News Report (from WebWire): “A Crowded World: Researchers use computer scenarios to study crowd behavior in time and space” The scientists at the School of Geographical Sciences at Arizona State University have created a model of crowd behavior. Their results were as follows:

1. There is rapid exchange of nonverbal information in crowds

2. The actions of a single individual can shape the dynamics of an entire crowd

3. Individuals who would never ordinarily engage in anti-social behavior such as looting might do so anyway when associated with a riotous crowd; and, conversely, anti-social individuals may see their bad behavior checked by other members of a well-behaved crowd.

My Comment: The science of Kabbalah has been explaining the same laws of individual and social behavior for thousands of years. It explains these and many other laws, how to use them to benefit the individual without infringing on his freedom and while enabling him to develop harmoniously, and how to use these laws for the benefit of society in a way that avoids conflicts between the individual and the society. It explains how the two can come to an ideal coexistence, where individual gain is equal to social gain. This is possible if the importance of the individual is equal to the importance of society as a whole, by observing the law, “The general and the particular are equal.” This observance is possible when everyone is equal and interdependent, and every person strives only to fulfill the desire of the single whole, seeing this as his mission and receiving absolute fulfillment from it.

This is the state we exist in from the very beginning. It is called the “World of Infinity.” We must desire to ascend (morally) from our present state, called “this world,” to the level of the “World of Infinity.” This desire will draw onto us the Light (feeling) of bestowal and love, which fills us in the “World of Infinity” – and this Light will then correct us, giving us the quality of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This isn’t inconceivable. Even scientists now prove that an individual’s qualities can change instantly under the society’s influence. Therefore, everything depends on our decision to create the right influence over each and every one of us. Therein lies our freedom of will.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Conditions for Correcting the Soul
Laitman.com Post: Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself
Talk: There is No Coercion in Spirituality
Article: “The World of Infinity”
Article: “Freedom of Will”
Baal HaSulam: “Introduction to the Book of Zohar, Item 68”

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Society - No Comments →

News Report (from The New York Times): “Project Created to Restore Ancient Babylon” A master plan is being developed for the restoration of the Mesopotamian site of the ancient city of Babylon, in present-day Iraq. The “Future of Babylon” project, financed by a $700,000 grant from the State Department, will map the city’s archeological sites, develop conservation plans and pursue possibilities for tourism and education.

My Comment: This is a landmark event because our global civilization is a replay of ancient Babylon. In the past, Babylon was a place with the same conditions as we have today – those of a “small village” and “the Butterfly Effect.” In other words, people’s egoism grew by leaps and bounds, and they stopped “understanding one another.” This is how we got the expression that “they began to speak different languages.” Yet, at the same time, people revealed that they were completely interdependent.

That’s when one of their priests, named Avram, began to examine the crisis and revealed its cause: it was happening because Nature (or the Creator) was pushing people towards unification. As a result of his research, he attained correction – the revelation of the quality of bestowal and love within him. He also realized what kind of connections are necessary in a closed system in order for it to survive and function correctly. He changed his name to Abraham, where the additional letter ה (Hey or “h”) designates the addition of the Upper Force (bestowal and love) to him. Thereafter, he wrote a book called The Book of Creation.

Abraham taught what he had learned, and thereby formed a group of students. He called them Israel (Isra – El = straight to the Creator), and together they went to what would become the land of Israel. As for the Babylonians who remained behind, they got rid of the crisis by breaking the connections between one another and dispersing all over the planet.

