When we read The Book of Zohar, we have to imagine the network of all the people in the world and how this upper system is revealed. Then we will understand that Aba and Ima, YESHSUT and ZON that The Zohar describes are the types of connections between us.

We are in a system that ties us to one another. In the ties among us there are ten Sefirot. Ten Sefirot is a whole world: Zeir Anpin and Malchut are ZON, Hochma and Bina are the upper Aba ve Ima and YESHSHUT (Israel Saba ve Tvuna), Keter is Atik and Arich Anpin, half of the upper one and half of the lower one.

We can divide the connection between us into five worlds or five Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, Malchut, or into ZON, Aba ve Ima, and Keter, and so on. We learn about this whole structure in the world of Atzilut.

If I become similar to you, by this I actually have to correct myself in all these relationships. Of course, it is only to a certain extent and not at the level of Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction). As I do that I get closer to you.

There are 125 degrees between one person and another. When each one attains his friend to the fullest, he attains the whole system because the individual and the general are equal. This is how we advance.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us about what is among us; not about ourselves, but about the strings that tie us together, the types of connections among us. This is the main thing. This is why, for example, we study what the beginning of a month (Rosh Hodesh) is, and what the beginning of the week, the end of the week, Sabbath, or the holidays are. These are different forms of connection that exist in this network, according to special actions that take place in this system.

The network works according to its aim. Each of us is the desire to receive. This desire is nothing, a dummy, the still level of the still—the dust from which everything was created.

The system awakens the dust and gradually revives it, and then we—the blocks of raw matter—begin to develop. This system alone develops, strengthens, and maintains everything. There is nothing besides it. We live in this system.

Therefore, it says that the upper Light that dwells in this system revives the whole world. It awakens us in two ways. On one hand, it stirs in us the deficiency to connect with others since otherwise we don’t receive enough vitality. After all, our vitality depends on our inclusion into the system in which different exchange processes take place, just like in our body, in the circulatory, lymphatic, nervous, and other systems.

Life is the connection between the elements, the exit and the entrance of energy, metabolism. In the network of connections among us the exchange is on the level of our desires.

Therefore, we should imagine how we can awaken the system by ourselves, not waiting for it to wake us up “in its time (Beito),” according to the plan,which usually has unpleasant effects on us.

If we can awaken the system, we will feel it as pleasant because while it awakens, we will begin to understand it, to agree with it, to agree with the idea that we have to bestow, to be tied to one another, to be incorporated in this system. The general law of the system is the law of mutual guarantee, the absolute mutual connection among all the parts. This is the law of a healthy body that is in harmony, in a perfect global, integral connection.

This is why we read The Book of Zohar, that speaks about this system. Kabbalists don’t tell us anything else but that. There is nothing other than that to speak about. Our world is an opposite copy of this system, a totally corrupt copy. This means that the ties seem to exist, but we don’t see them, we don’t study them correctly and don’t know how to use them. Everything is the other way around.

The crisis that is revealed today is actually the revelation of the network among us. In Greek, for example, the word crisis means a turning point, meaning correction and not corruption. And it is indeed a correction.

In Hebrew, the word “crisis” (Mashber) also refers to “birth stones,” a special place where women in labor used to sit on in the past. RASHI wrote about it in his commentary to the Torah (Exodus 1, 16).

So let’s read The Book of Zohar and hope that the network between us will be revealed.
[56222]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/2011, The Zohar

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1. How will further evolution of the human race take place? How will the crisis and global laws of Nature change our essence? Will the forced transition from egoistic society to an integral model of the world based on mutual guarantee impact only social order or will it also alter the essence and connection between generations?

What kind of world will we end up living in if we manage to connect into one united system that is similar to a living organism? How will our perception of the world’s limitations change?

For that, we have to examine general evolution and its psychological aspect.

2. Protozoan organisms (amoebas), similar to the first simplest creatures on Earth, react to external impacts, but are unable to retain memories or sensations, that is, they do not acquire experience; nor are they able to convey it to future generations.

Comb jellies’ behavior is determined by natural inborn connections; for them, instincts play a tremendous role.

Elementary vertebrates (fish) behave in accordance with hereditary “skills” that were accumulated during their existence. Conservative instincts strictly determine their behavior; they don’t allow them to change their conduct even if it stops being expedient.

