Question: In the well-known story of Job, human suffering is described, which to a greater or lesser degree touches each one of us.  Job was (Job 1:1): …whole-hearted and upright, and one that feared God, and shunned evil. And in spite of it all, troubles fell upon him one after another.

In the end, the bitterest news arrived that a powerful storm had destroyed his house and his ten children were all killed. When he heard about these events, Following this event, Job stated (Job 1:21):…naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. The first question that pops up for each one of us is, “Was this fate?”

Answer: There are no accidents. There are forces of nature that act on and influence all parts of creation and on all creatures in general, and on separate parts of substances and on substances in general. You can relate to them however you want, but first of all, you conclude that this is not just blind fate but a process that passes through the whole of creation and includes you.

Unlike the natures of the still, vegetative, and animate, we have the ability, with the help of unity and connection between us, of attaining such a common bond, thanks to which we stop being the harmful part of nature. Through this, we neutralize the bad developments. And the same development that must exist will pass over us in the right direction.

Question: It follows that the freedom that is given to us is expressed in a change in attitude to what is happening?

Answer: This is not just an internal attitude, but rather it is also an action. All of nature is united. And humanity within this nature has become a negative factor, since disagreements rip us apart, with each one building himself at the expense of others; we hate each other, distance ourselves from everyone, and we fight all the time.

It follows that in all of nature, only we are harmful, and so all kinds of disasters happen to us. If we were to continue to connect with unity, agreement, cooperation, and Arvut (mutual guarantee), then certainly we would accept the forces that develop us in a positive manner. Freedom is given to us for this.

Question: Why specifically Job, who was “whole-hearted and upright, and one that feared God, and shunned evil” is the one who received blows, becoming the symbol for human suffering for all generations?

Answer: If we ask the people who surround us, then everyone will tell you that they are wholehearted and upright, like Job. “I am evil? No way! I am a decent and loyal citizen!” That is how each one of us relates to himself. Nobody feels the general imbalance! “As for me, the whole world should burn, the main thing is that it will be good for me; I won’t feel this. I am ready to be on an isolated island in the heart of the ocean of the burning world, and nothing concerns me.”

That is what Job also thought: “Thank God, I have everything, so it is okay.” He was whole-hearted and upright when it was good for him, and when it became bad, he also thanked the Creator: “The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD!”  Ultimately he perceives what is happening as the action of the higher power which he cannot influence in any way. I would say that he is portrayed as a fool. He agrees with what was and with whatever there is, but he himself doesn’t do anything.

I think that the same thing is happening today with people. Ask anyone: “Is there a crisis?” Yes. “Is there climate change?” Yes. “Is it true that this is dangerous?” Yes. Everyone sees that there is no work, people are sick, couples divorce, and children live on the street. All this is true, but thank God! Why “Thank God?” And where are you? How are you “whole-hearted and upright”? “Thank God.”Is this your attitude?  That is how it must be? So the suffering continues so that people will change their attitude towards life.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/28/14

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Our task is to make an effort, “Like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load.” (Masechet Avodah Zarah 5b) There is a goal and we must reach it anyway. Either the host will sit on us and give us blows with a whip, and then we act like beasts, or through the environment we ourselves will develop the importance of the goal within us, yearning to be like an Adam (man) who is “similar” (Domeh) to the Creator and reach adhesion with Him. And then we advance on our own, without waiting for blows.

In this way we give the Creator satisfaction. We don’t give the Creator any satisfaction through what we do because of blows. This is the entire difference between the natural path of development “in its time” (Beito) or the path of accelerating time, “I will hasten it” (Achishena), the way of Light.

It is impossible for me to reach my correction by the way of suffering, the way of “in its time.” Each and every blow changes something in me, but it is not considered to be me and is not recorded on my account. For the greatness of the Creator, the importance of the goal and devotion are what is required from me, things that must come from the person, what characterizes the person; whereas, it is through blows that I am just shaken a bit to awaken and push me towards scrutiny, work, and changes in values. So we must understand that it is impossible to advance through blows.

Either we develop the importance of the next state through the environment from the start, which according to our nature is not at all important to us, but through the environment we build its importance and advance, or we receive blows that oblige us to begin this process. But ultimately we will be doing the same work with the environment, the importance of the goal, the importance of the Creator, and the clarification of the inferiority of our ego.