Today, just like Abraham’s science, Kabbalah,  predicted, from the end of the 20th century on, we have once again entered the state of “a small village” and “the Butterfly Effect.” However, this time we have done so on the global scale, so there’s no place to run in order to destroy our globalization. Hence, there are two paths before us:

1. Suffering, due to the discord in our civilization’s system, or
2. We can use Kabbalah as the method of correction.

Either way, we are obliged to correct ourselves so as to reach the level of observing the conditions of existence in a closed system, where every person will have to live by the rule of, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Foundation of the Wisdom of Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Avraham”
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Letters by Rabbi Amnon Saba”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Building the Future Society”

Filed under: History - No Comments →

News Report (from Financial Times): “German bond sale’s fate signals trouble ahead” A German sovereign bond auction failed on Wednesday as investors shunned one of the most liquid and safe assets in the world in a warning for governments seeking to raise record amounts of debt to stimulate slowing economies. The fate of the first eurozone bond auction of 2009 signals trouble ahead as governments around the world hope to issue an estimated $3,000bn in debt this year, three times more than in 2008.

My Comment: We will continue to reveal the lack of the correct interactions in the whole world among all its parts. This will become clearer as it finds expression in people’s lack of trust, faith, unwillingness to participate, and so on – until we realize that it’s necessary to create new relationships: those of mutual trust and cooperation.

These relationships can only arise once we see the interconnected system that we have suddenly found ourselves in. And for this to happen, we need explanations, education, and upbringing that teach people about the world’s globality.

So what means will we use to come out of the crisis?

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The European Union Must Make a Fateful Decision
Laitman.com Post: Baal HaSulam Describes the Conditions of Life in a Globalized World

Filed under: Crisis - No Comments →

A question I received: In one of the lessons you were asked a direct question: Will Kabbalah studies improve one’s financial situation? You answered, “No.” I was waiting for an explanation, such as that there’s no use waiting for a miracle to happen overnight, the way people expect from amulets and holy water. I thought that you would talk about a simple principle that everyone can understand, such as, “Everyone should give according to their ability, and receive according to their needs.”

After all, Kabbalah does provide material prosperity to the people who search spirituality, but in addition, it gives them a way to open the gates to the spiritual world. But instead, you cut the whole topic off and said, “No.” Why?

My Answer: You’re right: of course, a person who works on his own correction sways himself and the whole world to the scale of merit, and to the degree he ascends above egoism, he feels the Light and abundance in his entire life.

However, I want to underline that Kabbalah is the method of revealing the Creator to man in this world, and not a method to get rich, be healed, know the future, cast spells, and all the other things people attribute to it. This is why I clearly tell beginners that Kabbalah studies do not give you any direct material gain. And this is true. It’s because initially a person must reach a feeling that he needs this, and then Kabbalah – the revelation of the Creator – is for him.

It is not a method to get rich quick, or to heal one’s animate body, and so on. If a person genuinely aspires to reveal the Creator, then the Upper Light influences him and elicits changes in this life as well.

Nevertheless, sometimes this may also manifest as it is written in the verse, “He is the righteous and unhappy.” Actually, this doesn’t mean that the righteous person is unhappy, but according to our criteria, he is not rich or healthy. This is because we are all interconnected, and hence sometimes a person who’s righteous suffers for the entire world.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Wealthy Person Is One With a Wealth of Knowledge of the Creator
Laitman.com Post: Improve the Quality of Your Life
Lesson from Introductory Course to Kabbalah
Shamati #34: “The Profit of a Land”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

News Report (from The Wall Street Journal): Israelis have to discard Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s famous maxim: “War’s objective is victory – not prolonged indecision. In war there is no substitute for victory.” They will have to settle for a substitute because from their standpoint “prolonged indecision” is better than the alternatives – the annihilation of themselves, which would be unthinkable, or of their enemies, which would be unconscionable.

My Comment: We have to let time do its job, in order to bring the nation of Israel to its senses, so it will realize that precisely by correcting itself, it can amend the situation, both for themselves and for the whole world.

Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”: If people use the science of Kabbalah – the method of correction, they raise the whole world and then suffering disappears. It is precisely through the use of Kabbalah that the world will come out of its crisis, toward the Light.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Gaza Conflict Is One More Step Toward Revealing Man’s Evil Nature

Filed under: Israel - No Comments →

News Report (from International Herald Tribune): “New worry in Europe over credit crisis” At the conference in Frankfurt, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank, Josef Ackermann, lamented the market’s lack of confidence, which he said generated daily rumors about the next bank or fund in trouble. “I think it is important to spend time with family,” Ackermann said.

