Question: Many people in Israel support our message, so why doesn’t the whole country hear us?

Answer: The message cannot be heard in a vacuum. There must be “air,” the attention of the hearts, through which the sound waves are transmitted. Otherwise, you’re just silently opening your mouth and no sound comes out. The desire that can pick up your words and carry them to a distance isn’t ready yet. This is the whole problem.

So what can we do so that this desire will appear? We can distribute our materials in the streets and at the events we hold, which is what we do, but this is not enough. It isn’t by chance that Kabbalists kept quiet until our time, until the egoistic desire started taking on the form of the general crisis. It wasn’t even a prohibition, but simply an inability to communicate something to the people.

Even if the wisdom of Kabbalah were opened before them, they wouldn’t have seen anything. Using the example of current events, we have been talking about the problem of unemployment for a long time, but only now it is beginning to emerge. Everything is delayed; we are always ahead of things.

We can only make efforts to do our best in dissemination, making sure that it doesn’t turn into “unripe fruit.” Everything must happen all in its time, so that people will understand our ideas correctly. Otherwise they will have the impression that it is just empty talk.

Therefore we should wait a while. We don’t want them to suffer, of course, but still the serious problems must reach the headlines, so that we can come out with our ideas. People need to hear from us what they are ready to hear.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: Israel is facing the question of free preschool education, which will require great cutbacks in other areas. Each time we are faced with a choice between one thing and another and it is always one at the expense of the other. How can such conflicts be solved?

Answer: We don’t see things correctly. Actually there are such surpluses that we could build another state of Israel, but we don’t see them. The point here is not how to save, but to distinguish where our resources are being squandered uselessly and wasted.

On the whole, we shouldn’t touch the budget and increase the deficit. We only have to find the billions that are wasted, go nowhere, and help no one. It all stems from negligence and carelessness, from the fact that we aren’t concerned about the situation as a whole. Each one considers and loves himself and as a result great wealth is being squandered.

There is no secret here. Observe yourself and how you use electricity at home and somewhere else, how organized and thrifty you are when it comes to your property for which you pay dearly, and how indifferent you are to wasting at the expense of strangers. In another’s place we are happy to splurge, but at home we are happy to save. So if we treat the whole national economy like the home economy, we will find such excess that we didn’t even imagine.

If you really check things in the Ministry of Education you will find such breaches into which not just some but a great percentage of our resources are pouring. Sift everything that isn’t for the benefit of the students, shake the system, and you will see how much will “fall” out.

On the whole, the attitude is that we don’t have to sacrifice one thing for another. No aspect of life should be deprived in order to strengthen others. If our major concern is mutual concern for the state like as for our family, then by changing our attitude and as a result of our desire to be efficient, we sill discover such great surpluses that we will have to think of how to spend them.

But since we don’t do that, the crisis will do it for us. It will “shake” us against our will. If we don’t put things in order, it will be done for us.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/12, “The Freedom”

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Question: These days the tension between the Orthodox and the secular is growing. Your dissemination doesn’t pay enough attention to explaining to the non-religious community the essence of religion, its spiritual roots, etc. How do you help society deal with this “civil war” in a practical way?

Answer: We are busy explaining the next level of development to society in which everyone, every member of society, has to rise above all the differences and to unite by understanding the uniqueness of each individual.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we have to put all the differences among us below the unity among us as nature’s law requires us to unite despite and above our differences.

This can only be achieved by gradually educating people to mutual guarantee as each one is given a chance to live according to his own laws and unity is achieved above the different groups in society and above their customs. We should know how to separate the different communities that live according to different laws, as it is done between the Muslim and the Jewish communities.

City planners and public transportation planners have to take this into account. The external media should exhibit mutual respect. In a young state such as Israel, it is simply irresponsible to build cities without taking into account future potential conflicts.
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Israel (Yashar-El) is a person who has a point in the heart, pulling him toward the Creator and forcing him to begin this work. The work comes down to acquiring a desire, because only it is necessary from man’s end. We usually look for fulfillment – this is our natural aspiration. But here we must change our approach completely.

In our world we always lack fulfillment because we always have a desire for material fulfillment: I want one thing, another, and a third, and I look for ways to satisfy my desire.

