We all exist as one unified, giant system of souls. If some of the souls advance out of their own free choice, then so does the whole system.

If some parts of the system have received an opportunity to choose freely, but aren’t using it, then they are cut off from actively participating in the system. The system of souls is a living organism where changes are taking place non-stop, depending on how the souls in it rise and descend, realize their freedom of choice or not. They cause changes in all the souls and determine how the entire system will advance to the final, corrected state.

By neglecting to use one’s freedom of choice, a person rejects the Creator’s personal governance over him and shifts to a path of suffering. He then accumulates suffering until reaching a sufficient realization of evil, which makes him worthy of receiving freedom of choice once again, and this time using it.

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There are two forces leading us to our goal. One force is our desires and the desires of the environment, which develop us in this world. But the second force does not pertain to this world; it pulls a person toward the unknown and brings him to a special, spiritual environment – a teacher, a group, and Kabbalah books.

If one connects with them properly, then he builds the spiritual world for himself, which is his future world. One’s body remains in the material world, while one’s soul becomes born in the spiritual world. This is the only realm where a person has freedom of choice.

A person is always inside the field of these two opposite forces, and he has to balance them out. However, he shouldn’t try to replace one with the other; one needs his life and the desire to enjoy in this world also.

On the spiritual path, one always finds oneself between two opposite forces. By balancing them within oneself, a person uses his free choice to build his “self” between these two forces. He does this freely and independently.

A person receives everything else from Above: his desires, mind, strength, and examples, but he builds himself on his own. It turns out that he creates a creature out of himself, becoming equivalent to the Creator!

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A person who advances in the spiritual sense discovers that all of reality is corrected except for him, and everything depends on him alone. “The world was created for me.” I tip the world’s balance over to goodness or evil at every moment of my life.

It’s as if all the other people don’t do anything, since they have no freedom of choice. In every moment of my existence,  I am the only one that has the freedom to change the world for the better.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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We advance under the influence of two opposite forces: bestowal (the Creator’s force) and reception (man’s force). It’s impossible to have a situation where only one force is present, similar to how in our world you can’t have one pole without the other.

Thus, each of us is influenced by these two forces at every moment in life. In addition, these forces are balanced so as to create a condition of freedom for us – the freedom to advance toward spirituality, toward the quality of bestowal.

This is why we are always in a “fracture zone,” if you will. One moment you’re excited, full of energy and movement, and the next moment you fall so low that you have no energy to move. The system of governance conceals the things that impede our development and creates various inner states for us, which depict the surrounding world. But all of this is in order for each of us to realize his free choice.

A person’s task is to do everything that’s in his power in every situation. Even if he thinks, “I’m good for nothing, and I’m definitely not fit for doing spiritual work. It’s intended for great people who have a lot of energy and talent.” Well, that’s just not true! It’s not the strong people who merit to reveal the Upper World, but the people who keep treading the path toward it! The souls that end up reaching the greatest heights are those that start their ascent from the very depth of egoism.

If a person has any opportunity to advance, then even if it’s purely egoistic, and even if he’s imagining all kinds of enticing rewards for his egoism – this is still a good thing! This is similar to how a donkey does work with its eyes tied by a cloth and a sac of grain dangling in front of its nose. This makes him walk around in circles and turn the wheels that turn the grain (an animal’s food), into flour (a human’s food). This is how an animal grows into a human being.

So, don’t pay too much attention to the conditions you are given, whether external or internal. All the states that we go through, regardless of how silly or useless they seem to us, are always the most useful for our advancement. We only have to try and do everything we can, like a baby that never gives up and is always tireless and enthusiastic. If we remain just as persistent, then we will definitely succeed!
(From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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A question I received: Our family often watches your programs. My wife says that you often contradict yourself, even during the same program. For instance, in one of the “Ask the Kabbalist” episodes, you categorically denied that Kabbalists engage in predicting the future of our corporeal bodies. But later, in the same program, you said that in the 1930s Baal HaSulam predicted two world wars. This relates to corporeal matters, doesn’t it? My wife wants to know why is it that you always contradict yourself?

My Answer: What I meant is that Kabbalists know the way the future will come from Above, or in other words, what will happen if things advance along the path called Beito, meaning “in due time,” or when things follow the unchanging, rigid laws of nature. However, when we make corrections, we shift to the path called Ahishena, and thus we affect how these forces will manifest in our world and how they will be expressed inside us.

To the extent we correct ourselves and understand things better, we will feel good instead of bad. But no Kabbalist, or anyone else for that matter, can ever know how anything will actually turn out, because man has freedom of will to change his destiny. (See Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Freedom.”)

If you read the terrible prophecies of the future, keep in mind that the prophets were describing only the path of Beito. They did not know how corrected we will be, and therefore, how we will handle certain situations.

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A question I received: You talk a lot about upbringing and education. However, nothing was ever accomplished through persuasion.

My Answer: My organization and I do not want to persuade anyone who does not wish to listen to us. Actually, we don’t want to persuade anyone about anything. We are only addressing those who want to learn about the method of Kabbalah. We address those who feel a need to find a new way of life.