My Comment: People agree that spending time with family is the best source of optimism in time of crisis, because you feel their support, love and warmth. But imagine that everyone felt familial support, love and warmth from the whole world – if every one of us felt that the entire world is our family! Then no crisis could ever scare us; they would all simply disappear!

News Report (from Science): “Does marriage sink a scientific career or send it soaring?” Satoshi Kanazawa, a psychologist at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, analyzed a biographical database of 280 great scientists. Kanazawa noted an interesting trend, “The productivity of male scientists tends to drop right after marriage.” … Marriage has also been shown to have an adverse impact on the careers of female scientists.

My Comment: This cannot be considered damage caused by marriage, since it is certainly not obvious that scientific development is more useful than marriage.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What Would It Be Like to Live In a Perfect World?
Laitman.com Post: The Crisis – We’ll Get Used to It and We’ll Even Learn to Like It
Life, Love & Family
Baal HaSulam Article: “Peace in the World”

Filed under: Family - No Comments →

News Report (from Phantoms & Monsters): The CEUFO (Center for Studies UFO) of Argentina received an email from a photographer (Fabián Romano) that claimed to have captured a strange being on his camera while taking some shots around the Macachín airport. The CEUFO analyzed the image and declared it to be that of a flying “entity.” They also said that the image was of a “high strangeness.”

My Comment: Spirituality consists of forces that are not clothed in matter. They descend to us from their source – the Creator, and they are called “angels” (in Hebrew “Malach” – singular, “Malachim” – plural). We cannot see or perceive these forces, but only their influences, their manifestations in matter. It’s similar to how we can only perceive the influence of a magnetic or gravitational field, but not these fields in and of themselves.

We perceive the Creator in the same way – in our desires of bestowal and love. That is how this force of Goodness, Love and Bestowal is revealed in us. Its revelation in us is called “the part of the Creator from above,” or the soul. To perceive one’s soul, to have a soul, or to perceive the Creator – is one and the same (Israel, the Torah and the Creator are One). The “Preface to the Book of Zohar” talks about our perception, explaining that everything is perceived within us, and not outside. Hence, this leaves no room for “miracles!” In this world, everything is prosaic and bleak. But once you reveal the Upper World, there you will discover true miracles.

And here’s another explanation: All the forces of our world, (the forces clothed in matter that we can perceive) are also angels. Even the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature, man included, are angels, because they are completely controlled by the Creator. So who isn’t an angel? Only a Kabbalist, because he becomes independent, a Man (Adam, one who is similar to the Creator), one who is independent from the Creator. A Kabbalist isn’t just one of the Creator’s forces or messengers, and hence, a Kabbalist is not an angel.

One time, Rabash and I went to a zoo to talk about the roots and branches in both worlds. When we got there, he exclaimed: “So many angels in one place!”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: There Are No Images In the Spiritual World
Laitman.com Post: Don’t Get Lost In All the Angels
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
The Introduction to the Article “The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

News Report (from BBC News): A look of horror will grab the attention of those around you faster than a smile, US research shows. Individuals react more quickly to a fearful expression than to faces showing other emotions such as joy, a study in the journal Emotion found. … It is thought the brain has evolved to react more quickly to potentially threatening situations.

