Question: Why are there so many natural disasters of late, like the terrible forest fire on Mount Carmel in Haifa?

Answer: The general tendency of nature is such that natural disasters are becoming a commonplace phenomenon in the entire world. It’s unfortunate, but as we continue advancing, we hear about them more and more.

The wisdom of Kabbalah offers a simple explanation. From the very beginning of creation and to its end, the Creator is always pushing us in one direction, in a straight line, and He will not back down. In other words, there is a very simple formula whereby nature is always intensifying its influence over us, compelling us to grow.

At the preceding phase of development, we grew on account of being influenced by the Light, the Upper Force, nature, the Creator, so that our egoistic desire was always increasing. This was called the development of human civilization which lasted for tens of thousands of years.

The development conformed to one simple formula: The ego grew generation to generation and over the period of one’s life, and we actualized it directly, achieving all that we wanted and developing all possible means for that purpose. Therefore, there was no problem. We simply needed to correctly utilize all that was around, that is, human society and natural resources, so as to fulfill ourselves.

However, the end of the 20th century, which was referenced by Kabbalists long ago, wasn’t only the end of the millennium, but also the end of the entire paradigm of the past, the entire principle of development where we grew in our ego with the sole aim to keep fulfilling it. The time has come to take stock and realize we cannot continue like this for we are no longer developing or fulfilling ourselves. This has become a rat race in pursuit of an artificial prize, and we no longer wish to participate in it.

This path of development is finite since the entire development transpires along four phases: 1-2-3-4 (Aleph–Bet–Gimel–Dalet), and we have now reached the 4th phase, having fully completed the first period of development. Kabbalists calculated it long ago and gave us a date when it would happen: the year 1995.

Now, we are gradually experiencing the crisis in all spheres: family, education, culture, industry, international relations, and, most importantly, the climate. Due to the imbalance we create with our incorrect inter-relationships by not changing our approach to our development, we greatly violate the general balance in nature. We insert the imbalance of human inter-relationships into all of nature.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, Special Talk on the Tragedy in Northern Israel and Balance in Nature

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The world is entering a qualitatively new period of development, and Israel is becoming the leader in it. This has not happened before because we were in the period of "exile." Now we have entered the time of “redemption.”

“Redemption” means similarity to the Creator, becoming closer to Him and revealing Him, discovering the laws of nature, and attaining harmony with it. To reveal nature means to accept all the upper laws in order to observe them.

All these laws must begin to be realized in human society and within us through our own efforts. In other words, right now we do not need to work on anything besides our similarity to nature, the Creator.

Meanwhile, we are going in the opposite direction, and we do not want to listen. This is the source of all the catastrophes. Before, suffering was revealed in a simple manner to just slightly push us ahead. However, today, it works in a direction opposite to us, against us.

Before, suffering was like small pricks from behind that would turn us in the right direction and stimulate us to develop faster, but they worked together with your own aspirations. They simply rushed you, like a donkey who is pricked with a sharp stick. Now, anywhere you try to advance in development, nature faces you head-on and hits you straight in the face. Do you want to continue your old journey? No way! By doing this, you will attract more problems. As it is written: “Sit and do nothing is better.”

In other words, we must begin correction, and, in this world, Israel is the conductor of correction because it possesses the method. This is why Israel will continue to experience more and more problems if we do not advance properly.

Here, everything depends on us. First of all, as we see the catastrophes that are happening, we need to draw the right conclusions. These are not “accidental events.” In nature, everything is connected, and everything has a reason.

If we are going into a head-on opposition to nature by becoming opposite to it, which has never happened before, we should hurry with correction. Instead of being opposite, we need to come to similarity and do what the Creator, nature, wants us to do: attain harmony, connection among us as one man with one heart, and achieve brotherly love.

When we achieve this, all the disasters will disappear, and all the nations will begin to support Israel. We will become the center of correction of the world. If there is hatred of Israel in the world, it is only because we have the method of correction, but we are not fast enough to realize it and disseminate it around the world.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, Special Talk on the Tragedy in Northern Israel and Balance in Nature

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Question: If the Creator always resides in our mutual connection, how can we unite and at the same time, forget about the Creator and stray off the path?

