In the News (from The New York Times): “Hesitantly, climate scientists offered an answer this week that is likely to satisfy no one, themselves included. They simply do not know for sure if the storm was caused or made worse by human-induced global warming.

“They do know, however, that the resulting storm surge along the Atlantic coast was almost certainly intensified by decades of sea-level rise linked to human emissions of greenhouse gases. And they emphasized that Hurricane Sandy, whatever its causes, should be seen as a foretaste of trouble to come as the seas rise faster, the risks of climate change accumulate and the political system fails to respond. …

“Recent decades seem to show an increase in hurricane strength, but hurricanes tend to rise and fall in a recurring cycle over time, so it is possible that natural variability accounts for the recent trends.”

In the News (from Time): “Superstorm Sandy will end up causing about $20 billion in property damages and $10 billion to $30 billion more in lost business, according to IHS Global Insight, a forecasting firm. …

“The short-term blow to the economy, though, could subtract about 0.6 percentage point from U.S. economic growth in the October-December quarter, IHS says. Retailers, airlines and home construction firms will likely lose some business. …

“Most homeowners who suffered losses from flooding won’t be able to benefit from their insurance policies. Standard homeowner policies don’t cover flood damage, and few homeowners have flood insurance. …

“Across U.S. industries, disruptions will slow the economy temporarily. Some restaurants and stores will draw fewer customers. Factories may shut down or shorten shifts because of a drop in customer demand.

“Some of those losses won’t be easily made up. Restaurants that lose two or three days of business, for example, won’t necessarily experience a rebound later. And money spent to repair a home may lead to less spending elsewhere.”

In the News (from Interfax): “Hurricanes appear for reasons independent of climate change, but their incredible destructive power came as a direct result of temperature rise on the surface of the planet. It is proven that climate change is happening much faster than it should be according to the best calculations of climatologists. … What will happen if the devastating hurricanes will be repeated every fall and will be followed by abnormally cold winters and hot, dry summers?

“Indeed, the temperature rise in the world is to blame for violent storms, too hot winters in the USA and too cold summers in Europe. …

“The USA, Canada and Europe will suffer either an extremely cold or extremely hot weather. Devastating hurricanes are possible in the fall. This year, satellites recorded the highest rate of ice melting in the Arctic.

“The temperature of the ocean has become higher; the atmosphere has become more humid due to warming. This means that stronger hurricanes draw more moisture, which is then dumped on the coast.”

My Comment: But most of all, we affect nature not physically but spiritually by our egoistic opposition to each other, although nature requires us to be actively included in its system of harmonious integral interaction. The entire still, vegetative, and animate nature instinctively observe this condition. But a human being must learn the system of nature and make a conscious decision to be in balance with it. To follow it, we must to come to the biblical condition: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
[92103]

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We speak quite a lot about the importance of the goal and the Creator’s greatness without which we cannot work, since we need power. But the question is what do I need the Creator’s greatness for? Is it a condition under which I will agree to bestow, or do I want to attain bestowal and in order to do that I need the Creator’s greatness? This is the whole difference: Am I working within reason and below it, or am I working in faith above reason?

I have a condition that I want to feel the Creator’s greatness since otherwise I won’t be able to work, so it is an action within reason. But if I say that I must reach bestowal since it is the most important thing for me, and I ask for the power that I don’t have at the moment so that it will enable me to bestow, and for me it is just a means, it means that I want this greatness only in order to work in faith above reason.

This is a very subtle difference, which I have to clarify internally. It is impossible to express it in words since they only confuse us.

Rabash says: “So when a person doesn’t feel the Creator’s greatness, the body cannot nullify itself before Him in all of one’s heart and soul.” It is a law: The desire to receive surrenders only before the Creator’s greatness.

“But if a person puts the condition that he agrees to work for the Creator only if he will see the Creator’s importance and greatness, already it appears that he wants to get something from the Creator.” This means that a person wants the burden he will suffer to be light. If you know that a suitcase belongs to an important person, then it isn’t difficult for you to carry it. “Otherwise one doesn’t want to work with all his heart, since a person is limited and is under the domination of the concealment and is not free to say that he doesn’t want anything but only to bestow.”

If a person places the Creator’s greatness as a precondition for his work, then this state cannot be a state of Bina and cannot serve as an “ark” for him in which he can be saved from all the doubts and the problems sent to him by the left line.