But in the spiritual world, everything’s opposite. The fulfillment is always present, but there is no desire! Therefore, I have to work on the desire, the necessity, instead of working on the fulfillment as in our world.

Therefore, Israel, called “A head for me” (Li-Rosh – derived by changing the order of the letters) is a person who understands that his work lies in searching for the desire, building it, and forming it correctly, so it would suit the second half – the fulfillment, which is already present. After all, the Creator already fills the entire earth.

100% of man’s work is called half of the perfect state, of the world of Infinity. The second half is 100% of the Light, which fills these 100% of desire.

On every level it is possible to attain a 100% desire according to that level, in order to be filled with 100% of the Light belonging to that level.

Therefore, first of all we need understanding and mutual support, realizing that we must work on the desire rather than the fulfillment. Years go by until a person changes his approach, leaving behind the one he got used to in our world.

It turns out that there is nowhere for a person to run, but only to delve deeper inside himself. That is why it is called “inner work” or one’s inner world. It’s because one has to delve deep inside one’s heart, instead of chasing some external effects. Everything depends on the desire in the heart.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: I read the book The Kabbalist, which among other things talks about how Baal HaSulam tried to reach the world. He told people everything but they didn’t listen. Why should the world listen to us today?

Answer: Baal HaSulam lived at the beginning of the present era and really wanted to hasten time. Before WWII he tried to arrange for 300 Jewish families from Poland to come to Israel. He wanted to establish a special group in Jerusalem, whose members would work in a small factory in order to make a living and be together all the time, connect all the time. He wanted to unite the people with his newspaper “The Nation.” He went back to Poland when the workers’ uprising began, hoping to direct them all to unity….

Baal HaSulam saw that the next level, the next state, is global unity. There are no intermediate levels. We have to rise from here straight to connection. But in his time there weren’t the right conditions for that. People ridiculed the Soviet Union in which a new society was formed by oppression. As a whole, the world has advanced the American way, towards attaining the “American Dream,” and it was impossible to talk about correction according to the method of Kabbalah.

However, today things have changed. I would like to emphasize that we are not talking about our accomplishments. On the contrary, we are small compared to all the groups that preceded us. However, considering the state of the world, we have to succeed. After all, today the world is helplessly facing all the emerging problems. The world has never been in this situation which seems like a dead end. It’s now clear that we are sinking into a total economic crisis and that we can’t do anything about it. There’s nothing to hope for and there’s no way out.

This is why the method for correction is being revealed now. It turns to the world not by calling it to bestow upon the Creator, but by a message of mutual guarantee that’s being revealed very clearly on the part of nature itself. Everyone sees it, but they don’t know how to reach compatibility with the Creator; they don’t know that it’s by equivalence of form with Him that we can have all the abundance in the corporeal world.

We are working together on our level, aspiring for the upper force to be revealed in the point of unity between us. For us mutual guarantee is unification at the higher, spiritual level of Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), thanks to which we, Israel, will pour the upper Light onto the world. All of humanity is actually one system, and hence, if the Light will be in us, it will certainly flow onto others.

This is exactly what our convention is for: We draw the Light from the Source so that it will be revealed between us. Then after the convention we’ll see great changes in the world. People will feel a special force: “Perhaps we can connect after all?” Suddenly this will be the real solution for them. There is no need to “escape,” there is no need to break up the common market and international relationships. On the contrary, with the help of all the present institutions, we have to change the approach and to aspire for unity and not for anything else.

The previous mechanisms are being destroyed and we have to provide everyone with a minimal reasonable standard of living and a sense of security. Everyone should receive the basic necessities. Humanity that feels so helpless now should adopt this approach. The developed countries are in a state of economic, industrial, and financial decline.

According to what is written in Kabbalah books, today, considering our investment in the world’s needs, we have a very good chance to reveal the upper force in order to correct ourselves. We only have to use our intentions as much as we can.

Clearly we are all egoists, and each of us thinks about his own well-being. Even in the group each one looks for his gain and not for bestowal upon the Creator. If we are lucky, we remember Him occasionally. But this doesn’t matter. All our efforts are accompanied by an egoistic desire “Lo Lishma” (not for Her Name), and we aren’t demanded to do more, just like babies. We try, we really make great efforts, and so the convention can really unite us.

