A question I received in response to my post “It’s All for the Best (But We Can Get to It Faster)“: How can we progress without someone of Moses’ level guiding us forward? We don’t see the Creator’s participation in our daily routine. So who can we turn for answers? The group? Rav? Perhaps if we recognize our egoism and begin to move in the right direction as a group, then the Upper Light will become our guide? Who will guide us through the desert and the disasters that are coming at us so rapidly that we can’t even catch our breath?

My Answer: Baal HaSulam writes that his method can pull everybody out of egoism, and I’m certain of that. Also, I see from your progress, that you see it too. However, everything depends on our combined efforts. We can no longer reach the goal individually, as Kabbalists have done over centuries of exile. Instead, we are now beginning to build a group of “refugees” from egoism, from Egypt. We are facing the same task they faced: to reach the “Mutual Guarantee” (Arvut) – a mutual responsibility in reaching the goal. Our Moses is Baal HaSulam and Rabash, who are walking along with us. Soon you will discover them inside our group.

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A question I received: I’m worried about the environmental problems facing our world, such as the degradation of the environment and people’s declining health. From Kabbalah’s perspective, how should we change the laws regulating the use and preservation of the environment? What should the national and international environmental laws be? What approach should be used to develop the appropriate framework and regulations?

My Answer: We could command nature to change, or we could command man to change. But in any case, man is a part of nature, and our commands will only cause us greater separation from nature, which will result in further harm to nature and to its integral parts – us. None of our attempts to reduce humanity’s harmful influence on nature will yield positive results. The fact is that nature’s actions are purposeful. Its influence on us has nothing to do with how we treat the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature. Nature reacts only to our attitude to one another. Man incorporates the whole of nature within himself, and it “falls” or “rises” together with him. Everything is measured according to the highest level, called “man.”

Nature affects us in order to force us to change, and what we have to change is our attitude to other people, not our attitude to nature. We need to change our egoistic attitude to others to an altruistic one, like a father feels for his children. We will then become an integral part of nature, and our attitude to all its other parts will change as well.

This cannot be done by coercive methods – since we have to change ourselves! If we realize this, we will reduce nature’s blows coming to us and to its other parts.

The other problem is that even if we realize that we need to change, we have no idea how to do it. And that is why we have been given the science of Kabbalah, which originated in the very beginning of our egoistic path, when we separated in Ancient Babylon. It’s a science that shows us how to unite into one whole. Sharing it and inculcating it into the consciousness of every person is precisely what constitutes the laws of the new civilization. We only need to understand that “preserving the environment” means protecting it from our egoism. Let’s work together.

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A question I received: You say that Kabbalah uses its own terminology. But when reading Kabbalistic texts, I get confused whether it is speaking about the physical world or the Upper World. So how can you claim that the language of Kabbalah is precise?

My Answer: Kabbalah uses names borrowed from our world. However, just as other methods of rendering of the Upper World (The Pentateuch, Mishna, and Talmud), such names allude exclusively to the Upper World, to its forces and properties. So why is it better to study Kabbalah than the Talmud? It’s simply because, when you study Kabbalah, you don’t forget that you’re studying the Upper World – the system that influences you and that you depend on. Hence, you want to draw closer to it, and this desire pulls you toward it.

In addition, it’s best to study with a teacher who explains all this to you and reminds you of it during your studies. And you should study in a group that supports you in this endeavor. As a person studies these texts, precisely his intention to become corrected attracts onto him the Light that Reforms – the Torah. If you read them in any other manner, you will surely get confused and start thinking that it’s speaking about our world.

For instance, take a look at the text of the ARI (The Tree of Life):
The primary HaVaYaH (the 4-letter name of the Creator) from the World of Infinity begets all consequences, which further divide into four parts, down to our world.

1. Every creature contains four bases: fire, water, air, and the dust of the earth. They correspond to the four letters HaVaYaH, and KhuB Tum, and TaNTA (Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin and Otiyot), and ABYA.

