Question: You have mentioned that social Internet communication networks match the natural laws of development. Indeed, Facebook is phenomenally successful: It has half a billion users. It is becoming a vital attribute of modern life. Why does man enjoy virtual communication so much? What is so special about it?

Answer: Our nature is the desire to receive pleasure, to fulfill ourselves, to feel, to understand, and to hear something new. As we see, today’s television offers thousands of channels, but if you go on the Internet, it has absolutely everything you want, an infinite amount of information. And all of it derives from our desire to enjoy.

If this desire can find its fulfillment, it’s good. But if we cannot fulfill it, we develop Internet communication networks in such way as to receive greater and greater fulfillment. This goes on until, gradually, we realize what’s what, and then all that doesn’t completely satisfy our ego, our evolved desire, gradually loses popularity and expires.

Even the ego itself can see that it benefits from being connected to others. Although it’s still a long path, yet little by little, not only individuals but entire countries that used to hold each other as rivals start realizing that today they don’t have much choice. We can’t fight forever, or is it worth doing so until we destroy each other? And we can’t but agree that it’s better for us to establish certain ties and communicate. Thus life teaches us to unite.

Therefore, Facebook is quite an exemplary phenomenon. It is accessible to anybody in the world who wishes to be visible, from a president of a country to a porter. As an example, the President of the United States Barack Obama has 17 million “friends” on Facebook. And anyone can do the same. It’s good because to a certain degree, it meets the demand to reach internal connection. And I think that it will teach us how to develop more internal ties to replace the physical, material ones.
[33930]
From a TV program “Ask the Kabbalist” 1/20/2011

Related Material:
The Internet Needs A New Direction
The Internet’s True Purpose
The Spiritual Principle

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism, Internet, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Question: You mentioned that evil is revealed in relationships between friends. However, if a person studies over the Internet and is not engaged in mutual work with others, how can he reveal evil?

Answer: I see that people enter Facebook and a number of other social networks and are simply living there. Passions are seething and love is in full bloom; people even get married – if it turns out that the couple is indeed a man and a woman.

Although the network is full of lies and filth, we should respect it. Once, we were walking with Rabash past a stadium, and he said: “We have to respect this place, it brings joy to people!” The same is true of the Internet. With all the garbage that’s in it, it connects people. It provokes people, forcing them to stir up all the evil hidden deep inside of them: envy, hatred, lust, hunger for fame, and lies. It’s has all kinds of things in it, but it helps us actualize many Reshimot (informational genes).

All of humanity is there and everyone is lying non-stop, wanting to outsmart each other, arguing and bickering. Do you have any idea of what it does to the ego? What other common ground could you find to bring them together? Which other place? Instead, with the help of the virtual connection, people realize (and process) their Reshimot and are moving forward in the understanding of their egoistic nature.

So why can’t we, those who are seeking to reveal the Creator, the property of bestowal, fulfill our spiritual Reshimot correctly through such a virtual link, too? I’m sure that the entire Internet has evolved just for that. We’ve come to the final stretch of the path and it’s time to accelerate our advancement. Thus, in order to satisfy their need as always, people have come up with such a connection.

That’s why we need to set up a social network between us so that every one of our friends, regardless of whether he or she is part of a physical group or not, will feel close to everybody and will be permanently connected to our general idea, the purpose of our joint effort, work, study, and communication.
[33406]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

Related Material:
The System of the Future, Part 1
The “Simulator” Is Spirituality
Building The State Of Kabbalah

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, Internet, Kabbalah Dissemination, Q&A - No Comments →

Love for the Creator is like love for the most unattractive woman in the world because I love the very property of bestowal which is enclosed in Him. This is not because it brings pleasure to my desire to enjoy, but because this property is above my egoistic properties, and I respect and value it more than anything else.

