A question I received: When society tells me that I must have a new condo or a can of Coke, I don’t have to make any efforts of my own to be influenced by them. Does the same principle apply to spiritual desires? All they have to do is tell me that spirituality is something that’s good for me, or do I also have to do something myself?

My Answer: You don’t have to do anything more! Whatever your environment considers important is what you, too, will start to respect, to desire, and to want to have. When the people around you repeatedly tell you about how important an object or an event is, then you won’t be able to stop thinking about it; it will not let you sleep. This is because it cancels your identity, your personal “I”!

You will struggle and ask: What do I live for if I can’t have this or that? I am wasting my life without it!” You are not the owner of yourself, because society determines everything. Whatever goal it sets for you is the goal you will pursue. With the right “aiming” of the correct environment, anything is possible, even attaining the Creator!

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A question I received: In terms of quantum physics, the universe consists of energy. Therefore everything, including thoughts, are also energy. Where do thoughts come from, and why/how does each individual think (attract) his own particular thoughts?

My Answer: There are two forces comprising everything in existence: reception and bestowal. Everything occurs between these two forces. We learn their nature by revealing them for ourselves, because we consist of both of them.

The interaction of these two forces gives rise to our desires, and the desires bring about thoughts of how to obtain what we desire. A person can influence his desires by consciously putting himself under the influence of an environment, meaning people or souls (provided one can already perceive the souls). This is how a person can intervene in his own destiny.

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In the News (from LiveScience): “Cancer Kills Wild Animals Too” Cancer accounts for about 10 percent of all human deaths. If you think that sets us apart, scientists have news for you: Wild animals die of cancer at about the same rate, and it threatens some species with extinction.

My Comment: Cancer is a result of egoism, because it is something that forms inside an animate body and kills adjacent tissues or its environment (as we do with the environment around us). As a result, the cancerous cells die as well.

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A question I received: I am from Uruguay and I am 17 years old. My question is this: people often talk about the environment as if it is something that exists alongside us. How it is possible to make people understand that the environment isn’t something that exists alongside us, but that we are in it and we need it? Uruguay is a very small country, but even here, we encounter a whole gamut of environmental problems because there are so many factories in the country and even more are being built.

My Answer: There are two things that can cause people to adopt a different attitude to themselves, to others and to nature: 1) suffering or 2) the dissemination of Kabbalah. We’ll keep trying to make it happen through the second path.

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A question I received: How soon after (or before) the correction will the environment (the eco and bio-systems) return to its original balanced state?

My Answer: As soon as we begin to theoretically agree with its plan, Nature will immediately begin to change Nature is connected to our consciousness and subconsciousness, and even the slightest change in both will cause an immediate reaction. Nature is a precise mechanism and we, not some hypothetical divine court, are responsible for the changes it undergoes.

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Two questions I received on work in the group:

Question: You said we should feel inspired by the group even when we know this inspiration is artificial. Could you clarify?

My Answer: Because a person is a created being, his essence is the general will to receive pleasure. One’s environment tells him what he should be feeling pleasure from, and the environment transmits this influence onto a person through education and advertisement. These create a value system inside the person.

This is why our only freedom of will lies in choosing what environment will tell us what we must enjoy in this life. The enjoyment can be of two types:

1. Of this world, where one desires to attain things in this world
2. Of the Upper World, where one desires to reveal the Light and become fulfilled by It

You decide which is right for you. (For more on this, see Item 4 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.”)

Question: Do I have the right to demand from the group a display of the importance of the goal, or is the group there for me to display the importance of the goal to them?

My Answer: You can demand it, but this relationship has to be mutual!

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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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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 Fayette Front Page): Senators Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., today introduced legislation to create a Financial Markets Commission that will be charged with fully investigating the near collapse of the banking system and the loss of tens of trillions of dollars. “If our nation is going to learn from history, we must know exactly what happened and why. We need to take a long hard look at how our financial system spiraled downward so far so fast,” Conrad said. “The final report of this commission will help make sure this does not happen again.”

My Comment: We cannot understand any phenomenon in our world from our level. Even Einstein said that in order to solve a problem, it is necessary to rise above it – to its source or initial origin. I hope this commission will be created, and even more than one – that it will be created in all the countries, and that it will be common, international. And I hope these commissions will somehow hear Kabbalah’s explanation of the reason, course, and purpose of the crisis, as well as the way to control it.

Kabbalah reveals that if we want to control the crisis through our actions, there is only one single opportunity in our world for us to influence the events: by continuously creating a better and better environment (society) that will influence every person. This environment will change everyone’s priorities from corporeal (receiving and using others) to spiritual (bestowal and love).

There are no other free actions we can make, because the rest of our actions are dictated by our natural egoism. They are elicited in us by egoism’s constant growth and change, without any participation on our part. Therefore, the reason for the crisis is the qualitatively new egoism that is being revealed in us.

The goal of the crisis is to bring us to similarity with Nature, the quality of bestowal and love. The means of attaining this goal, which is mandatory for all, is to change the environment that surrounds each and every one of us, or in other words, to change the external influence on every person. And to do this, we have to engage all the mass media channels and begin a broad action of worldwide education about the new reality of a united humanity.

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In the News (from VOA News): “Researchers Investigate Biology of Social Conformity” According to researcher Vasily Klucharev of Erasmus University in the Netherlands, the study shows when people hold an opinion differing from others in a group, their brains produce an error signal, making people think they made a mistake.

My Comment: Kabbalah explains that a person is always under the influence of the environment and unwillingly perceives others’ opinion as his own (see the article “The Freedom”). We cannot avoid being slaves of our environment. Our freedom lies in finding an environment that will give us the correct opinion – one that’s directed at the goal of creation.

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