2. And these are the four categories in the lower (of our world) Adam: a) the spiritual that’s within him; b) the body; c) the garments; d) the dwelling place. Each of them in turn consists of four: in his spiritual part there’s Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, and Chaya; in his body there’s Atzamot, Gidin, Basar and Awr (bones, tendons, flesh and skin); in the garments there’s Kutonet, Mikhnasaim, Matznefet, Avnet (shirt, pants, cloak, belt); in the dwelling place there’s Bait, Hatzer, Sade, Midbar (house, yard, field, desert).

3. In the four categories of Adam, there’s one that includes all. And there’s also the middle one between each of these categories, which includes all the adjacent ones.

4. The category which includes all is called the Light of Yechida. It has two parts: the spark of the Creator and the spark of the creature.

5. The middle category between the spiritual in Adam, which is NaRaNCHaY, and his body – is “Reviit Dam” (the fourth part of blood), and Nefesh de-Nefesh (the animate force) clothes in it. It also includes the spiritual part and the body.

6. The middle category between the body and the garments is “Searot” and “Tzipornayim” of Adam (hair and nails).

7. The middle category between the garments and the dwelling place is Oalim (tabernacles) which are made of wool and flax.

Conclusion: Only in the process of studying authentic Kabbalistic texts do you connect with the Upper World and evoke upon yourself the influence of the Upper Light (the Light of the Torah), which can transport you from the perception of this world to the perception of the Upper World. There is no other method that can allow you to achieve such a transformation! Therefore, when the world and you are ready for it, Kabbalah becomes revealed and is offered to you as the method of correction.

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A recent telephone survey of almost eleven hundred Americans, conducted by scientists from the Texas A&M University, shows that “the more informed respondents both feel less personally responsible for global warming, and also show less concern for global warming” (Risk Analysis, Vol.28, Issue 1, Feb 08). Oddly enough, the more actively the media publicizes the problem, the less concerned people become. It looks like our society is asking professionals to solve this global-scale problem, and not disturb regular people with cries of imminent disaster.

Also, other than achieving personal comfort, what else can you expect from your regular Joe? If there truly are disasters coming our way, then it’s not like anyone’s offering any solutions for them. Such conditions create a need for Kabbalah, which is capable of preventing nature’s blows. Therefore, it is essential to spread this method throughout the world, no matter how desperate the conditions may become.

You know, the people of Israel didn’t really want to flee Egypt (egoism), and this is precisely what Nature is pushing us toward. Moses was practically all alone in this endeavor. Prior to his arrival from Itro, his father in law, and until he started agitating Pharoah, which is egoism, nobody was even thinking of escaping from such egoism. Everything that Torah speaks of will also happen to us, and in exactly the same way.

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A question I received on my post Our Planet Is Only as Big as a House!: In the U.S. there are a great multitude of cultures and ethnicities living among one another. Though each is obviously interconnected and relies on a certain level of interdependency for collective survival, racism (particularly between European descendants and African descendants) is very much a strong reality here. This can be seen in the topics that repeatedly emerge in the midst of this presidential election. How does Kabbalah interpret this? What is at the spiritual roots of this corporeal tension between lighter and darker people?

My Answer: People dislike those who are different from them. This is the way our egoism is. There is a law of similarity in nature according to which similar objects are attracted to each other, regardless of their properties’ level of similarity. Only by correcting egoism, and making full use of it, will we reach the point where people will stop noticing the differences between various properties and objects. This is because the correction of egoism lies not in its elimination or replacement, but in using it differently – where everyone can express themselves to their fullest, and the only change is in the aim of their expression. Instead of aiming their expression at themselves, they aim it at our common goal of adhesion with the Creator – the quality of bestowal and love, above our nature. When such a change happens, people no longer have anything to complain about: the past opens up to them and they see that there was never anything that depended on them… they see that “love covers all sins.”

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A question I received on my post Depression – the Epidemic of the 21st Century: I usually hear you talking about materialistic psychology. What is it?

