In the News (from philosophynews.com): “Our brain processes a great amount of information at any given moment of which we understand only a very small part.

“Although we constantly pay attention to the changes in our thoughts, mood, perception, understanding and behavior, we don’t know anything about the neurophysiological mechanisms behind them.

“In fact we are witnessing our own life. The brain cortex responsible for our motor abilities is activated 300 millionth of a second before a person decides to perform a certain action and the brain decides how we should act. This decision affects our consciousness and we believe that we are the ones making our own independent decision. So where is our freedom?

“The brain is a physiological system and our thoughts and actions are determined by the changes that occur in it. Our feeling of freewill stems from our inability to understand ourselves. We don’t know what we intend to do unless there is an intention in us. This conclusion is parallel to the recognition that we don’t manage our thoughts and our actions. In order to really have freewill we have to picture and totally control all the factors that determine our thoughts and out actions.”

My Comment: I believe that there is no way we can understand and control all the factors that determine our thoughts and our desires because they are determined before we actually understand and feel them.
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Independence is a very vague and problematic concept. What does it mean to be independent in a world in which we are all connected together? How is it possible to be independent if I am connected with thousands of threads to all kinds of government institutions, businesses, and people?

A much deeper question is concealed here. As the wisdom of Kabbalah says, a person is a desire to receive, a desire for pleasure, and at every moment in his life, he searches for how to attain as many comforts as possible: sitting, getting up, moving, lying down, trying something, eating, looking at something, hearing something. If I must do something, how can I do it in the most comfortable and easy manner, expending the least energy?

Ultimately, we are managed by the laws of nature. We want to enjoy and get the most while giving and suffering minimally. If I am built like this, then what does it mean to be independent? How can I be independent? It is written: “The dead are free.” So will I become free only after I die and my body no longer requires anything?

And how is it possible to become free? How does a healthy person living in this world become independent if I depend on many thousands of sources of pleasure, food, air, work, my children, and my wife, basically on everything. Each one of these can exert pressure on me and affect me. I cannot be independent. Maybe only if I escape to another galaxy will I become free, but this is not called independence.

We must understand that there can be no independence as long as a person does not abandon his desire to receive, his nature. In my egoistic nature I can never be independent, because I depend on everything and everyone. I cannot live without children, without a wife, without friends, without all the people. Today I cannot live without all of humanity, for everything that I have in my house has embedded within it a particle of the labor from the entire world. So independence is impossible if I think of how to fulfill myself, for then I require everyone and depend on everyone.

Theoretically, a person can be independent when he stops being concerned about himself and begins to enjoy bestowal to others. If I can live like this, not getting enjoyment from taking from everyone all the time but through giving and bestowing to others, then I become independent. I need everyone so I can bestow and give to them and receive pleasure from bestowing. Then I am independent and free since I don’t depend on them in the same way that I did in order to receive pleasure from them.

Ultimately, I have no possibility of enjoying through reception, but only through bestowal. For with reception I depend on others, whereas with bestowal, they depend on me. And so I can be higher than everyone, I can become truly independent. I can feel myself as their lord in the sense that I am higher than them, but love them. And because I bestow and give to them, by fulfilling them, I enjoy without any restriction on their part. We attain such a state that the wisdom of Kabbalah describes as the future of humanity, when everyone bestows and gives to others and feels himself independent.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 4/19/15

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The weekly portion, “BeHukotai,” talks about the entire world being reciprocally linked and that the system of creation was determined strictly and precisely. We are found within it, and its influence on every person depends upon his deeds and whether or not he accepts the laws of this spiritual universe upon himself.

The spiritual universe is not just what we see around us. Rather, it includes all of the forces and systems that are hidden from us, with only a fraction of them being revealed.

If we become familiar with its laws and maintain them, then everything will be all right. If not, it will begin to whip us through blows.

The system is arranged and constructed such that it takes into account the same object upon which it acts and influences. We partially see this in our world. For example, the system relates to a small child more mercifully and gently than to a mature person, enveloping the infant with concern. He falls, and this is not so bad, whereas, if an elderly person falls, he is liable to break his bones.

In other words, the system is arranged and constructed such that it relates to each one of us uniquely, according to the level of the person, his destiny, his fate, and who and what he is.

Question: In other words, if the person thinks that the system has given extraordinary suffering to him, does it only seem that way to him, whereas the system, in fact, gradually gives him what he can endure in stages?

It could be that he also cannot endure it, but everything has been considered absolutely precisely, according to his fate, his purpose, and the same conditions in which he is found. Everything is accommodated to the same goal that all of us must attain.

