Question: We know that we can only receive pleasure from the Creator if it is important to us. It turns out that even if there is a wall in front of me, it all depends on how important it is to me.

Answer: Both Rabash and Baal HaSulam bring the example of the bride who is satisfied if someone she considers important agrees to marry her. By that, it is as if he “buys” her. But he didn’t pay anything; he didn’t give her anything, so why is she satisfied with that? Because he is important to her.

What does our desire receive from the Creator? Nothing. But He is great, and we are ready for the “wedding”; we agree to adhere to Him with heart and soul in infinite, absolute adhesion. The Creator “buys” you only with His importance. It is the only thing that you acquire as you develop, and this is what fills you.

Our desire—which grew thanks to the Light, which received bestowal from the Creator—what does it want to enjoy? Actually, it wants to enjoy the greatness and nothing else. We cannot enjoy the pleasure itself; this only happens in our world with imaginary pleasures that come from the Creator to the point of something from nothing. The pleasures of this world are only available to sustain us until we begin to understand the Creator’s greatness. All the spiritual levels are the recognition of His greatness, and with His help you enjoy if you want to bestow upon Him.

On the other hand, the evil inclination, Pharaoh is the attempt to enjoy directly, but again only the Creator’s greatness. This is called spiritual pleasure.

It seems that the greatness is necessary only in order to overcome our ego and afterwards we will be able to enjoy in order to bestow, but this isn’t so; all our work is to raise the Creator’s greatness in our eyes. By that we develop new desires, and the emphasis moves from receiving direct egoistic pleasures to receiving pleasure from His greatness; thus, at least we reach Klipot (shells), and this is not simple at all.

The Creator’s greatness overtakes us, and it is very difficult to get out of this captivity. After all, all of creation is the essence of the steps of the ladder. When someone from a higher level shines upon me some of his greatness, then I surrender, I become addicted to the root and from then on it is my “boss,” the “king.”

But I want to operate differently, consciously, and intelligently. I want to resist the advantage the upper has over me; I don’t want to be bribed by His importance and His power.

This means that it isn’t about receiving from Him, we are struggling over the level of importance. I don’t want to work just for the benefit of the upper one simply because He is great. By that I simply annul myself naturally.

Question: Does this mean that all the Kabbalah books and all the ages of development were dedicated to only one thing, to the independent recognition of His importance?

Answer: That’s right, and it isn’t by chance that the modern world is so confused and that no one understands what is going on. After all, everything evolves only around one point of adhesion.

Question: But still, there is nothing more important in this world. I’m not trying to raise the importance of something artificially. Are all the worlds and all the levels meant only for that?

Answer: They were created as a result of the Light that filled the desire and gave it different forms. What does the Creator fill us with? What pleasure does He get by having created the created being so that he will only want that? What’s more, does the Creator have anything but the force of bestowal? No. He created mechanisms of perception in the created being, levels specifically for this force of bestowal; we develop only according to this importance.

Where are the pleasures that He has prepared for me? Where are the refreshments that the host has prepared according to the famous example?

There isn’t even an ounce of pleasure the way you imagine it. There are no refreshments, although it seems that way, it is only an illusion. In our world you settle for a false pleasure, you swallow delicacies, but you are not filled. So get rid of the illusions and start discerning the levels of the greatness of the Giver. It is then that you will begin to calculate things within the limits of your perception.

Now we may understand what happened in the first restriction. Malchut started to restrict itself when it discovered that it receives in relation to the Giver; it discovered the gap between the receiver and the Giver and not between the hunger and the delicious refreshments. It is the greatness of the Giver that pulls me out of myself. I don’t calculate this “pleasure,” but rather the pleasure from the Giver. When I discover the bestowal on His part and the reception on my part, I am filled with shame, but not because of the refreshments that I enjoy, but shame when I see His greatness compared to my lowliness.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: If I live in the USA and 100 miles away from a Bnei Baruch group study center and cannot be there every day or even two to three times a week, am I your student, a member of the group, a member of the leading group, and can I come to the unity convention in the North of Israel?

Answer: You must be virtually in the group of those like you, study with them virtually, send Maaser to Bnei Baruch America Treasurer Beth Shillington via the Education Center website, take part in dissemination physically or virtually; in this case, you are my student and a member of your group. If in addition to this, you regularly attend the lessons and meeting of friends, you will be considered a member of the leading group.
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Question: According to statistics, 85% of women share all their secrets with their female friends, and about an equal percentage of men share all their secrets with their wives. Let’s imagine for a moment that a man comes with his problems to his wife and constantly talks about his friends’ wrongdoings and the negativity in his surroundings. This leads many women to think very poorly of her husband’s environment.

