From the book The Essential Secret of the Jews, M. Brushtein

The Crisis Is According To A Consistent Pattern  

The fact that the crisis is a regular thing has been known for a long time. Nikolai D.Kondratiev’s studies are widely known.

Kondratiev waves are long cycles of economic activity, the existence of which was predicted by the Russian economist Nikolai D. Kondratieff (1892-1931) who was killed during Stalin’s purges.

The cycle length is defined as about 40 years. The last drop in production accounted for the depression in the 1930s. (Academic Dictionary)

It is interesting that, according to Kondratieff’s observations, cycles consist of four phases. In their turn, Kondratieff cycles themselves are part of another four.

Economic cycles:

Kitchin cycle 2-3 years;

Juglar cycle 6-13 years;

Kuznets cycle 15-20 years;

Kondratieff cycle 50-60 years.

By the way, let’s recall that we talked about the four phases of development in Chapter 2.

We need to say the following with respect to the cycles. The point is not in what order and how economic crises pass. The problem is that even the most thorough study of the crisis brought us no closer to an understanding of their causes. Why do we need to know when the next crisis comes? It is better that it didn’t happen at all.

“A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.” (Albert Einstein)

The fact is that the causes of the crises are in the incorrect relationship between people, Abraham once said. Today, we are finally starting to understand it.

We do not develop harmoniously and our spiritual development is so behind that we are the victims of an avalanche of technological growth. We cannot emerge from this stream, even if we wanted to.

As a result, when humanity had a need for a new energy for technological development, when it discovered this energy, then morally it was not ready to use it to its advantage.

Then, in terms of historical development, we began to distrust each other so much, not to believe that we could help each other (although everything was done in order to survive together) that each of us personally, in fact, does not participate in public life. (Andrei A. Tarkovsky, Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director)

We do not know how to solve this problem. Abraham solved this problem.

“He (Abraham) managed to create a great nation of the progeny. Unified, despite all the changes of places and vicissitudes.” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and statesman).
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A person faces many questions as to how to act, work, and speed up his development, that is, to speed up the revelation of the Creator. Revealing the Creator, the force that manages all of reality and our part in it, is the only thing a person does in this world.

In order to achieve it, we follow the advice of people who have already been through this process and who attained the revelation of the Creator. This is the reason that we study the wisdom of Kabbalah, which by definition is the method of revealing the Creator to the created beings in this world. All we have to do is to fulfill and implement what Kabbalists say.

Of course, the closer a Kabbalist is to our times, the more useful his advice is for us because he better understands us since he is lives the same lifestyle that and is as our contemporary.

Thus, we begin to study the system that includes, not only the system of concealment between us and the Creator, but also the system where the Kabbalists are, those who have attained the Creator. They revealed the Creator during their lifetime in this world, which means that they removed the concealment.

They are not in this world anymore, but the fruits of their work are not lost, and by using them, we can develop a special sense and recognition above our ordinary physical senses and mind.

Our physical perception of the world is even more limited than that of animals. All animals can feel a tsunami approaching three days in advance and flee to the mountains. It is only humans who don’t suspect anything. We don’t even feel nature and are the furthest from it compared to all the animals. However, it isn’t about the existence of the corporeal body but about our attitude towards the upper force.

The desire to attain the upper force awakens only in man and even that doesn’t happen in everyone. But in every generation since the existence of mankind there are people in whom such a need to reveal the Creator awakens and they fulfill this desire.

Besides revealing the Creator they also leave us their writings though books, letters, and articles. Each one writes in his own style about how to remove the concealment, the system of concealments, and how to use the system.

It is because it isn’t revealed all at once and not fully, but gradually. Thus we have to go through certain actions. Kabbalists tell us how to help each other do that if there are people in our generation with the same yearning for revealing the Creator.

There have been many generations of Kabbalists since the first man (Adam), who was the first Kabbalist to attain the Creator and who removed the concealment. We can use their legacy, and besides their writings, we can also use their help.

When we enter a system where the Creator is present, but invisible, we can use the help of Kabbalists who have already attained His revelation. They are actively incorporated within this system and sustain it on a certain level of revelation and attainment by bringing it closer to us and helping us become incorporated within it.

We only need to attain the sensitivity and the recognition needed to reveal it so that we can use the system correctly with the help of the Kabbalists.

