Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Rabbi Akiva tells us about that, “All is in deposit.” This means that everything that God had placed in Creation and given to people, He did not give to them licentiously, but secured Himself with collateral. And should you wonder what collateral He was given?

He responds to that by saying: “and a fortress spreads over all of life.” This means that the Creator has cleverly devised a wonderful fortress and spread it over all of humanity, so no one will escape. All the living must be caught in that fortress and necessarily accept His work, until they attain their sublime goal. This is the collateral by which the Creator secured Himself, to guarantee that no harm would come to the deed of Creation.

“All is in deposit” means that whether I want to or not, I will have to pay my “debt” to the Creator. I was given life not because I asked for it and without my consent, and still I have to pay the debt. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t ask for it. If I received life, I have to pay for it, and I can only pay by attaining the goal of creation.

We see that the sufferings we have been through throughout history are gradually becoming more “spiritual” and “virtual,” and detached from reality. Today many people don’t want to live although they have everything. Once a person was happy if he had half a kilo of bread a day and was satisfied with that, but about fifty years ago the “shopping” era began. Today it is coming to an end and not because of a shortage of money but because people lack the desire to shop. This is the problem—the desire is changing. Even if you offer a person a million dollars, it will not spur him like before; he doesn’t want anything anymore.

This is the natural inclination of our evolution that brings us to ask about the meaning of life. So what is left of life if not food, shopping, and recreation? There is nothing else that we can enjoy. It isn’t by chance that football and all sorts of distractions other are being promoted so much these days. This is the policy: to provide people with “tranquilizers” and other nonsense to give them something to fill their inner emptiness with. Otherwise, they would express their rage in the streets instead of in the stadiums.

A person who feels empty asks himself more and more: “Why was I given a life that I didn’t ask for, why am I being forced to do something that I don’t want to?” Why? He feels as if his hands and feet are chained.

This is why we need integral education today. Thanks to it people will understand that everyone is connected and that we depend on one another and that by using this integral connection correctly, we will be able to solve all our problems.

Good relations are generally the key to our success in every aspect. We could have machines replace physical work in every field and provide everything we need. But we don’t want that since it isn’t clear what a person would enjoy then. Even now, most people already have everything they could imagine except for a deficiency. A person is absolutely full, so what’s next? He can either kill himself or start killing others otherwise he won’t feel any pleasure.

We enjoy only when pleasure fills a deficiency. But the pleasure immediately neutralizes itself. So how can we prevent this? We have to constantly renew the desire.

This is exactly what the world leaders tried to achieve by building a modern economy and inserting new desires into people and satisfying them. But this is impossible, since our corporeal desire is changing in quality and eventually doesn’t want anything on the previous level. To chase our own tail in order to buy a new washing machine and a new television every year and to change the wall paper…? How much longer can we take that? A person suddenly discovers that his desires are gone.

Thus a whole philosophy of evolution has come to an end. It wasn’t just a way of making money but a way of making people happy. At the top people thought about getting richer providing all the basic necessities and keeping them in a close circuit so that people would buy light bulbs that burn out after a short while, printers with an integrated chip that stops working after a while, and other low quality products. They continued to supply incentives so that people will feel it is worthwhile to work, to live, and to buy. They continued to renew the deficiencies since without a deficiency that receives pleasure, there is no feeling of happiness.

They were right about that. It was indeed a time of prosperity in the West. The Americans saw that their new philosophy justified itself and everyone followed them happily. But in the meantime the desire grew, not only in quantity but also in quality, so a person doesn’t need all that anymore. He doesn’t see any point in investing his whole life in that. In the past people bought things without any advertising, but today more than half the cost of a product is due to advertising costs. On the other hand, in countries that are more economically developed, depression, suicide, and drug abuse are becoming more prevalent.

So where are we headed? A person cannot go on living without feeling happy, excitement, and the “ecstasy” that is felt when the deficiency meets the pleasure. But they immediately neutralize one another if there is no Masach (screen) between them. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is about, the wisdom of how to receive correctly, since without a Masach, a person discovers only darkness.