Answer: This woman is not sufficiently trained; she is not a psychologist. In order for a family to exist in balance, the woman should be like the family psychologist.

A man comes to his wife the same way that he once came to his mother; we can understand that. In this regard she should feel like a mother in relation to him. He has a need, a necessity for this. Therefore it is written, “May one leave the parents and adhere to the wife.” This isn’t simply because the woman personifies a force that gives birth and develops. Man, as it were, is tossing the wood on the fire and everything else is going on through the female force.

People should understand this. If this doesn’t happen, then of course the wife will begin to disregard her husband. We need to reach a state where men and women will interact correctly with each other, and for now it isn’t the case.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/28/12

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Question: What should be the connection or continuity between the lesson and the workshop following it at the convention in Kharkov? Will it follow the regular scheme or not?

Answer: This depends on the people there.

On one hand, we want people to receive certain information and knowledge at the lesson. However, a workshop is usually not about knowledge, but about feelings. Therefore, we should unite knowledge and feelings in a way where they will mutually complement one another.

But in principle, everything depends on the audience. That is why I would like to receive questions, suggestions, and wishes from our friends. This will enable me to understand what proportion of knowledge, perception, and feeling to have and to what extent people in Russia today perceive information through the heart and the mind.

When holding a convention in Europe, for example, I have to speak through the mind in a rather cool manner. But gradually people get so involved that by the end of the convention I can already speak in a way that aims them precisely at unification and everything unfolds wonderfully.

I wonder how much time we will need at the Kharkov Convention to enter a mutual sensation, to create a common field? In this common field we will feel its center, its warmth, its mutuality, the emergence of new waves in it, in which we will already begin to feel something higher than our psychology. We will feel our unification, our sensations—that which exists independently of us and is not only between us but above us.

This is the state to which I would like to bring the participants so they will begin to clearly feel that when people interact correctly, a special energetic, informational, governing field emerges, and if a person tries to remain in it, it begins to communicate with him from the other side. Then a person starts gradually working to reveal and sense it further, and that is the revelation of the Creator. The Creator is a force, a single, enormous field that governs us.
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From the virtual lesson on 7/8/12

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Question: What is the meaning of the demand indicated in the books to accustom oneself to fulfill the Torah and the commandments, which ultimately will help us obtain a second nature—love of the neighbor?

Answer: The actions of correction that I want to implement are called the commandments. First, I must reveal inside of myself what I need to correct, as it is written, “It is impossible to implement a commandment if, at first, one has not violated it,” meaning that first of all we reveal the lack, the evil inclination inside of ourselves, and then we see what we need to correct.

The correction of the desire to enjoy for the sake of bestowal is called the implementation of the commandment because that is the precept of the Creator. But to realize this is possible by means of the Light, the force that is called the Torah.

That is, I am given all of the conditions for the revelation of my egoistic beginning, working relative to friends and clarifying my relationship to them. And when I am revealing my ego, then I understand what needs to be corrected since this is the real evil because it separates me from the upper force, from the Creator.

Then I use the force of the group. If we have the desire to unite for the sake of receiving the force of correction, the Torah, then we receive it from above and it unites us. The steps of our unity are called the commandments, which have been implemented. That is, I am implementing these successive portions of the precepts of the Creator, His will relative to me, and, in the end, I arrive at the fact that my desire to enjoy becomes a giving one, and, according to the similarity of qualities, the force of bestowal, the Creator, is revealed inside of it. All of this is realized right in the spot where I am located on this earth and not somewhere in the heavens as it seems to us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: Today we already see that in order to raise the level of research, a scientist has to change; will he agree to that?

Answer: Will he have a choice? It refers not only to scientists but to other professionals as well, for example, teachers or businessmen. Because otherwise, businessmen will not be able to make deals. Today they suddenly discover that they cannot do it. This is why the middle class is disappearing, because people don’t know how to run a business and how to work integrally. They have not found the reason for the crisis yet.

Today the weak remain weak and don’t feel any meaningful changes; the rich take every opportunity, even in a time of crisis, to increase their profits, and the middle class suffers. But eventually people will understand that they have to change, because there is simply no other way. It will be clear to them that it is impossible to go on using the old methods of business management.

Today the big reliable commercial mechanisms cease to work. The elite are losing control and eventually it will force everyone to think about how to regain control of things. Then it will be clear: The only way to regain control is to switch to bestowal. Only then will you control the situation.

