The newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth” (Latest News) published an article about Arcadi Duchin’s new song:

The Buoth Appendix, 12.08.08, by reporter Raz Shechnik: “The Buot Appendix proudly presents: none other than Arcadi Duchin became the first artist to take the wise step of bringing the financial crisis to the recording studio. Recently Duchin wrote a song about the financial crisis. The lyrics were written by Amit Shalev, and the music – by Duchin himself.

It turns out that Duhin was not surprised by the financial crisis. He followed a forecast made by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, which came true.

“This song expressed the current state of affairs,” stated Duchin, “But it was written a year ago based on talks with Michael Laitman, with whom I study Kabbalah. He is not a mystic. He does not engage in card readings or Voodoo, but he saw the crisis from the place where this ancient science views humanity. It turns out that he was right, back then he told us about today’s financial situation.”

So what is the song about?

“As I see it, the song explains that the whole problem of money comes from man’s egoistic nature. In other words, most people in the world suffer and only a few enjoy life. This concept is not so much communistic as spiritual. Kabbalah states that no one will be truly happy until everyone is happy.”

Lyrics of the song “One Day”

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News Report (from Los Angeles Times): “Write letters, be happy” Steven Toepfer, an assistant professor of family and consumer studies at Kent State University, conducted a study to determine what would make people feel happier. He had students write one letter every two weeks for a six-week period… After each letter was written, the students took a survey that gauged their mood, their satisfaction with life and their feelings of gratitude and happiness. According to Toepfer, the students’ levels of happiness increased after each letter…

My Comment: Coming out of oneself and connecting to others is an old, time tested method of changing one’s life under the influence of the environment. By sending a kind letter, one not only receives the corresponding response on the level of this world, but also subconsciously receives an illumination of the Surrounding Light from above, because his action makes him similar to the Creator. So write letters!

News Report (translated from lady.mail.ru): “Want to feel better? Wash your hands!” Psychologists noticed that there is a connection between a person’s hygiene and his “clean conscience.” Many people wash their hands to get rid of bad thoughts. So it’s not a coincidence that physical cleanliness has been an important part of religious rituals throughout millennia.

My Comment: This works only on the level of our egoistic world. It doesn’t correct egoism, but only makes it more agreeable for interacting with oneself and others. The only thing that can correct egoism (from the intention “for one’s own sake” to “for others’ sake”) is the Upper Light, which created it in the first place.

Related Material:
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A question I received: Earlier today I read your blog to my mother, who lives in the Ukraine. She agreed with everything. Her only question was, “So tell me, what should I do now?” And all I could tell her in response was: “Study.” At a time when every day for her is a  struggle to feed her family, all I can offer her is to start studying?

My Answer: Only the dissemination of Kabbalah among the masses will give them the opportunity to realize the need for change:

• To receive only what is necessary for one’s survival (like the manna in the desert),
• Everything one produces in excess of one’s necessities should be given over to the society,
• It is necessary to institute a global education system that will teach people about the laws of nature in a globally interconnected world. Then everyone will understand how we should live,
• We must attain the condition of a global mutual guarantee (joint responsibility, like during the reception of the Torah), when every person understands that everyone depends on everyone,
• We must then gradually go from “love for others” to “love for the Creator.” That’s because when the above conditions are met, we begin to reveal the Creator – the general Upper Force of Nature, according to the law of equivalence of form.

By fulfilling these conditions, or even being willing to learn about them, we will draw the positive forces of Nature upon us. Since the crisis is but a result of our opposition to Nature, we will pass through the crisis and reach a life of prosperity, “the promised land.”

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In every Latin American country, there are groups and individuals who study Kabbalah and work together with us on its development and dissemination. The largest and strongest group of our friends is situated in Chile. Ingrid Solyar from the Chile group has created this friendly, colorful blog for children.

[Show slideshow]

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Two questions I received on Zionism and “the Mixed Multitude”:

Question: What is Zionism? What does this have to do with Kabbalah and Bnei Baruch?

My Answer: “Kabbalah is the method of revealing the Creator to man in this world” (Baal HaSulam, article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”). Zionism is a social movement in favor of returning to Zion (Israel). The Kabbalistic definition is as follows: the Land of Israel is also called “Zion,” from the word Yetzia – “exit” in Hebrew. Any person who exits the limits of our egoistic world and enters the Upper, Altruistic World, enters “Zion.” Mi Tzion Tize Tora (the Torah will come from Zion), means that when a person exits his egoistic state, he comes to the Light.

Question: During the last two lessons, you mentioned “the Mixed Multitude.” Who is this?

My Answer: “The Mixed Multitude” (Erev Rav) are the opponents of Kabbalah who prevent people from coming out of spiritual exile and revealing the Creator. And even after a person aspires toward bestowal and love, Erev Rav prevents him from advancing by any means possible. They came in Moses’s way when he was trying to lead the people out of Egypt (the spiritual exile) toward the revelation of the Creator. They also placed all kinds of obstacles in his way during the 40-year passage through the desert.

