Question: Could it happen that I might bring harm to the world?

Answer: Certainly, you can cause harm if you don’t carry out the right actions that are required of you with intellectual and emotional participation in the system by free choice. Instead of this, you become a burden to the world. This is how you destroy it.

The right action is learning where your free choice is, what it is, and realizing it. This is what we are learning. Every day, you must make it anew and perform new acts of connection with others, and when you don’t take such actions, you cause damage. In other words, you don’t yearn to be in one heart with all the inhabitants of the world. You don’t make actions to see this connection as the most important thing in life.

Question: When Rabbi Shimon fell to the state of Shimon from the Market, did he cause damage to the system?

Answer: When a Kabbalist falls and rises, he doesn’t do any harm. Instead, he only brings benefit. By falling, he discovers a shortcoming that must be corrected. He reaches this shortcoming, Shimon from the Market, through his efforts and preliminary preparation. You don’t. There is a difference between preparing ourselves for the next action and not preparing.

Question: So, it follows that everyone in a group who falls harms it and condemns it?

Answer: No, it depends upon which person falls, as it is written, “For a righteous man falleth seven times, and riseth up again” (Proverbs 24:16), for this is a Tzaddik and not just some corrupted person. Shimon from the Market is a spiritual concept. This is a fall into such a depth like nobody before him has fallen or after him will fall, and from such a depth he can rise up and justify the entire creation.

If someone like a baby falls, we don’t consider the fall or the getting up. Everything depends upon preparation.

However, if a person whose time has come for correction destroys, instead of correcting, apparently he reduces the world to the way of “in its time,” causing war, disasters, a Holocaust. We have gotten all of this already through our failure to correct in time.

We could have prevented the first and second world wars with all of their horrors.

Even now, we can prevent the third world war. Indeed, we are in the generation of the Messiah, which gives us free choice. This is no longer the exile that we had to endure.

In the writings of “The Solution,” Baal HaSulam wrote: I have already conveyed the rudiments of my perception in the year. I have also spoken to the leaders of the generation, but at the time, my words were not accepted, though I cried out loudly, warning about the destruction of the world. Alas, it made no impression.

Now, however, after the atom and hydrogen bombs, I think the world will believe me that the end of the world is coming rapidly, and Israel will be the first nation to burn, as in the previous war. Thus, today it is good to awaken the world to accept the only remedy, and they will live and exist.

We hope that we can stop this slide into the abyss.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Opinion (Vadim S. Rotenberg, Ph.D., professor at Tel Aviv University): “It is generally accepted that free will is one of the most important human values​​. But do we truly have free will? Does a person have free will? Can he act according to his own desires, or is his behavior completely determined by the conditions of his existence and the various environmental factors that affect him?

“On one hand, considering simple arbitrary actions (I want to raise a hand and I raise it), free will seems obvious. But this does not make people different from animals. The main manifestation of freedom is the personal choice of a variety of real possibilities.

“The factors that affect us often contradict each other or complement each other, and it is impossible to calculate the single algorithm of these relationships. Such factors include our beliefs, formed in the process of personal development, relationships with others, momentary impulses, and more.

“Freedom is not to ignore all of these factors, but to be able to form holistic behavior in interaction with them, which is aimed at the target. Ignoring them is not a manifestation of freedom from them, but arbitrariness. Arbitrariness is different from freedom of will is not merely by the absence of prediction of results of one’s behavior (this prediction may be wrong), but by at the lack of the very intention to make this prediction.

“Free will is the freedom of choice of many potential opportunities, and it is limited only to a holistic sense of oneself, one’s personality, one’s image of ‘Self,’ which does not make it infinite, but fills with meaning. It may seem paradoxical, but this restriction defines a person’s freedom of will as opposed to arbitrariness and to animals that have physiological feelings, but there is no image of ‘Self.’

“The human being may not be free from himself, but should be in the world with self-image. If a person has no feeling of himself and the image of ‘Self’ has not been formed, he has nothing to do with the freedom that is afforded to him; it will result in destroying arbitrariness, and fearing that he may choose dependence on others. It is a profound problem of personality.”