Everyone will feel the need for that, including scientists who will understand it more than others—on the basis of scientific data. Actually every scientific field has reached a dead end, and scientists already understand the need for radical changes. In a short while they will admit that these changes have to be made internally.

Thus they will recognize evil, but they won’t be able to switch to goodness by themselves. Here we have to introduce the force of correction to them.

What is more, a scientist himself is drawn to this force and will do the right thing if he sees the need for the integral approach. This is because the totally connected integral nature is revealed to him. He sees that he will not be able to come to any results since he encounters Ein Sof (Infinity), the unknown. There is an integral picture in front of him and all its parts are connected by infinite interrelations, and he cannot explain all that, he cannot “digest” this wholeness and work by it. He cannot build a model of the general unified picture inside him.

In the meantime, it is impossible to manage without such an internal model. Even known scientific concepts, like Einstein’s theory can be deeply understood by very few people. So what can we say about phenomena that are being revealed today that do not stem from our world and can only be understood by the integral mind.

Therefore, scientists will understand that they have to change their approach, themselves, their perspective. But how? The answer to this question will not be found without our help. We have to be the ones who explain to people how to fulfill the internal changes.

Question: But our method operates only within a group and scientists are used to working and discovering things individually. Will they agree to the principle of collective work as a means for the integral revelation?

Answer: They have no other choice. Of course, they will agree to that. Furthermore, the great scientists do recognize the need to connect. They feel it.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: Currently there is a lot of conflict in schools. Visiting a school seems to highlight the disagreements: The teachers aren’t satisfied with the kids, the kids aren’t satisfied with the teachers, and the parents are not satisfied with either of them. When my wife returns from visiting the school, she shares this pain. You say that this needs to be corrected. How can I, as a man, correct this; what should I do?

Answer: Nothing. What can you do?

You must change the system of upbringing: the upbringing and not the education! The education might be good and teachers of various subjects may also be good, but there is no upbringing! There is no such subject; there are no people that know how to bring up children or who work on the upbringing. There is none of that.

Just think about what will happen in the next generation. It won’t even exist. Nobody wants such a generation. It is why people don’t want to have children today, to create a family. What for? So that what we see today will continue to happen? Why have these unhappy children?

If your children are important to you, then get together at the school and decide what more you can do with them within its framework. However, you simply don’t care about them, you only drop them off at some organization called “school,” the “department of education,” and that’s it. You let them work with the kids. This must not happen!

I once had a problem with my son. I sent him to study at a special boarding school, and he used to come home once every few weeks. After one and a half years, they called me: “He is misbehaving. We want to expel him.” I was outraged: “How is this possible? Where was he for the past year and a half? He was with you, so who made him this bad? It was you, and now you want to expel him? You spoil the children, and then you kick them out according to your system; that’s all. How did he become this way by himself if he was in your hands all of this time? So go ahead and correct him now!”

So we have to rebuild the school. We see what kind of a generation it is producing because this is how we are bringing them up.

We have such an opportunity! See how everything is structured in nature: We can make anyone out of a human child, from the biggest villain to the most righteous man. Everything is in our hands. And who do we create? An unhappy person who suffers all of his life, who walks with his head drawn into his shoulders, hiding from everything, afraid of everything, drowning his sorrows in vodka, and has nothing from this life until he leaves it. What is the purpose of having such a life? Let’s finally take a good look at what we have done. We are the ones who did it.

Question: So if some of my friends tell me that they are having difficulties at their school, then basically it is possible to go to the school and show them how the integral methodology works?

Answer: Of course it is possible. You will always be accepted. No principal of the school will ever tell you: “No!” You are a certified psychologist, you have the recommendations and you are known on television. You want to give a demonstration lesson, a master class, and so on. Please, do it! They will gladly agree. Unobtrusively place a small camera there in order to not make the students inhibited and so that others can watch the lesson from the next building. Today all of this is not a problem.

Question: You believe that the moment has already come to give the integral methodology to the people?

Answer: Include the parents like we do in a school, or involve the management, which suffers from the fact that violence and a very low level of performance is thriving in their school. You have two paths, either through the parents or through the school management. Try to take action. This is what you have to start with! You will see what a benefit this is. You will have no obstacles, no opponents in this field, since everyone feels the pain of what is going on with the children.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/28/12

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Question: Who must take care that the wife has a positive image of the organization where her husband spends most of his time getting the integral education and upbringing if he returns and talks only about the negative things?

Answer: Why negative? You take an example from one system and you transform it into a completely different one. I absolutely do not see it.

