The modern education “molds” everyone according to a fixed template. We can’t even call it “education” anymore because we don’t discover the creativity in people and don’t help them develop individually.

Being unique makes a person seem “weird” and the educational system destroys these “eccentricities.” A child comes to school and receives standard material, standard questions, standard problems… and eventually, we get a standard, stenciled form, like mud cakes in the sandbox, regardless of his individual tendencies.

Our education treats a person like a machine that needs to perform certain functions in society and at work. This is reflected in science too: Few scientists become true pioneers. After all, a unique personality is needed for that, a new perspective, a new perception, like Einstein or Friedman.

Today there are millions of scientists and in the past there were no more than a dozen. The point is that today’s scientist is a “technician” who performs a series of experiments until he stumbles upon something new. He doesn’t penetrate the nature of creation, he doesn’t see how things grow from the inside, and doesn’t discover the new layers and new dimensions as a result of a special vision.

No, he simply performs experiments. He tries one thing and then another thing and eventually gets some result. Of course, scientific thinking is required here, but it isn’t discovery in the true sense. These aren’t results of a person’s inner intellectual efforts. Usually they are just statistically predictable successes of repeated lab routine.

Therefore, we must draw a clear line between today’s mass education and the true education that molds the human in us.
[65961]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/12, “The Freedom”

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It is written that one must begin each day anew. It’s as if yesterday didn’t exist, the count begins at zero. This applies to everything: who I am, what I am, my purpose, my goal, whatever exists and transpires around me. It’s as if I was born anew without any pre-existing knowledge or understanding. Why carry the burden of yesterday with me? Whether I was right or wrong, what’s the difference? After all, that was yesterday, and yesterday must be erased.

But how are we to do that? We do so by reading The Book of Zohar. What’s so special about it? It can grant us the power to do just that. It’s said that this power may be used for good and for evil, and this depends upon the person. The Zohar grants energy, and my “machine” determines how this energy is used, to harm or to benefit me.

We must therefore make a decision: How do we want to use the force that we get from The Book of Zohar? This power can become either the returning Light, a good force, remedy or cure, or the opposite of that, a deadly poison. Everything depends on the person, namely to what it is that he aspires.

When we draw closer to the source of life that has created us, from which all life force is generated, this is what we call “life.” And “death” is when we draw closer to our ego and follow it. Indeed, the ego has been made purposefully opposite to the Creator so that we would have freedom of choice in the middle. Therefore, when reading The Zohar, our primary efforts should be to keep ourselves aimed in the right direction.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/12, The Zohar

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Question: I was always taught that I needed to sacrifice something for the sake of unity. However, we are speaking about unity above all contradictions. What does this mean?

Answer: In reality you will not be able to concede anything to anyone. Of course you can sacrifice part of your aspirations if you have no other choice. However, concession is an imaginary notion when it comes to ideas. When I am right and he is not, it’s best for him to acknowledge the fact that I am right and join me. But when he is right and I am wrong, it’s of course best if I admit the fact that he is right and join him.

So what’s a concession? How can you relinquish the truth? It can’t be partial or intermediate. Only one of us is right. It’s impossible to reject a certain part here. If one were to relinquish a part of truth and the other one would cede a part of falsehood, this would not be the solution to the problem. This is not about things that can be shared; it’s about our opinions, ideas.

Question: But there is also something called the collective mind. By listening to different opinions in the group, it’s possible to find a better path than yours.

Answer: You have simply figured out that someone else has expressed a more sound opinion. Now you reject your opinion and join his. But this is not a concession. If after having evaluated everything I discover that he is right, I am not conceding, I am changing my opinion for his.

It’s possible to concede when I am convinced that the truth is on my side, but I chose to not follow it. This is not a good path; it never leads to peace. This leads to a question of whether it’s possible to make similar calculations on a global scale. After all, things are leading towards a war.

We say not. Each is right in their own way, but not according to my way. No one is corrected enough to view the entire collection of problems objectively, separately from the beloved self. So let us agree that there is neither absolute truth nor falsehood. Everything depends upon my current egoistic direction. After all, I hate and despise everyone from the beginning, but I love and exalt myself. Therefore it doesn’t make sense to go deep into details. The actual conditions do not allow us to unravel the truth or give in.

