Question: Now that there is a storm in America and people are worried, can we convey our message to them through the heart and not through the mind?

Answer: Yes, it turns out that I don’t write romantic novels, and I can’t express feelings as I would like to. I am built differently, I can cry when I see a formula, when I look at its components, like in medicine when a patient who looking at his medical tests sees some catastrophe reflected in them. It may seem that these are just numbers, but they evoke a storm of emotions in him.

It is the same here. We are disrupting the basic law of nature, the law of balance, it’s like bending an iron rod—at a certain point it breaks, but in the meantime it seems that we still have some margin of safety. This is how it always happens: there is a limit as to how far you can go, but you mustn’t cross that limit.

We should explain this to people in different ways. Here is the root of all our troubles. We should tell them the truth: We could cry with you, but it won’t help. Crying is just a folly, and we have to locate the real problem. The real problem is that we are going against the laws of nature. It’s enough to look at the statistics of natural disasters even in the last year. It doesn’t matter that experts don’t always agree as to their anthropogenic character. One way or the other, they stem from the laws of nature, and so we have to aspire for balance.

We could have done it sooner and then there wouldn’t have been an economic crisis, a crisis in the family, in education, etc. But today one general crisis is being revealed in greater intensity in many aspects. Why? It’s because we haven’t corrected the imbalance when the first signs were minor. “Oh well, so what if there are more divorces? So what if the kids are undisciplined? So what if the media is corrupt? So what if we can buy and sell everything?” We don’t pay attention to the growing ego that increasingly distances us from balance, and the outcome of all this will be a total collapse. First it’s revealed in the economy, then in natural disasters, then in global hunger, etc.

So we mustn’t tarry. We have to explain to people scientifically why balance, homeostasis, is essential. There are enough articles about this and solid proof.
[91808]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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After all the efforts a person makes, being confused, running around and then relaxing, trying to do something in the group or by himself, in the study, in external dissemination, after all these attempts all these efforts concentrate in one point called a request, a prayer, the raising of MAN, a demand. This request, which is an urgent need for help creates the first contact between a person and the Creator, since as a result of all his efforts, both consciously and subconsciously, he summons upon himself the influence of the Light. We do everything because of deficiency, desire, it doesn’t matter what type it is, whether it’s for or against, negative or positive, there is only a desire, a deficiency and from it we act. So every time we discover a new deficiency, a new need for fulfillment, we evoke and summon the Light, since they are inherently connected. So we first evoke the Light, and then it operates.

Thus, by different actions, we just need to shorten the path. What do we mean by “to shorten?” If we operate with the right intention, the changes in us occur much faster and we increase the frequency of our changes. We can’t skip a thousand Reshimot (spiritual informational genes), to miss them, and then to skip several thousands again, and thus leap along the time axis. We can only “scan” all the Reshimot by processing each of them, but if I operate purposefully together with the environment that supports me, organizes, and pressures me, I process the Reshimot quickly.

Eventually, we reach the right deficiency, which according to its intensity and character are “Reshimot of dressing” and “Reshimot of thickness.” “Reshimot of dressing” is not inside, since it’s always on a higher level, but I understand it more or less, I imagine the state that I want to reach with the sufficient thickness. If this Reshimot is more or less adapted to the state of connection, to the contact with the Creator, then it happens.

Fulfilling the Reshimot most quickly occurs during the study of the sources, as it says in many articles that it’s desired to turn the study into a prayer. Usually all the efforts are revealed in a person during the study and the most efficient conditions are while reading The Book of Zohar.

If a person thinks about his correction in the connection with the group, in order to incorporate in it, to lose himself, to turn it to a general desire to reveal the Creator and by that to bring Him contentment, The Zohar is very helpful in fulfilling the Reshimot in this direction in the quickest way.
[91799]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, The Zohar

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As The Zohar says: “He has seen that the angel of death is approaching along with the flood and he hid in the ark.” Meaning, that he understood that the claims to the Creator and spiritual work deprive him of the spirit of life, and therefore he came to faith above reason, the properties of Bina, the desire to be only in bestowal, to receive nothing and rejoice in his share, considering slavery to the Creator as a tremendous honor.

A person’s task is to organize an environment that will continue to guide him to the goal, praising its importance. He should take care to make this environment as large as possible and to make important to himself. But on the contrary, he is prevented from doing this by being sent questions: “Who is the Creator that I should obey Him?” and “What does this work give you?”

He begins to doubt why he should do inner work, what is the point? There are all kinds of interference in this work, coming from the family and various other sources. And only the environment will help a person stay on this path; there are no other factors. A person must understand that he has no power himself.

