A question I received: You wrote that when the Israelis living in America felt the crisis, they scurried to return home to Israel. But at the St. Louis Congress you said that in order to influence the world, the dissemination of Kabbalah has to come from America because Israel isn’t strong enough to do it. If all the Israeli Americans will return to Israel, then who will disseminate Kabbalah here? As an Israeli, what should I do? Should I return to Israel before it’s too late, or disseminate Kabbalah in America in the English language?

My Answer: Israelis living in America have never done anything beneficial for their nation, Israel, or Kabbalah! They have been the most egoistically repulsive tribe in America! And as long as they stay that way, I don’t care where they live. Now they’re returning to Israel so others can take care of them here! They’re still completely unfit to disseminate Kabbalah in America.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Who Needs Israel?
Kabbalah Today Article: Who Are You, People of Israel?
Chapter from The Open Book: “Introduction to the Zohar, Who is to Blame?”

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Globalization is the revelation of a new level of connection between us. It should be beneficial, but we see that it only brings us more and more problems. Why does this happen? It’s because we are using the global integral system backwards: in order to build ourselves up by bringing others down, instead of learning to work together. We are always trying to defeat, degrade, and be better than others.

This is happening because we have evolved to a point of total interconnection with each other, yet out interconnection is opposite to Nature, which is united. That’s because the interaction between us is absolutely egoistic: every person is ready to devour everyone else. However, the law of the system states that all of its parts must work together, in a coordinated fashion, according to the principle of “consider others as you consider yourself.”

When we attempt to build our interactions according to the most honest principle: “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours,” humanity as a system will deteriorate and we will elicit an even greater crisis. That’s because today, in our global interconnection, an egoistically honest person, business, bank, government, or regulator just “don’t work.”

So what should we do? We should consider the laws of the integral, locked system, which is like one body, and gradually correct ourselves according to it. In practical terms, this means:

• Arranging distribution so every person will receive only as much as he needs,

• Instituting a universal education system that teaches people about the law of humanity’s existence in a closed system.

Even the first movements we make in this direction will put an end to our opposition to Nature and bring us to harmony with it. Then the crises and suffering will vanish. Actually, the present crisis frees up enough people and forces in order to realize this project. Knowledge about the world we have suddenly found ourselves in will be met by everyone with understanding. The crisis taking place now has prepared us for this. Today we have to be reeducated about how to live in a closed, interconnected system, where “everyone is in one boat,” where the salvation of every person depends on everyone. We have to learn – and teach our children – about the new world.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Baal HaSulam on Human Nature
Laitman.com Post: Only the Creator’s Revelation Can Correct the World
Kabbalah Today Article: Globalization 101

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Questions I received on spirituality during the crisis:

Question: I’ve been studying Kabbalah for several years. It was very easy for me to say that everything that happens, no matter how bad, is only meant to shows us where we strayed off the path – until something bad happened to me. With the possibility of being fired looming over me, my thoughts immediately strayed from the study and I’m having difficulty perceiving the lessons correctly. How do I keep moving in the right direction when all my thoughts are about how to pay rent and feed my children? And on a larger scale, can’t the crisis push many people away from Kabbalah? I mean, who cares about spirituality when your belly is empty?

My Answer: Evidently we have to continue building our path toward the Creator precisely out of these states and doubts. You will feel the rest for yourself from your states, and you’ll feel it even stronger than before.

Question: The Torah states that the Egyptian plagues passed over the houses of the Jews. Does this mean that now, in the time of imminent blows, people who study Kabbalah will feel these blows (plagues) in their corporeal life to a lesser degree?

My Answer: There’s no doubt that every person in the world who studies Kabbalah and aspires to draw nearer to the Creator, evokes the positive influences of Nature (the Creator). He is then drawn closer by these positive influences, instead of the negative corrective forces that push others from behind.

Question: You speak of the ten Egyptian plagues. What are the rest of the plagues that Kabbalah predicts will happen next?

My Answer: I hope to see a world that will “fly over” these plagues with the help of Kabbalah, by aspiring to acquire the quality of love and bestowal to others.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Passing Through the Crisis to the Promised Land
Laitman.com Post: The Current Crisis Is “The First Plague of Egypt”

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Excerpts from the morning lesson: A person has to ascend from the lowest level called “our world,” where everything is concealed, to the highest level called “the World of Infinity,” where everything is revealed. The levels of ascent are called “the worlds” and they reflect the degree of our desires’ correction.

There is no fulfillment without a preliminary feeling of emptiness. When each of us corrects his individual desire (emptiness), we give shape to the Upper Force, revealing it to the degree of our correction. This is why we ask this Force for correction rather than revelation.

The fulfillment of the desire does not happen through reception, but through bestowal. Otherwise it’s impossible to be fulfilled. To be exact, it’s possible, but the fulfillment will be limited to our world and our lifetime. Any more than that is impossible. This is so in order to enable us to arrive at another method of fulfillment – bestowal.

Then, a person is fulfilled by his love for his neighbor, by bestowal, rather than by something coming from outside. Suffering is a feeling of uncorrected desires. We perceive them as suffering because they differ from the Creator.

In Kabbalah we study our future states, and this enables us to develop. The development of one’s soul is analogous to the development of a child: by desiring to be grown ups, we draw the force of correction upon us.

One must perceive problems and suffering as a chance to advance by overcoming them. Everything happens only for one’s advancement. However, if one prepares correctly, then instead of perceiving the pain of the suffering, one will perceive its direction and move along it. In this case, instead of perceiving the suffering, one perceives the path.