So the “path of suffering” doesn’t exist. The way of “in its time” is not a path. It only helps us to understand that the Creator pushes us towards changes and forces us to wake up through these blows. Then I enter a group for this, which is the right environment that will begin to push me.

Even though for me this is unpleasant, I don’t flee; rather, in spite of it all, I go further inside. We all need to be aware that in a state such as this it is impossible to flee; on the contrary, it is necessary to forge ahead. If I want to enter and I come across opposition, I can back off and leave, and I can also push even more and break in.

Therefore there is no path of suffering. If I will not push myself through the environment by myself, then from above pressure on me will be increased. And then the very effort that I had to give to advance in the path of “I will hasten it” and didn’t give, will take the form of  suffering and blows that compel me to return to the right way.

It is not necessary to wait for the blows and suffering for us to advance. We don’t advance anywhere through suffering. In the best circumstances, we will want to flee from the blows to the right environment, and there we will already begin to clarify how to go on the path of “I will hasten it,” meaning the importance of the environment, the importance of the Creator, the importance of the teacher and all the means that can pull us forward. This must be our first level, and then we accelerate time and our development.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Torah, “Leviticus” 19:11: Ye shall not steal; neither shall ye deal falsely, nor lie one to another.

“Ye shall not steal” means that you shouldn’t take upon yourself what you cannot correct since it belongs to someone else and not to you. It is about the attainment of the limit of a person’s ability to work in order to bestow.

You have to take the uncorrected parts of your desires, since otherwise you will not be able to work with them in order to bestow. Therefore you have no right to cross the border (the corner of thy field), which separates the ten whole Sefirot from the tenth part, and you should determine that this part is not mine. Even if these are your desires, if you cannot correct them, they cannot be yours.

“Neither shall ye deal falsely nor lie one to another,” means that you have to see the clear border between the desires that you work in (the upper part of your soul, GE) and the desires of the lower part of the soul with which you cannot work in order to bestow, and with regards to which you restrict yourself and don’t touch.

In other words, no matter what relationships you have with others, the truth is above these relationships and their different outcomes. This means that the truth, the Creator, His place, His greatness, the law of the world and the universe, is above everything and above everyone.

Therefore, a person cannot work when the truth is under his control. He has to constantly place himself under the system of values that don’t belong to him in any way. They should always come first and he should accept them above all his decisions and his solutions.

Question: If we speak about the connection between people, is there always a force called the Creator between us? Does that mean that it is independent of the actual connection but that there is a connection for the sake of unity?

Answer: We have to establish a full and absolute connection between us called the Creator. If we focus on this connection, it will gradually be revealed among us. This constant intention for the maximum revelation of the Creator is our continuous movement forward to the extent that we learn the method of connection, unity, and correction, which is the Torah.

Therefore, “Neither shall ye deal falsely nor lie one to another,” means that there cannot be a connection between us without the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/26/14

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Torah, “Leviticus,” Kedoshim 19:09-10: And when ye reap the harvest in your country, do not reap up to the end of the edges of your field and do not pick up the harvest that has fallen. And not to strip your vineyard clean and do not pick up the separated remaining berries in your vineyard, leave those for the poor and the stranger, for I am the Lord thy God.

A field means the material desires of a person, which one should cultivate. While correcting them, one uses them for unity and interaction in the overall system of interconnection between all people.

Do not pick up the harvest that has fallen, means that you aren’t able to completely correct yourself. The first nine Sefirot correct themselves through our efforts, request, interconnection, and the work with others. The tenth Sefira is not only impossible to correct, but even to ask for it is impossible. We aren’t able to ask for this egoism to work towards bestowal, since it’s our foundation that separates us from the Creator.

Suppose we have a desire of a certain thickness. It can soak up the properties of the Creator until the last section, up to the tenth. A tenth part doesn’t accept the properties of bestowal.

If we were to correct all nine parts, then in the end we would come to a state where there would be only one-tenth remaining, which will be corrected by the Creator. This will be His very last deed, which will end 6,000 years of our correction.

