Question: All strata and sectors of Israeli society are unifying to protest against high housing prices. Are they working in the right direction? What else does such union lack?

Answer: You call this “union,” but I don’t see anything of the sort. In my eyes, there is no real union. It is rather similar to a plot between two men who united in order to beat the third one up, or an alliance of thieves, conspiring to rob a bank. They have great solidarity and really care about each other.

So, from the perspective of Kabbalah, the people chanting slogans on the streets are bonded much like two egoists who want to make some extra money at the expense of the third. They lack a correct form of unity, and therefore they will get nothing. We cannot appeal to them yet, but in fact, we have to explain to them that the union must be integral, for the benefit of the entire nation. It is impossible to act in unison while everyone pursues his own shallow selfish interest. In this case, one will always benefit at the expense of the other.

After all, we have one “treasury” for all, and we can’t use it for our personal needs. If we do, someone else will lack afterwards. So why should you be the one to receive a “gift”?

All this must be taken into account. Today, around the world, such initiatives will meet positive results only on one condition: if we care about the welfare of society and are committed to mutual bestowal. Then we will begin protecting the interests of all layers of society and thereby succeed.

If we don’t think in terms of integration and do not feel concerned for the whole society, we will fail, and no-one will benefit but rabid egoists. But even they won’t gain pleasure from this and will keep limping from crisis to crisis together with everyone.
[49465]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: We often say that we have to play in a correct relationship in the group. What is this game?

Answer: The game stimulates our advancement. We attribute games to children because they grow and undergo developmental stages. And therefore those who no longer play, no longer develop.

Every time I define myself in a current state, examine it, and draw a certain picture for myself, this image of the future which I would like to be in, this transition from one state to another, is called a game. I’m playing it to be in this next image, to acquire this form.

In a game, we usually depict how we can benefit, win, and achieve something. There is an external game of reaching some external goals, and there is an internal game, when I make changes inside myself. But each is a game.

Everything that develops always has a desired state and reality, the idea of a ​​future goal, and the aspiration for it. It happens at the vegetative and animate levels, not just with man. For a plant the game is in its cell, for an animal it is with itself or with other animals, and this also occurs at the level of human physiology.

Man is regarded as “Adam” and wants to become similar to the Creator by playing precisely this game: how to become like Him. To do this, he has to think about this form all the time: What it means to be similar to the upper one, to be His equal, to adhere to him, to resemble Him in properties—and to play this game in the group.

This means that together we have to imagine a state where in the connection between us, we portray the image of the Creator in our mutual vessel. And to achieve this, there has to be total equality and partnership. The word “friend” (Haver) derives from the word “connection” (Hibur), and the connection is only possible between equals, under the condition of mutual giving and love, a mutual guarantee.

We are nothing like that at all, but if the friends and I try to play as if we are in such a relationship, in our future form, then we are constantly striving for a connection and shared desire to take the form of mutual bestowal. And at the instant when we receive this form of bestowal, we will feel the Light in it, due to the fact that we have finally completed our connection! And then the light will turn on! This is the revelation of the Creator.

And so, we light it more and more every time, above all obstacles. After all, there is no game without obstacles.
[49206]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/2011, Shamati #39

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Question: How can we explain the integrality of a new world to the masses so that they become fully convinced of it?

Answer: To experience it, the world will have to go through a lot of troubles. It is not difficult to agree intellectually with total interconnectedness. “Indeed, I’ve read and heard something about this. There is an earthquake in Japan, and we have problems with spare parts. There is a war in Libya, and Denmark is closing the border. I agree: The world is integral.”

However, this integrality must be felt to the marrow of the bones so that there is not a single thought, a single desire to consider ourselves separate from everyone else, from all of humanity. It should sit in us relentlessly, and we should tremble at the thought of it, not just perceive it by the mind.

I have to feel it physically, “in the guts.” Let hunger torture me, I cannot take a bite into my mouth if I am not sure that the same bite is available to everyone. That is what the integral world is: Eating what others do not have is like swallowing poison.

It is difficult to imagine something like that. We are not living it, we simply heard of some sort of connections. It is still a long way from here to an individual meal turned poison and to the blessing from everyone being provided with everything. Imagine the suffering we have to experience on this path.

