Question: It is written that inner work has to become a habit. But on the other hand, one has to leave one’s world and all of his previous habits, and enter an unknown place, the way the Creator sends Abraham off, or like crossing “the Red Sea.” How can I break through to this new path, because I feel that if I remain the way I am, I will stay in the same place?

Answer: This is a very wise observation. Habit is good for attaining the current level. But in order to rise above it, one must leave his land, the way Abraham did.
Leaving an old habit means wishing to acquire a new one. But we are always acquiring a new habit, a new nature, a new degree.

If I want to learn something, then I take an example from a specialist. To him, this science has become habitual, but for me—it hasn’t. He has a habitual understanding, attaining, and behavior, whereas I do not. But I want to become the same as he. That is why I have to leave behind my habits, which I acquired in the past and which I have on the current level. Once I finish mastering this level, I cleave to something higher.

However, when I do this in spirituality, I have to look at the inner behavior of the upper one, rather than the outer behavior. I won’t see anything by looking at the externality. I must somehow discern what I have to cleave to inside of him, what quality I have to reveal in him, how to use him in order to rise to his level and learn from him.

I have to demand for him to elevate me because I am held back by my old habits like by brakes. On one hand, they support me on my level, but on the other hand, they cling to me and don’t let me rise higher.

I have to receive a special force against these bonds, against the habits, which will pull me out. These habits are like the earth’s gravity, like a weight that does not allow me to tear away from the ground. If I weigh 100 pounds, then I need a force greater than this weight in order to elevate me. It has to be at least 101 pounds. Otherwise I won’t go up.

And the same thing happens in spirituality. I have to ask the upper one to apply a greater force to me than my current habits and force. These are very simple mechanics.

How can I ask Him to cancel my entire previous nature, which I have gotten so used to!? We are like little children who are so attached to their old blanket or pillow that they cling to it and don’t agree to let go of it for anything. That is why I need an environment to enable me to leave behind my dear habits and acquire something new, something higher!

It’s as if you are hearing an inner voice telling you, “Go forth from your land”—this is an awakening coming from Above. This is what the Creator says to Abraham. We are buried inside of our habits and are unable to even think about leaving them. Inside of my habits, I feel confident and better than ever. If a person feels any aspiration to leave his habits, this is coming to him from Above.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/19/11, Shamati

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Editorial in the News (by Siim Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission): “Neither the declaration of any country’s insolvency nor its exit from the Eurozone are reasonable measures. If you try to break this vicious cycle by having one of the countries declare itself insolvent, then the other countries, which gave it loans, will be pushed to the verge of bankruptcy. What will happen then?”

Comment: It is impossible for anyone to break their ties with the others. But when the ties are egoistic, whoever goes down takes the rest with him and uses their demise purposefully to save himself.

Therefore, the only alternative is to rise above egoistic, protectionist solutions and begin to act only on the basis of common, global, integral, total dependence and mutual guarantee. There is no other solution. Egoism itself is pushing us to change it.
[51633]

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Changes are now required on the part of man. He must change himself internally, rather than changing anything outside of him. The systems that we built, economy, society, and education, were developed according to our growing egoism. But now it is time to stop because we have begun to develop internally in a way that does not accord with our growing egoism, but with the correct form of our ego, the form of bestowal, mutual connection.

Today, the world is revealing the spiritual form. It’s a miracle to see how humanity is acquiring the form of bestowal—total interconnection.

In the beginning, we became separated from each other. There was a breaking on the scale of the universal system, and as a result, no one was connected. But now the system has started to close and we are becoming more and more tightly connected with one another. This is called “the integral world.”

We are revealing the system that is showing us the corrected world. However, it is showing it to us from the outside, while we have to adjust ourselves to it on the inside.

In essence, this is the Creator, the Light being revealed to us! If we bring ourselves into harmony with this connection and universal globalization, and if our desires acquire the corrected form, then the Light will be revealed inside them.

We should try to understand that the old methods are no longer effective and there is nothing we can do with them. This must be acknowledged as a fact. Nothing will help unless we think about connection. There is no other way for us to correct this world.