My Comment: There is no freedom of will in our world. It is possible only if a person has an opportunity to rise above the nature of our world (egoism), which completely determines our decisions and behavior. See other posts in the freewill category.
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When a person begins to study, he needs to go through all of the stages and to rise and fall so that he will feel how they influence him. One must begin to work and to deal with it. It is not possible to shout out all the time: “Why have you forsaken me, why am I helpless again, in despair and in darkness?”

These states come from Above, and it is specifically with them, that I progress, provided I go through them correctly. I must receive a feeling of rising, awakening, strength, and support from the group and must work correctly against the darkness, i.e., to transform the darkness into light.

This darkness is good, since to the extent that there is darkness, I receive freewill. I can be free! And if the Light illuminates me, then I surely am within His bestowal. The Light is higher than me. It comes, influences me, disables me, and I become anything that He wishes.

I am like a puppet on a string that plays and jumps as long as my strings are pulled, which is by the Light. The darkness symbolizes that the master has let go of my strings and I fall without any motion. I can receive awakening from the surroundings and play like that, as if I am being operated by the master.

But I will play that on my own. And of course I will receive strength from the group, but only to the extent that I invest my strength, and then I will begin to live. That is already me who is operating myself, similar to the way the Creator operates me.

One time He is operating me and one time it is me on my own. In the darkness, it is specifically me, and in the Light, it is not me but Him. This is the way I work, until the night becomes day and so that it will be me and not the Creator. I rise only to bestowal and it isn’t important what influences me, the light or the darkness.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/14, The Book of Zohar

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Question: How can a person control his thoughts so that he will not sin?

Answer: A person cannot control his thoughts. He cannot control himself in any way. Am I my own boss? Where do we see such things?! There is no such thing! But I have to invoke a positive force around me on such a level that it will influence me and sustain me. Then I will be able to control myself.

We always stabilize our state by external forces, by the environment, society, and external support, while a person has no control over it. He doesn’t know which state he will be in the next moment, so how can he control anything?

A person can secure his future only if he prepares all the external vessels, desires. If I worry that the others have a secure future, I thus ensure my own future.

If a person is an element in a system, then how can he ask about what will happen to him? He depends on the whole system, especially since it is arranged so that he has the free will to strengthen his surrounding system and then he can ensure his future. He will never have more than he has prepared in the system, but if he hasn’t prepared it enough, he will receive blows so that he will discover the need to prepare it.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/14, The Zohar

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Question: How can I ask the Light that Reforms for the public if I know that this brings me pain and bad feelings?

Answer: It is written: “He who shares the suffering of the public is rewarding with seeing the comfort of the public.” Therefore it is good that a person suffers for the public. But what is the suffering about? Only one thing can make me suffer: That I still haven’t realized the program of creation that the Creator designed for me.

In fact, everything is revealed only relative to me. I am privately viewing a film of life, of reality, of humanity. And everything that is revealed before me as humanity, the  universe, and the entire creation is revealed in my vessels of perception. I have to organize them, and hence the entire correction depends of me; the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun) depends on me.

I don’t need to wait for what will happen tomorrow or in another moment. Other than myself, everything else is only parts of creation where the Creator reveals all kinds of states. I have to feel them, to process them correctly, and to direct them towards adhesion so that though this I will change my attitude towards Him. Only that!

There is no reason to wait for tomorrow and there is no reason to think that this will change in any direction. Everything is prepared and placed before me as before the only part of creation that has free choice. All the rest was created for me to use and to help me, and I was created to serve my Maker.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/14, The Book of Zohar

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Question: How can one never lose confidence in attaining the goal?

Answer: It is necessary to receive confidence from the group. Confidence is an illumination from the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) from Above that, like all Ohrot (Lights), reaches a person via the environment.

