News Story: What Follows American Dominion

Many are predicting a new non-polar world. The appearance of such power centers as regional powers, nongovernmental organizations, mass media, religious movements, terrorist groups and drug cartels are destabilizing America’s unipolar stronghold and dissolving the presence of a fixed power center. In the new world, it will be harder to react collectively to global problems and make any given mechanism work. Threats will increase, and it will also be harder to establish and maintain relationships. Richard Hauss, President of the Council for Foreign Relations and the article’s author, states that “only diplomacy that is more focused, creative and collective will prevent a non-polar world from becoming more disorderly and dangerous.”

My Response: Humanity will be left with no choice but to unite. Egoism, however, won’t allow for it: egoism will oppose unity to the point of an annihilation threat. Things will worsen until humanity realizes its evil – its egoistic nature as the source of all problems – and will be ready to hear that there’s a cure, a method of correction designed specifically for fixing this problem at its source. However, without realizing the bitter error of egoistic development, humanity will not achieve correction.

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* ARTICLE: The Consumer Effect – The globalization of economics means that any local market is inextricably tied to the global economy.

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A summary of Baal HaSulam’s article “There Is a Difference Between Corporeality and Spirituality” (article #164 from Shamati):

In corporeality, the force precedes the act. Such is the arrangement at the end of correction: no act is done until there’s enough strength to carry it out.

In spirituality, the act precedes the force. Everything takes place according to a step-by-step disclosure of desires suitable for correction, from the easiest to the most difficult. Therefore, the work needs to begin even before one has the strength to carry it out.

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A question I received: You say that Kabbalah uses its own terminology. But when reading Kabbalistic texts, I get confused whether it is speaking about the physical world or the Upper World. So how can you claim that the language of Kabbalah is precise?

My Answer: Kabbalah uses names borrowed from our world. However, just as other methods of rendering of the Upper World (The Pentateuch, Mishna, and Talmud), such names allude exclusively to the Upper World, to its forces and properties. So why is it better to study Kabbalah than the Talmud? It’s simply because, when you study Kabbalah, you don’t forget that you’re studying the Upper World – the system that influences you and that you depend on. Hence, you want to draw closer to it, and this desire pulls you toward it.

In addition, it’s best to study with a teacher who explains all this to you and reminds you of it during your studies. And you should study in a group that supports you in this endeavor. As a person studies these texts, precisely his intention to become corrected attracts onto him the Light that Reforms – the Torah. If you read them in any other manner, you will surely get confused and start thinking that it’s speaking about our world.

For instance, take a look at the text of the ARI (The Tree of Life):
The primary HaVaYaH (the 4-letter name of the Creator) from the World of Infinity begets all consequences, which further divide into four parts, down to our world.

1. Every creature contains four bases: fire, water, air, and the dust of the earth. They correspond to the four letters HaVaYaH, and KhuB Tum, and TaNTA (Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin and Otiyot), and ABYA.

2. And these are the four categories in the lower (of our world) Adam: a) the spiritual that’s within him; b) the body; c) the garments; d) the dwelling place. Each of them in turn consists of four: in his spiritual part there’s Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, and Chaya; in his body there’s Atzamot, Gidin, Basar and Awr (bones, tendons, flesh and skin); in the garments there’s Kutonet, Mikhnasaim, Matznefet, Avnet (shirt, pants, cloak, belt); in the dwelling place there’s Bait, Hatzer, Sade, Midbar (house, yard, field, desert).

3. In the four categories of Adam, there’s one that includes all. And there’s also the middle one between each of these categories, which includes all the adjacent ones.

4. The category which includes all is called the Light of Yechida. It has two parts: the spark of the Creator and the spark of the creature.

5. The middle category between the spiritual in Adam, which is NaRaNCHaY, and his body – is “Reviit Dam” (the fourth part of blood), and Nefesh de-Nefesh (the animate force) clothes in it. It also includes the spiritual part and the body.

6. The middle category between the body and the garments is “Searot” and “Tzipornayim” of Adam (hair and nails).

7. The middle category between the garments and the dwelling place is Oalim (tabernacles) which are made of wool and flax.

