Three questions I received on the global crisis:

Question: Why do you devote so much time to analyzing the crisis? Why should we care about the suffering of these oblivious and egoistic animals (or why should we pity them egoistically, since we can’t do it any other way)?

My Answer: 1. These people are all close to me!
2. Just like everything else in the world, the crisis has a reason and a purpose. Its purpose is to bring out a need in mankind’s to reevaluate its behavior.

The suffering will not stop until we accomplish this, and accomplish it right. I do the things I do in order to help people choose the correct attitude to what’s taking place, which will reduce the suffering.

Soon enough this “oblivious and egoistic animal suffering” will affect you as well. When it does, please don’t forget to write to me about how your opinion changes regarding how much time people should devote to this problem.

Question: Does it make sense to think of the reciprocal hatred (or lack of reciprocal love) that’s being revealed in the world as a reflection of the state the Bnei Baruch group is in, or my personal state?

My Answer: The group and the world are interconnected, but are on different levels: the group depends on the world for its spiritual ascent, and the world depends on the group to reduce the force of the suffering that descends upon it (whether or not it wants to listen to the group).

Question: Why is the unity of the common soul being revealed today from its reverse side? Do we really need to feel pain from realizing our connection to all people in the world?

My Answer: This is the only way to convince people to correct their nature. Pain is the measure of our imbalance with Nature. And we’re the ones who establish its severity.

Related Material:
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Our friends from Mexico report that 2,000 newspapers were given out in half an hour at the Zocalo Square in the center of Mexico City, where a book fair was being held. People were eager to take the newspapers; they asked questions about the wisdom of Kabbalah and about where they can study it.

Latin America has discovered Kabbalah over the last several years. In every country and in every big city, there are groups of our friends and students, as well as many individual students who study on their own. Because of the enormous distances and expensive plane tickets, we are working on improving our virtual connection so it will create a total illusion of physical communication. Our souls are together anyway! By spring I hope to visit my Latin American students.

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A question I received: I recently started studying Kabbalah, and I am still curious about “practical Kabbalah” and the attributes it uses, such as red strings, holy water, and so on. If these things have been in use for such a long time, then they must also have meaning. For example, a red string symbolizes Rachel who protects a person from the evil eye, or from people’s harmful energy.

My Answer: Practical Kabbalah is when you correct your egoistic qualities, transforming them to the qualities of bestowal and love in practice. This is what is written in all Kabbalistic books, and it is done by studying in a group that unites in order to attain the goal – “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Can you show me any authentic Kabbalistic source texts, from the Ari to Baal HaSulam, that talk about using red strings, fortune telling, holy water, and so on?These things have only a psychological meaning, just like religion. On the other hand, Kabbalah is a practical correction of yourself and as a result of it – attainment of the Creator, in this world, and in this life. This is practical!

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Interview With the Future – Appendix A: “From the Authentic Sources”

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A question I received: It follows from the articles “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” and “The Future Generation” that from the economic point of view, a Kabbalistic society is one of collectivism or communism, and that this is a necessary condition for everyone to receive the Torah and reveal the Creator, since only then can people stop thinking about themselves completely. Are there plans being made regarding new economic relations within the framework of the “Virtual State of Kabbalah?” Or is it still to early for it? Maybe we can implement transitional economic schemes and incorporate them into the modern capitalistic global economy? Generally speaking, how do you think the world economy will develop toward the ideal state?

My Answer: We should not change society and its institutions artificially, but rather we should correct the connections between us from egoistic to altruistic, by means of the Upper Light. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how we can become similar to nature. Hence, by studying it we evoke upon us the Light of correction (the Surrounding Light, Ohr Makif) from above. It changes us, giving us the desires, thoughts, and forces to change everything in us and between us.