The inability to self-correct the tenth part is manifested in all prohibiting actions. We are talking about the desires on the different levels. There are desires on the inanimate level, where you want to make vegetative desires by raising oneself from the ground to the next level as a plant.

There are desires that become animate from vegetative, and those desires from the animate level you raise the level of Man. In all of these corrections, there are always actions that are forbidden to you, and all of this is related to the tenth.

But there are times when you can take some desires from the tenth part that is called “remove the top of the milk” and move it back to the first nine Sefirot. Therefore, prohibitive desires are relative. This means that you yourself can’t use them, but the poor passing next to your field can.

It’s also a correction. You leave the forbidden desire of yours to the poor, and when the poor uses it, it corrects your tenth. You can’t lift this part from the property of reception to the property of bestowal, but the poor can.

In turn, the poor person who receives this food from you isn’t able to use his or her tenth part of it, and should give it as a donation (Maaser) to the Temple or to something similar. This is how the chain of our interconnection must work.

Question: How will one feel that this is the tenth part with which I can’t work?

Answer: You will feel it when you don’t have any more strength to do anything else. If you feel you’ve given your 100%, then you only have a tenth left.

Working with the Light at high levels, a person feels and controls all his desires and one is able to see through oneself. In our state we don’t perceive it as yet,; however, a Kabbalist, who is in the spiritual environment, is able to clearly separate the first nine Sefirot from the tenth. One feels what is possible to do and what isn’t. This is first.

Second, one feels the edge of one’s field here as one’s Malchut, one’s desires over which one has no control and therefore leaves them.

In order to better understand this action, imagine that you’ve ordered a person in our world to kill one’s own son, as Abraham was ordered. Can a normal person do it? Never. There are certain boundaries (the edge of the field), which we can’t transgress.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of Eternal Book” 3/26/14

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Question: At the end of his journey after having been through everything a person can go through in life, King Solomon says in the book of Ecclesiastes that ultimately everyone will listen to the Lord and will fear His commandments and will observe them since this what a person is. What did he understand at the end of his journey?

Answer: A person was created in order to fulfill the laws of nature. He has to learn how to fulfill them. The law of nature according to the Torah is simply “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

If you reach that, you attain happiness simply and unequivocally. The Creator, meaning nature, says to you: “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice, for the Light in it reforms.” We need to fulfill this one and only formula and then everything will be all right.

Because all of a person’s desires are egoistic, in order to receive: “A person’s inclination is evil from his youth,” which means that he wants to receive everything for himself. Therefore, no fulfillment of these desires ever brings us happiness. A person attains happiness only if he finds in these desires the right attitude towards others and fulfills them in the form of bestowal.

This form of bestowal is called Hevel (meaning “vanity” in Hebrew) and you focus only on that. This meaning should be taken in the positive sense and not in the negative one. So “everything is Hevel Havalim (Vanity of Vanities)!” is with an exclamation mark and not with ellipsis.

I want to connect to everyone that way in order to fill their desires, and they fill my desires, thus we can mutually feed one another: I can feed you and you can feed me. But no one can ever fill himself.

Question: Let’s continue the journey. Suppose he discovered it today. Could it be that in a year he would look back and say to himself once again that happiness is not there?

Answer: When you connect with everyone, you build a society in which everyone is incorporated in one whole and everyone fills everyone else. There is no limit here. It is an infinite society like a circle. This circle never ends and the general common desire and the filling are constantly renewed.

Then we attain the state of a collective life when I exit myself and feel everyone. It is as if I am detached from this corporeal body and enter the spirit that is external to me. I live in others and this is how I feel eternal life.

Thus, I begin to feel my life in a spiritual form, virtually external to me. I enter a totally different dimension and ascend above the feeling of life, death, and time. I, thus acquire a new psychological state. This is what we should reach and it is therefore called Hevel, spirit.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/23/14

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We are found in the center of creation. And specifically we, those who are with doubts, problems, and confusion, through our small efforts carry out the most desirable work for Creator, what is most pleasant for Him.

That is how a small child gives pleasure to his parents with each of his unconscious acts. Everything extends from above to below. So we need to learn about the spiritual world from the physical world, and then we see what great actions we are doing.

