever occupies the White House after January’s inauguration will have an impossible task on his hands. He will have to deal with an exhausted American people, a healthcare system on the brink of collapse, and worst of all, pervasive hopelessness in the absence of a vaccine for Covid-19. And when medicine fails, people have no one to rely on but each other.

In today’s globalized world, no country can rely on itself. Self-sufficiency is an impractical fantasy. Since every country is dependent on other countries, it makes perfect sense to cooperate, just as the example of organs in a healthy body. Without this approach, countries will resort to their former self-centered policies which will result in mutual destruction. Indeed, we are entering a dramatic phase in the history of humankind where unity or destruction will be our only options.

The tensions and the hatred being exposed in American society have always been there, but it seems like they’ve never been as exposed as they are today. As frightening as they may be, exposing them is the first step toward correction. Just as we must diagnose a disease before we can treat it, hatred must be exposed and acknowledged before we can mend it. However, while the exposure happens spontaneously, overcoming it requires a conscious effort. If people decide to rise above their pervasive, negative feelings and unify the American society, they will overcome anything, including the virus, and will show the world how to defeat Covid. If they fail to unite, the consequences will be horrendous.

The first thing to realize in the healing process is that there are no superfluous elements in American society. Every part of it has its role, even if it seems as though it does nothing but harm. The trick is to relate to each part of society not as a competitor over territory or power or wealth, but as a complementing element without which America cannot be the powerful country that it is.

Think of the human body. Within the body, each organ functions very differently, often in contradicting manners, yet feeds on the same source of energy and food, namely oxygen and sugars. If the organs competed against each other in the struggle for supply of these essentials, we would die along with the organs that supposedly “won.”

This, by the way, is what happens with cancer. There are many tumors that aren’t deadly because they don’t “kidnap” blood vessels and don’t deplete the neighboring organs of food and energy. These lumps may stay in our body for years without causing any serious harm. But when a tumor begins to “snatch” blood vessels and deplete neighboring organs, when it begins to spread and tries to “take over,” that “self-centered” behavior turns it from a benign growth to a malignant tumor, and we have to pull it out or it will kill us.

Therefore, the plight of society is not its diversity. This is actually the source of its vitality and strength. The plight of society is people’s self-centered attitude, the fact that everyone feels that they are more entitled than others instead of seeing society as a system where everyone is vital.

And what is true for America is true for the world. Countries are depleting Earth’s resources and fighting for dominance because of the exact same approach that is destroying American society. In the case of the world, the situation is even worse. Today, we are at a point where if we don’t reverse course, we will destroy each other. The choice is simple: world-connection or world war.

In today’s globalized world, no country can rely on itself. Self-sufficiency is an impractical fantasy. Since every country is dependent on other countries, it makes perfect sense to cooperate, just as the example of organs in a healthy body. Without this approach, countries will resort to their former self-centered policies which will result in mutual destruction. Indeed, we are entering a dramatic phase in the history of humankind where unity or destruction will be our only options.

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