News Report (from Time Magazine): Harvard social scientist Dr. Nicholas Christakis and his political-science colleague James Fowler at the University of California at San Diego created a sensation with their announcement earlier this month of a 20-year study showing that emotions can pass among a network of people up to three degrees of separation away, so your joy may, to a larger extent than you realize, be determined by how cheerful your friends’ friends’ friends are, even if some of the people in this chain are total strangers to you.

In their most recent paper, published in the British Medical Journal, Christakis and Fowler explored the emotional state of nearly 5,000 people and the more than 50,000 social ties they shared. That led to their intriguing finding of just how contagious happiness can be: if a subject’s friend was happy, that subject was 15% more likely to be happy too; if that friend’s friend was happy, the original subject was 10% more likely to be so. Even if the subject’s friend’s friend’s friend–entirely unknown to the subject–was happy, the subject still got a 5.6% boost. The happiness chain also worked in the other direction, radiating from the subject out to her friends.

My Comment: And if we would mutually “infect” (energize) each other with happiness, everyone would be 100% happy. You may object, “But I don’t feel any happiness!” This is no excuse because even if you smile artificially, another person will perceive it as real, and will become happier, more joyful – and it will come back to you through someone else.

This is how beginner Kabbalists, who haven’t yet attained the greatness of the Creator, infect each other with the feeling of His greatness in order to artificially rise above egoism. While they still don’t have the quality of love for each other, they artificially cultivate love, they “play love,” and then it really emerges because their desire evokes the Light of Correction (Ohr Makif) from above.

Something similar happens in our world: a child who wants to be a grown-up, grows by imitating the grown-up. Unknowingly, the child attracts a higher energy upon himself. It is called “higher” because it comes from the child’s next degree of development, and it comes to the child because of his desire to reach it.

This is the only method to ascend from one degree to the next, both in our world and in the spiritual world. Even when we observe the dynamics of growth in vegetative and animate organisms, we witness the same principle: the negation of one’s current state and the desire for the next state become the driving force of change and growth. Hence, Kabbalah uses real forces of nature!

News Report (from Reuters): The online survey of 28,153 people in more than 51 countries by the global marketing and information firm Nielsen, found that as the world grapples with a recession and financial markets remain volatile, many people are reminding themselves that money can’t buy happiness.

The Nielsen Happiness Study found that globally, women are happier than men in 48 of the 51 countries surveyed in April 2008. “Because they are happier with non-economic factors, women’s happiness is more recession-proof,” Nielsen Vice President of Consumer Research Bruce Paul said in a statement. … Men are happier with money, while women find greater joy in friendships and relationships with their children, co-workers and bosses … Women are also more optimistic about the future … more content with their sex lives…

As well as gauging levels of happiness, the Nielsen survey examined what specific factors contributed to happiness around the world. “Many of the world’s poorer and emerging markets outranked developed countries for happiness and satisfaction levels in nearly all aspects of their lives,” said Paul.

My Comment: It’s ok to feel jealous…

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Questions I received on the meaning of Kabbalistic words and the point in the heart:

Question: What is the meaning of the expression, “There are many thoughts in a person’s heart, but the Creator will save us from all of them”?

My Answer: Only the Upper Light can fill all our desires and thoughts by giving them the correct properties and forms.

Question: Does the point in the heart depend on the number of life cycles one has gone through? I just don’t understand why it is still dormant in many people.

My Answer: The point in the heart awakens when a person grows disillusioned in trying to fulfill all his earthy desires. It is for this purpose that he goes through a history of lives for many millennia!

Question: I have been studying Kabbalah for the past two years or so. There are two things that seem to confuse me and that could be because I keep on associating the meaning of “pleasure” and “desire” with our world. It would be greatly appreciated if you could expand on these two words for me or direct me to the place I can find the information.

My Answer: Pleasure is the sensation of a fulfilled desire – any desire. Desire is an aspiration to fulfill oneself with something one desires, with pleasure. However, in Kabbalah the desire is a desire for the Light, and the pleasure is pleasure from the Light.

Question: Is it possible to convey the essence of your lessons through sign language?

My Answer: Yes, if someone will understand it, for example, deaf people.

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Questions I received on finding the right spiritual path:

Question: In my search for spirituality I found many methods of spiritual development, including different forms of Kabbalah, yet I still haven’t found a remedy for my soul. Does it even exist?

My Answer: Only you can find your own path, without any influence from others, without “help” from outside, and without looking at what others are doing. And the same goes for every person.

Kabbalah is intended only for those who ask about the meaning of life. Hence, only those who ask this question, and who delve into the heart of it, find that authentic Kabbalah is for them. The rest are satisfied with false methods, psychology, religion, or mysticism, all of which may be presented under the name “Kabbalah.”

