People are beginning to recognize the potentially destructive influence of mass media on one’s environment. Mass media, in particular, rather than money, financial situations, or our plans for humanity’s future, determines everything. This generation and future generations depend on the influence of the environment that affects our entire life. Let us hope that humanity will realize it, and first, will limit the negative influence it exudes today, and then, will redirect it properly. The task of Kabbalah is to help humanity see it faster.

The world is gradually developing a critical outlook toward itself and all the global systems that have been built around us and that now affect absolutely everybody in all areas of life. Particularly because this global system has become so universal and influential, it arouses a lot of concern. Humanity will have to take serious care of it.

We can no longer let everyone do whatever they please in the mass media. The force of the mass media should be in the hands of wise people, Kabbalists. The mass media cannot be controlled by dictatorship. Humanity’s development makes it break all limitations and obstacles.Yet, there is an opposite tendency whereby we must somehow restrict mass media. If we don’t, we will learn of this need by suffering.

There is a constant fight between the left and right lines, each of which insists that it is better than the other one. But both of them are neither good nor right. There has to be a middle line which doesn’t simply unite them, but rather rises above them. It is not their mixing or a compromise between them; it is not like a some centrist political party that is above the left or the right.

Rather, this middle line is an approach that is altruistic, in bestowal, and extends above all egoistic approaches. Such an approach will be able to unite everyone and bring peace.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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A question I received: Who is our “Upper One” in spirituality?

My Answer: We don’t know that. We exist in the womb of the Upper One as a mere point, a droplet of semen, our spiritual Reshimo (record, gene). Beyond this Reshimo, we have nothing else!

In fact, our corporeal body, mind, and feelings have no relation to the spiritual world and cannot be seen there. In the spiritual world, there is only a womb of the Upper One (Malchut of Infinity) and us inside it. And each of us is a Reshimo (0/1, Shoresh Aviut/Aleph Hitlabshut) or in other words, a point in the heart.

Our task, as a point in the heart, is to try to cling to the wall of the spiritual womb! Beginning with the three days during which the semen is absorbed, the first problem for the embryo (us) is to attach itself to the wall of the womb. Attaching to the womb is establishing the very first contact with the Upper One.

In order to do this, we must annul ourselves before the Upper One. But where is this Upper One, this wall of the womb? What is it exactly? The Upper One is the Kabbalistic group, my environment! This is how the Upper One reveals the Creator for me.

Thus, there are the group and me, who adheres to it, despite all the obstacles. I accept the entire force of the group’s desire for bestowal, and I am willing and ready to take it all in through annulling myself before them.

When I attach myself to the group, my Aviut, which is the strength of my will to bestow, begins to grow and cause unpleasant sensations in me: disappointment, growth of egoism, and burdening of the heart. But I must go even deeper in, like a leech, clinging to the group which is the “wall of the womb.”

Then, between us, the first connection will appear, not through a point, but through the tube through which “blood” will start flowing into me. This connection, so far, is on the inanimate level (“Dam”- blood, from “Domem” – inanimate), but I will have already received spiritual sustenance from the Upper One.

All of this takes place through my connection with the group. There is no other “wall” through which I can enter the spiritual world!

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, Article “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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A question I received: We have a lot of sites that already provide information about us. But you recently mentioned that now we are entering a completely new stage at which our potential Internet user not only gets information, but also “absorbs” the atmosphere that is present in our organization.

My Answer: Our goal is to transform our studies of nature around us into a game, into something similar to Tamagotchi. People went crazy about this game! They worried about “not feeding” their “pet” on time, or about “not putting it to bed.” People were troubled and went wild. This “egoist” (Tamagotchi) “demanded” more and more from them.

We have to invent a similar game that will convert my environment into my pain, turn it into “my baby.” I have to depend on it, love it, and take care of it because it is the most important thing in the world to me. It’s like a child is to his mother. No one exists in this world for a mother except for her baby. She was created like that by nature. Our task is to attain a similar state on our own.

However, we are unable to achieve this level by ourselves. We have to get into a state where we wish to reach this level, but also realize that we are unable to do so alone. This will necessitate the attraction of the Upper Light, which in turn will correct us.

