Lately we have been hearing a lot about various troubles and natural disasters, such as floods and snow storms in Europe, fires in Russia, hurricanes in the USA, and the recent fire in Israel. Experts in the field forecast that difficult times lie ahead for the whole world because the global warming and climate changes that have begun to happen entail very great problems.

Why is that so? It’s because we exist in nature, and the Gematria (numerical significance) of the words “nature” and “the Creator” are equal.

Baal HaSulam explains in the article “The Peace” that we have to view the Creator as the law of nature. We shouldn’t think that He can change if we ask Him for it. The sages of Kabbalah want to eradicate this illusion we have so we’ll stop believing that any change is possible from the Creator’s end.

He is initially Good and Does good; He is unchangeable and so is His attitude to us. Good Light descends to us from Him and grows weaker as it goes through the worlds or concealments. That is how we receive it in our sensations.

When we receive this Light, it passes through our nature, which is opposite to it and aimed entirely at reception. Thus, all of the good that comes to us turns to evil according to how opposite our qualities are to it. That’s because the Light is bestowal and love, whereas I am reception and hatred. Because of this difference, I perceive the Light’s good influence as evil in all its different manifestations.

All of my desires are so egoistic by nature that in order to satisfy them I am ready to use the whole world. Because I use them only for the sake of self-gratification, I will suffer more and more from one generation to the next, from one year to the next as I become more sensitive, developed, and dependent.

In this century humanity has reached a state where it does not know where to keep going and how to get out of the dead-end it has gotten itself into. Since we live in a global world, we depend on each other in every way, while our ego separates us and closes us in.

When the abundance of goodness descends to us from Above, it is not intended for some particular person, but for the common, integral ego. Therefore, we are setting ourselves up for very big disasters.

Even though we are trying to avoid it, as Baal HaSulam writes, nature or the Creator will inevitably win and obligate us to accept and implement the law of balance with Him.

The science of Kabbalah explains this law very simply. It says that the Creator influences us, and there is a system of worlds or filters between Him and ourselves, intended to let the Creator’s Light through selectively.

The law by which this system works from the Creator to us and from us to Him is called the law of equivalence of form or the law of balance. It turns out that to the same degree we receive influences from the Creator, we must correspond to them and bestow back to Him with the same force in order to observe the balance.

Since the Creator constantly increases His influence on us, we too must correct ourselves more and more. This is the purpose for which our ego keeps growing according to a specific formula, and it is according to the same formula that the influence from the Creator’s end is actualized.

However, if we transform our ego to bestowal, we will reach equivalence with Him and then the balance will be observed. Then no matter how much He influences us, we will perceive it correctly. He gives to me and I give to Him.

Stated differently, changing our nature, our egoistic desires to bestowal, love, care, and attention to other people, is the very solution to the problem. That is how we will reach the common balance: Nature will calm down and humanity will begin to feel differently.

Besides, we will reveal the Upper Dimension, the Upper World, and will discover that this entire system of filters or worlds exists inside us, while we exist in equivalence with the Creator, in equivalence of form and adhesion with Him.
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From the lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am Hall” on 12/7/10

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Question: How do you feel about WikiLeaks?

Answer: Everything comes from Above, while we perceive it according to our equivalence of form with the Upper Light. Therefore, if everything in the world changes, it will only be for the better. It’s best for things to change in any direction and faster!

Therefore, this great revelation of human stupidity is only beneficial to everyone. Perhaps the masses will begin to understand that "the hearts of the world’s rulers are in the hands of the Creator." Meaning that they are no less stupid than everyone else and they are not really doing anything. Moreover, they don’t think any further than their stomachs and wallets.

Secondly, it will become revealed that the world is absolutely interconnected in its global, universal crisis, and in the involuntary, egoistic unity of people who hate each other. There’s no way to escape this or to change nature. It’s scary to consume each other because what if instead of you consuming someone else, they will do it to you?

Thus, there will be just one solution left: to look for an answer to how to cope with living together. In addition, in the global world the task isn’t simply to coexist, but to find the formula for total and open interaction as one organism! Otherwise it’s impossible to survive! That is how Nature will bring us to happiness with a rod.

Thirdly, it is impossible to stop this process. The revelation of the Upper World entails the full revelation of every one of us and all of us together to everyone and to every person. Let all of egoism’s base evil be bared and then we will all start to make our way out of this garbage dump.

