Question: What message should we convey to people in a course of rational economics?

Answer: We must relay very interesting statistics to them: the amount of resources humanity must spend, the efficient way to use natural and human resources, energy and so on. In other words, we teach people a course of harmony with nature, when we don’t take anything unnecessary from it, like animals.

After all, in our regular lives we are no different from animals. So why should we take from nature more than we need? An animal digs a hole for itself, stores food, procreates instinctively, raises its offspring, kills other creatures and eats them—but never in excess of its needs. And we must act the same way.

Everything must function only in harmony with nature. The only difference is that in our case this harmony must be something we achieve consciously, as opposed to harmony on the still, vegetative and animate levels, which is maintained instinctively. We must create harmony ourselves.
[64970]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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Question: What is “fate in reward and punishment?”

Answer: At every moment in our life we face reward and punishment. At every moment I must demand correction. If I demand it properly, I get a reward, and if I don’t demand it properly, I get correction.

The reward is getting stronger desires with which I can direct myself more accurately to the goal. I become more sensitive and tune myself more accurately, calibrate myself, and imagine more accurately what the “Creator” is.

I understand this by building myself by myself over again according to Him, and learning about the way I am built. Thus I become more similar to Him and this is my reward—to bestow more. The punishment is in seeing that I missed.

But this also becomes part of the correction, and then the punishment becomes my reward. After all, it makes no difference whether I receive a positive or a negative reaction. The main thing is that it allows me to find out my deviation and to correct it.

I accept all these deviations as good and beneficial, no matter whether they are positive or negative, whether they are repulsive or attractive. I don’t know which additional desires I have to reveal now. All the evils that I have to discover are hidden in me, and when they are revealed, I perceive it as reward. Although I feel bad, I rise above my feeling.

I perceive everything I receive from the reforming Light, no matter how it is felt, as a great reward. This is my direction. But in order to do that, I need the support of the environment, so that I will constantly see myself as part of this system. Only there will I be able to change in order to join it.

Suppose, for example, I have to become a part of the friends in a space that is cone shaped. As I try to fit into the shape, I constantly receive further clarification about what I am lacking and how to do it more accurately, so that I can fit in this special form.

So although every new revelation can be felt as negative, the troubles and confusion become a blessing for me. It says that the wisdom of the Torah is opposite from the wisdom of landlords, because you are happy with these revelations.

This is a “very narrow bridge” that we have to cross. A person who advances by spirituality, finds a reward both in positive and in negative feelings. The main thing is to correct one’s tuning.
[64949]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/12, “Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: The extremist right wing movements in Europe are getting stronger. In general when a person doesn’t see a solution to a problem, he tends to accept the apparent simplicity of radical claims. How can we present our message in contrast to that?

Answer: First, there are many scientific facts. But scientists cannot provide a serious platform at the moment, and so we have to organize it in a way that will show the rational “grain” in our recommendations.

Besides, we shouldn’t forget that radical trends unite people on the one hand, but on the other hand lead to conflicts and wars. Here we have to explain that these tendencies are in contrast to nature. In the present conditions of total mutual connection, any conflict will lead to serious implications.

This is why Europe cannot break apart now. First, it isn’t in Germany’s favor. The Germans are ready to pay billion of Euros only to prevent that from happening. After all, they see where this will lead to: to losing their market. If you seclude yourself, the next day your economy will begin to suffocate. So everyone will lose as a result of the disintegration of the EU.

Day by day it becomes clearer that protectionism isn’t the solution to the current problems. It is used in a very limited manner, but on the whole, everyone already understands the fact that we are all mutually connected and that this connection cannot be broken. It can only be destroyed by war, meaning by extreme actions, but there are no intermediate ways.

I hope that we will be able to prepare our method and wrap it up in a way that will enable people to understand the basic idea. We offer, “Let’s check its effectiveness together,” “Let’s continue to develop it together,” as a result we need to create a platform that will lead the mutual connection among people to a new qualitative level, which is the basis for all the changes that will take place in the world, in humanity. [Read more →]

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Question: In western countries, advertising everywhere mostly uses women in a sexual context that is more or less obvious. Why do the modern day men regard a woman as a sexual object?

Answer: That’s because over the years, our evil inclination (egoistic desire) has reached tremendous dimensions. We haven’t corrected it and it still stays at an animal level. Sexual attraction is the most uncomplicated and natural call that is easy to implement. Practically everything revolves around it; it is very easy to create a whole “industry of love” comprised of movies, TV, music, etc.