Relative to what else can I measure absolute, unconditional love? In our world, we love something that gives us pleasure. However, this is not love. We love the pleasure, but not the one who gives it to us. Although I connect this pleasure with you and as long as you keep bringing me treats, I love you, all my love will end as soon as you stop doing that. This means you were not the one whom I loved.

Independent love can appear only in opposition to something. Therefore, the entire universe is built on this principle: There is pleasure from which we have to disconnect and above which we have to build our attitude to the One who gives this pleasure.

For this purpose, the point in the heart is given to us. It is opposite to egoistic desire. We have to grow it with the help of a group, meaning with the same points in the heart. Then, the Light corrects our point, and we begin to sense love through it in opposition to the hatred which we feel in our desire.

However, in the middle between them, there should be a dividing line: detachment from the desire to receive pleasure and the ascent above it. This means that you cling to the Creator; you identify yourself with Him, rather than with your ego. You build from the matter of desire something different, sublime, and opposite.
[31282]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Related Material:
Rising Up Through The Group
Step By Step Towards Pleasure And Love
The Collective Life Of Light And Desire

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Internet - No Comments →

Question: Are the shapes of the Hebrew letters connected to the qualities they symbolize?

Answer: Of course they are. These letters were discovered by Adam HaRishon (the First Man) after he entered the spiritual world. That is why, since that time forward, Kabbalistic works are written using these letters, either in Hebrew or Aramaic (the letters are the same). The language is chosen according to the forms of expression of the Creator’s actions: If an action of the Light is expressed, it is recorded in Hebrew, while if an action of the Kli (vessel) is expressed, it is recorded in Aramaic.

The shapes of the letters, their order, and grammar are left unchanged since they are defined by the two Lights of Hassadim (Mercy) and Hochma (Wisdom), or the two forces, two desires: receiving and bestowal. The screen between them builds all the shapes of the letters.

Here iron rules are absolute laws of the ten Sefirot at work. Malchut and Bina connect with each other in order to reach Keter, and their interaction gives birth to 22 forms of connection.

They are stipulated by Aviut (coarseness), the three lines, the qualities of the first nine Sefirot to which Malchut wants to be similar. Then, with the help of various combinations of these forms, Malchut finds self-expression and resembles Keter completely.

The Torah, from the first letter to the last, describes to us the Light, but in the perspective of the vessels. If you undergo all of these forms with your desire, with your screen, with your efforts, then you will correct yourself completely.
[30172]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Letters of Rabbi Amnon Saba”

Related Material:
Falling In Love With The Winner
The Basis Of All Corrections
Choose Essence, Not Form

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Internet, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: If I read The Book of Zohar together with you over the Internet, not being present in the group physically, does it influence me?

Answer: Do you really think that you will extract greater benefit by sitting next to me in an embrace? Everything depends on the unity of hearts and not on distance. A person who is far away may be more anxious and worried, and that means he should stay exactly where he is.

The important thing is how responsible a person feels toward others when making his actions. We still have to improve many things, adding new depth and dimension to our intention every day. I don’t want to just restore a connection with others, but to be responsible for them. If I don’t think about and aspire to the goal, then they will also lose spiritual aspiration. This is bad even in the egoistic sense: When I am idle, this affects them and comes back to me as a negative response.

Besides, I am doing this for the sake of our mutual guarantee. Why do we need it? It’s in order to give pleasure to the Creator. By restoring our interconnection, we reveal the general quality of bestowal, the Creator inside it, and by so doing we give Him pleasure.

The quality of bestowal is not just love of friends; it is not limited by the relationships between us. It also contains the One who gave us that quality or desire. Inside our unity we discover one more layer – the basis or cause of the unity. This is the Creator, the primary cause of everything we think and perceive. That is why our intentions have to become more and more complex as they transform into a single aggregate that incorporates Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.