Question: Say a Hindu sage reduces his ego to zero point. Would he not then sense the spiritual world? Does he attain the screen? Or does one experience the illusion of evolution from the very beginning all over again?

My Answer: A screen can only appear over a desire that is above our world, but all the religions and other methods actually decrease the egoism of our world. So how can a screen appear over the leftovers of a suppressed egoism?

Question: Does Kabbalah talk about the non-dualistic? Meaning, that there is no person, ego, world, etc. Just consciousness. What prevents us from seeing that consciousness is the concept of “I” which takes credit for everything that happens in the world when in reality the “I” has no real choice whatsoever. Choice and events just happen.

My Answer: In Kabbalah, everything is researched and verified experimentally. The only proof for something is one’s perception of it, rather than any kind of fabrication. Kabbalah does not negate or assert anything; it is a practical expansion of our perception.

You should philosophize less and focus more on what you have personally experienced. You can only validate something through facts, without connecting them to any theories. Work according to the principle, “I will recognize You from Your actions to me.”

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News Report (from Science News Magazine): People are mistaken when they expect that the more they spend on gifts, the more those gifts will be appreciated. … recipients preferred gifts that they really needed or that had special personal meaning, regardless of price. … It’s indeed the perceived thought that counts…

My Comment: We can receive from our world only as much as an animal can: only what is necessary for our body’s existence. In this regard, we are completely the same as animals. All the excess that we “receive” is only to our detriment. There’s a wise saying, “A bit of harmful food is healthier than too much healthy food.” Excess creates emptiness in us, bringing about depression and an endless pursuit of illusory fulfillment.

So how does the Creator implement His plan “to delight the creatures with absolute and eternal pleasure”? This isn’t attained by increasing the quantity of the fulfillment, but its quality. We are unable to take in any more that what is necessary for the existence of our animal bodies. However, when we come to recognize the greatness of the Creator, who gives to us, this infinitely increases our sensation of what we receive from Him, because He is infinite. This is how we attain the sensation of eternal and perfect life. Therefore, the goal of our development lies in attaining, “Taste and see how good the Creator is.”

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Two questions I received on doubts that arise along the way:

Question: Many people describe the moment they first encountered Kabbalah as a feeling of: “This is it! I finally found what I was destined for!” During my first encounter with Kabbalah I too felt that I found the most correct solution. What bothers me is that I still have constant doubts about this path, and I constantly push these doubts away with the help of the studies. Why don’t I have a sense of confidence?

My Answer: Other people also have the same doubts about the authenticity of this path, because every person must find and verify the authenticity of this teaching for himself. As a result of the doubts, in order to come out of them, a person develops and advances.

Our path is to study for ourselves what the Creator created. Therefore, if a person begins to look at himself from the point of view of an outsider and treats himself “from afar” or “from outside,” this helps him to study the Creator. The doubts will accompany you all the way until your full correction, because they are constantly generated by the new degree that is being revealed and it still uncorrected.

Question: Am I advancing in the right direction by studying the science of Kabbalah if I don’t accept everything I read or hear? Some things go straight into the heart and I accept them with all of my soul, but there are also moments of analysis and doubt.

My Answer: The authentic study is always built on examination. However, you should examine yourself as well: maybe it’s your egoism checking how profitable something is for it? An examiner must rise above himself and his egoistic interests, and be willing to accept things objectively. This should be the result of your examination. Only an “animal” doesn’t have any doubts, since it works by primitive egoism.

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A question I received: Are we done with this crisis?

My Answer: I’m not an economist, but in my opinion, the real crisis is still ahead of us. This opinion is based on real data and the fact that we still haven’t drawn the conclusion that we have to correct ourselves. After all, the reason for the crisis is to awaken us toward correction.

For now we’re observing the crisis at the stock market, but it may take another year for it to manifest in the economy. The tsunami wave of the financial crisis has not reached humanity yet. For now all the stock market plunges are mostly assessed by the anticipation of the financial crisis.

How will it manifest? There will be a wave of unemployment, wage reduction, the virtual disappearance of high-tech, a drop in real estate prices, growth of inflation, bankruptcies, nationalization of banks, and annulment of investors’ savings. And this will continue until we recognize the reason for this crisis – us!

News Report (from zibb.com): The Saudi Arabian King, Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz stated in an interview: “Monetary experts and the leaders of major countries which were affected by the crisis expect the crisis to end within a year and a half. According to them, they need to restore confidence and reassure people. I think that if these international gigantic economies cooperate, they will be able to get through this crisis, as they had done in previous crises.”

