Question: To annul oneself sounds so unnatural for a secular person; all our nature is against it. What can force humanity to sit on the school bench and study Kabbalah?

Answer: I do not understand why self-annulment appears so unnatural to you. I used to study at a university, and there was a professor whom I considered a great expert in his science. I wanted to absorb all his knowledge, and thus I annulled myself before him. This is also called self-annulment.

If I read a book or an article and want to understand what is written in it, I stick to the author’s thought and emotion. It is a kind of self-annulment. I would not be able to do anything without cancelling myself! To cancel oneself means to open oneself for the reception of knowledge, information, and sensation from outside.

There is an expression: “The sages came and said.” In this way, clever people come—political scientists, psychologists, economists, and teachers—the 10 percent of the cream of society, the most intelligent, clever part of humanity that is concerned about our future, and they tell the rest, the remaining 90 percent: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are facing a huge problem!”

“If we continue in this way for ten more years, and a world war does not occur before that, we will be left without natural resources. We will not be able to grow anything. We need something to eat and energy for heating and cooling. But we have to reduce our consumption to a reasonable level.”

Scientists, smart people, say that, so why would you not believe them? When I see a doctor who looks at my X-ray and prescribes a treatment for me, I trust him and accept therapy. Although I have no way of checking what happens on that picture (is it mine at all? It might be someone else’s X-ray), I have to believe my doctor and in his remedy; I have no choice.

In order to take the medication, from my level , I have to believe the one who gives it to me that it is something good and it will cure me. This is also called self-annulment. This happens everywhere: When I come to a teacher, to a doctor, or in any place where I want to receive something. I have to be prepared to pay for that (Leshalem in Hebrew), that is, to complete (Leashlim in Hebrew) myself.

When all the media, plenty of important people, scientists, professors, politicians, and economists all talk about this, they will be able to convince people. This is far better than the world war that might occur where  you would not know what might happen to you in the next moment.

We have no choice. You cannot dictate your own conditions to nature if it imposes such conditions. Whether you want it or not, you have to agree. Either you stop this crisis by your inner participation or perish. This is not like with your mother when you can be capricious for a while and do things your own way. These are the laws of nature.

These laws are explained to you by serious, respected people who understand them. Do not think that they benefit from this: They are in the same situation as you are. This is our common problem.
[44588]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/2011, Shamati #40

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We are entering a new world that is abandoning luxuries and restricting itself to rational consumption, to what a regular person needs. We won’t be able to produce washing machines that go out of order in three years, while today it’s being done intentionally so that instead of fixing it, one would buy a new one.

We’ll have to move into a new state of existence. That’s what the governments of the world must understand. But how are they going to keep their nations pacified? How will they educate and explain all the facts to them?

This is why we must prepare a package of educational resources that stands on a firm foundation and demonstrates this with absolute clarity that we will offer to everyone. There is no other option: We must study the new world.

You won’t have to go to work. You will be going to school instead, but not for the sake of learning. You will study how to receive real pleasure from life. Is it worth it? You won’t be able to continue working anyway; nobody needs you anymore. The Great Depression was part of the development, an intermediate decline in the cyclic process, but today it all has changed. We are running out of resources. We’ve come to the threshold of a new phase. Plenty has been written about it.

Hence, our job is to inform the public that the old era has come to its end. There aren’t and won’t be any more jobs. How will people make a living then? Well, let’s make only goods that we need and just enough for everyone, while we learn how to distribute them properly and how to live in the new world.

We have to tell them about human evolution and history, the growth of egoism up to its final stage, the stage of integration and the laws by which the integral system operates, the interconnection of all its parts, and how reciprocity and the real connection unfold in it. This is our only option for this is what nature is forcing us to do.

We are supposed to come to a state of balanced consumption, like the animals who take from nature only as much as they need to sustain themselves. They do it instinctively, without calculating, whereas we must structure our relationship with nature consciously, sensibly, through learning, restricting ourselves, and taming our evil inclination, simply because we understand that we can’t afford to do otherwise.

