Question: In Israel Arabs are rioting. Are all of our efforts around the world don’t help?

Answer: I know only one thing; everything that happens is a result of our efforts. If the efforts are successful, one thing will happen; if they are less successful, something else will happen.

We are the only ones who determine what will happen to the nations of the world abroad and with our neighbors here. Everything is determined by the efforts that the people of Israel must make. Are they investing them? This is the problem. According to what is happening, we really haven’t been ready to direct events in the right way so that it will be good both for us and our neighbors.

One way or another, we determine this and nobody else. It isn’t Nasrallah, Ahmadinejad, Rohani, or Abu-Mazen. Why do we ascribe any actions to them? There isn’t and there won’t be anything from their side. Everything depends on you, you are the only one in the world who has freedom of choice. You determine everything that Israel encounters internally or externally. It is as if you are sitting in some machine and are running it. And nothing more.

We are always drawn to hear the news: what is happening in our country and abroad, what are the world leaders doing. But everything depends on you, so why should you know about them?

You need the news about which groups connected, which events happened, where we distributed materials, how many threads we have passed between Jews through television and the Internet so that they also will understand that everything depends upon them. This is what you need to know. This is the real news. After all, they don’t determine what will happen either today and tomorrow, nothing.

And so, when you are horrified about the Arab riots, know that you have a part in them.

Comment: The problems of Israel are not only the Arab riots. There is also corruption.

Answer: I am not talking only about security, but also about the economy, politics, health, and more. You alone determine everything, including all the phenomena of nature: the still, vegetative, animate, and human. Who are you? You are the people of Israel.

And who else are you? You are the Bnei Baruch group, which is the main culprit in what is happening. After all, the spiritual center of action is found here. Imagine that the whole world will get up and point at us, will discover who we are and say, “They are to blame for what is happening.”

Regarding corruption, you haven’t only involved in it, but have also awakened it. You have implemented the model of corruption in its root, and after that, someone realized it by traditional means.

Question: What must I do today to remove all the faults that I see in front of me?

Answer: Everything depends on you. You can build a wonderful life that will bring the Light that Reforms to the world. Do you want a good world that will return you to the good? This is what the Light does. So, attract the Light that will turn everything towards the good. Only you can do this, together with your friends.

Organize a strong event and connect, consolidate a shared idea, reach a common decision, do something. You are ready. Otherwise, neither you nor we will discover the power of evil that we feel today. If we feel its influence, it is designed to arouse us. And this testifies to our lack of work and our lack of precise correspondence to this force.

In other words, everything is simple. If there are riots in Israel, this means that we are constantly deteriorating backward. We have not completed our part, but instead, the opposite. The process demands much greater advancement, agility, and acceleration from us, and, on the contrary, we have slowed down. Otherwise, would we have discovered the problems as they are today?
[147525]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Nobel Prize Is Not The “Light To The Nations”
Becoming The Light For The Nations
War And Peace

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Israel, Israel Today, Kabbalah Dissemination, Nations of the World, Society, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: How can we avoid problems even before they come, by relating ourselves to the upper governance, which apart from that there is nothing else?

Answer: Without waiting for problems to appear, we should transform them into the attainments of greatness, mercy, and revelation of the upper governance. Unhappiness is the result of the same Upper Light that I take into myself for the sake of bestowal that brings me suffering by its effect on me.

After all, if I do not receive it in the correct form, for the sake of bestowal, when it enters my egoistic desire, it causes a breakage. That is what is felt as misfortunes, death, problems, hunger, and disease. It is all the same Light, as there is nothing but the Light and desire.

The Light is coming towards us because it is compelled to do so according to the program of creation, the plan of natural development on the time axis. Its time to be manifested inside the desire has arrived and we must be ready to accept this Light for the sake of bestowal.

But our desire is not ready! Are you not ready? Nonetheless, the Light enters the desire and causes a feeling of darkness. We are not able to take in the Light for the sake of bestowal; we have neither restriction on our ego nor the screen. This darkness will be manifested as catastrophe, wars, problems, and epidemics. Terrible misfortune will be revealed if we are not able to stop them, and all this because of a lack of correction of desires.

