A question I received: How is it possible that people who lived in Ancient Babylon and had qualities that allowed them to feel the Upper Worlds, suddenly became egoists and disconnected again? Does that mean that the process of a person’s spiritual development is reversible, and every advanced Kabbalist who developed his point in the heart can degenerate to the animate level again?

My Answer: The group of Babylonians rose to their complete correction, but then, in order to transmit their knowledge and method to the world, they fell from their spiritual level. This happened in order for them to become like all the people living in the world. Today, this group of Babylonians is revealing the rules and the method of controlling our world to all of humanity, so everyone will be able to reach the level of the Creator – the highest level of Nature. This responsibility constitutes their choice!

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A question I received: Did Moses really teach the rule, “an eye for an eye”? This seems really contrary to the rule, “love thy neighbor as thyself.” If he did, then what does it mean?

My Answer: This rule refers to causing a permanent injury to a slave, which would require freeing him. This was done in order to prevent people from causing injury to one another. It had nothing to do with Moses’s wishes, but rather it is Nature’s law of balancing Its parts, where punishment equals correction.

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Sometimes my computer breaks down and I call in specialists to fix it. They come over and begin explaining that I need to replace my hard drive, add some program, that the computer has been infected by a virus, and so on. I don’t understand any of this. I just see the external picture, while they are talking about the inner picture.

Yesterday there was a notice in the news about how many people have been laid off from their jobs here in Israel and in the rest of the world, what the world is facing, what problems lie ahead, and that no one sees the end to these problems. This process isn’t clear to anyone, and it is impossible to calculate because there’s no “formula” for it.

This is the external side of things. Meanwhile, on the inside, if you were to see them on a computer, you would call a technician and tell him, “Make everything okay.” And so it is here: you are looking at the crisis from the point of view of a regular person, who looks at the computer screen and says, “Here we are downsizing, there we have other problems, and we have to do something about it.” However, when the specialists come in, they explain that we have to perform an upgrade by renewing the parts and the software. Then the picture will improve. You are saying, “I don’t know about this. I just want this problem to go away from the screen.”

Well, this is impossible. We have to learn the changes that must take place inside the system, and then the outside will be corrected as well. Our world is changing. Until now we lived, earned money, and gathered crops in particular conditions in our society. Now however, in order to earn a living, we have to modernize, improve, and take the current natural conditions into account, which are more complex.

You are being promised a better salary, and you are not permitted to keep the old, lower salary. What’s happening is modernization, and nature is forcing it on us.

In order to grow plants, we consider all the parameters that exist in Nature, but in order to grow a human being, there is just one condition: to be connected with others. We have to learn how to do this, and then we will be corrected. We will become better and the world will also change. The conditions are simple: Nature is revealing the lack of the proper connection between people. Everyone affects each other, but we affect each other negatively. And this has to be corrected. There is nothing difficult about this.
(From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Precept,” on 03.05.2009)

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A question I received: Why is the Creator leading the world to an irrevocable state that it cannot cope with?

My Answer: The recognition of evil has to come precisely from this state. Man will not be able to leave his present state and will consider it normal until he starts receiving “blows” that he can no longer cope with inside his egoism. He will then realize this and cry out, “Enough!”

You see how people keep throwing their money into the furnace of banks and funds, as if they’re not thinking at all. The money keeps disappearing, but the charade keeps going on and on.

So, nothing will help except the correction of society itself. But exactly should be corrected? We have to correct the global connection between us, and this connection must include all of humanity. Unless we do this, no other means will be effective.

There may occasionally be moments of respite, and minor fluctuations when things will get better or worse. At some point it may even appear as if the crisis is over. These alternating processes are necessary for people to become more aware, since man is a creature of inertia. Therefore, we may even experience a period of tranquility for a year or two, when everything will settle down as though the crisis has passed.

However, the trend will remain the same, because we’ve already entered a global state where the whole world is globally interconnected. Therefore, the blows will keep coming because of our incorrect relationships with each other.

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A question I received: What is your opinion on preparing the Torah scroll in order to bring it into the Temple?

My Answer: It is necessary to prepare the people to serve at the Temple so they will attain the quality of the Creator. Hence, the Torah scroll isn’t the most important thing. It’s because the Torah has been given to us for our correction, as written, “I created egoism and the Torah for its correction.”

The Torah scroll will not be beneficial if man isn’t corrected. So it’s best if you put your effort into the correction of people.

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Two questions I received on what the Creator actually created:

Question: I have heard you say, “The Creator and Nature are the same.” How can this be?  What did the Creator create, if not Nature, meaning, the world, the universe, and everything that’s in it?

My Answer: All of this is the Creator. The only thing that was created is your own self.

Question: Did the Creator create us with the intention to receive rather than to bestow so that we would have our own desire and then ask Him to change it to the intention to bestow, so we would reach equivalence of form with Him? But won’t the development of this new desire, which will emerge from nothing, out of the creation itself, lead to a recognition of being separate from the Creator?