Yet, how will we satisfy our egos when man wants to consume the world and he is asked to be happy with just food and shelter? “Is that all? What am I, a bear in a cave, a bird in a cage?” "Certainly not, you will receive even greater fulfillment than you wished for before, but never got. It can be done. Let’s find out how to get there."

Thus, we obligate the public to learn, lead them toward it. No one will want to do it unilaterally; everybody seeks immediate gratification. So, we have to prepare a package of educational resources and a system of public education. It will start slowly. Right now, we can’t openly tell this to the world, but it’s time we devise and disseminate materials about what’s causing a crisis. This will shed light on the solution. After all, there is nothing else out there. Like it or not, you will have to do what you have to do.
[44458]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/2011, "The Peace"

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Question: There are limits to what people can hear from us. Do these limits expand during the peak of a crisis, as for example in Spain, where recently mass demonstrations took place?

Answer: If a person has a problem or illness, he always wants to hear the good news about the remedy. Ideally, not we, but our Spanish friends have to address the Spanish people. Namely, they will be able to disseminate the method of correction among their people, gently and in an accessible way. They know how to communicate with their people. We have only to train and instruct them so that they set to work.

This should be done around the world. This is why the Creator awakens the points in the hearts among all the nations so that they act locally. And from now on, we have to prepare them for this mission. They know how to talk to the people; there are no barriers between them and their people. Their people are their family, friends, and acquaintances. We only have  to prepare a collection of materials and a supporting base for them.

All our groups around the world have to be converted into dissemination centers so that they know how to explain to demonstrators and the needy the reason for their suffering, in very simple words and without mentioning the word Kabbalah. Otherwise, people will just turn away and will not be able to listen. Even you, who are ready to listen, have difficulties grasping the words of Kabbalists. What can we expect of others?…
[44337]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/2011, “The Peace”

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People with the point in the heart have received an understanding, means, and ability to help the world. We have to put into practice whatever we have received to realize ourselves one hundred percent.

We still have time: People are still looking for the cause of all the troubles and for an opportunity to improve the situation. But eventually people will understand that there isn’t a particular solution for their country because it is dependent upon the whole world. “What’s the point in gathering in the square? How will it help us? So I need to appeal to the entire world?” “Yes, you do. Let’s find together what we have overlooked here; let’s understand where help can come from.”

And then the nations will turn to us. The prophets write about this, talking about big suffering all over the world. It’s not local calamities anymore, but epidemics, natural disasters, and so on. All this is to press Israel, despite its seemingly small size on a global scale.

A global drama is unfolding in front of our eyes. Israel is still not in the position of its people having lost their jobs and necessary social services, such as health and national insurance. In the U.S., for example, a vast number of homeowners cannot pay their mortgages, while at the same time, their homes have depreciated and are valued at less than the amounts owed to their mortgage lenders.

The situation is bleak. People will see this better when the crisis becomes even more integral and undeniably global. It’s not a coincidence that the participants of the G8 who gathered in Deauville had a meaningless meeting.

I’m not making fun out of them; there is really nothing they can do. A great disaster has come, everyone understands this, and everyone is silent. And they can’t stop the meetings because they have to do something at least for show.
[44340]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: If the Creator has a certain program of our development, why should we be interfering in it and trying to go around it?

Answer: There is a natural program of evolution regarded as “nature.” Nature has a built-in engine that spins and unwinds the entire development, while we obediently follow it for hundreds of thousands of years and thereby evolve. And so it has been over the whole human history on earth.

But at the same time, the program stipulates that man gradually reaches a state when he will start participating in its work himself. The force underlying nature keeps influencing and developing desire. And inside desire, it also cultivates the point that originates from the soul’s root. At a certain moment, besides the will to receive pleasure, we start hearing the voice of this point in the heart. The time comes when it makes itself known and demands man to actualize it.