The group must give you a feeling of confidence even before you feel the Light, even though it could be that the friends don’t have it themselves. But each one must connect and integrate with the others and show them that he is full of confidence. Indeed this is false, since none of them have confidence! But you must influence each other by showing that you do have confidence.

Basically, this is psychology, and you are in a psychological environment, so the group can successfully bestow complete confidence to you. You see that the friends are relaxed, so you are also relaxed. But you will feel this confidence only to the degree that you invest in them.

This confidence must be creative in building confidence about the rightness and justice of the way, the ability to attain the goal, and not that it is possible to do nothing and everything will come by itself. We need confidence so that if we do everything possible, we will surely attain the goal, instead of being relaxed and feel that everything will be okay without our efforts. This is not confidence but destruction and death.

Question: How do I remain confident when I come to a group thinking about my material problems all the time?

Answer: So would you want to erase the problems or have the confidence that you need to overcome them, rise above them, and go towards the Creator through connection with the group? This is not so that you would get rid of all problems this way, but so that problems will not disengage you from the way and from the goal. Otherwise you will start to ask the Creator to take away all the disturbances because you don’t want to advance.

Question: But this is my nature!

Answer: Certainly it’s your nature, but do you want to be above it? You have a choice to think about all your problems as an unjust punishment that you want to remove, or that you want to rise above the problems and go ahead by rising above them. Your free choice is found between this and that.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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If I arrange my physical life, my corporeal framework, according to the spiritual framework, meaning that I serve society, serve the world, am involved with dissemination, and am concerned that I have the support that will awaken me, this is called transforming this world into a model of spiritual ascent. I work only so that I will have the opportunity to learn. I learn only to know what to do, to advance towards the goal. It’s written that I need to be in Arvut, to be in a group by my free choice, so I try to carry this out. It’s necessary to disseminate, so I go and disseminate. In that way I make this world a spiritual framework.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/14, Shamati #59 “About the Rod and Serpent”

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Question: What does it mean for me to participate in my own development, that didn’t exist before?

Answer: Previously you were a box that was managed by orders that came from a network. Within you were only mechanisms through which they activated you with these commands. But now, into yourself, you must move the main part of the computer that is above you and sends you the commands along with the program that runs it. This is called, “a part of the Divine from Above.”

Question: Why are you calling me a box? After all, I am alive and learning.

Answer: Because you are a desire to receive that is activated only by self-interest that is managed from Above. But now you are getting a part of the computer that manages you, together with the program. You need to know the ultimate goal of creation and your true situation. You need to know how to advance in a mandatory direction.

You need to check yourself, understand, and see that you are a desire to receive, so you cannot advance towards the desired goal of creation. Appearing within you is a conflict between what you want and what is necessary. This will draw you towards troubles and wars through which you will gradually begin to change your mind about the goal.

You don’t want this goal, anything but to bestow, to give. But what is there to do? You receive blow after blow, flee until there is neither anywhere to flee nor anywhere to hide. You begin to accept that you have no choice but to agree. And through your consent, you begin to learn that until this point all was through coercion, and then it becomes according to your desire.

We see this according to the 4 phases of Ohr Yashar (Direct Light), how a receiver is made from a bestower, and that a receiver under pressure can resemble the bestower. But this is a very long way, since 400 years are required for this. These are the 4 phases of  Ohr Yashar, but in reverse, and this way is not very desirable.

So we needed progressive development over billions of years. And now through the wisdom of Kabbalah and a guide that is sent to you, you begin to see how to carry out actions that will be desirable to your ego and will gradually become a mechanism that works in the opposite way. All of this must be done gradually, not because you receive benefit for yourself, rather because this is good for others, including the higher power.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: I don’t understand what I have to add in order to actually participate in my own development.

Answer: When a baby is born, it first grows only instinctively. But gradually he becomes more aware.

What is the difference between a one-year-old baby and a five-year-old? What has changed besides the child’s weight? A five-year-old can somewhat understand the future, which means the outcome of the states he is experiencing. He can assess and see the future, which means expecting the next state.