The first step toward this is to imagine the path toward the friends through five worlds. Once I reach them, I will attain Infinity. This is the picture we will gradually complete and color with new shades and strokes.
[27403]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Upwards Along The Degrees Of Intentions

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Internet, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, “Introduction of The Zohar,” Chapter “BeLaila De Kala (Night of the Bride)”: Rabbi Shimon was sitting and studying the Torah on the night when the bride, Malchut, unites with her husband. …all the friends, who are the members of the bridal chamber, must be with her on that night and rejoice with her in the corrections that she is corrected….

In order to connect to the text of The Zohar together, it is important not to forego the aspiration to unity. The Light of The Zohar can only enter our unified desire. It does not penetrate one’s individual desire.

We should realize that everything that we read about in Kabbalistic books describes the connection between us. Hence, first, as the preparation for the lesson, we need to imagine this connection for ourselves and only then consider the words of the Kabbalists who describe it to us.

This is how I study the wisdom of Kabbalah, the purpose of which is to correct our broken interconnection. First of all, I awaken the connection that we need to correct in my imagination, and then I attempt to comprehend what kind of connection is being described to me.

We are immersed in pitch darkness of the night and have no idea about our whereabouts. Nothing is clear to us, but we toil in order to prepare the bride, Malchut, our Kli, for “daybreak.” At the break of day, meaning at the end of our efforts and corrections, the shape of our interconnection shows through the dreadful darkness (egoism), and we see increasingly clearer (in the morning light, the property of bestowal) where and how it has to be revealed.

When our interconnection finally shows through the darkness, the morning comes. The state becomes clearer, and the Light, the property of bestowal, the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), is revealed in our connection. Then, the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) clothes the Light of Hassadim, and the day breaks. The connection between the groom and the bride, between the Creator and the vessel of our interconnection, our common desire, gets established.

For the time being, we are in a state called “the night of the bride.” We are preparing ourselves. We lack unity in which the Light could manifest itself.

However, we try to find the place of our breaking, groping for the egoism that separates us and the means that we can use. All of this is the work at night, the preparation for the first rays of sunrise.
[26468]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/10, “Hakdama, Laila de Kale (The Night of the Bride)”

Related Material:
The Ascent Of The Bride

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Internet, Unity - No Comments →

Question: What should I do if the Simulator doesn’t give me any inspiration or importance?

Answer: It doesn’t matter; the Simulator is the obligation. I don’t get any inspiration from the mutual guarantee, but I must realize it. You have to put efforts into it again and again. While you are investing in it, you are seemingly losing since you are taking care of it and giving everything to it from “yourself.”

This will continue until everything becomes connected to the extent that you are able to reveal the first spiritual degree. Then you will feel the efforts you have given not as a loss, but rather as a reward. But for the time being, this is really a loss: Your family, friends, and people who surround you look at you with astonishment, “What are you investing yourself into?”

You can not explain anything to them, although this will last until you receive a response for all your efforts. Therefore, we have to try to complete this process as soon as possible.
[21751]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/10, Shlavei Hasulam, Article 17, 1986

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Common Space Between Us
Laitman.com Post: The Covenant Of Friends
Kabbalah Moments: Spiritual Simulator

Filed under: Group Work, Inner Work, Internet, Q&A - No Comments →

A letter I received: We now witness the emergence of a new social structure of online communities. A virtual reality is being built which, for the time being, lacks any rules or ideology. I think that our method is most appropriate particularly for these online communities and not for the real world since the latter is terribly inertial and filled with a myriad of different ideologies. Meanwhile, in the virtual world, changes are taking place every few days rather than every few decades.

Surely, it is not a spiritual world, but it is no longer a material world either. It is a new playground for the human mind where it can play out different scenarios which could only be checked in the physical reality over decades or centuries.

In Israel, it is possible to work like in the old days, creating a physical infrastructure, and we see over the last few months that it works wonderfully. However, in all the other parts of the world, you won’t be allowed in anywhere. All spots have been taken both in the physical world as well as in its ideological structure. Changes will occur only under the influence of cataclysms.