We should reach this state by playing a game, which, in itself, does not really attract the Upper Light. The Upper Light is attracted by our desire. The connection between us has to be “shaped” into a game that inspires us and provides us with a sense of importance and necessity of spirituality. Other people participating in the game should attract, alert, and pull us up; we should be experiencing jealousy, anger, and greediness with regard to what we are still lacking and that others have already acquired (the aspiration to the Upper Level).

We have to create a regular system that has nothing to do with spirituality. It should be some sort of a “logical, psychological structure” similar to the Tamagotchi or the many other games that could be found on social networks. Of course, it should be an “intelligent” system that can regulate itself, survey its users, and know who they are. It’s our obligation to work on it.

In general, it’s a model for the future of society that is already available for us to communicate through. But there is a big problem. How do we attract and involve people in it?

People from our world group are extremely busy. They work, study at night, and don’t get enough sleep. Where will they find time to hang around on our site? When do we create an integral and harmonious future society? Where do we find time to work on it? Does a regular person have enough time to visit the site? Or do we obligate them to visit it for a couple of minutes a day? Will it be enough and useful?

We don’t have time to deal with it. Maybe we have to include our morning lessons (the core method of communication between us) into this system? Or do we somehow “filter” our work, our life, and the connections between us through this system? So far, it is not clear how we can achieve this goal because we all are way too busy.

People outside of our groups (the general population) do have a chance to use the system. But even when it comes to non-Bnei Baruch members, I am not quite sure how to involve everyone into our system of communication. That is the question: HOW?

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A Kabbalistic group is the AHP of the Upper One, Malchut that incorporates many other souls in it. I’m the lower one, and my task is to connect my point in the heart to those other souls even though they are foreign to me. If I annul my point in the heart relative to the Upper One, it turns into my GE (Galgalta ve-Eynaim) and, thanks to the Upper One, acquires a form. The Upper One gives it everything that it needs for growth, providing it with the structure, meaning with all the souls, the entire World of Infinity, the whole vessel of the common soul.

If you want to become a spiritual object (Partzuf), adhere to the Upper One, and its AHP will become your newly revealed world. To the measure that you cling to the AHP of the Upper One, your point in the heart expands, thanks to the AHP’s parts.

To adhere means to accept its rule over me, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Freedom.” The AHP of the Upper One is my environment. By clinging to it, I receive from it everything I need much like an embryo receives blood, oxygen, and nutrients from its mother. I do so in order for my point in the heart to grow into a spiritual organism.

This organism will resemble whatever I received from the AHP of the Upper One, the group. Yet, it will be its manifestation in my point in the heart, my spiritual gene. In other words, it will be shared by them both, the group and my own point in the heart. This is similar to how a child looks a little like his mother and his father, yet receives his essence from the Creator.

I pass myself into the “hands” of the Upper One; I introduce my desire into it, my demand to become the part in which the right and the left lines unite and realize the act of bestowal. To the extent that I accomplish it, that is, to the extent to which the semen annuls itself before the mother and obliges her to develop it, the mother starts taking care of it in return.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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How do we build a spiritual vessel from the point in the heart of every person, which is contained in his egoism? How do we elevate this point from the egoistic heart to the outside? How do we make it more important than all our egoistic desires and become concerned only with what happens in this point of spiritual aspiration?

To achieve this, we need the influence of the environment. We first have to lead our points in the heart to freedom from egoism, to the outside, and then to unify them. Their unification is crucial. The points in the heart are the means of connection among us; in this connection, we will feel the Creator. The stronger it will be, the more Light will be revealed in it.

This connection resembles an electrical resistor since we resist and do not wish to unite with each other. But, if we nonetheless unite, we feel how the Light begins to ooze through this resistance. The Upper Light influences, warms it up, and I feel the manifestation of the Creator in it.

In other words, I do not destroy my ego as practiced by different “spiritual” methods which tear a person away from reality. I use my ego and precisely through the ego, I reach attainment. Thus “the higher a person rises, the more his egoism grows.”

It will be significantly harder for you to unite with others on the next degree. It seems that it should be the opposite since you have already done this work. But suddenly you will begin to feel, “Who did I get involved with? Who are these people?” This means that the real work has begun.

