Can we mitigate the terrible blow in the form of war that evil egoism is now inflicting on the world, on the entirety of nature? First of all, we must remember the simple truth that we are talking about the will to receive, which consists of four levels.

What is felt in the will to receive in its four degrees, inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, is what appears to us as existing in the world. After all, our entire world is our will to receive.

Therefore, we need to do everything possible to locate and correct the egoistic desire. There is nothing in the world except our egoism, which must be calmed, balanced, brought to an awareness of where it comes from and why, and what its purpose is.

We should see that the state of the world is a derivative of the measure of connection between us. If we connect more, it is good for the world, and if we do not connect, then it is bad for the world. On this basis, we are considered wicked or righteous. We give contentment to the Creator or, God forbid, we give Him sorrow.

The Creator does not want war, He is good and does good, therefore, there are no wars in His plans. Rather His plans are to bring us to the recognition of evil and to the actions of good, so we will become like Him.

This is why there is nothing negative that comes from the Creator, no bad attitude at all. If we do not agree with the corrections and by this bring trouble upon ourselves, then this is already our fault. We should not blame the Creator for this; it is our own fault that we do not correct what we receive from Him.

We receive everything from the Creator through the system in such a way that we are able to accept it, understand it, react to it, and correct it. We can, but we do not want to! Therefore, we receive a descent, which seems to us as a punishment.

In fact, this is a correction that brings us one degree down. After all, if I am in the fourth grade and I am not able to do what a fourth grader should do, then I am returned to the third grade. When I do the work in the third grade, I will go up again to the fourth grade, and then to the fifth, sixth, and so on. That is, everything happens according to the system.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/22,  Baal HaSulam, “Foreword to The Book of Zohar“

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Nature must maintain a balance. It is very fragile, very thin, and it is above us.

We do not understand its formula, and therefore do not know how it should be reached. We do not know the interaction between all parts of this formula: the number of people on earth with the amount of air, oxygen, nitrogen, ozone, with the amount of flora and fauna, and so on. All this is inherent in nature, somewhere inside it. Academician Vernadsky spoke about this 100 years ago.

Question: Does it mean that we cannot change the usual course of natural events?

Answer: According to scientific data, this is the problem we, in principle, cannot do anything.

Obviously, we can somehow slow down the fatal development of this process for us, but nothing more. This is what science says today. That is, there is no clear solution. Therefore, someone is in favor of limiting emissions, and someone else says: “It will not change anything.”

Someone is in favor of switching from petroleum sources to other types of energy resources. But, on the other hand, they cost us many times more because at the same time we have to fertilize the soil and introduce such bad chemical potential into it that it is unknown what consequences it will have in the end.

That is, from the point of view of science, we do not have a clear justification at hand that this is our mistake, our problem; we are the reason that nature is changing so much in relation to us.

Moreover, it is impossible just to do it. If the industrial revolution has begun in China, and it has turned into a huge industrial power in 20-30 years, then, of course, this affects the environment and possibly causes the very snowfalls in Europe. Who knows? We do not understand the whole picture.

Everyone can speak very beautifully, but there is no clear scientific data. Only if we add the opinion of Kabbalah to this.

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about this in a completely different way. It is closer to scientists like Vernadsky who believe that we bring a great discrepancy to the world with our thoughts or rather with our incorrect interaction with each other.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Europe Today” 1/26/11

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Medium published my new article “Buffalo Massacre — a Reflection of Our World”

This Saturday, a man went into a Tops Friendly supermarket in Buffalo, NY, and shot ten people dead in what appears to be a racially motivated crime. This massacre, the latest in an endless stream of violence, is a reflection of our world. Brutality is engulfing not only the United States, but the entire world. There is senseless killing in Europe, senseless killing all over the Middle East, and in Africa. Even where there isn’t senseless killing, there is abundant, systemic abuse of people, from modern slavery through human trafficking to abuse of power. At the end of the day, it is only people who make other people miserable. If we could only change our ill-will toward each other, we would change the world.

How many times have our parents told us to be nice to others, to play nice, to be kind? And how many times were we actually good because they told us to? Just as children often hold on to their toys and do not share them with anyone, we are becoming increasingly child-like egoists in our behavior.

