In the beginning, Malchut is merely a point. Then the Upper Light comes and develops it. Malchut adopts the properties of Zeir Anpin, expands, and thinks that it is able to receive in order to bestow. It receives this Light and breaks. However, as the result of this breaking, the desires of Zeir Anpin penetrate Malchut, and now she contains the properties of bestowal that she hasn’t thought of before.

From that moment on, one can take two different directions. The bestowing desires can be used to try to receive as much Light as possible for one’s own pleasure, in other words, to bestow in order to receive. This is exactly how mankind develops until it begins to reveal that this is a bad way to go. When it comes to this egoistic reception everything is clear: It is bad and people frown upon it. But when I bestow, I need to check if this bestowal is not egoistic. Maybe I give to others only to benefit from it?

At the end, we discover that our entire “bestowal” is egoistic. This requires thousands of years of development. Only now do we begin to understand that the true bestowal is to bestow in order to bestow and receive in order to bestow.

However, the breaking was a necessary preparation for the entire, marvelous correction to unfold. Otherwise, we would never be able to understand that there is something higher than our nature, our egoistic matter. We would forever remain in it, like the entire still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature. But man begins with experiencing the breaking! It cannot be any other way.

At first, the bestowing desires fall into the receiving ones. Egoism can still rule over them for a period of time, which is exactly what happens in our world. We develop sciences, culture, and education, and all this is due to the desires to bestow that have fallen into us. We advance with their help until we begin to see that nothing good comes out of it.

We can use the bestowing desires to bestow, but as soon as we wish to receive pleasure through this, we discover that our desire to receive pleasure is not able to receive any pleasure within. So then why should I bestow? Then the entire development gradually begins to slow down, as we are now experiencing, and ultimately illuminates the truth: We can only operate for the sake of bestowal.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/10, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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A question I received: How can the failure of our education system be due to a lack of unity between people? I don’t see it.

My Answer: What people call “education” gives knowledge, but does not foster the development of a human being. Schools do not raise children to be a human, but merely provide a certain amount of knowledge in physics, chemistry, and so on.

Society refers to the education system as an upbringing, but as a matter of fact, it doesn’t do the job. It is clear from the results as well as the subjects studied. How many lessons and class discussions are aimed at nurturing a human being? Does anybody care about this? School schedules are filled with physics, chemistry, reading and writing, and later we wonder why we have such difficulties with our children.

Schools produce robots trained to work in various enterprises. The task of the school is to prepare a worker (engineer and so on) for a position within the industry “pipeline.” The board of education does not concern itself with the kind of person one becomes or how he will live. This is because the education system has nothing to do with the system of rearing a person.

The education system has never been aimed at raising a human being. It was formed during the Industrial Revolution with the goal of turning peasants into industrial workers. The school as we see it today was invented then for the purpose of teaching people who worked the land and raised cattle to read and write so that they could work with machines, understand basic laws of physics and chemistry, and follow instructions. Such was the foundation of the modern school and it remains today.

Today we must move to the true “educational” system, and this is something entirely new. It is not defined by how many physics or math classes a person has taken, but by how human a person becomes. A human is one who is connected with all others. Only this connection allows a person to be called a human being, not the amount of knowledge obtained.

If a person continues to succeed in gaining knowledge alone, it will only assist in the design of more deadly weapons because a person will only be adding the knowledge received in school to an uncorrected ego. A person learns how to use others with this newly acquired information; this defines his success in life. An education determines only what profession one chooses and how much it pays. Is that education?

If people see that there is a new system that offers true education for their children, they will immediately respond because the problem of education is obvious to everyone. Today people don’t even want to have children because they have nothing to give them. They would rather not bring them into this world of suffering and pain.

Therefore, we must show people that all problems in society and their personal lives are caused solely by a lack of connection between us. We can arrive at that connection only though the path of Light.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/30, Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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We don’t yet fully comprehend what a serious task has fallen into our hands. Billion of years of the evolution of the Universe, all of Earth’s nature, and the accumulation of human history up until our time are pressing on us so that we (with the still, vegetative, animate and human levels of nature standing behind us) establish a connection between the Creator. The whole mass of this will to receive must merge with the Creator through a tiny hole: the quality of bestowal that we must attain. The responsibility to pull all of the egoism created by the Creator through the “eye of the needle” has been laid upon us.

