Question: Baal HaSulam says that in this era we have a chance to hasten the process of our evolution and reach the Creator. How can we identify this opportunity and fulfill it?

Answer: We are living in a special time and we are indeed given a chance. First, because the Reshimot (spiritual genes) that are awakening in us urge and push us towards the revelation of the Creator, the revelation of the essence of life. It’s because that’s the same cardinal question that awakens in people. After ages of human evolution a person really begins to look for the meaning of life, and doesn’t just try to live a better more comfortable life.

Fifty years ago we still thought that corporeal benefits were infinite and we believed that the prospects of the consumerist society were endless. “Everything is possible: We will fly to the stars, we will control the forces of nature, we will swim in affluence…” This was the direction of our ego.

But suddenly we have reached a kind of satiation, because our desire has begun to change; we have not filled all our desires; we have not provided everyone with a yacht, a palace, a private jet, a private island, or a personal planet to himself. No, we have not filled our desires, but the desires have simply changed, just as a young child’s desires change: A minute ago he asked for cottage cheese, but while you ran to the store to get it, he already wants a sausage.

There are many hungry people in the world today, people who are ill and needy, but the desire changes and while they lack something, it is clear to them that even if they get whatever they lack, they will not be satisfied. There is a filling and there is satisfaction. It is like the example that Baal HaSulam gives when the guest says to the host, “Even if you give me the whole world as a present, I will not be satisfied, since it is not mine.” There will be a filling but there will not be satisfaction.

We are speaking about two very subtle discernments, as a result of which on the last level of our evolution, despite the dissatisfaction, and the shortage we feel in our desires, a person looks for meaning in his life. A new desire emerges, and it is from this desire that a person expects to feel satisfied, even if he doesn’t have a filling in his previous desires and his previous hopes are not fulfilled; even if he only has the simple things left, he will look for satisfaction in what is important to him now.

So after money, after control, after technological prosperity, after the information age, we have risen to a new level, the level of meaning. People feel despair and commit suicide because they don’t find a meaning to life. This is the first sign of the era of redemption.

The second sign for being in the era of redemption is the awakening of the whole world, not only those who are looking for a meaning in life. The world is sinking into a crisis that is basically an inner psychological crisis. A person cannot manage his private life any more, and neither can he manage human society. Everything is destroyed and out of control since our ego has completed its development and has finished its work, and by that has nicely ended its role.

Soon there will be new very unpleasant diseases that stem from our overuse of harmful, poisonous materials that we have added to our food and to other products. On the whole, there will be all kinds of negative phenomena that are typical of the use of the negative effects of the ego. We fear a nuclear bomb, a meteor that may hit the earth, but in the meantime one virus can totally annihilate the whole world.

Eventually this world that needs to be corrected, we are striving for that and the means are being discovered; internally and and externally we are shown that we are in a time of opportunity.
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From the 4^th Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: I have a growing business, a chain of shoe stores. I don’t try to save money on training employees because it’s very important to build relationships with customers. But so far, no coach can help me teach most of the staff just to smile. What can I do? How can I teach them to smile, be friendly, and customer-focused?

Answer: About 30 years ago I came to America for the first time, and I was surprised to see a smile on every face, but in most cases artificial. But in recent years, all this is gone. I often go there and see that people stopped smiling. The American image of the past is gone. People are tired, depressed, insecure, and unreliable inside.

In the world, smiles are disappearing. This is due to the growth of egoism that demands for itself or may not demand anything at all. We are not in the mood to smile. A smile is the result of at least a little bit of excess energy in a person. And today it doesn’t exist in the world.

What can we do? We search for resources, reserves. And precisely here integral education gives a person a sense of the overall system, general dependence. You inevitably become kinder, happier. People not only begin to smile; they feel the need for each other, understand that one can’t live without it and that there is no existence without it! We find ourselves in such an environment where only our combined strength, mind, and thought can bring us to a good, kind state.

In the beginning, it’s realized against one’s will because of the need to be connected with each other with good ties, and then you become aware that this good interconnection has a special feeling, a miracle that is capable of creating something.

After all, good relationships don’t just cheer you up, they heal, they give you a different perspective on the world and life. They shake down all of the problems around you, the world suddenly starts to become smoother, and everything is settled and arranged. Life becomes easier and lighter. This is why modern employees must be taught good relations with each other first, and then, within these good relations, develops professional skills.
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From KabTV’s “Professional Secrets” 2/5/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“: Thus, even though the Creator has delivered the land from the hands of the nations and has given it to us, we have not yet received it. We are not enjoying it. But with this giving, the Creator has given us an opportunity for redemption, to be purified and sanctified and assume the work of God in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma.

