Question: Can the WE! Convention affect and improve the general situation in the world, which is now going through such a difficult time?

Answer: Hard times haven’t begun yet.  We do not yet realize to what extent this connection is suffocating and stripping us even from a smallest free action. It’s horrifying to find oneself in this situation, in the condition where everybody is in the grip of his or her egoism, hatred toward others, and egoistic calculations.

You suddenly feel that you are confined by thousands of chains and are dependent on the faintest breath of the people that you are totally indifferent to. How can one possibly exist in a state like that at all?

We have nowhere to run: We cannot divorce and distance from each other. On the contrary, our connection will become increasingly tight and will turn into a total interdependence literally in everything.

When mass media tells us about the events that take place around the world, we think that we simply observe them as onlookers. But in truth I depend on each gallon of oil produced in Libya, on everything that’s happening in France and Turkey, and so on. In other words, it’s not even my neighbors, but everything that occurs at the other end of the world, and it’s impossible to hide from this connection.

Hence, we need to finally realize that the wisdom of Kabbalah gives the world the method of correction without which humanity will be lost and cease to exist.

Kabbalah teaches us how we can attract the upper force. We ourselves do not have the strength! It explains to us how we can reveal the upper force which will bring order into our relationships. After all, we have no idea how to establish peace and order in the world and are only coming closer to a total war, which is also described in Kabbalah as a possible route of development if we do not attract the force that unites us.

During the forthcoming convention we have a special opportunity to bring into the world the force which will effect it and us in a benevolent way. Without it, we will see how the world is going down at the formidable speed and in a very unpleasant direction.
[37879]
From the Lesson on Inner Preparation for the WE! Convention 3/10/2011

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Question: Dear Dr. Laitman! We, your students in Japan, would like to know your opinion about what caused the misfortune that has befallen us: the earthquake and the tsunami. According to the forecasts, more blows are expected in the immediate future. Can all of us together forestall such events in Japan and, in general, in the world?

Answer: Nature guides us on the path of evolutionary development until we reach similarity to it. Blows and suffering that we feel are nature’s reaction to our lack of correspondence to it. The only solution to all crises is to reach balance with nature.

In general, it is achieved by the correction of our egoism. Our egoism is assessed by our attitude toward the connection with all of humanity as with a single whole. It is because nature relates to us precisely so, as to a single whole. Until we become as one, we will suffer.

It is said in The Book of Zohar (“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Items 66-81) that misfortunes first befall the best ones: in this case, Japan. But, as the blows intensify, they will affect the worse ones as well…. There is only one solution: to unite in love of the other and become a global, integral system like the entirety of nature. Then inside us, we will start feeling the fulfillment by the Creator.
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Question: Will the tendency to move toward internal values cause the disappearance of occupations involved in film production, fashion, and so on?

Answer: In any case, our world stands at the threshold of great transformations in regard to all the previously existing values. It will manifest in abandoning the external preferences that used to be meaningful to people until now. Even today, we have witnessed quite a noticeable popularity of casualness in everyday dress codes, and it is for a good reason.

I often participate in global congresses and conferences, and every year I notice a growing tendency for a negligent attitude toward external values. There are fewer restrictions, and the participants are given much more freedom in the form they wish to use for their presentations. People have grown impatient of various ceremonies and everything that would push them into a certain square.

This is a common trend which confirms people’s gravitation toward internal values. They need to know the essence of things, not their external expression. This is how our ego advances us. I am certain that many professions related to fashion and design will eventually vanish.

People’s attitude toward external attributes only emphasizes the growth of their interest in internal values and demonstrates that nothing external attracts them any longer. Hence, we dress and act the way we do, and as for me, I am happy to see this status quo in the world.
[37067]
From the Introductory Lecture Series 2/22/2011, “Preference for the Internal Over the External”

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Question: You say that a married couple has to “play” at being a corrected family. But what should they do if the evil is revealed between the spouses constantly, if they fight often, don’t respect one another, and don’t understand one another?

Answer: Unfortunately, none of us received the necessary upbringing and we weren’t prepared for family life. We have to raise a man and a woman in a way that teaches them to establish the right interconnection with one another and with their children.

This is the problem of egoistic development: Each person thinks that he knows what to do. No one prepares a person for life. Instead of educating a person, we barely teach him some kind of profession. That is why the modern crisis is so deep.

The crisis of families has become unbearable. The whole world is being immersed in universal, total despair from the attempts of families to live together. And while this is happening we do not admit that the family unit is the foundation of all of life. Without it, life will not go on.

Man will have to search for the answer, and the answer is: “Husband and wife, and the Shechina between them.” We have to understand that egoistic development has brought us to a dead-end: We cannot stand each other anymore. Only the importance of the goal can help us, and we can attain that goal only if we have the corrected family which gives their children the right upbringing. Only on this condition do we acquire similarity to nature or the Creator. Then we reveal Him, unite with Him, and attain eternal life on the spiritual level.

Only the spiritual goal will obligate a person to create the right family, to have children and the right relationships between the spouses.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/11 on Women

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Baal HaSulam, “The Last Generation”: The world is one family, and the framework of altruistic communism should ultimately encircle the entire world with an equal standard of living for everybody.

Question: So it looks like Kabbalah must bring communism into the world?

Answer: Our problem is that we don’t understand the true meaning of words. When we utter the word “Torah,” we visualize a “holy” book; when we speak of “commandments,” we think of some physical acts that we have to perform; and the word “faith” for us is when we blindly believe some stories we are told.

In other words, we replace the truth with false ideas. In fact, commandments are steps of correction of the egoistic desire, and the Torah is the force that reforms them.

