Question: The problem is that people think they own the earth and in their desire to extract from it as much as possible, they are destroying the earth. People don’t understand that the land was given to them only to use, not as their personal property. It drives humanity to wars, struggles to conquer more territory and resources.

How can studying the wisdom of Kabbalah harmonize the different views people have and make them understand that by using the earth selfishly, first and foremost they harm themselves?

Answer: It can be done only if one sees the reverse side of the tapestry! If we don’t learn to see this world as transparent and detect the forces working in the surrounding reality, we will not change. Our ego can break only if it clearly sees how its actions are bringing it pain: “It will hurt me.”

We must come to a state where we reveal that nature is integral. Then I simply won’t be able to commit evil since I will see how in doing so, I harm myself. That is the only way! There is no other possibility. People won’t learn in any other way.

But we can reveal this kind of mutual connection between us through working in an environment in attempting to connect and unify, and trying to rise above our egos. Then we get to feel how difficult it is and begin to examine ourselves, our nature, and all our egoistic properties; we discern how we are or are not able to unify with the others against our desire and to elevate them in our eyes.

This is tremendous inner psychological work, and it continues until we start to discover the internal forces. Basically, it occurs when we reveal the general force, the power of unity, which transforms every one of us.

Yet, we don’t have a choice. Today, humanity finds itself in a very perilous state. We can clearly see that in another 10-15 years we will have exhausted all the world’s resources for energy. Production of all main sources of energy, such as oil, gas, coal, and water, is sharply diminishing. We need to reach balance with nature.
[44676]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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We are entering a new world that is abandoning luxuries and restricting itself to rational consumption, to what a regular person needs. We won’t be able to produce washing machines that go out of order in three years, while today it’s being done intentionally so that instead of fixing it, one would buy a new one.

We’ll have to move into a new state of existence. That’s what the governments of the world must understand. But how are they going to keep their nations pacified? How will they educate and explain all the facts to them?

This is why we must prepare a package of educational resources that stands on a firm foundation and demonstrates this with absolute clarity that we will offer to everyone. There is no other option: We must study the new world.

You won’t have to go to work. You will be going to school instead, but not for the sake of learning. You will study how to receive real pleasure from life. Is it worth it? You won’t be able to continue working anyway; nobody needs you anymore. The Great Depression was part of the development, an intermediate decline in the cyclic process, but today it all has changed. We are running out of resources. We’ve come to the threshold of a new phase. Plenty has been written about it.

Hence, our job is to inform the public that the old era has come to its end. There aren’t and won’t be any more jobs. How will people make a living then? Well, let’s make only goods that we need and just enough for everyone, while we learn how to distribute them properly and how to live in the new world.

We have to tell them about human evolution and history, the growth of egoism up to its final stage, the stage of integration and the laws by which the integral system operates, the interconnection of all its parts, and how reciprocity and the real connection unfold in it. This is our only option for this is what nature is forcing us to do.

We are supposed to come to a state of balanced consumption, like the animals who take from nature only as much as they need to sustain themselves. They do it instinctively, without calculating, whereas we must structure our relationship with nature consciously, sensibly, through learning, restricting ourselves, and taming our evil inclination, simply because we understand that we can’t afford to do otherwise.

Yet, how will we satisfy our egos when man wants to consume the world and he is asked to be happy with just food and shelter? “Is that all? What am I, a bear in a cave, a bird in a cage?” "Certainly not, you will receive even greater fulfillment than you wished for before, but never got. It can be done. Let’s find out how to get there."

Thus, we obligate the public to learn, lead them toward it. No one will want to do it unilaterally; everybody seeks immediate gratification. So, we have to prepare a package of educational resources and a system of public education. It will start slowly. Right now, we can’t openly tell this to the world, but it’s time we devise and disseminate materials about what’s causing a crisis. This will shed light on the solution. After all, there is nothing else out there. Like it or not, you will have to do what you have to do.
[44458]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/2011, "The Peace"

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Question: You are leaving for the Kabbalah convention in Spain, where you will also be giving interviews to the Spanish media. How are you going to explain to them what Baal HaSulam wrote about in his article “The Peace”: “We must but accept the yoke of heaven for the Creator as we are learning who He is”?