So the attribute of Bina is Hafetz Hesed, which doesn’t need to receive anything; therefore, it is free. Only those who need to receive something are limited and subject to the opinions of others. If someone works with his eyes closed and doesn’t need greatness or anything else, it is called freedom.
[92040]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How do we turn the vessels of receiving into vessels of bestowal?

Answer: We create a variety of different forms from metals. We make gears, grilles, bars, etc. We also work with the desire to receive according to the same principle, although it will never bestow itself. In Kabbalistic terms “vessels of bestowal” are vessels of receiving that can bestow when they operate in a special way. In other words, they take on a special form. After all, they cannot do anything but receive.

So receiving is improved to such an extent that it will become like bestowal.

Today, whether I like it or not, my intention remains egoistic. In order to correct it I need a special external force. To do this, we study in order to evoke it.

I cannot change anything by myself, and so I don’t worry about my desires; they will develop according to the plan. I don’t have to worry about whether my vessels are full and if they are what there is in them and how much. Here everything is fine, and I am only concerned about the intention, about aiming my thoughts. I differentiate between the action and the intention and only in my intention am I constantly adhered to the goal. As long as I keep the same focus, no matter what I do—I am corrected and everything is fine with me. This is why it says that a person is where his thoughts are.

100% of an intention to bestow ensures me 100% of correction. It is the intention that counts and not the action. So even if I steal and destroy, I steal and destroy parts of my egoistic desire in order to perform acts of bestowal. A person is not responsible for his actions; it is the intention that determines everything.

The problem is that when we look at one another, we see actions and not intentions. But this problem brings us to correction. I have to rise to the height of mutual connection in order to judge others according to their intentions and not their actions. This obligates us to be Kabbalists. There is no other choice; otherwise we cannot connect correctly. The disasters are increasing, so where is my influence on the upper?

Question: If the intention is the same form that is dressed on the matter of the desire, how do we correct it?

Answer: With the help of the Light that Reforms. We try to act in bestowal, we try to connect and our failures reveal the need for the Light.

After all, there is a part of Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) in every person. As a result, some people are drawn to the Light, and this attraction is revealed in them when the question “What is the meaning of life?” arises. They want to know, to discover the secret of life. Such people are especially egoistic. They are very far from being nice and they are even quite disgusting and don’t care about this world at all. They disrespect it and are not satisfied with its “nonsense.” In short, people who are not nice at all reach the wisdom of Kabbalah. After all, a great desire suppresses small desires. Eventually, a person burns because of one thing only; he wants to know why he should go on living.

Other than that he can be worried about high philosophical questions like: “What is the universe? Why does all this exist?” in other words, he feels that it is crowded here and he cannot stand it.

All this is caused by the part of GE that has awakened and is in AHP in the meantime, increasing it and pushing a person to search, forcing him to open himself to everything, trying to “swallow” all of reality, including the Creator.

Then, thanks to his actions in the group and the study, a person begins to appreciate and to sort out all these phenomena correctly and then he comes closer to correction.

In addition, it depends on the root of his soul, on the quality of his GE. Someone may yearn for general, global knowledge according to his Reshimot (informational genes). After all, certain Reshimot were very high once, and fell so deep that they require much work. Such people don’t succeed immediately, but after decades, they ascend accordingly while others don’t.

In any case, “He who is greater than his friend, his desire is even greater.” This is what the number of actions of correction he has to perform depends on.

But in any case, parts of GE and AHP are initially in everyone, including the nations of the world. After all, we have all been through the shattering including in ancient Babel. Then too the crisis was revealed as it is today, and as a result, only a small group came out of the crowd—the nation of Israel. Now when all the other “Babylonians” are suffering, having no choice, they will have to correct themselves together with this small group in order to finally leave Babel. Then everyone will be called “Israel,” which means “straight to the Creator” (Yashar—El).

It isn’t about a nation but about resembling the Creator. The difference is the order of things: Someone begins the process and someone continues. Each one does his share, and eventually everyone corrects the shattering of Babel.
[92001]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/02/12, The Zohar

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In the News (from LiveScience): “Even 5-year-olds know to protect their reps. Children are more generous when they know their actions will be seen, according to a new study.

“The findings, published Oct. 31 in the journal PLoS One, suggest that even kindergarteners have learned to play the social game and strategize ways to burnish their reputation. …

“Leimgruber’s team gave 5-year-olds stickers and told them they could share one to four of them with another child of the same age. Some of the children could see their sharing partner, while others were hidden from view. The team found that the children were stingier when the other youngster was hidden from them. The kids also hoarded more loot when they had to give stickers in an opaque box rather than a transparent one that showed what they were giving.

