Question: Isaac forbade Jacob to marry any of Canaan’s daughters. Why is it so important not to “mix?” What does it mean?

Answer: According to the general system, Jacob had to descend solely from the middle line. As a result, he had to originate the property of Israel and reach a big state, adulthood (Gadlut), and give birth to the twelve tribes of Israel. In other words, he was the one who had to generate a complete, correct, and balanced system that had to be shaped in a way that could sustain ascents, shattering, and dissolving into Esau, meaning into humankind, and be reborn, thus reviving all of humanity.

Today, we are the ones who have to complete our spiritual resurrection. However, it doesn’t mean that we have to finish self-correction first and only then humanity’s turn will come. Not at all! We are included within humankind. To the degree of our self-correction, and the level of the spiritual revival of every single one of us, the part that corresponds to each of us will instantaneously be altered. So, we progress according to what we must modify in others.

Question: Is it our responsibility to act on the other nations’ territory?

Answer: Yes. We are carrying their correction on our shoulders and they will start helping us as soon as we succeed. Should we start acting correctly, they will immediately join and follow us, and will ask us to tell them what they are supposed to do.
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From KabTV’s “Weekly Torah Portion,” 11/14/14

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We are found in the center of creation. And specifically we, those who are with doubts, problems, and confusion, through our small efforts carry out the most desirable work for Creator, what is most pleasant for Him.

That is how a small child gives pleasure to his parents with each of his unconscious acts. Everything extends from above to below. So we need to learn about the spiritual world from the physical world, and then we see what great actions we are doing.

And the very many states that are constantly changing in the world are the revelation of the Shehina (the presence of the Creator), an immense vast field that includes within it all the worlds, all the souls, all the conditions, all the Reshimot (reminiscences); everything is found within the Shehina. Above it are the first nine Sefirot, the bestowal of the Creator. Under it is its nine lower Sefirot; these are the shattered Kelim, desires. And the Shehina herself, meanwhile she is Keter of Malchut of Atzilut, and her nine lower Sefirot fell into the three worlds of BYA.

Everything that happens in our world, everything that is portrayed in front of us, is a small copy of what is found in the shattered parts of the lower nine Sefirot of Malchut. But the person’s problem is that he isn’t ready to absorb this from everything that exists.

I must prepare myself for this state,first of all, to understand that everything that happens descends from the world of Ein Sof, and each and every moment this appears before me in the best form, given to me for correction. And so I don’t get involved at all in any of the problems that exist in the world, all that happen with me, with the friends, with the families, with the people of Israel, with the whole world, no matter what.

I must accept this as a given, and think only about what I must do above all of this. I don’t need to enter and go deeper into all the events that appear before me, otherwise I will be immediately be detached from the Creator. First, I must rise to a higher level, identify with the higher supervision and management, seemingly see this situation from its perfected supervision and management, and say that I see the world in such a damaged form because I myself am not corrected.

I must correct myself to see the world as perfect instead of this world with murders and all the terrible events; all this is done and created within my Malchut, within my desires; I absorb all of this, as it is said: “All who condemn do so through their own defect” (Talmud Babyli Kiddushin 70b).

From what I see in this world, I must now correct myself so that in this place I see the Malchut of Infinity. I think only about my correction, bringing myself to a state in which I will see that everything is perfect.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/14, The Zohar

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Question: Every person is on a search for happiness throughout his life. We look for what can bring us joy, love, elation, or peace. As a result, there is a need to turn to King Solomon’s famous book Ecclesiastes, which was written thousands of years ago.

I would like to understand why this story involves King Solomon and at a time of absolute prosperity? What is the message conveyed through this book?

Answer: What is Hevel Havalim (foolishness)? It is the bestowal and good attitude that stems from a person. The word “hevel” (“foolishness” in Hebrew) stems from the word “steam,” which is the breath that comes out of a person’s mouth, his attitude towards others, the Returning Light, by which he returns the good attitude to the world.

This is the only thing a person’s success and wellbeing depends on in this world. King Solomon teaches us how we attain happiness by this steam, which we create by our attitude towards others.

Question: I reflect on the environment and the environment reflects on me in response?

