News Report (from International Herald Tribune): “On both sides of Atlantic, ’08 was a year to forget, poll finds” As 2008 draws to a close, Americans are more inclined than Western Europeans to say Happy New Year, though both groups are rather pessimistic over all, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, shows overwhelming gloom in Europe about the state of the economy, with the French adhering to their reputation: 5 in 6 people surveyed in France expressed pessimism. The average was 7 in 10 for the other European nations surveyed: Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Stereotypes prevailed on the other side of the Atlantic, too, but even the famous American optimism failed to overcome the harsh reality of unrelentingly negative news, as the survey shows the United States divided almost exactly evenly between optimists and pessimists.

My Comment: Let’s see how our opinion changes throughout 2009. For the first time in history, the coming year depends on us. That’s because this is the first time in history that we’re reached the level of being able to correct our nature. All of our history until now was only an evolution or development of egoism, which unceasingly pushed us ahead. But now we have suddenly come to a halt: egoism has reached its full development, and we have revealed our absolute interconnection through its mutilated form of mutual hatred. The only thing that remains is to correct the egoism through force (the path of suffering) or through the Light (the path of Kabbalah). The choice is ours.

A question I received: What will be different about the epoch after the year 2008?

My Answer: We have revealed the breaking of the common soul into many souls, or in other words, we have revealed our egoistic connection with each other. We will feel greater and greater problems, but we will see that they are purposeful – intended to make us realize that egoism is evil, and to finally correct the connection between us.

Related Material:
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News Report: (translated from life.pravda.com): The cause of the crisis according to the average citizen: The crisis is happening because people speculate and underestimate the value of honesty. Many products and services are not sold at their actual value. Moreover, many people think they are exempted from following the law. The authorities are lying to the people, and the people are lying to the authorities.

The solution to the crisis according to the average citizen: If we grow up (psychologically) and become responsible, if we understand the consequences of our actions, then there won’t be any crises. After all, the crisis only happened where there was greed, and where people’s desires, needs and wealth were excessive.

My Comment: It’s wonderful to see how quickly suffering elicits the correct thoughts in people. We were created as egoists – inside “the will to receive” – on purpose. When we don’t receive as much as we want, we feel suffering. Hence, egoism brings us to the correct solutions.

With a little more suffering, we will begin to reason correctly: we will realize that the answer isn’t to decrease our egoism, but to completely tear away from it, to ascend above it. And then people will suddenly discover that their opinion is already described in Kabbalah – the science about man’s correction.

Related Material:
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Questions I received on questions and answers:

Question: I am confused about how you can give one answer to many questions asked by different people. You treat them as if they are robots, and you give everyone the same answer: that they have got it all wrong and that their path will clear up with time. I agree that there is a lot of confusion along the way, but how can you assume this kind of authority? After all, every soul is different from the others, and their paths are also different. Just as there cannot be two identical people, there can’t be one answer for everyone. I think that you have to open up to people a bit more.

My Answer: Man is the desire to enjoy. Everything is determined only by the size and quality (type) of the desire. Generally speaking, everyone develops in the same way – just like it happens with children’s physical development. There is only one Law. And just like with children, the differences are insignificant. The method is the same for everyone, and I was not the one who created it. The Teacher (me) explains the method and the rules of spiritual development; he gives answers and advice, and the student applies them to himself. Through the searching and the confusion, called “the Creator’s concealment,” one seeks the opportunity to reveal the Creator by changing himself.

I understand your complaints about me and about the path, but you will have to accept the conditions of spiritual development – “from darkness to the Light.” Continue reading and you will see why it cannot be different.

Question: Sometimes people ask you simple questions on the blog, but your answers are so complicated that it seems as if you’re not answering the questions directly. Instead the answers always come with broad, lengthy and complicated explanations. Is there a reason for this? I sincerely hope that you will have the courage to post this question.

My Answer: It’s because I’m either unable to give a simpler answer, though I do try, or you don’t understand the depth of the question and the answer.

Question: When I have questions, should I look for the answers only through my study? Or should I ask them and make them public? Or can I combine these two alternatives?

My Answer: By making efforts, you evoke the influence of the Correcting Light (Ohr Makif) upon you. As a result of Its influence, you will start understanding and seeing through the matter of our world.

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Two questions I received on development through Kabbalah:

Question: It says in a book by Rav Kook that there are two kinds of redemption: redemption that comes in due time (בעיתה – Beito), and redemption that comes in response to a person’s plea (אחישנה – Ahishena). Either way, redemption will come eventually. According to Kabbalah, we have to change from within, and then we’ll attain happiness. And by spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah, we will make everyone happy because they will receive the same Light. But then it would seem that Kabbalah contradicts the notion of the existence of time for correction.

Answer: You’ve mixed it all up! Kabbalah was given to us so that instead of progressing “in due time,” we will speed up time (progress through אחישנה – Ahishena). This means that we can develop without waiting for the suffering to come (without בעיתה- Beito).

Question: What do you mean by the point in the heart? Also, do you mean that fate – or circumstances in our life that might be difficult – push us to this point so we will discover our purpose?

Answer: Suffering and emptiness lead a person to the question about their meaning, cause and purpose. Gradually a person starts feeling that he needs to understand the cause of all that’s happening, and this feeling is a subconscious desire to reveal the Creator. A person then discovers the source of this knowledge (the books, group, and teacher), and reaches the goal.

