In the News (From Vesti.ru): “Starting April 1st 2010, schools in nineteen Russian school districts will begin to teach a new subject: The Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics. The curriculum covers the four main religious movements, world religions and secular ethics. …Study content includes topics like love, friendship, guilt and forgiveness. The subject breaks down into six blocks: Orthodox culture, Islamic culture, foundations of Buddhism and Judaism, the study of world religions, and secular ethics. …Parents will choose what classes they want their children to take, and the students will be placed accordingly.”

My Comment: Religion has always led to hatred and wars, terror and separation. The Creator gave only one decree: the commandment to "Love thy neighbor as thyself." All other laws are only implementations of this one, general law of nature.

All religions and beliefs are inventions of the human ego. That is why they cause opposition, evoke hatred and speculation of excess, buying off hell and accepting cash for an entry to paradise. We mustn’t dress a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Religion is the greatest manifestation of the human ego; it will only cause hatred and a disconnection between the students. See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.” "Our religion" does not mean Judaism: It is the religion of love and bestowal to all.

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A question I received: My friends sent me a video clip, “The Western Wall,” that was presented on a Christian video club site. There are sequences including footage of you that was shot at Baal HaSulam’s tomb. Could you please comment on this?

My Answer: Our archives contain movies that were shot during our trips to great Kabbalistic sites in 1999 including Safed and the Idra Raba cave. The titles of the movies are, The Nights of Kabbalah and We, Bnei Baruch. I have no idea where the creators of the video clip in question got the footage.

We’re well-known; many people study our concepts and materials. I’ve already mentioned in this blog that people write dissertations about us in universities all over the world (for example, at Cairo University). Also, in the United States, I’ve lectured at many universities, and there are quite a few people who study our activities. We have a large educational organization in the Midwest, in  St. Louis, that accommodates many Protestant and Catholic students. We’re open to everyone.

By all means, one can continue observing his own religion and stick to his or her traditions, but, in order to correct our egoism and advance spiritually, we have to study Kabbalah. Imagine that two things are excluded from each religion: 1) teachings about “afterlife” and 2) rules of controlling our destiny (which, by the way, have nothing to do with any religion). Without these two major elements, any religion simply turns into a set of routine traditions and becomes a sort of a “weekend get-together club.” There is nothing else to it.

“Afterlife” is revealed to a person through our current reality by attracting the Light while studying Kabbalah. It’s possible to control our destiny only by attracting Ohr Makif (the Surrounding Light) and by using The Book of Zohar, each and every one of us, for our personal benefit.

Kabbalists aren’t against any religion, but intend to treat them rather as cultural inventions of humankind and not more than that. If we stick to this approach, spiritual exploitation and religious dictatorship will cease to exist and humankind will attain enlightenment.

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In the News (from The Huffington Post): “Yaakov Neeman, Israeli Justice Minister, Says Jewish Law Must Become Binding” Israel’s justice minister called for Jewish law to become binding in Israel, causing a stir Tuesday that cut to the heart of the country’s simmering secular-religious divide.

Neeman, an observant Jew, told a rabbinical conference on Monday that the Bible contains “a complete solution to all the things we are dealing with.”

My Comment: The justice minister has no knowledge of the society’s development. Binding society by laws it cannot observe will bring nothing but collapse.

Only understanding the objective processes of development, which are determined by the Creator, will bring society to harmony. However, this will not happen by the desire of Neeman or the orthodox authorities.

Religious traditions are the cultural heritage of the people and they should only be accepted voluntarily, by providing a positive education to the people. Religion must be separated from the state and should become a part of the people’s culture, instead of a means of force. Religion should protect rather than oppress, educate rather than push, attract by benevolence rather than dictatorship. It should set a kind, dignified example, instead of using coercive methods.

If people don’t accept the traditions voluntarily, as the society’s culture and historical value, then Israel will end up with a dictatorship. In that case, Kabbalah forecasts this nation a horrible future – a collapse of the society and the state.