We will then leave behind all of our pride, narcissism, complaints, and anger, putting the Upper Goal that’s determined from Above at the head of everything. Then we won’t advance toward it forcefully, but consciously.
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Question: If the Creator’s plan is to bring man to the purpose of creation, what did He gain from the events that took place in Israel at the beginning of the month? What is their outcome?

Answer: I am not going to check how the people changed. We act along the axis of time: There was a state before the fire, then there was a fire that took people’s lives and destroyed vegetation, and when it was over, the rain fell.

What changed in this period of time? You started asking questions: “Why did the rain start the day after the fire had been put out? Was it some kind of joke? During the fire we needed rain so much and begged for it so passionately, but there was no response. And when we didn’t need it any longer, it started raining cats and dogs bringing so much damage. We were struck twice.”

Indeed, it is exactly as the Torah describes: If Israel is unworthy, the rain falls at the wrong time in the wrong place. It is the law of nature. Above there is the Light, and below there is the will to receive (desire) that must reach equivalence with the Creator. The Light constantly works on desire, and the latter keeps changing.

The Creator does only this calculation: two states, the initial and the final one, must be the same. Based on this, He acts. Just as the Light created four phases of expansion of the Direct Light, it continues to develop everything within them.

The Creator doesn’t react; it is the law or Nature. What do you want from Him? Would you be willing to approach an erupting volcano and beg: “Do me a favor, stop erupting for a few minutes, I need to pass through?”

Why then do you think the Creator will respond to your prayers? In this case, you are worshiping an idol. You view Him as wishing stars that bring luck, as if with their help you may change your fate. It’s true that you can learn something about the future, but changing it is beyond your power.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” Item 44: Thus, understanding His Providence is the reason for every good, and the lack of understanding is the reason for every bad. It turns out that this is the axis that all the people in the world circle, for better or for worse.”

We don’t comprehend the Creator’s governance; it is unclear to us how He feels about us. Therefore, we constantly beg Him for something: “So, where are You, the Good Who does good?”

And what do we get in response? “I am good and always bring you good, but what do you do with it?! You take all the good that I send you and turn it into evil, and instead of light and warmth of love, you receive a blazing flame. It is you who does not dress the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) in the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), and that is why instead of the Light of Hassadim you experience the destructive fire.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, “Introduction to The Study of Ten Sefirot”

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Question: I wish to see the whole world awake and aware. How do I achieve that?

Answer: You cannot step out of the boundaries of what the common system of the souls’ correction reveals today. And it reveals a great deal. The question is: To what extent can we can affect it?

The world does not yet feel the need for Kabbalah as it cannot tie what is happening to its correction. Man doesn’t want it. When something bad happens to me, I seek someone to blame and never blame myself. That’s natural for egoism, so we always turn our back on correction.

In such a setting, we must do whatever we can. And what we can’t, we should then at least lay a path by which the next generation will be able to walk upon and follow. The place of work is given to you by the Creator, and He can’t be argued with.

The world is awakening but not at the rate we would like. The Creator has other plans. After all, the impressions that are being imprinted in the souls on the path of evolution have to reach their depth. And this takes time.

We would prefer to charge forth; however, having learned the design of the soul, we realize that between its two states, there lie millions of actions performed in the will to receive (desire). At times, a computer “freezes” for thirty seconds, and there is nothing you can do but wait.

And still, with time the process accelerates. It used to take half an hour to download one simple program from the Internet, and now we download whole movies in half a minute. And yet, in any case we need to be patient: There are too many actions that have to manifest in the collective desire of Shechina (Divinity). Our urge to rush derives from our ignorance of the importance and necessity of each such action.

Therefore, we simply “press the gas pedal to the floor,” meaning that we give the world as much as we are able, regardless of whatever its response. It isn’t up to us. The world has its own evolutionary pace. Look at the tremendous efforts there were made by Baal HaSulam, and only 60-70 years after his desperate appeals something is beginning to move.

We don’t see the entire scope of egoism approaching correction. We need to thoroughly count our modest forces in order to utilize them for dissemination with the utmost efficiency. If not, our words will miss people’s ears and won’t plant anything in their hearts.

I spoke about it with Rabash and some other Kabbalists with whom we used to visit. I saw them burning within and being patient at the same time. They were truly “charged,” but what can one do with a child who is playing with his toys? He needs time to evolve.