In fact, persuasion is contrary to the laws of nature. This is because a person’s only freedom of will is to change himself, and it is forbidden to deprive him of this opportunity!

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If we free ourselves of the unnecessary, extraneous activities which are not related to the correction of relationships between people, we would do what is necessary. This is the only action where we can implement our freedom of will, and we would see precisely what we need to do and where we need to correct ourselves.

This is only a small area, but it should be clear to absolutely every person that this is where the focus of our choice lies. If we correct our relationships, we will reach the end of correction and the goal of creation. However, if we do not clarify this, we have no choice in our actions and will remain like animals.

Nature will show us our corruption in all of its aspects: in the state of the economy, health problems, the system of upbringing and education of children and family relationships – in all the forms of egoism that are enclosed within us.

If we do not correct the relationships between people, everything else will be presented to us by Nature in a broken manner.

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No matter how much the bankers and the economists search for a regulator, they will not find it. After all, the only regulator for our state is in the rule “love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the only form of correct participation in the global system.

Otherwise, you will never have the freedom of will or the opportunity for independent action, and you will remain an inanimate little screw within a rigid system, forced to twist and turn as the system sees fit. But none of it will be done by you – you will be twisted and turned by others.

In order to make decisions and act independently, you need faith above reason and pure bestowal. No other method can be used to influence this system. If everyone were to begin to act this way, suddenly we would find that we are all rising above our previous egoistic calculations of trying to guess how each person would act, which is entirely impossible.

After all, by trying to reveal this formula and coming closer and closer to it, you suddenly switch from a numerical system of calculation to an analogous one. In other words, you stop counting 1+1+…, breaking the whole circle into segments. Because the calculation continuously gets harder, and there are more and more segments, in the end all of them merge into a common integral – into one common circle. You are then no longer able to perform a calculation according to your egoistic nature – you are forced to ascend to bestowal. And this is the only action that can be performed.

This is like a common integral, when you need to measure the area, so you break it up into segments, estimate the area of each, and then add them up, which is how the segments form a circle.

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A person lives in his own reality and suddenly begins to understand that this entire reality simply unfolds in front of him and that he has absolutely no freedom of choice. It is as if he sits in a theater and watches a movie that shows him sitting in a theater, watching a movie, and so on into infinity.

Where then is true reality? With this question, the internal search begins. This search brings one to the point where he starts to see that there is nothing external to him: everything happens inside of him. As long as he has a body and emotions, he receives some internal picture which he perceives as his reality.

Rabash describes this in the story of the coachman. The coachman had a house, a wife, children, a horse and a carriage and was very happy with his life. All of a sudden, he loses everything: his family, his wife, children, and even the horse died. In the end, grief-stricken, he also dies.

He arrives in Paradise and because of all his suffering, it is decided that he will be granted a gift. He receives that which he most desires: the sensation that he has a house, a wife, children, a carriage and several horses! So he imagines that he is riding in his carriage led by strong horses, is successful with work; all in all, he is enjoying life!

Maybe we also are in such a state? How can we determine this? How can we exit ourselves and see what is really happening? It could be that we are sleep-walking. Or perhaps we are being controlled by aliens who placed us in formaldehyde and are showing us a movie, while in reality we exist in glass bottles and have been sleeping for millions of years. And this we consider to be our world…?

But there is a method which allows us to rise above this entire reality and see it from the perspective of the Upper Force, the Creator. It’s like fish that suddenly start to wonder: “Who changes the aquarium water?”

And thus begins a different path that leads a person toward his Creator. This happens when one attains this system and by using it, ascends toward Him.

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Questions I received concerning freedom, balance and the meaning of the Egyptian plagues.

Question: What does a free person feel?

Answer: Man’s freedom lies in being able to maintain the equilibrium in all of creation, to sustain it and balance it “standing on one foot.” On the right side of the scale is the Creator’s force of bestowal. On the left side of the scale is the Creator’s force of reception. These are direct and opposite sides; the holy and evil forces. And if a person can balance himself in between them, he is given the freedom of will from the influence of both and can thereby express his free choice.

Question: How is it possible to balance on the tip of a needle?

Answer: You have to glue yourself to the Creator, draw Him to yourself with all your might and get close to Him, as a baby to his mother. The baby loves to feel himself under her protection, and from there can boldly look onto the whole world. Or, while sitting in her arms, he can point his finger  to where he wants to go – thereby expressing his will!

This is the correct way in which a baby develops. He knows that with his mother he is safe, and that she will use all her strength and every opportunity to fulfill his desires.  This is the correct way for us to work with the Creator!

Question: What do the Egyptian plagues refer to?

Answer: This is how the Creator teaches a person to battle with his nature, while hardening it and warning man against it. He provides examples of how we can fight our egoism.

This is the Creator, saying: “Go to Pharaoh! This is what you have to do. Take Me by the hand and hold onto Me. I will also hold you, but you have to learn how to cling to Me, so that you can resist the monster, which is revealed within you through his 10 primary unclean forces. All that is required of you is to sit in My arms and desire for this monster to be vanquished. I will appease the monster according to your instructions only if you glue yourself to Me.”

If a person performs this work, it means that he has freedom of will, since in this state, he has all the conditions needed.

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