We want to build a global system that will serve as a new kind of connection for humanity. It will bring people into situations where they will discern that due to the laws of nature, it pays more to bestow and be close to others. Eventually people will come to experience everyone as one organism.

This will be a system of education that will make a person feel how, step by step, he is being taught about the laws and rules of the new society. These laws are derived from attainment of the general system of nature, of which we are part. Similarity to the main law, “love your neighbor,” is universal and primary. Everything else is a derivative from it. (See Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Law.”)

The connections that will develop within this system will turn it into a virtual state where people will bring a spiritual component into the virtual connection. Within this system people will begin to create connections among them that are inherent even in our mundane lives. From the new awareness of the right relationships, they will also begin creating the appropriate connections in business, family, and others.

Gradually, all forms of connection among people will develop within this system, until it comes to replace all the systems of egoistic connection. The latter is what appears to unite people today, although in reality it only separates people and puts them at odds with one another.

The nature, goal, and influence of the new system upon every person is completely different. It has to contain an intellect, an ability to learn and teach the people that use it, as well as to give advice to those who set it in motion. It also has to listen to their suggestions regarding which changes must be executed in the connection among people so they gradually advance to closer connections among each other, until reaching a connection that is above egoism.

From A Talk about a New Internet 4/4/10

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Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education - 1 Comment →

Everything starts with education. We need to build an educational system, an environment that will influence every person to want to change his qualities to the qualities of the Creator.

By changing one’s inner qualities, this in turn, impacts and changes all other systems: connections between people, connections with the environment, family relationships, industry, business, science, and culture – everything! The whole of life will change as a result of people’s inner changes, and so first we need to focus on helping promote these internal changes. Therefore, the first step is education.

Without education, we have nothing to talk about. Without it, a person will not understand or agree with anything. So first, we need to take him and begin to build an incubator around him, the nurturing environment which will correct him.

After all, if we were to start change anywhere else, like with a new system of economics and culture, with whom would we build it? If it were with the same people as before, what changes could we possibly expect to see in the system? Starting from scratch, we need first to lay the foundation. This foundation needs to be established in the basis of Kabbalah, by those who understand Kabbalistic books, who can explain the wisdom, and share how to treat people differently, how to perceive the world correctly, how to see the goal we are aiming for, and how to achieve it.

All the changes in society are carried out through a change in a person, by his changing his priorities. Therefore, there is no more important task than a Kabbalistic upbringing.

What should a Kabbalistic upbringing be like? What does an incubator do as it hatches eggs? It heats them up, providing them with the most favorable environment for their development at every given moment. The incubator changes, adjusts itself to the conditions that are necessary for the future nestlings. We need to provide people with what suits their condition. We cannot offer people what they don’t wish to accept now and what is not currently to their benefit.

If a child does not like the medicine, he will refuse to swallow it. Therefore, the medicine needs to be in a sweet coating. We need to think about this even now, since the whole world is separated into two halves: an internal and an external one. We have almost completed our work with the internal half, and we are moving on to the external one; we need to develop a completely different approach for these people.

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The science of Kabbalah is the order of descent of the Upper Forces directed to the revelation of the Upper Governing Force (the Creator) to a person.

The law of the particular: Even before the common revelation of the Upper Force to the whole of humanity, there are a few chosen individuals who are able to reach this state.

The law of the general: At the end of its development, the whole of humanity must come to the revelation of the Upper Governing Force, and completely attain it. Studying a path of attaining the Creator, Kabbalah explores “the order of descent of the worlds” from above downwards, that is, from the World of Infinity to this world, as well as “attainment of the Upper Force” from below upwards, by climbing the steps that were formed by the descent of the worlds.

Attainment of the Governing Force is gradual and sensed in our feelings, depending on correction of egoism. The Upper Force has to be gradually attained according to the laws established by its descent from above downward.

Kabbalah studies the world we can’t feel. A Kabbalist first senses this world, and then takes on the cognition of it. Those who don’t feel the Upper World think that Kabbalah studies something abstract and detached from reality. But it’s the opposite: Kabbalah describes only a real, attainable reality.

