Question: What is “round” egoism?

Answer: At present, all humanity has become a common globally interconnected system. Our dependence on each other is manifested in everything: in business, culture, communication, politics, and the economy. But we do not know how to work with it because we are small individual egoists. And now, as we are entering this new system, we do not understand its laws because we are transitioning from a linear, discrete system to an analog system.

In a discrete system, everything depends on me, on my actions, and in a mutually closed, interdependent system, little depends on me. It turns out that if I relate linearly, directly, discretely to my enterprise, business, I see myself dependent on many factors, which I cannot calculate.

That is why politicians, economists, and investors get together at all sorts of G8 and G20 summits and cannot find any viable solutions to continue a normal operation of the system. After all, the law, which we suddenly face in our development, became integral.

An analog system is different from a discrete system because all the factors in it are dependent on each other. But we cannot take into account such a volume of data because within ourselves we are not like that; we have not ascended yet to that level. That is why we have lost the reins, the steering wheel, the ability to manage, and the world around us becomes unmanageable; we do not know exactly where we are being carried. There is no clear entrance-exit; there are just some consequences that we have not foreseen. It is very difficult to live in such a world.

That is why it is necessary to think about how we can still adapt to this new state, a new system, in which we suddenly find ourselves. It is the next level of our development, which has never existed in human history. But now it is already a given.
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From KabTV’s “Personnel Secrets” 2/3/13

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Question: What is considered bestowal upon another and why is there no direct and immediate punishment for not fulfilling this Mitzva of bestowal upon the society?

Answer: Bestowal upon another means that I help the other advance towards the goal. It isn’t bestowal unless it is about necessity. Everyone needs the basic necessities to exist, since the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature have to exist on something, but in every other sense, we only have to help the other go through the phase of development of the “speaking” level.

As for the immediate punishment for not keeping the law of bestowal, this cannot be. It is because the immediate punishment would activate you like the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature—when you do something wrong, and you are immediately punished; you do something right and you immediately get a reward. Then you are simply “programmed” just like an animal.

What’s the use of that if there is not the “human being” growing in you? He can only grow from the recognition and understanding, by developing and acquiring new attributes, and most importantly by acquiring new values, by raising himself upward, above the current level, and above unnecessary decisions.

A person grows something that resembles the Creator in himself. My body, my whole world, belongs to the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature. Now, however, I rise higher and build the “speaking” part in me that resembles the Creator (∾).

There is no such thing in our world, but this is actually what becomes my “self.” I sustain everything else only on the level of the necessary corporeal existence.

So it doesn’t work according to the principle of “give and take,” and the system of allowed and forbidden doesn’t fit here. It is because I have to build something above me.

Question: So who actually breaks the laws of nature: the created being or the Creator who allows us to do so?

Answer: Of course it is the Creator. He does that so that we can learn as “the advantage of the Light out of the darkness“.

The question here is as to my inclination and my tendency. It is a fact that I will fall and rise over and over again, as it says: “A righteous shall fall and rise a thousand times,” but do I want that? Am I attracted to that? Do I value this path and this direction? I am required to have an urge for that: “Do you want this to happen?” Do I cherish and develop the inclination and the desire for it”—”But how can I? I am but a “piece” of egoistic desire? “You have an environment, a group, a teacher, books, the Light that Reforms, everything that you need. It is up to you.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/13, “The Peace”

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Question: Why should a person be careful not to humble himself before strangers, but only before the friends along the spiritual path?

Answer: The friends want to act with the intention of in order to bestow and so you can humiliate yourself before them and thus adhere to them, connect to them, and get close to them spiritually. Therefore, you should humble yourself before them.

But if you try to humble yourself before other people, then with regard to what do you humble yourself? Do you do so with regard to their corporeal desires and egoistic goals? They don’t operate towards the direction of the spiritual goal. When you annul yourself before a friend, it helps the two of you since you are serving as an example for him. If he is your friend along the spiritual path, then he will understand you correctly. He will see that you are working on self-annulment, on bestowal, and that you are giving him an example. This means that your action of self-annulment is correct in every sense: both towards the one who performs it and the one who sees it.