Answer: I hope they will hear me better than you do, better than people anywhere else in the world. Indeed, Spain is facing very serious problems.

I am scheduled for several interviews there, including a primetime interview on a leading TV channel that broadcasts to millions of viewers. We have become popular. Many journalists are willing to listen to us; they agree and quickly respond to our words.

As it presently stands, we have to explain what the current condition implies. The money is gone. No credit will help because it cannot be properly managed at this point. Would it help just to split the funds among people and stay in debt?

But what is there to do if there are no jobs and nobody needs what anybody may want to produce? Even if the European Union loans you some money to try to save the situation, what can you do? Open another store? Build another factory? What can I possibly produce? Is there anything left the world is still lacking today?

Try as I might, it will only make things worse since price-wise my products cannot compete with those made in China. How can we keep people’s jobs under such conditions? It is wiser to just close the business altogether. But what are we supposed to do with the unemployed, college graduates, and youth? Nobody has any idea.

You simply have nothing to produce. Even the food the world produces could feed eight billion people—we just don’t know how to distribute it correctly. How many cell phone upgrades can one have? Consumers are getting tired of novelties. Imagine what is going to happen when nobody will be buying products made in China any longer just because there will be no money for it. The goods may be cheap, but there’s a hole in the pocket, while one still needs food and clothes. Who will care about “toys” then?
[44462]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/2011, “The Peace”

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People with the point in the heart have received an understanding, means, and ability to help the world. We have to put into practice whatever we have received to realize ourselves one hundred percent.

We still have time: People are still looking for the cause of all the troubles and for an opportunity to improve the situation. But eventually people will understand that there isn’t a particular solution for their country because it is dependent upon the whole world. “What’s the point in gathering in the square? How will it help us? So I need to appeal to the entire world?” “Yes, you do. Let’s find together what we have overlooked here; let’s understand where help can come from.”

And then the nations will turn to us. The prophets write about this, talking about big suffering all over the world. It’s not local calamities anymore, but epidemics, natural disasters, and so on. All this is to press Israel, despite its seemingly small size on a global scale.

A global drama is unfolding in front of our eyes. Israel is still not in the position of its people having lost their jobs and necessary social services, such as health and national insurance. In the U.S., for example, a vast number of homeowners cannot pay their mortgages, while at the same time, their homes have depreciated and are valued at less than the amounts owed to their mortgage lenders.

The situation is bleak. People will see this better when the crisis becomes even more integral and undeniably global. It’s not a coincidence that the participants of the G8 who gathered in Deauville had a meaningless meeting.

I’m not making fun out of them; there is really nothing they can do. A great disaster has come, everyone understands this, and everyone is silent. And they can’t stop the meetings because they have to do something at least for show.
[44340]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: How do we reach people in authority? After all, we want to break down the walls of the box they live in.

Answer: Not at all. We don’t fight with the government, don’t destroy politics and the economy, and we don’t break customary lifestyles. We fight only for the education of people and not more. I am in favor of leaving everything in the world as it is, only adding the principle of “love your neighbor as thyself.”

It’s none of my business what has been built so far. Let them build more. Only one thing is important for me: People should know in what world they live, what they live for, and how they can truly fulfill themselves so that they reach the goal without falling into self-deception and entertaining themselves with all kinds of games that give only fleeting, inadequate fulfillment, and ending in death.

I don’t cancel anything, don’t oppose government programs, banks, city halls, and the like. I don’t care about that. Do what you want: If you want to steal, steal, do other silly things, it’s not important; I don’t look at that at all. All I want is to add education.

The purpose of education is to give knowledge about the world we live in, how it functions, what moves it, what its goal is, what would happen if we go along with this program, and what would happen if we deviate from it or head in the opposite direction. How much suffering will this bring us? What kind of suffering? Whether it’s worth it or not? I want people to know, to see what they face, to be able to read the map and nothing more.