If I come home after discussions at the roundtables where a lot of people have felt what an integral interconnection is and what a positive influence it has exerted on everyone, then I come home with positive emotions, with positive news. At the same time, famous, influential people have participated there, and we were all making decisions about the introduction of integral education and upbringing in other places. Why then, will I come to complain? There is nothing to complain about!

Of course, I understand those people, who are resisting! I understand that a person cannot adopt this methodology right away; preparatory work is also needed.

Question: Must a man worry about bringing home positive information about what he is working on?

Answer: He is obligated to! The wife, the husband, and the children.

I have an agreement with my wife. If yesterday we had some kind of misunderstanding, we do not carry it over to today. We begin from a clean page. There is nothing left back from yesterday. Of course, we do not suffer from memory loss, but we do not talk about it, we move forward because you will not be able to solve anything this way anyway. Start a new day with a good mood, with good news. Only the good ones! This takes a long time to get used to it.

I remember how for a long time I used to hear from my wife criticisms of the neighbor ladies, about the nursery schools where my son and daughter used to go to, and so on. I said that I didn’t want to hear anything negative, since we are not solving anything by this. What for? This only spoils our impression of each other. We meet, you tell me about the children (now about the grandchildren); very well, I am ready to hear only the good. If, God forbid, some problems come up, some diseases, then yes, but just negative impressions, they are nothing.

Question: What if someone had offended her, whom is she going to complain to?

Answer: Then it needs to be corrected! If it can be corrected, then yes. While if it is simply her impression about something she saw somewhere earlier, then there’s no need for it! The negative things a person sees are on the account of his own personal distortion.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/28/12

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Question: What skills does a person acquire when he deals with the integral method? How is possible to use it in the family, for example, or in places outside the integral circles?

Answer: He will see to what extent the integral system is essential for the world, and how positive and desirable it is, how economical it is and what we can save by it, and what we can do by using it. This means that it is actually a tool for changing all of our society, our life, and our attitude to nature, to production, to economy, to commerce, to education, to everything.

By gradually changing the relationships among us, we totally can change our life; it is true about every aspect, in production, everywhere. By creating new, mutual relationships that, at the same time also resemble nature and are in harmony with it, we will receive the right response from nature itself.

It seems that nature is something inanimate, and although there are parts of the vegetative and the animate levels in it, we generally perceive all of space as still. We don’t understand that this is how it is revealed only relative to us.

We don’t feel that behind all this there is a plan, a program of forces, a thought that manages us, leading us somewhere in the process of evolution. We, thus, become harmonious with the upper plan, with the upper force, and actually summon goodness in all our actions.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/28/12

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Question: Current studies show that the neurons in the brain become flexible when they connect. The “matter” remains the same, but the mutual connections in it change. Is it possible to draw an analogy between the “matter” of the brain and the “matter” of the desire to receive?

Answer: We will never be able to understand the way the brain operates by using the standard “corporeal” scientific tools. I suppose that scientists already understand this. The brain depends on its current state, and so the data in this field hardly allows researchers to arrive at any statistical rules, or to find some consistency. The brain isn’t just “a kilo and half of gray matter.” It constantly changes and although we classify the functions of all its parts, they can still perform totally different functions.

At the “head” of the spiritual Partzuf, where the decisions are made, there is a Direct Light and a Returning Light, the connection between the Creator and the created being. It is the same in our brain, but on a different level. So if we don’t discover the Creator part in us, we will not be able to discover the principles of the brain’s work. This is because half of the picture can hardly be seen in the fog and we don’t know what operates it.

On the whole, we can compare our brain to a detector, to a receiver that receives signals from space around us. So there is no great significance to examine it detached from this space. If we study only the brain itself and leave its connection with the source of the data out of the picture, we will never know anything. This is because our brain perceives important external information from some field.

We are built in a definite way: Our nature is divided into the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, we divide ourselves into Partzufim, Sefirot, to parts according to the thickness of the desire and the purity of the Masach (screen), but actually in spirituality it is all one, and everything is one wholeness where we exist. It is where the past, the present, and the future are, the three stages of our development, everything is there.

The brain activity is like a receiver or a mutual activity within a system, which I perceive only to the extent of my own bestowal. We may say that the brain is part of the general system. But actually the brain, the mind, is spread over all of Ein Sof (Infinity), which a person has to actually attain. In the meantime we only feel bits of it.

I don’t think that science will continue to follow the old approach. There will come a time when scientists will stop, change their approach, and begin to discover an upper level, just as in the past humanity moved from using a steam engine to using an internal combustion engine. Brain researchers will want to rise to the “layer of information” that is above our world. It is only from there that they will be able to carry on with their studies, whereas the current approach will lead to nothing.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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