We will not have any instruments to use in the economic system. Even in the army, the hero that wins does not do so by his own force. Nothing will work in our world besides the power of connection! The more we unite, the sooner we will succeed, and everything will work out in the world and in society, from the inside out.

We have reached the actual implementation of the method of correction, and we cannot escape it. Time obliges us to this.
[51579]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/11, “The Nation”

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Question: My question is that there are people I know who are religious, and they complain about their lives. They pray for things to change, and when it doesn’t change, they blame others around them.

All of this is coming from their egoism. I’ve tried explaining this to them without mentioning Kabbalah at all, but they don’t get it. It’s frustrating for me to watch them make the same mistakes over and over again. But it seems like even if I try to help, it only gets through a little and then they are back to the same old complaints about their lives and problems.

How can I actually help them? I used to get defensive because they would blame me for their problems and started fights with me. How do you approach egoistic people without getting into arguments or making them think you are judging them?

Answer: Only development and a strong public opinion will gradually change them. They will be the last to reach correction. For the time being, leave them be. Correction must start with the lightest part of egoism.

Question: Our job is to reveal the evil inclination. However, what if we reveal it, but cannot get rid of it ? How can we correct evil inclinations like stealing or cheating ?

Answer: To the extent that you find the evil inside yourself, you have the power to correct it!
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Question: The new trends make it seem like the nations of the world will have to disintegrate from the inside in order to be built anew….

Answer: The whole world has to be destroyed, but the destruction can either happen on the physical level or on the level of understanding and realization. Either we will have to completely destroy ourselves in the physical sense in order to understand that we must also destroy our egoistic spirit, or we can circumvent the physical component of collapse and immediately start working on its spiritual realization in order to then correct the situation.

One way or another, you have to reach the breaking, inner destruction. And it’s possible that to reach it, you will also need the external collapse.

For example, today in Israel we are trying to add our message to the wave of the social protest about the need for unity and for constructing an integral society. The question is: How effective are our efforts? Maybe some amount of suffering will also be required here for people to understand that this is the only thing missing in reality, and the only way to achieve fair distribution of resources.

The people really want social justice, but how can it be achieved? It can’t be done by imposing whatever you like, but others don’t like. Social justice must envelop everyone, all of society. But is it really possible to actualize this without first attaining mutual guarantee?

It would be good if people realized this. Otherwise troubles will be necessary. There are no other alternatives: either the good path, or the path of suffering. If we are unsuccessful on the good path, then the second path will have to join. That is what will happen in all areas of our lives.

However, the more we can influence the environment, the more chances there are that we won’t have to go through real wars, which the world can slide down to in case of a bad turn of events, as Baal HaSulam writes.
[51699]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/11, “The Nation”

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Rather than existing in this tiny part of reality, when a person wishes to break through to its second part, the eternal and perfect part, then he has several means to do it: teacher, group, and books. The teacher explains that such an opportunity exists. He explains that it can be realized with the help of a group where everyone strives toward the perception of the true, perfect reality, and with the books that speak of the same perfect reality.

When we try to be together, it’s as though every person comes out of himself, out of his ego, because he must feel that he exists in the others. Then, when he tries to be above himself, in the others, connected with them, and he reads about the perception of reality in bestowal, this is the way he makes himself similar to the future state, as if he were already there.

To the extent of his aspiration, he evokes the second force from there that exists in reality, the force of bestowal, besides the small force of reception given to him from nature. Then, the force of bestowal comes and makes the changes in him.

A person can perceive these changes as an additional force of reception that comes to him, instead of the force of bestowal that changes him, and this type of perception is also correct. However, besides that, he attains the same force of bestowal. In this way, man advances, sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left, but driven by the same force of bestowal.

He must attain this force of bestowal together with the force of reception. These two forces begin to be revealed to man as two lines, the right and the left. Then, man advances, sometimes in a state of descent and sometimes in a state of ascent. He does not know yet what descent and ascent are exactly, and so far, he identifies them by his current sensations.

