In the News (from The Voice of Russia): “The standoff between Christianity and Islam in European countries is becoming more and more dangerous each year. According to some experts, today the European community is facing a harsh choice: if the Islamization of Europe continues, one might soon have to say good-bye to Christianity in the countries of the Old World.

“For a number of years on the eve of Christmas various European countries are shaken by scandals. In an increasing number of states the authorities refuse to put up in public places that integral attribute of the holiday, a Christmas tree, decorated with a nativity scene. The politicians explain their actions by their fear to insult the religious feelings of those who don’t believe in the Biblical stories. The demand to take off the Christian attributes primarily comes from Muslim communities, which are more and more aggressively trying to impose on the West their moral and religious values and view of the world. …

“If in the past Muslims living in the EU did not like the presence of dogs in the streets and public places in Europe, they demanded the authorities to issue special laws that would limit the breeding of such ‘impure animals,’ now they are demanding that Sharia Law be introduced at the state level. Some laws of Islamic law are already used in Belgium and the Netherlands in reviewing civil cases. …

“A spark of grudge slowly but surely turned into a real fire. … According to preliminary calculations, by 2025 about 40 million Muslims will live in the EU. In some countries the number of mosques has already surpassed the number of Christian churches. The Old World has no longer the opportunity to choose one or the other. …”

My Comment: There is no place for comment because the facts are cited. The tiredness of old Europe and the energetic youth of Islam are not comparable—and there is no choice. It is said in the Torah about Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, from whom Islam originated: “His hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him,” the entire world will deal with it.

As for the relationship between Arabs and Jews, it is said there in the Torah: “And he shall dwell before the face of all his brethren.” The descendants of the two brothers Ishmael and Isaac will not mix with one another, but will live separately against each other in an unpleasant close proximity.
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Come and see the words of the sage Rabbi Even Ezra in his book, Yesod Mora, (The Foundation for Fear) p. 8b: “And now note and know that all the Mitzvot that are written in the Torah or the conventions that the fathers have established, although they are mostly in action or in speech, they are all in order to correct the heart…”
Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Those who engage solely in the dresses of the Torah are gravely mistaken. And when the Creator’s demand is abandoned and the majority of the multitude of the sages of the Torah do not know its purpose, and they consider the wisdom of the Torah with its purpose as mere addition of some quip to Talmudic debates—which, though truly sacred and precious—they will not illuminate our souls.
Rav Kook, Igrot (Letters), Part 2, No. 153
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Question: You have met with representatives of different spiritual movements several times. Can they support us when we approach the world?

Answer: The state of the Sufis is worse than ours. The difference between them and Islam is like the difference between us and religion. In contrast to Sufis, we can approach people freely, while they cannot even come out of their hiding place because of the great danger they are in. I met Sufis in Holland, England, and the US. They fled from the Arab states since they are hated by the modern fundamental Islam that is ready to operate only by force so that everyone will align with them like robots.

Question: Is being a Sufi a spiritual level?

Answer: Not really. But still, this level is above our world since they are above the desire to receive to some extent. The Sufis don’t have any real spiritual vessels since they don’t work along the three lines, but they do ascend a bit above the right line.

Question: But still, you tried to contact certain circles including scientists, politicians, and the World Wisdom Council. They really listened to your ideas…

Answer: In order to operate in this direction a person needs a desire, a need, an urge; he needs to feel an attraction to it. They don’t have this at the moment; they are indifferent at the moment.

See how many people speak out about ecological problems today and about the fact that enormous amounts of food are thrown away in rich countries while hundreds of millions in the world are hungry. It is clear that if people suffer in one place, and you discard in another, the problem is only the connection between people. If we can fix the connection between people, it will be possible to fix everything. It seems so simple but it turns out that no one can do it.

The point here is human nature that no one can correct and so everything stays the same. The desire for a change is not ripe yet. On the whole, every scientist dreams about discovering the meaning of life, but in the meantime they play with their guinea pigs and don’t look up…

Question: Will we still need science in the future when integral education will become part of people’s lives?

Answer: No. The truth is that there are no separate scientific fields: chemistry, physics, biology, zoology, botany, astronomy, etc.; there is only one wisdom: the science of life. We attain it in our desires, in our vessels. In other words, we become similar to reality and don’t need anything external any more. With Kabbalah I don’t need any external vessels in order to study external phenomena; no they open up in me.

Today, we study matter, its attributes and behavior, and then we process the data we receive in our mind, until we develop cells of sensation that enable us to experience the laws of nature. In fact, a scientist is a person who feels the part of nature that he studies.