Essentially, everything is very simple because there is a beginning and an end, and from beginning to end, everything has been considered in each stage in relation to everyone. On every level, a particular freedom of choice is given to us and we operate within these precisely defined frameworks.

All of us exist and are connected within a single system that manages us. There are those who feel this and those who don’t feel it, those who already have discovered its laws for themselves and have attained some kind of levels, and those who are only beginning or have not even begun to understand the goal of creation.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/12/14

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The Torah, “Leviticus” 25:39 – 25:41: And if your brother becomes destitute with you, and is sold to you, do not work him with slave labor. As an employee or a [hired] resident, he shall be with you; until the Jubilee year he shall work with you. Then, he shall leave you he, and his children with him, and he shall return to his family and resume the status of his fathers.

If I have desires that are not ready to exist separately, I must keep them with me and with all seriousness, “stand them on their feet.” After finishing all the work on the entire cluster of desires, they detach and move away from me independently and continue their independent existence.

We are always talking about desires and not about bodies. This speaks about a schema in which an immense desire exploded into 600,000 parts that must be reconnected with each other to transform again into one general whole, even though egosim and mutual rejection is burning within them. All of this remains, but it is covered and neutralized through love.

It follows that this tremendous ego and tremendous love, which is created between them thanks to the ego, remain and gather intensity, inner attainment, and inner unity with the Creator. Therefore, all the problems are only needed to reveal more obviously the state of our unification with the Creator. Everything revolves around this; there isn’t anything else.

Servants are those desires that cannot be independent, so they seem to have been sold into slavery. That is, I agree that that it is necessary for me, like a small child,  to be ruled by someone great, because there is evil in me and I want someone more mature than me to manage me, otherwise I will go on in a bad way. So, I agree with this voluntarily.

A person who cannot serve and take care of his ego by himself is subordinate to another person (a greater ego) and if adhered to him, is ready to work with him for his ego, because in this case, the one who is greater will protect him and take care of him. This is like a child who compensates his parents by giving them pleasure. That is how nature created us. I give my parents pleasure and in exchange they take care of me. And if nature hadn’t created me such that merely through my existence I gave pleasure to my parents, they would not be concerned about taking care of me. So the servant gives pleasure to his master and is ready to work for his sake. And the master takes responsibility for him, for his life and the satisfaction of his needs.

In our world, we incorrectly understand slavery. Slavery is a state that one enters with his own free will. As long as I want to be a servant, I remain a servant. And if I prove that I want to be freed from the shackles of servitude, this will happen immediately. We see this in the example of the Exodus from Egypt, which represents egoistic servitude. If you want to abandon the ego, then please, all that remains is to show your desires: what you are ready for.

Am I ready to live independently, without the ego, and get fulfillment and food for myself, to work on the development of this process? Do I understand that this is not for the sake of the ego, but for the sake of the Creator? How must this be realized? If I show proof of all of this, then the way is open.

Question: But from a spiritual point of view, a servant wants to have a master, for this is sweet for him, this is a good situation. Why should he leave it?

Answer: Incidentally, that is how it was. Slavery was not submission and subjugation! But I have to show that I have matured, that I want to and can take care of myself and my family. I no longer have a need for a master who manages me; I am ready to manage myself. And the ego that controls me, whispers to me: “What do you want this for, why? Live in comfort!”

We see that seven billion people want to be slaves. There is no one who wants to become independent in place of the Creator, meaning to care about everyone. Nobody wants this! Everyone wants the conventional material prosperity, swirling among them, helping each other within their little closed circle. This is their small world, and what is outside of it doesn’t interest them. After all, in a small circle, I feel everyone else like myself. Whereas in a large circle, I need to go outside of the boundaries of my self. It follows that society has not yet developed sufficiently.

I feel partnership only with someone who is equal to me and I am not ashamed of that. The main thing is that I will be like him and he will be like me. We aspire to it and pay careful attention to this. The entire goal of our existence is to feed our beast (the physical body), and bring a person to a state of absolute equality with everyone. This creates a very interesting situation, a natural communism, where people exist according to the laws of nature, satisfied with only the minimum necessities of existence.

Suppose that I raised carrots, cabbage, and potatoes in my garden. For the winter I have five sacks of potatoes, two sacks of cabbage and I don’t need anything more. Why should I work anymore and toil for someone else? Would it be for how the neighbors will look at this?! Why should I suddenly tear down the borders of my circle? That is how we live.