We were not always that selfish. Previously, people from the same family, and even from the same village, truly felt that they belonged to one another. There may have been struggles over social statuses, but there was no desire to humiliate for the sake of degrading others. Today, even siblings often take pleasure in humiliating one another.

The human race is constantly evolving. The more it develops, the more people are learning that they are governed by egoism, and that it is driving us all into a chasm. On the one hand, everyone wants to live in a nice neighborhood with nice and quiet people around. On the other hand, our own nature is creating an environment where we cannot trust our co-workers, our friends, or even our families.

The good news in all this negativity is that now that it is out in the open, we are realizing who we really are, and this is the first step toward correction. We have come to a state that people cannot stand the existence of people they dislike, for whatever reason, so they pick up arms and shoot them.

And what is true of people, is also true of nations — between nations and within nations. They want to control each other, oppress each other, and dominate each other.

But we are in a different time now. What worked before will not work now on any level — individual, social, national, or international. Today, only those who want to help and support others will succeed. Nations and people who oppress, bully, and violate others will fail and fall.

These days, those who want to succeed must learn that our mutual dependence requires that we become considerate of others. Even if we do not like others, the simple realization that if I am inconsiderate, it will hurt me, should be enough to change our behavior toward others. Following our actions, our hearts will change, as well, but we should not expect this from the very beginning. If not today, then tomorrow we will all learn that we need not be considerate or caring because we actually feel this way, but because we want to survive.

Once we adopt a considerate behavior, we will realize that its benefits far outweigh its flaws. When people are considerate, they create an atmosphere of consideration which reflects back on those who embed it in the society. Just as inconsideration hurts the inconsiderate, consideration rewards the considerate.

Interdependence means that whatever you inject in the system, this is what the system gives you in return, but many times over. If you inject negativity, it will destroy you because the society will “throw” your own negativity back at you, but many times stronger. If you inject positivity in the form of consideration, care, support, and mutual responsibility, these positive impacts will reflect back on you, but again, many times stronger than you injected into the society. This is how every closed system works: the feedback amplifies the input many times over.

Therefore, if we want an end to such hate-filled violence as the Buffalo massacre, if we want to end senseless wars raging around the world, we must learn to act as one, interdependent society. It may not be easy to convince ourselves, but reality has its painful ways of persuasion. I think we would all prefer a more peaceful, mindful way of changing.
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My new article on Linkedin “Not a Food Crisis – Hunger!”

Pundits around the world are warning that a food crisis is either imminent or is already happening. In its 2022 report, the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) stresses the “remarkably high severity and numbers of people in crisis or worse … in 53 countries/territories.” Moreover, continues the WFP report, “The number identified in the 2022 edition is the highest in the report’s six-year existence.” The humanitarian information service ReliefWeb also reported that “Globally, levels of hunger remain alarmingly high. In 2021, they surpassed all previous records … with close to 193 million people acutely food insecure and in need of urgent assistance.” For all the severity of their reports, I think they are underestimating the gravity of the developing crisis, whose only solution is to understand our mutual responsibility and the consequent actions we must take.

The food crisis will not be solved by stocking up on staple foods. We are not talking about hurricane preparedness kits or anything of the kind. We are looking at years, not weeks or months, when many people around the world will have no food. This is not another crisis; it is the beginning of a famine. People will be so hungry that they will behave like animals, in the worst sense of the word.

Eventually, the anguish will force us to recognize that the only reason for the famine is our own behavior, and not any external factor. The question is how long it will take us to understand.

The food crisis, like virtually all crises, does not need to happen. It is happening, and worsening, only because there are people who benefit from it, or simply because no one cares enough to stop it.

There is complete imbalance in human society between the haves and the have-nots, between the powerful and the powerless, between the privileged and the deprived. This inequality manifests in every aspect of our lives. Until now, the food aspect was relatively minor in the developed world, and affected mostly Africa and Asia. But since our alienation toward each other has intensified, so have the crises we are inflicting on each other. Now that the food crisis has spread to the West, as well, everyone is alarmed.