Answer: Yes. Everything depends on my attitude. The world is external to me and I don’t know it. But if my attitude towards the world is that I constantly take from it for myself, it seems dark. I constantly look for what else I can take for myself, and consequently, I remain empty. On the other hand, if I operate through what stems from me, I attain happiness.

Comment: But we usually understand the term Hevel Havalim (foolishness) as something that is hopeless.

Answer: It is because we understand it in our ego.

Question: Why did Solomon come to the conclusion that material acquisitions will never make a person happy?

Answer: Because this way we only expand our vessels of receiving, the desire to be full. When I want to buy something, to fill myself, I thus double my desire. Therefore it says that “a person dies with only half his desire in hand.”

What does it means that a person dies? That he kills his desire to receive. I wanted something and I got it. At the same time I receive the filling, my desire dies. Suppose I want to buy a house and I do it. I enjoy it for a couple of weeks, but gradually the pleasure diminishes until it disappears.

Question: I have a feeling that you are talking about people who have everything and feel emptiness, while a person who is not well off still desires something. How can the idea that a rich man buys a villa for a several million dollars and doesn’t feel any pleasure in it after a year help me?

Answer: Humanity advances along the path of its egoistic evolution, thus becoming more and more qualitative. The point isn’t that yesterday I wanted a two room apartment, today I need a four room apartment, and tomorrow a villa in an exclusive neighborhood. No. Our desire develops in a qualitative manner. The desire that develops in me today ceases to feel property as the goal of life. Humanity sees that it isn’t worth making such an effort for that.

Today the disappointment from life is much greater than looking for luxuries and prestige. I have become more indifferent and lazy. I want to be happy, but virtually. I want to feel happiness directly, and not through bricks called a villa, or a water reservoir called a swimming pool. I want to obtain an inner feeling! This is the whole problem, the plague of the century!

I have nothing to say to a person who still hopes that material acquisitions will bring him happiness. He sees his life as a process of working and in another ten years buying a house, two cars, having a family, and bringing up his kids. He considers this a good organized life. In that case he has to wait another ten years to see that it is all Hevel Havalim.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/23/13

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The Torah, “Leviticus,” Kedoshim, 19:4: Do not turn to idols and do not make molten gods for yourselves: I am the Lord, your God. An idol is something we obtain a priori,  obtained without any proof and must be taken on faith without trying to comprehend it. This is not done at the level of the human being.

A person must attain the levels of bestowal and mutual love between us, reveal, study, and work with them. He should fully comprehend, understand, and feel the system with one’s heart and mind. Only then can he say that doesn’t worship idols nor accept anything randomly.

Despite the fact that this is a very difficult life, the Creator poses such problems before us so that we reach the level of Adam (human) and don’t remain on the animal level.

So we can’t afford to take anything for granted. The Creator wants us to study Him, “Know the God of your fathers, and serve Him.” That is, the greatest point of our ascent is the perception and the attainment of the Creator.

Comment: Sometimes one wants to disconnect from everything just so one would simply be carried forward.

Answer: This is how our egoism works within us. On one hand, the ego always accompanies us during the correct development. On the other hand, there’s a need for a distinct spiritual attainment, development, and absorption, otherwise one doesn’t quench their thirst or feel oneself.

Bestowal is the source for clean water that quenches the thirst.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/26/14

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To date, studies about the evolution of the Earth make it possible to conclude that everything has been managed through extension and connection. Extension is “widespread” dispersion, whereas connection means communication, the joining of parts.

These two forces are acting in our world and must be balanced. During evolution and the correct integration between them, these forces stabilize very complex systems, which then evolve on a basis of extension and connection from their side. One cannot be without the other.

From the side of nature, this program works in perfect harmony between dispersion and unification of the parts. Yet the human inserts many distortions into the process.

Everything is based upon balance between expansion and contraction, cooling and warming, and upon other phenomena that are derived from those basic forces. They also acted at the time of the creation of the Earth’s crust when fire broke out from under it. And then after that as well when the Earth again cooled and became solid.

This cycle continued until balance was created: heat gathered within the Earth, cooling created a hard envelope and made possible the evolution of vegetative and animate life forms. One way or another these forces were designed to create a particular kind of connection such that warming and cooling cooperated between them in a balanced way. So where is all of this said to be leading? What must be our next state?