We also have to carry out all their recommendations in this world. In our generation there are many people who want to reveal the Creator. We are living in a special time when there is permission to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah to everyone. Anyone who wants to reveal the Creator can come and reveal Him.

Thus we have a unique opportunity. If we unite in our search for the Creator, it will be like looking together for someone who is lost in the woods. We can all go out together, many people, and search the whole forest. Everyone can go and cry out: “Hey, where are you??!” and so by helping one another, we will eventually find the one who is lost.

Similarly, we can look for the Creator together. Such a collective search is much easier than searching individually. It is actually impossible to find the Creator by one’s self, but together we will do it quickly and easily.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

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From the book The Essential Secret of the Jews, M. Brushtein

If you dig deeper in search of the perpetrators, the circle of suspects begins to narrow. Of course, it’s the Jews. Is there really a better candidate?

For example, famous Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis is sure of this.

American Jews are behind the world economic crisis that has also hit Greece.  (The Global Jewish News Source)

Surveys carried out in Europe indicate this. In seven European countries, 3,500 people were interviewed. About a third of those surveyed, 31%, responded that the perpetrators of the financial crisis are the Jews. (Lenta)

Surveys, done in the USA have shown the same results.

“In order to assess explicit prejudice toward Jews, we directly asked respondents ‘How much to blame were the Jews for the financial crisis?’… Among non-Jewish respondents, a strikingly high 24.6%  of Americans blamed the Jews a moderate amount or more, and 38.4% attributed at least some level of blame to the group.” (Boston Review)

A surprising paradox. On the one hand, the Jews are accused of all mortal sins, and on the other hand, “A Jew is a pioneer of culture. From time immemorial, ignorance was impossible in the Holy Land, even more so than nowadays in civilized Europe. Moreover, at the time when the life and death of a human being was worth nothing, Rabbi Akiva spoke against the death penalty which is now considered to be an acceptable punishment in the most civilized countries.” (Leo Tolstoy “What is a Jew?”)

Additionally,

“I admire the spiritual steadfastness of the Jewish nation, its manly idealisms, its unconquerable faith in the victory of good over evil, in the possibility of happiness on earth.

“The Jews—mankind’s old, strong leaven,—have always exalted its spirit, bringing into the world restless, noble ideas, goading men to embark on a search for finer values.” (Maxim Gorky, About Jews)

And finally.

“Some people like Jews and some do not; but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that they are beyond all question the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world.” (Winston S. Churchill, “A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People”)

Is all this coincidence? Was the crisis an accident? Are the Jews blamed for the crisis by chance? Are the laudatory remarks about Jews random? Maybe, a brick falls on someone’s head by accident?

“‘A brick is neither here nor there,’ the stranger interrupted persuasively. ‘A brick never falls on anyone’s head. You in particular, I assure you, are in no danger from that. Your death will be different.'” (Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita)

It could take a long time to prove that there are no coincidences, and it is a meaningless activity. Let’s focus for now on the compromise proposed by one of the greats. An accident is a non-understood regularity.
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Question: Why does the holiday of Simchat Torah (rejoicing with the Torah) immediately follow Sukkot?

Answer: During the seven days of Sukkot, when I am in the Sukkah, which means surrounded by the surrounding Light, I being am corrected. This Light reaches me through Scach (branches that cover the Sukkah), which itself, is a whole spiritual mechanism.

I have guests every evening, such as  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David, each of whom symbolizes a special attribute in a person. In other words, it is about forces that correct my attributes by turning them from evil into goodness.

I perform internal work on the entire path to perfection and use the Torah as the force of correction, and thanks to that, I am able to identify the evil within me and identify it to such an extent that eventually there is none left.

After this diagnosis, the Torah turns the evil in me into goodness and then I resemble the Creator, the absolute goodness. I am filled with love and bestowal towards others and through them to Him, since it is actually the same thing. Thus I discover what is called “the whole world is filled with His honor.” He is in everything that seems to me as being external.

Question: The holiday of Simchat Torah symbolizes joy. What is a person actually joyful about in this holiday?

Answer: It is that he has used the Torah correctly and has corrected himself in equivalence to the Creator.

Question: Why is it so delightful to resemble the Creator?

Answer: Since we reach adhesion and equivalence of form with Him, now we can bestow unto Him just as He bestows unto me. This is how we are made and there isn’t a more sublime state for us.

Question: But still, what is concealed behind that?