We sense that we are facing the wall of our egoism, but we don’t yet understand what kind of wall it is. This wall is the force of the Creator. Our ego is the force of the Creator! We think that it is an ordinary vice that we can beat or discard. That won’t work. We will have to recognize that only the Creator can change our egoistic nature. He must do it, but only at our request, our prayer.

In fact, the entire path of the descent of the spiritual worlds from the very World of Infinity, from Above downward, including all the human evolution in the corporeal world that followed, is now coming to the point of culmination, to merging with the Creator. It is our duty to draw it to the Light. Just imagine how much creation has gone through, and now we must implement this merger.

Our mission seems too grand, but the Creator has placed it on all of us. How many times in the Torah does Moses complain to the Creator that he is incapable of completing his task, but the Creator orders him to continue? Today, we are in Moses’ shoes; we have received strife to rise above our nature. We are to play his role for our generation. ("Moses" or "Moshe" comes from the verb “Mosheh,"  to pull.)

This is why we have to understand that our task is extremely delicate and subtle; it works through the eye of the needle that we can barely discern. However, if we focus the efforts of all who are studying within our system around the world, we will succeed.

We are given all that we need for this from Above; there is no doubt. We just need to have a clear vision of our goal and ask the Creator to assist us. We are that very creature that must come to adhesion with the Creator, and through that, we give all souls an opportunity to ascend to the state of perfection. Unlike the Kabbalists of the past who were only preparing the path for us, we must complete this path by realizing it on ourselves and the others.

The wall before us is the Creator Himself. He stands and waits for us to "break" Him in order to rejoice that “His sons have defeated Him.”

From the Talk during Friday’s Festive Meal 6/25/10

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Karl Marx, Wage-Labour and Capital, Chapter 6: Our wants and pleasures have their origin in society; we therefore measure them in relation to society; we do not measure them in relation to the objects which serve for their gratification. Since they are of a social nature, they are of a relative nature.

My Commentary: The difference between Kabbalah and Marx’s methods for attaining a perfect society is as follows:

According to Kabbalah, a person is transformed with the help of the Torah (the Light that Reforms). According to Marx, human nature can be changed only by the influence of the surrounding environment and social relations.

It is possible that Marx was aware that he was only describing the first stage of correction: unification. And that afterward, in the attempt to unite, people would understand their inability to overcome their nature. Then they would reveal that they can use the Upper Light to unite. (See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Criticism of Marxism,” in the “Hauma” newspaper.)

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People are beginning to recognize the potentially destructive influence of mass media on one’s environment. Mass media, in particular, rather than money, financial situations, or our plans for humanity’s future, determines everything. This generation and future generations depend on the influence of the environment that affects our entire life. Let us hope that humanity will realize it, and first, will limit the negative influence it exudes today, and then, will redirect it properly. The task of Kabbalah is to help humanity see it faster.

The world is gradually developing a critical outlook toward itself and all the global systems that have been built around us and that now affect absolutely everybody in all areas of life. Particularly because this global system has become so universal and influential, it arouses a lot of concern. Humanity will have to take serious care of it.

We can no longer let everyone do whatever they please in the mass media. The force of the mass media should be in the hands of wise people, Kabbalists. The mass media cannot be controlled by dictatorship. Humanity’s development makes it break all limitations and obstacles.Yet, there is an opposite tendency whereby we must somehow restrict mass media. If we don’t, we will learn of this need by suffering.

There is a constant fight between the left and right lines, each of which insists that it is better than the other one. But both of them are neither good nor right. There has to be a middle line which doesn’t simply unite them, but rather rises above them. It is not their mixing or a compromise between them; it is not like a some centrist political party that is above the left or the right.