But if you behave that way with regard to a stranger, he will think that he is greater if you lower yourself before him, and he will take pride in it and his ego will begin to grow. He may also not understand why you are suddenly ingratiating yourself before him and would think that you want to deceive and to use him. From all these examples, we see that it’s only before a friend along the spiritual path who will understand me that my annulment can be beneficial for both of us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Rabash, “What is a Cup of Blessing Should be Full in the Work”: But before the Yenika (suckling) there is the phase of Ibur (gestation), which means that the upper corrects him. This can be when a person is like an embryo in his mother’s womb, as the embryo annuls himself before the mother and has no mind of his own, but as the sages say, “An embryo is part of his mother and eats what his mother eats,” and has no entity of his own to ask any questions, but he doesn’t rise as a name. This is called that he is mute and has no mouth to ask questions.

This is the time when a person can go above reason with his eyes closed, and believe in the faith of the sages and go to the end. This is called Ibur, that he has no mouth, Ibur means (TES, part 8) “the level of Malchut which is the more restricted smallness called Ibur, which stems from Evra and Dinin, as it says “and the Lord became impregnated for you.”

And the matter of Evra and Dinin should be explained, since the body resists the work that a person should go above reason with his eyes closed, and so a person must constantly overcome, which is called “wrath, rage and trouble,” since it is hard work to constantly advance by overcoming and to annul one’s self before the upper, so that the upper will do whatever it wants with a person. This is called Ibur, which is the more restricted smallness.

This is a difficult situation, since a person is not used to such an attitude. To annul one’s self completely is even more difficult than simply lowering himself, and being in smallness. We already have the preparations for smallness by nature, but the state of an Ubar (embryo), which means the transition (same root in Hebrew) from one world to another with regards to using our desires, the inner discernments, is a very difficult process.

Here we are required to totally annul ourselves in faith above reason in order to rise above all the discernments and the desires that are evoked in us. It isn’t a passive state as it may seem. A person has to participate in it and to make his greatest efforts in order to overcome the obstacles he encounters. Otherwise it will be impossible to annul the previous level.

He is called an embryo since he cannot work with the discernments and the intention of in order to bestow yet, and so he annuls himself before the bestowal of the upper and allows the upper to do whatever it does with him by accepting everything as good, blessed, in full consent, understanding and delight. In that case he is called a spiritual embryo.

From this we should understand how we should prepare ourselves and the group in order to enter the state of an embryo in the spiritual world. We have already talked quite a lot about this, and now we should try to fulfill this.

It is a state in which a person feels pressure, the Dinim that he encounters. He doesn’t understand why this happens in the world around him and what the world’s attitude towards this whole process is, but eventually he sees how the whole world begins to enter the state of Ibur in preparation for the new birth.

It is because the whole world is in a person and so a person sees how the whole world, all these discernments, enter the state of Ibur. To the extent that he annuls his previous attitude to everything that happens, he discovers that the whole world around him becomes the reality of the spiritual embryo. When he annuls himself, he sees that the Creator operates in everything around him.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/13

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Question: How can I avoid making mistakes and diversions along the way if I have to totally annul myself?

Answer: To annul myself doesn’t mean to totally erase myself. Self-annulment means that although I have the greatest egoistic desire, I am ready to work without any reward for my desire to receive, without any compensation for my ego.

I have pride, lust, envy, etc.; I would like to be like the King! I come to the palace and offer my devoted help. I can really do any kind of work in the palace, arranging and fixing everything. There isn’t a job that I cannot do!

Instead I am told: “Great! The king has a farm far away from here, on the border of his kingdom. Go there and wash the floor. It will take you twenty years to get there. You will wash the floor and then come back and report to us; that will take you another twenty years. So your whole life will go by, but never mind, you will at least do something for the King. We, his ministers, give you this mission. We will not even tell Him about it, why should we bother Him with such trifles? It is enough for you to know that you are doing this job for Him. At the moment we have no other available job.”

You gladly take this job and dedicate your whole life to washing the floor in some distant place about which the King will never know and his ministers have long forgotten about the mission that you were given.

