A question I received: What do you mean when you say “the new generation”?

My Answer: The new generation is the next level of humanity’s development. It is when humanity will transition from the animate, egoistic, or instinctive level, where we try to regulate our instinctive, animate, egoistic desires lest we eat each other alive (and by the way, this is what we call human society, or our civilization). We will transition from this to a civilization where everything will be regulated by love for one’s neighbor.

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A question I received: I still don’t understand what you think about the Darwinian theory. Does Kabbalah support it?

My Answer: The external processes described by Kabbalah and the Darwinian theory coincide, because evolution is obvious. However, according to Darwin, the mechanism of evolution is based on the struggle for survival, whereas according to Kabbalah, it’s based on the realization of the Reshimot.

You can say that it’s the same thing, because Reshimot also lead to evolution, as well as struggle or competition. However, according to Darwin, the process is chaotic and uncertain, whereas according to Kabbalah, everything moves by precise and defined stages of development, where nothing is uncertain. The beginning state, all the stages of development, and the objective (the final state) all exist from the beginning. The speed and the process of development are determined by man’s free, conscious participation in the process.

This is what Rav Kook, a Kabbalist who lived in the 20th century, meant in the following verse, where he says that the theory of evolution resembles Kabbalah more than any other theory:

“תורת ההתפתחות… היא מתאמת לרזי עולם של הקבלה יותר מכל התורות הפילוסופיות האחרות. הרב קוק. אורות הקודש. ח”ב, התגלות העולם סעיף יט ע’ תקל”ז

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We are always advancing from unconscious development toward conscious development. This happens in our individual lives, where we are born as immature infants and grow up to become intelligent adults. And all of humanity goes through the same kind of development, maturing from generation to generation.

We must develop to a state where we will incorporate all of Nature within us. This means we will rule over it using our mind and sensations, we will understand it, see its entire program and all of its connections, and everything that happens in all of its parts.

This is why the global world is being revealed to us – because man must come to govern all of Nature. This is what Nature wants from us, and it’s leading us toward this through the process of our evolution. The purpose is for man to gain the ability to consciously control and be above all the other levels of Nature – still, vegetative, and animate.

Power is not a negative force. To rule over Nature means to understand it, to feel it and to know its laws. This is what ruling with the mind is, rather than using those who are weaker than you. This is what is meant by the phrase: man must absorb all of Nature.

Just like Nature incorporates everything inanimate, all the vegetation, and all the animals, so every person must do the same for the entire universe and everything in it. Using our perception, we will control all the forces operating in the universe. Or, stated differently, they will all become accessible to us, for us to understand, attain and perceive them.

This is the level man must evolve to. This is the meaning of the verse: “And all will know Me, from the greatest to the smallest,” and “Adam knew Hava.” This means that man will acquire the Upper Light, energy, wisdom, and mercy. This is our purpose!

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We simply fulfill Nature’s orders, and Nature’s goal is to bring us to the Upper Level of development. Nature works according to a program that’s meant to bring its highest level, the human, to the highest level of development.

The human, who is a piece of protein matter, is the final level of the still, vegetative and animate levels of development. This means that this “animal” must attain the understanding and feeling of who he is, what he is, why he exists and where he came from. All our evolution is aimed at this.

This is why, throughout all human history, starting with the Big Bang and until the end of this world, we unconsciously aspire to attain the true perception of reality, the true understanding and knowledge in order to grasp all of Nature and Its program.

In every moment in our lives, all our development is devoted to this goal. I may be eating, drinking, working, communicating with somebody, or doing something – whatever I do, consciously or unconsciously, all the processes in my body, its entire material, all its electrons, molecules, particles, and organs, all of its levels – still, vegetative and animate – everything is aimed, lives and exists only for this one goal: to attain that Upper Level of consciousness. Therefore, all of evolution and the entire path of our natural development are set in order to make man attain the highest level of Nature’s development.

Attainment means that a person realizes everything in Nature, adheres to Its program and begins to execute it himself, recognizing that his destiny is to become the same as the Force that fulfills, absorbs and incorporates all of Nature.

This is why the crisis we are now experiencing is global. It comes to us from that Upper State which we need to reach, and which is revealing the opposite side of that state to us. The crisis lets us see the shattering of the correct, future state, showing us what great perfection we can reach if we correct this global crisis.
(From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Precept,” on 03.10.2009)

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A question I received: I am a school teacher, and we are now covering the topic, “The Creation of the World.” We have just finished discussing the first part of the Bible, “Genesis,” and we are now starting to talk about the Big Bang. How can I explain the apparent contradiction between the creation of the world 5600 years ago and the Big Bang which occurred billions of years ago?

My Answer: The Big Bang took place 14 billion years ago. It was caused by a spark of the Upper Light, which reached its lowest level and clothed into egoism. This spark contained all the matter and energy of our world, from which the whole universe later developed.

Then, about 4 billion years ago, our planet emerged from the condensation of particles. It cooled for billions of years until the atmosphere and life were generated. None of this was coincidental. All the actions and events are the realization of information contained in that initial spark of Light.

Next emerged the inanimate and vegetative levels of nature, followed by the animate level of nature and then the human being. Everything happened consecutively, just like explained by Darwin’s theory, except that the cause for the emergence of each species was the information that was initially implanted in the spark of Light. This spark initially contained all the information about our entire universe.

However, we can only observe the external emergence of one species from another, and we interpret this incorrectly, thinking that species evolved one from another, when in fact, it all happened due to the realization of informational genes (Reshimot).