All the other issues are on another plane, and I don’t overlap with it at all: My office is on the floor above. We are talking only about what we are destined to come to anyway. We deplete natural resources and pollute the Earth. Thus, we have to move from a consumer society to a balanced society, in other words, to stop acting silly.

People need simple everyday things: housing, work, food, clothing, and the like. This should be provided for everyone, and everything else has to cease. We have to stop producing useless goods, to stop measuring one’s success by output. These goods empty the planet and pollute the environment.

Thus, you will work half a day to provide the necessities and study the rest of the day, passing exams from time to time. You will be paid for this and only for this.

People don’t know the world they live in. They graduate from school, not matching the reality they exist in. They live in their illusions, in isolation from the world, surprised by the troubles they attract to themselves. These troubles come because, like children, we act to harm ourselves.

And thus, I want only one thing for you: to add education and, most importantly, upbringing and training, the essence of which is the correction of the relationship between people. Then, you will be in sync, in balance, with the world; you will become an integral whole, which is the imperative of the time. All the elements have to be correctly connected with the main mechanism, with natural networks of interconnection, and you don’t even know about this.

That is what I am talking about. True, such education will change a person, but it will happen gradually, as if by itself. I don’t fight with the nature of things; I just explain the world to you, show where you live, and as a consequence, you change. You see the facts in front of you, and what can you do? We can do nothing: Having seen immutable laws, we will take them into account.

Nothing can be changed at one go. People act according to their nature. Can it be corrected? Destruction is inherent in human nature, and until you give humans a correct education, until they will see for themselves that they risk losing their lives, they will not stop. And they have to see it in the clearest way, as if death is standing on the threshold. This is the education, the upbringing that we need.

Otherwise, we will not survive on the Earth. This is confirmed by research. There is no other means except education. We don’t have to moralize and tell people whether they are good or bad. They are the way nature created them. They cannot steal less, lie less; they are unable to. It’s said: “Go to the Creator Who made me.” The Creator tells you from the very beginning: “I created the evil inclination.” You are not going to complain to Him about His deeds, are you?

You have only one medicine: “The Torah as a spice,” in other words, education according to the method of Kabbalah.
[44119]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: How will the changes happen in the education system—by the initiative of the government from above, or pressure from the masses from below?

Answer: Leaders are only afraid for their “seats” and nothing else. If the masses come out to the streets and start shaking those chairs, and they aren’t just setting cars on fire but starting to making more serious actions, then the leaders start listening to their demands. In the end, they will have to agree to them. The question is: Will we be able to offer them our explanation of the necessary measures? We have to try to do that as much as we can.

One way or another, we have to get through to the leaders, but from both sides: from below, through the masses that go out onto the street, and from above directly. After all, we are talking about a global study of the world, about changes in education, and about building a worldwide system of upbringing in which everyone will study while receiving a specific salary for it, the means for sustenance.

This learning will take place instead of work, but in reality it will become people’s work in the spiritual sense. Every person will attract Light to the extent of his forces and capabilities, and this will be his reward. After all, the Light holds all of the abundance there can possibly be.

How many people are required to provide the vital necessities for all of the earth’s inhabitants? Clothing, food, construction, service—everything that’s necessary within the framework of a normal existence? For example, people will work for half a day and will study for half a day. And this will be done by everyone.

However, this can only be achieved through the leaders, or more precisely, through the public opinion, through people who think, including scientists, sociologists, political scientists, and all those who rise above the mass, but not too high. After all, the very top is occupied by the “destroyers,” whereas we are talking primarily about the university circles.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/11, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Humanity is facing a big problem of social structure. The correctly formed society is a society of equals. Yet, the difficulty lies in the fact that nature made us all different. Therefore, it’s pointless to put us all in the same conditions: an eight hour day, equal wages, and so on. Our natural differences result in a situation where for one person this is too much while for the other, too little. If I am lazy, it’ll be very hard for me to work eight hours a day, but for an energetic doer, it’s not a problem at all.

How then should we measure equality? How do we build a society of equals? People have wanted to do it for a long time, and if an opportunity had presented itself, we would have created a good, firm structure. But we don’t seem to succeed. Nature doesn’t allow us to be equal.

