Question: There are many nongovernmental charitable organizations in the world which honestly yearn to help people. What is wrong with them? After all, these philanthropists seem to feel that their well-being depends on the welfare of the world.

Answer: That’s the root of the problem: They are helping so that they may feel at peace. A small part of the world population feels that it has to help others. A person feels more at ease, and this is what gives him or her personal satisfaction.

In charitable organizations, there are many people who have a natural need to tend to others. They are programmed with an instinct. They have to assist in order to appease themselves. Baal HaSulam writes that in the world, there are 10% of such individuals, and according to the statistics, it is 7% or 8%.

However, all of this derives from egoism and is one of its manifestations. I love the world as my own child, and I feel bad if the world feels bad. I must help Africa in order to get rid of bad feelings. That’s all.

Such assistance won’t help anybody. On the contrary, it only brings harm since the more altruists give, the more their beneficiaries get used to doing nothing and do not evolve.

A similar problem surfaced in Russia today. It turns out that high oil prices are undesirable. On the surface, it fills the treasury daily, but it’s not worth it. After all, we won’t develop like this. We will just sit on our oil pipe, make a feast, and build golden palaces, but at the same time, as a country, as a nation, we will keep degrading. It is impossible to evolve without a need. Hence, despite basic logic, they don’t wish to collect “oil money” any more and are becoming aware of such things.

All present development of the world, along with charities and the commonwealth market, is nothing but egoism’s domain. Nothing good will come out of it, no matter where it is. On the contrary, all parties are only pressuring each other. We have found the law of integral interconnection, but everyone wants to use it egoistically. “Ah, that’s what it is! Global interdependence? Let’s take over the world then. We’ll put everybody in his place, and if anybody rebels, we’ll threaten to cut off their oxygen.” This is how they wish to utilize the integral network that nature reveals to us.

We are now in a very dangerous predicament since if our egoism is tied to global interconnection, it allows it to control the entire world globally, over everyone at once. This is what is threatening us if people lack wisdom and the perception and understanding of what the future holds in store for us.

They quietly decide the fate of the world to fit their petty objectives, having no clue what it will lead to in the near future and even tomorrow. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran are vivid examples of that. In the end, everything will produce the opposite result.

The games are over. We can’t give power to our egoism any longer. When the world locks into a global system, you can’t act as you did before, ruling by gold or force. It won’t work. Iraq is a vivid demonstration of it. America’s shame is before the entire world, and they are still at it. It’s all about lacking the understanding of the integral laws. No might and no brain will solve this problem. Russia has fallen, despite all its riches, and the United States will fall even lower.

Today, the approach must be adequate to a world-wide tendency toward global integration. Otherwise, you will lose.

A little time will pass, and we will witness how even terrorist organizations will start to understand it. It will be impossible to control the world by force any longer. The arising problems will make everybody think about what to do next.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/2011 on An Integral World

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Humanity must come to an understanding that unity is the next stage in its development. Since we have already become one family, one nation, one system, where everyone is interdependent, there is no other choice but to accept this fact and treat it very seriously. The general system should be studied through the principal of systems engineering in order to work out and introduce laws that regulate interrelationships between people, nations, and all of humanity.

Just ask the scientists what an integral system means, and they will tell you that we are all interdependent and that no one can make a move without moving all the rest. Thus, it’s necessary to consider everyone’s interests without any exceptions. The first step is to not do to others what you wouldn’t want done to you, and the second step is to correctly and effectively implement a system that’s based on the principal of love thy neighbor as thyself.

Until we establish such an interconnection in our system, we will not see a good life. With each day, the damaged mechanism of our interconnection becomes more and more apparent. On the still level of nature, the imbalance among us will be evident through various natural disasters such as eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, global warming, explosions on the Sun, and so on. The Moon could also become a source of various problems. This is how the imbalance caused by us becomes apparent on the still level.

Problems on the vegetative level can affect the crops. The Egyptian plagues described in the Bible tell us in the language of allegory about the possible disasters on the vegetative and animate levels. Then, it will come to the human level.

This is why, on one hand, we must accept this integral law as a law, and on the other, we must implement the educational system as soon as possible and to explain to people why the law is as such, and why and how we must follow it.

Millions of people are unemployed in today’s’ modern world. There also exists a concealed unemployment. A lot of people will stop what they are doing because it is destructive to nature. The military-industrial workers will also become unemployed, and so on. All these people will work in a sphere of agitation and education. As a result, each person will provide what’s necessary for others.

This is exactly what we need: to produce what is necessary for each person and divide it between everyone. In addition, we must provide education. Each person has to receive his “educational portion” and his share of vital necessities. This will be the duty of worldwide governments and of the entire universal system of humanity.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/2011 on An Integral World

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Question: How is it possible to explain to people that real evil lies in our opposition to the nature of the universe?

