Baal HaSulam, “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 8: …This is because there is a natural law that the receiver feels shame and impatience upon receiving gifts from the giver out of compassion and pity. …

And this is the reason He has prepared for us the toil and the labor of Torah and Mitzvot, to produce our exaltedness by ourselves, because then the delight and pleasure that comes to us from Him, meaning everything that is included in the Dvekut with Him, will all be our own possession that has come to us through our own efforts. Then we will feel ourselves as the owners, without which there cannot be a sensation of wholeness.

Shame is a measurement that defines the relationships between us. If one doesn’t feel shame, then one has nothing to correct since he does not see any major differences between himself and the Creator. Therefore, it is better to divulge shame and be embarrassed by a comparison of our receiving properties with His bestowal.

The question is, if one stops receiving, does it mean that he neutralizes shame. For example, I visit a friend of mine and see a generously set table waiting for me, but I refuse the treats, “No, no, thanks. I am full. I am on diet.” Is it possible that we act the same way in spirituality in order to diminish the sense of shame? By acting so, we neglect the Creator as if we don’t care about His indulgences.

After all, what, in fact, can we receive? Is it the Light of NRNHY? To be honest, it doesn’t fill us with pleasure. NRNHY is the Light that stems out of our comprehension of the Giver’s magnitude.

All we ever receive from it is a tiny spark from which originated a desire to receive pleasure. A desire to receive is comprised of a black point, the tip of the letter Yod, and in the Light lies a spark that created the black point.

The rest is triggered by our awareness of the Creator’s greatness, when we appreciate it, it elevates it in our eyes. That is why we constantly should remind ourselves that we must aspire to His greatness.

If somebody is really important to us, we are ready to “carry his suitcase.” The greater this person is in our eyes, the heavier the suitcase we are ready to carry. At first, the suitcase seems too heavy to us, “Why do I carry it in the first place? Why am I doing this?”

However, if we realize how indispensable the owner of the suitcase is, we lift it with ease. It’s such an honor and good fortune to serve this important person! We even are ready to pay for the right to carry his suitcase.

As a result, we devote our entire lives to the Creator. What do we get in return? Nothing. After all, a spark and a black point constitute the basis for everything there is.

Question: Is there any analogy to the genuine shame in the work we do?

Answer: Yes, it can be applied to various types of shame that we experience in front of our friends. We are afraid that they will figure out that we are ignorant or that we still are being egoists.

It’s a primitive, self-centered shame. There also is a spiritual shame caused by our inability to contribute our share by acknowledging that we are not supporting our friends the way we should and do we elevate them. They depend on us, so we feel embarrassed that we are unable to cope with the task.

Question: Must the group instigate this kind of shame in its members?

Answer: The group must evoke us and promote our growth by teaching us how to respect shame since it demonstrates a deficiency in the desire to receive. If pleasures and affliction are conditioned by either fulfillment or emptiness within our desire, then bad or good states reflect in the sense of shame or, on the contrary, the realization of the Creator’s greatness.
[91407]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: Now that there is a storm in America and people are worried, can we convey our message to them through the heart and not through the mind?

Answer: Yes, it turns out that I don’t write romantic novels, and I can’t express feelings as I would like to. I am built differently, I can cry when I see a formula, when I look at its components, like in medicine when a patient who looking at his medical tests sees some catastrophe reflected in them. It may seem that these are just numbers, but they evoke a storm of emotions in him.

It is the same here. We are disrupting the basic law of nature, the law of balance, it’s like bending an iron rod—at a certain point it breaks, but in the meantime it seems that we still have some margin of safety. This is how it always happens: there is a limit as to how far you can go, but you mustn’t cross that limit.

We should explain this to people in different ways. Here is the root of all our troubles. We should tell them the truth: We could cry with you, but it won’t help. Crying is just a folly, and we have to locate the real problem. The real problem is that we are going against the laws of nature. It’s enough to look at the statistics of natural disasters even in the last year. It doesn’t matter that experts don’t always agree as to their anthropogenic character. One way or the other, they stem from the laws of nature, and so we have to aspire for balance.

We could have done it sooner and then there wouldn’t have been an economic crisis, a crisis in the family, in education, etc. But today one general crisis is being revealed in greater intensity in many aspects. Why? It’s because we haven’t corrected the imbalance when the first signs were minor. “Oh well, so what if there are more divorces? So what if the kids are undisciplined? So what if the media is corrupt? So what if we can buy and sell everything?” We don’t pay attention to the growing ego that increasingly distances us from balance, and the outcome of all this will be a total collapse. First it’s revealed in the economy, then in natural disasters, then in global hunger, etc.