There is a war between two forces: The right side is the environment, the society, radiating the force of unity and the importance of the goal within him. And on the left side are egoistic questions sent by the Creator: “Who?” and “What?”, which over time turn into a turbulent flood.

Everything comes from above, from the same source, but if a person tries to set a strong environment on the right side to support him, by this he realizes his only freedom of choice. And then on the left side, the Creator organizes disturbances.

Caught between these two opposing forces, a person is completely confused; he cries, feels helpless to the extent that he needs either to escape or to hope for a miracle.

And then in this hopeless condition, when a person is almost drowned in the treacherous questions “Who?” and “What?” and cannot get out of them, the idea of the ark is suddenly born in him. He understands that he will be saved only if he gets the property of Bina, bestowal, Hafetz Hesed that will be higher than all his requests.

These requests will remain, a person cannot completely get rid of them; it does not depend on him. But if in spite of all these problems, he enters the ark, deciding that these turbulent murky floodwaters, all these doubts and problems are not related to him, he can be saved.

From what and for what is he saved? It needs to be checked! After all, the questions “Who?” and “What?” (“Mi” and “Ma” in Hebrew) that generate the floodwaters (Ma-im, “water” in Hebrew) offer a very attractive material solution. An ark is intended for entering a state of unity, adhering to the same goal. Thus, a person will be able to advance.
[91910]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, Writings of Rabash 

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Question: Sandy leaves behind not only great damage but also certain “vibes” in the air. After all, it has touched millions and made their hearts beat faster. What is the message they can learn from this?

Answer: First, I don’t expect them to search their hearts as for the upper governance: “Why is this happening to us? What have we done? What didn’t we do?” Here everyone has their own account.

But generally speaking, Americans must understand that something is happening with the US. Once it was a dream, a model of democracy, and the search for something better. Despite all the dirt that our ego brings, no matter what it touched, there was also something good. But the positive aspect came to an end long ago when it turned into the exploitation of the whole world in order to satisfy the needs of Americans who are also proud of this situation.

Lately this phenomenon has reached such dimensions that in the current circumstances the US has no right to exist. So it turns out that in everything that you do, you harm others, and it is only in order to gain a bit more, even if you actually don’t need it. This approach is unthinkable since it is totally opposite from nature and doesn’t lead to correction.

The upper governance accepts all forms of human behavior that enable people to learn something and to come to the right conclusions, to understand what is good and what is bad. But the circles that govern the US have crossed this line last summer when they stated the “Arab Spring” in Israel, wanting to bring about the destruction of the state of Israel by revolution. I felt and saw it with my own eyes in everything that happened.

They make their people believe that Israel has no right to exist. This is the intention of those in charge (except for a few intelligent people—to shift the public opinion in this direction. By that they pull the carpet from under their own feet.

If they continue this trend, we will suddenly see how quickly the disintegration can take place. After all, the advanced and sophisticated infrastructure is actually a weak spot, and if you destroy it there will be nothing left.

For instance, what is the city of New York without the vital subway that brings million of commuters to work? Modern technology is a two-sided coin. It is sign of progress and at the same time a vulnerability. We can draw an analogy to elementary forms of life that can survive in harshest conditions while developed organisms are weaker in the face of threats. So it is very easy to shake the foundations of modern man.

Americans don’t understand what the laws of nature are. Today, according to the general plan, any state that wants to be prosperous has to help the nation of Israel in the process of correction. Of course, they have to pressure this nation since otherwise nothing will come of it, but the pressure is only one of the conditions that together with others have to spur the people of Israel to act: “You have to perform the correction, this is what we expect of you.” Ideally, this is exactly how the process should take place.

But the Americans act in an opposite manner and actually block their “infusion” by themselves, cutting the branch they are sitting on. Thus they will not advance, although at the moment it seems that their situation is improving. It will not improve. The figures can be wonderful, after all the “bubble” has been inflating for decades, but it won’t take long to puncture it.

I foresee difficult times in the US. Of course they will try to pass on their difficulties to the rest of the world, as they have been doing for many years, but still, this state will encounter great difficulties if their attitude will remain the same. I hope that it will change if Mitt Romney wins the elections. If not, things will get worse and the path of suffering will truly be revealed.

I am saying all this only from the perspective of the plan of creation, and there are no other considerations involved here.
[91802]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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The giving of the Torah, meaning the method of correction, is not a one-time event, but a constant process; each one who feels a need for correction receives the method of correction. It was said, “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice for it.” The criterion is simple. If a person wants to correct himself and discovers that his desire is bad, that it is the evil inclination, then an inner outcry directed at correction is born within him that is aimed at the need for correction for deliverance from the evil.

