Two questions I received on humiliation and humility:

Question: Baal HaSulam writes in the book Shamati, in article #27, “What Is, The Lord Is High And The Low Will See,” that if a person annuls his “I,” he sees the Creator! What is this feeling of shame and humiliation that is being spoken of here? Why does the world humiliate and degrade him?

My Answer: A person who corrects himself constantly receives new, additional portions of egoism so that by correcting them he can rise even higher. This is how he rises through all 125 degrees until reaching the full correction.

In order to help a person overcome the new egoism that is constantly being revealed in him, the Creator sends him the disdain of the society. Otherwise a person would hear praise from the society and “sell himself” for it. He would begin to enjoy the honor and glory of being a “righteous man,” since he still doesn’t have the protection of the next portion of egoism that will be revealed.

Question: It is written that the Creator loved Moses for his humility. I see that different trials in life make us more humble. You recommend for us to see our friends as being greater than us. What does it mean to be humble? When we nullify ourselves, how do we avoid making the same mistake as the followers of the Eastern teachings make?

My Answer: The humility does not come from “killing the flesh” or self-destruction, but from:

1. Realizing that you cannot go through correction on your own, but you aspire to this and desire the Upper Light to correct you. A person cannot correct anything about him on his own! Otherwise, instead of being humble, he will feel proud of his humility!

2. Humility emerges as a result of revealing the Creator’s greatness. One who does not reveal the Creator by studying Kabbalah, does not attain humility and is sure to be full of empty pride.

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A question I received: The Book of Zohar states that in the year 66, the Messiah will be revealed in the Land of Galilee. What does that mean? And what will happen then? Will there be war?

My Answer: It means that Channel 66 (our organization’s Kabbalah TV Channel) will give people the strength to correct their egoistic nature, and by doing so they’ll rise from the sensation of our world to the sensation of the Upper World. The Messiah is the force that elevates man out of egoism into the quality of bestowal!

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The following quote is attributed to Scottish history professor Alexander Tyler in 1787, who foresaw the development of the USA as follows (from Financial Sense):

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

• From bondage to spiritual faith;
• From spiritual faith to great courage;
• From courage to liberty;
• From liberty to abundance;
• From abundance to complacency;
• From complacency to apathy;
• From apathy to dependence;
• From dependence back into bondage

My Comment: Prof. Tyler was right about the process, but not its outcome. He did not foresee globalization – humanity’s complete interconnection. But it is precisely the need to survive, to exist in an interconnected system, that will compel humanity to seek a method of curbing every person’s individual egoism. And when we search for a method to correct egoism, we will find that Kabbalah is the only adequate method.

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Two questions I received on the after-effects of the financial crisis:

Question: If we don’t attain correction, will the coming blows correspond to creation’s stages of development? We are currently witnessing a financial crisis. Does this mean that the next crisis will happen on the vegetative level, and so on?

My Answer: Certainly, the crises will become more and more intense, qualitatively speaking.

Question: The Top Heavy Corporate Greed is a major contributing factor to the financial problem. How can any business or country operate efficiently when capitalistic greed and ego is the primary driving force? What will happen to these individuals when they can no longer receive their Million Dollar per year salaries and yet they’ll try to continue with that life style?

My Answer: They will realize that they were never really fulfilled, but only had the illusion of fulfillment. They will then turn to the Source of the true, eternal and perfect fulfillment, first out of necessity, driven by suffering, and afterwards – through sensing harmony and infinite delight.

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The news on Channel 2, Israel’s most popular and prestigious TV channel, had an interview with my student Arcadi Duchin, a famous Israeli song writer, singer and performer. The interview was about his first song about the crisis and the story behind its making:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXxTyiUGPgQ]

Arcadi and I met once a week for the last year to discuss the necessity of writing songs about the current events: the proliferation of drugs (“lighting up to pass the time”), the growing divorce rates (man, woman, and the snake between them), the hyperactivity of children (Ritalin), the financial crisis and layoffs, ego-Lego (how to connect together), and so on. These songs haven’t been released yet, but they have become more relevant than ever.

The public release of the first song was a very special event! I hope that this kind of dissemination and explanation will enable people to discover the cause of the evil and the path to goodness.

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News Report (translated from chaskor.ru): The concept of ecovillages has gained popularity because people are hoping to escape the trap of civilization that has cornered them. Only yesterday such communities seemed extremist and sectarian, but today they’re regarded as a way to survive the global crisis, which is turning into global chaos. In addition, it’s easier to survive a crisis in a commune.

My Comment: Separating from the global civilization to save one’s own neck will bring any commune to a terrible crisis – one that’s greater than in the rest of the world. It’s because a commune will isolate itself from everyone in order to survive on its own, and this goes against unification, globalization, and Nature’s plan to unite everyone. These aren’t eco-villages, they’re EGO-villages!

News Report (from World Net Daily): …the U.S. is moving closer to a Nazi-style totalitarianism, warns a former German member of the Hitler Youth in a new book. “Every day brings this nation closer to a Nazi-style totalitarian abyss,” writes Hilmar von Campe…

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, if we’re not moving toward global integration, then we’re moving toward mutual isolation and the emergence of Nazi regimes in the developed countries.

News Report (from National Post): More singles are turning to the Internet as a cheap, convenient way to find love during trying economic times. A poll by Opinion Research Corp. found that 57% of Americans said the credit crunch made them worry about their love lives… similar surveys in Australia and Britain came up with the same results.