Answer: What forms of unity could divert you from the path? All kinds of them! The Russians tried to do it, didn’t they? They did. Fascists tried (“Fascio” in Italian means “unify,” “tie in a bunch”), didn’t they? They did! Kibbutzim, Sparta, armies, vegetarians, fundamentalists, and so on are all various forms of association.

This is why unification has to be thoroughly scrutinized, analyzed, and implemented not by us, but by the Upper Light. First of all, we must keep the principle of “I am the First, and I am the Last,” “The end of an action lies in its initial thought.” I must advance toward the Creator and not simply strive to achieve love and bestowal between us in a secular fashion.

We should be dominated not by the force of egoism, but by the force that is above egoism since all advancement occurs by way of “faith above reason,” above hate and not within or with the help of hate.

We hate each other, but there is someone we hate even more. Therefore, we unite, and our general hatred mutually connects us to even greater hatred for a third party that we wish to destroy.

There is a great margin for error here. That is why we have to employ the Torah, an instruction that always leads you to the Light; and it is the Light that corrects you, not you yourself. Neither in the mind, nor in the sensations, nor in any action on the way to correction, do you ever use what is in you except the Light that Reforms. You have nothing to add to it except your effort to annul yourself.

If you annul yourself, you give the Light an opportunity to work on you and make out of you a correct future form. Otherwise, the Light will make the wrong form out of you so that through suffering you would discover the correct method you hadn’t understood previously.

The Light affects you all the time. The question is whether the Light and desire are opposing each other or not, and you are the one who determines that.

This is the deciding point, the point of free will. Only the group can help you to place yourself under the Light correctly. While the Light illuminates constantly, you have to continually examine yourself in the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 17, 1926

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Question: What does it mean to nullify yourself before the group? Is self-annulment not renouncement of egoism?

Answer: Self-annulment is not cancellation of egoism. I “annul myself” before my manager who tells me what to do, before the police, and even before my own children. When my children demand something, I nullify my desire to rest and take care of their desires.

In reality, I am not nullifying anything. I simply trade one trouble for another. I prefer one thing to another, leaning on healthy egoism. This is not freedom of choice.

When I understand that I should cancel myself before the group since I will reach more in it, it is not self-annulment. This is a good egoistic calculation. The real self-annulment happens when I know that, egoistically, I do not need this. After having completely checked myself, I do not find any benefit in this, and still I rise above my reason and feeling.

We are gradually coming to this. And everything else is carried out “within reason.” I choose the group because it is better for me to be in it than on the outside. Many people go to different clubs according to their interests because it is worth it. Religion is also based on personal benefit.

However, the wisdom of Kabbalah is based on principles that are opposite to egoism. Here, we do not choose something that benefits us. Even though in the beginning we seem to strive toward the lesser evil and even goodness, which is defined as eternity and perfection, still, on the way, we ascend over egoism. Then, one must reject himself and join the desire of the group.

Like a commando brigade, we selflessly carry out the common task in order to reach something. At first, we act purely egoistically, but with time, one realizes that he must reject himself because the common strength, the common unity, is preferable to any personal success.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, “Show Me Your Honor”

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Question: What is the mind of the group and how can I understand it?

Answer: What we read in the articles, what we speak about, sing about, and study, what we imagine as our unity, meaning the desire and aspiration it has to be imbued with, the thoughts that should preoccupy the group, all of these things are the mind of the group.

The group is like the Creator. It is our unity. When we are one, we see that there is none else beside the Creator, the Good that Does Good. This is the way we describe the Upper Governance that leads us towards the goal.

This becomes revealed through unity, that is, the “mutual guarantee,” when everyone becomes sealed together on the way to the goal, and everything that happens only pushes us towards it. The goal is the kind of unity between us when we reveal our integrated interconnection, the single system of Adam. There, we all operate like the cells of a body, in mutual harmony.

This harmony, this law, the mutual bestowal, the reins between us, is the Creator (Boreh), which comes from the words “come” (Bo) and “see” (Reh). The “Creator” is what we attain in the connection between us; He is the flow of our common life.