If the decision makers were a bit wiser, they would accept that. But in the meantime, we are in the middle of the process, so in any case there is no other choice. The deficiency has to be in contact with the pleasure, but only if it doesn’t stop. Otherwise, it isn’t worth it. We are ready to renew only our animal deficiencies over and over again, but anything that is beyond that is questionable. So what we see on almost every TV channel today is mainly cooking programs or sex, because people are so narrow minded…

We hope that we will manage to explain the need for a Masach between the deficiency and the pleasure. Then the infinite pleasure will give us a feeling of eternal life.
[102338]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/13, “The Peace”

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And Moses said unto them: “Let no man leave of it till the morning.” Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and rotted; and Moses was wroth with them (The Torah, Exodus, BeShalach, 16:19 – 16:20).

This speaks about lack of faith. If you stock up for tomorrow, you are no longer in the world of the Creator, but are in your own world. This is a constant struggle that should accompany a person in relation to everything: to view the past, present, and future in relation to himself and others and to assess everything that happens to a person—this “I” and my attitude towards everything—where do I become free from my “self?”

Man is a person’s aspiration for the property of bestowal. This entails a very serious transition: from denial, to restriction, to rising above himself, and it includes a variety of other conditions. Try to draw your portrait on the floor and start stomping on it; this is what you want to remove yourself from, to move away from the present you. Feel yourself in these states.

Comment: But there is another attitude, like in the joke: A man is sitting on the roof of a house, surrounded by flood; a boat passes by with people offering to rescue him, but he answers, “No, the Creator will save me.” A helicopter flies above him, “We’ll save you,” “No,” he says, “The Creator will save me.” So, he drowned.

Answer: This is a terrible pride, “The Creator will save me.” That is, a person does not identify himself with the world, does not understand that the Creator is in everything: in the boat, in the helicopter—everywhere. He does not connect this with the Creator, but divides the world into various intermediaries, thoughts, and forces. This happens due to the failure to feel the Creator as unity.
[102296]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

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A person aspiring to spiritual attainment begins to see that the whole world is one system. It is constant joyful work, and you become accustomed to it gradually. It becomes a necessity. You already exist at this level.

All the other levels are flat, one-dimensional, and it’s impossible to think of them as before. A person begins to get accustomed to thinking in the n-dimensional space which becomes compressed into a single force and purpose; therefore, it’s not difficult to feel the whole world connected with a single goal, with a single thought, with a single force, up to the point that you look at the starry sky and see what connects all the stars.

This raises some very interesting questions, such as, “How did the ancient astrologers associated stars in the constellations?” After all, if I look at the stars I’m unable to join them in all the signs of the zodiac, Orion, the Big Dipper and others. I don’t have such a great imagination as the ancient Greeks or the Babylonian astrologers because the stars are far away from each other and in different planes.

Let’s say that one star is hundreds million years closer to the Earth, and the other is millions years farther. But they saw them connected to each other as in a single plane. What is it: just primitive representations or human fantasy? Where there is a bear with four or five stars forming a square with a tail? How can one imagine this?

It’s a very interesting thing: The idea that links the stars in the zodiac signs is attained by a person through his influence on it.

The ancient astrologers had a feeling of the connectedness of these stars. Due to the development of egoism, we became detached from the universe, from perceiving it as a whole, but they had a sense of relative connectedness because they perceived it as a host of gods, of uppers forces that influenced them. And it was not because they were small or primitive; it’s simply not twisted, not coarse human perception without the number of filters as we have. That is, they had a much greater perception of the Light. If we begin to correct our egoism, we will now feel the Light many times more because we are much coarser than they were.
[102292]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

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Opinion (Alex Chulichkov, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences): “It is impossible to predict the polarization (the direction of oscillation of the electromagnetic field) of the photon emitted by an atom. But it is possible to cause the emission of two photons of the same polarization, but of an unknown direction.

“The photon does not have a definite polarization until it interacts with the observer. However, measuring the polarization of one of the photons will allow the determination of the polarization of the other photon in the same instant. How can the second photon instantly “learn” about the measurements conducted with the first photon, no matter how far they are scattered, and find the polarization at the same instant? Conclusion: our world is not a set of local atoms, bricks; it is a whole, and what happens in one part of it instantly changes the whole.”