Question: But we want to prevent sufferings. This means that we have to provide a person with tangible evidence that he should be imbued with this integrality; otherwise, it will be painful. We have to touch his feelings to convey this message.

Answer: Correct, but on the other hand, if we do not resort to the help of the Light, it is impossible to convey this deep knowledge even through the method of social influence. You have to accelerate progress; otherwise, the “press of development,” approaching from behind, will do this for you.

And that is why education is required. We do not talk about the facts taken from advertising; a person must “delve” into these facts so that they surround, “mold,” and “format” him. An objective, abstract presentation will not help here; we have to reach man’s essence. And you are not capable of this.

Reading about the neighbor whose house burned down, a person clicks one’s tongue: “Poor thing. Perhaps the government might help him now.” And he will not move further. The barrier of our egoism could be breached only with the Light. No evidence will help without the Light; even great sufferings do not change people.

It is virtually impossible to advance from sufferings. They can just lead us to the need for spirituality, but not to correction. Only the Light performs correction itself.
[49568]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/2011, “The Peace”

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The game is the most important chore for us. Therefore, when we are reading The Zohar, we have to play at being great Kabbalists and imagine that we reside in the same state as the authors of The Book of Zohar, those who first revealed how much they resented each other, but joined together afterwards.

In the beginning, they hated each other, and consequently, did not feel anything beyond their animate state, the state of this world. From such a deep descent, they started rising to the spiritual level of mutual bestowal and guarantee, and that is when their bond grew so strong that they revealed what is described in The Zohar.

Therefore, from our lack of connection, we too have to try to achieve a bond as strong as theirs, and then we’ll uncover what The Zohar narrates; we will reach the level of the authors of the book. If they started with hatred, literally wanting to kill each other, although we don’t reach such a deep awareness of evil, as much as we are able to do so and correct it, we’ll reach at least some degree of understanding of what they wrote about, and then we’ll climb up on the same degree that they revealed.

Question: How is the game connected with drawing the Surrounding Light?

Answer: The game is everything. It is the only action we perform. The game signifies that I strive for what I desire to achieve. What is the difference between this game and some other creative action in our world if while doing it, we also desire to get something out of it? Good question, but in this game we don’t really know what to do. It has an element of fortune, free will; it has something I cannot know in advance. And that’s why it is called a game.

In this game, I depend on the others as if we are in a true state playing in some imaginary action. But in reality, this imaginary action turns out to be true when we come to it. Therefore, the game is regarded as a serious business.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/2011, The Zohar

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Question: What sentence can I write in front of me in capital letters so that every time I get distracted and my thoughts wander, I could come back to it and refocus again?

Answer: Imagine a state that is worth constantly aspiring to, and describe it so this sentence would immediately remind you that you perceive reality as divided and broken up into different parts only because you are inside of egoism.

As soon as you discard this view through your ego, everything becomes a single whole. It’s like you are looking at reality through a curtain that has small holes in it and what you see seems to be made up of separate parts. But then you remove this curtain from your eyes and all of reality turns out to be one.
From the 2dn part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/11, The Zohar
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Question: What do we mean by “unity” when we speak to the world?

Answer: To unite according to the condition of mutual guarantee means to be as one man with one heart. In order to unite hearts into one, to unite all desires into one desire the way it was before the breaking of the vessels, we go through two stages.

In the first stage we neutralize the will to receive for the sake of reception and thereby carry out the condition of Hafetz Hesed, “Do not do to another what is hateful to yourself.” By virtue of this I no longer harm my neighbor. I no longer judge a person by how good or bad he is, how much I can use him, control him, and deceive him.

I no longer look for profit from the world. I simply don’t want anything. Once I attain the entire magnitude and guile of my evil, which pushes me to harm others at every second, I yearn to maximally minimize the use of my desires. I only ask for the things I cannot do without, the bare necessities, hoping that then I will attain the quality of bestowal.

