Question: In my understanding, the expression “harmony with nature” is at odds with the achievements of progress like the Internet, the washing machine, and household electrical appliances. Are such objects and things connected to nature?

Answer: Of course! Enjoy their benefits, that’s not the case. Despite all of these things, people living in developed nations, where there is no lack of anything, are more likely to suffer from depression. So it is not the electronic appliances and not the comfort with which a person surrounds himself; but the absence of inner peace.

Today humanity can feed itself abundantly. We throw away a lot of food and  we cannot distribute them because we don’t have the proper connection between us. That is where the problem is! Somewhere there are hungry people, but we don’t care about them! Apparently humanitarian aid is provided only for show, but actually everything is thrown away and scattered.

Question: In other words, unity with nature is not a rejection of comfort?

Answer: No! Unity with nature doesn’t mean returning to the forest, to the jungle. Seven billion humans cannot return to the jungle. Becoming closer to nature is through comprehending it! This is not about nature that we see around us. Instead it is about the internal forces and the formula by which it works. We must attain them internally, in our feelings, to understand what is happening and what forces surround us.

These forces are concealed from us. We don’t understand what manages us. What will I think about in another minute? What will happen tomorrow? Why did this specifically happen yesterday? I don’t see what I influence and what influences me because I am lacking contact with the scheme in which I exist.

We are found in a system that manages our world, but we don’t feel it. How can I come in contact with it, to a mutual understanding, so that I will influence it and it will influence me?

This system is called the “upper world” because it manages our world: All of humanity, all parts of the still, vegetative, and animate nature. How can we discover it? How can we influence it correctly so that in return it will influence us correctly? This is the essence of the wisdom of Kabbalah; it gives answers to all of the questions of existence.

As long as a person has not revealed them for himself, he will wander around in the darkness like a blind man, he will hit sharp corners and suffer, especially in our times when the world is becoming more mutually connected. So if someone acts incorrectly somewhere, it impacts everyone.

Throughout the generations, nature has moved all of us forward until we have become locked in. Now we are beginning to feel how much this mutual connection obligates us, and we cannot break it.

Today we have no other way out. We must find that state in which we can develop harmoniously, comfortably, and securely. And this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is talking about. So it was concealed before our time and has only been revealed now.
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From KabTV’s “The New Year” 12/25/14

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Question: Animals have a natural sense, an instinct, that helps them survive. Why don’t we have such healthy instincts that could bring us to prosperity and growth in life?

Answer: In general, man does not calculate, rather immediately surrenders and does what the desire demands. He has no choice: I want! And that’s all.

Question: Can we, knowing in advance that the desires are managing us, overcome this situation?

Answer: In the end, no. The only thing we can do is perform special exercises in order to create a habit to overcome one desire with another desire, that is all.

Let’s say, a mother says to a child: Do your homework and then I’ll buy you an ice cream. He calculates that instead of punishment he can get a reward, and he does his homework. A calculation is operating, but the desire compels: I want a reward without work or effort from my side. I do not want to do homework and receive ice cream, but not having a choice, I do it. And then I even hate homework more because I can’t get rid of it.

Actually, we don’t have a choice, because we can’t stand against our desire. Only fear, and only to a certain level, helps a person keep himself in the correct attitude. This is called education by means of morality: We tell the children how we will suffer if we are dragged by our desires.

This system creates many problems. By limiting and frightening a person, we make him a machine that acts only from fear.

Question: Could it be that this framework protects the person?

Answer: The moral prohibition and fear of losing the reward in the next world maintains a person, but it is only if their desire to receive is not big. But because today this desire grows from day to day, religion and morals can’t keep us in the framework. And we do all we want in following our desires in all areas: in food, sex, family, and relationships in society.

This openness is perceived now as the norm: So it is conducted like that, there are no longer any boundaries. In such a case, a person needs to check: Is this better for him or worse? Before he was under the pressure of society, which limited him, as say a traditional English education, and now he feels good living the way he wants. Nevertheless, we see that he is still not happy.