Therefore, we need to work harder within, among ourselves. In this way, we will be able to pass the awakening onto the world, through the inner network of souls, and people won’t even have to turn on the TV or attend introductory lectures.

Put all your desire in action aimed at building the correct connection in the group as previous Kabbalists used to do. As to the outside audience, release the necessary knowledge in small doses in the degree of their readiness. Feed it from a teaspoon, as you would feed an infant.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “Who Created These”

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We are all outcomes of the Light, and therefore, we have to attain it. All of our strongest desires, prayers, and yearnings are aimed toward the Light.

We subconsciously desire this alone, and, in truth, throughout our entire lives we are after nothing but it. All of the other fulfillments and sources of pleasure, such as food, clothes, new cars, and whatever else all come from the Light! We only perceive them in a certain form, as some type of pleasure, such as a car, a child, family, warmth, rest, a beautiful landscape, and so on. However, in fact, there is only Light, which depicts all of these objects for me, and I feel only it.

Therefore, people will gradually cease being interested in of all these things and will instead try to find their source: the Light itself and not its derivatives. I won’t desire to have a certain car anymore because what does it actually give me? It gives me pleasure. Yet, in truth I wish to get this pleasure in its “pure form,” without the actual car. Why do I need this chunk of metal? After all, it pleases me only when I drive it, and when I don’t, there is no pleasure. So, when I get tired of driving, it just stands by the house. But I still seek pleasure!

While we were undergoing our historical evolution, we constantly aspired to find things and "waves" that were more subtle and elusive. That is why everything in the world today is becoming smaller in size; quantity is becoming quality. We are the same: Instead of investigating the corporeal world, we are starting to yearn for spiritual attainment.

People don’t yet understand it yet, but the number of suicides and terrorist acts, the rise in drug abuse and the divorce rate are all indicators of man’s enormous lack of fulfillment. It is so great that, in fact, man is unable to fill this lack in his life. And that is a sign of man’s need for the Light itself, rather than all the other substitutes that the Light can depict in us.
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From the program "Kabbalah for Beginners" on 12/08/10

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Why was all this life drama necessary: for Israel to exit Babylon by separating from the rest of humanity, ascend to the spiritual level, build the First and the Second Temples, and then break and fall into the Klipot (shells)? It was done in order to collect a little Upper Light from Above and bring it downward, to the souls, in tiny sparks.

These sparks are the result of the breaking, and this is why they can exist inside the ego according to the law of equivalence of form. And if there is a spark in the ego, it can raise MAN (prayer) through the group that will pass this request to the Creator. The Creator will send a response in the form of the Light that Reforms that will perform a correction.

In the spark itself there is nothing to correct, but the Light will correct its connection with the other souls so that the will to receive pleasure (desire) will participate in it as well. Gradually, a person bonds with all others, and the souls begin to unify into one soul again.

Hence, this entire process undergone by the group called Israel was solely in order to correct all the other souls. Otherwise, Babylon couldn’t have been reformed for it didn’t possess spiritual sparks.

Thus, some time ago humanity divided into two groups. One of them went on attaining the spiritual world and later returned: It broke apart and fell into the material world. But this group brought the sparks of the breaking with them, and for the next two thousand years, the two groups were “stewed” together and intermixed. The time was pre-set for it. Now, the time is up and what are we to do next?

Now we have to clarify the conditions of correction both on the spiritual level and on the material one. Therefore, mankind is entering a global crisis while at the same time the method to resolve it, the wisdom of Kabbalah, is being revealed.

We are able to feel all of it only because the sparks of the breaking are living within us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, The Zohar, Introduction, Article “Who Created These”

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Question: Why did the Creator set up such a cruel joke: There wasn’t a drop of rain for a very long time, which resulted in a horrible fire, but as soon as people put it out by making unfathomable efforts, the very next day a heavy rain came down that only interfered with agricultural work? If the Creator controls everything, why didn’t He send the rain sooner?

Answer: Along the same lines, you could ask: Why did He cause the fire to happen to us? After all, what would be the point of igniting a fire and then sending rain in order to put it out immediately? If I love someone, I won’t beat him up in order to then be nice to him.

Clearly, everything comes from the Creator. As soon as the airplanes put out the fire, the rain immediately began, and this happened on purpose in order to teach us something.

