A question I received: In the article, “The Revelation of Godliness (Matan Torah)” Baal HaSulam quotes the sages, “The Creator offered the Torah to all the nations and in all the languages, but they didn’t accept it.” What does this verse mean?

My Answer: Usually a person only feels and is controlled by his natural egoism. In this case he is called “the nations of the world.”

If the point in the heart surfaces in him (the embryo of his soul, the future quality of bestowal and love for the neighbor), then because of his goal, he is called, “Straight to the Creator” (IsraEl, in Hebrew).

So what the sages meant is that if a person does not feel the point in the heart (if he still belongs to the nations of the world), then he does not need the Torah, the Light of Correction, since he does not feel a need for correction.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Israel Are Those Who Aspire Straight to the Creator
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Talk: “The Birth of the Soul”

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In the News: (from BBC): According to a new BBC World Service poll across 21 countries, Iran had the poorest average ratings of the countries people were asked to rate… The largest number of countries – 19 out of 21 – give negative ratings to Israel. The two exceptions are Americans (where slightly more are positive) and Russians (who are divided). On average, 51% in countries polled say it is having a negative influence…

In the News (from The Jewish Week): “Worldwide Anti-Semitism At Alarming High, Post-Gaza” The resumption of Israeli-Hamas fighting this week comes at a time of increasing Antisemitism around the world… “It has been the worst we’ve ever seen,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League … there are calls for the a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses in Italy, Turkey, South Africa and Venezuela. This is reminiscent of the Nazi days.

My Comment: People’s negative attitudes to Jews and Israel will keep getting worse as the crisis becomes more severe. The only way to put an end to Anti-Semitism is to reveal to the world the means to come out of the crisis – the means to correct man’s nature and unify humanity through the study of Kabbalah.

What provokes people to attack the Jews is the fact that the Jews have this teaching. And even though none of the Jews or anyone from the nations of the world understand the true reason for Anti-Semitism, thinking that the reason is the Jews’ non-acceptance of Christianity (meaning, they think it’s on the level of religion), Kabbalah explains that the reason for Anti-Semitism is human nature, which is egoistic and hates correction.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Financial Crisis Causes Spike In Anti-Semitism
Laitman.com Post: Why Does Everyone Hate Israel?
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A question I received: Many people around me are experiencing failures in different areas, including money, their feelings, and family relationships. Should a person try to figure out where and how he made a mistake? In other words, should he view his current state as being strictly individual and directly dependent on his own actions? Or, should he begin studying the wisdom of Kabbalah and expect inner changes to happen to him as a result of the Light’s influence, without worrying about what he did or failed to do, and what brought him to this problem?

My Answer: Since we are all interconnected, no one is personally responsible for what is happening in the world or to them personally, because everything is pre-programmed and descends from Above. We have to react to things realistically on the corporeal level and, at the same time, correct ourselves on the spiritual level. This is how we unite the two worlds, unifying the Creator’s governance of us through the influences of “Havayah-Elokim.”

Related Material:
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Spirit and Body

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In the News (from BBC News): “An atheist advertising campaign has been launched on buses across Britain” The campaign backers were exasperated at the excessive religious advertisement. The promotion carries the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

My Comment: There was a time when religion lulled the people, giving them psychological fulfillment, security, and hope. But for many centuries now, religion has exploited people instead of protecting them. The bureaucratic apparatus that it has created exceeds even that of the state.

The desire to rule over the minds of the congregation defines today’s religion, which is a political force. It does not matter whether there’s a God or not. Being free from the pressure of the psychological religious brainwashing is already a path to inner peace.

Kabbalah says that there is no world to come (or a world “beyond the grave,” waiting for us after our bodies die). There is only what we reveal in this world. If you attained or revealed more than the five bodily senses, then you will keep this perception even after your body dies along with its five senses. This perception will remain with you forever because bestowal and love are above egoism, and they raise a person above time, space, and change (motion).

The stages of one’s attainment of the universe are:

• Olam HaZeh – “This world,” which is perceived inside egoism, also called the level of Malchut;

• Olam HaBah – “The world to come,” in Kabbalah known as the level of Abba ve Ima of the World of Atzilut.” A Kabbalist ascends to this level during his life. And if a person doesn’t attain this level, then he has to be born again.

• L’Atid Lavo – “Coming in the future,” the level of “Arich Anpin of the World of Atzilut.” It also has to be attained during this life.

• Gmar Tikkun – “The End of Correction” (of egoism). It is when a person attains “the World of Infinity,” where everything is infinitely corrected.