Comment: It is amazing, but 70% – 80% of people really don’t even want to expand their plot of land, because what they have is sufficient for them.

Answer: And this is a natural communism that is revealed on the animal level. After all, animals in the forest search for their food for for that day, and the next day they search for something else. Whereas among people, this is revealed a bit differently. They know in advance what they minimally need to live.

Is it possible to rise above this state? It must try to do so with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah, that begins developing desires not in a negative direction, in the direction of the ego, but in a positive direction, towards altruism. Equally altruistic and egoistic components will grow in people. That is how they gradually grow.

Comment: It is interesting that sociologists have tried to awaken people, calling upon them to develop a business and realizing that they cannot motivate them to do this.

Answer: Business for people like these symbolizes going out of their normal balance. They feel that they are in the right situation that is good for them; they don’t need anything more. They have something to wear, something to eat, and this is enough. And if something is broken somewhere, they will do a little fixing, put in some kind of board and that is how they will continue to live. As said in a Russian proverb: “A peasant will not cross himself before it begins to thunder.” Only an urgent need will force him to do something.

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks precisely about this level, but not in such an anarchistic form when a persons completely irrelevant. It explains that the correct next state of humanity is concern for oneself and others. But this is only on a level of existence necessary for living; everything else is directed towards spiritual development.

So, if Kabbalists come to these people and will work on their inner development, without taking them out of the same good situation they are in, then the soul will begin to be developed in them. If a person works for himself, believing that he have nothing more, he will continue to work for himself, and the Kabbalists will develop a his soul, adding spiritual egoism, not physical.

Question: Is it possible to call the present existence of these people slavery?

Answer: No, for these people have a feeling of freedom. I take care of myself, I help my neighbor because he will help me in turn. We depend upon each other. We are like one family. I don’t think about more than this. So I am free!

Question: And if we add a spiritual component to this, is it possible to expand the circle gradually?

Answer: No. It is not necessary to expand the circle, but only to increase the connection between people. After all, people live to feel goodness in themselves and enjoy each other. But in fact, it is specifically the Kabbalists who make this component of pleasure among them.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book“ 11/12/14

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Question: What is the difference between development with personal participation and development without personal participation?

Answer: In the course of development there were small and insignificant changes in different kinds of plants and animals, but we understand that a horse and a cow could not willingly change except as a result of the environment or certain genetic changes. On the other hand, we think that we develop according to our initiative developed from generation to generation by wisdom, science, and changes in social structure. Thanks to correct nutrition man became taller, the quality of his way of life improved. Even the results of our medical tests changed. And we assume that it is thanks to our efforts.

But we study that all matter is the desire to receive. It makes the maximum efforts to come closer to fulfillment, and in every situation distances itself from suffering in every place in the optimum form, according to the prospect it sees in the future.

Education and science influence it, but actually man chooses for himself the good and makes efforts to escape the bad. Therefore, we are totally managed from above by pleasure or suffering; we are between two reins without any freedom of choice, as if the person does not exist.

We progressed in this manner until today, although we are proud of our high achievements in culture, creativity, science, and construction. But all of these are still without the involvement of man himself. Man has always searched for the most benefit in the inner and exterior conditions that the Creator molded for him.

Therefore, man used to change and do things like a small child who plays with a game he received. However, in addition to this, man also developed the recognition of evil. In the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature he developed an instinctive form, similar to the level of animate, and at the level of man he searched for what is better for him or less good for him.

An animal does not think, it always knows what to do. It receives the recognition of the situation and the command at the same time. In man it’s not the case. Therefore, he must develop science in order to know how to behave in each moment in an optimal form. The process in which we developed is called “in its time” (Beito). And we were able to continue to develop, but we found ourselves facing big problems. No more instructions from above as to what to do, no more hints for instinctive solutions. Now, by ourselves, we need to correctly face the coming situations by “raising MAN (prayer) and good deeds.” This is why we need a new science that is opposed to our nature, because now we need to take this upon ourselves in addition to “the work of God.”

For that we need to receive “the Godly part from above.” If the Creator is not giving it to us, then we must demand Him to bring down the upper software and according to the software we will be able to progress. It means that we need the soul, the part that enables us to understand how to continue our existence in the new terms.