Realization of the point occurs above desire. Hence, man feels split into two and finds himself facing a choice: to follow his ego, which is his corporeal desire (for things such as food, sex, family, wealth, power, and knowledge), or to keep raising this spiritual point and get the answers to the questions: Who am I? Where did I start? Where is the upper force? What is this life all about? What is the purpose of existence?

The point in the heart begins asking these questions and plunges one into confusion. Then he or she somehow finds the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is programmed as well! Life is not accidental; everything that takes place in this world descends on us from the upper world. Whether you will choose the second path or not, get all the opportunities to have it actualized, this too is subject to the same program of creation.

Today, you come to study not at your own will. It’s just that there were forces which worked on you and made you realize that you should come. Your freedom starts only where you are clearly facing a choice: to enter a Kabbalistic group or not, and even at the deeper level within you, are you willing to sacrifice your ego so you can become vital part of it or not.

The choice lies only between two desires: one aimed at oneself and the other directed outward. Here is where you really have to choose. Desire directed at oneself is AHP (the lower part of the Partzuf). Desire turned outward is Galgalta ve Eynaim, the upper part of the Partzuf. And in between, there lies an area regarded as “Klipat Noga,” where you seem to be making that choice. Yet, new questions arise: What do you base your choice on, and how are you being manipulated from Above so that you make this and not the other decision?

The same program dictates us to circulate Kabbalah all over the world. Without it, it won’t come to correction since it follows only a natural program of development, just like all other levels of nature. We need to use these levels correctly, meaning that we need to use—in thought, action, and intention—the rest of humanity, as well as the animate, vegetative, and still levels of nature, in order to adjoin them to ourselves and together, as one creation, ascend from the level of this world to the upper world.
[44147]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/2011, “General Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: The tough, egoistic resistance between people, along which international relationships deteriorate, all these will not cease from the world by any human counsel or tactic, whatever it may be.

Don’t think that the world will be able to correct itself. Even if people realize that our egoism is the evil of the world, correction is impossible without the “spice,” meaning without the method of Kabbalah. We have to give the world the Light that Reforms, but it can be done only by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah in one form or another, according to the various types of desires, that is, the people in our world.

In any case, we have to give them the Light. Egoism cannot be corrected by any other way. Nothing else can help here, neither psychology or sociology, nor wonderful endeavors or troubles. The only thing that can help is attracting the Light that Reforms. We have no chance without it.

Indeed, the Light includes the goal and the program for achieving it, all the stages that we have to pass through. Without the Light, we are like animals that cannot make a single move. The Light has to come and influence us. Then, we will come into motion.

So, why do we experience troubles and all kinds of changes? In fact, they aren’t changes, but namely troubles that will intensify until we, at least some of us, start attracting the Light, at least a small portion of it.

Development is carried out only by the Light. We should be thoroughly aware of this. There is no chance that the egoistic desire, itself, will find a path of development. Throughout the centuries, this opportunity was found through the Light that came without waiting to be called and it continuously pushed us forward.

Today, we have crossed the threshold after which we have to precede the arrival of the Light by our own desire addressed precisely to the Light. From now on, everything starts with “our initiative,” with “a prayer and good deeds.” This definition means that we, ourselves, have to want to evolve, not in the egoistic pursuit of new pleasures, but above egoism. Awakening, rising, has to come from our side.

Moreover, we won’t be able to evolve unless we form a request within ourselves, expecting that in return, the force of the Light will come and influence us, giving us new properties of unity and love so that we will merge into a global, integral whole. Only this Light carries our future states. We don’t know what they are nor how to pass through them, but our work, in essence, is simple: We are looking for the force that develops us.

That’s all; we don’t need any special wisdom. I don’t know in advance what awaits me. Sometimes, I notice something new in my mind and feelings, reveal a new, thin layer of understanding and sensation. It looks a bit like the effect of the Light that awakens and corrects our desires. We shouldn’t interfere in its work, but rather speed up our development as much as possible.

The Light will never affect us until we ask it to do that. We must be the first to ask. This is what it demands. This request, this necessity initiates a spiritual action on the matter of desire. Thanks to it, we reveal who we are and who the Creator is.