Rather, this middle line is an approach that is altruistic, in bestowal, and extends above all egoistic approaches. Such an approach will be able to unite everyone and bring peace.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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An old friend of mine, a famous physicist whom I’ve known since my studies in St. Petersburg, Yuri Magarshak (USA), and another physicist, Eugene Levitch (Israel), published an article entitled “Apocalypse” in the Russian online magazine “Vremya.” In the article, they argue that the tragedy in the Mexican Gulf may result in a blazing tornado and bring about an apocalyptic turn of events. In response, I would like to make a few comments:

1. A recent catastrophe of previously unseen magnitude can change life on our planet, and by all means, will cause changes in global economics and politics. All we can do is to watch what’s going on because humankind has no remedy to quell this disaster.

2. Things happen not in accordance with apocalyptic forecasts, but according to a Kabbalistic scenario. It predicts that our generation will go through such tremendous affliction that it will be forced to seek an answer to the question, “What is the purpose of our existence?” After we discover the answer to this question, we will have to build our future accordingly.

3. According to Kabbalah, Nature executes its own plan of human development and forces us to transition from unconscious existence triggered by suffering to conscious development. The ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is only one link in the chain. As a result of our development, people will reveal the hidden part of Nature and will attain perfection and eternity.

4. Kabbalah shows us how to pass this stage of our development without suffering. Instead, it shows us how to be driven by a benevolent goal. We have a chance. Let’s pray to God that the authors’ call will be heard.

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A question I received: I’m amazed at the profound changes that are taking place these days. Numerous new Kabbalistic groups are surfacing like mushrooms after a rain. How did we manage to bring forth such results through our inner work?

My Answer: It doesn’t depend only on us. You see how many new, serious people are joining us. This means the time has really come and the Creator is drawing people to Kabbalah. After all the twists along the spiral of evolution, they’ve finally arrived at the spiritual gene (the point in the heart), and the Surrounding Light has started working on them. We only need to help them arrange their own environment, group, and entire support system. When we start demanding the Light that Reforms all together, they won’t need the three to five years of preparation that Baal HaSulam wrote about. The correction will come quickly and easily.

Imagine the difference between a person waking from an unconscious state with all of his systems still asleep and not functioning and one waking with many parts and body systems already functioning with only the need to complete the processes. Today, it’s not only one organ that wants to wake up in the non-animate body, but many parts are being revived. So, it is understandable that now there is a greater possibility to regain consciousness. I’m sure that in the near future, we’ll see tremendous changes in the entire world.

The world is in a very dangerous state as the crisis still looms. What a horrible oil catastrophe it is taking place in the Gulf of Mexico. We don’t even realize yet its potential consequences. It’s impossible to stop this geyser of oil. Can you imagine what could happen? Right now, a sea of oil is pouring from deep within the earth leading to catastrophic pollution. It will impact not only Florida and America, but the entire world. They’re now considering a nuclear explosion to interrupt the oil passage, but they’re afraid that it may open in other places. We have released evil forces into the world.

Therefore, I hope that, with the help of all our Kabbalistic groups that are forming around the world and the individuals who are joining us, we’ll be able to awaken the forces of good in order to counter the exposed evil. We have to act and correct ourselves. Then, we will definitely succeed. We’ve received the power of the Torah, the Light that Reforms; everything depends on us now.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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A question I received: Many people in the world now suffer from depression; they don’t leave their homes for months, and require psychological help. What can help them?

My Answer: Depression is the most common illness in the world today. Only one remedy can be advised for it: the Light that Reforms. No psychologist can help in this regard for it is due to the Creator being revealed to us in the opposite form that is prompting rampant depression.

Once each of us felt that he or she was one little person around which the world was revealed in different layers of our egoism: 1, 2, 3. As our ego grew bigger and bigger, we developed in accordance with it by creating a new environment: a world of new technology and social relations. This is how we developed over the course of our entire history, stage by stage, 1 – 2 – 3, toward wealth, honor, and knowledge.

However, today we have come to the fourth level, which is a special one. At this level, what is becoming revealed is the Creator, the quality of “bestowal,” and not our developing ego, our property of “receiving.” This is the fundamental difference of our epoch, which is the epoch of revealing the Creator.