Everything is done by the Upper Light, and it can be both the elixir of life or fatal poison for us. We choose what it can be! Therefore, the people of Israel have no one to blame. We ourselves were the cause of everything that happened to us, especially in the 20^th century, no matter how painful it is to talk about that. I grew up in a family that suffered greatly from the Holocaust.

But nothing can be done if it is a law of nature. And now, according to the general program of development, which is realized on the time axis in a natural way, we come to a similar situation that existed before the Holocaust. If we do not prepare ourselves, then the Light will come closer to us and an uncorrected vessel will be found again. Terrible darkness will be revealed in this vessel, this desire, which will cause terrible problems in the world.

This will affect every person, every nation, and every part of the world and all civilizations, which now according to various estimates, there are six or eight. Everyone will be hit to the extent to which each of us have already developed, and it is our fault that we still lack the screen and the reflected Light, that is readiness for connection. In normal earthly language, it is called a lack of good communication between people. This is the example of unity that the nation of Israel must show the world.
[147271]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/14, Shamati #1

 Related Material:
Do Not Allow Another Catastrophe On A Universal Scale, Part 1
An Old Rattle Trap On Potholes
The Holocaust: The Causes And The Motivating Forces

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Israel, Israel Today, Kabbalah Dissemination, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The process through which the people of Israel go is different from the process through which the nations of the world go. In the days of the First Temple, Israel reached its individual correction, and since then has been in a constant descent because the intention of creation lies in the fact that it is broken, according to the breaking of the spiritual vessels.

As a result, the vessels were mixed; the people of Israel went into exile for an indefinite period of time. In our case, it is 2,000 years; however, in essence, the exile was completed during the time of the Ari. Here there are also plenty of calculations, but they are not so important. Whatever it was, this exile was bound to happen, and it was told about it in advance.

Now the people of Israel need, first of all, to awaken, and then make the nations of the world follow it.

In general, we are talking about two parts of a single receiving desire. One part has already experienced a spiritual ascent and fell, and as a result acquired an even stronger and crueler egoistic desire. But today, standing in front of the need to correct itself from falling and breaking, it has such a great potential that is able to lead the nations of the world, to convince them in reality in this world, to benefit them.

The people of Israel lived among the nations of the world and mixed with them. Due to this, now that it is awakened and draws the Surrounding Lights, these Lights come also to the nations, but cause a backlash, make them against the people of Israel. The nations are still in evil, and they have no desire of their own to come to good.

However, they feel their dependence on the people of Israel, which is expressed in anti-Semitism: The nations claim that the Jews cause all the evil in the world.

It is indeed so: Evil can be caused only by the one who can but does not bring the Light to the world, in other words, the people of Israel, because only it can carry the Light.

Therefore, the allegations of the nations are true, which in principle are reduced to the fact that all the evil is caused by the people of Israel and they depend on it, and if it wants, they will be fine. In these circumstances, the attitude of the nations seems justified.

The people of Israel must understand the negative outburst of emotions against it is to urge it to correction, which it is obliged to bring to the whole world.

Let’s hope that the people of Israel finally understand this and give the world correction.

The overall layout is quite simple and clear: The general desire is divided into two parts: internal and external, Israel and the nations of the world, each of which has the same division. From this it follows that Israel, Galgalta ve Eynaim, is able to attract the Light that Reforms, and the nations, AHP, are incapable. This is the reason for what is happening.
[147521]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Action Instead Of Intention
“Aliens” From Ancient Babel
The Spiritual Division Of Labor

Filed under: Dissemination, Israel, Israel Today, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

Question: The external performance of the Torah, is this descent or not?

Answer: External performance of the Torah is the result of the exile of the people of Israel. Before that, it did only internal work because everyone was in attainment of the Creator. Yes, there were problems, troubles, wars, but all this was part of a powerful internal analysis.