At our low degree, we understand a higher degree at least a bit, in order to merge with it. We don’t understand it completely, but only at the place where we are attached to it. To adhere to a point within the mother’s womb, one has to become equal in properties with her.

In this way, the created beings do a big job, wishing to merge with the upper one within a tiny segment of perception. Then, they want the upper one to cancel them, filling them with its Lights of development. Similar to an embryo, we ask for the Lights that bring development, not for those that bring pleasure. In this way, we reach equivalence with the Creator.
[44266]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: Owing to the crisis, the world is beginning to realize the necessity to unite. Is this desire higher in relation to the previous desires?

Answer: No, it isn’t. It’s about approaching our positions, which in effect will assist us with connecting people to ourselves. Indeed, this awareness is being felt more strongly with each passing day. Scientists, sociologists, psychologists, and even politicians talk about this. However, so far, the issue is limited to educated specialists associated with this problem.

In principle, it’s clear that the main problem in the world is our inability to get along, to agree among ourselves to stop excessive consumption and pollution of the environment. We have to be united by mutual agreement. Such a conclusion can be made by ​​every intelligent person, but still it’s nice to hear about it and read similar materials. At least, experts have come to that.

Nonetheless, they are not capable of more; they cannot find a solution, and herein is the main problem. After all, the solution is brought by the Light, the force of correction, and they don’t know what that is. They only understand that the situation is critical, that egoism destroys everything, and that it is the source of all problems. They realize that we need a problem-free world, where all people are united and live a normal, modest life without excessive additions because of which we empty and pollute the Earth.

Eventually everybody will understand this. Millions of people around the world raise their heads anxiously: Soon, they will have nothing to eat. They will agree to anything only to have food. They will agree to unite. However, once again they will fail to connect if the people from the human degree of development don’t come and explain how to accomplish this.

It’s done in the following way: Everybody begins to study, learning about the crisis and its solution. Even if people don’t yet understand the underlying principles, they will have to get in touch with the primary sources not related to their degree. Then, the Surrounding Light will influence and enable people to connect to a higher level.

It’s a must. When Baal HaSulam writes that we should sit on the school bench and start reading books, he doesn’t mean Marx’s Capital, or articles by Lenin or other socialists. He refers to his works, such articles as “The Mutual Guarantee,” “The Giving of the Torah,” adapted in such a way that any person can understand their message.

These materials come from the Kabbalistic source and talk about unity and equality. They are being given to the world by the people with the point in the heart, and this is enough for “illumination” that will inspire and encourage the masses to truly and correctly unite, not as it was in Soviet Russia or Israeli Kibbutzim (communities).
[44071]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/2011, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: How will the changes happen in the education system—by the initiative of the government from above, or pressure from the masses from below?

Answer: Leaders are only afraid for their “seats” and nothing else. If the masses come out to the streets and start shaking those chairs, and they aren’t just setting cars on fire but starting to making more serious actions, then the leaders start listening to their demands. In the end, they will have to agree to them. The question is: Will we be able to offer them our explanation of the necessary measures? We have to try to do that as much as we can.

One way or another, we have to get through to the leaders, but from both sides: from below, through the masses that go out onto the street, and from above directly. After all, we are talking about a global study of the world, about changes in education, and about building a worldwide system of upbringing in which everyone will study while receiving a specific salary for it, the means for sustenance.

This learning will take place instead of work, but in reality it will become people’s work in the spiritual sense. Every person will attract Light to the extent of his forces and capabilities, and this will be his reward. After all, the Light holds all of the abundance there can possibly be.

How many people are required to provide the vital necessities for all of the earth’s inhabitants? Clothing, food, construction, service—everything that’s necessary within the framework of a normal existence? For example, people will work for half a day and will study for half a day. And this will be done by everyone.