My Comment: This is a fact. And the conclusion is simple: All of us are one whole, and that is why we should come to a single form by our own efforts, and from it we will begin to see, feel, and exist in the upper, quantum world—the eternal and perfect world, beyond space, time, and motion (See The Study of the Ten Sefirot, p. 1 “Inner Observation”).
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Question: Lately the price of shares on the stock market are sky high again, the Dow Jones has set a new record high. This of course has an impact on Europe and Japan. How can it be that a certain part in the general system is still getting richer while the others suffer from the crisis?

Answer: The stock market has been on the rise for a long time. The brokers have decided that the crisis that started in 2008 has come to an end. “Indeed, how much longer can we wait if it’s already 2013? Enough, it’s time to raise the new digits on the counter…”

Generally speaking, all the “bubbles” are false and unnatural. The whole modern economy is basically false. It has many indices and indicators, but it’s basically the same: First, the brokers lay the false foundation, and then they build their houses on it until the earth swallows them. After all, today’s economy is not a science; it’s not part of nature.

The real economy is the relationships between people based on the principle of “give and take.” As it says, “Go and make a living from one another.” If we were to establish the correct, true economy, then, in the connection with others, in bestowing upon them and receiving from them, I would discover the Creator, the upper world.

In that sense, the wisdom of Kabbalah can also be called “the economy,” since it explains how to receive correctly, how to make a great profit and fill the vessels, the desires to receive, and to bestow in the best way possible, to safely avoid all the damages, the loss of connection and filling, and in general of everything. To sum up, the optimal economics is the wisdom of Kabbalah.

At the same time, the brokers have no idea about nature and its plans, about how the human desires develop and about the relations between people. They have simply decided to create a certain mechanism and to force it upon others so that they will work and the brokers will get rich. Suppose I manufacture pens, and I don’t care if anyone needs them; by using different tricks, I convince people to buy them and by that bring myself pleasure in terms of money.

The traders don’t take into account the major factors; after all, people’s desires change, the conditions change, and the consumers are fed up. In addition to that, no matter how hard you try to curb the natural development of technology, you will not be able to stop it. Today those at the top want it both ways: They want to automate production, but this leaves people jobless and moneyless, so they cannot buy these products. They have to make a decision: If they want people to go on buying, they should give them money. But you cannot give them money since you are laying them off when you replace them with machines.

As a result of lacking the understanding of these processes and lacking a global vision, we come to the recognition of evil. So today, we have to understand the system that connects us all. Only if we are able to provide for one another correctly and safely, will everyone feel good. After all, what a person needs is pleasure.

So, the question is whether the mechanisms we have built can provide us with pleasure. After all, everything about these mechanisms is artificial and false. The highly lauded figures of the stock market have no basis. It’s all one big game of market players. They can also intentionally cause economic crises.

But there are phenomena that market players haven’t planned. Because they are so confused and have no coordination between them, different things are happening all at once, revealing the flaws in the system. It’s not even about being divorced from reality; this whole business had no real basis to begin with since it was never in conformity with nature. It’s impossible to call it capitalism anymore.

Question: It’s as if they have created a kind of virtual reality in which can impose artificial optimism interspersed with a bit of pessimism so that it will appear more real. As a result, the indexes are rising without having any real basis; optimism itself is enough…

Answer: That’s right; it’s a game that they are running according to their interests. It’s the same in every area, including politics: Those at the top pull the strings, and they are operated by the Creator.

Question: It seems that today the ego has become so sophisticated that it can take advantage of every situation. It is equally effective in taking advantage of the market rises and falls and the crises. Will it end?

Answer: It will come to an end when we are able to teach people the method of mutual guarantee and when they understand that they have no choice. Then the hopelessness will be revealed.

Even today it’s already clear that the stock market figures don’t mean a thing. What is worse is if we take into account the economic situation and the rise in unemployment, the stock market “bubble” can lead to an explosion that the real economy cannot create. After all, people are jobless and it’s a very dangerous situation…

The current rise of the stock market can be prolonged for a while. What’s more, from a spiritual perspective, I see it as a positive thing: Let them carry on since it helps us advance towards correction at our own pace.

On the whole, everything that happens means only one thing: We must hurry. We were given some more time to prepare the dissemination of the method of the true correction of the world. We have to try and be ready as soon as possible. Things are moving so that we will be able to advance and prepare ourselves, but the window of opportunity can suddenly close.
[102103]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/13, ”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: Today, many people are misled by “green” dreams, such as “We are ravaging our planet’s resources. Let’s stop and preserve the environment for our children.”

