A question I received: Changes are taking place at the White House, a new President has come to power, and the pressure on Israel has increased. This can lead to the intensification of conflicting views in our nation. Maybe we should concentrate our thoughts on this particularly?

My Answer: Politics is unstable and nonlinear; the public’s expectations of political figures very rarely match politicians’ plans; instead, they are aimed at particular goals. It is a complicated matter, which we shouldn’t try to penetrate.

However, it is necessary to understand that, to the extent that the nation of Israel delays carrying out its mission, the pressure on it will increase. We must lead people to understand and feel the need for correction. They must agree to play their role in the spiritual development of all of humanity. The nation of Israel should understand and accept this duty and realize its fault for what is happening.

The pressure on us will grow in order to wake up the nation of Israel. This is precisely what has happened to us over the course of history – starting with the Egyptian pharaoh and on present time. Prophets wrote about this; they said that if we don’t come to realize what responsibility is placed on us, we will need to go through very difficult trials.

The pressure that we experience is nothing more than the states that we have not yet corrected, and although we need to, we have not taken advantage of the opportunities that have been presented to us. To the extent that the pressure increases, we can judge our uncorrected states. However, the states themselves are revealed only to the extent of a person’s development.

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If we free ourselves of the unnecessary, extraneous activities which are not related to the correction of relationships between people, we would do what is necessary. This is the only action where we can implement our freedom of will, and we would see precisely what we need to do and where we need to correct ourselves.

This is only a small area, but it should be clear to absolutely every person that this is where the focus of our choice lies. If we correct our relationships, we will reach the end of correction and the goal of creation. However, if we do not clarify this, we have no choice in our actions and will remain like animals.

Nature will show us our corruption in all of its aspects: in the state of the economy, health problems, the system of upbringing and education of children and family relationships – in all the forms of egoism that are enclosed within us.

If we do not correct the relationships between people, everything else will be presented to us by Nature in a broken manner.

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In the News (from Prlog Organization): “The Great Depression Ahead: An Interview with Harry S. Dent” Author Harry S. Dent, Jr. having successfully predicted the crash of Fall 2008 years ago, was also the author of The Great Boom Ahead, published in 1992, when he stood virtually alone in forecasting the unanticipated boom of the 1990s. And now he is saying that the party is over…

Among the predictions being made here is that we are at the end of an historic boom cycle, and so while the economy may appear to recover from the subprime crisis and “minor recession” by mid to late 2009, (given Obama’s deficit spending to aid infrastructure and create jobs), it is actually “the calm before the real storm.”

My Comment: Any analysis that takes into account our interaction with Nature per se supports predictions of deeper crises, or even the end of days. There is the possibility, however, of avoiding the path of suffering by choosing the path of recognition of evil of our ego and its correction by an external force.

All our methods, after all, view change as something we can do on our own. But our own forces are egoistical and can’t alter our condition.

However, if we decide that the needed correction is possible only with the help of an external force, then Kabbalah can help us understand, how to activate it. Then the solution will come.

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We are in the world of Infinity even now. We act within this world, but the results of our actions are not revealed to us during the period of concealment. However, we are within the same connection between the souls, the same common Kli of Infinity.

Concealment is only in regards to us. While we are in this world, we are situated in the world of Infinity, but we only feel it through five worlds or layers of concealment. The world of Infinity, which we perceive within, is then called our world.

During the period of preparation for revelation, we work against concealment, which is called our world. We wish to achieve a connection, correction and revelation, but we are incapable. However, when our efforts reach their full extent, they turn into a plea.

A person demands the Light from above to come and correct him, which then reveals a state, where he had previously existed. It is as though someone turns on a light bulb, or lights a small candle in a huge room, and a person already sees the same state, the same world of Infinity. This is the world of Assiya.

Therefore, you act in the same world, with the same power and the same desires, but to the extent that you are able to work with them, more becomes revealed to you. You raise all the desires with yourself and continue working. Nothing that existed before disappears. You merely add a conquering force every time, and this is how you advance.

Revelation is a state, where the previous concealment no longer gets in your way. You are able to work within the same concealment, and this is called revelation. You receive such power that you can orient in the same concealment, despite the fact that it is there. However, you can work with  that heaviness, which means that you have risen above it. You then reveal an even greater heaviness, with which you can also reach a connection.

The higher up the steps you climb, the greater the concealment becomes. The only difference is that after the first step, which is called Machsom, you already know how to rise above this concealment and how to work with it and accept it. After all, it is forbidden to reject concealment, otherwise a short circuit failure between the Light and the desire would occur.

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A question I received: How can one come to hate his egoism without hating others at the same time?

My Answer: The problem with today’s world is that everyone blames everyone else. But if we are speaking of a closed, integral system, then everyone in it is to blame; no one is right or wrong. If evil exists, it’s a result of each and every one of us.

If all the cogwheels are connected with each other, there isn’t a wheel that can escape reward and punishment; they are all connected. You can’t say that someone must turn or force others to turn because of others; all move simultaneously. Therefore, our correction must be mutual. This means that we must all simultaneously decide: “Let’s stop turning in opposite directions and begin to turn the same direction, as one for the sake of the other.”