So we mustn’t tarry. We have to explain to people scientifically why balance, homeostasis, is essential. There are enough articles about this and solid proof.
[91808]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: As egoism continues to grow in every integral education group, will the leaders have to explain the inevitability of this process: quarrel, make peace, then again bicker?

Answer: Of course! All the work of the group and its advancement from one day to the next are impossible without rising above the ego. Growing egoism is the material above which we build ourselves. And such is the nature of this work.

Thank God we are arguing today; that’s great! Now we should try to rise above it. We will continue to rise while falling and clarifying on the way.

The tendency should always be to rise, only to rise! And we should examine all the descents, throes, and conflicts because otherwise we could become stuck in them forever, continuing to be at each other’s throats.

On the contrary, we need to really scrutinize them, to analyze them from the perspective of whether they cause us to advance—only in this light, in this direction. Our whole egoism rises in us only so that we could overcome it to the goal above it.
[91899]
From KabTV’s “Talks with Michael Laitman,” 03/10/2012 

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Question: It seems to us that people in a group gather by coincidence. But in reality it isn’t a coincidence and each person serves a unique role, which corresponds to a certain Sefira, a certain quality?

Answer: Absolutely! However this is not important to us right now. What’s most important is that people connect. It doesn’t matter what anyone’s role is because they all complete each other. In an integral system even a small screw carries the same meaning as the entire system because without the screw the system wouldn’t function.

Question: So the person doesn’t realize or understand what his role is exactly. But can you conduct an analysis of the groups?

Answer: What would be the point of this because without my sincere and voluntary participation, you can’t force me to do anything? Only an inner realization of the truly voluntary and free participation in this system will give it a state of freedom and perfection. There is nothing you can do against a rat or against any person.

Therefore, no matter how you examine this system, the only thing you can do is strengthen integral education. This is the only thing that can uplift people and further unite them. Of course different research will be done. But basically we should understand that only this type of action is good.
[91789]
From KabTV’s “Talks with Michael Laitman” 3/10/12

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Question: There are so many beautiful bright people and forces in this world. And in spirituality, it is said, “There is none else besides Him,” dryly and simply. How can I feel attraction to the spiritual world and taste and pleasure from it so that I will want to rush there?

Answer: How can you feel an attraction to the upper world? If you felt more attraction than you do now, you would be driven by your egoism, you would never be able to rise above it to overcome it, and you would hasten there. So it is concealed in order to give us as the opportunity to make efforts that are above our ego, not for our self-benefit.

If we moved to the upper world through our egoism, we would forever stay within our selfishness, we would have no chance to get out of our egoistic shell, and we would be buried in it, buried alive. We would never go beyond the egoistic sphere.

If the upper world were revealed to you right now, you would immediately understand that this material realm is worth nothing at all! We would clearly see that people are animals that live only to feed themselves. I feel sorry for this life; at this point, nothing is worth our efforts, there is no sense to have children and continue suffering…nothing really matters! Is it clear? Then what?

Ah, there is the upper world! First and foremost, it’s eternity that is beyond any limitations. Time, movement, information, everything becomes completely open to us. Time ceases to exist; it only exists in this world, as physicists say, only below the speed of light. Information becomes completely available there. One begins sensing oneself as existing in infinite space. One acquires absolute knowledge about everything that is going on in the entire system of the worlds, in the whole universe, since this system is analog. There is not a system clock, it does not work on pulses; it is always in continuous motion and at the same time rests in calmness. You feel that you are inside of it and at the same time you know that It somehow exists within you, meaning that you are everything there is!

If you happen to see even the smallest piece of that picture, even one gram of it, you’d become a slave to this sensation. Baal HaSulam writes that if the revelation of the upper worlds to us would happen before the contraction of our desires (at which point a man becomes able to keep his egoism to himself and even rise above it), then even one drop of revelation of this enormous pleasure would force one to chop off his hands and feet seven times a day just to experience this sensation once in his lifetime.

Do you understand? You would be a slave and couldn’t do anything at all except to pursue this pleasure. You would make huge efforts in the group and everywhere else only to receive this sort of pleasure. In other words, you would aspire to it egoistically, and thus you would distance yourself away from it even more.