Thus we follow a very long indirect path in order to acquire knowledge, a sensory response, and a kind of cooperation with the matter that we study as we become incorporated in it. Our familiarization with matter is quite limited.

On the other hand, we can develop inner vessels without external research, without the indirect path from mind to feeling, without the artificial framework of the phenomenon that we observe on the outside. I can swallow and absorb all the matter of the world and discover that it is inside me and not on the outside. Then a giant lab will be formed inside me in order to study reality, and I will not need different scientific subjects anymore. After all, the wisdom of Kabbalah includes them all.

A Kabbalist needs scientists in order to explain the different aspects of the wisdom of Kabbalah, but not for himself.

Question: So it turns out that he can study the structure of molecules and atoms by himself, for example?

Answer: If we provide him with the specific scientific vocabulary, he will explain why they act in a certain way. He only needs the terminology.

One way or the other, we will not need science in its current form when we begin to ascend spiritually. Why do we need genetic engineering, for example, if we already know how to implement the same thing on the level of the forces they stem from? Why should we deal with external features if we have access to internality?

What is more, after a person begins the correction, he will want to put an end to everything that harms him and others. So we will leave different parts of practical science since today we see that it only brings about harm. The use of pure science in our world is a dirty business.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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An idol worshiper is one who works for the benefit of his egoism and turns it into an idol.

The nations of the world that create images and builds statues are not considered as idol worshippers because they are not aware that their original nature is the desire to receive. In other words, there are those who create corporeal images and there are other people who create imaginary images.

Ask any Jew why he closes his eyes when he says “Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God the Lord is one.” He doesn’t know. He doesn’t even understand that he does it because it is forbidden for a person to imagine any image!

The Creator is the attribute of bestowal and love and He exists only within our correct inner desire, and we can discover this attribute only according to our desire. Otherwise He doesn’t exist! He doesn’t exist in any place, not even as the Surrounding Light. Simply, we speak this way in order to express in some way the spiritual attribute in our corporeal language.

The Creator, (Bo-re) means “come and see,” and if you reach your vessel, you can discover Him. And He doesn’t exist outside the vessel. It is impossible to explain this to a simple person. He thinks that if he believes, this means that there is a Creator.

Actually, there is no basis for this. We ourselves create the Creator, which arises within us in from some kind of transcendental dimension according to our properties.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/23/13

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There are two paths: the path of the Torah and the path of suffering. However, these are actually not two options because along the path of suffering, we receive blows that put us back on the path of the Torah.

So, we must realize as quickly as possible that there is actually only one path and that we need to advance by the Light that Reforms since the sufferings don’t correct us. Only a prayer, a request for correction, draws the Light, and then after going through several corrections, we reach the goal of creation.

The Creator is the absolute goodness that illuminates on us, and we have no choice but to advance toward the goal that has been prepared for us in advance. The goal is to do good to His created beings, so adhering to Him is the real benefit. This is what we should reach.

The good and benevolent Creator is revealed according to the law of equivalence of form to the extent that we are equal to Him. He is in absolute bestowal and love, and we must reach the same attributes, too. However, we approach this state gradually, discovering, time after time, the evil in us, trying to draw the Light that Reforms that is called the Torah. It corrects us and these portions of correction that are called “keeping the Mitzvot (commandments)” push us forward, one by one, until we become like ripe fruit that is ready for the “complete coupling” (Zivug).

This is how the Creator’s attitude toward us is revealed according to the purposeful providence. It operates that way in order to spur in us its different forms time after time. Thus, we know Him according to the principle of the advantage of the Light from the darkness.

So, he who is greater than his friend, his desire is also greater. When we ascend toward the Creator in the attributes of bestowal and love, we can better clarify how opposite we are from Him, and can clarify things more deeply as the picture becomes clearer and finer. Thus, we get closer to the Creator all the way to the last level of the clarification of the connection between us.

Baal HaSulam asserts that religion is a means, a tool for attaining the Creator, the goal of life. The means are given to those who work on themselves, and all the others are confused by their own ideas about religion. Instead of establishing the right order and the correct system, they are building an “idol and an image,” false images, as long as they have something to engage in without correcting themselves for the sake of love and bestowal, without yearning to reach the level of “from the love of the creatures to the love of the  Creator.”

According to this sign, we can differentiate between the wisdom of Kabbalah and all the other methods because none of them enables a person to change his nature from hatred to love. Therefore, they are all unacceptable.