Why then do we initially differ from one another so much, are opposite to each other, and cannot get along? Every one of us has his or her individual tastes, strengths, rules, capacities, inborn characteristics, and approach to life, and this is why we don’t understand one another.

Indeed, we will not be able to establish equality. It seems that an equal society is the answer to wars and problems from which it would save us, but it’s not what nature had planned. Its plan is to bring us to the realization that we will never find equality anywhere, in anything. We will never get a chance to divide something equally between all. If we did it today, tomorrow we would wage a war.

Equal distribution was attempted in Russia, Israel’s Kibbutzim (communities), all of which failed. Nature wishes for us to use all our egoistic power to reform ourselves to match nature itself: total bestowal. Then I won’t care who gets what and how much. My only concern will be to give the most of myself, one hundred percent. It doesn’t mean an “equal and fair” distribution but a distribution without any monitoring.

In this case, everybody gets according to the level of one’s development, as much as they need. And, as result, a person will evolve to the degree where he or she will be receiving only as much as necessary for their existence, while they will use the rest to serve others, without measuring to whom and how much to give.

This is why people do not understand it when we explain to them what Kabbalah says about the future of mankind. It looks too fanatical to them, too utopian. Yet, otherwise, humanity will not survive since any other distribution is unfair. I cannot measure individual efforts of another in order to evaluate how much he or she should earn. Nature will never allow man to reconcile the two forces, positive and negative, in this manner.

Therefore, when we begin to implement this idea, we should disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah by using a totally different system. For now, we need to unify in the groups that consist of people who have already received the desire and need for it and who understand that there is no out way out since this is what Nature is calling for. These people have two forces: the power of their personal egoism and the Creator’s power, the spark that pushes them toward positive development. When these two forces meet in one person, he or she begins to hear and process what the wisdom of Kabbalah explains.

The process is gradual and fits the internal development of an individual. We undergo the still, vegetative, animate, and human degrees of it, and as we develop, the two forces collide in us with ever growing intensity, while we create resistance between them, a “resistor” device. By putting between these forces our heart and mind, we hold them in opposition: On one hand, we tame our egoistic force, while on the other, we engage the force of bestowal. By employing these two forces together, we work in the environment, and then we feel as if we are a “resistor in a circuit,” a resisting force in the integral system, its developing part.
[43691]
From the 2nd lesson at the Rome Convention on 5/21/11

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Kabbalists explain that we have to live according to the law of bestowal not for the sake of society or ourselves, but for the sake of the Creator. What does this mean? “For the sake of the Creator” is a formula, definition, which means that bestowal must be absolute.

We have to give not simply for the sake of survival, not just to live our life comfortably and egoistically. This bestowal is for self-interest: “We have no choice, so let’s re-educate ourselves to become good, kind, compassionate, and responsive.” This egoistic correction is not sufficient because it stems from the need to survive.

“For the sake of the Creator” means that you live according to bestowal even if nature doesn’t compel you to achieve harmony and cooperation with other members of society for the sake of survival. Nature may not require you to bestow and receive in the conditions regarded as a complete connection with others, meaning to receive the necessities and to give maximally, which is called “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” This slogan should not be for the survival of society, for the victory of socialism throughout the world, or for any party. It should be “for the sake of the Creator.”

“For the sake of the Creator” means that my bestowal should be absolute, not for the sake of something earthly. I have to reach a state where the property of bestowal in me replaces the property of reception, my egoism, completely. I shift into a completely different part of the world, into another dimension. I begin to think, feel, perceive only in terms of the property of bestowal rather than reception.

It’s possible to compare this state with a mother who doesn’t feel that she is cold or hot, it’s dark or light; she feels that only relative to her baby. She exists in him, inside: whether he’s cold or hot, in the dark or light, in pain or comfort, and the like. She feels everything inside of him rather than inside herself. This “beastly” love is present in our world as an example: Thanks to it in particular we can truly develop and continue to exist.