Animals do it instinctively, but not humans. A baby can fall from a high place and doesn’t understand that it’s dangerous. He can put something hot in his mouth and get burnt. An animal would not do such thing; it wouldn’t fall from a high place and would not get close to danger. A baby grows and acquires the wisdom he lacks.

A wise man is one who sees the future, which means how a state develops. This is what animals do instinctively but only in the limited sphere of their existence. A person has a much stronger ability since he develops it himself.

Baal HaSulam says that if someone was shown a newborn baby and newborn calf, he would say that the calf is a more perfect creature than the human baby because the baby is totally helpless while the calf can already walk, understand, feel, and is strong.

But because we develop the ability to see the future, we understand who is more perfect. The whole wisdom is in the ability to see the future. Therefore people consult wise men who see what ordinary people cannot see. This is what we have to acquire these days because the whole world is becoming confused and depressed. No one knows what to do and no one sees any possible outcomes. Therefore, we have to learn to see the future.

In contrast to previous generations, we can already see the future, our future, only in vessels of bestowal. It’s because the spiritual future is approaching and we cannot identify it, and so we think everything is falling apart. However, the point is that we cannot perceive and see the future and enter it in our current vessels because we don’t belong to that system. In order to become compatible with that system, to see the future and understand the changes that we have to make in order to adapt to the future, we need to be wise.

A wise man is anyone who knows the wisdom of Kabbalah. Therefore it written in the prophets that thousands all over the world will hold on to every wise man so that he will lead them.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: In all religions, people believe that we should act according to the Creator’s orders.

Answer: Kabbalah doesn’t take any orders into account but only a person’s possibilities according to his level of development. It’s because every desire, every intention, the whole plan of creation, is meant only for that, for developing a person so that he will discover and create the image that he can call the Creator inside him.

He creates it each time as he rises higher and he regards the Creator that he creates as more and more sublime. But this is a very complicated issue that I wouldn’t recommend discussing with ordinary people since this perception is established in a person only when he feels the new spiritual elements, feelings, sensations, and discernments.

Question: So instead of instructions, there are yearnings and efforts that develop in a person which oblige him to advance?

Answer: We feel the instructions from inside us. What is an instruction? Where is an instruction given? Who carries out these instructions if they are written somewhere? All this doesn’t exist! No one carries them out! If according to a person’s nature something is egoistically beneficial, he does it, and if it cannot be carried out egoistically, he doesn’t since he cannot force himself. “Cannot,” means unable to, “doesn’t want to” because he isn’t made for that, there is no difference between wants and performs.

If people don’t engage in their nature, and don’t take it as the basis that needs to be changed and how to format it anew, they think “the Creator has instructed us and we shall do as He says.” But in fact we cannot change ourselves. Try! We see that nothing changes, but simply continues to deteriorate and becomes worse.

Thus there cannot be any orders here. If a person feels a certain inner awakening and to that extent begins to burn inside, he then works in order to fulfill his awakening.

Suddenly he discovers a certain new goal and that he has to perform certain actions in order to attain it. At the same time he learns the orders written in the books and tries to perform them, but it won’t help! If his desires are different, there is no need for any books. We see what happens in all the religions.

The fulfilled actions are only inside a person and only according to the parameters that accumulate inside him, that connect and manage him. It’s foolish to think that I can change myself according to someone’s orders. If it were possible, it would mean that I am simply programmed and that I am a zombie, that I have read a certain instruction like a machine and changed it inside me. Then I am simply disconnected from my analytic instrument and am programmed.

I cease to be a human being and am just an animal in their hands, since a human being is someone who gradually clarifies everything that happens to him with the help of his freewill and his analytic instrument and comes to conclusions that are beyond the limits of his nature. He begins to realize that there is a narrow bridge to the other nature, to another creation to another world. This is where the wisdom of Kabbalah begins. This narrow bridge is bringing offerings, changing my desires from egoistic intentions to altruistic intentions.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/13/13

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