Let’s only concede one thing, the actual superficial squabbles, which always bring us wars and problems. Every time, I unite with someone just to kick someone else, this just goes on forever. Things cannot continue this way, and this is why we rise above all differences. Look at the system and you will see: The only way is to unite above the abyss between us.

Partial concessions don’t lead to peace and harmony even in the family. We don’t reject our opinion anyway, and for lack of any other choice, we falsely pretend. But when the egoistic desire grows bigger, it creates an even greater separation between us. And this is why our only possibility is to constantly be caring for love, which will raise us and cover all faults.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/12, “The Freedom”

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We have to convey our message to everyone. However, I suppose that people will accept it better than the leaders will. The general population will come to us before the “notable” people.

Question: Why can’t we convey our system from the top? After all, if the government decides, the decision will be carried out.

Answer: The point is that an ordinary person has no system. He has an empty stomach, and he usually doesn’t care what he fills it with. He doesn’t care about the means, about someone’s system. For him, the main thing is not to be hungry.

The prime minister, on the other hand, makes plans and thinks about what is best to do, such as raise taxes or lower them, cut the budget or not to change things, and so on. He is involved in the technical details. He cannot take his mind off them and get rid of them. That’s the problem.

This is why we find it hard to reach those who sit at the top. Their problem isn’t their stomach, but control. They want to preserve it, and they cannot see beyond their plans to understand the reason they are unsuccessful.

They find it hard to hear something new. They can’t do it. What they would need to do to change their way of thinking is to put on “round” glasses to see the “round,” integrated world and its interdependence.

In this world, success is not measured by economic plans, technical details, interest rates and taxes. However, experts cannot break out of this vicious circle; they see the economy through the old perspective and cannot imagine anything else. They make plans according to profit.

For example, I make shoes; I sell them and make my living this way. One pair gives me enough to live for an entire month. If I make and sell two pairs, now I have a monthly surplus. Now the government comes knocking at my door, “I am taking 50% of your profits on the second pair of shoes. After all, I need to fund the state, the army, pave the roads, and so forth.” Well, that’s understandable.

Then the municipality knocks at my door, “You need sanitary services in your neighborhood, public utilities, landscaping, and so on. Give me 10% your profits.” And so it continues. [Read more →]

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In order to figure anything out, one must either start from the very beginning or the end – from the beginning of creation or from its final goal. After all, what’s in the middle belongs to our work, free choice. By analyzing the beginning and the end, we have to understand what we have to do in the middle.

The difference between the beginning and end of the path lies in acquiring the intention of bestowal. Nothing but this changes in reality. By changing the intention, we attain our difference from the Creator and correct it. Therefore, it is clear that our task lies only in attaining this proper intention.

Every action consists of thought, speech, and action. Thought is the plan preceding everything, which initially includes the result of the action. And in the middle, between the plan and the execution, there is speech, meaning discernment.

And in order to make the proper discernment, there must be concentration. This is why Kabbalists have a custom of being silent, which is also done in this world. When a person is about to undergo an important event and he wants to understand how to do it, he focuses on it, requiring silence, and trying to close himself off so he won’t be bothered by external conversations. He intensely prepares to carry out the action correctly.

That is why we want to spend the weekend in silence, in quiet, and think about how we can attain the right action. Instead of talking, we will make discernments in silence.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/12

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Question: Immunization against various diseases is one of the sensational achievements of medicine. They have saved a great many human lives, but waves of objections constantly arise to the immunizations of both children and adults. Why do things that have already proven themselves invite objections such as these?

Answer: At one time people did not trust medicines and immunizations and now they don’t trust doctors. After all, nowadays doctors are devoted to money, not health.

Medicine has turned into a business and most medicines are produced with the goal of making profits, not healing. Of course our world is egoistic, but in this area, people are especially susceptible.