We naturally tend to always get rid of the bad that is within us. The whole point here is whether a person really feels this? Is he willing to bear the bad feeling, despite the countless possibilities to neutralize this feeling and avoid the demand for correction?

And it can be vice versa, to sweeten the situation by evading it, saying, “After all, this isn’t so bad. I’m not worse than others. And why do I care about it at all?” There are a lot of “diversionary paths” that help one escape from the bad feeling. This is because it is very unpleasant and involves great emotional pain to reveal how evil I am.

Therefore a person needs support, great help, which will provide him with secure support. He reaches the real recognition of evil through this; he will scream from lack of choice, and along with it, he doesn’t escape from the path. And then he is really in need of the Torah.

How can one reach such a state where we are really “shackled” and can’t escape from the suffering so strongly that we receive the Light that Reforms from Above? This can be accomplished through very great agony through the path of development called “In due time,” the path of suffering. These sufferings come from a corporeal level and obligate us to spiritual work. The gap between these two levels is so big that suffering is many times more powerful than on the path of hastening which allows one to recognize the necessity for the Torah in the spiritual work.

In this spiritual work, we begin to use the Light that Reforms and examine ourselves from the spiritual degree. We recognize the necessity for correction not because we have a bad life, but because we ourselves yearn for it. Accordingly, the suffering has a different form: spiritual and not corporeal. Therefore according to this, their quality is much higher, their pain is much deeper, and the intensity is such that the person is capable of tolerating it.

The uniqueness of the wisdom of Kabbalah is that it explains how to progress on the path very quickly, by feeling a little suffering quantitatively, but great qualitatively. Thus we can shorten the path; we can divide the suffering with the friends and pass it to them in small quantities. There are many advantages in following the path of Torah compared to the path of suffering. It allows us to ascend to a different qualitative level of progress.

Today, when the whole world is sinking under the troubles of the path of suffering, we want to show to people and ourselves how to advance on the path of Torah. We are at the head, as owners of the method, and they after us, until we all come to the beautiful goal.
[91418]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #56 “Torah Is Called Indication“

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Kdoshim,” Item 123, Lesson 9

Preface to The Book of Zohar (Starting with: “He is called ‘Upper Adam'”), Item 38, Lesson 29

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Question: I am writing to you, frightened by the howling wind and rain; outside the window is a hurricane. What is happening to us?

Answer: We are caught in a trap that was prepared for us by our egoistic nature. Under the influence of its nature, a person tends to 1) satisfy basic (reasonable) needs and 2) satisfy the desire for excesses that emerge in him under the influence of his environment. Rather than striving to become similar to nature, making humanity as one family, we engage in competition, individualism, and protectionism.

The self-interests of producers impose a consumer society on us in which everyone aspires to excess in everything. However, they never reach happiness because this feeling of happiness does not incite them to make new purchases and it annuls the cult of consumerism.

All of this is done to replace the spiritual values with the material ones. People are limited, brought up on soap operas, and are duped by mass culture; it is easier to sell to those and it is easier to manage them. The increasing contrast between humanity and integral nature creates different kinds of imbalances that manifest in the form of social and natural disasters.
[91817]

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Question: A priest has already said that super storm Sandy was caused by Obama and Romney’s sins. Major disasters are always blamed on someone’s sins. How do we avoid falling into this trap when explaining to people what is happening?

Answer: Basically, there are two options: the path of the Torah and the path of suffering. And if we do not tend towards the positive, then we tend towards the negative.

In general, everything good and bad that a person feels in this world is part of the general management. It is not possible to say that any phenomenon is detached from spirituality and has nothing to do with it. It has.

Now, imagine that the qualities of judgment (Gevurot) that are revealed today are clothed in mercy (Hassadim). Due to this power, the world could move forward nicely. After all, the force of bestowal would gain the power to open up in the internal properties of judgment, which are now manifested today in a storm. Social divide would be diminished around the world, the value of unity would grow, integral education would develop…

However, in reality the opposite is true, and the storm is the consequence of this. Only it was not sent as a punishment. There are no punishments; these are the actions of the same forces that we did not correct at the time, according to the program. They accumulate, and if we had done everything right, they would have raised us to a higher degree. Now, this degree, on which we were supposed to be, is manifested in the opposite form, in the form of a natural disaster.

The same factor appears not positively, as it should be, but negatively. However, we switched the rails from the path of the Torah to the path of suffering. The “switch” is in our hands.

So, it is not a punishment, but a natural consequence that we have caused ourselves. There is no need to imagine as if the Creator decides to punish us one way or the other. It is nothing like that; we are dealing with the law of nature: You do not realize the revealed Reshimot (informational genes), they accumulate in a large account, a “fine” that we get.