Here we come to a surprising thought. Humans are living in human society; in this they differ from the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate. From a social aspect we are becoming a single, global humanity in which everything is integrally connected to everything else.

This means that we apparently must protect and build a balance between the two forces: a centrifugal force (that flees from the center outward), which distances us from one another, and the centripetal force directed towards the center, connecting us with one another. These two factors, outward and inward, must be in balance.

Even if one of them occasionally overcomes the other, this is how we advance in our development, moving one foot and then the other. But in any case, keeping a balance between the two forces is incumbent upon us.

And herein lies the problem. We actually do use the connecting force and the distancing force, but we exploit them egoistically. For example, I am ready to connect with others to beat someone or get something. In other words, we connect not for the purpose of evolution, but to derive benefit from the struggle between us.

The truth is that we also see constant struggle in nature, yet on our human level the conflicts are no longer managed instinctively. Here it is up to us to integrate these two basic forces in a different manner, connecting with each other. This is speaking about building an absolutely different human species: the new society.

First of all, our general human unification must be complete and absolute. It must utilize all the forces of distancing, separation, hatred , etc.

In principle, this connection is designed to create from human society all over the world a single whole that will live on another level of understanding and attainmen as a single entity, as one body. And then we will be “cells” of this collective “body” and will feel a new, higher form of existence than when each one of us was separate. This is the conclusion that we can draw from what we see today.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/2/14

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Question: You are saying that up until now we have been studying nature in a limited, subjective manner, since we base our studies on our ego that limits every research.

This means that we shouldn’t invent new telescopes, microscopes and particle accelerators, but actually something that is totally different. What kind of instrument do we need in order to study the universe?

Answer: We need a new program for mankind. Nature has made us egoists, and in that sense, we are not very different from the animate level. We have only invented different tools and instruments and now we have atom bombs and other such weapons in our hands instead of a stick. We have advanced in the same direction through our evolution.

But if we want to really exit our bubble and don’t want to keep on being the worm that lives inside the bitter radish and who perceives it as its whole world, we need to pay more attention and make more efforts to the acquiring of a second nature. We have to try to program ourselves anew in that direction so that the two types of nature will be integrated inside us: both our old nature that receives and the new nature that bestows and gives.

Then we will really see the other half of the universe, of the world, or even worlds, and we would also see the reason for everything that happens. It is actually by studying the nature of bestowal that we attain and learn about our root and its plan. Otherwise, if we stay inside, we will not discover or know anything about ourselves and will simply continue to improve our mechanical and technological toys and nothing more than that.

The new level is a person’s inner technology, without any clever tricks that we created through the ego. It is a method of acquiring the power of bestowal, and is part of nature that we only have to take out so that it will be dressed in us and form the system of a parallel perception within us.

Question: How will this affect our daily lives?

Answer: First of all, we will discover how and what we should live for and how to improve our lives. The universe itself originated from these two forces, and by establishing the mutual cooperation of these two systems of receiving and bestowal within it, we rise above them to the thought that created the universe. Thus we actually, and not just symbolically, ascend to an eternal infinite state.

Generally speaking, we develop towards this basic question one way or the other. It isn’t just a question about the reason for our sufferings and the meaning of our bitter life, but about the basic initial reason, about its purpose. Only the universe will be able to provide us with an answer when we ascend above the egoistic attraction, which for the time being, is symbolized by our planet earth.

Question: Where is the field of work in which we can properly develop the forces of bestowal inside us? Is it about my relations with the universe or with other people?

Answer: It is about relationships with other people, because they are actually the most developed matter. It is by mutual cooperation and by my interactions with them that I can develop a second nature.

This enables me to discover new things in the universe. When I exit myself, I see a different dimension through the prism of the force of bestowal in which space has no meaning. I look at the world above matter.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/2/14

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Today we study nature only through the power to receive, which is our initial, primary attribute. I always aspire to receive what is good for me. This is how I live and this is what I am like; this is my conscious and my subconscious thinking and I cannot think any other way.

This is because I was born out of the evolution of the still, vegetative, and animate nature. Every matter aspires to differentiate and to classify itself in the most efficient way by resisting anything that can cause it harm and resting peacefully as tightly and as safely as possible to the other parts.  Therefore I constantly worry about how to provide everything that I need in the best, safest, and most comfortable way compared to others.