Previously, nature (the Creator) forced us to develop, that is, to grow and become smarter, more knowledgeable, understanding, and powerful. But now human beings have completed their development at the level of this world. People are recognizing the pointlessness of new discoveries, and everything gradually fades, the development of science, space research, and so on. We have completely depleted ourselves.

Today, in contrast to this, the Creator – a new nature – is revealed. And here we need to proceed in a different manner. We cannot enter a new stage with our egoism; we will only harm ourselves. We need to realize that a completely new approach has begun, and neither our strength, nor advanced technologies and scientific discoveries can help us.

Suddenly we will discover that all the systems that we built in this world have stopped working. All the former goals (money, power, knowledge, family, education, and culture) have lost their value. Darkness and despair are coming into the world, but this is because the Creator, the Force of bestowal is being revealed in it. We don’t want it, since it cancels out our egoism, our nature, and all our desires!

It is like a child who ran around wanting to play, and suddenly he is told “That’s enough. Now you have to give and to love. Go play with your little sister.” This is contrary to his nature, and hence his life becomes dark; he immediately loses all his energy.

Therefore, we can understand why people are sitting around depressed, unable to leave their homes for months at a time. Antidepressants are the most popular medicine today. However, I can advise that the Surrounding Light is the only medicine.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/10, Shamati #16

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In the News (TheMarker.com): We’re entering a new phase of development of which we know absolutely nothing. The only thing we know is that transition is the most problematic state, and may be fraught with tremendous losses and suffering even if it eventually leads to a better future. So, how do we pass through this phase?

My Comment: People are beginning to think correctly. Indeed, we’re transitioning from a world based on egoistic reception toward a world based on altruistic bestowal. We’re transitioning toward the realization that we need this new kind of world whether we get there via the path of endless suffering or through understanding nature’s plan. The former, the path of suffering, is the one on which we began.

By explaining to people the reasons for what is happening, we can accelerate the realization of the need to change ourselves and society, and to change our attitude toward the world. However, a mere understanding that the ego is evil and that it must be changed to altruism, love, and bestowal is not enough to continue our life here on earth. We need the power to change ourselves, and this doesn’t exist in our world.

At this point, we begin to realize why the science of Kabbalah with the method of correcting our nature has been given to us in such an unusual way. We begin to realize why true inner change and, hence, survival is impossible without this method. All past attempts at change have led to the emergence of religions and various belief systems. The results are clearly evident: Evil has remained and continues to develop along with them.

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaEra (And I Appeared),” Item 41: Also, the south grips to the east because the warmth in the south grips to the warmth in the east. And the east grips also to the north because its moisture grips to the moisture in the north. It turns out that south and east are tied to each other through the warmth in both; the east and north—through the moisture in them; north and west—through the cold in both; west and south through the dry in both; and all are included in one another, hanging down in one another.

If we are not building the middle line, then forces (of north and south) which are opposite one another are growing. Because they don’t come to reconciliation through the middle line, they collide and try to cancel each other. This causes an explosion. Then just like a volcano explodes in Iceland in our world, a war becomes ignited within a person or outside between people. Everything happens because these two lines, the right and the left, reached some magnitude and collided rather than united peacefully into the middle line.

People are the ones who have to perform the connection through the middle line at our level. Then peace will also come to all the previous, lower levels. We have ready the capability for us to create the middle line. If we are not building it then a short circuit occurs between the two poles and this leads to disorders on all levels: inanimate (problems with ecology), vegetative, animal, and human, or at all levels at once. This all happens because we did not reach the correct connection in the middle line.

The left and the right lines conceal a great danger when they are in direct connection with one another. If the Light and the vessel connect without the screen then the “breaking of Kelim” occurs, but only at lower levels. The Zohar says that even though North and South, East and West are opposite to one another, each of them still has a capability to complement the other. However, if we don’t provide a connection for them through the middle line, they will meet anyway, out of balance and lacking peace, like enemies….

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, The Zohar

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