In the News (translated from RSCI): New research conducted at the Institute of Geography at the Russian Academy of Sciences shows that changes in the global climate that took place during the 20th century were due to natural causes. The Earth’s system continues to operate according to its natural laws and human society should consider the current global warming as a natural occurrence and not one caused by human activity.

My Comment: Everything comes from Above. The world is managed from Above and does not at all depend on what we do here on Earth. Everything depends on the goal that we have to reach – complete harmony between ourselves and the Creator, and how far we are relative to this goal.

We can influence the higher Management of this world only through the intention to become like It. In fact, everything that we perceive as negative events, forces or situations is part of the essence that motivates us internally and externally toward the attainment of the integral force of Nature.

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A question I received: I don’t know what to do. I feel as if I’ve lost all my energy and I am “hanging in the air.” Nothing interests me at work. Even though I do everything possible in my spiritual work, I feel despair as I’ve never experienced it before. I have no “fuel.” Nothing affects me anymore. I feel no desire for anything in this world, and the only desire I have is to escape to somewhere, but I don’t know where to. My heart tells me that this place exists, but I’m still not there. I have been studying with you for over three years and I can’t imagine life without Kabbalah. But I am getting desperate because I feel like nothing is happening to me. On the contrary, the desires of the external environment are affecting me, making me even weaker. What can I do? I can’t continue like this anymore! What should happen now?

My Answer: The reason you are feeling so weak on the spiritual path is that you lack a connection with the group. You aren’t receiving the importance of the goal from the environment, but this is the most important thing – it’s the foundation of our advancement!

You can read more about these states in the Shamati articles and the Letters of Baal HaSulam. There are Reshimot (information or the genes of our spiritual development) concealed in us, which constantly become revealed, causing our egoistic desire to constantly grow. And we must constantly ascend above these Reshimot using our intention to attain the quality of bestowal and love for the Creator. This is exactly why our egoism grows: to give us the opportunity to rise above it, to rise from our world to the level of the Creator.

And then we will understand Him, as it is written, “For they will all know Me, from the smallest of them to the greatest” (Yirmiyahu 31:33). But the process is always the same: the Reshimot that become revealed in us are always egoistic, and every time, we have to receive the force to rise above them by increasing our connection with the environment (the group).

Related Material:
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Two questions I received about the future:

Question: In the future, will there be a generation that will be able to see and feel the Light? How will they see It, with their souls or even with their eyes?

My Answer: The spiritual world is attained inside the intention “to bestow,” which is born from our intention “to receive,” as a consequence of the Surrounding Light’s (Ohr Makif’s) influence on us. This Light corrects our egoistic intention, turning it into an altruistic one.

Question: Will Kabbalists become the world’s leaders one day?

My Answer: Certainly: in the future, the only people governing the world will be those who have completely attained it, meaning Kabbalists. People will understand this and institute it of their own accord; in other words, they will choose it.

Today we see how wrong the “blind” leaders of the world are and how they “lead” the world through suffering. And lately we see that they aren’t even able to hide their own confusion any longer.

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In the News (from Impactlab): “City Life Is Bad For Your Brain” The urban environment impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. “The mind is a limited machine,” says Marc Berman, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, “And we’re beginning to understand the different ways that a city can exceed those limitations.”

My Comment: Man was created to exist in balance with nature, to be a harmonious part of the correct eco-sphere. This can be achieved when everyone comes to an agreement, in two stages: “Don’t do to others what you don’t want done to you,” and then, “Love your neighbor as yourself. If we build the world and the environment based on these attitudes to everything outside us, then the environment will be optimal for man. Someday, we will get there; Nature will force us to.

News Report (from CNN): “Behavioral screening – the future of airport security?” Security experts say focus is shifting from analyzing the content of carry-ons to analyzing the content of passengers’ intentions and emotions… Developers say the combination of these technologies can detect a person’s reaction to certain stimuli by reading body temperature, heart rate and respiration, signals a terrorist unwittingly emits before he plans to commit an attack.

My Comment (a joke): One day they’ll invent a device that will be able to tell whether a person “loves his neighbor” or not. (They’ll also do this using the external signs, or maybe by one’s immediate reaction to something.) Whoever loves his neighbor is good for society, and whoever does not (whoever hasn’t attained it yet) is an anti-social element.

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From item 40 of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” by Baal HaSulam:

“And I know that it is completely unaccepted in the eyes of some philosophers. They cannot agree that man, whom they think of as low and worthless, is the center of the magnificent creation. But they are like a worm that is born inside a radish and thinks that the world of the Creator is as bitter and as dark as the radish it was born in. But as soon as the shell of the radish [of one’s egoism] breaks and it peeps out [comes out of the egoism, of the intention, “for his own sake,” and enters bestowal and love for others], it wonders [in awe of the Upper World that it revealed] and says: “I thought the whole world was the size of my radish, but now I see before me a grand, beautiful and wondrous world!”

Filed under: Perception - 1 Comment →

Questions I received on the upcoming Congress and inner work:

Question: What is the best way to prepare for the upcoming Congress?

My Answer: You should study the materials from the last Congress (February 2008) and participate in the preparations for the upcoming Congress. Go through the materials about the Congress, and finally, you should be systematically present at our daily lessons (held between 3am and 6am Israel time), or at least at the third part (from 5am until 6am Israel time).