And then in the days of Rabbi Akiva, the people of Israel fell from the degree of brotherly love into unfounded hatred. If in the past, everyone had understood the Torah in a spiritual sense since their vessels, desires, were in revelation, after falling to the material level, they began to understand the Torah in the material sense. As a consequence, they started to perform it as we see today: strengthening themselves only by actions, not by intention.

The vessels of Israel have Galgalta ve Eynaim, part that is engaged in intentions and AHP, part that is engaged in actions. So it happened that there are two Torahs:

• For the vessels of Galgalta ve Eynaim, it is the wisdom of Kabbalah, called the true and also hidden science because it is revealed only to the one who lifts the veil over it;
• The science of explicit material actions, performed by part of the people of Israel, belonging to AHP.

We are not going to evaluate anyone, to judge anyone. There are no clever or stupid, good or bad. No one should be punished or despised. Simply, these are the facts. We should have come to this after the breaking of the vessels and exile. This is the way how the vessels, desires, are arranged in the process of its correction.

But now the question arises: How can we collectively become awakened to the true work of the Creator?
[147518]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Awakening By The Light
Intention As The Destiny of Israel
The Spiritual Division Of Labor

Filed under: Commandments, Israel, Israel Today, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

All the Jewish holidays stem from the wisdom of Kabbalah and symbolize different phases in our spiritual evolution.A person goes through many levels as he ascends the ladder of the spiritual worlds totally detached from the Creator until he reaches complete unity with Him. But in between there are special levels called “holidays” or “good days” (Yom Tov).

Pesach (Passover), which in our world symbolizes the redemption from the slavery in Egypt, reflects the first spiritual level, the exit from the ego, breaking free from it and ascending above it.

Then there is the level of the giving of the Torah that is symbolized by the holiday of Shavuot.

The breaking of the “stone tablets,” which means the temporary return to Egypt “falling into the ego” (Tisha B’Av) is symbolized by the Ninth of Av. This date now symbolizes a day of mourning, but in the future it will be the most joyful day.

After the Ninth of Av there is Rosh Hashanah (New Year), a major turn towards the new spiritual correction.

Ten days after Rosh Hashanah there is Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) when all of a person’s states are revealed and then his sins are revealed and corrected.

After Yom Kippur a person begins to receive a special Light of correction called the Light of Sukkot, the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that reforms him.

During the seven days of Sukkot a person reaches a state called Simchat Torah (rejoicing in the Torah), since the Light that descends on him provides him with the general corrections, bringing him close to the Creator.

The next holiday is Hanukkah, which is the holiday of Light that raises us above the ego and frees us from it. When we ascend above the ego a person feels that he is free, but this isn’t the end of correction yet.

The end of correction comes when we finally change the ego to a state of love and bestowal. This happens in Purim.

This is how a person goes through a whole cycle of holidays that symbolize the history of the Jewish people. I really hope that we will finally reach Purim, the end of correction, in the near future and thus the whole earthly saga, the history of man’s existence in this world, will come to end.
[146673]
From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/22/14

Related Material:
In The Cycle Of The Holidays
A Happy Union With Nature’s Holiday
Inviting The Light Of Correction To Be My Guest

Filed under: Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The Mission of the People of Israel

“But the end of the correction of the world will only be by bringing all the people in the world under His work…

But the role of Israel towards the rest of the world resembles the role of our Holy Fathers towards the Israeli nation…”

“Thus, each and every Mitzva that each person from Israel performs in order to bring contentment to one’s Maker, and not for any self-gratification, helps to some extent with the development of all the people of the world. This is because it is not done at once but by slow, gradual development, until it increases to such a degree that it can bring all the people in the world to the desired purity.”
– Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee), Item 20
[146937]
Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee), Item 20

Related Material:
The Kabbalists About The Nation Of Israel And The Nations Of The World, Part 8
The Kabbalists About The Nation Of Israel And The Nations Of The World, Part 7
The Kabbalists About The Nation Of Israel And The Nations Of The World, Part 6

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Israel, Kabbalistic Sources, Nations of the World - No Comments →

Question: Why, when one hears that there is no one else besides the Creator, the first thing he thinks about is all this evil that occurred in the world: wars, the Holocaust that claimed millions of lives?