Related Material:
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“Attaining the Unity of the Universe,” Lessons 07.07.04 – 07.13.04

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Questions I received on how to correct our egoistic nature:

Question: What do I have to do to persuade the Upper Light to correct me?

My Answer: You have to reach the point where you discover that by hating someone else, you hate yourself, and you harm yourself just by thinking badly of someone, with your negative attitude to others! In addition, you won’t just desire for bad things not to happen to others because they will negatively affect you, but more than that, you’ll begin to discover that your bad, egoistic thoughts about others immediately return to you.

And then you’ll discover that another person and you is the same thing, and you cannot think of others badly as this would be equivalent to thinking badly about yourself. But at the same time, you cannot stop thinking badly of them.
That is when you’ll come to the necessity for the Upper Light, which will correct you.

Question: I hate successful people, and I feel good when others feel bad. I hate the entire world and the entire humanity. What should I do?

My Answer: Actually, you cannot be any different. Everyone feels this way, but most people just haven’t discovered the evil inside them. It is written, “I created egoism and I created Kabbalah for its correction, because the Light of Kabbalah corrects a person (returns him to the Creator).” So, keep on advancing!

Question: What’s the best way to deal with the hatred, envy and jealously that I feel toward others in the group?

My Answer: You will never be able to overcome them. Only the Upper Light, which affects you during the study of Kabbalah, will correct you.

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Three questions I received on one’s inner work:

Question: Everyone is in different situations and going through different states. I want to know: what is the essence of our connection? How can we be together? How can we tell what our role in the general system is, and how can we fulfill that role? At every given moment, how do we act in a way that will allow us to maintain the connection?

My Answer: It is precisely in order to create this connection that we study, gather together, and disseminate Kabbalah. Kabbalah is the science about the correct way for us to interconnect, and the Creator becomes revealed within this connection.

Question: What is the source and the purpose of feeling loneliness? Why do I feel lonely, though surrounded by many people (friends, family, colleagues, etc.)?

My Answer: It’s in order for you to develop a desire for a true connection with others and with the Creator – a connection that will be filled with Light, rather than an empty connection.

Question: Why do you say we can only discover things internally? Isn’t that egoistic? And what about the friends? They’re external to someone who is not across the Machsom.

My Answer: You cannot impose correction on anyone, and you also can’t do it for anyone. You can only tell others about the world, its purpose, and how to achieve it.

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A question I received: The overwhelming majority of people do not recognize “the quality” of the current crisis and the reason for it – that our egoism breaks and distorts all our connections, and that the only way to survive is by attaining the quality of “love for your neighbor.” Moreover, people don’t realize that they need help from the Creator, Ohr Makif, to do this. They do not realize this because they were created on the still level, Domem, and maybe they will never be able to realize this, and they don’t need to.

So what is the purpose of Kabbalah dissemination? If the elite are deaf because they are caught in the vicious cycle of their profiteering interests, and the masses are deaf because of their low level of development, then who are we disseminating to, and what are we disseminating?

My Answer: We are disseminating the science of how every person can correct himself. And every person will apply this science to the extent of his free will, which emerges due to the development of his desire (heart) and mind, through suffering and recognition.

By applying this science, every person will make his path of correction easier, shifting it from the natural one (under Nature’s blows, the way all evolution takes place), to evolution that happens by means of one’s aspiration for the goal, for the quality of bestowal and love for everyone. The global crisis is an indication that this is necessary.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Solution to the Global Crisis Cannot Be Found Without Kabbalah
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Two questions I received on what conditions are necessary for one’s spiritual advancement:

Question: I am 18 years old. I live in Brazil, far away from any group, so I am studying online and my only contact with the group is through the Internet. Since my point in the heart woke up, I keep on the path as much as I can, but sometimes I feel alone here, not being able to attend the Congress or to be part of a physical group. What’s your advice: is it enough for me to be connected with others through the Internet? What else can I do to accelerate my correction?

My Answer: Staying virtually connected suffices in order to advance. Watching the lessons, keeping a virtual connection with the entire worldwide group of students, and participating in Kabbalah dissemination are the sufficient conditions for revealing the Creator!

Question: It seems to me some people live in conditions (socially, financially, physically, mentally, etc.) that are simply not conducive to entering spirituality, even though they may have a point in the heart and even though they may want to study Kabbalah. Can they cross the Machsom?