My Answer: Materialistic psychology explains everything that is based on precise experiments, statistics, without the use of philosophy or psychological theories – it’s nothing but bare practice!
The following is an excerpt from the article “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy,” where Baal HaSulam writes about materialistic philosophy:

“Not only is it the wrong place to argue with them about their fabricated conjectures, but also their time has already passed and their authority revoked. We should also thank the experts of materialistic psychology for that, having built its plinth on the ruin of the former, winning the public’s favor. Now everyone admits to the nullity of philosophy, for it is not built on concrete foundations.

… For that reason we are grateful to materialistic psychology for having beaten it a deadly blow.”

Related Material:
* BLOG POST: Philosophy and Kabbalah
* LESSON: The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy – Baal HaSulam’s article with commentary by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD – wmv video | mp3 audio [57:39]

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A question I received on my post Hyperactive Children – the Result of Evolving Egoism: I don’t understand your use of the term “egoistic.” And it becomes more confusing to me when used in opposition to the word “altruistic.”

Can you perhaps explain more as to what we did wrong back in Babylon when we decided to go the route that placed us here today – and more importantly how we can fix this problem going forward.

My Answer: Abraham discovered that his fellow citizens in Ancient Babylon (the city of Ur, to be more precise, where he used to live) had an increasing tendency to use each other for egoistic reasons.

Through analyzing this problem, he discovered why it was happening: egoism constantly grows so that people can rise above it, and use their ascent for altruistic growth (like elevating over a constantly growing mountain that’s under our feet). Such a principle of existence is referred to as “faith above reason” – giving over receiving. Regardless of Abraham’s attempts to convince the Babylonian residents to realize the law of nature that was disclosed to them, they chose otherwise. They chose the path of compliance with egoism, and submitted to it: I do what I want, as much as it is possible for me to do so.

Today, this path has brought us to a dead end. We now need to accept upon ourselves this method of correction, either involuntary or on our own accord.

Related Material:
* ARTICLE: Havoc in Modern-Day Babylon – the idea of unity among all human beings is no more to us than an imaginary children’s story. Back in babylon, someone had a way for humanity to unite. Today, our world needs such a method more than ever.

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A question I received: You say that there is nothing any lecture or class you see on a street corner can give someone, other than temporary relief, which is followed by even greater disappointment, and that it is because egoism cannot be corrected by physical exercises, meditation, medications, and even by observing the commandments. On the contrary, egoism grows and gets bigger, which eventually brings a person to Kabbalah, which is precisely the method for egoism’s correction. But until a person finds Kabbalah, there is a long path ahead of him, full of suffering.

My question is: What can be done to awaken the desire for correction in such people? What can be done to make them realize that egoism is evil, and that this evil is corrected through the study of Kabbalah?

My Answer: Only consistent dissemination over a long period of time, in which time all the other methods of “elimination” and “correction” come crashing down.

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The threat of a geo-political catastrophe, brought about by the clash of the Christian and Muslim civilizations, forces each of them to guard itself by preventing the other’s expansion. The rational West and the irrational East consider each other wrong, and are unwilling to understand one another. The East does not accept the ideas of the Western civilization (democracy, equality, and freedom) as coming from man. They understand them as coming from the Creator. Islam believes that the Koran dictates the world’s proper structure, and that only the Muslims are a nation of God. In the Muslim world, politics and religion are united, and hence even a purely political change is perceived as a threat to their religion and way of life. Salvation lies in complementing one another, rather than eliminating each other. But it’s impossible to achieve this, so there’s no solution!

According to Kabbalah, the Creator’s governance is realized in three lines:
1. Abraham – the right line,
2. Isaac – the left line, and
3. Jacob – the middle line.

Klipat Abraham is Ishmael (Islam), and Klipat Isaac is Esau (Christianity). There’s also a Klipa of the middle line, of Israel – those who oppose “faith above reason” or “Lishma.”

The clash of the right and the left lines is inevitable, and they can only be reconciled by the middle line – by Jacob (Katnut, or “the small state”), or Israel (or, “the large state”). Put differently, only the spreading of Kabbalah in the world can bring the world to peace, conciliation and tranquility. Otherwise, what lies ahead is the fall of the Western and the Eastern civilizations. The only remedy for this world is to understand that it’s necessary to attain love for one’s neighbor in order to attain adhesion with the Creator, eternity, and perfection.