Question: Humanity is entering a new era of evolution when the desires are changing and people are beginning to look for meaning in life, does that happen in Israel too?

Answer: It is hard to say. In the Torah it says that the Jews are a “stubborn nation.” This nation does not develop like the other nations. Today according to external factors, you cannot say that it is bothered by the lack of meaning in life. But it is actually the other way around: It is indifferent to current problems that relate to our security, health, and the economic situation. There is a lot of talking but no real involvement. As long as this continues, so will the indifference and the imperviousness grow. If two years ago we could bring hundreds of thousands of people out to the streets to demonstrate during the social protest events, we cannot do that today, not even if things get worse.

Question: So why did Baal HaSulam say that the current era is our chance for redemption?

Answer: It says in Jeremiah 12, “It is a time of trouble for Jacob and from it he will be redeemed.” Even in the worst situation, when the door is totally sealed, it suddenly opens. But for that to happen there has to be enough pressure, which for the time being does not exist. It is a sign that the fruit is not ripe yet and still needs time to ripen.

Here everything depends on us. On the whole, the nation is never ready for an ascent until Moses, who will pull (from the same root in Hebrew) the nation upwards, is ready. Even the troubles and the blows called the “plagues of Egypt” are not felt by the Israeli nation, but those who feel them are Pharaoh and the Egyptian people. It isn’t by chance that it says that the Creator has passed over the doors of Israel. The plague of the death of the firstborn came upon Egypt but did not touch them.

This was all meant so that hearts of Israel will grow even tougher. As a result a person doesn’t feel any troubles although things are not going so well, but it is much more difficult for others.

It is a very big problem, and we mustn’t wait until things in the world and in Israel get worse. It doesn’t go along with nature’s plan at all and doesn’t stem from love of others. We need to do our best, using all the means we have to publicize the method of correction and at least the message that it is now time for the correction of the world. If people don’t feel any need for that, then they should at least know about it, like students who graduate from school and only have a general idea of what they have learned. Later, this idea will become an essential foundation for them.
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From the 4^th Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Today the trend that has accompanied us throughout the ages of our development is coming to an end. The ego forced us to climb down from the trees and to start human evolution. We have been through many phases and many forms of life: slavery, fictitious freedom, the Middle Ages, and capitalism. We have constantly worked in order to make a profit, to succeed, and to advance. But today our “partnership” with the ego is coming to an end.

There are several reasons for that and one of them is that the ego itself doesn’t feel satisfied any more. We receive all the goodness, but it doesn’t fulfill us. Even the wealthy increasingly feel they are as if left with nothing, since filling without the deficiency for it brings no pleasure.

On the whole, the elite treat the world as their own property and build a “whole world” for themselves. Through the media, they confuse us, convincing us we should work from morning to night, follow new fashion trends, buy products and services, and then work again. There is constant confusion, wars, and riots like the “Arab spring.” Why? So they can quietly dominate the world and make billions in profits for themselves. This is a never-ending job of governments and other channels controlled by a small handful of people.

However, they already are beginning to feel that they are losing control. According to the laws of egoistic evolution, the world in its current form is coming to an end, facing a global crisis. No one wanted this including the elites who are interested in maintaining and indefinitely continuing the consumerist society. But this doesn’t work.

Now we have to decide where we are headed. So on the one hand, Marx’s books are being reopened, and on the other hand, the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed.

Today there are talks about a different use of the desire to receive. The next phase is building a united society in which people work about an hour a week because we don’t need everything that we are currently producing. Today unity is the essential model for human society. Without it we will not even be able to receive our daily bread. If we don’t connect, we will not have the basic necessities. But humanity doesn’t know how to connect, although this is what it is required to do. As a result, when faced with a seemingly impossible task, it is going toward annihilation, seeing no way out.

This is exactly where we take the wisdom of Kabbalah out of its hiding place and “wave” it on the background of Marx’s Das Kapital, hoping that we will be heard.

Question: What proof can we bring?

Answer: We have two ways to prove this:

• There is rational proof, as it says, “It is the wise who sees the future.” We can convince people that our approach is true and efficient basing it on examples, without waiting for greater trouble.
• Or, instead, the proof can come in the form of disasters.

On our part, we try to reach people before the blows do, but it isn’t easy. We don’t control the media. The elite have built an army of economists and financial experts and other experts whose goal is to confuse people and to cultivate the great lie. This is all so that the people who are at the top of the pyramid will be able to rule. Rule what? Today, even they don’t know exactly. It is not under their control at all…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/13, “The Peace”

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Question: Humanity has already experienced serious economic crises, but it has always found a solution. It even managed to overcome the Great Depression of the 1930’s. But today we claim that we have to correct man. This doesn’t sound rational…

Answer: I see it differently: the cause for all the problems we encounter today is man. In earlier days there were different external causes of the crises, but in the modern age it has become clear that the source of all the trouble is man who doesn’t find the right way and doesn’t understand where he is. The human is the worst being; he cannot get along with others, and he is the one who blows up this bubble, and it is beyond his powers to fix the system.

