A question I received in response to the post Women as Leaders of Nations: Concerning women as leaders of nations… Since it doesn’t correspond to the spiritual system, and since “there’s only one truth and only one path to it (the same path through which we descended from the World of Infinity),” does this mean that a woman did not come down from the World of Infinity and cannot ascend there, and therefore she does not have any reasons to study Kabbalah?

My Answer: Your conclusion is unclear. A woman has a root in the thought of creation because she represents the created desire. A man, on the other hand, represents the Creator’s attributes and realizes correction based on the woman’s desire. Both must be partners in spiritual correction, each in their own role.

A question I received: I feel a bit of a paradox here. Men and women operate on different frequencies and don’t understand one another very well. Also, a man needs a woman’s desire in order to attain the goal. If the Upper Force is the only thing that can bring people to “mutual understanding,” how should the male part ask to perceive the female desire?

My Answer: Desires are transferred “through the air,” they “linger in the air,” so to speak. People have no need to communicate in order to perceive each other’s desires.

A question I received: If God created Adam, why did He need to create a woman after Adam’s separation?

My Answer: It is precisely the female part of man, of nature, which creates the desire to bring everything to correction.

A question I received (from a woman): Can a woman ask that a man would finally feel the desire for correction to its fullest extent?

My Answer: This is the only thing that will force men to ask for correction, both for the man and for you.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: Man, Woman and the Snake Between Them

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A question I received: Please explain why questions about history are inappropriate? Studying something without knowing its basic principles, such as its history, is rather difficult, if not outright impossible.

My Answer: Rabash taught me to be concerned not with history, but with actual practical attainment. Why scatter about with external phenomena and images of people when you can be attaining? Beginners, however, and those without a point in the heart (i.e. a desire for spirituality) are attracted to history. The same applies to the study of Kabbalah: someone with a point in the heart doesn’t study it, but attracts the Upper Light, whereas someone without a point in the heart studies it like a science and knows the printed material much better than someone who has actually attained this material. See Baal HaSulam’s commentary on the Jerusalem Kabbalists. [Read more →]

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A question I received: I have a very difficult question. I lost my son six years ago, when he was nineteen years old. I still feel terrible pain, but I can’t even talk about it with those close to me. I have to “keep a straight face” in front of everyone, and I let myself cry only when I’m alone, driving. I feel as if I’m holding on to my son, not letting him go where he’s supposed to. Or perhaps it’s he who won’t let go of me? In my mind, I understand that he no longer exists, and that the Almighty entrusted his unique soul to me for a brief period of time, and that I must be thankful. But it doesn’t work this way. I am completely alone in this situation; and I feel that God had abandoned me, like an orphan. How can I find at least some kind of peace?

My Answer: Under no circumstances should a person look back. One should only look straight ahead. Otherwise, you’ll drown in impure thoughts and forces, which are egoistic, and which will only lead you astray from the path. There is no truth in any such thoughts.

A question I received: How can I come to terms with mistakes I made in the past, which I’m only now starting to understand? And how can I continue to move forward without feeling the bitterness of these mistakes?

My Answer: There is no time and no past. You should aspire only ahead, or else you’ll become “a pillar of salt” like Lot’s wife. That is to say, you will stop moving forward.

Related Material:
Lesson on a Letter from Baal HaSulam (Igrot, p.70)

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A question I received: Why is it that during the period of concealment, you feel as though you’re in a dark room, receiving punches from every direction? It’s as if the Creator is waiting for you to fall into frenzy, or apathy… And all this happens in spite of all the work you’re doing in dissemination and the group. Is this, as the Russian proverb says, “Love her like your soul, punch her like a punching bag” (meaning, “those we hurt the most are often those we love the most”)?

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct, “I love her like my soul, so I punch her like a punching bag,” because your egoism has to be punched out of you, or you punched out of your egoism, so that you’ll want to part with it no matter what. The unpleasant states are precisely the states that push us out of the common egoistic swamp, to the Creator.

“The Creator spares no blows for those He loves” – this is widely explained in Kabbalah, and no Kabbalist hides the fact that “the true path to the rose is through the thorns” (through the thorns to the stars), and not through buying a fifty dollar red string or through meditating in order to relax.

