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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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.

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Questions I received on interpreting Baal HaSulam’s words and visiting graves of the righteous:

Question: In Shamati, Baal HaSulam mentions several times the “Masach de Hirik.” Would you please explain this phenomenon or concept?

My Answer: It is the correction of the soul in the middle line. One uses the egoism from the left line and the force of Light that corrects it from the right line, thereby building himself with the help of these two forces.

Question: What is the meaning of the word Yuli (יולי)?

My Answer: It is the initial material, from which everything developed.

Question: Why is the expression that Rav Ashlag uses, “What’s the meaning of my life?” and not for example: “What’s the meaning of life?”

My Answer: It’s because a person has to feel this question personally, to feel that his life depends on it completely. He has to feel that he is the only created creature (see the materials on Perception of Reality), and because of this, the purpose of life in general, of everyone’s lives, depends on his life.

Question: Where is the place in which the creature realizes his “I,” and on the other hand, realizes that there is none else beside Him?

My Answer: The place of realizing his “I” is in Malchut, and of realizing the Creator – in Keter.

Question: Does it help visiting the graves of the righteous and lighting a candle to sanctify the soul?

My Answer: Only psychologically!

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The unity of the society is the source of its well being
Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”:
The unity of society is the source of happiness and well being, whereas the separation between people is the source of all evils. All success and well being depend only on people’s closeness and unity in a global community.

The whole world is regarded as one big society
Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”:
In our generation, when each person depends on the world to provide his necessities, every person depends on the whole world as a small wheel in a machine. Therefore we can no longer speak of the well-being and security of one country or one nation, but only of the whole world, because the benefit or harm of each and every person in the world depends and is measured by the benefit of all the people in the whole world.

That’s because in our time, the well being of every person in the world depends on, and is measured by, the well being of all the people in the world. It’s because today we have come to a state where the whole world is regarded as one society. Today every person in the world is “nourished” by the whole world, and hence every person is obligated to take care of the well being of the whole world.

The peace of every person depends on everyone
Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”:
Good and evil are evaluated only according to the benefit one’s actions bring to the public. This shows us the place that needs correction, and that is for each and every individual to understand that his personal benefit and the benefit of the society are one and same. This is how the world will attain its full correction.

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News Report (from Columbia Journalism Review): Those hoping for a quick rebound are likely to be disappointed. Economists and other pros generally say home prices won’t bottom out before the second half of 2009, and some don’t see a bottom until 2011 or 2012. Even when they stop falling, prices may scrape along the bottom of the rut for years.

Dowell Myers, a professor of urban planning and demography at the University of Southern California, warns that the retirement of boomers over the next two decades is likely to depress house prices in many areas. … there will be a lot more sellers than buyers.

So how long will this crisis last?

My Comment: There’s an expression in Latin: Quantum satis – “as much as necessary.” For example, it can be used to designate an unspecified amount of dilution, where the intended meaning is: as much as can be absorbed, or as much as will suffice.

So, the crisis will continue until we realize that it is but an expression of our mutual, shared egoism, and that the only way to come out of it is by correcting our egoism. Hence, time won’t heal us, but will only bring greater crises. For instance:

News Report: 11,000 delegates from 185 countries have gathered at the The United Nations Climate Change Conference, where scientists are expressing the concern that mankind has a time table of only one year to develop a realistic plan to save the Earth from the fatal consequences of global warming.

My Comment: It’s possible that we will experience several different manifestations of the crisis at the same time. That’s because there is only one underlying cause for all the crises: our egoistic relationships, which can only be corrected by the Light that descends during the study of Kabbalah. So study and watch Kabbalah TV. This is not an advertisement, but advice! Kabbalah tells us about our corrected states. When you study them (whether by reading, hearing or watching), you come in contact with those states and draw energy from them onto yourself, or in other words, you draw the Light from those corrected states. This Light corrects you, and then the crisis disappears!

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News Report (translated from gazeta.ru): Economic and political calamities on the global scale have a way of making people talk about the fact that the current era is ending and the future will be radically different. The current financial crisis is no exception. However, this time around we won’t be able to think of any clear plan for “lasting universal happiness.” If anyone hopes to make such a plan, it will only demonstrate their arrogance.

Moreover, one of the most wonderful things in life is the impossibility of predicting the future, because it gives individuals and mankind the chance to develop.

The predictions people make about life after the crisis can be grouped into three categories:

1. Some people assume that we are dealing with a case of history repeating itself, that crises like this one have happened before, and therefore the global economy will be restored. At some point in time, mankind will resume life just like before the crisis and the world will be the same as before.

2. Others think that the crisis is not really a crisis of the economy, but a crisis of our value system, and that the human civilization has reached some kind of a threshold. We can’t keep living the old way and we urgently need to create a new plan for how to exist. We will never be able to go back to the “golden era” as before the crisis (whether or not it really was a “golden era” is a separate question).

3. Scientists warn us that if people won’t change their lifestyle, they will soon need another planet in order to survive.

…We must be honest to ourselves and admit that we don’t know how and when the current crisis will end. No one can take away our right to construct our personal and universal future. However, it’s important to realize that such constructions will always be founded on mistakes.

My Comment: Here are are my comments on points 1, 2, and 3 above:

1. With crises that happened in the past, it was fair to say that history was repeating itself because they all took place in the same egoistic, individual plane. However, the current crisis arose due to a transition from an individualized world to a globalized world. Hence, none of our attempts to return to the past, to the old laws and rules, will succeed. Moreover, we will not be able to envision a new world structure based on past experience, because the world will now be based on different laws – the laws of globalization. They are opposite to the laws of individualized behavior, regardless of whether it’s a person, an organization or a country.