Answer: I was created as a desire to receive pleasure, so in a state of complete equivalence of form to the Creator, I receive pleasure from Him. By turning all the evil into goodness, into similarity to the Creator, I begin to receive all the goodness and infinite abundance from Him. It is because I also want to bestow infinite abundance.

Thus the festive symbolism of the month of Tishre describes the path to the end of correction, which results in the eighth day, Shmini Atzeret, after which there is nothing else to correct. The word “Atzeret” stems from the Hebrew word “to stop – Atsar,” which symbolizes the end of correction.

We compare this perfect state to a pomegranate. All my 613 desires are the seeds of the pomegranate that have finally changed from evil to goodness.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

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I feel immense joy in the fact that now most of my students in the world are beginning to understand and feel that the spiritual world is discovered in the connection between us.

Although we have been studying the spiritual system for many years, and in spite of all this, the heart does not want to hear about the shattering of the Kli of the collective soul, its descent and fall into this world, the division into a multitude of people, the expansion of the Kli, the equal distance from the center to the periphery all over the Earth, and the growth of the ego. Generally, this takes a lot of time, and many years pass before the heart understands and reaches the awareness that something is not okay, and it will then respond to problems with connection, with unity.

From the very moment that the person begins to hear this, he enters into the way towards the goal of creation and goes forward at a constantly increasing the rate, amassing experience and gathering the distant, scattered and shattered parts of his soul. He already knows that everything is concentrated only in his group of ten, in a hundred, in a thousand, and that the upper world, the Creator, and the completion and goal of creation are found precisely in this place.

If he automatically turns to the group, no matter what happens, this is a sign that he is standing firmly on his own two feet and is facing the goal correctly. I hope that the results of our convention will become a feeling like this for many who are here and those who are together with us throughout the world.

This is the most difficult starting point of the countdown. Nobody, anywhere was ever was able to attain this. Many have tried to do this through all kinds of conditions for thousands of years, but only individuals succeeded, even though people were ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of this. So a gradual approach, recognition and discovery of the starting point and investment of much effort required subtle and continuous work.

It seems to me that we are seeing its beginning. The sensation that everything begins and ends with contact, connection within the group, that everything is determined there and besides this there is nothing, will show us later how to operate in the world, and how to manage nature through our unification. This is because we are raising MAN, our desire for connection, unity, and correction.

The world will then advance forward towards harmony, unity, happiness, and fulfillment of the law of equivalence of form at the same rate as us. In this transition from  “me,” the yearning for the Creator that I imagine, to the we, where within this we is one single whole within our separated we, the general power of connection called the Creator is discovered.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, Lesson 4

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The revolutionary process in which we are participating began with the Big Bang and continued through stronger and stronger connection: from fundamental particles to atoms, from atoms to molecules, from molecules to more and more complex structures, until the appearance of the human body, including the cognitive system, the nervous system, and additional systems. Some of them are not known and some are not understood by us.

In general, this process evolved in two directions: extension and connection.

Everything aspires to connection, and only humans, their societies and their nature, receive an opposite form. In a society, we become more and more connected. However, on the other hand, we oppose each other because the ego separates us. As a result of this, we don’t build a cohesive society based upon mutual support, according to the principle of every living body, including our own. Instead of this, we build something very strange, and our society becomes like a cancer that ultimately devours itself and dies.

Essentially, we don’t know what to do. Scientific studies of the forces and mechanisms that move us have discovered that we have no possibility of avoiding  a third world war and chaos. Scientists know this and write that there is no real solution to this way of development, and what is left is only to submit to the mercy of the process that leads us toward an unknown future.

We are destroying the planet, depleting the natural resources, and doing with nature and ecology whatever we please. All this is not because this came to us, but because we don’t know how to build systems that consist of opposites that connect into a single structure. This union of opposites is precisely the essential law of complex systems.

Here, we come to the wisdom of Kabbalah. This problem arose even 3,500 years ago in ancient Babylon. On the one hand, its inhabitants were very close to one another and depended upon each other. On the other hand, they could not stand each other. They hated one another and felt mutual repulsion. And there was nothing they could do about it, the very structure of society was such that it was devouring itself.