Question: How can we possibly want to achieve that state if we don’t have powers of our own?

Answer: Ask your friends. Only they can ensure your future. If they go for it, you’ll have it, if not, you won’t.
[85914]
From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/17/12, Lesson 1

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Question: Sandy leaves behind not only great damage but also certain “vibes” in the air. After all, it has touched millions and made their hearts beat faster. What is the message they can learn from this?

Answer: First, I don’t expect them to search their hearts as for the upper governance: “Why is this happening to us? What have we done? What didn’t we do?” Here everyone has their own account.

But generally speaking, Americans must understand that something is happening with the US. Once it was a dream, a model of democracy, and the search for something better. Despite all the dirt that our ego brings, no matter what it touched, there was also something good. But the positive aspect came to an end long ago when it turned into the exploitation of the whole world in order to satisfy the needs of Americans who are also proud of this situation.

Lately this phenomenon has reached such dimensions that in the current circumstances the US has no right to exist. So it turns out that in everything that you do, you harm others, and it is only in order to gain a bit more, even if you actually don’t need it. This approach is unthinkable since it is totally opposite from nature and doesn’t lead to correction.

The upper governance accepts all forms of human behavior that enable people to learn something and to come to the right conclusions, to understand what is good and what is bad. But the circles that govern the US have crossed this line last summer when they stated the “Arab Spring” in Israel, wanting to bring about the destruction of the state of Israel by revolution. I felt and saw it with my own eyes in everything that happened.

They make their people believe that Israel has no right to exist. This is the intention of those in charge (except for a few intelligent people—to shift the public opinion in this direction. By that they pull the carpet from under their own feet.

If they continue this trend, we will suddenly see how quickly the disintegration can take place. After all, the advanced and sophisticated infrastructure is actually a weak spot, and if you destroy it there will be nothing left.

For instance, what is the city of New York without the vital subway that brings million of commuters to work? Modern technology is a two-sided coin. It is sign of progress and at the same time a vulnerability. We can draw an analogy to elementary forms of life that can survive in harshest conditions while developed organisms are weaker in the face of threats. So it is very easy to shake the foundations of modern man.

Americans don’t understand what the laws of nature are. Today, according to the general plan, any state that wants to be prosperous has to help the nation of Israel in the process of correction. Of course, they have to pressure this nation since otherwise nothing will come of it, but the pressure is only one of the conditions that together with others have to spur the people of Israel to act: “You have to perform the correction, this is what we expect of you.” Ideally, this is exactly how the process should take place.

But the Americans act in an opposite manner and actually block their “infusion” by themselves, cutting the branch they are sitting on. Thus they will not advance, although at the moment it seems that their situation is improving. It will not improve. The figures can be wonderful, after all the “bubble” has been inflating for decades, but it won’t take long to puncture it.

I foresee difficult times in the US. Of course they will try to pass on their difficulties to the rest of the world, as they have been doing for many years, but still, this state will encounter great difficulties if their attitude will remain the same. I hope that it will change if Mitt Romney wins the elections. If not, things will get worse and the path of suffering will truly be revealed.

I am saying all this only from the perspective of the plan of creation, and there are no other considerations involved here.
[91802]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: I am writing to you, frightened by the howling wind and rain; outside the window is a hurricane. What is happening to us?

Answer: We are caught in a trap that was prepared for us by our egoistic nature. Under the influence of its nature, a person tends to 1) satisfy basic (reasonable) needs and 2) satisfy the desire for excesses that emerge in him under the influence of his environment. Rather than striving to become similar to nature, making humanity as one family, we engage in competition, individualism, and protectionism.

The self-interests of producers impose a consumer society on us in which everyone aspires to excess in everything. However, they never reach happiness because this feeling of happiness does not incite them to make new purchases and it annuls the cult of consumerism.

All of this is done to replace the spiritual values with the material ones. People are limited, brought up on soap operas, and are duped by mass culture; it is easier to sell to those and it is easier to manage them. The increasing contrast between humanity and integral nature creates different kinds of imbalances that manifest in the form of social and natural disasters.
[91817]

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Question: A priest has already said that super storm Sandy was caused by Obama and Romney’s sins. Major disasters are always blamed on someone’s sins. How do we avoid falling into this trap when explaining to people what is happening?

Answer: Basically, there are two options: the path of the Torah and the path of suffering. And if we do not tend towards the positive, then we tend towards the negative.