Whether it is “in its time” or “hastened” (Achishena) we will be obliged to acquire the new software, the new operation, the awareness, the solution, and the feelings. We will be obliged to be equipped with all the forces in order to continue from now on in an independent form and not an instinctive form. Therefore, this is the reason for the wisdom of Kabbalah being revealed and how it guides us. We must understand that we are in a new era.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Book of Zohar, “BaHar” (On Mount Sinai), item 85: …“And He said unto me, ‘You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’” “And He said unto me, ‘You are My servant” is the degree of slave, left line, Malchut. “Israel” is the degree of son, right line, ZA. When they are included as one, it is written, “In whom I will be glorified.”“

The two lines: the left, the level of the slave (Malchut), and the right, the level of the son (Israel), have to be united and glorified, which means to be revealed.

On the one hand, we have to totally submit and enslave ourselves to the upper leadership. We can say, of course, that now He governs us and that we are totally enslaved to Him and cannot do anything without Him, but this is the attribute of a bad slave.

The left line has to be loyal to its master by stating, “I want to be His slave. I want Him to govern me internally through the desires over which I have no control.” This is my freedom. My freedom is in choosing whether to remain under the domination of the Master or to leave Him. I choose His domination because I cannot feel any freer than when I am under His leadership.

Later, when I ascend higher, the level of the slave enters to the level of the son. The difference between the level of the salve and the level of the son is that I do everything my Father desires and not my Master. Now I want to carry out all His actions consciously, even if He doesn’t force me to do so. And, even if He didn’t know about it, here I work without connection to Him, and am like Him.

These two states have to be clearly felt by a person and then the third state appears between them, the middle line, when I am neither a slave nor the son. The middle line doesn’t exist in nature and is created and appears in the connection between the right and left lines, giving a person a feeling of complete freedom. It is like being in a vacuum, where the first condition of the slave doesn’t operate or have any impact on me, but neither does the second condition of the son.

I can totally disconnect myself from any connection with the Creator and be independent in all my actions, desires, and thoughts. Complete freedom!

This is what the thought of creation is all about, which is bringing a person to the feeling of freedom that leads to his choice of the state to be where the Creator exists and to yearn for Him. If I yearn for that myself by 10%, 15%, or 20%, I gradually turn myself into that exact image, the same replica, and to that extent I am called Adam, a human being.

I disconnect myself from the Creator in the middle line because otherwise I have no freewill. This isn’t an illusion of freedom. I need to feel that I am totally free. Moreover, this feeling comes against a cacophony of all kinds of egoistic desires, urges, and temptations. Pride, envy, the desire to do whatever he wants, and to be the master of the universe grow in a person.

Imagine that you are immersed in water and on the surface, instead of clear water, turbidity from the bottom suddenly rises, and it is all yours, the waves of your egoistic thoughts and desires. It is actually on this background that you begin to make a human being out of yourself.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/18/14

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Question: If I study Kabbalah, will I know about my previous incarnations and my future so as to bring a little order to my life?  Now I am living only for today, for this moment, without knowing what can happen tomorrow.

Answer: First of all, a person learns exactly with what he is given freedom of choice, what its limits are and how much he can influence his fate. He becomes aware of what awaits him in every situation and in every step. He sees two ways before him, and he has the possibility of choosing between a good way and a bad way.

A bad way is a way of suffering in which fate pushes and goads us from day to day through blows and pokes. But we have the possibility of choosing the way of Light in which we can use the forces of nature that are now concealed from us and take ourselves forward, even before the blows reach us.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us to yearn for the next goal constantly, in such a way and manner that we advance more quickly than the blows that come and are rolling along behind us.

Question: Is a person ready to avoid the blows of fate?

Answer: A person is prepared to take himself out from under a blow. This can also be so for an entire people.

Question: Is it possible to understand what the next station is on your road of life, even before reaching it?

Answer: Certainly this is possible because the wisdom of Kabbalah opens and reveals before us the entire program, and with the help of the spiritual forces, we discover in what form we must connect to advance to the next stage, to pass through it smoothly and easily.

The wisdom of Kabbalah makes it possible for us to advance in life as if we had a GPS that constantly tells us what is the best way, when to turn right and when left. It reveals to a person the entire map of his past and future and generally every second in the history of humanity, not only the history of this world, but also between earthly incarnations.

Humanity has now reached a unique state in all of its history as it finds itself in a blind alley. But this is actually a good state because it ultimately obligates us to understand where we are and why this is happening. This critical situation will force us to clarify the question about the meaning of our lives. Then we will discover what we need to do and we will see what rewards we will receive in exchange.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 2/15/15

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The next level of our development is called the upper world.

Question: But doesn’t natural evolution happen outside of our desire without being contingent upon freedom of choice?

Answer: Freedom of choice is given only in the choice of the way in which we go towards the goal. But the soul must be developed in every person.