2. This thought is correct. However, the future is known. We can and must study it. Then we won’t have to go through so much suffering! Kabbalah is open to everyone!

3. Scientists are correct in their understanding that our planet’s resources will eventually be depleted. According to their calculations, this threatens us with complete extinction in the next few decades. However, if we begin to correct ourselves, to become more balanced with Nature (the Creator), we will elicit Nature’s positive influence upon us, thereby restoring harmony. In addition, it will happen very quickly and take on forms that we have never experienced in the past!

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Three questions I received on balancing spirituality with this world:

Question: I heard you say at the children’s lesson that we should envy people who contribute to the group and love others. Should I lie to myself, telling myself that I envy those who contribute even though in reality I envy someone who has a new car, for example? Please give me advice on what to do according to Kabbalah.

My Answer: Continue studying; the group and the lessons will give you the feeling that other values are more important. This is better than surrendering yourself to accumulating things and later finding yourself disillusioned. The Upper World that will start being revealed to you will make you feel vastly more fulfilled than a new car. The car is important to you because society values it. But if your society will value other things, your preferences will change as well.

Question: Sometimes I get angry at the Creator, but in truth I get angry at myself because I ask myself, “Why is the process of correction so lengthy!?” And then I answer myself: “Because I don’t make enough efforts!”

My Answer: You lack the pressure of the correct environment.

Question: I’m having an inner debate: on one hand, I have a new job that’s interesting to me and gives me free time to improving my professional level in order to have a good permanent occupation in the future. On the other hand, I don’t have much energy left after the morning lessons, so I’m thinking of cutting them down, yet this bothers me. What’s the right attitude to have to this situation?

My Answer: You have to finish your professional education so you’ll be able to support yourself and your family, while keeping the study of Kabbalah “on a low burner.” However, in all other respects, devote yourself to the study of Kabbalah. If you keep this balance of time and energy, you’ll succeed in both.

Related Material:
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News Report (translated from prime-tass.ru): “Covering up the word ‘Crisis” Businessmen and mass media are avoiding the use of expressions such as “the global financial crisis,” “recession,” “financial instability” and “dead end.” They’re inventing terms that are more positive and vague in order to circumvent the crisis rhetoric. For example, instead of “a global recession,” they say, “a temporary instability,” instead of “crisis” – “a period of opportunity.”

My Comment: I understand them: the reliable world of money and power has suddenly became volatile and elusive. The future is uncertain, and for an economist, this is worse than death itself. As the financial experts are battling the crisis, they are still trying to:

1. Conceal the panic that engulfs the financial markets,
2. Support the economy in a time when there’s no credit available.

In support, the governments are extending credit to banks and large firms, buying out their debt securities – anything to revitalize the crediting process. However, it’s impossible to bring back the old relationships. Perhaps they can be brought back temporarily, but this will entail great expenditures and will be artificial, like resuscitating a patient who’s in a hopeless condition.

The solution to the problem lies in studying the integral, global world that we have suddenly found ourselves in. It operates by completely different social laws, interconnections, and contractual terms than our old world, which wasn’t globally connected.

How do we enter into agreements or create new financial programs while taking the universal interdependency into account? The system is starting to work in new, unfamiliar ways, and the interconnections between the financial structures are the “unknowns” in the equation. No one yet knows what they are and how to work with them.

This is exactly what Kabbalah explains – the world’s globality, because Kabbalah studies the Creator, the One Global Governor. Everything that’s happening is His way of leading us to realize that it’s necessary to get to know Him!

However, if we’ll keep trying to create a new, “positive and vague” vocabulary, it will cost us dearly and only drive the illness deeper inside us.

Related Material:
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Three questions I received on finding contact with me:

Question: Do you have a personal page on the site odnoklasniki.ru (the Russian version of classmates.com)? I’m asking because there are currently two personal pages of yours on this site.

My Answer: I don’t have anything to do with these pages, as you probably suspected. Someone else is writing them using my name. My opinions are stated only on this blog and the official websites of the Bnei Baruch organization.

Question: If people ask you good questions that can’t be answered during the virtual morning lesson because of the time limit, can you answer them on this blog?

My Answer: If the questions are very peculiar, for example, on the construction of the worlds, then they can’t be answered on this blog because the blog is for everyone. However, if the question is general, then I always answer it here.

Question: Someone advised me to speak to a Kabbalist. Is there any time when you take visitors?

My Answer: I don’t accept visitors and I don’t give advice or blessings. According to Kabbalah, the only way to truly change your destiny is to change yourself, because you are opposite the unchanging Light – the Creator’s force of bestowal and love. Hence Kabbalah considers everything else no more than psychological reassurance, which in the long run only exacerbates a person’s illness: his imbalance with the Creator. In other words, it causes the illness (egoism) to be neglected.

Kabbalah gives you the method to change yourself, and the rest depends on you. We always focus on questions of self-correction. Good luck!

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A question I received: The second part of the film Zeitgeist was recently released. It encourages all of humanity to unite and gives advice on how to build the new world order based on equal distribution of resources, a new education, and mutual guarantee. It also refers to the laws of nature. Are these people our partners?

My Answer: No. In fact, I’m not even familiar with this movement. However, the ideas of unity and globality are already in the air and I’m happy that more and more people are realizing that it’s urgently necessary to implement them in the human society.

However, the correction can only be achieved by the Upper Light, which descends while people study its Source. The description of the Light’s Source is found only in the authentic Kabbalistic books, and in our time, the most effective books are Baal HaSulam’s. That’s why we study them all the time. There’s nothing for me to look for anywhere else because I’ve already proven to myself and through myself that this method is effective.

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