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“Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their development. Feeling and longing are the motive force behind all human endeavor and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may present themselves to us.”

Albert Einstein

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Ask anyone to describe the essence of matter, spirituality, and the soul, and you’ll get a thousand different opinions. None of these opinions, however, will be definite or weighted. This is because we are talking about a reality that is hidden from us. Humanity is constantly searching for that reality, but no one is able to point to anything clear, precise, and practical.

This search cannot be done through classical science, since we do not perceive the hidden reality in our current sensations. It also cannot be done through religion, since religion does not even aim to reveal what is hidden. Philosophy, however, wishes to deduce what lies above our nature by means of the human intellect. This is impossible, but philosophers count on the capabilities of the mind to attain what is above it.

Philosophy is made up of the efforts of people who wish to reveal the spiritual world without changing themselves. This is also impossible since reality is revealed through our desires and our senses. If what we reveal can be measured and verified, and this knowledge can be given to others, then this is science.

If one has no sensation of the hidden world, one’s hunches will remain fantasy rather than science. As we say, it doesn’t hurt to dream, but don’t try to pass it off as the truth.  For this reason, people have lost respect for the word “philosophy” since it speaks of a confusing “non-reality.”

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A question I received: Does a Kabbalist become religious once he reveals the Creator?

My Answer: A Kabbalist is concerned with just one thing: how to attain a connection with the Creator. Everything else falls into place depending on this. Everything that is happening to you right now is happening in your uncorrected desire. Your attitude to the whole world, to yourself, and to the Creator is completely wrong. So how can you have the right attitude to Him?

If you correct yourself, then it doesn’t matter what your connection with the Creator will be like. The most important thing is that it will be real and true, and this is what the Creator is waiting for from us.

Therefore, we don’t ask what form our religions will take in the future, or how people will behave, what their lifestyle will be, and whether this world will exist at all. The most important thing is that it will be the truth.

If I am uncorrected right now, then everything I feel, see, think and understand now is incorrect, both in my mind and my heart. Therefore, none of it will remain in the future; all the broken things will be replaced by corrected ones.

So what will life be like? I don’t know, and I cannot imagine this within my corrupted qualities. I can only tell you that everything will turn into its opposite, as it is written: “I saw a reverse world!” You only have to be ready for the changes that the Upper Light will perform to us.

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All beliefs that go beyond the limits of the most primitive beliefs about the forces of nature, came to us from the science of Kabbalah. The science of Kabbalah itself originated from the revelation of the Upper Force by Abraham, who recognized the relationship between the Creator and all the levels of desire.

On the lowest level of desire, this is expressed as the “gifts” that Abraham gave to the children of his concubines and whom he then sent to the East. This is the origin of the Eastern religions, which are very close to nature and man’s body.

A different method operates on the highest, most egoistic, fourth level of desire. This is the method Abraham taught to his group of students, who later turned into the nation of Israel (where Isra-el means “straight to the Creator”). When his students (the nation of Israel) fell from their spiritual level of bestowal and love for the neighbor, into egoism and mutual hatred (known as the fall of the Second Temple), then in order to replace Kabbalah – “life with the Creator,” people came up with the religion of Judaism, which is life without the sensation of the Creator.

When people’s desire was corrected and used for bestowal and love, the people felt the Creator and the Upper Life within that desire. But when that same desire fell from bestowal into reception, into the egoistic intention of “for myself,” people began to feel just this world. That is when Kabbalah (sensation, attainment, and revelation) was replaced by religion (faith, mysticism, and tradition).

Thus, the religion of Judaism is an imprint of the science of Kabbalah and the desire to bestow, within the broken desire to receive (the fourth layer of desire). The sparks of this breaking fell into other layers of desire; that is how the third layer formed Christianity and the second one – Islam. These religions were created according to how people understood Kabbalah’s imprint within their egoistic desire. This also makes it clear that according to the Creator’s plan, humanity must go through these phases of egoistic development in order to realize its opposition to the Creator, following the principle, “The value of the Light comes from the darkness.”