3. After exiting water, animals entered a much harsher and diverse environment, and psychological evolution went in two different ways:

• Complication of hereditary “skills” and instincts (insects and Arthropoda).
• Acquisition of the ability to develop vital habits during a life cycle, which allowed making adjustments to a changing environment (development of vertebrates, from amphibian to mammals, gradual suppression of the role of instincts, and enhancement of intellectual functions and rational activities (individual experience).

4. Psychological evolution continues on dry land. Its main point is transitioning from stable hereditary habits to acquired skills that are of non-hereditary nature.

The goal of evolution is a human being; the significance of instincts in human life is minimal. Intellect is what’s important because it allows the fast acquisition of multiple habits and knowledge that, in turn, allows physically weak human beings to adjust to a variety of circumstances.

So, the development of the ability to think as well as the transition from “non-thinking” to “thinking” creatures is a result of a more complicated environment. Man emerged after the environment reached its maximum complexity (after a period of abrupt falls in temperatures). Exclusion of man from the animal world happened as a reaction to more complicated and worsened external surroundings. Man continues to improve both intellectually and psychologically; his evolution is still in progress.

6. Today, we see that the changing environment forces us to adhere to closer interaction with the society. Thus we can assume that the future evolution of human psychology will follow a path of consolidation of human features that will be transferred to generations, but not through genetics as with animal instincts, but rather through “external” social memory.

Future generations are the reincarnations of prior generations; they will receive knowledge that they acquired before through the society that preserves this knowledge in its memory, similar to instincts that are transferred from generation to generation in the animal world.

7. The ability to acquire and pass on the information totally depends on the connection of a person with his or her surrounding society. It becomes a person’s inseparable part and is an everlasting source or storage of skills and information from one generation to the next. Moreover, knowledge will be acquired not through mental efforts, but rather to the degree of one’s connectedness with the environment.

But before mutual unity of a person with his environment is established, it is impossible to ascertain his or her prior properties since they can be socially harmful if not used properly.

Consolidation of habits on the level of instincts can be only applied to bestowal, love of others, a positive attitude to socially beneficial work as an immediate need of every individual, a brotherly mind-set between everybody, meaning that we acquired them through our personal correction during prior incarnations.

8. The process of “instinctive” transfer of knowledge to the next generation will allow them to be morally and intellectually higher than the prior generation. It will determine the essence of a new man through his or her harmonious connection with the society and nature. It will outline the formation of a new type of social environment.

Psychological evolution of the future society will allow it to govern its own nature. Educators’ and teachers’ mission will be among the most important ones: They will be the acting power of the society, and they will be responsible for the creation of a new generation.
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We have to give people an explanation of what the solution to the modern problems is. Even if it won’t be possible to avoid the troubles, people will nevertheless hear us eventually. They won’t have any other choice left.

When the crisis worsens, when factories close down and banks become empty, mass turmoil will begin. The people will rise up with demands, not caring how realistic they are. The government might be able to reasonably justify itself, but the people don’t care about that, and will say, “You’re in power so you’re responsible!”

Moments like that or the breaks between them is precisely when people will hear us. And it will be both the regular people and the powerful ones who will hear. The tycoons will want to build the system of upbringing we are talking about of their own accord in order to pacify the people and raise them above the poverty line. Otherwise people will take away everything from them, as this has already happened in history on several occasions. The danger will force them to take care of the agitations and explanations and to aim people toward mutual unification, to a global, integral system, which nature requires us to create.

After all, this is not someone’s whim, but precisely nature’s call, which we cannot run away from. The more we do in this direction, the less troubles and problems we will have.

Obviously, we won’t start talking about fair distribution right away. The first task is to provide people with whatever amount of money they need to survive. And in response they will be required to make efforts in studying.

When unemployment increases, masses of people will be left with nothing to do. People will have to distribute their time so they will work for half or a third of the work day, and devote the rest of the time to compulsory study. In essence, this will become the real work: A person will work on himself. In order to make bread from wheat, it is necessary to awaken a force that will raise wheat.

This year we will already see how uneasy it is to produce bread in conditions of economic and ecological crisis. And studying, together with efforts to create an environment, is part of our work in this world. We thereby awaken the force in the world that is necessary for our material existence.