Question: What is the next step?

Answer: The values and mutual support that man receives from society. Therefore, it is necessary to bring him to a mutual connection with the environment. In this mutual connection he will be able to clarify norms that are needed to achieve what is desired.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 11/7/14

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Suffering Due to a Lack of Balance

Question: Why does an evil force exist at all? Was it impossible to make things so life would be all good without any pain and torment?

Answer: The pain and torment testify to some kind of lack: a lack of oxygen, cold, heat, or nourishment. We suffer from a lack of fulfillment, wholeness, and balance. This suffering obliges us to remove the imbalance, to attain what is missing to complete ourselves.

We always feel pain; even the hand that rests comfortably on the table endures the pressure of the table. But if the suffering is not great, it helps us to feel objects and use them, which is to say, to react to the surrounding world.

But there are such reactions that have already crossed the threshold of pleasant feelings and begin to be felt as true suffering and pain. Pain is also a useful phenomenon. Pain protects us, obligates us to flee from danger, and forces us to heal our illnesses. There isn’t just evil in the world; everything depends upon how we relate to it.

Question: I will give an example: Yesterday when I was not around, they smashed the window of my car and stole a bag with money and documents. How can I remove this lack and imbalance? What can I do to become whole and balanced?

Answer: This is an excellent example. You are certainly suffering, and this testifies to your illness. Our whole society is sick.

You still don’t know that in this way they are showing you that you are sick: every citizen of this nation and all of us together are sick. And now you should try to find a remedy.

Don’t think that this happened for no reason like a little child who drops a cup and claims that it broke by itself. For every phenomenon there is a reason and it is necessary to learn it so that it won’t come back again.

Question: Does it follow that from the start we are condemned with illnesses if the world was created with weaknesses and pain?

Answer: No, we ourselves create the diseases. The pain is given only to show us where wholeness is required. If I put my hand into a fire and I don’t feel the pain, it will be burned. This pain is useful.

Suffering becomes bad not because it hurts me but because I don’t react correctly to the pain. This evil is found only in me, and not in some additional place somewhere.

If a lion wants to devour me, it is impossible to blame him for being evil. He acts according to his nature, his internal instincts. He became hungry and I looked quite tasty to him. It is not the lion that is bad; rather, it is I, because I put myself in a situation where he could attack me.

So it is worthwhile for me to stay away from this evil so that I won’t be hurled into bad situations. I won’t travel to a jungle anymore or I will put the lion in a cage.

There isn’t any evil! If I make a mistake once, then this is a lesson for me. If I repeat the same mistake, then this is stupidity.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/3/14

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Question: How does one finally start a new life in January 2015, the life which we postpone year after year?

Answer: We have our television channel that we sustain with our own money, without receiving help from other sources. I strongly recommend that in this New Year, everyone tune in to [Israeli] Channel 66 and start watching and listening to it.

In this way, you will gradually enter a new world. You will discover how to reverse your life to one that is safer, kinder, gentler, and will begin to understand where you exist. If you begin to engage in serious study, then you truly will be able to reach new heights. It is possible for each one to achieve it.

In many cities there are branches of the Bnei Baruch Education Center, which provides Kabbalah courses for anyone that wants them. Through the Internet, it is possible to study virtually and connect with others. We also organize meetings, conventions, and conferences here and around the world.

Comment: Please give us advice on how to achieve happiness in 2015.

Answer: Let’s create a bond between us. Start to learn about what the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of. It is the most ancient wisdom that comes to us from Babylon. Its founder, Abraham created the Jewish nation by uniting people around the wisdom of Kabbalah. This wisdom clarifies the foundation and general outline of man’s nature.

Read my article “Who Are You, People of Israel?” published in The New York Times on September 20, 2014. The article addresses the sources of anti-Semitism, what is happening today in the world, where are we from, etc. Begin by reading these small pieces.

When you are ready, I will be waiting for you in our center in Petach Tikva where I give lessons for beginners. It might be that we will meet in another city, since we have many students all over Israel.