My Answer: If a person has received knowledge about this opportunity, it means that the Creator has given him a freedom of will, and after that everything depends on the person. Every Reshimo that emerges in a person contains all the data about his inner and outer Kli (that is, about him and his surroundings). This gives him the feeling that there is “him” and “the world,” including everything necessary for his advancement and free choice (including the group, whether virtual or physical). This is why it is written, “A person should always say, ‘The world was created for me’ (for him to realize his inner Reshimo at every given moment). If one sways oneself to the scale of merit, he sways the whole world to the scale of merit. And if one sways oneself to the scale of evil, he sways the whole world to the scale of evil.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Regardless of the Internet, The Real Connection Happens “Soul to Soul”
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Kabbalah Today Article: Are You Connected?
“The Purpose of Creation”
Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life – “Part IV Realizing the Spiritual Gene”

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A question I received: What should my attitude be towards the Holocaust? Also, being that the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” says that all of the nations could become Nazi regimes if Israel doesn’t fulfill its duty, and also given that everything in this world is pre-determined, how am I to feel anything but fear and hatred towards the Creator?

My Answer: See Baal HaSulam’s article “Matan Torah (The Revelation of Godliness)”: Kabbalah (the authentic Torah, Torah Emet,) was given to us in order to correct the egoistic desire “to fulfill only yourself” into the altruistic desire “to fulfill others.” Since the entire system of souls is built as a pyramid, similar to our physical body, the correction isn’t done by all the souls at the same time, but happens in a specific order. This order depends on the souls’ desire to break free from “pursuing things in order to receive.”

This concealed desire to reveal the Creator is called “the point in the heart.” The heart is all of a person’s desires, and the point in the heart is the desire for the Creator. This is how parts of the souls unite together and – within their unity – reveal the Creator. This is referred to as the “Reception of the Torah” (revelation of the Light, the Creator).

Also, see Baal HaSulam’s article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: Receiving the method of correction (Torah or Kabbalah) is only the initial stage in the general correction of all the souls. Hence, the corrected part must fall into the common egoism, intermix with the uncorrected part – the rest of humanity, so together they can become corrected.

In addition, see Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to the Book of Zohar (item70)“: When egoism becomes revealed as evil in the world as a whole, this is the beginning of the period of the revelation of Kabbalah, the method of the entire world’s correction. But because this method is still in the possession of the group of people who have used it – the people of Israel, they must master it and pass it on to all the nations of the world. The destiny of the people of Israel and of the entire world depends only on this. When the method is not passed on in time, then all kinds of problems appear in the world – aggression, wars, extermination, and so on, including the Holocaust.

You cannot justify the Creator because the degree of the righteous (one who justifies the Creator) is still far above you. Therefore, I can understand what you are feeling, though I do not feel the same way.

Related News Story (from Associated Press): Israel’s chief rabbinate severed ties yesterday with the Vatican to protest a papal decision to reinstate a bishop who publicly denied that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Related Material:
Laitman.com: What Is the Spiritual Root of the Holocaust?
Laitman.com: On Good and Evil
Laitman.com: Why Does Everyone Hate Israel?
Shamati #66 “The Giving of the Torah”
The Introduction to the Book “From the Mouth of a Wise Man” – Lesson of June 16, 2004

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In the News (from AFP): Japan’s Sony Corp. said Tuesday that it was cutting more than 8,000 jobs worldwide and shutting plants as part of an overhaul of its business to cope with the global economic downturn. The electronics giant said it would axe about 10 percent of its manufacturing sites, cut investment in its electronics business by about 30 percent.

My Comment: Only the necessities will remain!

In the News (from The Daily Telegraph): Pubs are closing at a record rate, with six closing every day because of the economic downturn. The British Beer & Pub Association says that 39 pubs a week are closing in Britain, a rate 20 times faster than three years ago. It is estimated that 44,000 jobs in pubs and bars have been lost in the past couple of years and that 60,000 more jobs will go shortly.

My Comment: Could anyone imagine this happening?! Truly, the world will be different…

In the News (translated from Newsland.ru): “Will the crisis turn women into wives and mothers?” Being mother and wife is the only worthwhile way for a woman to realize herself. Most women toil in order to earn a salary, but not for self-actualization. Meanwhile their children grow up lacking a mother’s attention and develop inferiority complexes. However, the crisis is forcing women to return home.

My Comment: Kabbalah views the crisis as correction. The disappearance of excess will help us to better prioritize life and its values.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah’s Solution to the Financial Crisis Differs from the Common Sense Solution
Laitman.com Post: When Freefalling, Make Sure You Have a Parachute That Says “Kabbalah”

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