A person will study in order to bestow to others, in order to provide their daily bread for them. As Baal HaSulam writes, bestowal to the neighbor and bestowal to the Creator are the same thing. That is how people will reach spirituality—without suffering and without studying the science of Kabbalah.
[56420]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/4/11, “Peace in the World”

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Question: Isn’t it possible that the global, integral system is egoistic? Why does globalization reveal to us specifically the system of bestowal?

Answer: If we depend on each other, we can’t help but to be considerate of each other. And egoism is namely my indifference to everyone but myself. Today I discover that I exist in a system of cogwheels, and my negative influence over others comes back to me. Therefore, I must consider the interests of others as my own.

This is mutual bestowal—a very simple, egoistic altruism. We don’t speak with people about faith above reason, but we use facts from this world: “You see it for yourself that all of us are dependent on each other. In the general mechanism, all evil indeed returns like a boomerang. This implies that there is no other choice, and everyone must influence in a positive way in order to receive positive feedback.” What isn’t clear here? What’s more, if we are in danger, the connection between us becomes even closer.

From this we reach an obvious conclusion: Our ego disturbs us. If we were connected above our ego, absolutely and in a nice way, then the system would be ideal. We would reach a state where we would never receive anything negative from any place. All the cogwheels would turn as they should: I relate positively to everyone, with all my soul, and in response, I receive only good from them.

So, does it mean that we need to reach some unrealistic situation where everyone goes around with good desires for each other, like ants in an anthill? After all, they work together instinctively. Must we connect in this way against our ego? Is that possible? It seems that this will happen only on condition that the crisis, which in the meantime gets worse, will oblige us to reach specifically this: a mutual, complete connection in spite of all our hatred, envy, and rejection. But from where will we get this strength?

Let’s begin the advancement to a state of connection between us, let’s sign a “declaration of intentions” that we, nevertheless, want to be connected to some extent. Let us first sweeten the situation a little.

If this is the case, we will need to think of how we need to operate systems of connection between us: education, matrimony, social relationships, relations to nature, and especially the financial-economic system. We must reach a certain degree of social justice, of a balanced economy and to decrease the gap between different sectors of society. We will need to consider others as we do ourselves at least a little bit.

Let’s say, I will always give a part of what I take for myself to others. Let’s say everyone would pay a tithe, and then afterwards the money from the tithe would be divided between everyone, according to their situation. This won’t be like Social Security, which at times grants allowances regardless of one’s real income. No, we would all pay and then divide it according to the income of each and every one so as to somehow bridge social gaps between us.

Every big thing is done in stages, and it needs to start with realistic, simple steps, to be followed, of course, by additional ones.
[56226]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/2011, “Peace in the World”

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In the News (From CNN): “A spirited and leaderless protest in the Wall Street section of New York has entered its third week, helping to inspire a growing number of demonstrations united in their passion if not necessarily their reasons for hitting the streets.

“The hub of the movement, in Lower Manhattan, was abuzz with activity on Sunday as activists continued to vent their frustrations with everything from ‘corporate greed’ to high gas prices to insufficient health insurance.

“No single group or person heads the effort, which has adopted the name ‘Occupy Wall Street.’ While a ‘general assembly’ is held daily for those gathered — be it for a few short hours or by camping out long-term — to discuss the goings-on and work toward a common mission, the stances being touted currently are diverse.

“The lack of coherent message has not stopped similar efforts from popping up elsewhere in the United States.

“’Occupy Chicago,’ for instance, entered its 10th day on Sunday, a day after an associated website touted ‘a huge afternoon march.’

“The motto atop a website for ‘Occupy Los Angeles,’ which kicked off Saturday with a march from Pershing Square to City Hall, reads: ‘The revolution is happening … It’s just not in the news.’

“There are 34 organizations — from unions to ethnic organizations to activist groups focused on everything from foreclosure prevention to climate change to justice-related issues — listed as being involved in a like-minded activist coalition in Boston. This group, which held a festival and march Friday and Saturday and has explicitly targeted Bank of America in recent weeks, states on its website that its aim is to ‘stop their greed,’ ‘fight for an economy that works for all of us,’ and ‘build cities that are democratic, just and sustainable.’

“Most demonstrations thus far have been peaceful and uneventful, though in a few cases they have led to numerous arrests.

“The most high-profile such incident came Saturday, when New York police arrested more than 700 protesters who had occupied the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.