Let’s become acquainted, let’s do it, and in spite of the results of the election, the year 2015 and the following years will be years of peace and good.
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From KabTV’s “The New Year” 12/25/14

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Question: My younger brother has just graduated from university and now he ponders where to work and what to engage in. His indecisiveness forces him to weigh all the options for a long time. What would you advise him?

Answer: I would advise him to establish a stronger connection with the environment and perhaps even with different communities. I would have this be taught at schools and universities. I would also open different courses so that everyone would be able to attend them and to learn what kind of lifestyle is best for him in regard to what he wants and how to attain it.

Today there are many unemployed people who don’t know where to turn. There is no other way but to allow a person to actually interact with his environment and choose the sort of life he considers the best for his nature, his attributes, and his habits.

Question: Isn’t there a risk that I would follow any advice at work according to my desire?

Answer: If I hear different opinions, I will learn to compare them and thus eventually become wiser. Why is the computer smart? It can simply perform many calculations at a high speed. If I have many options and lots of experience, I will also become a genius. This is the whole wisdom.

Question: So how can we upgrade our “computer” so as to become smarter?

Answer: You can only do that by being incorporated into societies that are not too big. You should start working in workshops of ten people. I acquire a sensible approach to life by those who surround me, even if they are mistaken or are not highly educated. For example, I can sit with a musician, a manual laborer, a teacher, a shoemaker, a cook, or a scientist in the group of ten.

The moment we all sit together in a circle and exchange opinions, I build a vessel of connections with nine people in my mind and feelings. The more I am incorporated in each of them, the greater volume I acquire until I include all of humanity inside me.

I then divide my desire to receive into many cells and determine the different connections between them. It is like a game where one desire reflects your nature and another desire reflects your friend’s nature and so on. Now whenever a desire to receive on a different level appears in me, I implement the necessary strategy, which is one of those I acquired from the environment. This means that I have acquired a practical approach to life.
[150658]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/11/13

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Question: Lately there is such a direction as behavioral economics. Many studies show that humans are not rational creatures, but instead, they are managed by sensory impulses, and they often act to their own detriment. Do you agree with this assertion?

Answer: A human being is a desire to receive and the desire to receive is devoid of logic (rationality). Each one chooses exactly what to enjoy for himself. But apparently my rational choice is contingent on education, habit, and values.

There are also other factors: fear of death, a desire to succeed, and looking good in the eyes of one’s peers in his environment. The survival and sexual instincts play a role that is no less important.

Question: For quite some time, psychologists have attempted to identify those hidden forces that don’t permit us to make rational (logical) decisions.

Answer: Today, on the long road of development, and through our increased power, we see that our entire civilization is completely irrational. It acts destructively towards itself and deliberately chooses the way of suffering.

For example, a mother teaches her child: “Be conciliatory towards others, be quiet, then you will have more friends.”  Whereas he says adamantly: “I don’t want to!” We see  examples of this not only in children. Adults and entire groups of people fight, kill, and destroy each other only out of envy, vanity and a desire to dominate.

It is completely understood that the aspiration to fulfill our inner drives and our irrationality is what manages us and we only employ our intellect later, when it is necessary for getting what we want.

Question: The expression, “Humans are emotional creatures” indicates that he feels the awakening of some desire within him. To what is he sensitive?

Answer: He is sensitive to what he is missing, which is to say, according to what he needs. He pays attention to himself all the time: “What do I want? What kind of desire is aroused in me now obliging me to fulfill it? I am a slave to my desires; they dominate me.”

Question: If intellect only serves the desires, where is wisdom found?

Answer: It is found within the desire. The desire to receive is our nature. This is apparent on all levels. Atoms maintain their form, plants absorb beneficial substances and emit harmful substances, and animals multiply. All of this is the desire to receive and fulfill itself with all kinds of pleasant things according to a program that exists in each individual.