This is like in a school in which there are children who learn well and enjoy life. And there are those who don’t want to learn who are punished and suffer. But ultimately they also finish school: either due to their good desire or through punishments and suffering. So we can also go and develop our soul in all kinds of ways, but the result is already determined from the start.

Question: Does this mean that I must develop my soul during this life in this world? Isn’t this some kind of abstract concept existing somewhere in the next world?

Answer: We develop the soul in this world because the soul is the power of bestowal and love, connection with others. So it is possible to develop it only at a time when I am an egoist, and it is up to me to overcome my ego and approach other people. Only through this activity, through this yearning, do I develop within me a new power of unification and connection with others, a power that is called the “soul.”

Question: Does this mean that the development of the soul is simply the development of new characteristics?

Answer: The soul symbolizes the development of new altruistic characteristics. The soul is the power of bestowal in a person that doesn’t exist in him now when he is an egoist. At the present time there is only a tiny nucleus in us, a potential force that can develop into a soul. I can develop this potential so it will develop into an active force. To the degree that this potential is actively realized, I begin to discover a new world before me.

With this new characteristic I will see a new world. Even today I see this world through my characteristics, within my ego, while the higher spiritual world can be seen with the characteristic of bestowal. Just as today we see only this world as real and live in it with our bodies, we begin to live in the spiritual world with our souls.
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From the Radio Program Israeli 103FM, 2/1/15

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Question: In what way is the revelation of the Creator at the time of the giving of the Torah greater than what happens at the time of the exodus from Egypt and the splitting of the Red Sea?

Answer: The revelation of the Creator at the time of the Exodus and the splitting of the Red Sea were simply actions carried out by the Creator. And the giving of the Torah was a transmission of the method and the power of what is higher to people so that they could use it correctly. And so it is such an important revelation.

In this manner people were given the possibility, the opportunity and ability, that through their effort, they could carry out the actions required to reach adhesion. Other than this, nothing is required from us. All the rest of the forms of help, revelations and concealments, exiles and redemptions, all come from Above like angels from the Creator, and are the forces that operate in creation.

But the giving of the Torah means that the power to work on our own was given into our hands. There has been no greater event than this because it refers to me as a person who can carry something out independently and personally. The opportunity was given to me to resemble the Creator, and it is not just that something good was done for me by allowing me to pass through the Red Sea or taking me out of Egypt.

Question: In what way was the Kli that was expected for the giving of the Torah different from the Kli for the exodus from Egypt?

Answer: This was a completely different Kli. The Kli for the exodus from Egypt is the desire to be detached from my egoistic nature, my evil inclination. I simply want all of my evil to leave me and not hold me in slavery. I want to take it off, tear it out of my heart and mind. It will remain somewhere behind me, in my AHP, but I want to be rid of it, “To be a free people in our land,” willingly.

But this is not enough. So I got rid of it and what else?

At the time of the giving of the Torah, a higher Power was given to me. I seemingly hold in my hands the power of the Creator and can remove my evil and bring it up again in myself when I understand that I need it so that I can correct it every time and ascend in this way.

In my hands is found the power of good, the power of correction. Formerly, I only needed to ask, as it is said in Exodus 2:23: …and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God. This was a cry from powerlessness: “Save us, help us, do this and that.” And at the time of the giving of the Torah, even though I depend upon Him, we become partners.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/03/14

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In the News (ScienceDaily): “A natural desire to be part of the ‘in crowd’ could damage our ability to make the right decisions, a new study has shown.

“Research led by the University of Exeter has shown that individuals have evolved to be overly influenced by their neighbours, rather than rely on their own instinct. As a result, groups become less responsive to changes in their natural environment.

“Lead author of the report, Dr Colin Torney, from the University of Exeter’s Mathematics department explained: ‘Social influence is a powerful force in nature and society.’

“’Copying what other individuals do can be useful in many situations, such as what kind of phone to buy, or for animals, which way to move or whether a situation is dangerous.

“’However, the challenge is in evaluating personal beliefs when they contradict what others are doing. We showed that evolution will lead individuals to over use social information, and copy others too much than they should.

“’The result is that groups evolve to be unresponsive to changes in their environment and spend too much time copying one another, and not making their own decisions.’”

My Opinion: Humans never have their own opinion on anything, and everything that was formed in them is the product of their environment. If one wants to have his own opinion, it is possible only when he receives it after revealing the Creator. A person has only the desire to obtain an opinion. Therefore, no person, except a Kabbalist, has his own opinion.
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