Everything is revealed from above downwards in the parallel worlds, and these worlds differ only in their material, a quality of desire. However, the objects and forms are the same as an imprint of a seal. All the details of the Upper World (roots) are reflected in our world (branches). A root controls its branch in everything.

The language of branches: The language of branches was created by Kabbalists based on the connection of each branch in our world with its root in the Upper World. However, this language can be understood only by those who feel the root. Aspiration to attain the Upper Force causes the Light to shine from the root to the branch, thus correcting the branch to the degree of the root.

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A question I received: You advocate single-sex education. Yet, leading countries of the world have long abandoned it. Is it what Kabbalah recommends?

My Answer: Kabbalah recommends single-sex education beginning from age 2 to 3. The physiology and psychology of a human being, not just his soul, testify to the need of separate education. Scientists are finally beginning to recognize it as well.

Die Welt published an article by Wolfgang Bergmann, a renowned German pedagogue and family therapist. He states that today’s boys are girlish and effeminate. Little boys want to make noise, fight, gain their social position, and nevertheless be loved. But there is no place for this in a pedagogically correct female world. Boys become increasingly enveloped in female understanding; they are forcefully balanced and feminized. The world has become too small for the boys. It is too normalized, and boring.

What boys do especially well is not appreciated neither at daycare nor at school. The world of pedagogy has “conspired” to wean them from masculine traits. The boys become restless and absentminded; many suffer mentally, are hyperactive or depressed.

Filed under: Education - 2 Comments →

A question I received: All my life I was a rebel against the social system. After somehow finishing high school, I went off for some spontaneous and irrational traveling to find myself. I needed that to find out what I wanted to do in life, not what others wanted me to do, and what I wanted to be.

It’s not a miracle that I discovered Kabbalah in my own way. From that time since (it was in 2005) I have eagerly studied with you and in my corporeal life, I am trying to schedule my doings by the model of Bnei Baruch as much as possible.

From being spontaneous and a constant risk taking wildcatter, through those years of studying Kabbalah, I have already turned into (at least in comparison) a decent person, and now I’m trying to build up a needed healthy frame of social status and behaviour.

I found my profession, through which I earn money like a normal citizen. I have a woman who is likely to be my wife (our relationship is totally based on Kabbalah).

My question is about university studies – and specifically during our time of global instability and multi-crises. After denying the system all my life, now I just want to be  normal, and I see university studies as a means to help me attain this “normality.” I am in a huge dilemma about this, because it’s impossible for me to just see my little life with my little surroundings without looking at it from the global point of view. And watching from there I become very, very unsure.

If I have a profession (photographer), do I need to study at a university (in international business and communication or advertising management)? Because you said that a person must go into the army, attend a university, have a job and make a family.

My Answer: You don’t need it. What I meant was that you shouldn’t give up education if it allows you to make your living. But nothing more than that.

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Two questions I received about topics for PhD research and studying other subjects in addition to Kabbalah:

Question: I am new to reading about Kabbalah and I am planning to do research on Kabbalah for a PhD. The topic I was thinking about was “Kabbalah as a way of attaining enlightenment for the ordinary human being.” Please advise me if this topic will be a good research topic. If not please advise on a possible topic and books that I can read for my research.

My Answer: I am ready to help you!

Question: What should my attitude be towards self help, self education and various learning programs when I study Kabbalah? I feel I still have not covered my basic needs, so I am listening to self education tapes about money, sales, men and women and I also study Kabbalah.

My Answer: Study what you want, but choose among it that which is most important and eternal.

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In the News (from CNET): “Kids’ search terms: Sex, games, rock ‘n’ roll” Kids search for the damndest things online. …”I think seeing how dominant the terms ‘sex’ and ‘porn’ are, that they come up well within the top 10, doesn’t surprise us,” said Marian Merritt [Symantec Internet safety advocate].