“Demonstrators have said they take their inspiration from the Arab Spring protests that swept through Africa and the Middle East this year.

“The protest campaign — which uses the hashtag #occupywallstreet on the microblogging site Twitter — began in July with the launch of a simple campaign website calling for a march and a sit-in at the New York Stock Exchange.

“It has gained steam since early September, with crowds taking up residence in a park in New York’s financial district and calling for 20,000 people to flood the area for a ‘few months.’ In recent weeks, the New York demonstrators have addressed various issues, including police brutality, union busting, and the economy.”

My Comment: The problems are just beginning because the crisis itself is still not felt as a systematic crisis, when life “freezes,” and all the social, political, economic, and other connections no longer work smoothly. That is when people, not understanding the reasons for what’s happening, start blaming the authorities and “establish their own order.”

Only education and the explanation of the new laws and connections that manifest in society will be able to calm people and give them the correct guidance, to gather the masses together and jointly create new connections in society, new relationships between themselves and with the world. This problem will manifest itself as a single issue of the Old and New World on both sides of the Atlantic. Other parts of the world will accompany it, and turmoil and unrest, helplessness and lack of control will force governments to turn to the masses and make joint decisions at the “round table.”
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Opinion: (George Soros, billionaire investor): “Financial markets are driving the world towards another Great Depression with incalculable political consequences. The authorities, particularly in Europe, have lost control of the situation. They need to regain control and they need to do so now.

“Three bold steps are needed. First, the governments of the eurozone must agree in principle on a new treaty creating a common treasury for the eurozone. In the meantime, the major banks must be put under European Central Bank direction …Third, the ECB would enable countries such as Italy and Spain to temporarily refinance their debt at a very low cost. These steps would calm the markets and give Europe time to develop a growth strategy, without which the debt problem cannot be solved.

“The course of action outlined here …is more radical because it puts the banks under European control. That is liable to arouse the opposition of both the banks and the national authorities. Only public pressure can make it happen.”

My Comment: Didn’t the great financiers say that the crisis was over? These measures, like patches, will not help either; a patch will merely tear as well. It’s necessary to change the system of our attitude to the world: The globally connected world has to be governed by people who feel a genuine responsibility for the entire world, for the unified system, and are connected by mutual guarantee.
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Question: Our New York group went to Wall Street today to feel the mood and the desires of the demonstrators. What we heard from them was very similar to our message. We sang together our song “Who Wants Change?” How can we convey the idea of mutual guarantee to them?

Answer: There is a lot of work before you now. First you have to build a website and give its address to the protesters. It should be on this site and not on the street that you start a big, true debate about the relevant issues. You should lead people to the virtual court, in which they will discuss the issues related to our message.

The processes in the U.S. are accelerating, and we have to organize the preliminary stages of our work as soon as possible. There is no doubt that we are actually starting to work globally now. Each group will operate at its own pace, according to the local conditions, but in the next few months, we will eventually all be part of this.

As a result, we will understand, feel, and connect to the internal, spiritual system. We already begin to see it as the end result of the process: the ascent to the last degree, the revelation of the Creator to the created beings, the revelation of the attribute of bestowal, the system of bestowal in which we participate in practice. The people perform external actions in it, and we join them with internal actions. It is all before us.
[56232]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/2011, “Peace in the World”

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In the News (From Associated Press): “Tens of thousands of French teachers and their supporters took to the streets Tuesday for a national strike and protests over education job cuts under President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government.

“In a first, private school teachers joined the walkout with their public-sector colleagues who are angry about job cuts.

“Labor unions want to ratchet up the pressure on Sarkozy’s conservatives, who have cut public-sector jobs as a way to help reduce France’s bloated budget deficit.”

My Comment: Schools have to educate, to make a Human out of a child, and not just provide him or her with knowledge and a profession. Today, a connection with people is most important; it determines success in everything.
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The situation in the world today already shows us that unification is worthwhile. It is indeed feasible for us to connect and to care about one another. We would benefit if we organized a fair system in which every individual works according to his abilities and gets as much as he or she needs, and not more.

Actually, what can be better than that? It is a very simple and sensible formula. Even children are impressed by this idea. You should see with what joy and enthusiasm they read about it because it is like a fairy tale that they want to come true.

