Two questions I received on choosing the correct environment:

Question: After reading the article “The Freedom” and other articles about the environment, I came to the conclusion that the environment is pivotal to one’s development and attainment. What should I do if I’m not sure that I’ve chosen the right environment and the right group?

My Answer: Keep studying and discerning this! Don’t rely on your own opinion nor the opinion of those around you. The answers should come on their own, from within you (from the Creator), without any external influence and without you eating yourself. Read Baal HaSulam and wait for the answer!

Question (from a woman): I would really like to understand what it means to “build your environment.” Should I look for the correct environment within the Kabbalistic group, meaning an environment within an environment, based on the principle that those who don’t give me joy and inspiration are not advancing along the right path and it’s best to avoid them?

My Answer: For a woman, there’s no such thing as a group; there’s only the environment. In it she interacts with the women she feels closest to. And she isn’t obliged to do anything more than that.

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Baal HaSulam, article “Peace in the World”:

Man feels that all the creatures in the world should be under his own government and were created for his own private use. And this is a law of Nature that cannot be breached. The only difference between people is their choices of how to use the creatures: One chooses to exploit people by attaining the lowest desires, one chooses to attain power, while the third – to attain respect. Furthermore, if it could be done without much effort, every person would agree to exploit the whole world for attaining all three together: wealth, power and respect. This law is called the “Law of Singularity,” and is felt in the heart of every person. And there is not a person who can escape it, although each and every one takes his own share in that law: the great person according to his greatness, and the small person according to his smallness.

And although the attribute of singularity contains a sublime, beautiful and gracious meaning, since this attribute extends to us directly from the Creator, who is single in the world and the root of all creations, still when the sensation of singularity sits within our narrow egoism, its action becomes ruin and destruction and the source of all the suffering that was and will be in the world. And indeed there is not a single person in the world who is free from this attribute, and all the differences between people are only in the way it is used: whether for satisfying the passions of the heart, or for power, or for honor. This is what makes people different from one another.

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” item 68:
Do not wonder that the action of a single person will trigger a descent or an ascent of the whole world. For it is an unbending law that “the general and the particular are equal.” And all that takes place in the general takes place in the particular parts as well. And vice-versa: everything that happens in the particular parts also happens in the general, for the general cannot come to be, but after the particulars have been revealed, according to the quantity and quality of the particulars. Hence, the actions of every person raise or decline the whole world.

Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”:
Each and every individual in society is like a wheel that is linked to several other wheels in the same machine. And this single wheel has no freedom of movement in and of itself, but continues with the motion of all the other wheels in a certain direction in order for the machine to perform its general purpose. And if there is a breakdown in one wheel, it is not seen as a breakdown in this one wheel, but is assessed according to the service and role it performs in the entire machine.

Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”:
The collective has only what its individual parts have. And the benefit of the collective is the benefit of each and every individual. He who harms the collective harms himself as well, and he who benefits the collective takes his part in the benefit, because he is a part of the whole. And the whole is not worth more than the sum of its individual parts.

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Three questions I received on uniting with others:

Question: How does working on dissemination and being in a virtual group help me justify the Creator? What if I don’t do any work?

My Answer: The Creator doesn’t need you alone because His task is to bring all the souls to unity in the common soul of Adam. Without uniting with the others, you won’t be able to reveal the Creator. You simply won’t be able to find the right direction.

Question: How can I find my group? Who should I contact?

My Answer: Visit our site and go to the “Contact Us” section. Or see this interactive map to find a group in your region and its contact information.

Question: What will happen if we won’t be able to unite?

My Answer: That’s impossible because our unity was planned by nature from the beginning, and therefore it has to come true. We will be obliged to attain the complete interconnection with each other, to be as one – absolutely united in harmony and love, as befits any integral system. The only question is how much more suffering will we go through in order to realize that this is the only way out of the crisis.

The following two situations are possible:

1. Undesirable: People will see that there is no rational solution to the crisis and that everything is falling apart: unemployment, total devaluation of money, total destruction of the economic relations, paralysis of the entire industry, an end to basic services for the population and to the supply of the bare necessities – just like in Hollywood horror films about the future. Under the pressure of despair, fear of murder, massacres, and rebellions, the authorities will feel that they have lost all control over the situation and will start a war. They will think that this is a solution to the problem, a chance to control the situation, to mobilize people and resources. It doesn’t matter who will start the war, but all the governments will be in favor of it.

2. Desirable: It’s possible that we will be able to give a timely explanation, and in addition, people will also understand it through our thoughts that are “in the air,” that the state of crisis is pre-programmed, rational, and a desirable part of Nature’s (the Creator’s) plan, and that there is a way out of it. There’s a way to find freedom from all the limitations and emptiness of our world, to find an eternal and perfect life above our egoism, which is the only source of all the evil. Then, instead of perceiving the world “inside us, egoistically,” we will begin to perceive it through the qualities of bestowal and love “beyond us.” We will then feel the Upper World, the other part of our universe, which has been concealed from us until now because we desired to receive everything “into ourselves,” and therefore we did not know “where we are from,” “what we live for,” and “where we go when we leave this world.” We only perceived a part of our existence.

In any case, either after the wars or a peaceful transition, we will attain the quality of bestowal and love, the quality of the integral system where “all people are one family.” We will then become equivalent to the Creator through adhesion and equivalence of form with Him. This is the only eternal state because all other states are imperfect, leading to it.