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A question I received: In response to a question you were asked in the post “Evolution of Man – We Were All Monkeys in the Past,” you wrote that “Everything is initiated by the Reshimo – the informational gene – and not by the evolution of blind nature, as Darwin thought.” Can you specify what you mean by “blind nature,” and how it relates to Nature/the Creator?

My Answer: “Blind nature” refers to the opinion of Darwinian theory, whose adherents believe that nature lacks a purpose, a goal, and a program of development. They think that at every given moment, nature simply chooses the best of all possible alternatives for development. These scientists, however, say nothing about how such a phenomenon is possible without knowing the end result, and one is left with having to believe in religion!

However, Kabbalah considers nature to be the Creator. Kabbalah, which is the science of the Upper World, and not religion (as many think), provides the following answer: Nature knows the final form, which has existed since the very beginning, and which has a predetermined path leading to it. Everything that takes place is necessary only for man to develop the perception of his own developmental process, and to consciously and willingly assume the perfect, final form.

A question I received: You said that 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, there was a single nation, and people separated from one another due to an egoism outburst. As a result they dispersed and populated the entire globe. However, it’s known that 5,000 years ago there were already civilizations existing in India and Egypt.

My Answer: We’re talking about the ancient Mesopotamian civilization, the source of the modern developed civilization. You can read about how the nations dispersed in the Bible and “Antiquities of the Jews” by Josephus Flavius.

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A question I received: I am a woman who’s invested a lot of time and effort in my academic education and work. At the same time I have a strong need to invest in my child. In addition, I have many talents that I haven’t yet realized in my career. Searching for answers, I stumbled upon Kabbalah books, which have stirred me and fulfilled me. But I still haven’t resolved this problem.

My Answer: So now you have an additional problem: How do you realize yourself in Kabbalah? My advice is to study Kabbalah, raise your children, and advance your career, and gradually you will find the balance between all of them. Our existence in this world obligates us to do so.

A question I received: Recently I started feeling sorry for myself: How do I combine housework, family, children, and spirituality? How do you suggest I deal with this state? Besides, since I started studying Kabbalah, I find it boring to be around friends. And I also have a desire to belong to a group.

My Answer: Every person who encounters Kabbalah experiences this state. This science is about correcting oneself in all aspects of life, including family, work, children and so on. Within all of this, we must solve the question of searching for the Creator and uniting with Him, and then we will discover Him in everything that surrounds us.

A question I received: You teach that first and foremost, a woman must “fulfill her earthly responsibilities, and only in her free, personal time, study what interests her, without imposing it on anyone else.” My question is: Does a woman have personal time? Where can I get personal time if I have practically no remaining time?

My Answer: Among thousands of women studying in our network, I haven’t yet encountered one woman who, if she wanted, could not free up at least half an hour a day to read or listen to something. Nevertheless, you can listen while doing any household chores…

Related Material:
A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development, #1
A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development, #2

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A question I received: How does the suffering, embarrassment and shame one feels before society, correlate to his hatred of society?

My Answer: We learn that shame is the basis of correction. The feeling of shame by Malchut in the World of Infinity led to Tzimtzum Aleph – the refusal to receive for one’s own sake. After that, that same shame pushed Malchut to find a way to bestow – to receive for the Creator’s sake.

As that same shame developed further, it continually showed the creature, the soul of Adam, what to do in order to become similar to the Creator. And the same shame drove Adam to sin: Adam wanted to overcome shame all at once, and as a result he revealed his entire egoistic nature (reception for one’s own sake), as well as the opportunity to correct this shame (reception for the Creator’s sake). But this must be done gradually, over the course of thousands of years, inside many individual souls (during their life cycles), by overcoming their repulsion to one another.

When a person begins to study Kabbalah, after a certain amount of time he reveals his egoism, which grows bigger and bigger. As he continues to study, he constantly learns that egoism is evil, but he doesn’t feel this in any way. He learns that spirituality is bestowal, love for one’s friend, and that he can sense the Creator only within this quality, or to be more precise, that this quality is the Creator.

As more time passes, he begins to view egoism as evil, because he gradually discovers egoism’s connection with spirituality, how opposite the two are, and that it’s impossible to attain spirituality together with egoism.

After some more time passes, he’s “set up” from above in such a way, that he feels as if he is “burning with shame,” and that he’ll adhere to the Creator only by renouncing his original qualities. This is when his correction begins. He is willing to feel the burning shame for the sake of acquiring the property of love and bestowal!