Then we’ll be able to reveal the upper force for the first time, in order to correct ourselves and to pass on the correction to the whole world. All the signs and Kabbalistic writings indicate that it’s possible, and we simply mustn’t doubt that.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee) (abridged version)“: The Torah was not given to our fathers because the commandment of “Love thy friend as thyself,” the axis of the whole Torah and around which all the commandments revolve, cannot be observed by an individual, but only through the consent of an entire nation. And this is why it took until they came out of Egypt, when they became worthy of observing it. And then they were first asked if each and every one of the nation agreed to take that commandment upon himself. And once they agreed to it, they were given the Torah.

We learn about the structure of the spiritual world, the creation of the soul, which is the only creature, and about the shattering of the soul that got divided into many parts from Kabbalistic sources like “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah (Pticha),” “The Study of the Ten Sefirot“, and the Ari’s “The Tree of Life”. We can say that these parts of the soul also existed before, but they were merged together in one intention, in one thought, in a special state.

In the first state there was the one notion of Infinity, which included the vessel that was equal to the Light. Their equality, connection, and adhesion were provided by the power of the Light. All the souls, parts, and desires were there previously, but the Light held it all together and so they remained imperceptible.

Then the second state was created: the shattered vessel that is totally different from the Light and exists under its own authority—the desire to receive in order to receive. Thus, the shattering of the vessels brought the creature to the state of “this world.”

Finally, as the third state, the vessel once again becomes equal to the Light. We reach adhesion, but by ourselves now.

Eventually, we go through this whole process consciously, we understand and feel it. The descent into our world was prepared from Above, and the present state of ascent is the time of correction. Therefore, today we feel that we are at a very special point in history, which Kabbalists designate as “1995.” It is the border after which the general spiritual ascent of humanity begins.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” (abridged version): The purpose of Creation lies on the shoulders of the whole of the human race. But because of the descent of human nature to the lowest degree, which is the self-love that unrestrictedly rules over all of humanity, there was no way to negotiate with them and persuade them to agree to take upon themselves, to exit their narrow world into the wide spaces of the love of others.

The exception was the Israeli nation because they were enslaved in the savage kingdom of Egypt. Because of these two forewords, they were qualified for it, as it is written, “and there Israel camped before the mountain,” as “one man in one heart. This is because each and every person from the nation completely detached himself from self-love, and wanted only to benefit his friend, for only then were they qualified to receive the Light that Reforms.

The correction of the world is done gradually. It cannot take place in one person, but must be divided among many souls. It cannot be realized in one time, in one generation, but rather in a sequence of generations. The correction cannot take place if everyone is the same. On the contrary, there should be different kinds of people. All these conditions were intended to ease the way.

The correction is always done by two forces: The force of suffering pushes us from behind, and the force of the Light pulls us forward. It makes no difference what kind of people are involved. Thus, we can understand why the souls are not the same. Some begin the correction first—they are called Israel, meaning those who aspire “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El). They correct themselves before all the other souls join the process.

People who belong to the category of Israel feel the evil of their growing egoism, which is called “the Egyptian bondage.” They want to acquire the spiritual world, but encounter resistance: They are thrown backward, and weights are tied to their feet, which prevent them from rising. It is namely Israel who feel many interruptions on their spiritual pathway.

Accordingly, they are given a burning spark of the spiritual desire. Eventually, they find themselves between two opposing forces that pull them forward and backward, practically tearing them in two. On the one hand, they feel a pull upward and, on the other, the Egyptian exile.

This contrast is accompanied by difficult conditions in a difficult historical process, in hostile relationships on the part of the world, and so forth. However, all this helps us fulfill the correction faster than others and then help them. If it weren’t for the final goal, to perform the Creator’s actions in our world, one could only pity us. We can justify this way only if we understand the mission we have been given.

There are forces that push us forward, and there are other forces that won’t let us advance. We experience a very unpleasant development, “between the hammer and the anvil,” but we must understand that we are actually in the center of the corrections, and it all depends on us. Humanity already needs us.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Opinion: (Stanley Fischer, Bank of Israel Governor): “Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer believes the Israeli economy is in a ‘relatively good condition’ compared to the global economic crisis.