And the very many states that are constantly changing in the world are the revelation of the Shehina (the presence of the Creator), an immense vast field that includes within it all the worlds, all the souls, all the conditions, all the Reshimot (reminiscences); everything is found within the Shehina. Above it are the first nine Sefirot, the bestowal of the Creator. Under it is its nine lower Sefirot; these are the shattered Kelim, desires. And the Shehina herself, meanwhile she is Keter of Malchut of Atzilut, and her nine lower Sefirot fell into the three worlds of BYA.

Everything that happens in our world, everything that is portrayed in front of us, is a small copy of what is found in the shattered parts of the lower nine Sefirot of Malchut. But the person’s problem is that he isn’t ready to absorb this from everything that exists.

I must prepare myself for this state,first of all, to understand that everything that happens descends from the world of Ein Sof, and each and every moment this appears before me in the best form, given to me for correction. And so I don’t get involved at all in any of the problems that exist in the world, all that happen with me, with the friends, with the families, with the people of Israel, with the whole world, no matter what.

I must accept this as a given, and think only about what I must do above all of this. I don’t need to enter and go deeper into all the events that appear before me, otherwise I will be immediately be detached from the Creator. First, I must rise to a higher level, identify with the higher supervision and management, seemingly see this situation from its perfected supervision and management, and say that I see the world in such a damaged form because I myself am not corrected.

I must correct myself to see the world as perfect instead of this world with murders and all the terrible events; all this is done and created within my Malchut, within my desires; I absorb all of this, as it is said: “All who condemn do so through their own defect” (Talmud Babyli Kiddushin 70b).

From what I see in this world, I must now correct myself so that in this place I see the Malchut of Infinity. I think only about my correction, bringing myself to a state in which I will see that everything is perfect.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/14, The Zohar

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Question: What does it mean that every day and at every moment everything starts all over again?

Answer: We never begin from the same state that we already went through. Each time there is a new subject, a new feeling. But every time we start from zero, we forget what was before as if we had done nothing.

There are such states that we don’t remember anything at all; it’s as if we are found in some fog, confusion, in a state that we don’t understand and are not used to. You feel that you are lost, as if you lost your way and don’t recognize what is happening around you. Everything seems strange and unfamiliar.

That is how they bring you to a new state in which you must make a clarification, an investigation of where you are found and what you are doing. That is how you must begin each new stage, for it includes within it ten complete Sefirot in desires, lights, and situations.

After that, a person gets used to it, as if they exchanged a diskette inside of him, installed a new program, and then he begins to behave differently, reacts differently, sees the world in another form; everything is different. We must get used to needing to pass through many changes. Only someone who has not developed is not changed.

All of nature evolves: even the still, vegetative, and animate, and also ordinary human beings, meaning all of humanity. But with the Kabbalist, evolution is expressed in a different absorption of reality, in a division of reality into why and what I absorb and feel. And this happens even before we begin to go up the spiritual ladder where already a very strong change happens as well as the quality of the states. The difference between two adjacent states on the spiritual ladder is immense. They are simply different dimensions.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Sanhedrin, 98:1: Rabbi Yochanan said that if you see a generation that is afflicted by many troubles like a river, wait for him (the Messiah)!

There is another state besides the signs of the coming of the Messiah described in this chapter, which the Messiah’s quick coming depends on: The more people there are who yearn for the Creator, the greater the Creator’s revelation in that society will be.

Therefore, our group opposes the negative state of humanity by trying to summon the flow of the Upper Light unto us and the whole world. At the moment, however, we don’t see any real and clear signs of the affect of our actions. We must admit that despite our attempts and perhaps thanks to them, we see that the world is in a state of an accelerated decling.

Question: Can we say that in humanity there is a feeling that “it is afflicted with many troubles like a river?”

Answer: I don’t think that we are afflicted by many troubles like a river compared to the generation that underwent the Holocaust of the Jewish people and other troubles, including WWII when many people experienced an inner personal holocaust. It isn’t the same situation yet.

At the moment we are not ripe in either direction (for better or for worse) and we don’t see where this can take us. But we are already at a turning point where we can decide which direction humanity will follow, which depends on our spiritual center, on our state, on our powers.