This example shows us a little of what self-annulment means. It means that you don’t annul your desire to receive; you annul your demands. We cannot annul the thickness, the thickness is not refined; it only ascends or descends according to the Creator’s plan with regard to everyone individually or to everyone together. But it is not refined; it is only revealed or concealed.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: If I have to totally annul myself by remaining as one point while everything else comes from the Creator, where is the volume in which I feel my existence, my spiritual reality?

Answer: This is called the “spiritual world.” Think only about how to penetrate it. Your existence there begins after you cease to exist. When you cease to exist in your current form, you will appear there.

Now it seems unclear, but from this negative form you already begin to move towards the Light; you have the feeling that this place may actually exist and is real, but that it’s beyond the Machsom (barrier), beyond the border after which the “I” אוי(: aleph – nun- yod) becomes “no I” (אין: aleph – yod – nun).

This point of “no I” is in the new space that is felt by this negative form as a very solid, strong field, that fills it and that is essential. But with regard to the previous state, with regards to my egoistic “I,” it is called “no I” and this fills me with joy.

In our world joy is felt as a filling in the desire to receive, but in spirituality joy is felt as “in Him our heart shall rejoice.” I am very happy that you have such thoughts and that they make you suffer since you feel disoriented. Later you will feel the joy when you attain the goal. Now you have to be happy that you are on the way to it and that you have at least risen above your ego a little. The stronger the Light shines and the more the group strengthens you, the more you can rejoice that you have transcended yourself.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/13, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: Tomorrow is international “Safer Internet Day,” and it is dedicated to the problems of the virtual environment which online users surf. Surfing the net today involves many problems and threats both for children and for adults. Can we light up this labyrinth of dark “alleys?”

Answer: We are talking about labor pains. The Internet is indeed a common meeting place, everyone’s “common market.” I think that it should go through the recognition of evil, through a cleansing process; it should understand itself better and the reason it was created. In the meantime, this virtual labyrinth is like the Wild West, but people are gradually maturing and gradually systematize this “territory.”

Generally speaking, humanity is getting acquainted with itself on this network. It is like a mirror, and so on the whole, I suppose that it is a positive process. Perhaps it should be hastened, but we should be careful of corrupting it. The corruptions on the way will only generate new problems. People want to enjoy this tool, but they cannot manage it. Eventually they will reach the recognition of evil and will understand what they should actually do.

But if the network is limited and regulated according to the old way or if it is cut off, it will not help. Humanity is used to external limitations, while we contend that people should be educated, that the limitation should come naturally from within and not artificially from the outside. Unless people understand this, no measures will help to bring about any positive change. The Internet will still be a place where people vent all the evil they have on one another. However, if we take care of people, then this global network will undergo a healing process. There is no other means; it is the only solution.

So let’s hope that people will reach it as soon as possible, and then the Internet will really be a safe place.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: Baal HaSulam says in the article “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar” that the soul is dressed in the body in this world. What does that mean?

Answer: A “body in this world” means the desire to receive for one’s self. It fills all the space here (see drawing), and there is also a point in the heart (•), the posterior of Nefesh of Kedusha. It is shattered, which means that it also wants to receive for itself, but it can be turned into the opposite state.

Question: Where is the desire with the point in the heart?

Answer: First you feel that the desire exists and begin to notice the fact that the desire has no corporeal place. This desire is the essence of the spiritual creation.

Today you see before you the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, as well as people. All this is the imaginary world. Don’t look at it, put it aside, it isn’t the main thing.

Besides that, there is a desire to receive in which there is a spark. We have to take care of these sparks. Give the imaginary world the basic necessities and you are not obligated to do anything more than that since it’s all an illusion. You should provide everything for your main part.

This means that you have to isolate the point in the heart from everything that is in the desire to receive. We should differentiate it from within the desire and bring it out as much as we can, separate it from the desire to receive, and develop it. The desire itself should be restricted and annulled. Then there will be a connection that will help it and then several other steps…

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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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In the News (from Inside Science): “When ants are confronted with information overload and face too many decisions – about where to live, for instance – they revert to the wisdom of the crowd.