Speaking in a press conference he convened on Tuesday to discuss the recent economic developments in the world, Fischer said Israel ‘can ride through this period successfully if we run the economy in a responsible and organized manner.

“As for the global economy’s situation, Fischer said, ‘The situation in the US is reasonable. It’s not good, but there is growth and no foreseeable danger, at least in the short term, for the US to enter another recession. Talks are of a 2.5% growth in 2012 – that’s not impressive and not close to the potential growth rate, but it’s a relatively good growth rate.’

“‘The forecast for all of Europe hasn’t dropped much since the beginning of the year. The expectation for European growth next year is less than 0.5% – that’s not a recession, but an undesirable situation.'”

My Comment: I present a variety of “opinions” so that later we can see how mistaken a person is in the vision of the world he lives in.
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Question: In the group, we need interaction, contact. That is the only way I can reveal love and hate for my friends. When we work together on dissemination, I receive a real inner response. But in all other regards, we just sit together at lessons or meals, sing and dance together. I don’t find any interaction there….

Answer: Still, try doing this together with the group more and more. In reality, this is the work: to sit together with friends, to eat with them, to dance and sing with them. This will cause greater repulsion to be revealed inside of you. Overcome yourself and try to submerge deeper into the group—and you will discover your weakness.

This is already the expression of the truth. The more you try to take control of yourself, the more negativity you discover toward the friends. This is the entire essence and nothing more is necessary.

The sons of Israel received the method of correction only when a strong egoistic desire ripened in them. This was no longer a clan or a family, but a great number of people who felt that they didn’t belong to one another. That is how a nation emerges: I am part of a group, I was brought to it, and I participate in the life of the friends, who are connected by a common goal. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t harbor any warm feelings for them.

And now I must form the deepest connection that can possibly exist in reality—the same as the connection with the Creator. Can you imagine: to cleave to the friends like to the Creator, without any excuses, and to feel them closer than myself. Is this possible? Yes. You make efforts, and in response, Light comes from above and corrects you.

In mutual actions, everything that’s important is inside. You can take physical measures only if you can vest the intention into them. Otherwise, you shouldn’t. We need actions that will become an expression of our interconnection. This includes conventions and dissemination work. But in reality, if a person is really dear to me, then I invite him to a coffee shop or to my house to socialize with him in a friendly setting. I try to be as close as possible to him.

The gist of the matter is not for every person to prepare for the convention in his own niche, hoping that these external efforts will unite us. Rather, we must feel a much greater proximity, which is what we were slightly able to achieve at the convention in the Arava dessert. After the December convention, we will continue acting in this direction to come even closer to one another.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/11, “Mutual Guarantee”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” (abridged version): The role of the people of Israel is to prepare the world to a particular purification so that it could accept the principle of love towards the fellow man, similar to Israel. Everyone makes a contribution to this, and thus, each of the people of Israel brings the whole world to good.

The correction of Malchut of Infinity occurs in stages. Some of its parts are more “transparent” and others more “coarse,” as there are more and less important organs in the body. This difference is characteristic of the period of corruption, while after correction more corrupted parts may reach a greater height.

Now, we do not see the real situation. For example, the nations of the world are the most “coarse” vessels; however, after being corrected last, they will rise above the rest. And vice versa, the vessels that are starting correction today are simply purer, and that is why they wake up first. On the other hand, they are “coarser” than previous generations.

Thus, the process goes in stages. Baal HaSulam writes at the end of “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” that corrections are carried out from light to heavy, and they are started by those who came to this need, in other words, by Israel, which means “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El).

If in the general desire there is an impulse to move forward, the point in the heart (•) that feels this calling, then this layer of desires is called “Israel.” The next layer feels pains in life and suffers from the lack of the meaning of life (?), but it still does not feel enough aspiration to reveal the purpose of creation. Finally, there is a layer that simply suffers, albeit perhaps not a lot, and that can be satisfied with little.

In essence, it all depends on the upper layer: If it corrects itself, the Light comes from it to others because AHP can be corrected only by connecting with the carriers of the upper force, with those who have the vessels of bestowal.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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