My Comment: This is because we perceive everything within our egoistic desire “to receive.” But if we switch to the desire “to bestow,” then our perception of the world will change: we’ll notice smiles instead of looks of horror, because the phenomenon of “danger” or “threat” will cease to exist for us. And that’s because we will reveal that Nature is absolute goodness. Baal HaSulam describes this wonderfully in the article “The Creator’s Concealment and Revelation” – whether we perceive the world as horrible or wonderful depends only on the qualities of the observer.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Heaven is the Feeling of Delight from Being Similar to the Creator
Laitman.com Post: The Creator = Nature
Kabbalah Today Article: Why Do We Call the Creator “The Creator?”
Talk: “Perception of Reality”
Shamati #30: “The Most Important Is to Want Only to Bestow”

Filed under: Perception - No Comments →

A question I received: I just read how you were able to defend your dissertation on Kabbalah by writing against something you believe, which is an interesting strategy. I am pursuing my PhD in Education at Walden University and after four years now, I have finally come in contact with a mentor who understands my goal in obtaining this doctoral; I can now approach my research in Education by designing a program of “Metaphysical Education: an Emphasis on Kabbalah Studies.” It is good to know you are so willing to assist those of us on this educational attainment path and should I need your help, I hope you will be there for assistance as well. I must say, your books, the articles, website links, etc., are a tremendous help.

My Answer: In this case, the goal justifies the means. The PhD title gives one the opportunity to give lectures at universities about authentic Kabbalah.

It also took me a long time to find someone who would supervise my dissertation, and I still had to “fix” things according to his instructions. It’s possible that you will also have to make certain “corrections” that your academic director will insist on. But there’s no sense prolonging it, since the dissertation materials will be buried in an archive anyway. Kabbalah is probably the only field where the student pursuing a degree may understand more than his academic director.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Where to Defend a Dissertation on Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: First Become a Scientist, and Then You Can Speak Against Science
Laitman.com Post: The Irrationality of Kabbalah
The Path of Kabbalah: “About the Study”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Time to Act”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Messiah’s Horn”

Filed under: Education - No Comments →

Two questions I received on conversion to Judaism:

Question: Why would you say that Rabbi Akiva was not Jewish? How carried away can you get? He was 100% Jewish! I guess tomorrow Rav Ashlag will also be called non-Jewish!

My Answer: First of all, this doesn’t matter at all in relation to the Torah. We are all Babylonians by origin. The Jews started calling themselves differently because they differed from other people in that they based their lives on the law, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is what is now required from the whole of humanity, including the Jews, who have fallen from the level of following this rule.

I heard my teacher explain Rabbi Akiva’s origin. You can also go to Google.com, type in the words “Akiva proselyte” and read what it says. Please verify your knowledge. And you shouldn’t get so offended: it’s an honor to be a proselyte! After all, it’s an indication that a person went through correction. I wish for all of us to become proselytes as defined in the Torah! The Torah repeatedly states, “Love a proselyte.”

Question: Upon reading the text, “The Last Generation,” I came once again upon the reference to Jews and Gentiles. I am the latter in the physical sense and have at times felt exclusion from Kabbalah because of this fact. But I have read with much interest other texts where the dynamic has been clearly explained in the spiritual realm: the term “Jew” pertaining to an individual with the point in the heart. However, I still seem to feel that there are two definitions in various texts, some referring to the physical and others referring to the non-physical. Any clarity would be greatly appreciated on what is the correct way to view these two terms.

My Answer: There is no such nationality or people as “Jews”! It’s because this “nation” emerged from Abraham’s students, according to their spiritual quality. Kabbalah explains that there are 70 spiritual roots of the nations of the world, but there is no separate spiritual root for the nation of Isra-El! And that’s because anyone who aspires to the Creator can become Israel. Here is what we have today:

• A genetic Jew must study and disseminate Kabbalah (see item 70 of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”).
• A spiritual Jew (Isra-El) is any person who aspires to reveal the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Israel Is All the People Who Aspire Toward the Creator
Laitman.com Post: Being “Chosen” Means Having the Responsibility to Spiritually Serve the World
Kabbalah for Beginners: “Rabbi Akiva”
Shamati #72: “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Love for the Creator & Love for the Created Beings”

Filed under: Israel - 2 Comments →