While a “material” person will not even listen to you, a “spiritual” person will grasp the essence of Kabbalah immediately. A person that exists in these virtual worlds will tell you: “If your game is interesting, let’s play. Why not?” I see this as the only chance for us to change something in the external world.

My Comment: I agree with you about almost everything. We are trying to accomplish this with our Stimulator: to create a new social unification, the one and only State of Kabbalah in the world. The constitution is “love your neighbor” according to the law of the Upper Force of Nature. All the laws, rules of behavior, relationships, and decisions are based only on the laws of the nature of bestowal. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the article “The Last Generation.”

Teenagers perceive online communities as their family. They reject live communication in favor of virtual communication. Online communities are becoming strong psychological points of reference for users.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Choose A Benevolent Future
Laitman.com Post: My Spiritual Stimulator
Laitman.com Post: The “Spiritual Stimulator” Is a step Towards The Future Society

Filed under: Internet, Kabbalah Dissemination, Society - No Comments →

Question: What does this system called “the spiritual stimulator” give to a person? Why does it attract people so much that it turns into a “Tamagotchi”?

Answer: This system gives a person the future and sustains him in the present. It gives him a sensation of rising up above death. You start to feel that you care for the system that holds you and “nourishes” you, and that it is your eternal “infusion.”

You really feel that you exist in a different reality. You start to experience this reality as being higher and more powerful than our own, and not in spite of our reality, but thanks to it.

You perceive our reality as the means by which the Upper Reality exists. You experience such a combination of the two worlds that you have a crystal clear understanding of how much you should use this world in order to strengthen the world to come in you.

This is not a virtual society that we created, but the reality in which the Upper Force exists and depicts this life, our world or reality, for you, and it now helps you to enter the Upper Reality.

We have to go through all these changes in order to reprogram ourselves to feel the higher realm through this world. The gradual development of our “stimulator” will enable us to actualize this. That’s because all of our natural development takes place through playing. That is how we rise to the next level. We don’t understand how it happens, but we ascend and develop.

That is why the “spiritual stimulator” will become an enticing game for everyone.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: From A Virtual Reality To A Spiritual One
Laitman.com Post: The Spiritual Root Of All Humanity
Laitman.com Post: How Does Our Spiritual “Tamagotchi” Work?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Internet - No Comments →

The work that we do with our spiritual commonality is very similar to the “Tamagotchi” effect (a Japanese toy that obligates one to care for something virtual and nonexistent). The player becomes so consumed and fixated on the toy that for him it becomes more than real! He simply must stop everything he is doing and take care of the toy, “feed it.”

Interestingly enough, egoism doesn’t prevent him from caring for it. After all, this isn’t another person who he needs to compete with; rather, it’s an abstract “easy-to-care” for being, although it subtly imposes its own will on the person.

The same happens in our spiritual stimulator: On one hand, we separate ourselves from people and create something abstract where I depersonalize absolutely everyone, separate them from their bodies, appearance, and personality. But I leave their points in the heart, their aspirations towards unity for the sake of revealing the common force of love: the Creator.

On the other hand, it is nevertheless our desire, our yearning that is abstracted from the body and everything that separates us from each other. On the contrary, we are united by our common dream, our common need to reach the goal and do it only together.

This system is already becoming a supranational, multilingual world community. It will become the common spiritual root of all humanity because the idea is to unite all the people in the world. At first, we put all our strength into creating a system of connection, love, and bestowal between us. And afterwards, “the Ark carries those who carry it”: It will take the lead and begin to shape us with the Upper Light which will manifest within it to the extent that we create the vessel of bestowal.

In this system, we give the opportunity to the Upper Force of nature which exists in the unity among people to "enter" us and manifest between us. And it will begin to operate within us, nurture us, and lead us ahead towards the purpose of creation.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: From A Virtual Reality To A Spiritual One
Laitman.com Post: The "Stimulator" Is Spirituality
Laitman.com Post: My Spiritual Stimulator – 08.29.10

Filed under: Group Work, Inner Work, Internet - No Comments →