I want to become a point, like Malchut that becomes included in Bina. Just one point. It’s as if I don’t exist. My “I” is included in Bina and devoted to it,like a drop of semen in a womb. For now I am just a drop that does not exist by virtue of itself, but on account of the upper one.

This is the first stage where our hearts are not united yet, but they also aren’t repelled from one another.

At the next stage they start coming closer, as it is written, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” With all of my heart (because I don’t have other instruments), I check the heart of the neighbor and see the extent to which I can fulfill him and receive from him. My heart works entirely to serve and fulfill his heart, and he treats me the same way. This is the unity of hearts that we attain by carrying out the principle of love for the neighbor as for ourselves, thereby becoming as one man with one heart.
[49468]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/11, “The Peace”

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Question: Why does the burning desire that used to be there at the beginning gradually disappear? One continues to experience good or bad feelings, but sometimes one feels indifference and a complete absence of feelings.

Answer: This is also part of the “game” and concealment. Either one hides his desire to enjoy and acts above it, or one is given concealment from Above. Then, this is not concealment on one’s egoism because one has to make it himself. From Above, they hide from him what he should hide from himself!

It turns out that he loses the connection with the upper luminescence, that little illumination that he was given from Above, and he feels himself completely cut off, as if he has nothing. Sometimes, he realizes that he has lost everything, and at times he does not feel even that, and he starts living like a simple animal. Detachment from the upper source means an animal existence.

If there is a feeling that something higher exists, this is an awakening of the human within us. When we begin to search for something higher, a person starts to grow from within, like a plant does. When we start to take proactive steps, to work in the group with the friends, then we can raise ourselves to the animate level of the human degree. When we realize the form of mutual bestowal, this means that we have reached the genuine, human degree.

From a complete detachment caused by the fact that the upper source was concealed from him, a person reaches a point where he himself hides this upper source from the desire to enjoy. Then, he grows up like a human, above this concealment.
[49202]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/2011, Shamati #39

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Question: How does one test whether his effort is sufficient?

Answer: Efforts are usually made above reason, above knowledge, when it seems to a person that everything is extremely difficult and impossible, and that he has had enough. He no longer believes in the teacher with his “folly” or in the Creator who is concealed, making it impossible to tell what He wants from him. And he has many complaints about the group as a whole, as well about every person individually.

However, at the same time we need to say that this image that I see is only according to my own faults, my egoism! It’s because in reality, I exist in the world of Infinity. And the group is the souls that I am completely connected with. And the teacher is the part above us that leads us to the connection with the already corrected souls so that we together with them can correct the souls that are still uncorrected. And the Creator will become revealed between us; for now He is concealed for our own good.

If a person imagines this state correctly, if he understands that this world is imaginary and he needs to dig deeper through this illusory image, to its inner form so as to reveal the strings that connect us, like on the reverse side of an embroidered image, he then will be able to put everything in place and demand to be changed.

He will reveal perfection through being in harmony with all the desires, in other words, with the group and the Creator, the quality of bestowal. He will feel that he has attained perfection this way and there is nothing greater than this, no need or desire for anything greater because this is the most perfect state for him!
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/2011, Shamati #187

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Question: We received a letter from a friend in the tent city in Tel Aviv that is part of the fight to lower housing prices. He writes, “I don’t study Kabbalah, but we understand that we have tried everything and we understand that we have to unite and consolidate.” They are sitting there now and writing a proclamation, but they don’t know how to make it acceptable for everyone. They heard that Kabbalah has practical solutions. What can we offer them?

Answer: There is a notion known as “the prayer of many.” They should ask on behalf of everyone, including themselves. If they act this way, they will achieve success. This is the right form of unification. And if they don’t do that, then nothing will work.

Today the integral force already reigns in the world and is becoming revealed more and more all the time, and all the systems are shifting to this new work regime.
Besides, I would recommend that they read at least a few of our books in their free time. We cannot hand out our materials to them because then people will suspect that we are doing this out of selfish motives. But if they wish, we would be happy to give them any materials, and by reading them they will understand what we mean and how they should act. This will give them the assistance of the upper force, and then they will see with their own eyes how their power and success grow.

This will happen in actuality. Let’s try it out.
[49461]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/11, “The Peace”

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