In general, everything good and bad that a person feels in this world is part of the general management. It is not possible to say that any phenomenon is detached from spirituality and has nothing to do with it. It has.

Now, imagine that the qualities of judgment (Gevurot) that are revealed today are clothed in mercy (Hassadim). Due to this power, the world could move forward nicely. After all, the force of bestowal would gain the power to open up in the internal properties of judgment, which are now manifested today in a storm. Social divide would be diminished around the world, the value of unity would grow, integral education would develop…

However, in reality the opposite is true, and the storm is the consequence of this. Only it was not sent as a punishment. There are no punishments; these are the actions of the same forces that we did not correct at the time, according to the program. They accumulate, and if we had done everything right, they would have raised us to a higher degree. Now, this degree, on which we were supposed to be, is manifested in the opposite form, in the form of a natural disaster.

The same factor appears not positively, as it should be, but negatively. However, we switched the rails from the path of the Torah to the path of suffering. The “switch” is in our hands.

So, it is not a punishment, but a natural consequence that we have caused ourselves. There is no need to imagine as if the Creator decides to punish us one way or the other. It is nothing like that; we are dealing with the law of nature: You do not realize the revealed Reshimot (informational genes), they accumulate in a large account, a “fine” that we get.

This “fine” is like a warning. And the question is, whether we accept it correctly.

It is said that punishments soften and cleanse the body. So maybe that’s for the better? “I was punished, a disaster fell upon me, and I became cleaner. I have suffered, but become purified…”

This is an absolute lie, an unprecedented mistake. I myself have brought upon myself what I have gotten because I had not realized the Reshimot properly. In fact, I am given a chance now. Until now, going through the sequence of Reshimot, I did not understand how to behave. I played, I was confused in my own egoism and mood swings.

And now, having found myself in a difficult situation, I finally got a “gift”: I have the opportunity and ability to judge correctly. In other words, the disaster came to help me, to shake me: “Wake up! It can no longer continue like this! You cause yourself harm.” In this case, a disaster is a remedy, though bitter. Similarly, a child could be treated in a tough way to keep him out of trouble.

That is why the storm should be seen on the one hand, as a warning, and on the other hand, as a situation that can help us make a correct calculation and move forward.

So this is great! We ought to say, “Thank you!”

The approach is simple: Everything that happened before had to happen. We do not look back. “If” does not count. Now, a blow is manifested; hence, we must continue to make a calculation, the calculation on how to correct corrupt desires, the property of judgment.

Note when this happens: a week before the presidential election. So let’s see what happens: Will Sandy help the reassessment of what is happening? If not, we will see worse hurricanes, severe disasters. It depends on the events of the next week how the US will survive the winter.
[91839]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: How can we make sure that we are firmly supporting our friends with our intentions?

Answer: We should constantly check our attitude to the group. There is nothing more I can check. The right course without deviation, the pace of the advancement—are all measured with relation to my attitude to the friends.

I don’t have to check and examine thousands of parameters and discernments, going crazy between many gauges and dials like in a cockpit, where the eyes must follow a lot of instruments. Only with time is a pilot trained to take in the overall picture and recognize a problem. This why the pilots’ indicators are analog with pointing arrows and they are not given digital displays.

In spirituality it is different. There, despite the many discernments operating on you, you have to bring them to the same scale, to one criterion—to the environment. I reach a growingly stronger adhesion with the group, until I reach the implementation of the adhesion, and I attain the next level and build myself.

Time after time, I adhere to the group and enter it as Noah’s ark. I try to place myself under the influence of the friends as hard as I can. At the same time, I can criticize them, but only if it increases my devotion to them. So first I have to determine the point of adhesion, like a drop of semen in a mother’s womb.

Then when the contact is established, the “flesh” is created around the drop of semen because egoistic desire is constantly added. There are problems, internal criticism and confusion, but I let myself open this “Pandora’s box” only if I am in control of the situation and use it to reach adhesion.

Thus the spiritual embryo grows, by enabling all his desires to participate in the adhesion, above the desires themselves, above reason, and in contrast to its desires. On the one hand, the desires are burning inside, objecting to the annulment, and on the other hand, he demands this self-annulment, the adhesion.

According to his powers, he balances these two extreme states on the middle line and this provides the growing of the “body.” This is because the “body” is basically already a result, a middle line, Tifferet.
[91661]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/12, The Zohar

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