If we won’t change under the influence of the Light, but will instead change in whichever way we want to, then we’ll create a big mess all over again, like what happened with socialism in Russia and with the Kibbutzim in Israel. America is now compelled to nationalize businesses, and thus it is becoming socialist instead of capitalist. However, this is not the kind of socialism (or communism) that Kabbalah speaks about.

We, the members of the International Kabbalah Academy (the Bnei Baruch group), must do the following:

1. Provide ourselves with the necessary level of existence;
2. Correct ourselves by studying Kabbalah in the right environment (in our environment – see the article “The Freedom,” which explains what lies in our power of action).

The rest is done by the Light.

Our objective is to create a virtual society, which will serve as an example for the entire world.

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“Freedom of Will” – Lessons

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Questions I received on spiritual advancement:

Question: I have been studying with you for three years through the Internet. I used to attend a local group and even came to one of your lessons. Ever since I started studying Kabbalah, I have become grave and withdrawn. It has become very difficult to communicate with people, including you. My girlfriend left me, nothing seems to be going right in life, and I’ve been planning to write you a letter for a few years already. On the other hand, I am doing better: I have registered on the forum and am writing you a letter. I hope that I’ll be able to keep in touch with you at least virtually. There are many times when I’d like to talk to you.

My Answer: If you’re drowning, you have to save yourself. And if you don’t have friends, then who will rescue you? Hence, success can only come by becoming included in the group, even if you have to force yourself to do it. Then the friends will support you and push you toward the goal.

Question: In one of your lectures you said that we shouldn’t forget that there are ups and downs and that they lead a person toward the goal only if they come from the right aspiration. What is the right aspiration? How can I know that I aspire to the right goal? And generally speaking – does my desire or aspiration really depend on me?

My Answer: If your aspiration emerged in you as a result of unifying with the group, then it is correct.

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Baal HaSulam Article: The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)

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This was sent by my student R. Tzarev:
The financial crisis in the United States is conducted forcefully and is controlled. Russia, Iran, China and the Emirates possess the world’s largest gold and foreign currency reserves. Russia, Iran, Venezuela, China, India and Brazil have begun creating their own alternative global economic system. Together they are beginning to pressure Europe, which is dependent on energy resources, causing it to break away from the US. By now Germany, Italy and France are lobbying for Russia’s interests, speaking out against the US. The European countries, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Kuwait are using the Euro instead of the dollar in their business dealings related to energy products. This rejection of the dollar in the energy dealings will bring about a catastrophic drop of the entire US economy. The US must not allow this to happen. America must not allow itself to be bullied or bankrupted. There’s your reason for the “crisis.”

This was sent by my student O. Yahalom:

In our world there is a system of interaction of two opposite forces – positive and negative, altruistic and egoistic. Otherwise there would never be any growth, change or exchange. Of course, in our world the altruistic force is also egoistic – giving for the sake of greater profit. The dynamics of the current events can be explained by the interaction of these two forces in the world.

The entire global economy is structured in such a way that a person does not hope to receive from a specific source, but from the system as a whole. This leads to the formation of long chains of exchange: one person exchanges with another, the other with someone else, and if the end of the chain gets lost somewhere, man’s animate egoism can no longer motivate him to work, because he no longer sees when he will receive the reward and from whom. The only thing left is a vague “altruistic” intention to receive something from someone. But it gets weaker, because egoism constantly grows – and that’s how an economic crisis starts.

An economic crisis cannot happen within the boundaries of a city, state or other kind of region, because even if the end of the chain is not seen physically, a person still feels that it’s there. However, economic crises take place regularly in the context of a country, yet none of the economists know exactly what causes them. The fact is that they are caused by the undulating changes of balance between egoism and altruism in large groups of people. When egoism recedes – business flourishes. But when egoism continues to grow, altruism grows weaker, and egoism suddenly takes over the people’s consciousness, telling them that they shouldn’t trust the system, but instead receive more and “to the point” – the more the better, and all for themselves!

The first true crisis of altruism on the level of a country happened in the US, in 1929. Back then the American economy came out of the crisis because Roosevelt pumped all the foremost leaders of production and economy with optimism.