Today they also spread all kinds of rumors. They can no longer speak against Kabbalah, because this is no longer possible, but against the people who disseminate it, including our organization. It is written that they are Irei Hashem Ovdei Paroh – those who fear the Creator, but desire to remain inside their egoism.

The Gaon of Vilna (Agra) wrote in The Light of the Zohar, 3: 28 “Adam Ve Ishto”: “In the future Moses will reveal everything to us, unlike the way it is now hidden in the Torah in the form of stories intended for Erev Rav, who do not study the inner meaning.”

Related Material:
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Baal HaSulam Article:” A Speech in Celebration of the Conclusion of The Zohar”

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Questions I received from women on connecting spirituality with this world:

Question: I’ve been studying Kabbalah with Bnei Baruch for two years, and at the same time I earned a degree in Economics. However, I don’t feel any desire to advance in the material life. My family is worried about my apathy. Is it possible to balance work in finance with spiritual growth? Also, how can I influence my family, who think that a woman has to act the way society expects her to?

My Answer: Your actions mustn’t harm your family, and everyone should feel that you are part of the family. You can study Kabbalah only if everything is normal in your regular life, and to the extent your free time allows for it.

Question: My daughter is so engrossed in Kabbalah that the rest of the world means nothing to her anymore. She puts Kabbalah before everything and doesn’t want to do anything else. She’s not interested in going to a university or working, and claims that she has the right to live however she wants to and doesn’t have to follow the social norms. I feel like we’re losing our daughter and the society is losing a citizen. She used to be a very successful student and this is the result. What should I do?

My Answer: Anyone you ask will confirm that I encourage people to get a profession, to create a family and so on, because the only way a person can correct his or her self and reach the Upper World is from a “normal” position in this world. Either your daughter doesn’t understand this or her profession isn’t practical; one that won’t allow her to make a living.

Question: Please help me understand the connection between spirituality and corporeality. On one hand, the material world is the world of effects, and on the other hand, it has nothing in common with the spiritual world. Where is the boundary that marks the end of spirituality and the beginning of corporeality, which isn’t connected to spirituality at all?

My Answer: The boundary lies in the gap between the two worlds, because they’re both felt within a person. One is felt in the intention “for the sake of oneself,” and the second – in the intention “for the sake of the Creator.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Get A Job
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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.”

Related Material:
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Questions I received on music, false spiritual teachings, and euthanasia:

Question: What’s more important in a musical composition, wisdom or spirituality?

My Answer: Spirituality.

Question: Is listening to music a waste of time?

My Answer: Not if it helps you keep an intention aimed at the goal.

Question: I once heard the following expression: The rhythm of music makes the Earth go round!

My Answer: That’s poetic and romantic…

Question: According to nature, what percentage of humanity will consciously feel the question about the meaning of life so strong that they will be able to study Kabbalah?

My Answer: There’s no specific percentage – it will be anyone with a point in the heart.

Question: What do you think of false teachings that unconsciously use elements of teachings that were effective in the past?

My Answer: Nothing.

Question: I’m asking because it is these kind of teachings that are leading in the “spiritual market.” What’s their purpose?

My Answer: For us to learn from our mistakes.

Question: How do you view euthanasia?

My Answer: Problematically.

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Kabbalah Music

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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.

Related Material:
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A question I received: According to Rabash, the chosen people are those who can shift from the externality to the internality, and one’s heart will change with the help of one’s actions. At the same time, you always remind us that the external commandments are no more than external signs, which have no connection with the soul’s correction.

My Answer: When Rabash speaks of “external observance,” he does not mean the physical observance, but the intention “for one’s own sake.” And “inner observance” signifies the intention “for the Creator’s sake.”

As for the physical actions, the Creator said: “I don’t care how you slaughter cattle; the commandments were given for man’s correction.” In other words, the entire connection between actions and commandments lies in one’s intentions, and not in the actions themselves. If a person knew that his actions have no results, he would be extremely grateful to Kabbalah for giving him the correct guidance in life!

The entire opposition between religion and Kabbalah comes down to their assessment of the importance of actions and intentions: What is more important, the actions or the intentions? Indeed, Kabbalah does not deny the importance of the actions (traditions) in forming and managing social boundaries. But religion also has to accept what is written, that actions without intentions are dead and don’t correct a person. The intentions can only be changed through the correct study of Kabbalah.

One has to start by admitting that he is not perfect – therein lies the stumbling block! It’s because religion’s primary goal is to grant man a sense of pride and perfection for observing the prescriptions. He thinks that by doing this, he serves the Creator and the whole world, and everyone is indebted to him.

Kabbalah, on the other hand, shows a person just how phony and imperfect he really is. He sees this in the Creator’s Light, which descends upon him during the study. A person then feels unhappy with the results of his study, but if he is able to rise above this sensation and elevate the truth above the anguish, he progresses. And if he is unable to do this, he veers off the path.

Item 66 of the “Preface to the Book of Zohar” discusses the necessity to make the intention more important than the physical observance. The entire contradiction between religion and Kabbalah lies in their claim as to what is more important.

Related Material:
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Baal HaSulam Article: “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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