The hunger is only beginning. For the time being, it is more about empty shelves and temporary shortages, but as I said above, this is only the beginning. We do not want to hear that the cause of all our problems is our own narcissism. But if we are hungry enough, and long enough, we just might be willing to listen and change how we behave toward each other.

It may come from a leader who is sincere about uniting all of humanity, or it may come through some other medium, but in the end, we will all have to accept that we can no longer remain inconsiderate. Hunger will change us. I cannot say how long we will need to “fast” against our will, but the empty stomachs will make the minds receptive to the idea of unity.

Once we realize that we are all dependent on each other and begin to act accordingly, everything will change. We will discover that the problem was not shortage of food all along, but unwillingness to share it and distribute it.

We will find that clean drinking water is abundant if we only want it to be accessible to everyone.

What applies for food and water certainly applies for education, housing, and basic health care. We do not need much more than that to be happy. We can dedicate the rest of our time to cultivating positive relationships. If we nurture mutual responsibility in the community, in the country, and in the world, we will have no crises to worry about.

These words may sound naive, but mutual responsibility is the only solution that will work, since the lack of it is the only cause of the crisis. The WFP has tried everything and failed precisely because it has not tried the only solution that actually addresses the problem: our hatred for each other.
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Medium published my new article “What Brought Us to This Unstable State of the World?”

The development of the human desire to enjoy is revealed to us today in all its nuances, from power struggles between relatives to wars between countries and blocs. This desire leads us to reveal our evil human nature so that we understand that we are unable to continue living this way and to realize that there is no choice but to make changes that will allow us to survive.

As an example, let’s journey into the depths of the Amazon rainforest. Imagine meeting the indigenous people who do not feel that they and you are different souls. Any person who happens to cross their path feels like a family member to them, and they harbor no malicious thoughts toward others.

In contrast, take a flight to one of the world’s metropolises and tour their magnificent cultural monuments. If you suddenly hear quick footsteps behind you, your heart would start racing and you would glance behind you to check if you are about to be attacked by a stranger.

The more developed a culture is, the more alienation, loneliness, danger, and fear are felt within it. Now even at home, what should be a person’s safe haven, there are power struggles and fierce competition between siblings (who is stronger, who is more successful, who is in control) and between spouses.

In advanced societies, the feeling of natural closeness is fading because that is human nature. The inner engine of the world is the desire to have pleasure. This desire develops in us and, on one hand drives us to invent advanced technologies and complex and sensitive capabilities, and on the other hand, it gradually decouples us from each other. Once, human society lived exclusively in relationships like those between tribes in the Amazon. Today, people live largely in a cruel, competitive, and militant global metropolis.

Even in kindergarten, you can see how this desire works, how children who have several toys in their hands and could give some away to others, instead they hold on to them and do not share. For us adults, the desire for pleasure is disguised in layers of politeness and sophistication, but it has clearly multiplied and intensified. These are indicators of growing egoism, the growing natural desire to satisfy oneself without regard for others.

Even if we understand that it is impossible to continue like this and that we are destroying ourselves and the world with us, how will we deal with the same natural desire to receive for our own benefit at the expense of others that has grown within us? Where will we get the strength to change? How can we shape the desire to have pleasure only for ourselves so that we still feel close to others, at least to the point of not eating each other up?

Animals also have a desire for pleasure, but it is limited. It does not allow them to destroy each other. There is a balance between all animal and plant life forms, they support and help each other. But in humans, the ego grows to think that there is only room for one person in the world — and that is me!

In an evolved human being, the balance no longer works instinctively, but we must learn to activate it. We must learn the method to bring humanity to a state where no egoist pressure takes over, exploits and conquers others, but on the contrary, activates the desire to benefit others; we will develop a real sense of we.

When we begin to take even small steps toward connectedness, a new attitude reveals itself in the will of man, a trait of giving that comes from the universal power of nature, — the power that created us. It expects us to change our selfish attitudes and change our actions for the benefit of all, including ourselves.
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Question: In the modern world do we need to educate the surrounding society first of all and not the individual?

Answer: We need to urgently change mass media. This is a very difficult job because it leads to the greatest revolution at all levels. Absolutely at all levels.