This attribute is typical of all forms of matter including the still nature that passively guards itself. On the vegetative level the environment is already used: organisms produce useful substances from the soil, consume oxygen or carbon dioxide, etc.

Metabolic processes take place in them and they know how to use the environment in order to grow at its expense. Creatures on the animate level grow not only thanks to the still environment but also thanks to the vegetative and the animate. Animals eat plants and other animals.

At the same time, all the organisms develop and multiply, and it is all based on the initial desire to guard themselves as much as possible by keeping away from anything that is harmful and getting closer to what is beneficial. All this is the essence of the egoistic force of receiving that is in every creature.

As for man, he has succeeded in that sense more than all the other levels. He finds pleasure in taking resources from others even if he doesn’t need them since it raises him and makes him more important compared to others around him. He gets rid of and drives away those who can harm him and keeps only those he can benefit from close to him. He doesn’t assess himself in the framework of the closest environment but compared to the whole world throughout time.

The human ego is highly developed, and its perception, its view of the world, is rooted in our internal program. No matter what I perceive by my senses, I see only what I want to see and not what actually happens in reality.

I don’t pay attention to anything that doesn’t belong to my corporeal existence, to my desire to receive. Neutral things that are not harmful or beneficial to me are not in my field of vision. I simply cannot identify them.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/2/14

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We are very limited. We study the whole universe and ourselves through our five senses, calculating our profit and loss.

This really limits us because we don’t go beyond ourselves and don’t actually see what is on the outside. Rather, we pass everything through our internal system and decide whether it makes us feel good or bad, period.

As a result, there are many phenomena that we don’t see and we don’t distinguish the many forces in our universe or in parallel universes. It is because they simply don’t interest us and don’t affect our ego, our desire to receive pleasure.

If I could identify the connection between something and my success, I would certainly study it and would discover a new phenomenon. If I don’t see such a connection, I am blind to any phenomenon.

The reason is that I don’t have a second force, the force of bestowal. I am totally made of the force of receiving.

Comment: But there are also phenomena in which we see the connection but cannot distinguish them. For example, we would very much like to know about natural disasters in advance so that we can protect ourselves from them. This is very beneficial, but we are still helpless in the face of hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.

Answer: Of course there are phenomena that we believe to exist, but they are like dark matter. We assume that they exist and that they are related to us, yet we cannot identify them. But this is a matter of research on a different level.

I, on the other hand, am speaking about a fundamental flaw in our perception, about the fact that it isn’t in our power to actually see in any way, not even theoretically or hypothetically.

If we acquired the force of bestowal, the force to exit ourselves and if we could remove the limitation of our egoistic minds and desires, we would truly and objectively study what is external to us. We would study it with an external mind and heart.

Then we could reveal whole worlds and complete the distorted and fragmented picture that we see today.

Now we seem to live in a bubble that is totally drawn inwards and collapses into itself. We see, feel, and study only what is perceived by the egoistic gravity. This is also where our universe exists, which seems so immense and infinite to us. It is all inside this small bubble of our perception.

Unless we acquire a second force that will allow us to exit the boundaries of our attributes, we will not discover what is on the outside.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/2/14

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We see the solar system and the planets that orbit other stars and the interesting fact is the complexity of the systems in which every part influences the others. For ages people have found different signs of these influences while looking at the sky, and these signs are true.

We have, for example, some idea of how the moon affects us. Certain phenomena are known, but we don’t have any real knowledge.

Generally speaking, many forces certainly operate and influence us and we have to keep on studying them. The influence of the universe is immense, but it is concealed from us because of our own limitations.

In fact, nothing is concealed in nature but depends on the essence of the researcher. Unfortunately, we don’t pay enough attention to this aspect. Otherwise, we would know much more about the universe, including, for example, the influence of the moon on the level of the oceans, the air, our diseases, and so on.

But no, man is attracted to what he can later use in industry, wars, etc. This kind of knowledge seems valuable to him, while celestial objects, both near and distant are beyond our control and don’t seem to offer any benefit because they don’t attract our minds and hearts and therefore don’t attract enough resources. This kind of research was considered more valuable in the past.

One of the basic elements of the universe is the law of gravity. What is it? No one knows. The nature of the force of gravity and its cause are a mystery to us.