The point in the heart is the desire to reveal the Creator, and Kabbalah is the method or means to reveal Him. The point in the heart is your soul’s initial desire, and your soul then begins to develop from this point. The point in the heart is similar to a seed: when it’s placed in the environment that’s right for its development (the group, books, and teacher), it begins to develop into a vessel of the soul – a desire in which a person begins to sense the Upper Force, the Creator.

Related Material:
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A question I received: What stages will we have to go through to get to the end of the crisis?

My Answer:
1. Economists and manufacturers believe that apparently, the crisis is necessary in order to “change” our world: to rid us of excess manufacturing facilities, to shift to new technologies and means of production, to raise the consumers’ qualification when it comes to assimilating the newest forms of production and services. This is why the crisis has to go through the stages that it does: restriction of production, optimization of business, implementation of new technologies, elimination of physically and morally outdated products, cautious growth and assimilation of new products.

2. Kabbalah says that the crisis will change our society: every person will assume his objective, rational place in the integral human society. This will happen by virtue of one’s desire to receive what one needs and to give everything that one can. One will enjoy the well-being of the society and the revelation of the Upper Source of fulfillment, the Creator, which is revealed through “love for one’s neighbor.” The path can be long and difficult, one of wars and famine (this is the natural egoistic development), or it can be quick and pleasant, by means of revealing the Creator and His plan, and by coming closer to Him (the Kabbalistic development).

See the article “Freedom of Will” and others.

Related Material:
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Questions I received on parallel universes, the Zeitgeist movie, the year 2012, and Jesus:

Question: On a show called “The Universe,” scientists explain the possibility of parallel universes and that they will soon be able to mathematically prove their existence. I know these worlds aren’t the spiritual ones we learn about in Kabbalah, but is it possible that for every spiritual world that exists, there is a corporeal universe – parallel to this one – that also exists in direct relation to each spiritual world? And if so, and also given the fact that all of creation exists for the purpose of correction, could other corrections be occurring simultaneously on these other parallel corporeal universes?

My Answer: There is nothing in existence besides what is described by Kabbalah: our world and the five spiritual worlds. See Talmud Eser Sefirot and Baal HaSulam’s drawings.

Question: I read your blog post where somebody asked you about the Zeitgeist movie. I watched that movie as well, and I’m shocked because I saw many Kabbalistic ideas in it. I really encourage you to watch it. I would like to know your opinion about it – similar to that about the movie “What the Bleep Do We Know!?”

My Answer: I tried to watch it, but couldn’t keep going after a few minutes…

Question: I have read and watched numerous things that had dealt with the year 2012. 2012 was said to be “the end of the world.” I also read that by December 21st, 2012, it will be a new age and the attainment of the highest individual human potential. Does this have anything to do with Kabbalah?

My Answer: No. Everything depends exclusively on us – and on you!

Question: Some teach that Jesus is the middle line, yet I strongly believe that he does not move like a Kabbalist. I wanted to know if I was right or not to feel this way about Jesus?

My Answer: Kabbalah speaks only about the Creator and man, about how man can attain the Creator.

Related Material:
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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.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Men, Women, and the Soul’s Correction
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News Report (translated from Pravda.com.ua): The Ukrainian Secretary of Finance, V. Pinzenik stated: “The world can come out of the crisis if we all reach out to each other. The key problem facing the world right now is egoism. In a normal situation, egoism is the right thing. But in the current situation, the world will not come out of the crisis unless people forget all about egoism for a year. The problem is in people’s heads.”

My Comment: Actually, egoism has never been “the right thing,” but the world has never known another nature. However, now that we’ve revealed our integral interconnection in one closed system, we will be forced to subdue every person’s individual egoism in favor of the system’s existence. We must forget about egoism forever. And the problem is not just in people’s heads. We don’t know how to get rid of egoism. Therefore, humanity will still have to go through the following stages:

• Finding the correct definition of “What is egoism?”
• Recognizing that man’s egoism is the only source of evil
• Recognizing that egoism is our entire nature
• Recognizing that it’s impossible to get rid of egoism
• Discovering that Kabbalah is the means to replace egoism with altruism
• Applying Kabbalah and attaining the integral existence of all people

Only the dissemination of Kabbalah is able to reduce this path of suffering. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see that people are beginning to open their eyes! They have never done this before!

Related Material:
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Two questions I received on work with spiritual descents:

Question: Sometimes I get this horrible feeling that everything I have in this life (my job, family, health, the world I live in) is about to collapse, and this feeling changes my outlook on life. How do we use such states?

My Answer: You should begin to understand that the birth of a new state occurs only through this path of “descents and ascents.”

Question: What is the meaning of “falling in order to rise”? If a person suddenly starts doing things he would never have done before, is this a descent?

My Answer: If this person studied Kabbalah in his free time, then this is a case of an increased egoism. It is written, “If one is higher than others, his egoism is greater than theirs.” This is talking about “falling in order to rise.” This is the correct process of revealing our nature! The benefit of this is that one needs an enormous desire in order to attain the Creator, and this is how such a desire gets created. This period will pass and be followed by a spiritual ascent. It will then be replaced by another descent, and so on – all the way until the full correction, the highest degree.

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Shamati #6.” What Is Support in the Torah, in the Work”
Free online Kabbalah course

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A person’s soul consists of two parts, called Galgalta Eynaim and AHP. The holiday of Hanukkah symbolizes the correction of the Galgalta Eynaim, and the holiday of Purim symbolizes the correction of the AHP. This is why there are customs in our world to celebrate these events in a person’s spiritual path.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmwJlWHp6w8]

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