Answer: We can give a person this knowledge and sensation by presenting this fact to him by means of the right upbringing from society’s end. We will have to organize this upbringing in a way where it will contain a connection with the Light that reforms.

An additional problem emerges here. People without a point in the heart have to receive this illumination through us. If we take care of them, if we give them the method of correction, if we hold various events, broadcast TV and radio shows, work on the Internet, and if we formulate all the necessary principles for people, then they become attached to us and are nourished by the force that operates in our system, which lies deeper than their system.

It is enough to attach them to this extent in order for them to understand that their future depends on unity. But how can we bring them to this sensation? It can happen with the help of upbringing, social opinion, and the influence of those around you. The environment is able to instill the most removed and unnatural notions in a person. How so?

The society simply starts demonstrating condemnation or respect for certain qualities that a person has, and that’s all it takes. The people around a person can treat him dually: positively or negatively, and this is entirely sufficient.

We have to understand that there is no other way to go, that we have to attain balance with nature, and that we have to involve the mass media and other means, paying special attention to the young generation in order to already start teaching children about life in the new world. Without this, there is no other way to achieve anything.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/11

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Our entire difficulty is that when we begin the spiritual path, we desire to act the same way as we acted in our material lives until now where we counted on our own forces and fought for some kind of values. Consciously or unconsciously, all of our calculations were aimed at our own benefit.

The importance of the goal served as the means for attaining it, and it works that way in everything no matter what I search for: rest, money, power, respect, or knowledge. However, I received desires from the environment, become excited by what other people desire, and that is how I was always able to multiply my desires and develop. My own desires did not go beyond the animate body—meaning the desires for food, sex, and family, while my attraction to everything else—for money, power, and knowledge, was adopted only from the external environment, human society.

When a new desire awakens in a person, the desire for the spiritual world, it has to develop by the same paths. But a problem emerges here because when a person enters a society of people who study together with him and he must develop under their influence, then on the outside he only sees the material qualities, such as who is smarter and who learns the material better.

But his desire with which he has to advance, the egoistic “point in the heart,” is “the opposite side of the holy soul.” It has to be developed, and it develops only under the greatness of the goal, the greatness of the Creator.

However, all of these values—the greatness of the goal, the Creator, spirituality, the upper world—are based on the greatness of bestowal instead of reception. And that is where a halt occurs, as it is written, “In the place where the sinners will fall, the righteous will rise and walk forth,” with both the sinners and the righteous living inside one person.

In this regard everything depends on how a person treats his environment. It really begins being a spiritual environment for him only on the condition that he understands that he has to receive from them the impression of the greatness of bestowal, love for the neighbor, meaning a new desire for bestowal, the spiritual desire.

It turns out that a person begins the spiritual path with one single “point in the heart.” This is a very important point, the basis of a person, but it is the “opposite side of the holy soul” and he will never have anything else besides it himself. To this point he has to add all of his other spiritual Kelim until Malchut of the world of Infinity. And he receives all of these desires from the environment because nothing new will develop any longer inside of himself.

The spiritual Kli is received from the environment, and it is called the greatness of the goal, which serves as the spiritual vessel or desire, the place where the person will reveal the Creator, the connection and union with Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/11

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We have to know that besides the “point in the heart”—the opposite side of the holy soul, we won’t receive anything else from above. Not one additional spiritual desire will awaken in me.

I have to receive everything else from the environment, which is where my spiritual Kli is found, meaning all the desires in which I will reveal the upper world, the Creator, spiritual life. This desire is called “the greatness of the goal” because that is how it is expressed in my sensation.

It seems to me that importance does not belong to the goal and that the goal is something else, but in fact, the importance itself is the spiritual Kli. It’s not by virtue of this importance that I will attain the goal, as if it were a compass determining the direction in which I have to run. Rather, the goal is precisely inside of this desire which I receive from the environment.

Feel how the spiritual desire differs from the material one—it spreads out to everyone, like air. This is not egoistic fulfillment which one person receives and another one lacks as a result. Spirituality does not decrease due to being divided when I pass it on to someone else. There’s enough of it for everyone! It’s the same as how you can light thousands of candles from one candle and the first fire won’t get any smaller.

Therefore, once I begin my spiritual advancement with just the point in the heart, I soon find myself at a crossroads and don’t know where to go. I no longer find any forces inside of me or the aspiration to continue. At that moment, where can I get the motivation, stimulus, and direction to come to the group and demand the greatness of the goal from it?

If I had that inner desire, then I would already realize it in some way. But what should I do if I don’t have it? Does the group have to take care to ensure that I will have the impression of the greatness of the goal, bestowal, or do I have to continuously look for this myself?