Never in the past was such an ideal of “love” built. No matter how we perceive old times, people used to be more straightforward and simple. A man married a “suitable” woman from his neighborhood and created a family without involving such “high matters.” The massive glorification of “love” was launched about 150 years ago; before, no “cult” associated with it ever existed.

This cult-like notion of love didn’t arise by chance—after all, a man must be something to enjoy. What could they get fulfilled with? What good could they find in life? This is how an industry of “wholesale love” was created. It uses a simple, powerful and affordable pleasure, which, unlike others, requires almost no investment. Today, it is overused on the Internet and TV without any restrictions.

Moreover, we force-feed our children with side effects of the “sexual revolution.” With the help of media, society overwhelms a child with adult stereotypes that are unnatural for the younger generation. In conjunction with hormones that children intake with food, we violate a natural process of growth and literally force kids to “mutate.” This is only one side of a general crisis.

We consider ourselves to be a rational intelligent society with certain principles and considerable experience; if so, how can we allow such things to happen? In the past, parents tried hard to protect their children from bad influences; they gave them the best they could and cultivated in their kids high spiritual values. What do we do with our children now? Why do we allow contemporary mass media filled with cruelty, cynicism, and filth to interfere with our children’s lives?

Why do we tolerate vulgarity by silently consenting to it?

A child goes to school, watches TV, and browses through the Internet. The environment carves him in a way that he becomes similar to it. Why don’t we at least become concerned about it? Do we have anything more precious than children?

We cannot confine them in four walls; so the channels that pour poison into our children’s ears must be shut down. Let’s at least take care of our offspring since we have already failed the adults. Society should be held responsible for the content that is being offered to our young generation. Unnecessary things should not be imposed on them.

Returning to the topic of women—we shouldn’t compel girls to think that they were born to seduce men and thus have to look accordingly. By doing so, we enhance prostitution and create wrong standards in relationships between genders only because someone earns money from it. This way or the other everything rotates around money.

As long as we allow media to “educate” people that distorts them instead, we cannot expect anything positive from them. At the same time, the situation can be improved solely with the help of mass media, but we should take their activity under control.

Society must be called to order; among other things, it means that media has to be regulated. We are not talking about the freedom of speech, but rather about the freedom of animal appeal. Media should be organized differently and continue working for the sake of public benefit instead of letting advertisement agencies and their affiliates earn more money.

We have to start with mass education; otherwise there is nobody to talk with. People have already been “carved” and perceive the current state of affairs as the only possibility.

Hence, parents carry vague priorities; they indifferently watch their children degrade.

If a particular person—someone older or an adult —was harming my child, I would do everything in my power to stop any contacts between them. But somehow we do not act against the media. On the contrary, we knowingly allow them to enter our house and agree with what they are doing. The same applies to schools.

People simply gave up. We prefer to keep our good moods by abiding with the situation and thinking that everything is fine. Our common trouble is that we are completely (not partially) consoled.

Altering the environment will bring us relief. But first we have to clean it up a bit. So far, while we are being suppressed by our indifference time passes by….
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, “The Freedom”
[64795]

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Question: You are saying that in the case of a conflict you should first separate the rivals. But the hatred is growing worldwide. If everyone stays in his “corner,” how will people connect?

Answer: First the two rival parties should be separated so that there will be no quarrel. Fighting will certainly not help the connection. When people are hostile to each other, they can’t learn about mutuality, not even theoretically. Imagine that we are fighting passionately, not listening to one another, and meanwhile we first of all need to hear each other at least a little. So, we are separated, each one is placed in his “corner,” and we communicate from a distance.

Suppose we gradually get closer and we go through stage X_I and X_II. Here we have a problem. We have both drawn apart from our initial positions that can’t be bridged, and as a result we are in doubt and don’t know what to do. Usually we come to a dead end.

This phenomenon is well known to diplomats: The two parties get closer, more and more, but suddenly they are thrown backwards. Why? It’s because they have drawn too far from their starting point and have stretched the wires that connect them to the starting point too far. Behind them there are the people, their enemies, and their political rivals, and they all say: “Look how far they’ve gone! How can you make so many concessions?”

Eventually we are both unhappy with the new situation. Each of us remembers the principles he has given up and doesn’t see any point in any further concessions. It’s as if we say to each other: “It isn’t worth it. Imagine what they will do to us at home if we meet midway. They’ll kill us.”