Answer: A person does not agree with the fact that there is no one else besides the Creator because it seems that it eliminates the person himself, including his existence. He does not understand what it is all about.

To this day, people do not agree with the way the upper governance treats the people of Israel, the group that seeks “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-Kel), which Abraham organized as one people. Even today, people still cry about this disaster.

But it would be more correct to transform all the memory of the catastrophe into the basis for correction. The Holocaust Museum and Memorial should show why it occurred, from where this terrible fault came, and what it should teach us. It is meant to teach us how we can rise out of this affliction.

In place of the catastrophe, we can grow a new attitude of the people of Israel to the Creator that is more mature and purposeful. Just tears and vows that it will never happen again will not protect us from future disasters. At that time we could not prevent the disaster, and so we cannot today.

What can be done in order to be able to influence events and not allow this to happen again? How can we learn from the past and find the strength that allows us henceforth to act so that it actually never happens again? Today we must correct the damage that we were not able to eliminate in the days of the catastrophe. Therefore, it took place in order to make corrections by the path of suffering.

The oneness of the upper governance is a very hard fact, which is not accepted by an ordinary person with all the troubles and tragedies of this life he has to go through. People do not understand how it is possible that the Creator treated the nation of Israel so badly, which was the group “aspiring straight to the Creator,” guiding them through such suffering.

It is enough to look at the path that the people of Israel went through, at all the suffering experienced by us during the 2,000 years of exile. Why did this happen? What was our mistake and why haven’t we learned from it? Why to this day, don’t we want to draw conclusions? Indeed, with anti-Semitism growing day by day, today there might be a much worse catastrophe than the one that occurred in Europe 70 years ago.

This is a very painful subject, but we have to discuss it. There is no way out, and we have to look at what happened in terms of the purpose of creation and the forces acting in nature. Our sorrow for the perished is only the beginning step towards production of a practical action through correct, broad education for the people of Israel and the whole world.

This education should show people what terrible forces could be revealed if we do not turn them into good forces. The choice is in our hands! We ourselves choose who will take power over us: the evil force or the force of good, Pharaoh/egoism, or the Creator/bestowal; it must be one of the two.

We should explain this in television programs, workshops, and discussions. This applies not only to the Jews. Today, we have advanced so much that the whole world has to be included in the correction. That is why the upper governance begins to treat the world in the same way as it earlier treated the people of Israel.

In the past, the upper governance demanded only the people of Israel to come closer to bestowal, but now this is demanded from the whole world. Thus, the entire world is on the threshold of great suffering: the war of Gog and Magog, the third world war that was described by the prophets, to a multitude of problems and misfortunes. And all this could happen because the world is not advancing on the correct path.

Of course, the people of Israel will suffer the most because it has to pass the Light to the rest. But the whole world will also be involved in this disaster. It will not be like before, being a catastrophe only of the Jewish people. Riots, problems, and revolutions will occur in any location in the world. We can already see the first stirring of conflicts, which are destined to explode in the future and envelope the whole earth.
[147266]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/14, Shamati #1

Related Material:
The Holocaust: The Causes And The Motivating Forces
We Should Prefer Internality
If There Is No Communication, There Is No Peace

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Events, Group Work, Israel, Israel Today, Nations of the World, Songs by Arkadi Duchin, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

After the Jewish people entered the land of Israel, which means that they attained a state of connection in which they began to work internally on themselves establishing love, goodness, and complete incorporation in one another. Then new leaders emerged, King David and the prophets in every generation.

These were great Kabbalists who continued Abraham’s path by working on the unity of the nation, helping it to unite, engaging in the education of the growing generation.

At the same time their ego kept on growing, increasing the repulsion people felt toward one another, an unstoppable process.

This was an essential phase both historically and dialectically, since the Israeli nation needed to set an example for the whole world as to how people should live correctly.