This is where all the thoughts and desires of the group come from. I am a separate cell, while the group is a live body, Malchut of the world of Infinity, Shechina, something that contains the spiritual application. This is how I should be imagining it.

The group is Malchut, Shechina, that is, the “place,” the common desire, where I reveal the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, “Show Me Your Honor”

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Question: It seems to me that in order to connect with the text of The Zohar, which is written in an unfamiliar language, I need a miracle, but in our world it is difficult to believe in miracles.

Answer: I don’t know what it means “to connect with the text.” I hear some story in a foreign language. I was told that it is about me, about everything that is meant to happen to me today and in the future. By all means, I am very eager to learn because it is so important to me! The Zohar is a “secret code” that I have to decipher and reveal for myself. What should I do?

Kabbalists teach us: “If you make as big an effort as you possibly can, wish for it, search for the right approach, then you will reveal it. You are able to disclose it, but everything depends on how much effort you apply.”

We have to study a lot, learn how to sense and abandon some of our inner properties in order to better comprehend this text because it describes an understanding and approach to life that is completely opposite to us. You have to “dress” in these ideas, identify yourself with their characters, get to know and love them, even if you don’t like or understand them yet. You must alter a lot in yourself if you want to understand this story.

In fact, you change yourself in accordance with the story. All it talks about becomes more or less close and clear to you; you start sensing and accepting it to the extent that you become a part of it and reveal it to yourself.

It happens as a result of many actions through which you try to imitate the world of The Zohar. “What is this all about? I want to understand and feel it, to live in this world, so how do I change myself to start seeing at least a little bit of what The Zohar speaks of?”

I should always be aware of the matter inside myself which is constantly changing according to the story. I am the “clay” that shapes the story. I want to form it! This is how I am getting closer to the story, even though I begin to perceive and sense it rather than understand it, as it is said: “And Adam knew Eve.”

My approach is to let the narration in The Book of Zohar create more advanced forms within myself until I acquire the real shape. Indeed, the story by itself implies the revelation.

This is how we should work with the text; this is the right approach that we should exercise to get closer to The Book of Zohar. I want the Book to change me, carve “my matter” into any shape it deems necessary. I am totally open and ready for everything; I completely entrust myself to it!
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Letters by Rabbi Amnon Saba,” Item 34, Lesson 6
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 38, Lesson 14
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 82
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress,” Lesson 9
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After the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) and the creature’s decision to only receive the Light through an anti-egoistic screen, we begin to exist in a different nature of reality. The simple law of reception in accordance with the size of desire is not the only law that operates there, the way it was in Malchut of Infinity before the restriction.

After the restriction, it becomes impossible to receive anything in an open desire. This law operates above us, and if there is a desire to receive pleasure below Malchut of Infinity, the Light cannot shine in it because it needs to go through this law, this condition that is imbedded in nature.

Besides, it is not enough to simply do a restriction. The question is what do you want after the restriction and on? To the extent that you desire to become like the Creator in your action, to bestow just like Him, you receive Light, a small pleasure called “the Light of Hassadim (Mercy)” that fills you.

This Light of Hassadim also contains NRNHY, all the levels of Bina, until you attain a degree when all your desires begin to be filled with the Light of Hassadim because your intention is to be Hafetz Hesed: “I do not want anything for myself! I receive pleasure from being like the Creator by not receiving anything.”

This is the level of the righteous. He sees that the Creator does not receive, so he also does not want to receive. In other words, he is looking at His action, not the intention. The Creator does not receive, and I only want to have the strength to stop desiring fulfillment.

And then the Light comes to me and gives me an ability that enables me to not receive, regardless of how much I am being given. But the very next moment I am given an even bigger desire to receive pleasure from Above.

The Light develops this desire in me and I will want to receive once again. And again I ask: “Give me the strength to stop receiving,” and the strength is given to me. And then I become filled with pleasure called “Hassadim,” and I am content with being like the Creator by not receiving.