It’s a necessary condition of life in spirituality. We endure our life on Earth, constrained by space, time, and motion. The illusion of life in egoism exists only here. In fact, the true life in its eternal, perfect flow exists in the absolutely opposite property: that of bestowal.

Similarly, a mother lives in her son, feeling and fulfilling him instead of herself. All her sensations are in him, everything is for him, and she herself is only for his fulfillment. Essentially, this state is called “to receive the necessities and to give maximally” but not for herself, in order to survive thereby, but for his sake, for the sake of her beloved child.
[43586]
From the Virtual Lesson, Fundamentals of Kabbalah Series 5/15/2011

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Question: What should my attitude to corporeal problems be?

Answer: Both corporeal and spiritual problems originate from the same source since “there is none else besides Him.” We have to view everything as parts of a single whole.

However, the corporeal world has its own additional laws. If we still see corporeality, we have to overcome these obstacles and battle them according to the laws accepted in this world and in human society. After all, these laws are also a result of our corruptness, and therefore, we are obliged to follow them.

If I live in a human society, regardless of what a great Kabbalist I may be, I have to behave in this society according to its laws. We all have to abide by these laws and cannot ignore them even though they do not have any relation to spirituality. For example, if someone is going to kill me, I have to protect myself and fight him down.
[43181]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/2011, Shamati #8

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The essence of the global crisis is that humanity has “gotten stuck” or “bogged down” in nature and does not know what to do. Nature has turned its harsh side to us, threatening us with crises in various areas, and we don’t have an answer to that challenge.

On one hand, we developed inside of our nature and have reached a completely lawful result. If we had a chance to turn back time a few centuries and do it all again, we would still take the same path.

That is because this is our very nature—the growing egoistic desire with all of its derivatives. Scientific and technological progress, industry, culture, education, and human society are all natural results of egoism, and nothing can be done about them.

Until now we have developed the way our nature ordered us to. So how can we now influence it and correct it in any way to change the direction? Has anything like this ever happened in history? Never. In the best case scenario we can recognize the results of our development—whether they are good or bad, depending on the observer’s point of view. Meanwhile the train moves farther and farther along, and maybe we really don’t have another way out?

Scientific research of the manifestations of the crisis is a useful thing, but what does it give us? We are looking out of the window of a train, watching the view that is flying past us: At first it glitters with different colors, the sky is clear, and the green fields are filled with sunlight. But then, the colors start to wither, the grass becomes replaced by sand more often, and there are increasingly more glimpses of garbage dumps, dirt, and waste drains, and the sun becomes obstructed by smoke and smog. Can we do anything or will the train ride down this track until the end? Should we put a veil over the window and come what may?

There are many uncertainties here, but the science of Kabbalah does not even discuss this route and where it will lead us. It deals with the root of the problem: We are riding down the train of our egoism, which is constantly growing.

Development is necessary, but will we direct it in a different vein? Let’s reject the egoistic path in which we are unable to agree on anything and inflict so much harm to ourselves and nature. After all, every person thinks only of himself, and that is why we inevitably destroy our lives and the surrounding environment.

What if, instead of that, we will unite in love? Would we then treat nature and the environment differently? Would we still exhaust the earth’s abundant resources? Would we burn such inconceivable amounts of fuel? Would we throw out food when there are a billion people suffering from hunger? Would we give birth to one child here and to ten in another place? Would we then be able to reach balance?

Or maybe we wouldn’t have to look for balance between us? Maybe people’s attitude to each other and to the world as a whole would correct this world? And then the train itself would change and would ride forward differently? By correcting our attitude, maybe we would ensure an abundance of natural resources and crop yields so there would be more than enough for everyone?

Baal HaSulam wrote the following in the newspaper “The Nation”: Our planet is sufficiently rich to feed all of us. So why do we need this tragic war for survival, which complicates our lives from one generation to the next? If only we would achieve unity, compassion for one another, and love, then everyone would have enough of everything. That is because then the upper Light would fill all of our necessities. Nature itself would change from the inside.
[43407]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/11, The World’s Problems, Overpopulation

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