Answer: On one hand, I share this opinion. On the other hand, we see that it is not quite so. Many people’s interests are involved in this issue, and they stay on both sides of the “green” front. Now and then, the fight for a green planet triggers more harm than ecological damages per se.

First of all, we must figure out exactly how we are destroying nature. Does it happen because of our relationships or due to technogenic consequences?

At a certain point in time, Malthusians and demographers screamed that the Earth won’t be able to feed us, and, yet, we have an abundance of food now to such an extent that some governments subsidize farmers who agree voluntarily to produce less food products. In fact, if we were not throwing away lots of food supplies, it would be sufficient to provide for the entire world.

Threats of oil and gas shortages are not quite justified, either, but they help many people earn money on their price fluctuations. Besides that, at this time, we already have developed very effective technologies that provide alternative energy.

As to vast amounts of waste, a new processing industry was created that is quite profitable.

In other words, the current problems are fairly resolvable if we approach them correctly. Baal HaSulam wrote that the Earth has the potential to feed many more people than today.

The problem is that we should organize our society in a proper way. Unless we organize, people will continue starving. Every few seconds, someone dies of hunger. It happens because the world is unable to unite. We simply have no ability to take care of each other.

It means that the root of the problem is not about nature, but, rather, about humans. We must think thoroughly about what exactly must be changed. Let’s stop building external structures and fighting with outside symptoms. Unless we change ourselves internally and educate a new generation of people, nothing will work. We have technologies and agriculture, but the trouble is that each of us takes care of his or herself and safeguards his or her property. One person has water, another has meat, another has salt, the fourth one has matches, and the next one has firewood, but they don’t get together to cook a tasty soup. That’s why people die of hunger.

Question: Does it mean that we simply hide from resolving this problem?

Answer: Our egoism spoils everything. It is the only source of the troubles we go through. Many smart people have tried fighting egoism using different methods and remedies. However, none of these experiments (including the Soviet Union) were successful. Why? It is because, in order to succeed, we need the help of the Upper Force.

The problem is that we must aspire for Nature to change us. For that, we should consent to internal modifications, and agree with the idea that we are not capable of changing ourselves and that only Nature can do it. Moreover, we must appeal to and rely on Nature alone!

In order for us to come to this state of mind, we must unite and try to build a social model that will allow Nature to influence us. Then, Nature will make us smarter and will give us a clearer understanding of what further steps we should take.

Still, it won’t be enough. There is another complicated condition. All of our efforts should be aimed at replenishing Nature. In other words, in essence, we should act not for our own sake. This is a very hard task. Our actions should be focused on the Creator’s sake, oriented to the power of bestowal, that is, Nature. It is our duty to unite with it. We must enhance the power of bestowal in all of reality. This is the goal to which we should completely devote ourselves.

Question: How can we explain these issues to environmental advocates?

Answer: Threats keep growing before our eyes. Global hunger will be triggered by increased food prices. The situation will become worse if we don’t change people and establish new rules of reasonable consumption. In fact, there is an abundance of everything we really need, and, yet, half of the world is deprived of the basic things that are essential for human existence. The situation can be changed only through shifting relationships among people from indifferent and hostile to kind and benevolent.

Accordingly, we must change our attitude to Nature. For that, we should modify a human being, and, only after we manage to achieve it, can we refer to resolving environmental problems.

Nature is one whole. It’s a single complex that consists of four levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking. In this hierarchy, human beings occupy the top critical position. Unless we recognize and acknowledge this fact, we won’t be able to begin treating the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature correctly.

It means that we must convey a simple message to environmentalists and “green” advocates: Before anything else, we must change a human being, and then we will be able to improve the rest.

In fact, we destroy nature merely by our thoughts. Therefore, internal modification of relationships among us will work much more effectively than any “green” projects. Nature will revive! We think that nature already has been irreversibly damaged and that it will take thousands of years to heal the wounds of the various ecological systems. It is not true! If we change our thoughts and rise to a higher level of interaction between us, everything quickly will return to normal.
[101652]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/13, “The Peace”

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Question: Fewer women than men are involved in the current political-economic mess of the modern world. What can they do for the general health of society?