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Two questions I received on the role of this world in the soul’s correction:

Question: I read that when a person dies who hasn’t developed the sixth sense (a soul), which enables him to perceive the Upper World, he returns for another incarnation. Then why do we mourn someone who dies? From the moment I began thinking this way, I don’t see any point in life. Things happen all around me but I feel that they’re not important to me.

My Answer: This is wonderful, because it means that you nearing the recognition that the entire meaning of life lies only in attaining the Upper Goal – the Creator, and that there is no other meaning to life on the earthy level! The higher meaning to the earthy life is to attain the Creator while living in this world!

Question: Is it possible to correct the soul in between two reincarnations, when the soul is not in the body?

My Answer: No. Correction can only occur while you are in this world.

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Baal HaSulam. Article “Freedom of Will:”
“When mankind attains its goal, meaning ascends to the degree of complete love for the fellow man, when all the people in the world will unite in a single heart – only then will all the happiness intended for humanity be revealed in all its glory.”

Baal HaSulam. Article “Peace in the World:”
“First and foremost, each person must thoroughly understand, and explain to those around him, that peace in society, peace in the nation, and peace on the planet are absolutely interconnected.”

Baal HaSulam. Article “The Future Generation:”
“The ethical form, determining the life of every nation, primarily must obligate people to bestow to others according to the principle of “love thy neighbor as thyself.” This will be the social consciousness of all the nations. But except for this, every nation can follow its own religion and tradition, and no nation should interfere with another.”

Baal HaSulam. Article “The Peace:”
“Egoistic resistance between people and nations can only disappear from the world with the help of the Upper Force of the Creator (Nature), if we will wish to unite with Him. This was initially planned in the thought of creation. And if we will strive toward this goal of adhesion with the Creator, then envy, pride, and hatred will disappear, and we will all gather in one heart, filled with the knowledge of the Creator.”

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Two questions I received on the present state of the world:

Question: Shlama Ilelochum, Rabu Michael. Do you believe in the revival of the Assyrian State? Are you FOR or AGAINST?

My Answer: I am for only one state in the world – the State of Kabbalah, whose law will be “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Then all the nations will be as one family. This is what we are obligated to do by the Creator or Nature. We must live in accordance with the global connection in which we exist. The emergence of separate states contradicts world unity. See Baal HaSulam’s articles “The Peace” and “Peace in the World.”

Question: Many people who post comments seem to think that economic prosperity acquired via free markets is egoistic and evil. The only thing that can be evil is the intention. As humans we need access to resources to survive – i.e., food, shelter and education. Surely the problem isn’t in acquiring prosperity and knowledge via the economic market, but in the distribution among those who need it. This distribution is best done in one’s own community. The meek will inherit the world only when those who amassed resources will find a way to distribute it to those in need. Please comment.

My Answer: I would advise you to look at the materials on the crisis and its solution, as well as Baal HaSulam’s articles on it – “The Peace,” “Peace in the World,” and “The Freedom.”

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The beginning of the spiritual path starts with the question about the meaning of life. Actually, one asks about the meaning and purpose of one’s suffering: Is there any point to it?

If one’s desire to find the answer is genuine, then he is led to a place where he receives the answer. From that point on, everything depends on him – he has to realize his freedom of will, because spiritual development is absolutely free. In every other respect, we are like robots!

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News Report: The Telegraph reports that the UK Government intends to obligate internet providers to report every e-mail and website visited. This information will be submitted to a database, such that not a single phone call, e-mail or website visit will remain unnoticed. The bill is expected to appear in 2009.

My Comment: There is no doubt that this is the wish of every government in the world. However, they would be better off educating their people. According to the law “The general and the particular are equal,” the government must treat its people as parents treat their children, and that means not to just restrict and punish them, but also to take care of their education and upbringing. And it shouldn’t matter how expensive or difficult this is.

Kabbalah talks about the need to manage the public opinion. However, this shouldn’t be done in order for the government to manipulate the citizens more easily, but for the sake of creating a correct hierarchy of values in society – values that include the meaning of the existence of man, the family unit, the state, and humanity. We think that the masses cannot adopt such high values, but Kabbalah asserts that everything depends on the public opinion! See Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Freedom.”

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Two questions I received about the internet:

Question: The President of Russia decreed that there must be freedom of the mass media, and that information on the Internet and the TV shouldn’t be censored. What is your opinion?

My Answer: I’m not a political commentator, nor am I well versed in the political “kitchen.” Still, I can say that any actions aimed at creating a connection between people go in the same direction as the development of human society, in accordance to the law of Nature: “To bring humankind to a single whole.” Therefore, such actions are good for those who make them.

Question: Just as anything else, the Internet has a downside: it contains a whole lot of junk. Does everything depend on what we will choose and how much we will desire to correct ourselves?

My Answer: The Internet is a reflection of the society. I hope that society will soon become more corrected, and then the entire Internet will also change: it will be cleansed of all the “junk.”

That’s because the only things that will remain in our world will be the things necessary for our adhesion with the Creator. Everything else will gradually disappear. Then our world will also change in our perception, transforming to the World of Infinity – a world of unbounded existence that is the only thing in existence.

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