As it is sung in the song “Sing for Him, Chant to Him…joyful are those that seek the Creator.” All our work depends on it; are we capable of being in self-scrutiny, criticism, and unpleasant inner discernments so that, by ourselves, in our forces, we reveal the evil even before we stumble into it through compulsion, “in its time“? It is necessary to reveal it before that, in “hastening time”: pulling ourselves into connection, even though it is against our nature, revealing the evil, and finding a cure before the blow.

Because in the cure, there is part of the poison, part of the snake, so it cannot be pleasant. And if we are capable of finding the cure ahead of time, then we progress as workers of the Creator, by requesting of Him.

Therefore one doesn’t need to be afraid of the revealation of evil or of the wicked being revealed. The main thing is to see this revelation correctly. Until all the evil and flaws are reveled to the end, we will not come to the good; we will reveal it only together with the correct preparation to reveal the illness in order to correct it.

Because there is no doubt that all the “wicked” already exist. If a thought, a desire, and an urge come to a man, it is a sign that it was already in him before. But if we reveal it by preparing ourselves correctly, then we open this “Pandora’s Box” and we quickly and easily correct all the sins; this is called the short and pleasant path. But if we are not ready for such a revelation and do not want it, then we will go in a long, difficult painful path until it will finally be revealed.

It is impossible to prevent the pain completely, but it needs to be a pain of healing as in a man who goes for surgery, treatment for a wound, or gets dental care. It is not pleasant, but we agree to it; therefore, everything depends on preparation. And if a correct preparation is made, then the group, the community, and the world groups are ready to see the revelation of evil, and then “Joyful are those that seek the Creator,” and we will have what to sing to Him about.
[101327]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13

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In the News (from USA Today): “Drug overdose deaths rose for the 11^th straight year, federal data show, and most of them were accidents involving addictive painkillers despite growing attention to risks from these medicines.

“‘The big picture is that this is a big problem that has gotten much worse quickly,’ said Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which gathered and analyzed the data.

“In 2010, the CDC reported, there were 38,329 drug overdose deaths nationwide. Medicines, mostly prescription drugs, were involved in nearly 60% of overdose deaths that year, overshadowing deaths from illicit narcotics. …

“Anti-anxiety drugs including Valium were among common causes of medication-related deaths, involved in almost 30% of them. Among the medication-related deaths, 17% were suicides….

“Last month, a federal panel of drug safety specialists recommended that Vicodin and dozens of other medicines be subjected to the same restrictions as other narcotic drugs like oxycodone and morphine.”

My Comment: The problem is not in treatment, but in the eradication of causes, and it is in general depression, emptiness, and lack of meaning. If a person is filled with good mood and spirit, he will almost always be healthy.
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And Moses said unto them: “Let no man leave of it till the morning.” Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and rotted; and Moses was wroth with them (The Torah, Exodus, BeShalach, 16:19 – 16:20).

This speaks about lack of faith. If you stock up for tomorrow, you are no longer in the world of the Creator, but are in your own world. This is a constant struggle that should accompany a person in relation to everything: to view the past, present, and future in relation to himself and others and to assess everything that happens to a person—this “I” and my attitude towards everything—where do I become free from my “self?”

Man is a person’s aspiration for the property of bestowal. This entails a very serious transition: from denial, to restriction, to rising above himself, and it includes a variety of other conditions. Try to draw your portrait on the floor and start stomping on it; this is what you want to remove yourself from, to move away from the present you. Feel yourself in these states.

Comment: But there is another attitude, like in the joke: A man is sitting on the roof of a house, surrounded by flood; a boat passes by with people offering to rescue him, but he answers, “No, the Creator will save me.” A helicopter flies above him, “We’ll save you,” “No,” he says, “The Creator will save me.” So, he drowned.

Answer: This is a terrible pride, “The Creator will save me.” That is, a person does not identify himself with the world, does not understand that the Creator is in everything: in the boat, in the helicopter—everywhere. He does not connect this with the Creator, but divides the world into various intermediaries, thoughts, and forces. This happens due to the failure to feel the Creator as unity.
[102296]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

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A person aspiring to spiritual attainment begins to see that the whole world is one system. It is constant joyful work, and you become accustomed to it gradually. It becomes a necessity. You already exist at this level.