My Comment: Long live the king! He’s right, as long as he’s talking about true cooperation, as befits a small village or a family. This shows that man is starting to change.

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News Report (from CNN): The CEO of Merrill Lynch was putting in for a $10 million bonus for 2008 – mostly because, in 2008, he adeptly held Merrill Lynch down to a loss of only $11.67 billion … at a time when Wall Street rivals like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearn’s collapsed entirely. …is this guy nuts?

This was all front page news in The Wall Street Journal today, and because of that, by late this afternoon Mr. Thain came to his senses and withdrew his bonus request. Being publicly hung out to dry can be quite a motivator.

My Comment: I don’t think it had anything to do with him being ashamed. Shame is something he couldn’t feel, just as he wouldn’t be able to understand why his request was tactless. I think he was simply told that this is what he should do: withdraw his request. Besides, he may still get his bonus “under the table.” These people are insatiable and shameless because they vainly try to fulfill themselves with empty numbers and digits. But they only end up feeling emptier than before!

The Book of Zohar states that all that is received in excess of our necessities transforms inside us into a bigger desire, which will never be possible to fulfill. Hence, a person becomes even more zealous in his pursuit of fulfillment he doesn’t actually need, fulfillment that’s excessive and not necessary for his existence. Thus he is never satisfied, until he dies.

“Ein Adam Met Ve Hatzi Taavo Be Yado” – “A person dies without being even halfway fulfilled.” That’s because one’s attempts to be fulfilled only make his emptiness increase twofold. So, instead of being jealous of these billionaires, you’d be better off using the method of authentic, eternal, and perfect fulfillment!

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I participated in two conversations for the TV Series “The Butterfly Effect.” One was on the social economy, and the second – on the global solution to the economic crisis.

Speaking with me was Shlomo Maoz, the chief economist at Excellence Nessuah Investment House.

Shlomo Maoz is a famous international economist, who predicted a number of trends in the global economy, and whose forecasts and advice are valued in the financial market. In this case he again expressed the most correct solution from the perspective of common (egoistic) sense! However, Kabbalah’s point of view is different.

His advice on how to overcome the financial crisis is the following:
1. We have to return to “life at home,” work less, restrict the high-tech industry and the Internet, spend more time with our families and maintain a small community. The Internet is the source of the crisis because it has connected the whole civilization on earth into a “small village” (see my comment #1 below).

2. More women should be appointed to management positions because women make business less egoistic, more sensible and flexible, and less arrogant.

This advice clearly echoes the history of Ancient Babylon:
4500 years ago, the ancient Babylonian civilization – which included all of humanity within a closed area – began to experience a global crisis of a “small village”:

• People discovered that everyone depends on everyone.

• Every person’s egoism was exposed to the maximum (allegorically speaking, they wanted to rise up to the heavens).

• Everyone’s hatred for everyone was revealed; people stopped understanding each other (allegorically speaking, their languages became confused).

Then two propositions emerged:
Abraham proposed for everyone to unite “as one family,” which is what Nature compelled them to do. This union could be achieved by using the science of Kabbalah that he revealed.

Others, led by Nimrod, were against this, and since the other path was egoistically clear to everyone, the majority of the people accepted it. Hence they scattered all over the earth, destroying the connections of a “small village” among each other and annulling the globalization.

This is what Shlomo Maoz proposes we do today. The proposition is correct and addresses the problem. However, in our time it cannot be the solution. It is similar to other “solutions,” such as how to break our relationships by means of another world war, or to discontinue our communication artificially. However, there is no going back because today our egoism embraces the entire civilization on earth.

The science of Kabbalah says that we cannot go our separate ways peacefully a second time. Instead, mankind will all but destroy itself by engaging in the Third and Fourth nuclear World Wars. Then only a few people will remain on the Earth, and they will nevertheless correct themselves (our souls) and will attain the goal of  creation – similarity to Nature (the Creator).

In the past, only a few people heeded Abraham’s advice. They later became known as Israel, which means “straight to the Creator.” Today, just like Kabbalah had predicted for thousand years, we find ourselves in the same situation. However, the solution isn’t to disconnect, as this will bring about Nazism and cause us to annihilate each other. The solution lies in creating an even greater connection with each other!

Therefore:

• Mankind must resolutely restrain all extremists and people who aim to disconnect us, even if it will have to resort to physical coercion.

• For the sake of survival, every person has to be satisfied with the necessities (see my comment #2 below) and contribute all the excess of his labor to the well-being of the entire society.

• All mass media and educational systems must provide a global education for mankind.