That is how wisdom manifests itself on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate. Except in humans, the program for life for all other living creatures cannot be changed. Every cat will eat fish for pleasure, even if it has never tasted it previously. Everything is different with humans. You don’t begin eating Chinese food if you are accumstomed to a Slavic cuisine from childhood. What can be derived from this is that humans undergo a unique program that we call education.
[150635]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/11/13

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Today when the traditional models of human development only increase social inequality, it’s time to form a new society based on a system of integral education, where people will obtain a new system of priorities.

Question: What do you call this social economic model?

Answer: “United Society.” In this society each one contributes to and cares for the common interests.

Question: What kind of incentive motivates a person?

Answer: Honor and recognition from others.

Today we use these incentives in their egoistic, negative form: man flaunts his superiority, his advantages over others. Successful people are measured according to wealth.

But the new society lives differently, and the spirit in this society forms the correct relation in everyone.

And besides, realizing oneself in such a way, a person feels that he is advancing to the revelation of the Creator, toward a degree of the next world that is revealed here and now in this life.

Of course we can’t get along without the system of integral education, say an hour and a half of study in the morning and evening. This is not just a class, it’s a change of life values and priorities, a reorientation, a new direction, and a new criteria. Now people are not valued by their dollars, not by their bank accounts, but according to their investment in society.

Where do you take strength for socially useful actions? From the connection with the next degree of development: A person that invests efforts for the benefit of society, progresses and comes closer to the upper force until he reveals it.

In other words, here and now he begins to feel that he is in upper reality. It’s endless, exists above time, and man does not need to wait for death in order to reach paradise (or hell) that someone promises him. It fills him and compensates him beyond all the efforts that he invested.

Such a feeling appears in man during the revelation of the upper force, at the time of attaining the upper reality that is above the borders of this world and our current life. Man reveals the system that manages us and identifies with it. He lives in another degree, above the beastly existence of his body.

And for this compensation he is willing to work day and night.

Before he was boasting about earning more than his neighbor, and now about helping society, a society that receives and values his investment.

And man receives strength by coming closer to the Creator and revealing Him.

Without this developing cause, we will not be able to build a new society.

Question: What is this upper force, the Creator?

Answer: It is a force that acts in all of reality and manages our lives, including now.

It is concealed from us, but if man acts for the benefit of society, then he reveals it.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/23/14

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Question: In school we get all kinds of information, but they don’t teach us the main thing: who we are. Why is it important for every person to discover, to know, and to understand himself?

Answer: If I want to realize myself, I must know who I am and what sources of personal and intellectual powers are found within me. If I don’t have them, where can I go to get outside help in order to obtain them? In what am I weak and in what am I strong? For what occupation do I have an aptitude, for what lifestyle? In general, who am I?

Some people are found to have self-destructive tendencies, whereas others are constantly concerned about their life and health. There are those who attract an audience, others that reject it, and so forth. To discover and come to know yourself means that you discover and know the sources of success.

We see that kittens and puppies become independent creatures in two or three weeks. Whereas for a person, years of suffering are required for development, and ultimately his ability to absorb from the environment puts him on his feet.

An infant comes out of his mother’s womb clean and pure with no bacteria or viruses on him, nothing. Within a few hours he is covered with billions of bacteria, up to 30,000 per square centimeter of skin. In turn, the moment that he begins to breathe, sweat, and produce antibodies, he begins to influence his environment.

When it comes to the education of the young person, one is immediately offered a multitude of choices in terms of advice: the newborn must listen to music, you must speak with him, and you must smile at him. They say that the music of Mozart influences brain cells and improves mathematical abilities. Without a doubt, all of this is good.

In truth, if a child up to the age of two hears several languages spoken regularly, they become the mother tongue for him. There exist various studies on this subject, but in fact, we know very little about ourselves, and our knowledge is completely experiential (empirical).

A person’s dependence on the environment is the main thing that must be taken into account. I was born in a particular family, at a particular time, under particular conditions; in all of this I must see the hand of fate. But there is also another side to the coin.