It was then that a wise man by the name of Abraham discovered that the transition to a new level of development was concealed here. Essentially, there was nothing unique about that state. Just like the transition from the level of the still to the vegetative, or from the vegetative to the level of the animate, so also is the transition from the level of the animate to the level of the speaking. This transition requires us to attain the power of connection between opposites so that they can be connected and form a completely harmonious system. In spite of the polarities, in spite of the hatred and the rejection between us, we can utilize a unique force, a unique network in order to reach balance between one another and build a life.

We don’t really understand the significance of this step. We don’t understand what the source of life is and how two opposites can connect. However, it is precisely the absolute polarities between plus and minus that form the atom, a stable system in which they are opposed and yet simultaneously connect.

To continue, according to that principle, combinations are constructed that are more and more complex, possessing the ability to evolve. Plus and minus are combined between them in order to attract what is useful for development and the balance between them, and to emit what is harmful to that balance. Thus, by means of absorption and emission, life is created. There is more and more complex development, until there is a need for building a new system that the Kabbalists call the spiritual system. In other words, it is higher than the systems that are familiar to us.

Abraham discovered that there exists a universal law in nature that encompasses all systems, that maintains and develops them. It is possible to call it the power of Light, the power of the Creator, the higher power. However, it has one goal: to keep all parts of reality in harmony and mutual connection.

It is possible to attract and use this force even now, when we want to rise to the new level and become one system. Through this, we awaken the universal force, and it builds the long-awaited balance between us.

In Kabbalah, the law that Abraham discovered is called the law of equivalence of form. If I am personally attracted to the one force of equivalence of form, then to that degree, I arouse its influence on me and it builds the connection between me and other people to whom I am attracted. It builds among us a harmonious and balanced system between all of the parts.

Abraham discovered the deepest layer of that general integral law of nature that already was known and to which he called all of the Babylonians to join him.

Maimonides, the 12^th century philosopher, said that Abraham wrote a multitude of books and did great dissemination work so that people would understand what he discovered and that he was speaking specifically about a law of nature that one should not oppose. That is how we evolve, without a possibility of escaping from its flow, from the natural tendency toward balance, connection, and harmony.

On the level of the still, vegetative, and animate, we reach balance spontaneously, without free choice. However, on the level of the speaking, this no longer will succeed because we need to participate consciously in building balance and a universal human system. It is up to us to understand, recognize, want to invest effort, and choose to try to organize correctly in order to advance.

So, thanks to these efforts, we arouse the only universal force of nature, which is the Creator, the Light. It doesn’t matter what you call it. In response to our efforts, it will influence us and carry out the right action of connection on us. This is what Abraham taught people.

The subsequent history is known. Some of the people heard him and realized the method for a while, but later, and in spite of it all, dropped out of the process. It is impossible to build one harmonious and balanced system if all the rest of humanity is broken. That is why we have reached the situation today where the Babylonian crisis of separation has come back upon us.

Why is it specifically today? This is because humanity, as was the case then, is discovering that it is connected in one universal system. We are closed within one system, one society, one family, on the face of the Earth, and all of us are linked to each other.

Today, we don’t need to fight. It is enough to sever connections with some nation and it will not bear this isolation. Modern weapons are the same primitive, barbaric clubs in a sophisticated form. No one needs them in a worldwide global system that is like a global village. Today, commercial, industrial, financial, and logistical connections determine everything. If you sever these arteries for a nation, it is like disconnecting some organ from the body. It is clear that it will not survive on its own.

That is also what happened in ancient Babylon in Mesopotamia, the cradle of humanity, when it became one society. The same thing is happening today as.

The Kabbalists, students of Abraham in all generations, spoke about this and even made a calculation in a timeline according to the law of human development to understand when humanity would return to the same situation. The law of unification began to be clarified at the end of the 19^th century, and according to everyone, reached clarification at the end of the 20^th century. More precisely, the Kabbalists wrote about this as being since the year 1995.

This is the situation today. When I began to study the wisdom of Kabbalah in 1975-76, I didn’t believe that this would really happen. However, in reality, there was a very sharp transition, and suddenly there was talk about a unified system, a unified humanity, about a global village, and absolute dependence upon one another, and so forth.

Together with this, the evil of human nature was revealed showing how much we are the opposite to each other and not ready to connect in a correct manner. After all, in spite of the oppositions between us on the level of the still, vegetative, and animate, the universal force connects us such that the polarities are transformed into a dipole that connects us and keeps us in balance and harmony.

However, on the level of the speaking, in the human connections between us, it is up to us to awaken in ourselves the influence of the universal force and to participate in the balance between plus and minus, between the two extremes. This requires specific work from us.