Related Material:
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Shamati #4″ What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work”
Baal HaSulam Igrot (Letters) P. 25

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News Report (from LiveScience): “Wind Farms Could Change Weather” The scientists, Daniel Barrie and Daniel Kirk-Davidoff of the University of Maryland, calculated what might happen if all the land from Texas to central Canada, and from the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains, were covered in one massive wind farm. Such massive wind farming would slow wind speeds by 5 or 6 mph as the turbines literally stole wind from the air. A ripple effect would occur in the form of waves radiating across the Northern Hemisphere that could, days later, run into storms and alter their courses by hundreds of miles.

My Comment: We will soon discover that all of our “good” actions harm us twofold:

• We spend more resources and energy on them than we do on the ecologically “harmful” ones,

• We think that their use will allow us to correct the environment, but in the meantime we’re falling behind with our own correction.

We have to stop lying to ourselves: The only thing that can correct the world is the correction of our egoism to altruism.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Financial Crisis Pales In Comparison to the Looming Ecological Crisis
Laitman.com Post: What Will the Corrected World Look Like?
Kabbalah Today Article: Global Warming – So What!?

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News Report (from The Economist): Figures from Morningstar, an investment-research firm, show that an American who put $100 a month for the past ten years into the average equity fund would have accumulated just $10,932 — $1,068 less than he invested. Hiding money “under the mattress” was actually a more profitable tactic.

It is hard to get individuals to defer gratification: retirement seems a long way off for someone in their 20s or 30s. So, faced with the returns from past thrift, the temptation for many will be to opt out of the system altogether. Already, the American Association of Retired People estimates that 37% of workers lack a pension plan.

My Comment: Without us noticing it, we are being taught to “live in the moment,” to consume what is necessary and not think about tomorrow. It’s like the manna in the desert: collect only as much as you need, since the rest will disappear anyway! And when we’ll get used to thinking about the necessities, our hearts and minds will be free to focus on the Upper Goal.

News Report (translated from utro.ru): The crisis of distrust is causing people all over the world to lose trust in banks. Citizens no longer feel safe keeping their savings in the bank, and prefer to invest them in real estate, gold and jewels. Some even sew their money into pillows or hide it away in safes. In Europe for example, sales of safes have increased 25% in the last two months.

My Comment: This demonstrates just how much we don’t trust anyone and what kind of future we are getting ready for.

Question: The financial crisis that we are witnessing so clearly right now is only a part of the global crisis. This raises a question: If everything in a person and in the world has to reach equivalence with the Upper Force ( the Creator), or in other words, everything must reach the quality of “bestowal,” then how will this work with money?

Money is now the material equivalent of the quality of “reception.” Will it also have to turn into an equivalent of “bestowal” for us to attain balance?

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct. Money will not disappear, but will be an equivalent of one’s work. In Hebrew, money is called Kesef, and a screen is called Masach. They both originate from the same root, the word Kisuf – to cover. Masach covers the desire, changing it from “receiving” to “bestowing.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Present Crisis Is a Crisis of People’s Trust in the Egoistic System of Relationships
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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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Two questions I received on the relationships between men and women:

Question: There is still the unresolved question regarding the behavior between men and women, all the conflicts between them as a model for all types of conflicts in any relationships: if this conflict is not resolved, there will be no resolution in all other relations.

In the modern world women are seeking to get equal with men – not in doing the same work, but getting the same acceptance as men who play their childish global games while women keep on doing all housekeeping, and we know that without this nothing will work in the world.

What is the aimed behavior of the future system here? And what does Mrs. Laitman think about Mr. Laitman in regard to this subject? One can see Mrs. Obama, Mrs. Clinton, but no one sees Mrs. Laitman!

My Answer: The war between the sexes is invented. The crisis will erase it and bring everyone back to their natural roles. And when we assume our natural roles, we will feel comfortable in life.

When I was studying with Rabash, Mrs. Laitman devoted much of her physical and emotional energy to taking care of my Teacher’s family, and she has always helped me in my path. And she continues to support me today!

However, “Kol Kvoda Bat Melech Pnima” (a woman’s greatness lies in her modesty) – she doesn’t want to advertise herself or be famous. She has no desire to entertain the public. She has children and grandchildren and is completely content with that!

Question: In one of your talks about men and women you said: “If we want to have a good, happy and successful family with good children, let’s correct our internality, which will then spread to the externality as well.” So, while we are still not corrected, why should we get married and give birth to children who will be miserable?

My Answer: So that you will have what to correct! According to tradition, a plate and a glass are broken during the engagement and wedding ceremonies, which alludes to the fact that we begin our path broken and uncorrected, and we must correct ourselves together in marriage (Zivug). Hence, a husband and wife unite so that the Creator will be revealed between them (Ish Ve Isha Ve Shechina Beynechem).

Related Material:
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CONNECTING TO GOODNESS
The International Academy of Kabbalah invites you
to the International Kabbalah Congress,
which will take place in Israel
on February 2 – 4, 2009

This year the Congress will be devoted to revealing a new, global world and unity that will raise the small “global village” above the flood of crises. We will then enter the spiritual world, rise toward unity with Nature, with the Upper Force.

All the information and registration for the Congress can be found on the Congress blog.

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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:
Laitman.com Post: Baal HaSulam Describes the Conditions of Life in a Globalized World
Kabbalah Today Article: 125 Degrees to Happiness
The Pursuit of Happiness
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: Chapter 21 – “Correcting Egoism”

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