My Answer: The correction is brought about precisely by the recognition of evil and of one’s separation from the Creator by virtue of egoism.

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Questions I received from women:

Question: If 2009 depends on us and our correction of our egoistic nature, how can we contribute to this process most effectively?

My Answer: By explaining it to everyone else.

Question: Why does a person lose faith?

My Answer: In order to obtain knowledge.

Question: What can be done in order not to lose faith?

My Answer: Obtain knowledge.

Question: Is it true that Kabbalah does not treat energy healing seriously, or does it simply prefer not to talk about this in order to avoid confusion?

My Answer: Everything that helps is beneficial.

Question: If we don’t reach correction, we return to this world. Does the same happen to vicious and evil people?

My Answer: Yes, and we are just like them.

Question: I am from Chile and I am 11 years old. I watch the children that study with you on Fridays with admiration. I wish there could be a day devoted to us, children in my country. You teach us how to grow and have a better future. What should I do so I won’t lose this desire in my heart?

My Answer: Continue to be together with us, and the rest will come!

Question: As a woman, what should I do for men in my city and country to unite into a group?

My Answer: You should disseminate the knowledge of “how to live a better life.”

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We should know what kind of Reshimot are now surfacing in us, which Reshimot we now have to realize. Reshimot are present inside every person, and they are continuously revealed until a person reaches the World of Infinity. We have to know which of them should be realized now, what nature demands of us, in what way, at what rate, and in which order. In other words, we should know about the cause and effect connection by which these Reshimot emerge and are realized. Without knowing these things, we won’t be able to feel or understand what is happening.

In addition, today we have to know what constitutes the connection between people. Without this “map,” reflecting the connection between everyone, we won’t be able to act correctly. The connection is no longer the former, egoistic one, where sociologists, psychologists, politicians, and everyone else were able to categorize people according to their own calculations and play with them accordingly the way their individual egos wanted to. Nowadays, we have to learn about the inner essence of the connection and become familiar with the force that acts within the connection between people.

When a person uses his desires with an egoistic intention, this is considered a crime in Kabbalah. And if he uses them with an intention for bestowal, this is considered a commandment. The correction of one’s intention (which is always present along with every desire) transforms it from egoistic to altruistic. This is called “carrying out a commandment.” This is what each person must now do. This is the correct way to exist according to nature.

The only thing in nature that is present are the 613 desires in every person. And the moment a person begins to use them to benefit his neighbor (which constitutes the correct attitude towards all of the desires), he thereby carries out his predestination in life. Therefore, we have to understand that this is precisely how every person in society should treat others. And until a person corrects himself in this way, he is harming everyone else.

A person should envision how this “machine” or system is connected in a proper and beautiful form – a form that’s consistent with Infinity, where all the souls are united with one another into a single soul. We should urge ourselves and others to achieve this system or form. This is called “following the majority,” which is the law of Nature and of the Upper Governance.

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Two questions I received on what being a woman means in spirituality:

Question: You say that in order to advance spiritually, a woman has to help the male part of the world group, and this is how she will obtain her fulfillment. However, when a woman expresses a direct desire “to be like the Creator,” everyone laughs at this. Should a woman be ashamed of this desire if she has it?

My Answer: Don’t worry. It’s quite the contrary: all of us, men and women alike – all the souls, are the female part of the Kli. We are all the desire relative to the Creator, who is the male part, the One who fulfills us.

Question: In this life I am female. In my past lives was I always female? If I reach equivalence of form in this lifetime, will I be female in spirituality? If so, will a man also be male in spirituality, or female because he will be filled with Light in his vessel which is female?

My Answer: You were always female and you will be female up until the Final Correction.

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A question I received: You are saying that nature demands that we reach the right kind of connection between us. This week hackers attacked and almost destroyed a web community, Facebook. If nature, the general system of creation, desires to establish a connection between people, why doesn’t it support this network, which reveals a connection between people?

My Answer: Maybe Facebook has exhausted itself in its current form. Instead of trying to protect Facebook from hackers, we have to change it. I believe there is a time, place, and purpose for everything. If forces of opposition are emerging, it means the phenomenon needs to change or disappear. These are just forces of influence, and there is nothing artificial in the world. We have to accept that this is how change and development take place. We shouldn’t react negatively to anything, but rather treat everything as the revelation of evil. When new states cease to emerge, it is a sign that you have reached the Final Correction. However, before that, even the worst state to be revealed isn’t bad in and of itself, but rather, it only reveals the evil to you.

This is how we should view everything. Our greatest enemies reveal the evil in us, and they are not evil on their own. Still, for now you have to eliminate them in order to have an opportunity to perform corrections in our world as quickly as possible. You must eliminate them because they don’t allow you to be corrected, and not because you hate them. You should hate them because they don’t allow you to perform the correction. Then your actions will be justified.
(From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Precept,” on 03.05.2009)

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