However, as time goes by, he begins to feel that he needs to use these two lines by being between them. In this way, he takes control of them and begins to combine them in the middle line.

Essentially, our entire work consists of studying together, wishing to connect with one another in our hearts, and aspiring toward unity above all the disagreements and differences because all of these things only concern our animate existence, which stays here in this world. We want to connect together in our desires, our points in the heart, above these things.

When we read The Zohar with this intention, the book speaks of our corrected states, about the way we reveal the quality of bestowal in the connection between us which is the same as the Creator, the Light, the spiritual world, the upper world. For this reason, every person must imagine this state when reading The Zohar.
[51054]
From the lesson on 8/12/11, The Zohar

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We have to create a society that will let all the people in the world move correctly into tomorrow. Otherwise, we will not survive. We see what is happening today, especially in developed countries. And the rest are rapidly approaching them. People are starting to feeling that “there is no tomorrow.” But in fact, this is a wonderful state where we are egoistically breaking away from the past and are entering a neutral state, like being “in limbo.”

Now is exactly the time to show people the following system of relationships that will lead us into the feeling of a completely different state. We are entering the next stage of our development. Just as we evolved from monkeys and gradually developed within our animate state, similarly, today we are beginning to develop within our inner, human state.

Today we are rising to the level called “Adam”—a human being, who is similar to the Upper Force of nature. This force wants to teach us to become integral with it, and that is why this crisis is global and integral.

We have to become similar to nature. By accomplishing this, we begin to understand the internal mechanism that drives us. The inner program of nature is taking us toward a specific goal, while we are not even aware of it. We die without knowing what we lived for. We are born and do not know where and why. We do things instinctively because nature forces us to do them, and nothing more.

In reality, there is a whole program of actions, a causal relationship! Every part of nature has a cause, consequence, and goal. Nothing exists without a purpose. And likewise, we do not exist pointlessly either. We can see this because nature is now raising us to this level now—to the next level of development.

At the current level, we are still just realizing our animate egoism in which we were created and which develops in us. By ascending to the next level, which is global and integral, and becoming globally connected with nature, by changing ourselves in accordance with it, we gradually start perceiving the inner mechanism, the internal thought of the Upper Force of nature. As astrophysics say, the entire universe is a thought. When a person becomes conscious of it, he begins to feel eternity.
[51606]

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A person cannot exist separately from society. We are deliberately built in a way that obligates us to live among other people. This follows from the breaking of the common soul into many particular souls.

In order to reveal the Creator, we have to reveal the broken connection between us and correct it. Then, by attaining His actions, we will attain His perfection. This is why we are built so not one of us is able to live in total isolation. Otherwise he would slide down to the level of an animal. If a person has developed to the human level, then he has to live like a person, meaning use everyone else and also contribute his part to everyone.

The development of humanity should be viewed as the development of connections between us and of our dependence on one another. First only families existed. Then large familial communities began to develop, followed by tribes, then villages, cities, and nations. A few hundred years ago, active international trade began between many countries.

This is exactly why developed nations traveled to conquer other countries and to discover new lands, feeling that they lack connections. The egoistic desire always pushes us toward interconnection and exchange.

That is how we developed the economy, which is a reflection of our inner aspiration to be connected with one another. This is why the entire economy is built upon our egoism, on the will to enjoy that feels that it must win and profit at the expense of everyone else: I give to you, you give to me, and so on. One person was a farmer, another – a craftsman, and by uniting, everyone gained great profit.

It’s clear that it is impossible to stop the evolutionary development and to produce everything by yourself, maintaining a natural household, the way people once did in ancient times. That is how we built all the forms of connections between us. They all agree with our egoistic character, which developed over many millennia and generations until in our time, we suddenly revealed that this connection is no longer as simple as we thought when we looked at things from our ego! Today a different connection is being revealed – one that’s mutual and universal. That is how it is being revealed from nature’s end.

We built the connection in whatever way we wanted to, the way it seemed best for us for establishing profitable connections with one another. We built it by our free desire, following the demands of our egoism. This is what gave rise to politics, society, economy, family, education, and all of the vital systems.

