Man undergoes different stages in his perception of his relationship with the society: from wishing to use it in a coarse, material form to falling into despair and wanting nothing at all any longer. In other words, somewhere on the way to a “global world,” there comes a “halt” accompanied with a total disappointment from the previous use of the environment.

This is why divorce is so popular these days, and man strives to break all connections with society to be left alone. But while we are going through this crisis, we arrive at a new use of society, and hence, are willing to acknowledge it as an instrument to achieve the spiritual goal.

Even though our intention is still egoistic, society is becoming important for us indeed. We begin to perceive the environment and the global, unified humanity as a more exalted state of existence, a means for achieving a better life: eternal and complete. This is the next stage in the evolution of our perception of reality.

After it, there comes a more advanced stage when because of my engagement in the environment, I discover an even deeper, more exalted state. The environment for me transforms into the place where the Creator gets revealed.

Now I understand that everyone only seemed small and despicable, divided and individualistic, in my corrupted properties, my uncorrected view. I realize that it’s not true at all! They have always been unified and lived in love and perfection, together with the Creator and the Light that was filling them.

And I, in the degree that I bond with them, influence them, and receive their influence by starting to interact with them, also become part of them. I get to value them as much as I value the Creator. After all, He is revealed within them (“come and see”), in the corrected state of the society. And hence, I discover that except for this single state of integral unity, there is nothing else!

So it seems that our attitude to the society is the only device, measurement, and place of our work, the only thing a person possesses. And the Creator is there, inside it! The transformed society is the Creator Himself.

The corrected human society contains the entire nature within: the still, vegetative, and animate ones, and all of it together are regarded as Malchut of the world of Infinity. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to whether we are transforming, advancing, beginning to value our environment, and seeing in it great potential more, as pertains to us. Our transformation is determined by the transformation of our attitude to the society, and it is the only way to evaluate our advancement.

It may look very odd, but that very humanity that you wanted to save and do good for, considering them as little people with beastly interests, is gradually revealed to you as Shechina, Malchut of Infinity that has always been before you, but you couldn’t see it with your corrupted eyes.
[36927]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice for the Week

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Question: It is very easy for us to unite during the convention because it seems to be very natural here to cancel ourselves, to “lose our heads,” to try to connect with others, and include ourselves in them. But it is very difficult to do this in your own group, once you return from the convention. Many problems arise and it becomes very difficult to feel the inner essence of the group; everything suddenly disappears. How do you overcome this?

Answer: Let us do an exercise: Let us come to a group, sit in a circle, look at one another, and think: “What is the Creator doing with us?” We want to unite, we work in the group, we have opened up a center of Kabbalah, we have gathered together, prepared a place for meeting, and nobody wants to go there….

Look what He does! We are not to blame for this; we do not have freedom of will. Look how He awakens us! What does He do this for? Why does He need it? What does He gain from this?

The only reason you do not advance is because you forget about one more component that exists among you: the Upper Force, the Creator, who arranges and prepares everything. Add Him! Become partners with Him! And then you will understand what you need to do, how to advance being connected with one another and with Him. Add Him to your group. I am serious about this: He exists among you. Start having this kind of gatherings of friends, these discussions of what happens between you, and then everything will clear up.
[37006]
From Lesson 1, Metzoke Dragot Congress 2/24/2011

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In this world I constantly tailor myself to the standards that the society imposes upon me by convincing me to buy or do something, while in the spiritual world I need to draw an example from the Creator. However, the problem is that if He were to reveal Himself, we would fall completely under His influence and would become a million times more dependent on Him than we depend upon the environment today.

We would become absolute slaves, like the still, vegetative, and animate forms of life, which do what nature commands them to do and fully follow their instincts. And then we would not even feel like we live an independent life.

But the Creator, this general force of nature of creation, wants us to be independent and equal to Him, instead of following His orders like a robot. There would be no point in creating the creature which automatically follows its nature’s orders, and where the entire outcome is clear from the beginning.

The Creator’s plan was to create man free so that man himself would choose to rise to the level of the Creator, to learn about his Creator, and want to become just like Him! Just like any person in this world wants to be loved for who he is, the Creator also wants us to become acquainted with Him, attain Him, and see that His state, quality, and force is the ultimate perfection.

Thus, He cannot reveal Himself to us so that we will not become His slaves and automatically follow His orders. He plants in us the desire to develop and strive towards Him, but He conceals Himself. So how can we become like Him in this case?

He comes up with a simple solution. He creates the creature called Adam (man), a spiritual force, a quality similar to His, and breaks this creature into a billion pieces! And now the created being itself, and not the Creator, must put together an environment for itself like from pieces of interconnecting blocks. This environment has to mirror the creature’s image of the Creator, its knowledge of Him.