“Overall, the kindergarteners were pretty selfish: Only those children who saw their partners and gave their stickers in a clear box consistently donated the maximum of four stickers. Interestingly, past studies showed children were more generous than the current study.

“’Previous studies that observe high levels of generosity may have inadvertently included the same audience and transparency cues,’ that motivate kids to share, the researchers wrote in the journal article.”

My Comment: Well, children are like grown-ups; nature does not change but only evolves and adapts. In any case, we have to become aware of this evil with our minds or through suffering and correct it; in any case, we will have to. Kabbalah calls us to do this quickly and easily through by “Achishena” (hastening).

Let’s discuss our nature, reveal its flows, and expose our natural thoughts and desires up to the point of becoming aware of them as the only evil in the world. It is so much so that it is killing us. In the realization of our common evil, we will discover its creator—the Creator; we will find how to turn to Him so that He will correct what He has created. Studying Baal HaSulam’s main articles helps us become familiar with our nature as evil.
[91986]

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Question: How can we attain such a strong desire for spirituality that will reject all the other bodily desires?

Answer: There are “613” desires in each of us, which we have to aim at the greatness and importance of bestowal, love, connection, and mutual guarantee according to our understanding. Everything that is external to my own interests, external to the interests of my skin, should become more important to me than my bodily egoistic desires.

If a person divides his external and internal desires this way and aims himself outward from his body, it is enough for the time being. We should constantly check ourselves and try to remain in the same line of thought.

Eventually a habit becomes second nature, and by the efforts that I make, the Light comes to me. Then I make some more efforts, and some more Light comes. I begin to build myself from these moments because “there is no correction for a person except to direct all the present moments and the future ones so that they will be dedicated and served for His great name” (Baal HaSulam, letter 18) a bit more each time. It is from such exits (Yetziot in Hebrew) (from “Zion”) that the Torah comes out, as it is says: “It is from Zion that the Torah shall come.”

After all, when I feel that I have exited the right intention, I feel a deficiency to return, and then I demand the Light that Reforms, called the Torah. So it turns out that it is from Zion, from such exits, that the Torah is born: not from the ascents, but rather from the descents, from the exits from the right intention.

Thus I constantly add one “letter” after another, until the whole book of the Torah goes through me.
[91918]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: As egoism continues to grow in every integral education group, will the leaders have to explain the inevitability of this process: quarrel, make peace, then again bicker?

Answer: Of course! All the work of the group and its advancement from one day to the next are impossible without rising above the ego. Growing egoism is the material above which we build ourselves. And such is the nature of this work.

Thank God we are arguing today; that’s great! Now we should try to rise above it. We will continue to rise while falling and clarifying on the way.

The tendency should always be to rise, only to rise! And we should examine all the descents, throes, and conflicts because otherwise we could become stuck in them forever, continuing to be at each other’s throats.

On the contrary, we need to really scrutinize them, to analyze them from the perspective of whether they cause us to advance—only in this light, in this direction. Our whole egoism rises in us only so that we could overcome it to the goal above it.
[91899]
From KabTV’s “Talks with Michael Laitman,” 03/10/2012 

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Question: Why is the negative force in the world revealed in such a clear manner, and not at all in proportion to the positive force that we awaken? Or maybe we don’t awaken anything?

Answer: The negative force awakens so that you will ask for the positive force that is in opposition to it. And not in order to annul the blow, but in order to transform the blow to something beneficial. It is, as if, you ask the father to teach you to think, but not to stop the unpleasant process, but to transform it into being 100% beneficial. You truly want to acquire a new mind and improve your own attributes. You don’t identify with your ego, which receives the blow, but on the contrary, you exit it and admit: “The ego deserves this blow, but let it be for its benefit, let it change it.”

And then instead of bitterness and pain, you suddenly feel sweetness. In addition to its coming as a “blow,” the negative force helps you break away from your desire to receive, to rise above it and determine for yourself, that it is specifically in this form that it brings benefit. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to cut yourself off from the ego.

In this way, our work is in asking for strength to rise above the desire, but not because we don’t want to feel the blows from it, but because we want to identify with the Creator. We want to discern the evil within the desire to receive, to feel the blow on it, not in order to adhere to it, but to rise above it to the desire to bestow. And again, not because we will feel peace and quiet there, but so that we can perform an act of bestowal.