All the other levels are flat, one-dimensional, and it’s impossible to think of them as before. A person begins to get accustomed to thinking in the n-dimensional space which becomes compressed into a single force and purpose; therefore, it’s not difficult to feel the whole world connected with a single goal, with a single thought, with a single force, up to the point that you look at the starry sky and see what connects all the stars.

This raises some very interesting questions, such as, “How did the ancient astrologers associated stars in the constellations?” After all, if I look at the stars I’m unable to join them in all the signs of the zodiac, Orion, the Big Dipper and others. I don’t have such a great imagination as the ancient Greeks or the Babylonian astrologers because the stars are far away from each other and in different planes.

Let’s say that one star is hundreds million years closer to the Earth, and the other is millions years farther. But they saw them connected to each other as in a single plane. What is it: just primitive representations or human fantasy? Where there is a bear with four or five stars forming a square with a tail? How can one imagine this?

It’s a very interesting thing: The idea that links the stars in the zodiac signs is attained by a person through his influence on it.

The ancient astrologers had a feeling of the connectedness of these stars. Due to the development of egoism, we became detached from the universe, from perceiving it as a whole, but they had a sense of relative connectedness because they perceived it as a host of gods, of uppers forces that influenced them. And it was not because they were small or primitive; it’s simply not twisted, not coarse human perception without the number of filters as we have. That is, they had a much greater perception of the Light. If we begin to correct our egoism, we will now feel the Light many times more because we are much coarser than they were.
[102292]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

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Question: Lately the price of shares on the stock market are sky high again, the Dow Jones has set a new record high. This of course has an impact on Europe and Japan. How can it be that a certain part in the general system is still getting richer while the others suffer from the crisis?

Answer: The stock market has been on the rise for a long time. The brokers have decided that the crisis that started in 2008 has come to an end. “Indeed, how much longer can we wait if it’s already 2013? Enough, it’s time to raise the new digits on the counter…”

Generally speaking, all the “bubbles” are false and unnatural. The whole modern economy is basically false. It has many indices and indicators, but it’s basically the same: First, the brokers lay the false foundation, and then they build their houses on it until the earth swallows them. After all, today’s economy is not a science; it’s not part of nature.

The real economy is the relationships between people based on the principle of “give and take.” As it says, “Go and make a living from one another.” If we were to establish the correct, true economy, then, in the connection with others, in bestowing upon them and receiving from them, I would discover the Creator, the upper world.

In that sense, the wisdom of Kabbalah can also be called “the economy,” since it explains how to receive correctly, how to make a great profit and fill the vessels, the desires to receive, and to bestow in the best way possible, to safely avoid all the damages, the loss of connection and filling, and in general of everything. To sum up, the optimal economics is the wisdom of Kabbalah.

At the same time, the brokers have no idea about nature and its plans, about how the human desires develop and about the relations between people. They have simply decided to create a certain mechanism and to force it upon others so that they will work and the brokers will get rich. Suppose I manufacture pens, and I don’t care if anyone needs them; by using different tricks, I convince people to buy them and by that bring myself pleasure in terms of money.

The traders don’t take into account the major factors; after all, people’s desires change, the conditions change, and the consumers are fed up. In addition to that, no matter how hard you try to curb the natural development of technology, you will not be able to stop it. Today those at the top want it both ways: They want to automate production, but this leaves people jobless and moneyless, so they cannot buy these products. They have to make a decision: If they want people to go on buying, they should give them money. But you cannot give them money since you are laying them off when you replace them with machines.

As a result of lacking the understanding of these processes and lacking a global vision, we come to the recognition of evil. So today, we have to understand the system that connects us all. Only if we are able to provide for one another correctly and safely, will everyone feel good. After all, what a person needs is pleasure.

So, the question is whether the mechanisms we have built can provide us with pleasure. After all, everything about these mechanisms is artificial and false. The highly lauded figures of the stock market have no basis. It’s all one big game of market players. They can also intentionally cause economic crises.