The more resistance there is among you, the higher you can rise and the greater the Light that you can reveal. Instead of the Light of Nefesh (a minor Light that fills a small, few watt “light bulb”), you unite despite of a huge resistance (R2 instead of R1) and reveal the Light of Ruach, which is billions of times greater than the Light of Nefesh. It’s like a small light compared to a huge fire.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/10, Shamati #50

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A question I received: How do I know that I am advancing by the path of Light and not the path of suffering?

My Answer: The sign of following the path of Light is joy. It is written that “joy is the outcome of good deeds.” If I am connected with the others, I am always a part of a healthy common body and receive from it strength and inspiration. They are constantly circulating in our collective organism, flowing from one to the other; hence, I never fall or get disappointed. I don’t even feel tired! Granted, I can sometimes feel sore in my corporeal body, but I never feel tired mentally.

I keep receiving new desires and their fulfillment from the others, which flow from them to me and vice versa non-stop. So, in this condition a person ceases to feel ups and downs. For him, everything is one whole.

In fact, the day begins in the evening, but I don’t perceive it as a dark night. I feel that this is my preparation for the next spiritual step. I now need to gain more of an appetite and get hungry in order to become more receptive to perceiving spirituality.

This night is not the darkness we imagine. This is the darkness within egoism. It is the time of the construction of the vessel (Kli). In our earthly life we go to bed at night; however, in the spiritual one, we labor diligently in the night. We are making, creating, and building ourselves. It is as if at night we are assembling our car, and in the morning we drive it. Don’t think that in spirituality “night” is a dream separated from reality. We break off the previous reality in order to attain a new one. And we build it with faith above reason.

At “midnight,” the merging (Zivug) of Abba ve Ima takes place to create new desires (Kelim). I need to work in the dark because darkness conceals the old desires from me (since I don’t need them any more and must ascend to a new spiritual step). It also hides from me the new desires so that I can find them, connect them to myself, and understand where they are and why.

It’s similar as to how we play with our children. We first prepare a game for them, but later, they have to play by themselves. We pick a toy that consists of different parts (for example, cubes), not a toy with a single piece because we want the child to put it together by himself. Our spiritual work at “night” is the same.

Therefore, a person who is closely knitted into the environment doesn’t feel separation from the spiritual path when he falls. On the contrary, he sees that he is given an opportunity to work and experience a new adventure, like a child, whom nature pushes to grow. So, he loves such games of building and putting together.

Additionally, if the environment pushes us to this game, like nature does a child, we will feel as if we are on a wondrous journey. But if the environment doesn’t provide such inspiration, we don’t want to play as if we are a sick child who didn’t receive such a desire from nature and lags behind in his development.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/10, Shamati #50

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Concealment and revelation are in us. These are the only things we can influence. After all, we exist in a constant and eternal universe, which has no beginning and which will never have an end. Although we talk about and imagine within the bounds of time that creation emerged and about reaching correction and executing the plan of creation by becoming fully included in the Creator, this is incorrect.

We are situated within a unique system, which is called “Nature” or the “Creator,” where no changes occur. Only we change in our sensations! So how can we begin to change ourselves consciously and according to our own choice in a controlled manner so that we would not experience any unpleasant and undesired changes?

There are certain changes in my inner desires, which alter my view of reality in such a way that I perceive them as problems, wars, and suffering. On the other hand, there are changes that are kind, but who knows how to control them?

This is taught to us by the science of Kabbalah. It is clear that if reality is invariable, then only by controlling our own qualities can we affect our picture of the world and decide which “soap opera” we wish to watch under the title of “My Life.” However, this does not mean that I am free to watch any movie` of any genre that I wish.

A program is already put together, and it advances me to revelation of the true picture, where all the concealments will fade and I will reveal the eternal and perfect state in its true form. Then I will see that reality is constant and invariable. If I understand all this, I can advance by the kind path. And if I don’t understand it, then I will be forced to move ahead by the path of suffering.

However, we are only talking about changes inside of a person that exists in some environment that is still unknown to him. This environment is called the Creator or Infinity. It is not in our power to change the order of our degrees; this order is already implanted in us. Who are we to know what this order should be?