Question: I am trying to find the best way of studying for me. Can a student who’s attracted to his own sex and who studies Kabbalah regularly over the Internet, participate in the Congress that will take place in Israel (to actually come and be there together with everyone)? Can he participate in the Congress preparations? Can he sometimes attend a congress in other countries?

My Answer: Yes.

Question: What is the correct way to unite with the common system?

My Answer: Through the quality of bestowal.

Question continued: Is a person capable of this?

My Answer: Yes, if he does it through a group, by receiving Ohr Makif from above.

Question continued: What kind of force is this, and where can it be found?

My Answer: Only in the study of Kabbalah.

Question: If I understand that everything I do is for the Creator’s sake, and my intention is “for the sake of the Creator,” how can I use Kabbalah to achieve my purpose in life?

My Answer: If you’re already at a point where everything is for the Creator’s sake, then there’s nothing more for you to do…

Question: How is it possible to go from external love to inner love?

My Answer: The same way it is possible to go from egoism to altruism.

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News Report (from Psychological Science): (By Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner of Harvard University) When someone steps on your toe on purpose, it seems to hurt more than when the person does the same thing unintentionally. The physical parameters of the harm may not differ – your toe is flattened in both cases – but the psychological experience of pain is changed nonetheless. Intentional harms are premeditated by another person and have the specific purpose of causing pain. In a sense, intended harms are events initiated by one mind to communicate meaning (malice) to another, and this could shape the recipient’s experience.

My Comment: This comes from the Upper Root of our relationship with the Creator: if we desire to receive without paying attention to Him, the Giver, then we perceive what we receive as this world – bitter, difficult, and temporary. However, if we desire to feel what we receive together with Him, the Giver, then we feel the Upper World, which is eternal and perfect. Then, when our world disappears (when the body dies), our perception – the sensation of the Giver we attained – stays with us forever, as do He and we.

For example, suppose I receive a present. I enjoy it. But then I begin to feel that it has a defect. This helps me to think about the Giver. My egoism cannot stop thinking about Him and asking, “Why isn’t this gift perfect”? As I think about the Giver’s action, I start to scrutinize this action (which is the thought of creation). I examine: what is happening to me from the moment when I started being aware of receiving something from Him, and what is His goal for doing this?

As I reveal His behavior, I begin to understand Him and see that He is kind, good and loving. I start to feel something new: I forget about (and lose the perception of) the gift itself – of our world and our life. What remains is only He and I (without the gift) and our relationship, the sensation of the Upper Life that emerged by virtue of the gift. But we don’t need the gift any longer.

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Three questions I received on the role of women in Kabbalah:

Question: I know many women who watch the second part of the lesson (Talmud Eser Sefirot). In all the years that I’ve been studying, I’ve been watching just the first and third parts of the lesson, and I do dissemination work during the second part. I’ve heard you say that Talmud Eser Sefirot does not help women correct their souls. But the fact that other women listen to Talmud Eser Sefirot confuses me. Maybe I should start listening to it as well?

My Answer: For women, dissemination work is much more important than studying. Men work on correcting their intention by attracting Ohr Makif during the study of Talmud Eser Sefirot (they “earn a living”), whereas women disseminate (give birth). This is a woman’s role in the world.

Question: During one of your lessons you said that the only free will that exists is when men choose to either unite or not to unite when they are working in a group. The rest is decided by the Creator. Since women don’t and can’t work in a group, where is their free will?

My Answer: In helping the group.

Question: What should I look for in my future husband? He obviously needs to study Kabbalah, but what other qualities are absolutely necessary for him to have?

My Answer: Besides your common interests, you shouldn’t feel repulsed by him.

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Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Women - 1 Comment →

A question I received: Please make a list of all the 613 desires that exist in a person, one by one.

My Answer: Just like that, you’d like me to describe all 613 desires in detail? But what for? Not a single one of them exists in you yet! They are revealed in a person after he crosses the Machsom, during his spiritual ascent. These are one’s desires to feel pleasure from the Creator, as it is written, “Taste and see how good the Creator is.”

By revealing the Creator, you begin to feel Him as 613 pleasures or delights. First you feel them in the intention to enjoy Him for your own sake (ABYA of the Klipot), and then you correct these to the intention of “for His sake.” Our language does not enable us to express or describe these desires, because we don’t have them.

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Two questions I received on people who want to harm us:

Question: What is your interpretation of praying for your enemies? Our Rabbi put in two words at the end of our service, “and Ishmael,” and I was extremely upset. Is this part of “love your fellowmen as yourself”? And how can I pray for someone who has vowed our destruction?

My Answer: You should pray for them to stop wishing to conquer or destroy everyone who is “wrong,” because the infinite and eternal Upper World isn’t attained through violence, but through love for everyone.

Question: You said in a previous blog post that “Any person can harm your spiritual path with his thoughts and desires, even unintentionally.” Does that mean only among the points in the hearts in the spiritual world? Or are we talking in the world of “beasts,” in the corporeal world as well?

My Answer: There is one world, but in our consciousness it divides into the part that’s revealed to us and the part that’s concealed from us. We influence both parts as one whole.

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