And every time, my empty desire to receive pleasure is increased in me in this way, but instead of asking for it to become fulfilled, I overcome it and ask for the strength to want to be like the Creator instead of wanting to be fulfilled. I want to be content with Hassadim, like GAR of Bina.

Attaining GAR of Bina means that I have acquired the desire to bestow. Now I am Hafetz Hesed, I have completed the “repentance from fear.” What does “from fear” mean? It means to not receive anything for yourself, and to be like the Creator by not receiving.

This does not make me absolutely equal to the Creator, but it makes us similar according to our Kelim (vessels). He does not have desires to receive, and I do, but I have corrected them so they no longer bother me. I have acquired such strength that even though I have an infinite Kli (desire) to receive pleasure, it is completely filled with the Light of Hassadim, and I do not want anything but it. Why? The Creator’s greatness shines at me, I want to be just like Him, and I enjoy being similar to Him.

After this, a new empty desire naturally becomes revealed to me. Until then I do not understand what it is, much like in the four phases of the Direct Light, when after not receiving anything in GAR of phase Bet (two), I begin to understand: “The Creator gives, He is the Giver, so how can I give in my actions, like Him?”

Now also, as I develop from below upward, I begin to understand that if I am able to receive for the sake of bestowal, I will become completely like Him. This is my goal, and the means are to receive for the sake of bestowal.

How can I do this? I demand additional strength from the Light so it will correct me, enabling me to receive in these Kelim so that the pleasure that I feel will be completely for the sake of bestowing to the Host. I feel this pleasure, I enjoy all its flavors, as it is written: “Taste and see that the Creator is good.” I draw enormous pleasure from this, and nothing I feel confuses me. I am making sure that all this pleasure can only be felt under the condition that I give this pleasure to Him.

Then I feel how much I have given Him and how much He enjoys it. This makes my Kelim grow even more because I understand Who it is that I am pleasing. Now I become like Him, and even bigger than Him because I am giving Him pleasure!

My Kelim expand even more beyond the limits of the desire to receive pleasure that was created by the Creator in me. Just as once having connected with the group I become the owner of seven billion spiritual sparks instead of just one spark, I now connect with the Creator and become the owner of an enormous Kli, as big as the Creator to Whom I bestow.

I perceive His Kli, where He receives pleasure, as my own because I fulfill it. Can you imagine what this is?! Here we come out into another dimension. But it is impossible to speak about it… This is a gradual process of development, where every time brings understanding of what to do next.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, The Zohar

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There are states that become manifested and continue only at the end of the four phases of development of the creature, when the Light causes the creature to feel shame. Once the creature attains the fourth phase (Behina Dalet), it finds itself at a degree opposite the Creator, but realizes this in an opposite manner: It perceives this contrast as shame. In this manner, two polar opposites appear in one place, and shame neutralizes the entire pleasure of the creature by negating its “I.”

In the end, the creature is ready to restrict itself as it is left with only one solution: “I must become like the Creator in my action, no matter what this will require of me.” In previous phases, the creature has already tasted both reception and bestowal; it has already been in the Creator’s place, and it has gained all the necessary impressions. Now it is following only one goal by restricting itself: to become like the Creator.

After descending below the veils of the worlds, after the breaking of the vessels and all the previous phases of our development, we are now standing before the action of ascending back towards the Light. Our generation is the first to begin the correction.

As before, this process combines direct opposites: Our egoistic desire wants to receive pleasure, and shame does not let it do this, while the rudiment of the desire to bestow is awakening within us. After the breaking of the vessels, the phases of the Direct Light, reception, and bestowal became a part of us. As a consequence, we must keep two opposites within us, and this is the most difficult part.

This is because on one hand, man develops through a growing desire, and on the other, this alienates him further from the Creator. Therefore, he needs to transform his desire with an intention to bestow. By strengthening this intention, he will grow and come closer to the Creator.

One man’s strength is his egoistic desire, and the other is his similarity to the Creator, his power to bestow. These two opposite forces take turns manifesting in us, and we need to combine them with our own efforts.
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From the 1st Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, Writings of Rabash, “The Virtue of the Little One”

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