That is when we come to the notion of the mutual guarantee. In general we have to take care of everything in order to become a “spiritual environment” which awakens every person who enters it. It gives an example and stimulates one’s desires, showing that others have something that I don’t have. It ignites envy of spiritual attainment just like in this world I see other people’s cars and houses and this increases my desire.

Society has to take on the right form through which it will come forth in relation to every one of its members, ensuring that he won’t have a moment of rest. But a person has to have a point in the heart, his own awakening, in order to be like a spiritual seed that is planted in the soil in order to come in contact with the soil for the very first time. And this “soil,” the environment, has to be ready to give him everything he needs according to his first demand.

In this regard, we have to understand that every person working on elevating the goal for others is not helping them by doing this, but he is building this building of greatness for himself. He builds the common environment for everyone. The environment cannot be good for one person while being bad for another and so-so for a third party. It is mutual guarantee for everyone. Therefore, either we are all together in one boat and we all attain the goal, or, if someone falls short of giving enough efforts according to what he should in order to ensure the common awakening, then no one will reach success.

That is to say, every person should not worry about himself or about how can he get inspired from the environment by the greatness of the goal. If I worry that every one of my friends will have the sensation of the greatness of the goal, that is how I build my own Kli.

I cannot take care of myself because this will turn out to be egoistic. But if I take care of others, then this spiritual necessity comes back to me as a ready, perfect Kli.

We all connect into a single system where my lower part (AHP) connects with the upper parts (Galgalta Eynaim) of everyone else. Therefore, when I take care of everyone else with my AHP, then in response, I receive from them the sensation of their Galgalta Eynaim—the sensations of the desires of bestowal which I so lack.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/11

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Looking at natural disasters, we do not see their real reason. We understand the geological and ecological factors and the phenomena of the inanimate world. But who governs the inanimate world? "The laws of nature," we say. But that’s not an answer.

So, nonetheless, why it is happening? They tell us about the cyclical nature of processes as if it really explains something. In truth, we are steering away from the answer by shielding ourselves with soothing arguments.

However, they don’t appease a person because the problem persists and can resurface the very next moment. Moreover, even if it doesn’t, it remains uncorrected and threatens to turn into a different type of disaster.

It’s not the matter of what will explode or sweep over or where it will happen. The entire world is constantly shaken, and the amplitude of the disasters is growing day by day. We witness the speed and the magnitude of these shocks which assert themselves increasingly sharply and suddenly.

We ought to understand that there is a reason to it: our imbalance with nature. We exist in a global, holistic, and whole system. Everything is united there, and hence we don’t have any other way out: We have to consider ourselves as being absolutely interconnected. The law of a global, integral system is that everybody influences everybody else.

This should be the basis upon which we establish the rules of conduct on Earth. We cannot change human nature, but let’s do whatever is in our power to do. We need to establish the laws of cooperation, mutuality, and reciprocal concessions between the countries, nations, and various organizations. Without these laws, the system will be defunct.

The first step toward observing such laws was formulated by Hillel the Elder: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow." First of all, beware of harming the other. Enjoy what you have, and do not encroach upon the property, freedom, or life of others. Do not look at the others, and be happy with what you have. This is the first condition. This is not unification yet, but by this you stop infringing or harming others. Even if you haven’t yet activated the system for goodness, you stopped using it for evil.

True, today a person is incapable of this. And hence we have to engage in the general education of all humanity. Everyone should feel that he or she lives in a global, integral world and explain to themselves what it means. And it means that I simply can’t count on receiving a personal benefit at the expense of somebody else. It’s unreal, unfeasible.

We have to oblige each country, each nation to renounce forceful measures, up to the elimination of borders and any control over and exploitation of each other. This is a program minimum: There is no need for favors, but everyone should at least understand that if he harms the other, the harm returns to him in a boomerang-like manner, and ultimately he harms himself.

These norms have to be introduced into the legislature, along with the explanatory work and education. Baal HaSulam writes about this in The Writings of The Last Generation. This should be on the agenda of the world government, and not the UN which has no real power.

Here we need specifically a collective government with a real power. If someone does not collaborate with it, sanctions are applied: "You don’t want to carry out the law of cooperation? Then we will disconnect you from the system. Let’s see how you feel yourself in a global world with the pipes blocked." Indeed, not a single country or nation will be able to exist in isolation from the others.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/2011 on An Integral World

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Question: I get the impression that with the growth of globalization, every person’s distinctive character withers away. What will remain of my uniqueness in the future?

Answer: This is an incorrect assumption. When I am interconnected with other people, my distinctive character gains the opportunity to be expressed to the maximum, in fact, infinitely. That’s because I come out of myself into others and unite everyone with my efforts.