First of all, it is up to us to understand and recognize the situation in which we are found and to continue to invest shared efforts in order to build the right environment. In Kabbalah, these efforts are called raising MAN, meaning making a request for connection. Through this, we awaken the influence of the universal force on us that will connect us into one system and into harmony for all of human society.

This is right for the present historical moment. Today, the wisdom of Kabbalah, the science that Abraham discovered, has been opened before everyone. This is because all of us must utilize the system that has been created and begin to correctly use the conditions that have been created for building the future society. Otherwise, humanity is liable to be destroyed.

So, the Kabbalists, the people who are involved with this problem and its solution, bring to our attention the truth about our situation and our future. They tell us that, in any case, we are reaching a collective balance. However, if we don’t awaken the only force of nature that brings our unification and the right connection between us, then it will nevertheless be revealed as the only power that connects and gathers us together, but without our inclination and desire. In that case, we will need to obey this law against our will, and this will bring us to very unpleasant situations through disasters, plagues, and wars.

This is a good force, for it connects the entire system into one. However, if we oppose it, then we awaken upon ourselves the influence of opposing forces that act upon us as disasters.

The Kabbalists try to bring this knowledge to all humanity and teach humanity how to reach the right understanding of connection, awakening in us an attraction toward it, and in accord with our yearning, stimulating the discovery of the one force without arousing disasters. As a necessity, we will come closer to the correct, integral singular state and advance in the best, most pleasant and desirable way. Such an effort is what is required from us.

The most difficult problems today are being discovered in human society, even though everything good exists in the world. Scientific and technological advancement has reached its peak, but they don’t dare show some of this modern technology to humanity. Otherwise, people will not need to work and there won’t be any need to invest effort.

Essentially, we already have gone out to a new level of development, but we still are not ready to realize it because of our inadequacy. We have the tools in our hands, but we are not ready to integrate them correctly on the new level because our approach is not integral, meaning our inner structure is not integral. On the contrary, we are egoists, and our tendency is to be distant from one another and not connect in harmony.

As a result of this, we look with fear at the future state of united humanity, and we don’t know what to do with seven billion human beings who won’t be working. We don’t have any concept of another form of existence and about a different connection between us while we rise to another level of perception, to a different life and way of living.

There are a multitude of surprises hidden behind the new situation, but we still are not ready to digest them because our perception is not integral.

The main thing in the integral system is to forego the individualistic view of me against the world. Instead of this, I must acquire an integral perception and see a whole picture where all of us are connected and completing one another. Only then do I discover the future state in which humanity must exist, and then I understand and feel this life that is expected at a propitious time.

It is up to us to reach this perception, and this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us.
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From the Convention In Mexico “Day One” 8/1/14, Lesson 1

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From the book The Essential Secret of the Jews, M. Brushtein

While the force majeure affected individual members of humanity or even individual countries, this could be tolerated. But now, beginning with the 20^th century, the situation started to deteriorate. Now, forces majeures “catch” not individual countries, but whole hemispheres.

Let’s recall Chernobyl, the latest earthquake in Japan, the oil accident in the Gulf of Mexico. However, the mentioned disasters are rather random in nature, which we associate with reasons beyond the control of man. Thus we seem to wash our hands of and say that we are not to blame.

However, a long time ago things began to change. We have encountered forces majeures, that is, unpredictable events, in the systems, invented by us and managed by us in the financial, economic, health, education, and other systems.

Now we cannot say that irrational nature spoils our lives. It turns out that we are wrong somewhere. The problem is compounded again by the extent of the consequences.

The worst thing is that we cannot find the guilty and we don’t know what to do.

The heads of central banks have responded to criticism of their too aggressive monetary policy. They admitted that actually they run the economy blindfolded and just do not know what will happen next, writes the Financial Times.

Despite these statements, the perpetrators of the crisis are sought. There are not so many versions. Most often the West, or rather the USA, are accused. At the same time, it is difficult to imagine that the West is currently directing such things.

Leonid Nikas, director of a primary school in Athens, was was used to the fact that children in the school yard play, laugh and dream about the future. But recently a completely different picture, which previously he could not imagine, appeared before his eyes: children were looking for food in garbage cans; those who are in need, ask their richer friends to share leftover food, writes The New York Times.

The Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),Yves Daccord, the German news agency DPA reports, compared the current situation in the Old World with the events of almost seventy years ago. Such a large-scale operation to provide food aid in Europe has not been seen since World War II. (Expert Online)

According to the study, ordered by the European Commission, only from 2008 to 2010, the number of victims of European slavers increased by 18 percent – from 6309 to 9528 … people.

According to official data, in theses three years, 23,623 people have been recognized as victims of human trafficking…

Two of the three victims were forced into prostitution, and the rest were used as cheap or free labor, were forced into illegal activities, forced to become organ donors. (Russian Germany)

Of course, we can say that Americans do not care about what is happening in Europe – their concerns are more important to them. We can say that they are villains. But they are not crazy though. Really, don’t they care what’s going on in their homes?

“Large U.S. cities that the rest of the world used to look at in envy are now being transformed into gang-infested hellholes with skyrocketing crime rates. Cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Camden, East St. Louis, New Orleans and Oakland were once bustling with economic activity, but as industry has fled those communities poverty has exploded and so has criminal activity.  Meanwhile, financial problems have caused all of those cities to significantly reduce their police forces. Sadly, this same pattern is being repeated in hundreds of communities all over the nation. … There are approximately 1.4 million gang members living in America today according to the FBI.  That number has shot up by a whopping 40 percent just since 2009. “ (Michael Snyder, “Large Cities All Over America are Degenerating into Gang-Infested War Zones”)
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Question: What do the four plant species (Arba Minim) that characterize the Sukkot holiday symbolize for us?

Answer: The Lulav (palm branch) is bestowal, consisting of myrtle and willow (three branches of myrtle and two branches of willow). This is the Yesod that we connect to Malchut, the Etrog.

This is combining the characteristics of the Creator—Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod—with our creature characteristics, Malchut. If we were to say this differently, it is a connection of the forms of bestowal that typify the Creator, all the various expressions of His love for us. However, this is not Him Himself. Rather, this is how we perceive Him in our Kelim, in our desires.

Question: Where exactly does a person realize this whole process of adapting himself to complete bestowal and love? Toward whom does he direct his love?

Answer: In order to attain the Creator, I must learn what bestowal and love are. So, I must build a group, acquire friends for myself, so that there among them, I can manifest my attitude. From love for the creatures, the person reaches love for the Creator.

I relate to friends with love just as I would relate to Him. My relationship to the Creator cannot be better than my relationship to the creatures, and only through the friend, through the other, can I attain the Creator.

Question: Why?

Answer: Because a relationship with others is the work that the Creator places in front of me. The entire surrounding world is His “theater” in which I can rehearse, practice, and try to attain the same attitude toward the world like the relationship to the Creator should be.

The way toward Him must pass through this world. Individually, I don’t discover the Creator. Rather, it is only within this world, through it. I practice in a group of people that are conducting a search all the time, and then we pass through the world, through all of its coarseness, in order to attain the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

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When we begin our quest to find the Creator, He plays “hide and seek” with us. He “hides” and at the same time directs us forward. In this search, the holiday of Sukkot carries a certain sensation of warmth. It’s as if somebody tells us: “warmer, warmer, hot…!” Something unusual emerges, something in the mist, the contours of a new step that lies between the Creator and us appear.

Let’s talk about the symbols of Sukkot and their meaning in our quest.

First of all, we have to know the system we are in. Any measurements we make are done in accordance with certain standards similar to the measurements of the parameters of any physical system. For example, one liter of water weighs one kilogram. This measurement allows us to weigh various objects by placing a load equal to one kilogram on one of the pan of the scales. One way or the other, we always compare our actions with some standard that is based on well-known parameters.

However, our spiritual path begins with emptiness, a state of unawareness. While we head towards the Creator, we should turn the darkness into the Light, concealment into revelation, insensibility into sensitivity. At first, we don’t know what is missing. Later, we feel the deficiency as if we “taste” this insufficiency.

Let’s say, I am full, I don’t want to eat, I don’t even think about food. A little while later, I feel that I wouldn’t mind having a snack. The desire grows in me. To put it metaphorically, I would say that some time ago my life was easy and serene, but at some point there appeared a curtain, a veil.

In Kabbalah, the absence of hunger is called a “double concealment” since not only the object of my desire (food) is out of my attention, but even the hunger itself is unnoticeable. Then, when I feel the first signs of hunger, a deficiency, I begin searching for the ways to fulfill it.