Life is the most precious thing there is for the average person. But, he can’t entrust this to the hands of a doctor because the doctor thinks not of his health, but about money. Medicine has turned into a huge business.

How is it possible that a person is healed according to his financial ability? After all, bodies are equal, but no, the doctor skillfully examines the thickness of the patient’s wallet and warmly suggests to him what he is silent about in other cases. Everything is rotten in the world of today, and medicine is no exception.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/12, “The Freedom”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom,” Taking After The Collective: Our scriptures say, “Take after the collective.” That means that wherever there is a dispute between the collective and the individual, we are obliged to rule according to the will of the collective. Thus, you see that the collective has a right to expropriate the freedom of the individual. … And we can see that there is no other arrangement by which to live in society except following the law of “Taking after the collective,” which sets every dispute and tribulation in society in order.

How can such a thing be? The collective doesn’t have the imaginative thoughts that individuals do because they are the masses. The lofty things in the world are not each one’s concepts and are not easily comprehended. The more lofty, delicate, and specific an issue is, fewer are the people who are able to understand it. It is just this uniqueness of attainment that built the human pyramid. Thus the understanding of the collective, according to its definition, is found beneath that of the understanding of the individuals.

So what is Baal HaSulam talking about? From his words, it appears that if in a certain place more people have gathered, then justice is with them? Or is it the opposite, that the special, unique people are not justified only because they are a minority? Are the millions always justified and I should I follow them?

This is a great question since we are talking here of a person’s realization of himself, about how to realize his free choice and to find “the eye of the needle” through which one exits to the spiritual world. Could it be that on the way there I must “take after the collective?” And this was said by Kabbalists, by those who attained the Creator and knew the upper laws of nature.

In order to clarify this, let’s check: In what part of creation do we see the “hand of the Creator” directly? It is, of course, in the nature of the inanimate, the inanimate level. There, nothing resists Him. There are no desires there, not even the weak desires of the vegetative force. In the vegetative level there is already a special development that characterizes it. And at the level of animate, this independence is clearly revealed even more. If the vegetative only grows in the earth, then, in comparison, the animals can already move from place to place. And man can go even farther: He objects to the upper Providence and as if says to the Creator: “Move over to the side a bit, I want to take Your place.”

So it turns out that only at the base of the pyramid, among those that have no understanding or feeling but simply live because they are alive, reigns the undisputable authority of the Creator. Their life flows at the developmental level of the inanimate. [Read more →]

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Baal HaSulam: “The Freedom”: The truer and more developed views are never in the hands of the collective in authority, but rather in the hands of the weakest, that is, in the hands of the indistinguishable minority. This is because every wisdom and everything precious comes into the world in small quantities. Therefore, we are cautioned to preserve the views of all the individuals, due to the collective’s inability to tell wrong from right among them.

All of creation makes up one Partzuf which is divided into five levels of coarseness (Aviut). The Lights are dressed in it in the reverse order: The greatest Light is dressed in the purest vessels, the weakest ones. This is also reflected in the structure of human society: The smallest, weakest Lights are typical of the coarsest forces and the strongest ones, while the greatest Lights are in the upper levels, those that have the greatest forces but are the finest.

The potential of a mechanical collision is negligible compared to the intensity of an atomic explosion in which sublter processes take place. So obviously, in one kilogram of an atom bomb there is much greater energy than in many tons of ordinary explosives. It all depends on the quality of the material, not on the quantity.

So the individual and the general are opposite to each other. But they are within one structure and thus have to complement one another. This way, in whatever relates to the general, one must take after the collective, while in whatever relates to the particular and the picture as a whole, it is namely an individual who examines it, and so one should take after the individual.

This contradiction is only an apparent one. When we understand that it is one form, we immediately see what belongs to what, meaning to what important people have to lower themselves by caring for their people, and to what the people have to lower their heads and listen to the great ones.

First and foremost, we must acknowledge the fact that we are all united by one form (Partzuf). Later we will be able to understand the principles of mutual dependency and its parts and the cooperation between them on the way to the general success.