But suddenly, some kind of new connection is being revealed, which is different and contradicts everything I have done until now! That is why a problem emerges and a crisis is breaking out.
[51610]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/17/11, “The Nation”

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The problem is that the people who are protesting do not yet understand that the reason for all of the dissatisfaction is the loss of hope for the future. This bothers people even more than the fact that there is nothing to live on. A person does not feel that there is something good waiting for him tomorrow. And it is necessary to give people an explanation that there will be no tomorrow if we will continue the way we are! After all, this way we are only speeding up the destruction of the world.

We have to balance out the evil of our egoism with the mind and understand where all of these problems are coming from and why. The people who are protesting are quite capable of this. They are smart and developed. They just need to hear an explanation of the fact that this protest is not the solution.

It’s not because I study Kabbalah and I want to impose its principles onto everyone. See this for yourself and realize that there is no way out! I say this as a scientist.

What benefit would it give to overturn everything and to change one thing for something similar? There used to be one head of government and now there will be another one. So what will change, really? Things will only get worse.

Look at the huge economic downturn that occurred as a result of the recent unrest that took place in Egypt, Libya, and other places. This is being done deliberately by foreign outside forces, which are destroying one country after another in order to keep themselves in some kind of balance. They do not understand that this boomerang will eventually return back to them.

There is no place anything could be achieved by means of destruction and rioting. If you want to build something, then how can the destruction of shops and other forms of disorder help? This will not give you anything, especially since the people protesting are not offering any solution.

In order to find the solution, you need to gather together people who work in politics, economics, and education, sit them together at one table, and have them build the program of changes. Or bring your own program to the table, but one that’s specific and laid out in detail!

However, today when we evaluate various programs that are proposed, we see that they cannot be realized in any part of the world. There is simply no such possibility! And the reason is because the world today has started to function in an integral form, as an integrated system, while we are still trying to operate by the old programs, which were in place before the world had locked itself into an integral system.

That is why no country today is capable of controlling its domestic affairs, and all of them together cannot deal with anything as well. No one can do anything, and that includes all of the countries and governments. And there is no solution to the situation besides drawing closer to nature. We have to start behaving like it does, which means becoming integral and connected with everyone and with the environment into one system.

Until we do this, we will not have any feeling or thought that will enable us to build tomorrow. Now, the only question is: How much longer will we have to suffer in order to understand this? How many more blows will we have to endure in order to want to hear it!?
[51098]
From the lesson on 8/12/11, The Zohar

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Only when trying to get closer to one’s neighbor and connect with him does a person reveal his 613 uncorrected desires. Only then does he start to open up his broken soul and understand what he has to correct.

When correcting my desires with the intention of “not doing what I hate to the other,” I correct myself to the level of Bina (Hafetz Hesed, delighting in mercy) and am filled with the Light of Hassadim (mercy). This means that I’m completely free from my ego. Then, I gradually turn this ego toward serving my neighbor, called “love thy neighbor as thyself,” by correcting the AHP, the 365 desires.

Both of these stages of correction are only relevant to those desires that are revealed in our connection with each other. If I don’t have a desire to connect with the others, this means that I haven’t yet revealed what I need to correct. Our usual desires toward food, sex, family, money, power, and knowledge don’t need to be corrected. Use them as you please.

If I seek knowledge or power, this is not the desire that is revealed in connection to others. The work begins when I try to advance in this connection by revealing the will to bestow instead of the will to receive. Then, I reveal how much I don’t want it. This lack of desire is called “evil,” and it’s revealed to me as the creation.

It is exactly this desire, felt as a rejection of connection with another person when trying to reveal the quality of bestowal, that is called the evil of egoism. It has to be corrected and transformed into good. This means that I act according to a strict order that is expressed by the phrase, “I created the evil inclination and I created the Torah as a spice” because the Light in the Torah reforms, and I realize this formula step by step.
[51364]
From the lesson on 8/15/11, Selected excerpts on the Day of Love

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