It would seem that the flaws of human society are evident, and we just need to correct them, but we don’t know how. New problems keep appearing and when we cannot solve them we feel that we are weak as we confront them. This means that the main problem is in us.

We cannot, for example, unite Europe so that it would become a true united alliance of countries that will not deceive one another or humiliate each other but would work as one unit. But nothing happens; each country pulls the blanket in its own direction instead of giving it to another, and as a result no one gets it and everyone is in trouble.

What is Europe actually missing? It has agriculture, industry, different services, relations between countries, transportation systems, trains, planes; everything is there. For a good life, the only thing missing is the right connection between people and nothing more. Everyone lacks this: the tycoons, the poor, those on the right and those on the left of the political spectrum.

So is there another means for correction besides educating people? With the proper education, Europe could arrange a paradise. But instead, despite the material wealth in Scandinavia, the rate of suicide is higher than in the southern countries fraught with high unemployment and unrest. In Greece the situation has become a humanitarian disaster—people literally cannot feed their kids. Babies are abandoned on the streets so that the state will take care of them, and the poor are so desperate that they break the law so that they’ll be put in jail.

So what can we do? Correct man!

After all, the natural resources are enough for everyone; someone has salt, for example, and another has meat, and another has fire, and someone else has vegetables, but we cannot come to an agreement so that we can cook soup for everyone. Everyone holds on to what he has, and eventually everyone is left with nothing; after all, you cannot be satiated by salt or by raw meat.

This situation will only get worse since this is nature’s plan, until we understand that without the right connection we will simply die.

As for earlier crises, they are not comparable to the current crisis. Today’s crisis depends on the correction of man and is the most difficult with regard to its solution.

In the 1930’s, capitalistic evolution was still burgeoning with ambitious plans and hopes and the sudden collapse did make people feel terrible. Today human beings are disappointed in their own desires and are prepared for the worst in advance. We don’t feel “new heights of consumerism” are ahead of us, only deepening gloom.

This happens so that we will realize the essence of the modern crisis is different than the earlier crises; it is developing on a totally different level, in another field. It develops in man, and so it isn’t about the banks and about other external symptoms of the illness. If we fight the symptoms, we will not be able to cope with the crisis. The only way is to correct the relationships between people.

We will die of hunger unless we unite and “cook the soup” together. This state is profoundly different than what it was in the past. Once people wanted more and were left with nothing, which brought about despair, unbearable sufferings, and often suicide.

Today a person has no such ambitions and he already knows that soon there will be nothing to eat. It’s as if he is shown in advance how he gradually will enter his grave. This is being shown so that everyone will gradually understand where we are headed. Nature teaches us step by step and reveals the current state to us, explaining what we should do.

This process won’t end at once; it will last for another year or two, until people feel that there is no end in sight to their troubles, until they find themselves at a snail’s pace of not sinking into grave conditions.

We aren’t completely aware of the results of the crisis. We don’t pay attention to the plants that are being shut down, to the decrease in business activities, and the collapse in various areas. Gradually, however, the world will fall into a deep dark sleep before our very eyes. Until people acknowledge that the problem is in them, it’s not in their power to “stir” the world despite its great abundance.

“So why don’t we get anything out of it? Here is the meat, the water, the fire, and the vegetables—so let’s cook a delicious soup…” it will take time until they finally agree to that. We haven’t had such a crisis yet.
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From the 4^th Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: How can the lower evoke the upper to help him?

Answer: To the extent that I annul myself, I give myself a chance to receive from the upper force, thoughts, attributes, and desires correctly instead of my self-powers, thoughts, attributes, and desires. In fact, I change my form. But the new form is so different from the old form that it is as if I totally change myself.

In fact, only my values and my perspective change, but it seems as if I become a totally different person.

The prayer, MAN, means that a void has been created in me, a deficiency for the attribute of bestowal, instead of old desires to receive I had before. I don’t know what bestowal is and what it should be like so that it can take the place of the desires I have restricted, but I want that a new heart will enter the void I have prepared for it, a new mind. This means that I raise MAN, a prayer, by making room inside my desire to receive for the new use.

Then in response, I receive MAD, the force of overcoming. So this answer from Above is called Mei Dechurin. In addition to the force, I receive a mind, since I begin to weigh to what extent I can work with this force of overcoming, in order to build the head of my spiritual Partzuf and to resemble the upper.