However, we can hasten the process of going through it by tuning into it according to our own desire and by exerting effort. And the speed of the advancement will give us a different sensation. After all, it is one thing to advance toward a fatal event without agreeing with it but being unable to avoid it. And it is another thing to aspire to a desired goal! Then I will like the path, and I will advance toward it in joy.

In other words, everything depends on our preparation to the next states, which inevitably will come. However, my readiness determines my perception and the speed of my advancement. This is why we need the science of Kabbalah so much. By studying Kabbalah, we will be able to go through our development via a positive, pleasant, and short path instead of a long path through suffering.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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The environment will keep me thinking about the spiritual goal, if I, in turn, care that everyone is thinking about our unity and doesn’t abandon these thoughts. Thus, everyone will receive this impression, grow stronger, and advance. This is called “mutual guarantee,” whereby everyone cares about others having everything that is necessary for spiritual advancement. If instead of worrying about receiving from the environment, I worry about how to strengthen the bond between friends, as a mother cares about her children, then this is sufficient for this environment to begin influencing me.

First of all, I have to take actions in the direction of giving, connection, and care. I should view myself as being bigger than them in this regard, in order to influence them, strengthen them; I should search for additional ways of how to provide this for them. And after this I have to be able to humble myself in order to receive from them.

This will come to you, because by putting efforts into something it becomes dear and important to you, and thus influences you. It is similar to parents being both impressed by and dependent upon their children.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, Article, “Concerning the Importance of Society”

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We can’t even imagine how much the environment in which we grew up has shaped us for life. We were constantly exposed to examples of how to profit in our egoistic desire. This is how the others conducted themselves, and from them we learned to do the same. We never received a single example of how to perform acts of bestowal! That is so even when we were taught “good” behavior or it was explained that certain behaviors were in our best interest.

In other words, we were constantly receiving egoistic examples. The program of reception aimed at securing an egoistic gain was simply “embedded” into us. Then a habit became a second nature, and now I can’t see the world in any other way. Possibly, if I saw the world in waves of bestowal, instead of  reception, I would see a completely different picture. Who knows, maybe I would see something which I presently cannot discern?

I simply grew up and became like I am. Now, an enormous work is required in order to transform my nature. But perhaps the time will come when children will be growing up in a different way, in an environment of teachers, parents, family members, and society in general in which everybody relates to each other completely differently: altruistically. Then children would be influenced in this altruistic manner.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, Article, “Concerning the Importance of Society”

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A question I received: Will my soul remember everything I learned in this life? Will I continue to learn Kabbalah and come to the group again in my next life?

My Answer: The only thing that a person takes with him from this life is the spiritual path that he went through; this does not vanish. After all, in regard to spirituality, we are, and continue to be in the same reality, but it is slightly hidden from us.

I am constantly situated in my soul, in spite of the fact that I don’t feel it, I continue to work with it and go through different states. All this occurs in my eternal soul. The fact that I now see physical bodies and this world around me is a “mirage” of my spiritual state.

If I work internally now, then I will begin my next reincarnation from a higher spiritual state, and I will come to a Kabbalah group faster and will be more successful in my studies. The entire previous path will remain within me in the form of spiritual genes (Reshimot); it doesn’t vanish. In the spiritual world nothing vanishes at all; things disappear only in our world because this whole world will eventually vanish. In the meantime, nothing that I have acquired through my egoistic desire remains, since the desire itself vanishes, only the external clothing remains.

Every time the soul goes through a new reincarnation, it builds an environment for itself according to its ability and the necessity to correct itself. Why do I exist in this environment and not a different one? It is because my soul requires this. No calculation is performed in regard to the bodies; they exist in connection with each other, in this world, in all of the situations that are necessary for the soul’s correction.

Meanwhile, the body is not taken into account. Actually, it doesn’t exist at all; it is a virtual illusion that presents itself to us in this form. In actuality, only the soul exists, but we are unable to feel it. And its development clearly determines what happens to the bodies.

Therefore, in the end of “Preface to The Book of Zohar” Baal HaSulam writes that only the correction of the souls will help us correct our world and perceive this corporeal life as more kind. All the offenses that occur in this world are a consequence of the necessity for the soul to be corrected. At the same time, there are no actions or corrections in this world: changes are only possible through the soul.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/10, Article “Which Degree Should One Acheive?”

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