The mass media pass on certain politics of each country to a person. We understand that changing it can impact big changes in society.

Comment: Naturally. If society and its laws are egoistic, when everyone thinks only about how to snatch something for himself, then the media is also built on the same principle.

My Response: Do not replace one with another and do not swap them. It is because the media is loaded and directed at people in this way that people are like that, and not the other way around.

Indeed, a person is initially an egoist, but it is the mass media that teaches him how to use his egoism. No one else. The environment, not the parents.

However, if parents also act badly, it is only because they have been taught this way, they have seen these examples. A person is brought up only by examples, as they say: “You lie with dogs, you wake up with fleas.” Therefore, we have to take into account that if we want to change something, we need to change the environment. Basically, what else do we need besides improving a person? Nothing else.

To do this, you need to change the environment around a person. Give him the right examples, not by force, but so that he is surrounded by them. Then he will have to change.

If we encourage bad examples, we end up with a terrible society. I watch TV programs and they just scare me. This is the future society!

Most programs do not talk about anything except murders and investigations. Everything revolves around this. There is nothing else. They practically make people accustomed to the fact that they live in this environment and must conform to it.

I once gave a report about this in Arosa, Switzerland at the famous World Spirit Forum. I was applauded, and that was the end of it. What else can they do? This is a massive problem. People have no problems besides education. Everything depends on the education.

If we took today’s generation and were able to educate it well, then in 10 or 15 years we would have a normal society, a completely different civilization.

Why can we not realize that we can do this, for the sake of our children? Let’s create a good society for them. Let’s make the world completely different, and they will become different.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Outlaw” 12/19/10

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Question: In recent years, we constantly hear disappointing reports about natural disasters, volcanoes, fires, snow storms, and so on. What will happen next? It seems that the situation is completely out of control.

Answer: Everyone says that the climate on the planet is changing. We are facing more climate, social, political, and financial changes. Accordingly, various technological disasters are possibly ahead of us.

We cannot imagine the entire problem that we ourselves arouse in nature because we disrupt its balance.

We are only talking about the fact that some species of animals and plants are disappearing, and we do not understand that with their disappearance the integral picture of nature is disrupted. Its general organism gets out of order because we live in a closed volume on this earth, inside this small sphere in which everything is interconnected: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human nature.

Moreover, when something changes, it seems to us: well, this has changed and that has changed. We do not see how one thing affects the other, and therefore we are not stricken with fear and anxiety by thinking of the ways it will impact us.

Question: Can it be that people prefer simply not to think about it?

Answer: You can, of course, not think up to some point, or because you understand that it is impossible to do anything. Then there is no point in asking, “What else can we do?” Therefore, we say that this is inevitable and nothing can be done.

In principle, we cannot even confirm that we influence nature in any way because environmental pollution, emissions into the atmosphere, the extermination of fish or animals, and the depletion of the earth with the use of fertilizers and chemicals affect it. But is it possible that this has such an impact on nature? There is no confirmation of this.

Of course, there is a reason for all kinds of public organizations, such as green parties and others, to campaign for the preservation of nature. Probably, it is necessary to listen to them. But scientists, completely objective people, have no absolute confidence that everything really depends on this.

If we take, for example, solar activity, then we certainly do not influence it by any of our actions on earth.

Question: Does it mean that these are irreversible processes?

Answer: It is quite possible that these are some kind of cycles through which our Earth must go through again, either a period of warming up or a period of cooling. Nature must maintain a balance.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Europe Today” 1/26/11

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Question: The age limit for being accountable for committing crimes is gradually decreasing. In some countries, teenagers have been responsible since the age of 12. But we see that despite the fact that this bar is constantly lowering, nothing helps. Crime is growing particularly among teenagers.

Why is this happening? From the point of view of Kabbalah is a person at the age of 14 already an accomplished person? Is it possible to change something?

Answer: What about the age of 40? Is that not an accomplished person? It all depends on the person’s upbringing. If a person is brought up in Africa, in nature, in his clan among adults, then at the age of nine or 10 he is already an adult man. He understands how others act, all their states, all their relationships, and behaves the same way as they do in this world, which is natural for him.