But there are phenomena that market players haven’t planned. Because they are so confused and have no coordination between them, different things are happening all at once, revealing the flaws in the system. It’s not even about being divorced from reality; this whole business had no real basis to begin with since it was never in conformity with nature. It’s impossible to call it capitalism anymore.

Question: It’s as if they have created a kind of virtual reality in which can impose artificial optimism interspersed with a bit of pessimism so that it will appear more real. As a result, the indexes are rising without having any real basis; optimism itself is enough…

Answer: That’s right; it’s a game that they are running according to their interests. It’s the same in every area, including politics: Those at the top pull the strings, and they are operated by the Creator.

Question: It seems that today the ego has become so sophisticated that it can take advantage of every situation. It is equally effective in taking advantage of the market rises and falls and the crises. Will it end?

Answer: It will come to an end when we are able to teach people the method of mutual guarantee and when they understand that they have no choice. Then the hopelessness will be revealed.

Even today it’s already clear that the stock market figures don’t mean a thing. What is worse is if we take into account the economic situation and the rise in unemployment, the stock market “bubble” can lead to an explosion that the real economy cannot create. After all, people are jobless and it’s a very dangerous situation…

The current rise of the stock market can be prolonged for a while. What’s more, from a spiritual perspective, I see it as a positive thing: Let them carry on since it helps us advance towards correction at our own pace.

On the whole, everything that happens means only one thing: We must hurry. We were given some more time to prepare the dissemination of the method of the true correction of the world. We have to try and be ready as soon as possible. Things are moving so that we will be able to advance and prepare ourselves, but the window of opportunity can suddenly close.
[102103]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/13, ”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 13: This is so because in His Eternalness, past, present, and future are as one… On the contrary, that equivalence of form, destined to be revealed at the end of correction, appeared instantly in the Infinite.

About this it says, “First think, then act.” The final form already exists and what is more, there is no other form but it. What we go through is the process of recognition of that final form, from our nature to the Creator’s nature. Thus, gradually, the distance between us turns into the attainment of the Creator above the created being.

By that we gain twice: On the one hand, we remain created beings, and on the other hand, we reach the same status as the Creator. It’s because we cannot be created beings if we don’t have our attributes, but at the same time, we acquire the Creator’s attribute and reach His wholeness.

Question: In what way do the Creator and the created being differ in this wholeness?

Answer: Their adhesion is an equivalence of form. On the whole, adhesion includes two sides that are adhered according to their intentions and are separate according to the “matter” of the created being. The “matter” of the created being has to be different from the Creator so as to enable the created being to feel that he is independent.

Thus, the feeling of adhesion itself indicates the initial difference, because in order to feel it, we have to feel its deficiency. So the created being has to go through a development process and to gather all the Reshimot (spiritual genes) of all the states and then reach adhesion.
[102100]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/13, ”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: Today, many people are misled by “green” dreams, such as “We are ravaging our planet’s resources. Let’s stop and preserve the environment for our children.”

Answer: On one hand, I share this opinion. On the other hand, we see that it is not quite so. Many people’s interests are involved in this issue, and they stay on both sides of the “green” front. Now and then, the fight for a green planet triggers more harm than ecological damages per se.

First of all, we must figure out exactly how we are destroying nature. Does it happen because of our relationships or due to technogenic consequences?

At a certain point in time, Malthusians and demographers screamed that the Earth won’t be able to feed us, and, yet, we have an abundance of food now to such an extent that some governments subsidize farmers who agree voluntarily to produce less food products. In fact, if we were not throwing away lots of food supplies, it would be sufficient to provide for the entire world.

Threats of oil and gas shortages are not quite justified, either, but they help many people earn money on their price fluctuations. Besides that, at this time, we already have developed very effective technologies that provide alternative energy.

As to vast amounts of waste, a new processing industry was created that is quite profitable.

In other words, the current problems are fairly resolvable if we approach them correctly. Baal HaSulam wrote that the Earth has the potential to feed many more people than today.

The problem is that we should organize our society in a proper way. Unless we organize, people will continue starving. Every few seconds, someone dies of hunger. It happens because the world is unable to unite. We simply have no ability to take care of each other.