This is why we study, disseminate, and work on the connection in the group, and by that we reach the recognition of evil. It turns out that the evil is our nature and we must get rid of it and change it to a different nature.

It doesn’t mean that I must destroy myself or hate my nature, although it is evil. No, I see what the Creator has given me in it, and I only must correct it gently and with great care. I have no other engagement in life, except for the correction of my nature. I mustn’t disrespect it, but I must study it deeply, accurately, and in great detail and then, from these corruptions, I understand what the correct form should be.

Therefore, the Creator is called “Boreh” (come and see). I turn my ego to “in order to bestow” and establish a restriction above it, a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light, and gradually form the Creator’s image from the corrected parts. I build Him in me.

Otherwise, He remains an invisible force that cannot be revealed in our senses. It is because He is revealed only according to our adaptability to Him, according to the law of equivalence of form.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/8/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Opinion (His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama): “All the world’s major religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether.”

My Comment: The concealment of the Creator, the power of love that manages the world, is due to our egoism, which is the opposite to the property of the Creator and therefore it does not feel Him. The revelation of the Creator can only happen as a result of a change in our egoistic nature, from everything for oneself to the altruistic nature everything for the sake of others, according to the principle, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

The call for the change of a person is found in all religions, but they cannot implement it because our nature can be changed only under the influence of the Creator, the Light of Ohr Makif, on it. Kabbalah allows this (See Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose“). This article also speaks about ethics…
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Before the stages of the shattering, the created being was totally adhered to the one and only force that exists in the world, and was in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) knowing everything, in the feeling of absolute perfection, in eternity.

From this state, he began to gradually descend to our world, was shattered and expanded as its parts drew further from one another, through the repulsion of the constantly growing ego, until they descended all the way into our world. So in our world we actually feel that we are totally separated and distant from one another. We cannot even imagine what true connection and unity between us is.

Throughout human history there were individuals who yearned for unity, but it was natural for them. As Baal HaSulam says, in every generation up to 10% are altruists in whom this attribute is naturally rooted. Even in our times there are different movements that fight for certain humanistic values, for adhesion and connection, and politicians and others take advantage of that.

But this is not what is meant as the goal of creation in nature. The goal of creation is the ascent above our ego with the unity that follows. We have to work on the unity and it needs to be implemented against our ego, not our natural ego, but the ego that appears when we aspire upward.

Our corporeal desires match the level of our corporeal development. The head and the body of an animal are on the same height, which means that its desires and aspirations are on the level of the corporeal needs. This is how nature operates on us. A human being’s head, however, is above the body, which means that his thoughts, dreams, desires, and aspirations are higher in quality and in their importance. This differentiates the levels of the animate and the speaking.

We know that our advancement can only take place under sufferings and different problems that we encounter when our nature simply pushes us forward and doesn’t let us exist quietly and peacefully. This has been clearly revealed since the end of the 20^th century.

So until the world reached the phase of complete egoism, which we are already beginning to feel as the bad side of our nature, the wisdom of Kabbalah, which considers it necessary to change the nature of man himself, was concealed. There was no need for it because people might distort it as happened with religions.

Instead of advancing to closeness according to the principle of love thy friend as thyself, which is the greatest and most important rule of the Torah (what the Creator requires of a person), every religion began to engage in something of its own, egoistically claiming that everything depends on the mechanical fulfillment of its actions and that those who follow them blindly reach Heaven and those who don’t reach hell, etc. The wisdom of Kabbalah is totally against this approach and therefore it is totally different from all other methods and religions.
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From the Bulgaria Convention “Dawn Of A New World” Day Two 11/2/13, Lesson 3

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What is the essence of religion? Is it given for the benefit of the created beings or for the benefit of the Creator? Where is the reward that it promises, in this world or in the next world?

As Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” no one knows the right answers to these questions. In their delusions, people do not understand what is called “religion.”

Religion is the human attitude to the upper force that controls all of nature. It would appear that since it controls everything and I am here against my will, that there is nothing we can do about it. However, apparently our relationship with it is such that I can do something myself: to escape the evil or to seek good. In short, if I develop the correct attitude to its influence on me, then I can change something in my life.

So a certain connection extended by the human being to the upper force, and accordingly, by the upper force to the human, is called “religion.” Thus, “religion” is a system of bilateral relations between the Creator and created beings.