Conclusion: Only in the process of studying authentic Kabbalistic texts do you connect with the Upper World and evoke upon yourself the influence of the Upper Light (the Light of the Torah), which can transport you from the perception of this world to the perception of the Upper World. There is no other method that can allow you to achieve such a transformation! Therefore, when the world and you are ready for it, Kabbalah becomes revealed and is offered to you as the method of correction.

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A question I received on my post Hyperactive Children – the Result of Evolving Egoism: I don’t understand your use of the term “egoistic.” And it becomes more confusing to me when used in opposition to the word “altruistic.”

Can you perhaps explain more as to what we did wrong back in Babylon when we decided to go the route that placed us here today – and more importantly how we can fix this problem going forward.

My Answer: Abraham discovered that his fellow citizens in Ancient Babylon (the city of Ur, to be more precise, where he used to live) had an increasing tendency to use each other for egoistic reasons.

Through analyzing this problem, he discovered why it was happening: egoism constantly grows so that people can rise above it, and use their ascent for altruistic growth (like elevating over a constantly growing mountain that’s under our feet). Such a principle of existence is referred to as “faith above reason” – giving over receiving. Regardless of Abraham’s attempts to convince the Babylonian residents to realize the law of nature that was disclosed to them, they chose otherwise. They chose the path of compliance with egoism, and submitted to it: I do what I want, as much as it is possible for me to do so.

Today, this path has brought us to a dead end. We now need to accept upon ourselves this method of correction, either involuntary or on our own accord.

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* ARTICLE: Havoc in Modern-Day Babylon – the idea of unity among all human beings is no more to us than an imaginary children’s story. Back in babylon, someone had a way for humanity to unite. Today, our world needs such a method more than ever.

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A question I received: You say that there is nothing any lecture or class you see on a street corner can give someone, other than temporary relief, which is followed by even greater disappointment, and that it is because egoism cannot be corrected by physical exercises, meditation, medications, and even by observing the commandments. On the contrary, egoism grows and gets bigger, which eventually brings a person to Kabbalah, which is precisely the method for egoism’s correction. But until a person finds Kabbalah, there is a long path ahead of him, full of suffering.

My question is: What can be done to awaken the desire for correction in such people? What can be done to make them realize that egoism is evil, and that this evil is corrected through the study of Kabbalah?

My Answer: Only consistent dissemination over a long period of time, in which time all the other methods of “elimination” and “correction” come crashing down.

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A question I received: Kabbalists wrote a great deal about the men’s need for a group, the exile, the future generation and correction. However, they didn’t write about women and the time when a strong female desire will force men to correct the world. Why didn’t they write about women and how a woman should progress?

My Answer: Everything’s meant to happen in due time. The future is unknown, and our actions determine how it will unfold. At every stage, we gain a new realization of how we should progress. In Kabbalah we work with the Upper World, the Creator, and we cannot predict the outcome of our actions ahead of time. It’s because we are dealing with an enormous mechanism – a system of souls, filled with the Upper Light.

The only place where Baal HaSulam wrote about the future is in his personal notes. There he wrote about the different possibilities, but what will actually happen depends entirely on our actions. From the manuscripts he left behind, we’ve compiled a collection of articles called “The Future Generation,” as well as four books called Fruit of Wisdom (Pri Hacham, volumes 1 – 4).

Now is the first time that the method of the world’s correction is being realized, and Baal HaSulam, Rav Kook, and other Kabbalists of the 20th century all wrote about this. Hence, we are the pioneers in this process. Kabbalists, including the prophets, described only the law of nature and its strict execution (the path of Beito, lit. “in its time”). They described how this law of nature would manifest without man’s intervention, or in other words, what would happen if nature forces us to attain correction.

But those who aspire for correction can accelerate this process (the path of Achishena, lit. “I will hasten it”) and thereby experience it positively. In this case, the prophecies are not talking about us, because we mitigate and accelerate them with the help of the Upper Light, which returns us to the Source.