It means that the root of the problem is not about nature, but, rather, about humans. We must think thoroughly about what exactly must be changed. Let’s stop building external structures and fighting with outside symptoms. Unless we change ourselves internally and educate a new generation of people, nothing will work. We have technologies and agriculture, but the trouble is that each of us takes care of his or herself and safeguards his or her property. One person has water, another has meat, another has salt, the fourth one has matches, and the next one has firewood, but they don’t get together to cook a tasty soup. That’s why people die of hunger.

Question: Does it mean that we simply hide from resolving this problem?

Answer: Our egoism spoils everything. It is the only source of the troubles we go through. Many smart people have tried fighting egoism using different methods and remedies. However, none of these experiments (including the Soviet Union) were successful. Why? It is because, in order to succeed, we need the help of the Upper Force.

The problem is that we must aspire for Nature to change us. For that, we should consent to internal modifications, and agree with the idea that we are not capable of changing ourselves and that only Nature can do it. Moreover, we must appeal to and rely on Nature alone!

In order for us to come to this state of mind, we must unite and try to build a social model that will allow Nature to influence us. Then, Nature will make us smarter and will give us a clearer understanding of what further steps we should take.

Still, it won’t be enough. There is another complicated condition. All of our efforts should be aimed at replenishing Nature. In other words, in essence, we should act not for our own sake. This is a very hard task. Our actions should be focused on the Creator’s sake, oriented to the power of bestowal, that is, Nature. It is our duty to unite with it. We must enhance the power of bestowal in all of reality. This is the goal to which we should completely devote ourselves.

Question: How can we explain these issues to environmental advocates?

Answer: Threats keep growing before our eyes. Global hunger will be triggered by increased food prices. The situation will become worse if we don’t change people and establish new rules of reasonable consumption. In fact, there is an abundance of everything we really need, and, yet, half of the world is deprived of the basic things that are essential for human existence. The situation can be changed only through shifting relationships among people from indifferent and hostile to kind and benevolent.

Accordingly, we must change our attitude to Nature. For that, we should modify a human being, and, only after we manage to achieve it, can we refer to resolving environmental problems.

Nature is one whole. It’s a single complex that consists of four levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking. In this hierarchy, human beings occupy the top critical position. Unless we recognize and acknowledge this fact, we won’t be able to begin treating the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature correctly.

It means that we must convey a simple message to environmentalists and “green” advocates: Before anything else, we must change a human being, and then we will be able to improve the rest.

In fact, we destroy nature merely by our thoughts. Therefore, internal modification of relationships among us will work much more effectively than any “green” projects. Nature will revive! We think that nature already has been irreversibly damaged and that it will take thousands of years to heal the wounds of the various ecological systems. It is not true! If we change our thoughts and rise to a higher level of interaction between us, everything quickly will return to normal.
[101652]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/13, “The Peace”

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And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness; and the children of Israel said unto them: ‘Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’ (The Torah, Exodus, BeShalach, 16:1 – 16:3)

The sons of Israel came out of Egypt. They broke out of their egoism, and after going through all the vicissitudes, rose to the level of “Elim,” to the level of Bina. “Elim” is from the word “El”, which means “God,” the “Creator”.

And then they came to the wilderness of Sin (“Sina” means “hatred” in Hebrew), meaning that they fell into hatred, in the renewal of egoism, and approached Mount Sinai, the main point of the manifestations of ego. Naturally, they started to complain because everything that they went through, both good and bad, at their current level is felt as something unbearable! In this state, a person cannot tolerate the egoism that has grown in him: It’s better to perish or disappear than to feel such hatred.

We are talking about a completely different feeling of egoism. They went through all the separations from Egypt, and now they are starting to see everything in the correct form. “Mount Sinai” represents a person’s inner state, their internal geography. Due to the fact that a person has passed through all the stages (learned, saw, became convinced, felt himself, the others, the relationships between people), he finds himself in such a state where he cannot bear his hatred of others. He would rather disappear than experience this feeling towards them.

That is why the people of Israel prefer to go back to any other state, rather than feel that attitude and see themselves in it. This is a good feeling; it’s movement forward.
[102230]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

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Question: Why is the Creator so uncompromising with the created being by setting tough, immutable laws for him? Why can’t He be more merciful, like a father with his son?