My Comment: Suffering and fear are showing us just how fragile we are and how much we need the support of the environment. We were created as social creatures and we have to create a friendly and supportive society around us. And if we don’t want to, nature will force us to. Then we’ll want it and therefore build such a society!

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News Report (from ABC News): …a bailout drama is playing out inside the closed-down Republic Windows & Doors factory in Chicago, where more than 200 angry workers have hunkered down after they were abruptly fired … without final pay or benefits. The union workers believe they are victims of a bungled bailout and that Bank of America, which received $25 billion in the federal rescue package, stands between them and their paychecks.

My Comment: The tensions that have erupted in Greece show us that the world is balancing on the brink of an explosion. People’s discontent is ready to erupt at the slightest cause, and it’s always easy to find an instigator of tension, even war. It is necessary for us to stop and think about the fact that it is impossible to curb our egoism using the conventional measures. The explosion may happen anywhere and at any moment.

News Report (translated from utro.ru): The financial crisis has brought about a recession in tourism and dining, transportation and financial services industries. However, communication via mobile connections is the last thing people are willing to cut back on.

My Comment: The crisis will affect all aspects of our lives, forcing us to wise up. It will force us to search for an inner communication – “soul to soul.”

News Report (translated from utro.ru): The legal sector of Russia’s alcohol market faces a catastrophic shortage of raw materials. By the beginning of next year, two thirds of all the alcohol factories in the country may have to cease operation.

My Comment: This is a serious threat to the nation’s health. In fact, it may bring it to the brink of extinction.

Conclusion: The crisis will influence us and people will feel it in every aspect of their lives. It will be felt differently in different parts of the world, but no one will be able to escape. In the end it will force us to create good connections with each other. We can do this now or after a period of exacerbation and wars. If mankind will accept that the things taking place are the Creator’s request for us to correct ourselves and ascend, then the crisis will turn into a joyful revelation of a perfect world.

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A question I received: Why does the Torah justify Jacob when he lies to Esau? Esau comes to Jacob with open arms, yet Jacob turns away from him and tries to buy himself off with gifts.

My Answer: The Torah speaks about a person’s correction, whereby he becomes similar to the Creator. Jacob represents the intention of bestowal and Esau represents the will to receive, our egoism. Esau doesn’t understand that he always remains empty because his intention is “for the sake of himself,” and that only by changing it to the intention of “for others” will he instantly be filled by the Upper, eternal fulfillment – the Light. This is something egoism doesn’t understand, and that’s why a person must trick his egoism. He has to entice the ego to work on spiritual development by telling it that it will avoid suffering and to be filled by spiritual fulfillment and revelation.

This way, one’s egoism helps one to study Kabbalah, because it expects fulfillment from it. It studies Lo Lishma – for the sake of oneself. However, in the process of studying, connecting with friends, and thereby receiving the Light of Correction, the person ceases valuing the intention “for himself” and instead starts valuing the intention “to bestow” – for the sake of others, for the sake of the Creator.

This happens by virtue of the Light’s influence. And when one’s intention changes, he can begin to use his egoism (Esau) in order to receive for the sake of bestowal. This is how one attains eternal, perfect fulfillment. This maneuver is similar to the way we trick or entice a child to study, and eventually he comes to understand that it was done for his own good. This is how the Creator plays with each and every one of us.

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Questions I received on ghosts, death and reincarnation:

Question: Why must correction happen over numerous lifetimes instead of in one extended lifetime? Is there a spiritual necessity for corporeal death? Would people avoid correction if it meant an extended corporeal existence, thus granting egoism the victory?

My Answer: The body goes through renewal because its inner qualities are renewed. These qualities cannot go through the change while in the same body, since a particular body is always the most suitable for realizing a particular set of qualities.

Question: Will the soul of a deceased person return to this world regardless of whether this person studied Kabbalah?

My Answer: If the person didn’t study Kabbalah, he will definitely return to this world in order to correct his soul with the help of studying Kabbalah. It is only after the soul’s complete correction that a person doesn’t return to this world, which is the worst of all worlds. For more on this, see the “Introduction to the Book ‘From the Mouth of a Sage.'”

Question: When there’s a physical death, the Light departs from the will to receive, and if that person hasn’t developed a soul, then he has no soul to live in the spiritual world. Consequently, the will to receive is once again clothed into another corporeal body – this is called reincarnation. But what are ghosts: creatures that don’t have a corporeal body but they can be photographed or captured on film?

My Answer: They are no more than physical (optical) phenomena that only seem to appear to you!

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I participated in a conversation for the TV Series “The Butterfly Effect.”

Speaking with me was Ram Shmueli, Brigadier-General in reserve, previously head of the Intelligence Squadron and commander of an Air Force base. Chairman of a public committee overseeing the Ministry of Education.

As chairman of a public committee overseeing the Ministry of Education, Ram understands the problems of educating the growing and adult generations on the local and global scales. But all the ministries of education are powerless to do anything. We’re helpless when it comes to what we hold most dear – our children. We are unable to shape them well, and we instead leave this task to the egoism that’s raging inside them. We just let their egoism force them to collide with one another, make them its miserable prisoners, without a moment of rest.

And all of this is happening because we did not receive the proper education either. We weren’t brought up to be “human beings”; we didn’t receive an explanation of our make up, desires, and qualities, of what governs us, where our freedom of choice lies, what are the laws governing an individual and the society, and what the laws of our development are. In fact, we don’t know anything about ourselves or what’s around us. This is why our life looks the way it does – it’s taking place in the dark.

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