This is also why Kabbalists did not describe women’s intervention in the common correction. They considered it a part of the common movement. Today, aided by their texts, we are embarking on this path.

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A question I received: Although Baal HaSulam writes that a spiritual person leaves for himself only what he needs to survive and gives the rest to society, for some reason you don’t advise anyone to act this way. Don’t you agree with Baal HaSulam? Or are you afraid that this will scare people off? For instance, even though I myself am in need of money, I’m still scared of this!

My Answer: All our actions must correspond to Nature’s law. Should that be the case, we would feel ourselves as Nature’s integral parts – in the World of Infinity, that is, in the state of eternity and perfection, just like Nature (the Creator) itself.

Kabbalah – the science of the whole of Nature – helps us reach this state not through blows and suffering, but through conscious development. [Read more →]

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News Story: Fungus devastates wheat

A NEW strain of a major fungal disease in wheat is wiping out crops across Africa and Asia, sparking fears that manufacturers will be forced to pay even more for the vital commodity.

Scientists are currently battling against the Ug99 strain of stem rust, which first originated in East Africa.

Bakery firms across the globe are already suffering because of the rocketing cost of wheat, blamed on a variety of reasons including increased demand from emerging markets and biofuels.

In the past, stem rust was generally controlled in the region by using wheat specifically cultivated to be resistant to the disease; however, the new strain is “particularly vigilant,” scientist Lesley Boyd told British reporters.

My Response: The Book of Zohar states that if we, in our era, do not correct ourselves, if we don’t try to become all-giving and all-loving like Nature, then Nature will make us become like it against our will. Nature will affect us through our negative connection with it, bringing upon us hunger, natural disasters, wars, epidemics, and so on.
But Nature (or, the Creator) doesn’t want us to suffer; it doesn’t affect us with the aim of makng us suffer. On the contrary, we get such treatment as a result of our failure to take our evolution into our own hands. For instance, what we would forgive in a child is not necessarily the same as what we would forgive in a grownup. Today, we are mature enough to feel our opposition to Nature (the Creator), and this is so that we can achieve balance with it (called “similarity with the Creator”). However, our aim determines everything. The moment we make a turn toward correction (similarity with the Creator), everything will change. We would be to Nature as a child who wants to show her parents how much she wants to be good. Now you should be able to see the importance of spreading Kabbalah throughout the world.

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Question for ML: You define God as laws of nature. In the times of Tanach, Moses spoke to God and God spoke back to him and to the nation. Why then, is your definition of God different? I find it very difficult to think of God as laws, as opposed to someone I can cry to or talk to in times of trouble. I understand that the Creator’s laws and orders must be followed, but I don’t understand why your definition of Him is different.

My Answer: We often project our qualities onto nature and then expect nature to react in the same way. For example, we get mad at the computer or at traffic lights. The Creator is absolute, and as such, He is perfect and invariable. He is kind and creates only goodness. His actions are wonderful, but I sense the opposite! So what should I ask Him? I should ask Him to change my perception, so that I can understand Him and see the perfection of His actions in everything. In other words, I’m asking for the correction of my qualities – from egoistic to altruistic. I will then understand His actions and justify Him, because I will be like Him. I will sense eternity and perfection just like Him. This is what I have to ask for!

Talking about the Creator and talking about Nature is the same.

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Kabbalah contradicts humans. This isn’t because it’s from a foreign nation or ancient civilization, and not because it’s mysterious or even antireligious… Kabbalah contradicts human nature, because human nature is egoistic. No single person will find anything more despicable than this method, which talks about the need to love others. Moreover, Kabbalah asserts that nobody can escape these changes within us either, because Nature (the Creator) makes our ongoing existence in egoism more painful with every passing minute. Even if it seems like we’ve managed to hide from the relentless law of development, which evolves us from egoism to altruism, Nature will still force us to achieve correction: either through suffering, or through our deliberate attraction of the force of correction. We feel this instinctively, which is why we resist it. And if someone doesn’t resist, it’s because he doesn’t yet know what he’s in for!

My Current Mood: worried

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