So what should we do? There is only one way out: comprehensive upbringing. You won’t achieve anything until you educate everyone so that they advance towards connection together with you. In this case, when you get closer, you don’t get away from “your side,” but simply go through phases of development, just like me.  Even if we leave the negotiations aside, it won’t send us to different sides; on the contrary, we’ll stay in the same place we managed to reach by our mutual nearing. This is what we get through education.

But in order to reach that, we must first separate the two parties, to build an education system for each of them which suits them, and to draw the ties between these two different camps. Even if both sides are ready to negotiate, there are still the people on both sides and different social sectors. They don’t understand our reasoning, they are still in a different state, and so we can’t approach each other yet. They’ll set us free only for a certain distance, but not more than that.

If you are looking for true correction, you will be able to allow people to come down from the initial position and to advance towards an opposite one only with the help of education.

Question: All this does exist in mutual relations between states, companies, and even in the family. But does the first phase always require total detachment? For example, do the EU countries have to separate and only then look for a solution?

Answer: No. It’s because this case is a bit different: They are already untied, although not so successfully. If you already have a connection, you should be very careful not to break it. Otherwise, you will be going against nature. If the Europeans do that, things will be much worse. So they have to go forward towards integration as much as possible. There is no other way.

But in order to do that, they have to change their principles. After all, nothing is more separated, alienated, and divided than Europe. History has arranged for its people to hate one another very much. Only education can help here.

If the European leaders stall for time and start mass education, the situation will improve. People will immediately begin to develop on the level of consciousness and understanding of the world. But unfortunately, the Europeans don’t see or understand this option yet.
[64692]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: I read the book The Kabbalist, which among other things talks about how Baal HaSulam tried to reach the world. He told people everything but they didn’t listen. Why should the world listen to us today?

Answer: Baal HaSulam lived at the beginning of the present era and really wanted to hasten time. Before WWII he tried to arrange for 300 Jewish families from Poland to come to Israel. He wanted to establish a special group in Jerusalem, whose members would work in a small factory in order to make a living and be together all the time, connect all the time. He wanted to unite the people with his newspaper “The Nation.” He went back to Poland when the workers’ uprising began, hoping to direct them all to unity….

Baal HaSulam saw that the next level, the next state, is global unity. There are no intermediate levels. We have to rise from here straight to connection. But in his time there weren’t the right conditions for that. People ridiculed the Soviet Union in which a new society was formed by oppression. As a whole, the world has advanced the American way, towards attaining the “American Dream,” and it was impossible to talk about correction according to the method of Kabbalah.

However, today things have changed. I would like to emphasize that we are not talking about our accomplishments. On the contrary, we are small compared to all the groups that preceded us. However, considering the state of the world, we have to succeed. After all, today the world is helplessly facing all the emerging problems. The world has never been in this situation which seems like a dead end. It’s now clear that we are sinking into a total economic crisis and that we can’t do anything about it. There’s nothing to hope for and there’s no way out.

This is why the method for correction is being revealed now. It turns to the world not by calling it to bestow upon the Creator, but by a message of mutual guarantee that’s being revealed very clearly on the part of nature itself. Everyone sees it, but they don’t know how to reach compatibility with the Creator; they don’t know that it’s by equivalence of form with Him that we can have all the abundance in the corporeal world.

We are working together on our level, aspiring for the upper force to be revealed in the point of unity between us. For us mutual guarantee is unification at the higher, spiritual level of Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), thanks to which we, Israel, will pour the upper Light onto the world. All of humanity is actually one system, and hence, if the Light will be in us, it will certainly flow onto others.

This is exactly what our convention is for: We draw the Light from the Source so that it will be revealed between us. Then after the convention we’ll see great changes in the world. People will feel a special force: “Perhaps we can connect after all?” Suddenly this will be the real solution for them. There is no need to “escape,” there is no need to break up the common market and international relationships. On the contrary, with the help of all the present institutions, we have to change the approach and to aspire for unity and not for anything else.

The previous mechanisms are being destroyed and we have to provide everyone with a minimal reasonable standard of living and a sense of security. Everyone should receive the basic necessities. Humanity that feels so helpless now should adopt this approach. The developed countries are in a state of economic, industrial, and financial decline.

According to what is written in Kabbalah books, today, considering our investment in the world’s needs, we have a very good chance to reveal the upper force in order to correct ourselves. We only have to use our intentions as much as we can.