The same pertains to the word “communism” that derives from the word “a commune” and reads equality, unity, and brotherhood. But great egoists used these words for their low purposes opposite to communism.

They established the worst dictatorship in history: a dictatorship of the minority over majority, a regime of complete spiritual suppression and violence, which not only used a person as a work force, a slave, but attempted to completely and forcefully eliminate in man the desire for pleasure, egoism.

But in fact, “communism” is a very exalted, beautiful word. It implies brotherly love among humans who live according to the law of mutual guarantee bonded by one desire.
[36923]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/2011 Lesson on Money

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Man undergoes different stages in his perception of his relationship with the society: from wishing to use it in a coarse, material form to falling into despair and wanting nothing at all any longer. In other words, somewhere on the way to a “global world,” there comes a “halt” accompanied with a total disappointment from the previous use of the environment.

This is why divorce is so popular these days, and man strives to break all connections with society to be left alone. But while we are going through this crisis, we arrive at a new use of society, and hence, are willing to acknowledge it as an instrument to achieve the spiritual goal.

Even though our intention is still egoistic, society is becoming important for us indeed. We begin to perceive the environment and the global, unified humanity as a more exalted state of existence, a means for achieving a better life: eternal and complete. This is the next stage in the evolution of our perception of reality.

After it, there comes a more advanced stage when because of my engagement in the environment, I discover an even deeper, more exalted state. The environment for me transforms into the place where the Creator gets revealed.

Now I understand that everyone only seemed small and despicable, divided and individualistic, in my corrupted properties, my uncorrected view. I realize that it’s not true at all! They have always been unified and lived in love and perfection, together with the Creator and the Light that was filling them.

And I, in the degree that I bond with them, influence them, and receive their influence by starting to interact with them, also become part of them. I get to value them as much as I value the Creator. After all, He is revealed within them (“come and see”), in the corrected state of the society. And hence, I discover that except for this single state of integral unity, there is nothing else!

So it seems that our attitude to the society is the only device, measurement, and place of our work, the only thing a person possesses. And the Creator is there, inside it! The transformed society is the Creator Himself.

The corrected human society contains the entire nature within: the still, vegetative, and animate ones, and all of it together are regarded as Malchut of the world of Infinity. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to whether we are transforming, advancing, beginning to value our environment, and seeing in it great potential more, as pertains to us. Our transformation is determined by the transformation of our attitude to the society, and it is the only way to evaluate our advancement.

It may look very odd, but that very humanity that you wanted to save and do good for, considering them as little people with beastly interests, is gradually revealed to you as Shechina, Malchut of Infinity that has always been before you, but you couldn’t see it with your corrupted eyes.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The whole world today from small to big is in need of an educational method. And it’s more difficult to get to the adults than to the children. I hope that the mass media will change and we will find additional ways besides television and Internet sites to enable our method to be accepted in the world.

On the other hand, we are building the necessary mechanisms for children and in this realm we can quickly achieve clear, demonstrative success. After all, this is a very painful topic for parents, departments of education, and overall, for every society. The young generation is literally “seeping through our fingers” and no one knows what to do about it.

That is where we can show clear examples of what is happening to our children at Bnei Baruch. They want to be with their parents, which is a very strange thing indeed. At the age of 15 to 18, a young man is next to his parents, and it’s not because he is retarded. It’s just that he wants to adopt the values of the adults and participate in what they do. Where else in the world can you find such a thing?

As a rule, a child comes home, demands food, and shuts himself up in his room with a guitar or a computer, and then leaves with his friends and comes back in the morning. Basically, he leaves home and visits occasionally. This is considered normal. But in our families at Bnei Baruch, this is not the norm.

Therefore, we have something to show the world. This is actual dissemination. If we show everyone our interconnection and mutual support in all the groups, if we show the people of Israel that all of Israel are friends, that there are thousands of people in the country who want to be together and who feel that precisely by being together they reveal the upper world, this will be true dissemination. And it will be educational dissemination because we actually change the world, turning people to face each other.

That is why this summer we are planning to organize an international children’s camp, as well as other activities in order to show the world the results of our way of upbringing. We don’t even have to say anything: Let them just find out about it and see it. Even now many people and external organizations are impressed by what is happening with our children.

So let’s view the science of Kabbalah as an educational method that raises everyone—kids and adults alike—by means of the environment, helping each of us to become Human, similar to the Creator, without any reservations.
[37263]
From the 3rd lesson at the Dead Sea Convention on 2/25/11

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Question: If the world was ruled by women, would it be better?

Answer: The world cannot be ruled by women. By nature a woman has to be in the possession of her father or husband. That’s because according to her spiritual root, she is Malchut, which can only act by virtue of what her husband gives her. She does not have anything of her own.

That is a woman’s role: By inspiring a man to do spiritual work, she receives Light from him. We have to understand that there is nothing belittling about this. A woman is not lower than a man, but on the contrary, without her desire, the world would stop moving forward. There would be no correction and we would not attain unity with the Creator. We unite with Him precisely by virtue of the female desire. That is how we realize the male force.

We shouldn’t look at the differences or search for the advantages one has over the other. We shouldn’t judge it egoistically. On the contrary, our approach should be altruistic: How to connect men and women in order to reach the goal. After all, the goal cannot be reached without perfect unity between them.

When each one bestows to the maximum, then they are both equal. If a woman gives all of herself and a man gives all of himself, that means equality reigns between them and they advance toward the Creator.

But does each of them do the same thing? Of course not. Opposite things come from them, but that means they are equal.

It’s a different matter in our world where both men and women are presented with the same demands. Is such a thing possible? This problem is yet to be expressed through a very powerful cataclysm because we thereby destroy the foundation of our being.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/11 on Women

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