On the whole we never know the real reasons for what we see and we only study the outcome of the phenomena that we encounter, which sums up all our science. We don’t ask why, but what and how. In other words, we learn how to use the forces of the universe, including its matter. We know how to do it in the short run, but we don’t attain and understand the main reasons, the basic nature of these forces.

But basically it is something else. Our limitation becomes a problem when we discover that without knowing the general system we cannot manage even on our small planet.

This is surprising that the still, vegetative, and animate nature don’t have questions like: “to live or die?” or “how to live?” All the creatures get along with their environment instinctively and in the best possible way without dominating and ruling it, aspiring to get the most by minimal effort. Nature contains all these levels in such a simple egoistic manner.

But man cannot get along in a similar way; man aspires to change his environment, to change others. Therefore he is forced to learn, study, explore, and advance. This internal urge is in our nature and we must provide ourselves with the necessary amount of information, options, and potential.

Besides, we have such thirst for knowing what the meaning of life is that some of us even look at the universe again and again, since it is the source of our birth. The earth is its outcome, our cradle, but in fact we come from outer space, where we began. How can we know ourselves if we don’t know our origin, the forces and the reason that formed our planet and everything that is on it, including ourselves?

If we engaged in it seriously, we would learn something, but instead we look down at our small planet like kids in a sandbox: who has more, who has succeeded and who didn’t… We refuse to accept the perspective of our evolution outside the sandbox, not in the planetary sense but in a much wider sense.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/2/14

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It is very important to check yourself: “What worries me?” Every moment that I feel alive and well, I am full of worries. So what do I worry about?

Am I worried about my own well-being, tranquility, achievement, what will make me happier, peace and quiet, security, food, and family welfare?

Or am I worried about friends, like a mother with a baby, searching for what they are missing and what should be done for them?  Do I worry about the group like a faithful nanny? This means I must check the intention of my worries.

The whole of creation gradually descended down to our world in which we exist in physical form and in the most inferior situation. We feel as if we are detached from the spiritual world, when in fact that can’t happen. So this world is called the imaginary world.

We suppose we exist in a vast world filled with lots of physical objects. However, in fact, it is all spiritual, but we don’t recognize or feel this.

So it is very important to check what I am worried about at every moment. Entering the spiritual world means continuing to be concerned about what is essential and vital in life: food, sleep, health, money, and relationships with people, but subconsciously, I am always troubled by the thought of how to organize the group so that it will become the Shechina (divinity), a place for discovering the Creator.

I must get used to being happy about my concern for the group. If I stop worrying about it, then I am worried about why am I not concerned about the friends. This must become habitual. In our world, habit becomes second nature.

Suppose that they give me a baby who is a stranger for whom I have no feelings. But I have no choice; I am compelled to worry about him day after day. I begin to be concerned about him and he becomes important for me. Ultimately, I begin to think about him all the time. It is the same thing in relation to the group. We must attain this state that is possible thanks only to determination and constantly returning to my thoughts about the group.

And after all these nice plans about taking care of the group, about my supporting it, attracting Light into it, about the Creator and giving Him satisfaction, I must ask myself, where He is and where I am subconsciously. I must always clarify what I am doing all this for. Certainly I hope to receive some reward, but what exactly?

It could be that in the meantime, I am not ready to imagine a reward for myself. It could be that I understand that afterward, for my effort I will demand control, respect, and transcendence of life and death, something tangible and very important for me. And here I must examine what is more important for me: Is it my reward or the ability to give satisfaction to the friends and the Creator?

Can I forego the reward, or at least part of it? And when I forego a reward, won’t I replace it with something else other than fame and the pursuit of honor?

What does it mean to give pleasure to the Creator? By what means can I do this and with which desires do I feel it? Through what will I feel that the Creator gets pleasure from me? It is necessary to try to separate my desires and perception into as many parts as possible and see how to work with them. The more parameters that I have, the more I will develop my perception.

This is like pixels on a computer screen that determine its resolution: In one square centimeter there can be two hundred pixels, there could be a thousand, or there could be ten thousand. The more points there are, the better and clearer the picture becomes.

The same thing happens also happens with our desires. The more we scrutinize them, the closer we come to the truth, to true perception.
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From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/01/14, Lesson #4

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