Everyone is to blame for what is happening in the world. There are no criminals or victims. We are all absolutely equally responsible for all that is bad and good. This is because we live in an integral world and the representation of an integral world is a “circle” which does not have a beginning or an end. So, there is no one to blame. Everyone contributes to everything that happens in human society.

We have to attain the nature of a whole integral system and to start treating everyone differently. If I reach the recognition of evil, I come to realize that I am the only criminal in the world.

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In the news (from The MailOnline): “Barack Obama announces sweeping changes to the US financial system in a bid to end ‘culture of irresponsibility’” President Obama has announced the biggest shake-up of regulation of the US financial system since the Great Depression… Mr. Obama claimed his new ‘rules of the road’ were desperately needed because ‘a culture of irresponsibility took root from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street.’..

My Comment: Irresponsibility stems from our natural egoism, which does not let us consider others over profit, power or fame. Boosting and enforcing government regulations is not a substitute for people’s sense of responsibility for the world they live in. The Soviet Union has already tried and failed to cure egoism through force. This will be President Obama’s great mistake, but it will then be followed by the realization and acceptance of Kabbalah as the method of correction of man’s egoistic nature. Unfortunately, humanity will have to suffer a great deal before that happens!

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In the News (from Florida State University News): “Florida State study links ‘warrior gene’ to gang membership, weapon use” Boys who carry a particular variation of the gene Monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), sometimes called the “warrior gene,” are more likely not only to join gangs, but also to be among the most violent members and to use weapons, according to a new study from Florida State University that is the first to confirm an MAOA link specifically to gangs and guns. Findings apply only to males…

“Moreover, we found that variants of this gene could distinguish gang members who were markedly more likely to behave violently and use weapons from members who were less likely to do either.”

My Comment: So what reason do we have to sue the miserable carriers of this gene? Do we do this because we cannot judge Nature or the Creator? Kabbalah suggests using these predispositions for professions in the army and the police. Meanwhile, correction is possible only through the Upper Light, which created these predispositions.

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A question I received: A man who knows that the entire world is a single system can begin to correct himself. But what about people who know nothing about it and continue to act incorrectly within the system, harming all the rest?

My Answer: We have to continue our efforts to explain it to them, and the more they understand what is needed for the correct actions, the better off all of us will be.

You have to see the world as part of yourself that’s not yet corrected and therefore seems external to you. However, if you correct it, you will attach yourself to it and feel it as your own part. That’s how it is revealed.

If you truly feel how deeply you are dependent on others, then at that same instant, you will discover that all of them are parts of you, but still out of your control. They’re like your own children, whom you feel as an inseparable part of you, although they disobey you and don’t want to be together with you.

Thus you reveal that all of the souls, all of humanity are parts of your own soul. But you are being purposefully misled by feeling that they are apart from you, that they are strangers. Otherwise, correction would be impossible. If I had felt the entire world as part of me to begin with, I would not have been able to correct anything. My sensation of them being strangers, that there’s distance that separates us, is precisely the reason why it’s easy for me to correct them. If I felt these parts within me, it would be terrible and a very hard thing to do; I wouldn’t be able to touch them.

That’s why the Creator “pulled” them outside of me and gave me an opportunity to relate to them as to strangers. If I wish to bring them closer to me and to receive good influence back from them – that means I’m correcting them. Such an illusion of separation between myself and strangers serves the purpose of my correction, but in reality, they are my own inseparable parts.

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A question I received: If I feel pleasure from the fact that I subject myself to the Creator, where is my free will here?

My Answer: Certainly it brings pleasure, but pleasure is not the principal issue here. The main factor in your decision is the loftiness and importance of the attribute of bestowal per se. There’s pleasure, no doubt, but the importance of bestowal is a priority.

I am drinking green tea and feel pleasure. Can it be called pleasure, or not? No, it can’t, because I feel satisfaction by knowing that the tea is good for my health. In other words, my pleasure is a result of correction, not of my natural desire to receive that would never allow me to drink such a “disgusting thing.” It means that pleasure derived from the sensation of importance is a result of correction.

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A question I received: I have just completed Kabbalah and Quantum Physics, and began reading The Book of Zohar with your commentary. Could you explain through some concrete example how one should change his qualities to those of bestowal in order to feel, even just for a split second, what the science of Kabbalah describes? I gathered from the books that it is not necessary to change the actions in our lives – we just need to change the intention.

No matter how much I try to find precise instructions about what to do, I cannot find any. Or do the instructions consist of memorizing everything that was told to us by Kabbalists in order to gather all of this knowledge into one whole, and only then to finally begin to feel and understand how the world is arranged and be able to penetrate through matter with his whole soul? Please tell me how you were able to rise above your ego.

My Answer: Perception occurs within a correctly attuned desire: towards connecting with everyone into one whole. This is because a breaking and separation occurred in this connection, and only this separation between us requires correction. Pursuing this goal is called the “intention” (Kavana).

This intention should accompany your studies of Kabbalah, your relationship with your fellows, and your actions in dissemination. Specifically the intention to reach unification, through Ohr Makif, rouses a correction of the desire, and, to the extent that it is corrected, you begin to feel in the desire, the intention (Ohr Hozer) that outlines of the Upper World.

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