“The colonies themselves are not very big, usually a few hundred workers, associate professor of biology Stephen C. Pratt said, and if an animal knocks a colony over, the roof falls in, or if they need more space, the ants have to move.

“But the ants live in areas in which the potential number of possible nest sites is overwhelming. One ant can’t cope with making the decision. No one is in charge in an ant nest.

“They distribute the task among colony members. That’s where the crowdsourcing comes in.

“According to Pratt and Sasaki, the ants send scouts to check out some potential home sites. The scouts look at such things as the size of the entrance and how big the cavity is. If the ant likes what she sees, she returns to the colony.

“She sends out a pheromone message, ‘Follow me,’ and another ant will join her in what is called tandem running. She takes her colleague out to view the potential site.

“If the second ant likes what she sees, she goes back and repeats the process, bringing back another ant. If she doesn’t like it, she merely returns to the colony. If enough ants like a site, the colony reaches a quorum, essentially choosing the new home.

“The scouts pick up their nest mates and carry them to their new homes, usually taking the nest queen along with them.

“Sasaki built an experiment in which one ant had to make the decision from two potential sites and then from eight. Half the potential sites were unsuitable in both experiments. He was forcing the ants in the laboratory to do what ants in the wild would not, send one ant to make the decision for the colony, Pratt said.

Individual ants, confronted with two choices, had no problems picking the most suitable site. When faced with choosing among eight, however, an ant often selected the wrong place.

“The two researchers tested a whole colony with the same choices, letting them send out more than one scout. The colonies, acting as a crowd, did equally well in both experiments, picking suitable sites 90 percent of the time. …

“Part of the advantage of the colony system, Sasaki and Pratt hypothesized, is that each scout visited only a few potential sites, minimizing the information it must process, while an individual ant, assigned to do it alone, had to visit them all and was the victim of cognitive overload. …

“‘Cognitive overload is a growing issue for human decision making, as unprecedented access to data poses new challenges to individual processing abilities,’ Pratt and Sasaki wrote in their journal article. ‘Human groups also solve difficult problems better when each group member has only limited access to information.’”

My Comment: The individual mind of “flocking” birds and “herding” animals exists in a minimum capacity and strength, and collective intelligence is used for all occasions, the power of the collective. Thus, nature holds together “in itself” the still, vegetative, and animate.

The human being must consciously, by the perceived need and against his individualistic nature, make a collective and unified whole out of himself and other egoists, and then he will rise to the degree of “Adam” (human), will feel and understand oneness and integrality of the system of nature, and will be able to intelligently and actively exist at the level of Adam. He will not need the animal body because it is only necessary to rise from the level of the animate (completely controlled nature) to the level of Adam (who controls nature himself, instead of the Creator).
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Question: What exactly goes into the 1% of the desires that a person cannot process by himself when he is under the Machsom (barrier)? Is it the stoney heart, the serpent?

Answer: We don’t examine such discernments before the Machsom, before the spiritual barrier. Before it, we don’t see anything and have no understanding or recognition as to where the serpent is and where it isn’t. Believe me, it is in your best and purest thoughts and desires, where you think that you love and devotedly care about others, that the serpent is.

Just like in history, at the time of the exile in Egypt, the serpent is not revealed among common people, neither the Jews nor the Egyptians. Only Moses, Pharaoh, the Creator, and several Egyptian priests, Pharaoh’s counselors, and those who were close to him saw the serpent. It is only among them that the serpent is revealed and becomes a staff, and then the staff becomes a serpent again; it is only when a person attains such high levels.

The serpent doesn’t appear purposelessly, but only as tiny snakes on the animate level. The real serpent, however, is two-legged, and you have not met it yet. It is only on the upper levels that the essence of the snake is revealed. A very strong Light is needed to show us how opposite our desire to receive is from the Light. The Light has to reveal its full infinite depth and the power of its love and bestowal so that in contrast to all that, we will feel how opposite our egoistic nature is from it.

The real two-legged serpent is revealed only after the Machsom. Until then, during the time of preparation, only small snakes bite us. Each time something disturbs you and repels you from connecting with the friends, from unity, from cooperation, from the right intention—this is the revelation of the small siblings of that serpent, and they eat you up like worms.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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