One mother can have five completely different children. For example, I have a brother who is a few years younger than I am, and he took completely opposite qualities from society than I did. This is to say, it is not just the environment, but exactly what a person will absorb from the environment also depends upon the person himself.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 11/7/14

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Question: Naturally there are many political parties and many opinions in every country, but the constant struggle between them over power harms society. How can people who have different opinions be united so that they can work together?

Answer: Unity is possible only among people who have a common goal, such as the wellbeing of society or the actual existence of the country, which is stronger than any disagreements and self-interests. If we are under an enemy attack and there is an external threat, we all unite, thus forgetting the hatred we felt towards one another previously. It is because the external threat extinguishes all our differences and we all fight against a common enemy.

But the moment the war is over and we have managed to defeat the enemy and remove the threat, our ego wakes up and once again we begin to fight with one another.

Question: How is it possible to unite in the absence of an external threat, in peacetime, despite the differences between us and the disputes over different opinions and interests.

Answer: This is possible if we see such a great advantage in unity that without it, our lives would be doomed to absolute failure just like when facing a ruthless enemy. In that case, we will be able to unite all the political parties into one.

We can either be saved from one of two things: either to be saved from a common disaster or looking forward to a great benefit that is perceived to be greater than our lives otherwise it would be impossible to unite. This means that people will fight for what is most crucial for them, and will see it as the greatest success in his life.

People should realize that without unity, everything will be ruined. However, this is currently possible only when there is an external threat in the time of war. If one of the major parties wins an election, like in America, for example, where there are Democrats and Republicans, the victory of one party means that the other party has lost, and they can only unite in order to defeat a common enemy.

But such unity can be sustained only on one condition. The moment it is clear that the enemy has been defeated, the struggle between them would immediately restart. In order for them to unite not under the fear of an external threat, they must be shown that there is a lot to gain, a bright future that promises unity and the end of a destructive struggle.

It is due to their overcoming their quarrel and coming to mutual agreement that they can reach a special level of life, pleasure, honor, power, profit, and the greatest gains.

A person must see a great advantage in unity. He will agree to it only if he worries about his existence in the face of an enemy or in expecting a huge gain through unity.

Therefore, people must be introduced to integral education so that they will see that by behaving in a certain manner, by suppressing the ego and uniting with others in order to work together, they will all receive an amazing infinite gain.
[150473]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/23/14

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Question: Some people get tattoos of the three-letter holy names because they suppose that each name has its own unique power. Is this effective? Has the person written a “recipe” for success for himself?

Answer: How will it help your life if you write a recipe with three ingredients on yourself, for example: ten grams of salt, five grams of pepper, and a liter of water? You have to bake the cake and not just write the recipe.

This recipe must be made by taking powers from the soul, finding out what water, salt, spices, flour, and yeast are—all the ingredients needed for preparing a cake. They must be found inside, joined correctly, and thoroughly blended.

And while you are preparing this concoction, you don’t see anything good in it since you need to put it in the oven, and this is not simple process! Only after you put this unpretentious concoction in the oven will it begin to rise to a beautiful cake. And then you can cover with honey or whipped cream.

Question: Have I understood correctly, that this is not just talking about a tattoo, but about ritualistic ornaments and pictures on the wall? If I don’t prepare my cake myself, then none of the various magical accessories will help me? But didn’t they come from the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: It is constructed in people’s perception this way. It is like buying someone else’s diploma. A friend finishes school, he gets a diploma, and you photograph it, write your name on it, and hang it on the wall. Will this help you?

You cannot go to a university and become an expert with this diploma. You are only deceiving yourself that you have something.

Question: How can Kabbalah truly help me to change my destiny?

Answer: First of all, if you want to change your destiny, it is up to you to learn. No unique skills are required for this. It is written: “It is not the wise who learns.” This is for everyone. If is his destiny, he must study Kabbalah!

We have reached a situation in this generation where everyone must learn to change their destiny. It is impossible to escape from this. If you flee, then you will get caught by the ear, with the help of the police and the courts, and you will be sat down at the study table.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/21/14

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