My Current Mood: optimistic

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A comment I received: I watched a lesson you gave recently on the Internet, where you talked about your blog for a few minutes, and I felt like you described exactly how I feel as a reader. Most Internet users can’t read Internet posts longer than a paragraph, or even a few lines. At most, the reader quickly scans the text, thinking, “Too many letters…” and moves on to read the comments.

My Response: My blog was created with a clear purpose – to explain Kabbalah. It’s not meant for arguing with anyone. However, some people may not be ripe enough for it. A person needs to have gone through all desires, one after the other – from bodily desires (food, sex, family, shelter), to social desires that arise under society’s influence (wealth, fame, respect, knowledge). Once a person has reached a state of realizing that none of these desires can bring about fulfillment, the point in the heart (the desire to fulfill the soul) awakens. This process takes thousands of years and many reincarnations.

Therefore, it is useless arguing with people who haven’t ripened yet. They still feel fulfilled by religion (a “deal” they make with the Creator: “I’ll do whatever You commanded me to do, and in return You’ll give me fulfillment and reward in this world, and the world to come”), wealth, and so on. I simply ask all such people to leave us, or to study a little bit at a time. However, everyone who is disappointed with life and who doesn’t see how to find fulfillment, is invited.

An ancient text says, “Someone by the name of Ptachia came to our village, stayed for a while, and left, and with him also the empty people…” The name Ptachia derives from the verb Liftoach, which in Hebrew means “to open.” This person knew how to open the higher sources of fulfillment to people, because Kabbalah is the science of fulfillment. And the empty people who left together with him were those who desired to be filled by the Upper Light.

And he took them to the desert, so that they would discover even more emptiness within themselves. This is because the initial disappointment and emptiness that a person feels when first coming to Kabbalah are insufficient for fulfilling the person with the Upper Light, both in the quantity and the quality of the emptiness.

Look at what Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” items 1 and 2, about a person coming to Kabbalah:

1. At the outset of my words, I find a great need to break an iron wall that has been separating us from the wisdom of Kabbalah since the ruin of the Temple to this generation. It lies heavily on us and arouses fear of Kabbalah being forgotten from Israel.

However, when I begin to speak to anyone about the study of Kabbalah, his first question is, “Why should I know how many angels are in the sky, and what their names are? Can I not keep the entire Torah in all its details and intricacies without this knowledge?”

Second, he will ask, “The sages have already determined that one must first fill one’s belly with Gmarah and Talmud. Thus, how can one deceive himself in that he has finished the entire revealed Torah, and lacks only the wisdom of the hidden?

Third, one is afraid that he will miss out on something because of this engagement, as there have already been incidents of deviation from the path of Torah because of engagement in Kabbalah. Hence, why do I need this trouble? Who is so foolish as to place himself in danger for no reason?

Fourth: Even those who favor this study only permit it to holy ones, servants of the Creator. Not all who wish to draw close to the Lord may do so.

Fifth, and most importantly, “It is a conduct in our midst that when in doubt, do as the people do,” and my eyes see that all those who study Torah in my generation are of one mind, and refrain from studying the hidden. Moreover, they advise the ones who ask them that it is undoubtedly preferable to study a page of Gmarah instead of Kabbalah.

2. Indeed, if we set our hearts to answer but one very famous question, I am certain that all these questions and doubts will vanish from the horizon, and you will look unto their place to find them gone. This indignant question is a question that the whole world asks, namely, “What is the meaning of my life?” In other words, these numbered years of our life that cost us so dearly and the numerous pains and torments that we suffer for them, to complete them to the fullest, who is it that enjoys them? Even more precisely, to whom do I give delight?

It is indeed true that historians of all generations have already grown weary contemplating it and particularly in our generation, when no one even wishes to consider this question. Yet the question stands as bitterly and as vehemently as ever. Sometimes it meets us uninvitingly, pecks at our mind and humiliates us to the ground before we find the famous ploy to flow mindlessly in the currents of life as yesterday…

This blog was created for those who do not want to drown in the currents of life!

My Current Mood: loved

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