As the Ari wrote in his book, The Tree of Life, a human being emerged from an ape hundreds of thousands years ago – (see Part 3 of Talmud Eser Sefirot). However, the first Man, meaning the first person who attained the Creator 5769 years ago, was Adam. His name comes from the word Edame, meaning “similar to the Creator.”

We celebrate this date as the New Year, and our chronology begins from it. This is because starting from that date, within 6000 years all the people have to attain the level of the Creator – the complete correction of their egoism.

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A question I received: You wrote that man developed from the ape because of a spiritual gene he has. Did you mean that man developed from an ape physically, or was it a spiritual process, which led to the emergence of a person with a soul?

My Answer: Man physically emerged from the ape when a new Reshimo (gene) emerged in it. However, in spirituality, a “man” is someone who has begun to acquire the quality of bestowal and love. A person then becomes Adam, which in Hebrew means, “similar to the Creator.” The great Kabbalist the Ari writes about this, as does Baal HaSulam in Chapter 3 of Talmud Eser Sefirot. The Biblical story about the creation of the world is also talking about the spiritual creation of the worlds and man, and in fact, the whole Torah is about this.

The physical matter was formed after the Big Bang according to the laws of nature. Baal HaSulam writes about the geological periods of gradual cooling and heating of the earth, with each period lasting 30,000 years. Kabbalah is a science – the physics of the Upper World, and it does not contradict other sciences. On the other hand, religion interprets the Torah (or the Bible) literally, without understanding that the Torah’s text is Kabbalistic.

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A question I received: How did matter emerge, and where from? If Darwin’s theory is wrong, then how do you explain the emergence of different species, especially the human?

My Answer: Matter emerged by means of an explosive penetration of a spark of the Upper Light to the level of our world. In physics this phenomenon is called the Big Bang. It occurred approximately 15 billion years ago. This spark contained all the matter and energy of our world. The Talmud Eser Sefirot, The Book of Zohar, and The Tree of Life, written hundreds of years ago, explain how all the lower degrees originate in this manner from a higher degree.

The spark of the Upper Light contains all the information about its descent from above downward, and after the “Big Bang,” it continued to develop and realize this information. This spark develops the universe and the human being, whose goal is to reach the state from which the spark emerged. Man must achieve this by developing and “ascending” along 125 spiritual degrees, from egoism to the quality of bestowal and love for one’s neighbor.

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Evolution has never ceased, and today we have reached the critical transition point where the world is shifting from egoistic to altruistic. Kabbalah explains that life on earth, on all the levels, goes through the same process of development. Thus, studies of bacteria have shown that at some point in their evolution, bacteria were forced by circumstances to shift from hostile and competitive behavior to  peaceful interaction. This resulted in the creation of new, multi-celled organisms, which later developed into complex organisms, including humans.

A similar process occurs on all other levels of nature, from inanimate to human. We too will have to transform from being rival and hostile groups, nations, religions, and civilizations, into a global family. Indeed, we are driven by inner data (Reshimot – the spiritual genes of our development) that’s the same as our biological data, revealed to us externally.

The evolutionary process is explained by Kabbalah this way: The “thickness” of egoism (Reshimot of Aviut) constantly increases, causing the process of evolution to take place. Egoism grows along these levels:

• 0-1 inanimate

• 2 vegetative

• 3 animate

• 4 human

When egoism reaches the last, human level of its development, a special quality becomes revealed in it: a connection to the Upper Source – the highest degree, the Creator, or Nature. But this final, fourth degree also develops gradually, going through its own, inner stages (also the stages 0-1-2-3-4).  At egoism’s final, fourth stage, man finally reveals its global nature. Hence, on this level of man’s development, he has to begin connecting to his Source – the Creator. Humanity has to become one, like the Creator.

On the surface, a person appears as nothing more than a biological system. But when this system reaches a certain degree of its development – the fourth stage of egoism, it prompts a “system crash” – an upgrade in the system’s organization and operation, taking it to the next, global level. This is what we are witnessing today in our society.

In other words, the next level of our development, the “spiritual” level which demands our equality with the Creator, is beginning to be revealed in us. For now, we are only starting to define it, to see that it is global and integral. However, to the extent we become more acquainted with this new form of egoism in us, we will begin to feel the need for its fulfillment – the Creator.

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In the News (from The Guardian): “Rescuing Darwinism” According to a Theos/ComRes research study, over half of Britons are skeptical about Darwinian evolution. Roughly a quarter of people were consistent and convinced Darwinians, while slightly fewer were equally consistent and convinced opponents (split between “young earth” creationism and Intelligent Design). The remaining 50% were somewhere in between, mixing different ideas and showing a distinct inclination to hedge their bets.

My Comment: Life will make us figure this out. The question, “Where did we come from?” is related to the questions, “Who are we?” and “Why are we here?” These questions emerge along with the question about the meaning of our suffering, and soon enough, no one will be able to stay indifferent to this question or its answer.

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In the News: (from Times Online): The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin was on the right track when he claimed that Man descended from apes. A leading official declared yesterday that Darwin’s theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith, and could even be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas. “In fact, what we mean by evolution is the world as created by God,” said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

My Comment: No one originated from anything other than from their own Reshimot – informational genes. The Reshimot unravel like a chain, from small to big, giving rise to everything that exists.

However, since we do not see the chain of Reshimot, we see a picture where the species originate “one from another,” whereas in reality they originate “one after another.” Kabbalists have already explained this thousands of years ago – see Part 3 of Talmud Eser Sefirot.

The world was created by the Creator, and every creature was created by the Creator or Nature as well. The only matter of creation is the desire, which develops and expresses itself by creating an outward appearance (a bodily shell) according to its qualities. However, we do not perceive the forces of the desire and only see the external shells. This is why we think that they come from one another.

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