But here several questions arise. First, why aren’t we like that to begin with? Why did nature initially make us corrupt? Second, can we attain this using our own power? And third, why haven’t we done it until now? Didn’t we see the benefit in such a life from the beginning?

Actually, this is exactly how people used to live ages ago. A communist society was the first phase in human civilization. The first humans who climbed down from the trees were communists: They shared everything, and they all lived like one family, each working for its welfare.

However, later the world developed in the opposite direction. We can only long for the blissful, innocent days of the past. Everything was so simple then: Every tribe used to hunt some mammoth and eat it together. No one even imagined cheating anyone else and taking more than his share. People felt that they were a single whole, and this feeling was preserved until the days of ancient Babel.

What happened afterwards? Is it possible to return to the way it used to be? No one agrees to that. On the contrary, our life tends to be totally opposite: We are detached, we isolate ourselves from one another. People get divorced, everyone needs a room of his own, his own place…. And so it follows that we will not be able to return to the same naive altruism. We see that it is against evolution. We can learn this from the sad examples of the Soviet Union and the kibbutzim (collective agricultural communities in Israel).

So what can we do? The global crisis has shown us clearly that we depend on one another and are tied to one another like cogwheels. On the other hand, we hate one another, we can’t stand each another; everybody would like to be all alone in the whole world just so that the others wouldn’t disturb him. How is it possible to combine these two trends?

This is the problem the world is facing today. Discount rate manipulations will not suffice. The economy reflects the connection between us. So how can we direct it towards mutual cooperation?

We see, for example, that Germany is bailing out Greece only because at the moment it is cheaper than throwing the Greeks to the wolves. This is how the Creator plays with us, until we abandon all the old methods and find a true solution.
[56229]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/2011, “Peace in the World”

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Question: Man got used to exploiting the environment for his own benefit. Even when we speak about social justice, many see it as an opportunity to grab something for themselves.…

Answer: Therefore, education must come before anything else, as the first necessary condition. Man needs to be brought up differently and should be taught about the system we live in.

For instance, we are familiar with the realities of our world. I know what a bank is, what work is, what a medical clinic is; I know about pension funds, social security, roads, traffic lights, police, and the government. But a baby doesn’t know all that yet, and so we teach him how to live in this world.

In exact same manner we now have to teach humanity how to live in the new, integral world. The egoistic mechanisms will gradually stop working. We will soon see that the power of receiving doesn’t lead to anything. We see that even people who have a lot of money don’t know what will happen with the economy in the near future. Soon they will find out that they have a lot of power, but they can’t do anything. Everything disappears, everything is lost, everything breaks down, falls apart, and stops working. No system will work except for the system of bestowal, which we will have to establish.

Question: This may happen in a year or two, but I have problems now….

Answer: So start acting now. Do you want to have a good life? Pay for it with bestowal upon others. This is your work, which is called “the Creator’s work.” We are about to see a world in which we will not be able to provide for ourselves by using the power of egoism, but only by the power of bestowal. If you bestow upon others, upon society, you will be able to receive food, clothing, and other necessities from society. But it won’t happen if you don’t bestow. This is because the new world is dominated by the altruistic power.

Question: How will people shift to the new paradigm?

Answer: By the blows. It was Pharaoh who brought the children of Israel to the Creator. Haman caused the Jews to finally escape the Babylonian exile and return to the Land of Israel, and the King supported him. It is impossible to advance if the ego isn’t revealed to us as the evil force, as our enemy.

Eventually, nature’s blows and the positive influence from our part, circulation, will bring about the change. People cannot change instantly and agree with us. Their desire is opposite to bestowal. The principle of “love thy neighbor” seems childish to them. They don’t understand yet that it the basis for everything, that it is the correction of the soul. The evil of their egoism hasn’t been revealed to them yet.

They will be able to feel it after many blows, until Pharaoh will finally admit: “I’m sinful, and the Creator is righteous.” He didn’t think so before. But then you will realize that everything is because of you, because you are corrupted, not the surrounding nature, or a neighbor, or anybody else. Then you will feel the need for correction, and it will come. In your search for a method, you will find us and ask us to teach you.

But we don’t want you to suffer and so we disseminate the method in advance, although it spurs hatred in you. This is how we help the world.
[56040]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/28/2011, “The Nation”

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