Answer: A child can never justify his father’s toughness. He cannot understand the father with his childish mind and see the future results and the benefit that his father’s education will bring him. The child wants to play from morning to night, to eat only sweets, and to watch TV. He cannot justify the parents’ constant demands and so he listens to them reluctantly since he feels his dependence on them and not because he justifies them.

In spirituality everything is much more complicated since we don’t feel to what extent the upper Providence treats us gently. In a child’s world, his oppositeness is not an indication of what he is about to become; if a child is obedient and does his homework and cleans up the messes he makes, the parents cannot come complaining to him since there is nothing more they can demand from him.

In the spiritual world, however, it is different: There you are always a criminal, since you arrive there with shattered vessels to begin with. You are treated kindly and are taught the method of correction; a group is organized for you, just like a kindergarten with a caretaker and with different toys. This is huge help from Above and mercy; all your sins are forgiven and you are given support in every way, just so that you will be able to reach correction and understanding to some extent.

In our world, we understand “education” as coercion directed at the child. But in the spiritual world, coercion is impossible. I can see that a student doesn’t change for years, repeating the same mistakes, falling into the same pits, and I cannot say a thing. I was the same way and it lasts throughout the entire path.

This is our path and there is nothing we can do. Unless a person determines the lesson, the method, his Torah by himself, he will not be able to advance. There cannot be coercion here, only recognition.

Therefore, we cannot complain that we are under the dominance of a cruel father despite all the terrible events of our history. We cannot justify them but later we will see that all the actions of the upper Providence stemmed from love. Although we cannot justify this in our current state, since we are too far from that, when we discover the truth, we will see what great correction it brought about.

“He has given a law that cannot be broken,” means that there is one law. There is a Light and a vessel which are opposite from each other, and this is the law. Later, when they are incorporated in one another, the law of evolution appears by this incorporation, called the law of equivalence of form. It all stems from one thought as one law.

Eventually I have to reach a state in which I want to keep this law by my own will, by myself, as if there is no one else, as if there is no Creator. When I become like the same creator looking at his creation determining the law according to which it should exist, it will mean that I have reached an equivalence of form with the Creator.
[102143]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The problem is that we need an inner connection between the friends and the teacher so that the external forms of the interruptions that are purposefully sent to us will not weaken, but rather, will strengthen this connection. It is indeed very difficult, since our ego depicts everything in an ugly external way and forces us to blame one another.

We cannot rise above the obstacles and external conditions that the Creator places us in so that we would overcome them by ourselves. The external corporeal picture strongly influences us and we cannot leap over it and rise in different states of conflicts, disrespect, feeling distant from others or when it comes to different corporeal accounts.

All this draws a person further from the goal, and it doesn’t just repulse him, but also causes him such harm that he will need to work for a long time in order to repair his past mistakes.

Baal HaSulam tells us in his letter that as long as a student yearns to get closer to his teacher and climbs the hill, the desire burns in him. But the moment he gets physically close to the teacher, his yearning diminishes gradually, until it is totally lost. Therefore, it is much easier to be distant than to be near. We all know that important people try to keep the crowds distant in order to increase the people’s interest in them.

A person creates a kind of image of a friend, the teacher, and the Creator, and doesn’t want to know the truth. He feels good living in the fantasy that he has created for himself and it is hard for him to get away from it, to erase it, in order to accept something new. If this picture is closer to the real picture, then, on the whole, it is less pleasant and more obligating.

So a person who sometimes hears the voice of the Creator and receives an invitation to stroll in His garden for a while, eventually doesn’t attain anything. It is because he doesn’t try to rise above his nature, above the inclination to reject his friends and his teacher and to imagine them as he sees fit instead of seeing the real picture so that the physical closeness or distance will not make a difference and also so that the spiritual closeness or distance will not lead to any changes in his relations with the friends, the teacher, and the Creator.

We have to try to rise as much as we can above our corporeal attributes and to be more objective. This means to judge above reason and to enter the collective vessel, outside one’s self.
[102132]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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