Answer: Women can obligate the men to connect, to be in mutual reciprocity, and to unite into one whole. Then life in a country and the world will work out. If women can connect, they will be able to bring the men to the same state.

On the one hand, it’s much more difficult for a woman, but on the other hand, what’s important is to start. The moment a woman decides “to go for it,” she will dive into the current and strive persistently in the right direction.

For men it is the opposite: It’s easy for them to jump into the water, but it’s very difficult for them to swim since they encounter endless obstacles on the way that need to be corrected. So let’s ask the women to set an example for us and to give us the power we need in order to connect.

On the whole, only the connection between everyone is the key to our success in every area. It isn’t by chance that we say that behind every successful man there is a woman. The women should push the men to connect and to unite. There are no other means.
[102179]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/13, ”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How can we come to the European Convention in order to create a common field there?

Answer: We must make every effort to succeed.

We must rise above all our differences and laziness, rejections and other things; just close your eyes, strive to organize the convention, and participate in it.

We have only three weeks left, even less. Let’s make this convention really successful. After all, you only win from this: both in material and spiritual matters—I promise you.

I am looking forward to seeing you and hope that no one is left behind a computer screen, and all together we take part in this convention.
[102008]
From the Virtual Lesson 3/3/13

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Baal HaSulam, “A Sage’s Fruit”: During a common prayer a person is prohibited to separate from the others and to ask for himself, even if he wants to bring pleasure to the Creator, but he is going to do it himself, and not with the others. After all, he who disconnects from society and asks for his own individual soul does not build it, but on the contrary, he damages his soul, by becoming the “proud man, with whom the Creator cannot be together.”

It’s not easy to overcome this difficult psychological problem. Our ego does not allow us to understand, to remember, to learn, and to adopt the rule that only by coming out of the boundaries of our body will we find the vessel of our soul. And everything that I psychologically see now as my “I” exists only in my fantasy so that I must cancel this thinking, annul myself, and see myself outside of it.

To accept this fact, this worldview, and to live with it, we need the strong support of the environment and studies and hard work in mutual guarantee. Any action of correction starts from this because every time more egoism is added to us, we have to work with this additional load in order to decide that, in spite of it, our vessel is above it.

These messages: “That which is hateful to you, don’t do to others” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself” seem to us simple rules of courtesy, “cultural” behavior, moral homilies. But no, we talk about an internal orientation that must exist in a person if he wants to find his inner part, his soul, and begin to correct it.

That is why the one who prays for himself not only does not advance in spirituality, but also causes great harm to himself because by this he cuts himself off from the others, worsening the breaking. Although it’s clear that negative actions are also inevitable because a person needs to come to the realization of evil before he understands and feels that this is an incorrect attitude.

But we are about to complete this work, and that is why we must understand and constantly reinforce the general opinion that spiritual existence, advancement, and the result of work are only in “We,” not in “me,” but only between us. This where we need to draw all our forces, trying to accustom ourselves to this view and replace ourselves with “We” in order to live inside the soul.
[101778]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/13

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In the News (from The Wall Street Journal): “It has been nearly five years since the collapse of investment firm Bear Stearns, the first of the dominoes to fall in the 2008 financial crisis. It is now abundantly clear there was too much risk-taking and too much borrowing, particularly by big financial companies. The global economy is still suffering the hangover.

“Too much finance can be dangerous to economic health. But too little finance hurts, too. Promising investments are starved. Consumers can’t borrow for homes or education. Growth is slower. …

“As a share of the world economy, the global stock of debt, both private and public, and equity peaked in 2007, plunged and has now recovered to 2000 levels, according to a McKinsey Global Institute database of 183 countries. …

“The social value of finance isn’t to fuel Wall Street’s casinos or make traders and hedge fund partners rich. It is, rather, to deploy the world’s savings in investments that pay off in the future. …

“Rich-country banks have pulled back. European banks increasingly are reluctant to lend across borders. Jitters about the durability of the euro and the stability of national governments have reversed a decade of financial integration. In emerging markets, the growth in stock and bond markets—which had been a welcome sign of economic maturity—has largely stalled.”

My Comment: Everything goes according to the plan of nature to force us to adopt a new attitude towards ourselves, society, and the world as to a single global dependent system.
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