A question I received: On the one hand, during the preparation period, before coming out of Egypt (crossing the Machsom), one’s egoism grows. But on the other hand, in order to cross the Machsom, one has to be absolutely pure! He must go from unfounded hatred to love. How does this occur together? [Read more →]

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A question I received: Who are these “Kabbalists of Jerusalem” you often refer to in your lessons?

My Answer: The answer appears in Baal HaSulam’s “Introduction to the Book ‘From the Mouth of a Sage’.” Here is a version I have abbreviated:

Kabbalists say that every person is obligated to study Kabbalah. And even if one has learned every detail of the Torah and is the greatest of the righteous in the world, but he did not study Kabbalah, he will have to return to this world in order to study Kabbalah.

It is because the revealed Torah is no more than a preparation for mastering its concealed part, the attainment of similarity to the Creator. And if a person hasn’t attained this goal, he will have to return and attain it. Hence, the entire nation is absolutely obligated to study Kabbalah, the means to attain this goal.

Our generation is at the beginning of the full correction, which is being delayed because people neglect the study of Kabbalah. There are several reasons for this: The language it’s written in is difficult, the material is disorganized, people are illiterate, and they are concerned with materialistic fulfillment. In order to accelerate the correction, the Creator has revealed the method needed for correction, through me.

But Light becomes revealed from darkness, and this is what happened when I moved from Warsaw to Jerusalem. I saw the poverty of the nation, the scarcity of knowledge, and the pride of fools who assert that the science of Kabbalah is absolutely devoid of reason, knowledge, and logic, that it is just a collection of words without any concealed meaning, words that should only be uttered just the way they are written. And when those who study the literal meaning of the texts increase in number, the Messiah will come and the correction will be complete.

I have met with these famous “Kabbalists.” They have spent many years studying the works of the Ari and The Zohar, and they know what’s written there by heart! I asked them: Did their teacher attain the inner essence? They responded that there is no inner essence besides what’s written, and that no one in the entire line of Kabbalists since the Ari has attained anything. And the Ari also didn’t attain the Upper One, but received his knowledge from the prophet Elijah, who appeared to him and taught him. And Elijah knew the inner part because he was an angel.

So I poured all my wrath unto them and parted with them forever.

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A question I received: Kabbalah says that we are governed by the Upper Force. In this case, how should I relate to raising my children? How can I raise them when they and I are controlled from above? Children aren’t something inanimate, like a traffic light or a computer, so how should I raise them?

My Answer: In one way or another, children live in a society or environment from which they receive all “the good and the bad.” Nature has given you the responsibility to raise them, to determine what will fill them during their initial ten to fifteen years of their life. In other words, you are “molding” them, and you also determine what educational institutions they attend and who their teachers and friends are.

A question I received: How soon will a Kabbalistic elementary school be established? I am afraid of sending my children to a regular school or day care.

My Answer: We already have such schools, to some extent. And you can try creating them in other places as well.

A question I received: Is it possible to visit your center in Israel with children?

My Answer: Yes. You need to coordinate your visit with our reception by calling 1-700-509-209.

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News Story: Museum Kills Live Exhibit

At a New York art exhibition, a living coat made out of living mouse stem cells started growing uncontrollably, and had to be killed. The exhibit was put together by a group known as SymbioticA, based at the School of Anatomy & Human Biology at the University of Western Australia in Perth. The group’s director, Oren Catts, stated that the need to kill the exhibit served to exemplify the group’s overarching goal, which is “to present the end of our projects in ways that remind people that these works are/were alive and that we have a responsibility towards the living systems that we engage in manipulating.”

My Comment: While we’re on the subject of people’s responsibilities, then can we say that our future with nanotechnology and stem cells is in the “trustworthy” hands of “responsible” people? If we continue relying on people’s better judgment, then just imagine what kind of a world our future generations will be living in? We simply need to change ourselves, ASAP, otherwise the world’s really going to get out of control.

I have a question for all the responsible people, wherever they are: Are you spreading the method of correction?

Related Material:
Article: Education
Article: Raising the Next Generation of Children
Article: The Needed Shift to Altruistic Social Values
eBook: From Chaos to Harmony: The Solution to the Global Crisis According to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

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