Clearly we are all egoists, and each of us thinks about his own well-being. Even in the group each one looks for his gain and not for bestowal upon the Creator. If we are lucky, we remember Him occasionally. But this doesn’t matter. All our efforts are accompanied by an egoistic desire “Lo Lishma” (not for Her Name), and we aren’t demanded to do more, just like babies. We try, we really make great efforts, and so the convention can really unite us.

Then we’ll be able to reveal the upper force for the first time, in order to correct ourselves and to pass on the correction to the whole world. All the signs and Kabbalistic writings indicate that it’s possible, and we simply mustn’t doubt that.
[62272]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: Why aren’t we able to unite?

Answer: You aren’t able to unite because you don’t have enough desire. You need mutual guarantee, meaning something mutual, through which you support one another.

There is the state itself, and there is its derivative—a higher level. When separate desires get together to create a common force, like in an army, a soccer team, or a gang of criminals, this results in a unified desire of a group. But that is not enough.

The fact that we unite still doesn’t make us rise higher. We just unite our forces, the way any group or military troop does. But we have to ascend to a higher level where our desires will become mutual and we will want to support one another.

But in what regard do we support one another? In a regular group there is no problem supporting one another. Psychologists work with soccer teams, giving them pep talks before the game so the players feel mutual support and unity.

However, we have to attain mutual bestowal and love, which is something we do not have and which does not promise us any real reward. I don’t plan on hitting a ball into the net and earning a million dollars for it, and I don’t risk my life, the way soldiers in an army do. Rather, the goal I am pursuing is one that gives me no response: nothing good and nothing bad. It’s some sort of bestowal, and I don’t feel anything inside at the thought of it—neither profit nor loss.

In the best case scenario, I only feel a loss because I waste my energy on this. And in the worst case scenario, I don’t have any idea why I am doing this and who I am planning to bestow to.

It turns out that we work together in the group to create inner support for one another, to create a force instead of the Creator, which will provide every person with the force of bestowal. And if we work on this persistently, then among us we begin to reveal that we lack an additional vital force for the realization.
[64906]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You are going on a tour in Europe soon; how can the European groups help? If they all connect, will this change the situation?

Answer: The point here is not so much in the connection of the European groups, which is also important, but rather, in general dissemination. We have to connect; we have to send our documents to different organizations, including the leaders of the EU in Brussels. We will gradually see the result.

We already see the positive results of working with the UN. In a formal document about education, for example, their introduction was literally “copied” from our materials.

We must understand that we are given a chance to be heard these days because people already acknowledge their helplessness. When they hear sensible ideas from us, they can use them to some extent. There are cases in which a person’s position doesn’t allow him to do that although he may totally agree with us.

But one way or the other, we have to do our best. The European groups must try to connect and start goal-oriented dissemination, aimed at the addresses of the different governments and at Brussels. We mustn’t forget the Internet and its European part either. Eventually they will hear us.
[64689]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/11, “The Freedom”

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Question: What does it mean to feel the suffering of the whole world? How does one join in it?

Answer: Let’s say, I am close to a person who works the land and does not know anything else in life except his cows, his field, and farm. On the other hand, there is the opportunity to get to know the big world, to multiply one’s knowledge and pleasure, to attain the eternity of nature.

The difference between what he has and what he could have reached is the shortage, the suffering. He does not feel it by himself. As if he is mentally sick and does not know about his ailment, but I know; I see it looking at him and I feel sorry about it.

It is not important that he is not sorry about it by himself. It is possible to make a pain-killing injection and people will not suffer from the pain. However, suffering exists in the world for a purpose, so that by the means of suffering, by the means of one’s simple actions, we can reach correction.

In order to feel the whole world on our shoulders, I need to feel how much everyone is missing—the difference between their current state and the end of correction. This is a perfect desire, which a person must reach.

The suffering from feeling this empty vessel is simply unimaginable. But we connect the beginning and the end, understanding that “the end of the action lies in the initial thought” and that everything is originally derived from the benevolent desire of the Creator to give pleasure to the creation, and we arrive at this good end, and a person feels the suffering only to the extent of how much he is connected to his desire to enjoy.

However, at the moment when he rises above this desire, he will no longer feel the suffering, but only inspiration and excitement. In this form, we can endure suffering from what is seen as another person suffering in his personal life as a result of being immersed in his self-interest. But when we see how much is prepared for him after he rises above his egoism, how the vessel is full of light—it helps us, suffering together with him, to endure this pain for everyone.

[Read more →]

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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
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