We are at a very special stage, which is taking place for the first time in human history. Today human egoism is being revealed on a global scale and the connection between us is being revealed. This shows us how interdependent we are and how the desire to receive fills the entire “space” between us, leading us to a crisis in all areas of life: culture, economy, education, science, family life, and one’s attitude towards himself and others.

All the connections that unite us into a single system of souls are being revealed to us in their egoistic form, which is unfit for use and causes us suffering. This is taking place in order to force all of humanity to rise to the next degree – the spiritual degree. Out of hopelessness, people will desire to change their relationships from egoistic to altruistic. Therefore, Nature itself is revealing to us that the egoistic connection between us is evil, that it destroys our life and even threatens our existence.

The spiritual degree is now being revealed in our world. However, we are seeing it from the opposite side. What we lack is the recognition of our evil in order to draw the Light that will correct our egoistic desires to ones of bestowal for our neighbor. In order for this to happen, we have to discover that we are in exile. The Shechina is in exile – the collection of all the souls, inside of which the Creator, the Upper Force that connects us to each other, is revealed. We must raise the Shechina from the dust in order for our desires to unite into one common desire, as one man with one heart. This is called the revelation of the Shechina and its exodus from exile.

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Shamati #50: Two States

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Questions I received on various Kabbalistic concepts and definitions:

Question: Is the screen a tool that returns us to the state we were in before the knowledge of good and evil?

My Answer: It is the tool of recognition, attainment and ascent above the knowledge of good and evil, leading to equivalence of form with the Creator.

Question: What is the spiritual meaning of the Sabbath?

My Answer: It’s a symbol of the Full Correction.

Question: I was reading The Book of Zohar and in the section, The List of Abbreviations and Explanations, it states: “AA – Arich Anpin – the Partzuf of Hochma, the central, initial Partzuf in the World of Atzilut, from which all the other Partzufim originate.” Is this correct? As far as my very limited knowledge goes, Keter is central and the other Partzufim originate from it.

My Answer: Arich Anpin is Keter of the World of Atzilut, because Atik is concealed from the lower Partzufim.

Question: Could you please explain what is the “mouth to mouth” teaching technique? Is this form of study used today?

My Answer: This type of study happens through the common screen of a teacher and his student. The screen is located in the mouth (Peh) of the souls (Partzuf).

Question: What is the difference between desire and effort?

My Answer: Effort can be exerted only to the extent of the desire.

Question: If there is no desire, how does one create a demand for the effort?

My Answer: Under the influence of the environment.

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Shamati #124: “A Shabbat of Genesis and of the Six Thousand Years”

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A question I received: I don’t know what to do. I feel as if I’ve lost all my energy and I am “hanging in the air.” Nothing interests me at work. Even though I do everything possible in my spiritual work, I feel despair as I’ve never experienced it before. I have no “fuel.” Nothing affects me anymore. I feel no desire for anything in this world, and the only desire I have is to escape to somewhere, but I don’t know where to. My heart tells me that this place exists, but I’m still not there. I have been studying with you for over three years and I can’t imagine life without Kabbalah. But I am getting desperate because I feel like nothing is happening to me. On the contrary, the desires of the external environment are affecting me, making me even weaker. What can I do? I can’t continue like this anymore! What should happen now?

My Answer: The reason you are feeling so weak on the spiritual path is that you lack a connection with the group. You aren’t receiving the importance of the goal from the environment, but this is the most important thing – it’s the foundation of our advancement!

You can read more about these states in the Shamati articles and the Letters of Baal HaSulam. There are Reshimot (information or the genes of our spiritual development) concealed in us, which constantly become revealed, causing our egoistic desire to constantly grow. And we must constantly ascend above these Reshimot using our intention to attain the quality of bestowal and love for the Creator. This is exactly why our egoism grows: to give us the opportunity to rise above it, to rise from our world to the level of the Creator.

And then we will understand Him, as it is written, “For they will all know Me, from the smallest of them to the greatest” (Yirmiyahu 31:33). But the process is always the same: the Reshimot that become revealed in us are always egoistic, and every time, we have to receive the force to rise above them by increasing our connection with the environment (the group).

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A question I received: Please show me practically, using examples from history, how do Reshimot change?

My Answer: The periodical change of our attitude to life is dictated by the changing “genes” in us (Reshimot, which comes from the word Roshem – “recording” in Hebrew). The stages of egoism’s changes are recorded inside each of us from the beginning, when the common soul divided into many souls.

Reshimot are revealed in us in an increasing, consecutive order: 0-1-2-3-4. Therefore, at the beginning stages of their realization in us, the Reshimot brought forth a small egoism in us; and in those lives we were “naïve” – slaves and masters. Then, as more advanced Reshimot surfaced in us, when we were born in the next epochs, we desired to be freer, to be workers, such as vassals or serfs. Women were married off without their permission, and this was considered “correct.” They loved their husbands because their small egoism did not get in the way. This was the accepted norm.

And after that, as more advanced Reshimot were expressed in us, we desired to be “free” workers for hire, employers but not masters. We desired freedom and equality (including for women), and so on.

Reshimot elicit desires in us, and the desires provoke the mind to achieve what we desire. Today we can see nations in whom different Reshimot were expressed in the same epoch, and therefore we don’t live in one cultural zone, but in different cultures and formations. However, globalization is bringing about a quick realization of Reshimot in every person and in everyone together.

In regard to choice:

• marriage (voluntary – through love, or forced – stealing the bride, paying a ransom, marrying by the father’s order, and so on),

• power (coercive – although later accepted and loved, like in Russia until today; by election; or inherited),

• place of residence (being attached to the place, having a residence permit, a passport system, free movement),

• and according to other signs, one can tell which Reshimot were realized in a nation or a civilization.