Therefore, after they reached the land of Israel, they grew apart in order to enter a state of exile, to live among the nations of the world for a while and to plant the seeds of the spiritual state in them in the form of religions, science, culture, etc.; and when this phase came to an end, to start raising these nations.

The descent from the level of the land of Israel to the state in which the people descended to unfounded hatred during the time of Rabbi Akiva lasted 800 years.

Rabbi Akiva was a great spiritual leader who called everyone to strengthen the love and the connection between them and asked: “Why don’t we keep the rule of “love thy friend as thyself?! After all, it is the general law of the Torah!” But no one listened to him.

People were so immersed in unfounded hatred that they were exiled from the land of Israel. They lost the connection between them because the attribute that kept them together was gone, and when they broke apart, they dispersed all over the globe.

The whole Israeli nation fell to a state of the “nations of the world,” totally forgetting that they had once attained and felt the spiritual world. This is the state we are in to this very day.

But we have fulfilled part of the plan of creation that way: We have conveyed religions, culture, philosophy, science, etc. to the nations of the world. Philosophers in the Middle Ages said that it all stemmed from the wisdom of Kabbalah, from our true Torah.

Rabbi Akiva had a great student called Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) who received the spiritual method from his teacher and expressed it in The Book of Zohar. This is a very special book. For two thousand years it was passed from one generation to the next.

In the 16^th century another great Kabbalist appeared, the ARI. He formulated the Kabbalisitic method in a convenient manner that we could understand.

At the beginning of the 20^th century another outstanding Kabbbalist, Baal HaSulam (Rav Yehuda Ashlag) conveyed The Book of Zohar and the ARI’s wisdom to the contemporary generation in a language that we can understand. He established the practical scientific Kabbalah by which it is possible to understand the world we live in and what we should do in order to bring all of creation to the complete end of correction, which means to fulfill its mission.

We are living in a time when we have to implement the Kabbalistic method. Currently we are going through the same historical shattering in which the terrible egoistic state of the world is revealed to us, in which humanity doesn’t know where to turn to and what to do. It can lead to revolutions, wars, self-destruction, and practically to anything, but we have the method that can save the world.

It is a method of unity and connection, of creating mutual love, bringing the world to harmony, and to the revelation of the upper force, to the inner ascent of humanity from the level of our world to the level of a whole eternal existence. We can attain this here and now.
[146732]
From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/22/14

Related Material:
Short Stories: The Intentional Shaking Up Of The Babylonians
Short Stories: The Schools Of Kabbalah
Short Stories: The Evolution Of Abraham’s Group–Isaac

Filed under: Dissemination, Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Having gone through all the stages of life in Egypt and the exodus from Egypt, the people of Israel reach a state called Mt. Sinai. They begin to understand that they are facing a huge mountain of evil, the word “Sinai” stems from the word “hate” (mutual hate) in Hebrew, the deep repulsion that people feel towards one another which is much greater than what they felt in Egypt.

While in Egypt or in ancient Babylon they didn’t understand it and were not fully aware of it; now the evil is revealed to them to it’s fullest.

As a result the people feel perplexed, helpless, and cannot even imagine what they should do. But Moses eases their mind, promising them to arrange and fix the connection between them and Creator. This is his role since he is the link between the people of Israel and the upper force. The people wouldn’t be able to do anything without his help and guidance, without his connection to the Creator.

He climbs Mt. Sinai while the people don’t feel this connection and are ready to go back to Egypt. The main thing for them is to feel that they have something, something to hold on to! Hatred scares simple people.

Imagine you are living in an apartment building in which everyone hates you deeply. You are afraid to come out of your apartment, to open a window, you feel currents of great hatred on all sides, you cannot sleep, and are losing your appetite. This is a terrible situation! This is exactly what the people standing at the feet of Mt. Sinai feel. The true nature of their ego is revealed to them and they see that they cannot overcome it in any way since the connection with the Creator who helped them not long ago is gone.