Man advances and builds his own environment to influence him in the opposite direction and develop him. It follows that we build our own Creator, and this is why He is called “Boreh,” meaning “come and see.” We build our environment and in this way we build ourselves.

I am not able to create myself or influence myself. I am a finished product of my environment. But by constantly building my environment, a shell to influence me, I indirectly influence myself. It turns out that I build a system for my own education.

Then I am somewhat separate from the Creator, and I freely build myself by creating my own environment in accordance with the values that I want to instill in myself. I am not able to change myself, but I can artificially build a society to convince me of the values with which I now disagree. This society will convince me that I need to strive towards bestowal.

And since I have built this society myself, it is as if I had built myself. In other words, I constantly build the Creator’s image within me, and thus I advance to the point when these three forms: I, the environment, and the Creator draw so close that we become as one whole.

This really is free development because I do everything myself, I constantly think and decide on the ways to advance. I examine the world that now becomes revealed before me, and I test myself for ways to properly advance.
[37015]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Someone is constantly working with our consciousness in the corporeal world: all mass media, films, television, and newspapers. We receive examples of life in school, at home, from our environment, friends, and the entire world. We are constantly under this influence without even realizing how much we depend on it and follow these instilled values.

It turns out that in our corporeal world I only carry out someone else’s desires. But in the spiritual world I am left with an absolutely unfilled emptiness, and I don’t know what to do with it: Where to go, or what’s going on? And this is very difficult.

But on the other hand, we need to understand that in our world we don’t perform any independent actions and never realize our own desires; we never choose how to dress, what to eat, what to think, our profession, or partner in life. I receive all the tastes from the environment and work according to this program. When fashion changes in the surrounding world, I immediately change my direction and start chasing it.

We have already gotten accustomed to living like this, and this is why we feel confused when we are suddenly given freedom: We no longer know what to do with it. This is exactly what happens with our spiritual development. We are given complete freedom in it. What do we do with it, and where to get the examples?

But if you were given examples, you wouldn’t develop yourself as a free person who possesses freedom of choice. You wouldn’t find or reveal your soul. A person stands puzzled without knowing how to continue.

This is why Kabbalists advise us to learn from nature, from the environment. Nature, its general, upper force, is the Creator. We need to learn from Him, and we need to reveal Him. He needs to become our environment, and we need to draw examples from Him.
[37018]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The society is the only place where I can realize the act of bestowal. My attitude toward spirituality, toward the Creator, is tested by my attitude toward the society. This is the only way I can evaluate my state with regard to spirituality: Do I want to serve the others or to use them for my own benefit?

The Creator cares about the society since it is precisely the place where He can reveal Himself. It is Malchut of the world of Infinity, Shechina, His favorite child, and this is where He dwells and hides. Everything depends only on the well-being of the environment! The environment, the connection between everybody where each is aspiring to reveal the Creator, is the ultimate goal, the place where the Creator can be revealed to the created beings.

You give the Creator an opportunity to become revealed! This place and the Light that becomes revealed in it, meaning the Creator, have the same value and are inseparable from each other. Hence, as one advances, he realizes that the society in its internal essence is actually the Creator who dwells there (Boreh means "come and see"). We do not reveal anything but the corrected society which is, in fact, called the Creator.

Now we separate the two, but in the final, perfect state it’s impossible to divide anything. The Light and desire merge into one, and it’s impossible to say which is the first and which is the last. For us, all of creation starts from the fact that there is One, a point immersed in the Light. Relative to us, nothing exists before this state.

Kabbalists state that this adhesion, the Light, the force of bestowal, is nevertheless primary relative to the creature, the force of reception. But we are not able to perceive it since we act in terms of "time," meaning cause and result.

However, until we reveal a constant and eternal state, both cause and consequence exist only relative to the changes within us. But in a perfect state, there is no cause or consequence; there are no changes.

Indeed, if there is cause and effect, it means that inner corrections in the creature are still under way, that it hasn’t yet revealed the true state. In the true state, there are no changes already, and it means that there is no difference between the Creator and Creation.
[36930]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

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At first we evolve by absorbing desires of all the others, by envying their aspiration, effort, and work. But gradually, under the influence of the collective work, our desires change, and we start feeling that unity, caring for others, and absorbing their desires is a very special state.

It is the Light that evokes these changes in us since on our own, we cannot change. We think that we keep doing the same thing, pass through the same states, and nothing really changes day by day. But desires evolve in four stages, and being influenced by the Light, they begin to change.

The final destination, the state which already exists in the plan of creation, is “inscribed” in the Light. Therefore, the Light, which expands from the very first, root stage and affects our desire from there, instills in it all the changes that are already placed in the desire created by this Light. Hence, don’t despair! Just remember it.

Afterward, having gained experience, everyone starts to feel that he or she is in the field of constant influence. Even when it seems that nothing is changing, this field still evokes processes and transformations in our desires in four stages of HaVaYaH.