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Filed under: History - 1 Comment →

A question I received: Baal HaSulam says that our entire freedom lies only in choosing our environment. But if we were to choose our environment now, wouldn’t our choice be based on what we received from our previous environment?

My Answer: We choose a new environment under the influence of a new spiritual Reshimo: suddenly a desire for something “beyond this world” arises in us, and then we are somehow brought into contact with a new environment – Bnei Baruch. This is where your new path begins. And it’s the same for everyone. This is why we (Bnei Baruch) exist.

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In the news (from The Guardian): “Scientists open doors with the power of the mind” A mock-up of a home controlled by the power of thought has been successfully piloted by a hospital in Italy, promising new levels of independence for the severely disabled. Scientists showed that people could open doors or operate lights, a telephone, a small robot and even a robotic hand by wearing a strip of electrodes on their head to pick up brainwaves that signal “interest” and send them to a computer that interprets them as desired actions. Within three years such a system would be of practical benefit to the severely disabled.

My Comment: The power of thought is the greatest force in creation. It is only in our world that we don’t see how our thoughts affect everything that happens to us. Studying Kabbalah enables you to start discerning the net of forces that permeates our world, the matrix upon which our world lies and by which it is governed, and how we unconsciously influence these forces with our thoughts.

When you reveal this picture, you start interacting with Nature correctly. This is why it is so important to study the Kabbalistic sources.

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In the News (from Science): American microbiologists have created a synthetic microbial system, wherein altruistic microbes that produced a resource beneficial to the public, at a cost to themselves, nonetheless benefited the most in the end, despite losing the competition to egoistic bacteria in each separate population. The affluence of the altruists is attributed to the statistical effect known as “Simpson’s Paradox.”

My Answer: This is taking place on an animate, egoistic level. This is not the altruism that’s above egoism, but rather one that helps egoism to continue existing in conflicting situations.

The altruism that Kabbalah speaks of, and the one we must attain, is above egoism and it utilizes egoism as a basis. This is only possible under the influence of the Upper Light, and only when one consciously uses one’s egoism, instead of the natural egoism of the animate body.

A Kabbalist’s body works by the same egoistic principle as the body of any animal! The confusion stems from the fact that all the books of the Torah, including Kabbalah, use the word “body” to allude to the body of the soul – or in other words, one’s desires. After all, the desire is the only thing that was created; it is the entire matter of creation.

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In the News (from The Associated Press): “Group of 6 arrested in western Ariz. fires includes 4 firemen” Four firefighters and two others have been arrested on suspicion of igniting between 15 and 20 fires in western Arizona to make money by fighting the very blazes they lit, officials said Tuesday.

My Comment: Egoism forces people to harm others in any way possible for the sake of their own benefit. The same can be said of doctors and others who manufacture food fillers, useless and harmful drugs, and so on. Our society is built so as to use people in every way possible. Instead of, “Everything for the people, everything for their benefit,” what we have is, “Everything for the sake of one’s profit, everything to harm people” (and this harms both those who do it and to whom they do it).

In the News (from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany): “Does persistent low fertility threaten the future of European populations?” Three stylized demographic facts are nowadays taken for granted by many Europeans: First, European birth rates are very low and further declining. Second, the currently low fertility will inevitably lead to rapid population aging and population decline in the future. Third, these trends are unsustainable in the long run… Perhaps no one summarized the fears of shrinking Europe more succinctly than Pope Benedict XVI: “…the problem of Europe, which it seems no longer wants to have children, penetrated my soul. To foreigners this Europe seems to be tired, indeed it seems to be wishing to take its leave of history” (Vatican 2006).

My Comment: Egoism doesn’t need anybody; it wants to feel special and unique. The same thing will happen in all the countries as their population’s egoism develops. But the emergence of the quality of bestowal and love in people will naturally make them desire to have children in order to continue their kind.

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Three questions I received on the spiritual desire:

Question: First of all, thanks for a great Congress at Blackpool which I thoroughly enjoyed. Which prayers should we be saying as potential Kabbalists? I have watched the children’s lesson on prayer but cannot find the answer. Is there a particular prayer book we should use?

My Answer: A prayer is the heart’s desire. One should do all that one can to make his heart desire the goal of creation – the revelation of the Creator.

Question: Why does the Creator want us to need Him?

My Answer: Because He is the quality of “bestowal and love” within us. And this quality creates a sensation – within us – of an eternal and perfect life.

Question: You say that a person needs to feel a “deficiency.” What kind of deficiency are you talking about: spiritual or corporeal?

My Answer: This means that you must reveal that you don’t love others, and reveal it in such a way that it will suppress your self-love. It is as though you ascend on top of the mountain of your egoism through love for others, and to this degree, the Creator will be revealed to you, or rather, in you.

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Shamati #86: “And They Built Store-Cities”

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In the News (from World News): “Divorces are down because of economy” The recession and economic turmoil are creating a new class of casualties: married couples who can’t afford to get divorced. In these tough times, many people are finding it’s cheaper to stay together, even when they can’t stand each other.

My Comment: Similarly, the nations of the world will also realize that it’s necessary to stay connected. And then they will realize that any connection yields such benefits that even if they have the option of separating, they never will!

In the News (from Pew Research Center): “Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Outlet” The Internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as an outlet for national and international news. For the first time, more people say they rely mostly on the Internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). For young people, the Internet now rivals television as a main source of national and international news.

My Comment: People want a multi-faceted, interactive connection rather than one-sided information. The Internet makes it easier to uncover the lies that pervade all the mass media, because the users create a multi-polar source of information and commentary. When technology will enable television to be broadcast on the Internet, all other news outlets will disappear.

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