But Moses promises them that he will ascend to this level of connection, establish the contact between them, and take them out of this hatred. Only he can ascend above the mountain of the ego, but it is only one small attribute in us.

The moment he detaches from the people they lose hope of connecting to the Creator and the only hope they see is in creating the golden calf, which they believe can bring them together. There is nothing else they can hold on to.

They are ready to take off their gold jewelry and to donate it so that something will unite them. Because compared to the deep hatred they feel, the small ego that is embodied in the golden calf egotistically connects them at least to some extent.

When he comes down from Mt. Sinai, Moses comes closer to the people wanting to connect them to the Creator through him and to establish the contact between them, but he sees that once again they bow to their ego (the golden calf). Then he breaks the two tablets of the covenant received on Mt. Sinai, which is now unsuitable for the people since they have fallen to a different level.

Moses climbs the mountain, meaning the ego again, and when he connects to the upper level of love and bestowal above it, he receives a second instruction from the Creator. When he descends from this spiritual level he brings the people the plan for unity: the revelation of the Creator by their getting closer in the inner unity between them.

The plan includes all the major laws of the Torah, and the most important one is “love thy neighbor as thyself,” and the people are ready to keep it and to unite.

The day that Moses descends the second time from Mt. Sinai is called Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). He brings the people the two tables, which means the ten conditions in contrast to the ten plagues of Egypt. By fulfilling these conditions on the spiritual level, they reach a level of unity between them in which the Creator is revealed and they merge into complete unity with Him. This is the purpose of their correction.
[146719]
From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/22/14

Related Material:
Short Stories: Crossing The Egyptian Border
Short Stories: The Schools Of Kabbalah
Short Stories: The Evolution Of Abraham’s Group—Joseph

Filed under: Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

After Abraham founded his school, he began to develop the Kabbalistic method with the students who joined him. Thus he created three systems: a system of studying, a system of dissemination, and a system of fulfilling the wisdom of Kabbalah.

The system of dissemination takes into account the level of a person’s development. Everything depends on how people can perceive the spiritual idea, to what extent it is close to them and can answer their expectations, and to what extent they can be shown that this system is beneficial for them.

Later, when they ascend and develop, they will be ready to understand other options that the wisdom offers them. Therefore, a person should always be approached on his level, in a language that he understands, so he be can attracted by knowing you can actually help him realize what he wants.

This is what Abraham engaged in when he explained that the ultimate goal of our evolution is love and bestowal, and those who wish to attain it internally, at least to some extent, should come to him.

This is how the next stage of the development of Abraham’s school began. At this point, it was called Abraham’s group, since all the members in the group began to work on the connection between them, accepting the fact that unity is above separation.

When the leap of the ego occurred in ancient Babylon and people wanted to build a tower to reach heaven, that is, to the uppermost force, it was putting pressure on the negative force.

Abraham, however, claimed that the negative force stems from the same positive force and has to be operated differently, by absorbing it as what we call the left line (the negative force). He believed that the ego that rises in people should be studied and worked with correctly. This is the reason that the period that followed the development of Abraham’s group is called Isaac.

The correct use of the ego is called the sacrifice of Isaac, which means that we bind our ego and threaten to kill it, totally ready to sacrifice it, although we understand that we will not attain the Creator without it. On the other hand, resemblance and equivalence to the Creator can only be attained if we limit the ego correctly. For us, it is like cutting our own flesh.

We learn to control our ego, to bind it, manage it, and place it under the attribute of love and bestowal without destroying it and without threatening it, and we become ready to break away from ourselves (since the ego is the whole self). This process is part of our evolution, and when we perform it, we are have the opportunity for the correct, productive, and focused work with our ego. This is the essence of the story of the sacrifice of Isaac.
[146497]
From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/15/14

Related Material:
Short Stories: Abraham’s Rough Path
Short Stories: The Source Of The Spiritual Practices
Short Stories: The Spiritual Father Of Humanity

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Egoism, Inner Work, Israel, My Similarity to the Creator, Nations of the World, Society, Spiritual Work, Unity - No Comments →