All the religions, beliefs, and faiths (which add up to about 3800 in the whole world) come from different ways of imagining the Creator within the egoistic desire, in all of its different forms. This is why there are so many different religious approaches in the world and none of them understand one another. It’s because they all come from Kabbalah’s division into different religions – the shift from the sensation of unity to the sensation of disunity.

In the past, the breaking of the Upper Level (the fall of the Second Temple) brought about egoistic social relations, an egoistic attitude of the common desire toward the Creator, which caused all the religions and beliefs to emerge. However, if we, those who have a point in the heart, now correct the connection among us on that higher level, then we will be able to correct all the religions and faiths. Then, everything will become part of the unity with the Creator.

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Two questions I received concerning Jewish mixed marriages and Jewish ancestry:

Question: If there are any problems in mixed (Jew and non-Jew) families then religious representatives of Judaism say that these marriages were prohibited by the Creator. Why then did the Almighty create so many mixed families?

My Answer: I don’t see problems in mixed families. Today, most families in America and Russia are mixed. If one spouse doesn’t become religious then there are no conflicts. Kabbalah is above religions and talks about unification of all in one Creator.  Religions were invented by people and thus separate them.

Question: Recently I found out that I am Jewish from my father’s side whose ancestors lived in Portugal in the Middle Ages and were forced by the Inquisition to either convert to Christianity or leave the country. They were called “marans.” How should I relate to it?

My Answer: Don’t change anything; continue to live your life as before. There are millions of people like you in the world. All will reach adhesion and equivalence of form with the Creator and with each other.

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To ascend spiritually we need egoism, above which we need to rise. We don’t need to remove obstacles – we need to rise above them.

It is the fundamental difference between Kabbalah and all other spiritual methodologies, religions and beliefs. They teach one how to remove problems and calm down, so everyone will feel comfortable.

This is the principle on which the entire world acts. Everyone calms himself as best he can by talking to a shrink, taking drugs, fighting, trying to find comfort in sleep, alcohol, religion and rewards in this world.

Whatever a person does is only to erase the unpleasant feelings.

Because of this principle, religions attract people, calming down their egoism. But everything is opposite in Kabbalah – you have to use all your egoism, increase it and rise above it.

Therefore, a person who wants to correct his egoism and turn it to bestowal needs the Light that corrects his egoism. He needs exactly the force that created his ego, as the force will now help him to rise above it.

If a person only suppresses egoism, then he doesn’t need the returning Light and the Creator. He invents some religion or methodology for himself and gets comfortable.

The difference between all other methods and Kabbalah is that Kabbalah doesn’t calm down egoism but rather, enlivens it!

Therefore, only the Kabbalistic method, which works with egoism (not suppressing it but valuing and utilizing it), brings a person to the Upper Light.

Actually, a person needs the Light only to subjugate his egoism and this Light should raise us above all obstacles. This is practical spiritual work.

If a person doesn’t need help from the Light, the Creator,  in order to rise above obstacles and his  egoism, then he will never reach bestowal.

(From Lesson #2 of the Eurasian Congress 10.23.09)

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Two questions I received about humanity’s previous correction and survival of the Jews:

Question: If I understand you correctly, humanity has previously existed in the corrected, ideal state several thousand years ago. What was the reason for the appearance of egoism that led to the downfall and “destruction of the Second Temple?” Could egoism and imbalance again appear when humanity reaches a new balance by correcting itself?

My Answer: Only part of humanity, the people of Israel, went through correction and breakage so that correction can take place again in our times. This time, however, the correction will include the entire world.

Question: Did the Jews survive as a single nation because of Judaism? If they didn’t survive as a nation, then would Kabbalah not have been revealed in our time?

My Answer: Everything goes according to Nature’s plan. Therefore, the Jews, who were part of the Babylonian civilization, survived in order that today, they can bring a method for everyone to change themselves in order to achieve the level of the Creator. Yes, we do have to change that much according to Nature’s plan!

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