Here a very delicate and fundamental clarification is hidden, a clarification that reveals the condition of the Machsom (barrier). We are approaching it…
[91671]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/12, The Zohar

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From the article “What is a Flood of Water in the Work” by Rabash: In The Zohar, Noah comments on the words “and I am bringing a flood of water on the earth”… we know that when a person begins to work in order to bestow, the body claims, “What mean you by this work?” What is the sense in not wanting to work for your own good; after all, you should worry about enjoying life and to bestow means that you don’t work for your own good. So it is against our nature and this is called “a claim of what.”

But there is another claim, when the body objects to the Creator’s work, when a person says to the body that we have to believe in the Creator, that He looks after and leads the world as the good and the benevolent. Then the body comes to a person with Pharaoh’s claim that says: “Who is the Lord that I should listen to Him?” which means that it is hard for him to believe in the Creator. This means that he says that he can work for the Creator’s benefit, but only if he feels the Creator’s greatness does he understand that it is worthwhile to work for Him.

These two questions: “Who?” and “What?” have to appear before every person on his spiritual path and to be revealed to their fullest. A person should know how to cope with them and to understand them deeply. These are fundamental questions that result from the great exertion invested in the group, in the study and in the great efforts to advance towards the goal.

As a result, the questions of “Who?” and “What?” are revealed to a person and it is these questions that balance and stabilize him and help him clarify the powers he needs in order to build his spiritual vessel.

This vessel that is built of two opposite lines in every one of its parts, above which a person builds the middle line; above all the attributes and the discernments he has to determine a common discernment called the middle line.

So first he has to clear the two questions of “Who (Mi)?” and “What (Ma)?” which means with the water (ma-im) of the flood. Rabash writes: “And if a person is happy by these two questions, that he now has a place to work above reason, it turns out that he is saved from the flood of water.”
[91667]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/12, Writings of Rabash 

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It says that the Creator created the evil inclination, but actually the point is that I have to discover my inclination by myself, discover that that my initial desire is evil and opposite from the Creator.

It isn’t that easy. Even if the Creator gives and I receive, what’s so bad about that? The point is not the desire; it stays the same, neither good nor bad. I determine evil by myself, by attaining it.

A person reaches the giving of the Torah when he needs correction, when he discovers within his desire an evil intention: for himself and against others, which means against other people and against the Creator. This is what he calls evil. It requires serious preparation in order to feel such shame when you feel “I would rather die than live.”

We imagine the giving of the Torah as a necessity, as compelling as the mountain of hatred looming over us that leaves us no choice. But a person has to feel a need since there is no coercion in spirituality. So how can this problem be solved? On the one hand, the Creator “pushes me to the wall,” and on the other hand, I need to feel a deficiency.

In fact, what the Creator dictates is only a condition, and if I fulfill it, I receive the Torah, which means the method of correction, but I have to stabilize this condition by myself and to agree to it: “If I don’t accept it, then I would rather die than live.” This is the preparation required of a person.
[91644]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/12, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)

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Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 8: This is because there is a natural law that the receiver feels shame and impatience upon receiving gifts from the giver out of compassion and pity.

From here extends a second law, that never will anyone be able to satisfy the needs of his friend to the fullest, because ultimately he will not be able to give him the nature and the form of self-possession, as only with it is the desired perfection attained.

Actually the Creator can’t cover and compensate for the feeling of shame by Himself, without our participation. We have to go through different stages independently, thus revealing our flaws and correcting them; of course, we use His force in order to perform the correction, but the cycle must be as follows:

– I discover how corrupt I am

– The problem that is revealed is not in me but in my attitude compared to the attitude of the Giver.

– I determine what is flawed with respect to it.

– I look for how to correct the flaw and how to complete it.

– I ask the Creator for the force to correct the flaw.

This means that this action is very complicated and is made of many components; it’s impossible to manage without it. A person has to actually feel it; there is no other choice. He has to feel it and to go through the different states on the way, with the Creator’s help of course, which means with the help of the upper force, the Light. But he has to participate in every stage and in every decision.

It’s impossible to receive a present from someone, to enjoy it, and to feel that it’s yours. There is always the feeling of shame before the giver. In our world the problem is solved by the concealment of the Creator, who thus allows us to reveal Him only to the extent that we can bear the feeling of shame.

The Creator is concealed and the shame is revealed only to the extent that I am ready to resemble Him, to clarify the matter of my receiving. The more I advance, the finer and more sensitive my perception becomes, and then I am ready for the revelation of shame. In some ways it is similar to what happens in our world.
[91415]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/12, “Matan Torah” (The Giving of the Torah)”

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