If in our world both a child and an adult learn completely artificial relationships and actions from the television screen and unreal circumstances and conditions are shown to them, then they do not know what sort of world they are in at all. They go outside and replay the same scenes they have seen on television. As a result, even at 20, 30, and 40- years-old, it is all the same.

I look at people on the streets, they play what they hear on the radio, see on television. They just replay what the media gives them. Is it possible to call these people adults who are responsible for their actions? No!

You can talk to them and see how much they live automatically because that is how everyone lives. They don’t even think about it. They were not told that it is possible to live in any other way.

Everything depends on the upbringing of a person, on the measure of his independence and awareness of what he is doing.

Our current upbringing is aimed at teaching a person to stick to the TV screen and learn only from it how to act, talk, think, and so on. And what can we demand from him? Exactly what we give him.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Outlaw” 12/19/10

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Comment: On TV program on the topic of judicial proceedings and issues of punishment, one participant demanded even tougher sanctions. But his opponent noted that we have already exhausted all the possibilities that we have and found it does not help at all.

Obviously, we do not take into account some kind of human component, human nature, we are doing something wrong if no increase in punishment can lead to anything.

My Response: Kindness can do miracles, it is a great force. Relying on force and pressure leads only to Nazism, fascism, dictatorship, and violence, and as a result to the degeneration of society. It turns into a society of wild animals.

Not even just animals, but wild animals.

I do not imagine any other future for such a society besides its degradation, up to self-destruction.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Outlaw” 12/19/10

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My new article on Linkedin “Is Hunger Possible in Today’s World?”

When we hear about hunger crises, they usually refer to poorer and war-torn countries in Africa or Asia. We rarely think of hunger crises when we think of Europe or the United States. But recently, more and more voices are warning that there could be hunger, and even starvation in the West, as well.

These are not merely fears; they are based on steps that countries are already taking to protect their population, often at the expense of other countries. The war-related devastation of the wheat crop and vegetable oil in Ukraine was only the beginning. Now, India has also banned exports of wheat due to the heat wave that devastated much of its crops, and countries around the world are suffering food shortages and a price spike.

Growing up in Russia in the 1950s, I lived in a neighborhood where everyone kept a few chickens and grew vegetables and fruit trees in their backyards. In today’s backyards, if one is lucky enough to have one, you can hardly find any open ground to plant anything.

Also, back then, there were far fewer people than there are today. In 1950, there were only 2.5 billion people. Today, there are nearly eight. Without sufficient food, billions will not only starve, but wars will break out and destroy everything. Hungry people have no restraints.

To prevent such a cataclysm, we need to stop the endless drive for hegemony and begin to relate to all of humanity as one, interdependent society. To relate to society in this way, we need to understand why we, humanity, are here in the first place. Without understanding what we are living for, we will not be able to plan our future or how to relate to one another. In such a scenario, we will undoubtedly end up in terrible states.

If we think about why we are here, we will realize that we are not here to oppress other people or take pride in our power. On the contrary, we are here to establish a harmonious society of our own making. Just as nature has built the universe as a harmonious system where all the parts complement each other, we should build a human society in which all people complement each other. The difference between nature and humankind is that nature does this through instincts, through a built-in program, while we have to do it through consciousness and of our own volition.

That is, we work the opposite of nature. When animals are well fed, they rest and do not bother anyone. We, however, are never satiated. We want more of everything we have, more than everyone else has, and in the end, we want everything for ourselves and nothing for others. On top of this voracious nature, we must develop a human society based on reciprocity and balance as does all of nature. Since we are completely opposite to it, we can achieve this only through a conscious and collective effort.

In doing so, we will discover a far deeper and broader reality than we could ever imagine with our current, egocentric perception. We will discover that the purpose of our lives is not to wallow in selfishness, but to leap into the perception of the whole of reality, where everything is interconnected and interdependent, and where life is an endless stream.

The wars and disasters that pummel our world are the “whip” that nature uses to make us grow out of our innate self-centeredness and into the expansive perception of reality. The sooner we begin to follow this path of our own accord, the sooner nature’s whip will vanish, and problems such as hunger, war, and disease will be a thing of the past.
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