Thus, we first come to a Kabbalistic group as consumers, wishing to employ it for our egoistic goals: make decisions, rule, and satisfy our ambitions. And this stage of development should be utilized to give people an opportunity to advance to a certain point, as long as it doesn’t harm the society. After all, we start with egoism, and from egoism (Lo Lishma, not for Her name) we come to bestowal (Lishma, for Her name).

And then, a person undergoes the next stage and starts to understand that unification itself has a unique value and is much more exalted than simply using the others. In truth, if he thinks about the well-being of all others, it will advance him much closer to the Creator. Thus the Light works on us, causing such transformations in us.

As a result, a person starts working with the society solely in order to delight the Creator. After all, it is the only opportunity we possess to perform any act of bestowal. We have nothing to give to the Creator, but we can take advantage of His love to the created beings and bestow to them, thereby actualizing His love.

If a person asks for grace, meaning bestowal, and desires to be able to bestow to the others, in doing so, he or she gives the Creator a chance to bestow to them.
[36934]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

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All our prayers can only be for the desire to bestow. But when a desire does not come true for a long time, a person reaches despair because he still exists with desires to enjoy.

If I had bestowing desires, I would not despair. I would be fulfilled by my anticipation. But since my desires are egoistic, my aspiration to bestowal does not fulfill me.

That is when a person falls. It says: Woe to the one who abandons his efforts before he has completed them. That is when the group has to help a person endure so that he would be able to add another drop above that boundary of despair he has attained, no matter how much he is no longer able to. This is exactly the place where he has to add a little bit more effort—in the same place where it seemed that he has reached total despair, by using the additional force he received from the environment.

These additions are what build the passageway into the spiritual world. After all, they awaken us to an additional prayer, which is answered by the Light that comes and turns the desire into a bestowing one.

Then we begin to enjoy bestowal in which there can never be disillusionment! There is no restriction in the world of bestowal. The whole world is in front of you—go ahead, be fulfilled without any limits, infinitely! Do anything you want!

After all, if your intention is to bestow to the neighbor, then there are no restrictions for you.
[37149]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/11, Writings of Rabash

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Having found the right environment, a person is ready to lower himself in front of it, to accept everything that he is told. At first, he sees the greatness in everything: in the teacher, the studies, and the friends.

However, after some time passes by, he begins to get used to it. He is given an opportunity to join the environment, and then it goes down: “Everything is fine. I am in my company, just as before. I am all set.”

In doing so, a person crosses himself out and rolls down. In his stupidity and pride, he does not understand that he is now being given an opportunity to get closer, to exalt his environment in his eyes. It has to become even higher for him than it was in the beginning.

However, a person looks at the world through a material prism. The friends are already familiar to him and not as great as before when he felt himself to be a humble guest among them. The study material gains coherence, and the teacher loses his previous greatness as well.

This is how egoism grows in order to give a person the opportunity to constantly exalt his environment anew. However, he does not use this “help against him” for the purpose of ascending, but leaves it down there. As a result, instead of ascending, he descends.

This way, people who deserve the ascent and the revelation of the Creator, not having had the chance to enter the environment, immediately start to descend, to neglect the means they had received. As soon as tomorrow, he looks at the environment differently than he looked at it yesterday. The teacher, the group, and the books lose their value in his eyes, albeit at different speeds.

That is why my work is to constantly exalt the importance of the environment: the teacher, the books, and the group. I need to ascend constantly, and not because someone needs my acknowledgment, but simply because I will not attain the greatness of the Creator otherwise.

The environment does not pose itself as something special, and that is why it is very difficult to value the friends. The teacher does not look like a great man either. It has always been difficult to keep the environment up high in Kabbalist groups. Still, we do not have any other way out. We have to begin to help our friends realize the importance of the group.

This does not mean that we have to act important or to artificially strut around with our greatness. It is impossible to pretend here since the Creator is concealed. The higher a person is, the less it is apparent, and the Creator is concealed more than everyone. This is a spiritual law.

That is why we have to increase the importance of the environment in general in order to attain the importance of the Creator through it. If this goal is not burning originally inside of us, if we do not build this system clearly from the greatness of the environment toward the greatness of the Creator, then we will not attain anything. On the contrary, negligence will only grow.

Today, the Bnei Baruch organization exists because I exist. Tomorrow, if I am not here, the same thing that happened to the Rabash’s group will happen: discord in all directions. That is why we need to exalt the essence of our society, its basis, its greatness, flowing from aspiration toward the greatness of the Creator.

If this constantly gains in importance and greatness, filling the head and heart of everyone; if I belong to, exists for, and merge with this; if I long for the greatness of the society because it leads me toward the greatness of the Creator; if I constantly feel this and if this is what moves me, then we will undoubtedly reach the goal in the shortest time.
[35283]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, Writings of Rabash

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