My Comment: The proper education is not to restrict the kids, but to help them develop and form the right objectives and values, which will direct their natural desires in such a way that they will use them correctly.

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In the News (from The Guardian): “Atheist camp to give children ‘godless alternative’” An atheist summer camp for children is to be held in the UK for the first time this year, offering a “godless alternative” to similar religious events under canvas… The purpose of Camp Quest UK, which has been praised by the atheist and skeptic author Richard Dawkins, is to encourage critical thinking and provide children with a summer camp “free of religious dogma”…Camp Quest UK’s website says its counselors and volunteers will lead activities teaching eight to 17-year-olds “about science, free thought and humanist principles. Activities cover critical thinking, science, history, human rights and ethics”.

My Comment: The religious view of God as an angry or an all-forgiving persona originated from ancient human fears of Nature and our desire to safeguard and secure ourselves.

But the complete negation of a higher world (which is impossible to perceive using our egoistic desires but which we are in a position to perceive if we change our desires in the opposite direction) also restricts a person to the physical world without giving him an understanding of “science, free thought and humanist principles.”  In fact, the denial of religion gives birth to yet another religion.

Kabbalah explains that this world consists of two forces. Our world is based on the force of the will to receive. But an opposite world is possible, an anti-world, which is based on the will to bestow. Kabbalah is the method for the revelation of this other world to man.

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Filed under: Education - 1 Comment →

A question I received: What is the Light that Reforms in education for children?

My Answer: The Light that Reforms is an Upper force, the force of wisdom that comes from the teacher and influences the student who then asks, “What is it?”

The Light that reforms is an effect of the Upper degree on the lower, an influence with force and status, not knowledge. When the lower one equalizes his qualities with those of the Upper one, he reveals what is in the Upper one. Therefore, a true upbringing consists of constantly supplying the children with situations to tackle. Through discussion, problem solving, and overcoming obstacles in their own way to solutions, they eventually attain the knowledge on their own.

It turns out, that the truest form of teaching is through discussion. Ancient schools used precisely that method. Rabbi Akiva sat under a tree surrounded by his students where together they discussed various topics.

Other nations as well used to establish a special place where people would come to discuss various matters. They came and left freely, listened to others and expressed their opinions. Thanks to discussions and the free exchange of opinions, a person was included in the society. This form of education was characteristic of many cultures, even the word “school,” translated from the ancient Greek, means “leisure” – time well spent.

Herein lies the essence of a school: a person goes there to partake of the pleasant atmosphere, beneficial for his/her development. Instead, we stuff dry knowledge into the kids’ heads, clogging them to their detriment. They can’t stand such education. Firstly, a person doesn’t study his own self, rather he is like a robot being stuffed with data. Secondly, he’s not shaped into a ‘Human.’ That, according to Aristotle and Plato, brings great harm.

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Humanity has been developing its educational system for thousands of years, and it consists of two parts:

• Education (mind, intellect, brain): a child is taught his future profession, since he can’t get along in life without it.

• Upbringing (senses, heart): in absence of a process that shapes a child into a human being, education has the potential to do harm rather than good.

Even while learning a profession, a child should not be given ready-made explanations, formulas, solutions or anything in that matter.  He should not receive anything in its final form.  First, he needs to discuss, test and analyze the subject to eventually reveal the truth on his own, feeling the thrill of discovery. Such an approach inspires him; he is independently reaching the conclusions that the teacher wanted him to reach.

Studying Torah has always been in the form of discussions and allowed an exchange of opinions. A student is intentionally confused, being dragged into researching a task. That makes him search for the solution, honing his independent arguments. Eventually, in the process of his development, he masters the problem, while he’s “opened the book” for himself and thus understands what is written in it.

A book needs to obligate a child to develop. He needs to discover the formula following the steps of the discoverer. One must attain knowledge, not be given it, such as occurs in mainstream education.

In that sense, the Talmud serves as an excellent example of a true text book. After all, we study it to develop and not to memorize data.

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