I already identify the upper and understand how I should work in order to act like Him. It is of course not much in the meantime, just like a small child who tries to resemble a grownup, but this is how we learn.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

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Question: How can a society help a person acquire its values and how can a person check whether the values of society are right for spiritual growth?

Answer:

• If people gather together and do their best to follow the advice of Baal HaSulam and Rabash,
• if they try not to invent a new method but constantly work according to the sources, which determine everything,
• if there is no one among them who tries to be above the others, meaning trying to lead everyone by suppressing the others with his strength, intelligence, or special abilities,
• if everyone tries to annul himself before the group, as everyone brings into the general “cash box” everything that he was endowed with by nature, all his abilities, to help others, as we are definitely unequal and there are those among us who are seemingly more capable and successful, but each one gives to the group his best.

So in that, all are equal, no one stands out, and everyone tries to be equal and to annul himself before the others. Then this is a society before which you can annul yourself with your eyes closed and be certain that they can undoubtedly change their corporeal vessel into a spiritual vessel. This is what I recommend that you all do!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What criteria should guide the employer when hiring people?

Answer: For at least for half a century, there is technology, according to which not only technical skills are needed but also people skills, but not those of 20-30 years ago.

Today, it has to be a friendly group in which people clearly understand what they should achieve together. They relate to each other kindly and constantly maintain a positive atmosphere at work. Only in this way they can work effectively and realize the most unexpected solutions. Suddenly, everything becomes connected, integrated in a single kind, mutually complementing interaction, and they succeed in everything.

It turns out, that it is not professionalism that affects the quality and output of their product, but their relationships. They determine success more than professionalism.

That is why, when hiring a person, the employer must take into account not only his professionalism, but also many other factors.

If a professional, even if he is a high-level specialist, is an individualist, he will be in the way of others; if he tries to climb the ladder ruthlessly using people as “stepping stones,” then the whole enterprise will be doomed to failure, and vice versa.

Thus, when considering candidates, the employer should take into account the two main criteria: professionalism and a person’s capacity for interaction in a group.
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From KabTV’s “Professional Secrets” 2/5/13

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Question: Who are a person’s enemies if his whole world is inside him?

Answer: All your desires and thoughts are your enemies.

Usually people around you, who don’t really worry or concern you, don’t mean much to you. But it’s the people who seem to be your enemies or those whom you hate, they are the greatest help for your advancement. We should only understand how to use this kind of help.

If they are your friends in the group, you have to turn them from your enemies to your beloved friends. It makes no difference whether someone hates you or whether you hate him. Usually you are the one responsible for bad relations, but you have to change things from hate to love.

It’s not simple at all. Start calculating things in this opposite direction internally and you will see what intense work it involves.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: You said in a lesson that you lack words. Does this mean that we don’t work as we should and don’t extract spiritual information from you?

Answer: It works exactly this way. When the lower one asks, he passes his unfulfilled desire, to which I receive an answer.

It is said that one learns from all his pupils: “I learned a lot from my teachers, more from the friends, and more than that from my students.” This happens thanks to a student’s questions, his prayer, MAN. The student passes his desire to the teacher, and the teacher gets such a desire which for himself he would never ask. This is how the general system is revealed: With each new question from each student, one more layer of the system is revealed, and then one more, etc.

Each pupil raises his prayer. This gives the teacher vessels that didn’t exist in him and never would have if he hadn’t connected with the students. Therefore, up to the moment that the pupil asked, the teacher did not know the answer. But the moment the pupil asked a question of him, the teacher receives new attainment. And this is called “learning from the pupils.”

Every day I come out of the lesson with new attainments because I feel your lack. But the students have to prepare themselves for the lesson, and often a sufficient lack, meaning a necessity, is not felt from you. Certainly, even without words I also feel in my students the need for spiritual revelation, and this helps me in advancement. However, it’s desirable that everyone will utter their questions.

I am connected to my teacher, Rabash; he is my upper one. When I receive questions from the students, I connect them to one direct channel that comes from Above. This is a hierarchical, tree-like system that spreads from the top down. If I receive from the bottom a desire that I can raise, I process it inside me, get an answer to it from Above, process it again, and transfer the answer to the student. However, 99% of the information that was received stays inside me and only 1% passes to the student, in accordance with how much I have to scale myself down and descend to the student’s level so that he will receive this answer from me and understand it.

In a few cases, I myself awaken this connection because there is a general preparation. For example, people invested a lot of effort in order to come to the convention and prepare it. And then, even if questions are not asked, I can awaken the Light, thanks to the great amount of exertion that you invested, which can be worked with. But sometimes this is possible only thanks to the questions.

I will never accept the sleepiness. But a teacher is forbidden to arouse desire in the students because it does the opposite, it plugs the channels that come to them. The lack has to rise from the bottom up!
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/13, TES

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