However, this can only be achieved through the leaders, or more precisely, through the public opinion, through people who think, including scientists, sociologists, political scientists, and all those who rise above the mass, but not too high. After all, the very top is occupied by the “destroyers,” whereas we are talking primarily about the university circles.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/11, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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I began to teach a long time ago. Together with the group we studied the wisdom of Kabbalah for many years. However, even though we read the articles of Kabbalists, we didn’t actualize them fully until the global crisis hit several years ago.

Starting from 2005 or so, we began to focus on the correct structuring of the group. That is where we felt the pressure, and we realized that that is precisely what we needed in order to actualize the method and enter the spiritual world.

The fact is that the world had not experienced a crisis until then. We didn’t feel what or who our actions should be aimed at. But along with the crisis, our group felt an acute, even dramatic need to immediately implement the method in practice so that we could be an example to the world.

With each day we must work to strengthen our inner unity and external dissemination. Drop by drop, we must bring the news to the people that there is a method of correction. After all, the crisis engulfing the world is an invitation from Nature to rise to the next degree.

We shouldn’t be like stubborn children who don’t want to listen to their mother. In all that is happening we should see an unprecedented opportunity: The doors open for us to leave this limited, little world, completely permeated with suffering and ending in death, and enter an external existence, a world illuminated by the upper Light. This is what we must explain, illustrating that it could be done in a group, together.

The laws of the group can even be seen in this world. Indeed, the world is revealing itself as an integral system in which all parts are interconnected. Looking at it, we can see for ourselves what is demanded of us.
[43704]
From the 2nd lesson at the Rome Convention on 5/21/11

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Question: Even if my intention is egoistic, if I start thinking about the benefit of others and the well-being of the world, can this already be considered an action?

Answer: Of course. Do you really think that giving out bread to the poor is a real action? This will only cause more poor people to exist in the world.

Your action is to attract Light. It, and nothing else, returns you to the Source. So what else is there to think about? Especially at a time when the whole world is in trouble and in danger. We only need the Light. The lack of Light is the reason for all the wars, crises, catastrophes, and other problems.

Precisely the lack of good actions by the Light evokes troubles at the four phases of development—still, vegetative, animate, and human. The evil we encounter is a projection of the lack of Light.

Punishment does not come from above. If I have to reach a specific reward, the revelation of the Creator, similarity and adhesion with Him, and I don’t do that, then I experience the gap that this creates as punishment or lack of goodness. And vice versa, by attaining this, I will feel a reward.

Thus, I feel reward and punishment in the same desires. If I have corrected and filled my desire, this is the reward, but if I cannot correct and fulfill it, this is punishment. There are no penalties from above. I do not receive a speck beyond what I inflict upon myself. I create my own punishment.

Therefore, we have just one task—to attract the Light. Especially today, considering everything that is happening and accumulating in the world. There are no other means.

I am constantly in touch with people who are “in the know,” and I read all kinds of articles, visit websites, and follow the newspapers, but I don’t see a solution offered anywhere. They cannot offer anything and they don’t even want to think about this because they don’t have the slightest connection with correction.

Just yesterday I was talking about this with a famous writer and he did not say anything—he avoided answering. This indicates a lack of sensitivity, a lack of understanding the corrections.

“The world is round and we have to unite,” I say to people. “That’s right, we’re also acting in that direction,” they respond. People don’t even realize that in reality they are going in the opposite direction. After all, in the end every person is just strengthening his own party or movement. There is no one to talk to.

Therefore, we have to create conditions in our midst for a positive force to emerge. Only then will its waves ripple through the whole world. Nothing else will help. We do not depend on others, but we have to help them so that later on people will quickly catch these waves, understand their message, and feel that they are coming from us.

The materials have to be disseminated ahead of time, but in essence the source of these waves is us. And therefore, the most important thing is to unite, to merge with one another more and more.

I place great hopes on the upcoming conventions. They are the means by which we have to bring to life unity, consolidation, and mutual care for the world and for our correction, which will help the world.

The time has come for the Creator to become revealed in the creatures. The means is simple and it is in our hands. All we have to do is use it. We ask the world to wake up, but are we awakening ourselves?
[43306]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/11, “Peace in the World”

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