My Comment #1: Today humanity is experiencing a period that’s similar to the mid-life crisis of an individual. The inertia to move forward that started at birth is running out. Now we have to progress consciously, by our own efforts. We have to understand where we are moving and why: what is the goal? When a person doesn’t understand his goal at mid-life, he starts resorting to extremes: earning a bundle of money,  remarrying someone younger, and so on. His greatest fear is to remain alone with his own thoughts and the ultimate question: “What is this all for?”

This is why now, as strange as it may seem, society is somewhat happy to encounter the financial crisis, because it can hold it accountable for all the incomprehensible negative phenomena it has been facing over the recent years, such as the lack of a clear direction for further development, a dead end in international relations, and geopolitical changes. Now there is an understandable common problem that has to be combated. All the rest can be put aside for the time being.

My Comment #2: Let’s recall an example of the right attitude to the world as told by the Biblical story about the heavenly manna. The people were instructed to gather exactly as much as they needed to eat in one day. All the excess would spoil overnight, because it didn’t belong to them! So, the current crisis is teaching us to get rid of the excess. When the crisis deepens and spreads even more, people will start thinking that it’s useless to make such great efforts to gather something that will spoil anyway.

For more on this, see the newspaper “The Nation“, the book From Chaos to Harmony, and my lecture in Arosa.

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News Report (translated from K2Kapital.com): “The word ‘Socialism’ is no longer looked down on in the USA” The crisis on Wall Street, loss of savings and pension funds, the real estate market collapse and unemployment have raised the issue of economic survival. The crisis calls for an increase of government regulation and a rejection of liberal methods in the financial sector. The word “socialism,” terrifying to the American ear just a short time ago, no longer seems so scary. What’s so bad about socialism, anyway? Let the government care for its citizens instead of protecting the interests of billionaires.

My Comment: For the time being, the aspiration toward socialism is selfish and egoistic, but it cannot be otherwise. People are gradually starting to realize that globalization is the new reality in which we need to live, that the world is like a small village, like one family.

This concept is readily talked about, but not yet fully grasped. We haven’t yet accepted it as a fact, as a phenomenon that has suddenly manifested in our world, which we cannot escape, and which obliges us to completely change our lives.

It is similar to the feeling of a person who has been sentenced to life imprisonment: he gradually realizes that his life now has to undergo a major change, and how such a change requires him to adopt an attitude and behavior different from before.

Hence, a natural consequence of feeling the effects of globalization, global interconnection and interdependence, is the perception of socialism as desired and superior. However, we will need to correct the way we think about socialism. When we will feel that everyone in the world is one family, we will reveal the Upper Light, the sensation of harmony, delight and eternal life. But before this happens, people will have to go through the path of rejecting egoism. And in order to desire this, they will have to realize that egoism is evil. This can happen through:

• Actual suffering due to egoism (known as “the ten plagues of Egypt,” where the first plague is the financial crisis that is starting to develop as we speak), or

• Through theoretical recognition and the study of Kabbalah.

Either way, mankind will have to consciously arrive at the understanding that “everyone is one family,” where every person takes every family member into consideration. For more on this, see the article, “The Freedom,” and the newspaper, “The Nation.”

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Filed under: Crisis - 2 Comments →

Two questions I received on how to be sure that one is following the right path:

Question: I want to find out the Truth with a capital T, but everything I see looks like lies. How can I prove to myself and to others that Kabbalah is true? It’s not enough to say that everything is evil, and only “our Torah” is the truth.

My Answer: Progress and growth always come with the sensation of a mistake and its correction, just like in any tracking system that’s aimed at a particular goal. The feeling of uncertainty, the sensation that things are lies and are false, are all necessary, and you should be glad you feel them.

Only animals don’t make mistakes because they’re governed by nature, whereas man must develop of his own accord. Moreover, we mustn’t suppress these qualities in others; on the contrary, we should encourage them, even if these people end up leaving us. Let them verify and find their own path. Otherwise they won’t become human, but will remain “animals,” as it is written: “All are like animals” – all except those who draw the Light of growth and correction.

Question: There are many groups and schools that study Kabbalah. In your opinion, is every group that studies the authentic sources suitable to study Kabbalah with?

My Answer: Only you can tell which group and manner of study are best for you. Some people still need to go through various mysticisms, religions, and Kabbalah as knowledge (Baal HaSulam describes this when he writes about the “Kabbalists of Jerusalem”). After trying all of these (perhaps even in the next life cycle), they will come to the authentic study of Kabbalah, which is a reception of Light for the correction of one’s egoism. Indeed, this is the only reason for Kabbalah’s existence in this world, the only reason that the Torah (Kabbalah) was given. The Creator said: “I have created egoism and I have created the Torah for its correction,” or in other words: in order for people to attain the quality of “Love for one’s neighbor” – the principal law of the entire Torah and of the entire world.

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