The first true crisis on the global level happened in September 2008. The true causes of the crisis lie on the spiritual level, on the level of the opposition between egoism and altruism in every single person and in humanity as a whole. Accordingly, the solution, the way out of the economic crisis can only be found on the spiritual level – humanity’s work towards evoking the Light that corrects egoism.

The Baal Shem Tov (a great Kabbalist who lived in the Russian empire at the end of the 18th century, founder of the Hassidut movement): “If only the Russian Tzar knew how beneficial the study of the Torah is for his country, he would set a guard with a sword beside every Jew, who would stand over him and keep repeating: “Study the Torah! Study the Torah!”

The countries that will lose most from this crisis will be those with energy resources. All of the earth’s resources, no matter where they are, belong to all humankind (see Baal HaSulam’s newspaper, “HaUma (The Nation)” and the article “The Last Generation”). That’s because the Upper Force sees us – humanity – as one single body, the creation. And to the extent that every country (every organ of this body) acts against this unified altruistic organism (reveals that it is ill), to that extent it will eventually be punished (be influenced by negative, correcting feedback, which brings the system to harmony, to recovery) or rewarded (be successful in this world and reveal the governing force).

Related Material:
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Laitman.com Post: The Financial Crisis – an Analysis
Kabbalah Today Article: Humankind and Human Kindness
Article: “On Roots and Branches”
Article: “A Kabbalistic Interpretation of the Economic Crisis”

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The blog “Kabbalah, Science, and the Meaning of Life” has just been aired in Lithuanian:

Kabalos mokslas ir gyvenimo prasmė. Michaelio Laitmano dienoraštis

Groups in Lithuania (in Vilnius and Kaunas) have been studying with us for many years and have even held several congresses already. Our Lithuanian friends actively participate in our congresses all over the world. Many books and articles have been published, as well as a large website in Lithuanian. I also congratulate you on publishing a newspaper in Lithuanian!

As svyajkinu visus mus!

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Two questions I received on the virtual group:

Question: How does mutual guarantee work in a virtual group and what does it mean there?

My Answer: It’s the same as in a physical group, because you are not uniting through the bodies, but through your “points in the heart” – you must feel that they are together. I think that it’s easier to feel this virtually than during physical contact, when the externality overshadows the internality.

Question: On one of the virtual group websites, I proposed to create a Kabbalah Constitution, and to start working on creating it. However, this did not evoke any interest. Should I continue with it?

My Answer: Yes. Get in touch with those who are working on the development of a virtual community at [email protected]

Related Material:
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Baal HaSulam Article: “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
Israel Congress 2005 Intention Handbook – The Intention of the Group

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I was doing some research on modern Kabbalistic sources, and came across a book called Kabbalah: New Perspectives, by Prof. Moshe Idel. In it he mentions a poem by Prof. Gershom Sholem (1897 – 1982) – the founder of the modern academic field of Kabbalah. But before I say more about this poem, here is some background on its author.

Sholem devoted his career to replacing the traditional attainment of Kabbalah with academic and philological research. For example, in one of his lectures, published in the book Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, this is how he describes Kabbalah in his time, “As a result of Kabbalah’s lengthy process of development, during which Kabbalah paradoxically influenced Jewish history, it has again become the same thing it was in the beginning – an esoteric wisdom of small groups of people, who are deprived of contact with life and have no influence on it.” Likewise, in the article “On the Possibility of Jewish Mysticism in Our Time,” Sholem writes, “There is no doubt that in recent generations there were no awakened individuals who could bring mystical teachings to new forms or start significant social movements.”

In this article, like in many others, Sholem denies modern Kabbalah, or Kabbalah of the 20th century. He points out that Kabbalah has ceased playing an important role in the Jewish culture of his time and that no original and innovative Kabbalistic methods have been created since the 18th century! This viewpoint is very obvious in the article “On the Possibility of Jewish Mysticism in Our Time.” Sholem’s attitude to Kabbalah in his time is also described by the modern researcher, Prof. Boaz Hoss, in the article “Don’t Ask All Questions.”