On our spiritual path, we have to feel the concealment, the “hunger.” That’s why our work at the very beginning of the autumn holidays that begin in the month of Elul and continue further on during the New Year (Rosh Hashanah), throughout the first ten days of atonement, on the judgment day, is to reveal the deficiency, to sense a need for the Creator.

Then, the holiday of Sukkot comes, a festival of “huts.” A hut symbolizes the dome of the world: above it, there is the Light. We are inside the “hut,” sitting in relative shade. It’s not the Creator who hides from us; it’s we who “obscure” Him in order to further reveal Him gradually, to the extent of our abilities. “Being in the hut,” means that we are approaching the revelation, even though we still are at the very first stage of it.

This state triggers the Surrounding Lights (Makifim): the Creator can be felt only from a distance. Our “hug” with Him is not yet obvious, not clarified or recognized. In Kabbalah, this state is also called the Light of Hassadim, the “embrace” of the right arm.” “His left arm is under my head, His right arm embraces me,” as it is written in the Song of Songs. On the left, is an embrace of the harsh properties of judgment (Gevurot), on the right, there are hugs of mercy (Hassadim).

Even though we are behind the curtain, we still make efforts to recognize the One who threw it on us. In other words, we diligently work to turn the concealment into revelation. The Creator approaches us accordingly, to the degree of our exertions.

This work starts with a “zero,” when we don’t even feel that there is somebody who hides from us. “Where is He? Is He inside me? Is He in my thoughts and desires?” All these questions require a meticulous search, profound understanding and deep penetration in the material. Then, He will appear.
[145056]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

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Question: Your explanation of the essence of Sukkot is that it is a correction of desires by the Surrounding Light. Why is it different from what we were taught at school? We were told that Sukkot reminds the Jews of their escape from Egyptian slavery and of their life in tents in the desert.

Answer: Do these explanations really contradict each other? “Egypt” (Mitzrayim) symbolizes staying inside one’s evil nature (Yetzer-Ra), being in exile, consenting to obey Pharaoh’s authority that rules over our egoistic desires. It was the Creator who made egoism. That’s why He keeps saying: “I hardened the Pharaoh’s heart!”

Later, we go out of Pharaoh’s “jurisdiction” by initiating the process of self-correction. The holiday of Sukkot is a symbol. The only thing the Torah describes are methods of self-improvement in the heart; it is not about historic events. Today, we should implement this story.

Each Jewish holiday, as well as any event mentioned in the Torah, denotes ascents and descents of the power of bestowal and love, or various deviations from observing the instructions given in the Torah. The entire Torah is based on the law of “loving our neighbors as ourselves.” Reaching this kind of love is feasible solely by correcting our egos. It’s viable only with the help of the Torah, the Returning Light. That’s what we are trying to achieve.

Question: Why do people sit in a special “hut” called a Sukkah during this holiday?

Answer: The size of the Sukkah accurately corresponds to the dimensions of the soul. Only inside of the soul can desires and lights be calculated. In the Sukkah, we use “amas” (cubits, ells) as measurement units. This explains why there are rigid requirements for constructing a Sukkah. We should observe the rules of what the walls of a Sukkah should be like. We make the roof of the Sukkah from the “waste of barn and winery,” etc.

All these requirements stem from the spiritual roots. They are all about a special combination of receiving and bestowing forces that are essential for our soul (a desire to receive) in its pursuit to become similar with the Creator. The soul works in both receiving and giving desires just as hearts and lungs constantly contract and expand.

The Sukkah should be built in accurate correspondence with the parts of the soul: ten Sefirot of the Direct Light and ten Sefirot of the Reflected Light. That’s why it cannot be higher than 20 amas. There are firm rules that regulate the time when a Sukkah should be built and what materials are suitable for it, i.e., “pure” enough (oriented to bestowal) to construct it.

A soul is a desire that is fully focused on bestowal to our neighbors, that is; it’s a structure that is totally opposite to the evil inclination, to our genuine nature. Unless we start self-correction, we have no soul.

The Sukkah symbolizes the soul, meaning the corrected desire. It is aimed at loving our neighbors. That’s why while building a Sukkah we have to take into consideration very many conditions. There are 613 desires in the soul: 248 bestowing desires and 365 desires to receive for the sake of giving. All these desires are inside us and we must start correcting them.
[144818]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/30/14

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