The problem is that no one is familiar with this system; everyone is mystified about it. Some take one wrong direction, some take another. Some assert that the Creator is one thing, and some another. Everyone is confused in his own way, and no one knows where the truth lies, where a reward is, and what kind of reward. On the contrary, we do not see in our world that someone has a good life, and in the end, everyone suffers. And the future world is hidden in the fog; this is what they “sell” us…

As a result, we have one big mess with religion. The fact is that this confusion has encompassed all the modern generation. If religion had given us answers to the questions that affects our existence, if it had explained how to live in the world, earning and achieving success in this world and the future world, how to get along with each other, of course we would have observed religious canons. But since religion does not give answers, people leave it. A person becomes weaker and leaves its framework, even if he continues to follow it as a formality.

This is an internal disagreement; a departure from religion is called the “fall of generations” and it is given, and you cannot argue with it. The reason is that we have not received correct answers to the age-old questions from religion and do not know what it represents in reality.

Of course, no one is to blame, and no one can be reproached. This is the process; the program of creation should be realized in us in this way, bringing us to the moment when we finally ask ourselves the three questions listed above. If we answer them correctly, we will know what “religion” is; in other words, how we can build the right relationship with the upper force. And as a result, we may be able to get pleasures in this world and in the future world, for our own benefit and for the benefit of the Creator.

Either way, we should clarify, resolve, this problem. In any case, we are under some higher power, and we need to find out what the proper relationship with it is. This promises benefits, and that is why we need to achieve this in a simple and practical way.

This is the way we offer to a wide audience, “Let’s find out what nature is in this world we live in.” In  Gematria, the meaning of nature (הטבע) is the same as the word “God” (אלה – ים). We all live in this “bubble,” and day by day it threatens us more and more: on the level of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, as well as in human relationships. It is enough that scientists today predict all kinds of natural disasters. Who knows what lies ahead? In general, we see that nature, that is, the Creator, shows us not the friendliest attitude. There is something to improve upon. Let’s see whether we are able to do it. Obviously, it is in our hands.

This check is certainly worthwhile. We need to find out what our attitude toward God, or toward nature,  should be . It will definitely benefit us.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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All religions and philosophy are based on knowledge leaked to them from Kabbalah. The prohibitions and concealments of the wisdom of Kabbalah were imposed by Kabbalists. Such concealment allowed others to sell stolen knowledge as if it were their own.

On the other hand, however, when Kabbalah was finally revealed, everyone inevitably oppose it, because it’s a revelation of the source of all other teachings. After all, their existence depends on the fact that Kabbalah was hidden.

All religions are based on concealment. If the Creator were revealed, would there still be a place for religions and faiths? What can you to believe in, if everything is clear to all?

In other words, there are only 3 states:

1. The state of revelation that existed at the time of the First and the Second Temple, when people clearly sensed the Creator, and everyone knew what to do.

2. The state of concealment that is divided into two:

1) a period when even the method of the Creator’s revelation was hidden

2) a period of revelation of the method of Kabbalah in order to reveal the Creator.

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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/2010, “The Handmaid that Is Heir to Her Mistress”

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In the News: (from Brainpickings): “A little girl from New York named Phyllis wrote a letter to the great Albert Einstein in a 1936:

“‘The Riverside Church

January 19, 1936

My dear Dr. Einstein,

We have brought up the question: Do scientists pray? in our Sunday school class. It began by asking whether we could believe in both science and religion. We are writing to scientists and other important men, to try and have our own question answered.

We will feel greatly honored if you will answer our question: Do scientists pray, and what do they pray for?

We are in the sixth grade, Miss Ellis’s class.

Respectfully yours,

Phyllis’

“Only five days later, Einstein wrote back — isn’t it lovely when cultural giants respond to children’s sincere curiosity? — and his answer speaks to the same spiritual quality of science that Carl Sagan extolled decades later and Ptolemy did millennia earlier. Six years prior, Einstein had explored that very subject, in far more complicated language and mind-bending rhetoric, in his legendary conversation with the Indian philosopher Tagore.

“‘January 24, 1936

Dear Phyllis,

I will attempt to reply to your question as simply as I can. Here is my answer:

Scientists believe that every occurrence, including the affairs of human beings, is due to the laws of nature. Therefore a scientist cannot be inclined to believe that the course of events can be influenced by prayer, that is, by a supernaturally manifested wish.

However, we must concede that our actual knowledge of these forces is imperfect, so that in the end the belief in the existence of a final, ultimate spirit rests on a kind of faith. Such belief remains widespread even with the current achievements in science.

But also, everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is surely quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.

With cordial greetings

your A. Einstein.’”

My Comment: Here is a truly Kabbalistic view of the existence of the higher force in the world, which is not to be worshiped, but to be revealed.
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