The Creator ignites the fire and He also puts it out, while we have to learn from this and draw conclusions. We are inside a system that is entirely governed by the Upper Light and nothing can come out from its power, as it is written, “The hearts of the ministers and kings are completely in the hands of the Creator.”

All of nature is the Creator, and there is no freedom of will there. Our freedom lies only in our attitude to what it happening.

If I adopt a different attitude, then will the fire happen or not? Your attitude will change your reality or the way you perceive it.

Instead of perceiving Upper Light that comes in the form of harshness (Gvurot), as a consuming fire, you will feel it as the warmth of love. This depends only on your attitude: Do you love it or hate it?

Imagine that the person you hate most in the world is now hugging you. You will turn to ice, horrified by this embrace. And now think of how different it would be if you were hugging a person you loved.

The only thing that comes to us from the Creator is love and Light, but we do not feel it and cannot accept it. From Above there is always Light coming to us, wishing to fill the common desire of the whole world and the entire universe overall. This Light methodically advances this desire to the goal, to equivalence of form with itself.

If the creation below organizes itself in the appropriate manner, then it will feel a good attitude from Above. And if it doesn’t, then it will feel the reverse.

Everything depends only on you! Nothing changes from Above. Even when we say that we can change something with our prayer, that we can raise MAN and receive a response from Above, MAD, which brings us Light and returns us to the Source and changes us, none of this affects the influence of the Upper Light in the slightest. The Light constantly comes to creation, leading it to the final goal.

All the changes take place only relative to our sensation. No matter what, the train is moving forward and nothing can stop it or slow it down.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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The only thing that can help the world against all disasters and problems is a stronger connection, cooperation, participation, and attention to each other. This is the part that the world can fulfill. And the people around the world who relate to “Isra-El” (“straight to the Creator”) have to add their intention to this. Our work is on the intention.

By connecting our intention, we will raise all these actions, all the common desires to the level of bestowal, back to the Creator. And then we’ll balance all these forces of nature that are falling upon us nowadays.

In reality, these forces are good: All disasters, fires, and hurricanes are nothing but a stronger Light coming to us. But we can’t receive it properly, and that’s why it leads to disaster. If the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) is not received inside the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), it turns into four plagues. The Light of Hochma without the Light of Hassadim is called a sword (knife).

The Creator always reveals a greater Light. He reveals Himself according to a special formula: He cannot and does not want to stop. He will not “wear our shoes” as He already has a complete program from the beginning to end of creation.

The first (initial) and third (end) states are already joined together and that’s why the program is working: The Light releases itself stronger and stronger with every moment. And according to this, if we don’t start working on greater similarity to Him all the time, disasters will continue.

They will be happening on all levels. First, they started on the still level; these are the blows that we see now. It’s like the first Egyptian plague, “blood.” And then just wait, all the other plagues will come: “frogs,” “lice,” and so on. Let’s hope that we won’t have to get to the last, the worst plague, “death of the first-born.”

The whole world has to connect and help each other, putting aside all the hostility and childish bickering. And those who have a “point in the heart” and are called “Israel” have to add to this their screen and Reflected Light, meaning the intention of bestowal.

And then everyone will unite together and achieve equivalence to nature, revealing the Creator for everyone! Each individual, according to his level and degree of participation, will discover the spiritual world.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, Special Talk on Tragedy in the North of Israel

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Question: If the entire responsibility for the whole world rests on those who have a point in the heart, why then did the fires start in the north of Israel where other people live, and not in my house?

Answer: We are now in the preparatory stage for doing practical spiritual work, which begins with our entrance into the perception of the Upper World, our presence in it. Therefore, there is no sense in distracting you from the studies by making you lose your home and health in the fire. For the time being, you must quickly and easily move forth toward the practical work.

However, later on, you will find out that the people who are now suffering on the material plane, such as those who lost their homes, including children, the elderly, and women, are parts of yourself. In fact, they are closer to you than your biological children.

Your lack of sensitivity blocks this perception in you, but your are yet to see all of this and include it in your correction. For now, it is similar to two parts of the body: In order for one of them to be healed, the other suffers at its level. Afterwards, however, they become one, included in one another.

We are expected to understand this and experience it on the level of spiritual awareness instead of the level of matter so you will feel that it is you who burnt there in the north of Israel! Moreover, your inner work determines whether this predicament will be resolved or not.
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From the lesson on Rabash’s article on 12.03.2010

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