Considering all this, it’s important to point out that Gershom Sholem, the founder of the modern academic research of Kabbalah, and a scholar who’s renowned by the entire academic world, never says a word in any of his research about Baal HaSulam, the greatest Kabbalist of his time, nor of his works on Kabbalah. How can a researcher overlook something like this? This is an example of envy, dishonesty and petty egoism that do not allow a researcher to face the truth: to admit to himself and to the entire world that all academic research of Kabbalah, anything besides its attainment – is false!

When I was giving a series of lectures in American universities, I heard different comments about Gershom Sholem. In particular, I recall one distinctive comment from the Rector of the University of Illinois, who said, “Gershom talked about Kabbalah, but you are talking from Kabbalah. He urged people to research it with the mind, while you urge people to enter it with their feelings.”

The poem that appears below was written by Gershom Sholem shortly before his death, and it shows that despite everything, he finally admitted that he is in the dark and does not attain that which is concealed in the Kabbalistic texts. Yet, the superficial academic approach and the dishonesty in researching Kabbalah that he sowed continue to be practiced by his students.

“Death in the Professoriate” was a result of replacing research of Kabbalah “through oneself and inside oneself” (or in other words, by correcting oneself in similarity to the Upper One) with academic research that’s done “outside of oneself” (in conjunction with meditation according to Abulafia).

“Vae Victis” (Woe to the Conquered) or “Death in the Professoriate”
I threw myself into ancient books.
I was awestruck by their signs.
I spent too much time alone with them.
I could no longer leave them behind.

The glimmer of Truth is ancient,
Yet disaster is unforeseen:
Generations are weakly linked,
And knowledge is not clean.

I have brought back the blurred face
Of the fullness of time.
I was ready to leap into the abyss,
But was I really primed?

The ancestral symbols are here explained;
The Kabbalist was no dope.
But what transformed time proposed
Remains foreign, beyond our scope.

Time transformed casts us a fearsome glance,
For it is unwilling to turn back again.
Yet abandoned joys grow palpable
Once your Vision has dissolved in pain.

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The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Fourteenth Commandment” (abridged)

247. The fourteenth Commandment is to observe Shabbat, which is a day of rest from all the actions of creation. There are two Commandments here: to observe the day of Shabbat and to adorn its holiness, namely to receive Ohr Hochma, called “holiness”; and to observe Shabbat as a day of rest for all the worlds, in which all actions are multiplied and realized even before this day is sanctified.

Shabbat is a state of the spiritual worlds where the Light descending from Above elevates ZA to AA, Nukva to AVI, the Worlds of BYA to YESHSUT, and ZON of the World of Atzilut. As a result, man’s NRN (whoever has it, whoever is spiritually present in the worlds of BYA) also ascends to Atzilut with the worlds of BYA, and there receives Ohr Haya.

248. Because that day was sanctified, the creation of bodiless spirits was to be completed. He asks: “Was the Creator unable to delay the sanctification of that day until the bodies for those spirits were created?” And he answers: “The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil contained an evil side that wanted to govern the world. And many spirits separated and went forth, armed, to clothe in the bodies of this world.

249. However, as the Creator saw this, He roused the wind from within the Tree of Life, ZA, and struck the other Tree, Malchut. And the other, good side was awakened, and the day was sanctified. For the creation of bodies and the awakening of spirits on that night of Shabbat stem from the good side, and not from the evil one.

250. And had he hastened on that night to put forward the other side, before the good side came forward, he would not have been able to withstand it for even an instant. But the Creator provided the remedy in advance. And He sanctified the day beforehand. And He warned to appear before the other side. And the world exists. And that the opposite side thought to rule in the world, i.e., in defiance of it, the good side was created and strengthened on that night. And the good, holy bodies and spirits were created on that night from the good side. Therefore, the delight of sages who know this spans from Shabbat to Shabbat.