However, we too, are neither in a state of detachment, unable to do anything, nor in a state of a sharp rise, a counter attack against our ego in order to free the Messiah from his prison,

What will tip the scales? Our ego or us? This will have to be solved in the near future.
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From KabTV’s “Will the Messiah Come?” 11/14/14

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Question: What can you say about the ecology of the world; after all, it isn’t just being violated, but is threatened with disaster?

Answer: As of now, the ecosystem of the Earth is collapsing, being crushed, shattered, and annihilated. Our incorrect relationship to nature causes terrible problems. We have already reached the North and South poles, where they are getting ready to drill for oil.

But on its own, planet Earth possesses an amazing characteristic of renewal under the influence of positive signs that descend from above. So a person’s task is to invite these signs, not to clean the Earth of garbage. This won’t work. As much as we clean it, it becomes filthier and filthier, for chemical and biological cleansing damage the ecology even more.

Rather, the idea is that everything found on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature can regenerate and recover at an amazing speed. And this is possible only if a higher spiritual level brings positive signs.

The moment that humanity becomes harmonious through integral consolidation, the entire ecology will, in fact. immediately become balanced and the world will begin to blossom and spread a pleasant fragrance. It is not necessary to be concerned about it in particular, just as it isn’t necessary to be concerned about anything that is found below the spiritual level. If we make a correction on the spiritual level, the corrections will pass down and immediately cause changes on the physical level.

Everything will be changed such that it will be restored to its original divine form. Even those violations that have happened on the face of the Earth for the past twenty or thirty thousand years will be balanced and all the species of animals that disappeared will be restored.

There is nothing imaginary about this because all of nature is mutually connected and all of its levels are found one under the other. The Upper Light passes hierarchically from above to below and arranges everything through a higher harmony.

So, the blossoming of planet Earth depends on our changes and internal education. It is not necessary to do anything besides correct ourselves. Through re-education we begin to look at nature differently, and this time it will begin to come back to life.

Gradually we will stop working with it according to the previous trend, because we understand that all that is necessary is to bring the whole world to a state of balance. And for this, it is necessary to receive from nature only what will reasonably fulfill all of humanity through it, and no more than this. We are connected through millions of connections between us and with all of nature. So thanks to the restoration of the inner ecosystem of humanity, the ecosystem of planet Earth will begin to be restored.
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From KabTV’s “Short Stories”, 10/23/14

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Question: Professional activity attracts a person by the opportunity to create and get renewed. How much comes from me towards this renewal and how much comes from the supporting environment that appreciates me? I want to be proud of myself, to be respected, etc. Can creativity become a trap, like a mousetrap?

Answer: I feel some renewal every time I work creatively. There is another painting, a film, a performance, and a song. I sort of die while working at it, as usually occurs among creative people. I write, make films, compose music, and there’s a certain niche, where a person is like the Creator. One creates and feels renewed with each creative piece. It is a trap.

This is the life for some people involved in creative work. At the same time, they don’t feel pleasure in anything else; they neglect everything else and are ready to write with their own blood. The most important thing for them is to create a new picture or make a new discovery, because this action fulfills their needs. Creation is inside them, and that’s why nothing else worries them.

For a person absorbed in creative works, there’s no enjoyment in food, sex, family, wealth, or power. If a person thinks about that, then he doesn’t produce creatively; he becomes no different than the others. Today people like this are harder to come by. Today creativity is being used for profit and success, becoming a kind of business.

Question: King Solomon concludes at the end of a reflection on labor and work, “And I started to hate all the work which I’ve done under the sun.” You call it a trap. Why?

Answer: Because it doesn’t lead to the goal! The artist, too, like a dog, chases its tail, only feeling pleasure sometimes during the cycles of one’s work. We do the same by changing jobs, family, even our country, and still feel the void, though at a different level.

Question: Solomon, in “Ecclesiastes,” says with a shiver that the next area is personal and family relations. Ultimately, there is no happiness there, and the modern statistics confirms this. What can be more natural than family ties? A person feels happy at one’s wedding and during a child’s birth.

Answer: This is the way nature has it so we continue the human race. The general objective of the development of mankind in the process of evolution is to have each person ask: Why do I live?

This question and its correct implementation separate us from the animals. Otherwise we are animals. I just live, work, save money for a vacation, house, and other things, take care of life’s chores, and it has no beginning and no logical end. For what?
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/23/13

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