This “fine” is like a warning. And the question is, whether we accept it correctly.

It is said that punishments soften and cleanse the body. So maybe that’s for the better? “I was punished, a disaster fell upon me, and I became cleaner. I have suffered, but become purified…”

This is an absolute lie, an unprecedented mistake. I myself have brought upon myself what I have gotten because I had not realized the Reshimot properly. In fact, I am given a chance now. Until now, going through the sequence of Reshimot, I did not understand how to behave. I played, I was confused in my own egoism and mood swings.

And now, having found myself in a difficult situation, I finally got a “gift”: I have the opportunity and ability to judge correctly. In other words, the disaster came to help me, to shake me: “Wake up! It can no longer continue like this! You cause yourself harm.” In this case, a disaster is a remedy, though bitter. Similarly, a child could be treated in a tough way to keep him out of trouble.

That is why the storm should be seen on the one hand, as a warning, and on the other hand, as a situation that can help us make a correct calculation and move forward.

So this is great! We ought to say, “Thank you!”

The approach is simple: Everything that happened before had to happen. We do not look back. “If” does not count. Now, a blow is manifested; hence, we must continue to make a calculation, the calculation on how to correct corrupt desires, the property of judgment.

Note when this happens: a week before the presidential election. So let’s see what happens: Will Sandy help the reassessment of what is happening? If not, we will see worse hurricanes, severe disasters. It depends on the events of the next week how the US will survive the winter.
[91839]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: Why is the negative force in the world revealed in such a clear manner, and not at all in proportion to the positive force that we awaken? Or maybe we don’t awaken anything?

Answer: The negative force awakens so that you will ask for the positive force that is in opposition to it. And not in order to annul the blow, but in order to transform the blow to something beneficial. It is, as if, you ask the father to teach you to think, but not to stop the unpleasant process, but to transform it into being 100% beneficial. You truly want to acquire a new mind and improve your own attributes. You don’t identify with your ego, which receives the blow, but on the contrary, you exit it and admit: “The ego deserves this blow, but let it be for its benefit, let it change it.”

And then instead of bitterness and pain, you suddenly feel sweetness. In addition to its coming as a “blow,” the negative force helps you break away from your desire to receive, to rise above it and determine for yourself, that it is specifically in this form that it brings benefit. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to cut yourself off from the ego.

In this way, our work is in asking for strength to rise above the desire, but not because we don’t want to feel the blows from it, but because we want to identify with the Creator. We want to discern the evil within the desire to receive, to feel the blow on it, not in order to adhere to it, but to rise above it to the desire to bestow. And again, not because we will feel peace and quiet there, but so that we can perform an act of bestowal.

Here a very delicate and fundamental clarification is hidden, a clarification that reveals the condition of the Machsom (barrier). We are approaching it…
[91671]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/12, The Zohar

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From the article “What is a Flood of Water in the Work” by Rabash: In The Zohar, Noah comments on the words “and I am bringing a flood of water on the earth”… we know that when a person begins to work in order to bestow, the body claims, “What mean you by this work?” What is the sense in not wanting to work for your own good; after all, you should worry about enjoying life and to bestow means that you don’t work for your own good. So it is against our nature and this is called “a claim of what.”

But there is another claim, when the body objects to the Creator’s work, when a person says to the body that we have to believe in the Creator, that He looks after and leads the world as the good and the benevolent. Then the body comes to a person with Pharaoh’s claim that says: “Who is the Lord that I should listen to Him?” which means that it is hard for him to believe in the Creator. This means that he says that he can work for the Creator’s benefit, but only if he feels the Creator’s greatness does he understand that it is worthwhile to work for Him.

These two questions: “Who?” and “What?” have to appear before every person on his spiritual path and to be revealed to their fullest. A person should know how to cope with them and to understand them deeply. These are fundamental questions that result from the great exertion invested in the group, in the study and in the great efforts to advance towards the goal.

As a result, the questions of “Who?” and “What?” are revealed to a person and it is these questions that balance and stabilize him and help him clarify the powers he needs in order to build his spiritual vessel.

This vessel that is built of two opposite lines in every one of its parts, above which a person builds the middle line; above all the attributes and the discernments he has to determine a common discernment called the middle line.

So first he has to clear the two questions of “Who (Mi)?” and “What (Ma)?” which means with the water (ma-im) of the flood. Rabash writes: “And if a person is happy by these two questions, that he now has a place to work above reason, it turns out that he is saved from the flood of water.”
[91667]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/12, Writings of Rabash 

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