251. However, when the other (impure) side saw that what it had planned to do was already done by the holy side, it started to check its own forces and properties, and saw all those who perform a Zivug naked and in the candlelight. Therefore, all of the sons born from that Zivug are enslaved by the spirit of the other side. And these naked spirits of the wicked are called “harming,” and they are ruled and killed by Lilit.

252. And since the day was sanctified, and holiness rules in the world, the other side diminishes itself and hides on each Shabbat day and on each Shabbat night. With the exception of Asimon and his group, who walk secretly in the candlelight, to observe the naked Zivug. And then they hide inside the cave, called Tehom Raba (the great abyss). And as soon as Shabbat ends, many hosts fly and prowl in the world. As a result, everything is corrected by the song of the sufferers, “He who dwells in concealment,” to prevent impurity from governing holiness.

253. What places do they visit on the night of the end of Shabbat? When they come out in haste and wish to govern the holy nation, they see it standing in prayer and singing this song: “He who sits in the shadow (concealment) of the Supernal One,” first separating Shabbat from the weekdays in his prayer, and then over a cup of wine, these forces flee thence and fly away to the desert. May the Merciful One save us from them and from the evil side.

254. The three that cause evil to themselves: a) he who curses himself; b) he who throws away bread or bread crumbs bigger than an olive; c) he who lights the candle at the end of Shabbat before Israel attains sanctity in the prayer, “And You are holy.” And the light from that candle ignites hellfire.

255. There is a place in hell (the sensation of uncorrected desires, shame before the Creator) for those who transgress Shabbat (the ascent towards complete correction). And as they (those who feel that they are wicked) are punished in hell (separation from the Creator), they curse him who lit the candle before its time, and they say to him, “Behold: the Creator will thrust you about with a mighty throw, and He will seize you firmly. He will violently roll and toss you like a ball into a large land; there shall you die (be corrected against your will).”

256. For he should not light the candle at the end of Shabbat before Israel separates Shabbat from the weekdays in their prayer and over a cup of wine, as until that time, it is still Shabbat, and the sanctity of Shabbat still rules over us. And during the separation by means of blessing over a cup, all those hosts and legions that the rulers appointed to govern the weekdays return each to their place to resume the work for which they are responsible.

257. As soon as Shabbat starts and the day is sanctified, holiness awakens and rules over the world; the power of weekdays disappears and returns only when Shabbat ends. However, although Shabbat is over, other forces do not regain their power until Israel says the prayer, “He who separates holiness from the weekdays.” Only then does holiness disappear, and the legions that govern the weekdays awaken and return to their places, each to its above-appointed post.

258. Nevertheless, the impure forces do not assume control until the flame of the candle is lit, for they all come from the root (element) of fire, from which everything originates, and they descend to rule over the lower world. All this happens if one lights the candle before Israel has finished the blessing in the prayer.

259. Yet, if he waits until they complete the blessing, the wicked in hell justify the Creator’s justice over them, and they bring upon him all the blessings, recited by the congregation: “Therefore, the Creator gives you of the dew of Heaven,” “Blessed shall you be in your town,” and “Blessed shall you be in the field.”

260. “Blessed is he who considers the poor (who has attained the futility of trying to correct oneself on his own); the Creator will deliver him in the day of disaster.” What do the words “in the day of disaster” mean? This refers to the day when evil gains power and wants to take his soul away from him. The word “poor” alludes to someone very sick. “He who considers” refers to one who realizes the need to be cured from transgressions before the Creator. Another explanation is that this is the Day of Judgment in the world. “He who considers” signifies one who knows how to save himself from it, as it is written: “The Creator will deliver him in the day of disaster,” meaning that on the day when the judgment against man dominates the world, the Creator will deliver him.

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