First we must realize that we are all connected to one whole. No “poverty line” can divide us into upper and lower. No one can look at others indifferently and pretend that it doesn’t concern him. This means that we can’t “break” anyone, on the contrary, everyone should be taken into account and we should understand that we cannot manage without one another. Our success doesn’t depend on oppression but rather on mutual completion.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/12, “The Freedom”

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Question: We are presenting a new ideology to humanity: the transition from separation and competition to unity and mutual concern in order to provide for the vital necessities and social needs of every person. This means that we need to offer people a new paradigm of social relationships. What will attract them to it? What will happen to the huge mass of people who will be left without jobs or will be working only part-time?

Answer: They will learn to take part in different activities geared toward gradually acquiring the desire of the human level and its fulfillment.

Question: But they don’t want this….

Answer: They wish to live and enjoy in addition to providing for their basic needs. Every person has a large vessel of desire. Its lower part pertains to the essential needs—let’s call them as a whole “food.” This is the animate degree, the desires that have to do with food, sex, and family.

Above that are the so-called “extras”: desires for wealth, honor, and knowledge, which pertain to the human degree. And here I am told, “You need to fill this whole part with bestowal to the neighbor. Everything you wanted before now needs to be directed to benefit others. Only in this manner will you be able to receive fulfillment in this part of the vessel.

Today people live in order to satisfy their own needs. One’s basic needs will be satisfied, but in all other respects a person will experience emptiness: “My body is satisfied, but now what?” One no longer receives anything extra due to the crisis. This pertains to even those at the top since they too live from the profits that will vanish as the economic bubble deflates.

So from what can I receive pleasure as a human being? I ate and now what? And this is where a replacement of fulfillment will occur. While previously everyone wished to stand out, show how good, strong, and wealthy he was so that others would envy him, now this no longer will be the case. The terrestrial globe is not meant to eternally provide for these games of ours. From now on, fulfillment of the human degree will be achieved by caring for humanity. We can no longer scoop away from each other; now, on the contrary, we need to fill each other.

This is the only solution and it is offered to us by the science of Kabbalah. You can fulfill everyone, yourself included, for the sake of bestowal; and for the sake of reception, you will not be able to fill yourself even a tiny little bit.
[65732]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/12, “The Freedom”

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Our dissemination should be simple: We need to bring humanity to a realization of the fact that the present economy is collapsing due to reasons that are beyond our control, due to objective circumstances. No one is to blame; this stage is implanted in the nature of human society itself, and it is meant to unite us and cause us to create a new integral society that will live according to laws of mutual guarantee.

First we begin to study, and meanwhile our thought process and approach change: From narrow and straight they become complex. And then we begin to understand how to build systems of interaction among people, business partners, systems of government, and so on.

But first of all is learning: an integral education. As Baal HaSulam writes, up to three generations may be required before humanity begins to practically build a new society. That’s how much time is needed for a person to realize the changes and begin to think differently.

But until then, we will live by producing everything that is necessary for our basic needs and gradually advancing to an integral worldview. The crisis will do away with all the overabundance and lower us to the level of producing the vitally necessary goods. It is already clear: Rising unemployment in a single complex world economy gradually takes away profits from everyone, including those at the top. Yachts, diamonds, and huge bank accounts—all this will disappear. Whether we want it or not, the world will come to a different economy.

And we, in turn, need to prepare every person for the upcoming turn of events as much as we can. Of course we need to explore how to build the new economy, but generally it will construct itself. After all, the economy is a replica of the interconnection between people. The financial and economic system is essentially a copy of our egoism. Therefore, by changing ourselves we will automatically begin to change our relationships in all spheres, including the economic.

We don’t need sharp movements. We don’t need to speed up the wave. We don’t need revolutions or methods of force. Everything will occur naturally; it is precisely as Baal HaSulam wrote in “The Works of the Last Generation”: “The concept of collectivism needs to catch up and ripen in the human mind in no less than three full generations of peace and mutual agreement. Thus the world has yet to experience many rotations and experiments before it reaches the final stage. And there is no simpler path for the maturing of ideas than the path of Kabbalah.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/12, “The Freedom”

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