The whole world lacks my participation, and with my participation I fulfill the whole world. This way, the world depends on me.

Nothing can come close to this self-expression. And besides this, there is no way for you to truly express yourself. Do you want to truly be at the head of everything? Go ahead—the whole world has been given to you. Be the chief and unite everyone with one another. In this regard everything depends on you. Use your pride, lust for power, and uniqueness—go ahead. The whole world is in front of you.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/11

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Question: In the modern chauvinistic society men are typically judged by how wealthy or smart they are, and women are judged by beauty. Which criteria will the society apply when it develops?

Answer: If society will begin to value the spiritual goal, whether it’s out of hopelessness from being in a bad state or due to a timely realization of evil while in a good state, we will see ourselves and others as friends and partners on the path to the goal.

Now I judge every person, object, and state based on how much it can benefit my egoistic existence. Similarly in the future, I will judge everything in our world from the still to the human levels based on how it effects my advancement toward the goal.

If a beauty queen happens to be the most helpful in achieving the goal, I’ll marry her. But if a sales girl from the market happens to be the most helpful, I’ll marry her instead. Everything is determined by the goal.

We have an example of how the Jewish nation conducted itself before the destruction of the Temple, and in the orthodox forms almost until today. Wealth was never an object of respect. A young man was always judged by his knowledge. The one who knew more pages of the Torah by heart was better, and there where no other criteria for judging a person throughout all of history. Girls were judged based on the families they came from and their upbringing.

When it came to choosing a partner, parents made the decisions, not hormones after a chance meeting at a party. Why so? This is in accordance with the spiritual law. From Atik, there comes the Light that prompts Malchut of the world of Atzilut to unite with Zeir Anpin. In other words, the decision comes from above.

It is said that the Creator brings a couple together. And in our world, it’s the parents of the young couple that decide what’s best for them.

It has always been done in this fashion in order to neutralize the influence of external beauty. As Rabash used to say, two people should meet, talk, and make sure that they don’t disgust each other. If they don’t repel one another, this is all that’s needed. Everything else is built on mutual compromises. Then, there will surely be love between them.

Actually, the tradition of parents doing the matchmaking is common among all nations. The young were not asked, the parents used to bring them together.
[37473]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2011 on Women

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Baal HaSulam, “The Last Generation”: The world is one family, and the framework of altruistic communism should ultimately encircle the entire world with an equal standard of living for everybody.

Question: So it looks like Kabbalah must bring communism into the world?

Answer: Our problem is that we don’t understand the true meaning of words. When we utter the word “Torah,” we visualize a “holy” book; when we speak of “commandments,” we think of some physical acts that we have to perform; and the word “faith” for us is when we blindly believe some stories we are told.

In other words, we replace the truth with false ideas. In fact, commandments are steps of correction of the egoistic desire, and the Torah is the force that reforms them.

The same pertains to the word “communism” that derives from the word “a commune” and reads equality, unity, and brotherhood. But great egoists used these words for their low purposes opposite to communism.

They established the worst dictatorship in history: a dictatorship of the minority over majority, a regime of complete spiritual suppression and violence, which not only used a person as a work force, a slave, but attempted to completely and forcefully eliminate in man the desire for pleasure, egoism.

But in fact, “communism” is a very exalted, beautiful word. It implies brotherly love among humans who live according to the law of mutual guarantee bonded by one desire.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/2011 Lesson on Money

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Question: If the world was ruled by women, would it be better?

Answer: The world cannot be ruled by women. By nature a woman has to be in the possession of her father or husband. That’s because according to her spiritual root, she is Malchut, which can only act by virtue of what her husband gives her. She does not have anything of her own.

That is a woman’s role: By inspiring a man to do spiritual work, she receives Light from him. We have to understand that there is nothing belittling about this. A woman is not lower than a man, but on the contrary, without her desire, the world would stop moving forward. There would be no correction and we would not attain unity with the Creator. We unite with Him precisely by virtue of the female desire. That is how we realize the male force.

We shouldn’t look at the differences or search for the advantages one has over the other. We shouldn’t judge it egoistically. On the contrary, our approach should be altruistic: How to connect men and women in order to reach the goal. After all, the goal cannot be reached without perfect unity between them.

When each one bestows to the maximum, then they are both equal. If a woman gives all of herself and a man gives all of himself, that means equality reigns between them and they advance toward the Creator.

But does each of them do the same thing? Of course not. Opposite things come from them, but that means they are equal.

It’s a different matter in our world where both men and women are presented with the same demands. Is such a thing possible? This problem is yet to be expressed through a very powerful cataclysm because we thereby destroy the foundation of our being.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/11 on Women

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