Other than exhibiting manuscripts of source texts, there cannot be such a thing as a Kabbalah museum, because authentic Kabbalah has nothing to display. However, an advertisement I received is trying to state otherwise: “A museum devoted exclusively to Kabbalah, the mystical aspect of Judaism, is to open its doors in Jerusalem, Israel, on the 25th of June.

The Jerusalem Kabbalah Museum – one of the first of its kind – will display artefacts such as amulets, garments and historical manuscripts.

The museum will display a timeline of the Kabbalah from its inception through modern day.

The museum will have a strong educational aspect to it and will provide personal Kabbalah training for those interested, as well as offering tours of Israel focusing on sites of Kabbalistic interest.

Exhibitions will include detailed descriptions of most prominent Kabbalists, rabbis and scholars of the Kabbalah, their works and accomplishments.”

My Comment: There is a Kabbalah museum in the archive at the Bnei Baruch center, which contains manuscripts by Baal HaSulam and other Kabbalists. Authentic Kabbalah is not “artefacts, garments and amulets.” It is exclusively handwritten and printed materials, which deliver the thoughts of Kabbalists to its readers.

Spirituality doesn’t incarnate into corporeality, and hence nothing in our world – besides manuscripts – has Kabbalistic content. Similarly, there is nothing sacred, or in other words, spiritual (“spiritual” meaning the property of bestowal), in clothing, amulets, and other “exhibits.” A Kabbalistic museum cannot exist, because there is nothing to “exhibit” – spirituality cannot be displayed. It would be more accurate to title this museum “Mysticism in Judaism.”

Related Material:
The Top 10 Myths About Kabbalah

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

The following is a translation of an article about the global food crisis that was recently published in one of Israel’s leading newspapers, Yediot Aharonot:

What Does a Fallow Year Have to Do with Rice?

Next Sabbath we are going to read Parashat BaHar (a weekly Torah portion), which deals with one of the most ancient and complex precepts that were entrusted with the people of Israel – the precept of a fallow year. Once every seven years the people of Israel are commanded to rest from cultivating the fields and leave the fruit to whoever wishes to pick it. What will we eat in the eighth year? The answer is that in the sixth year there will be enough crops to feed on, and even in the ninth year.

It may be symbolic that precisely on a fallow year, when we are promised to have no shortage, we are facing the beginning of a serious global food crisis. Even if we overlook media spins, which were probably meant to raise the price of rice, we cannot keep ignoring the fact that the American and global economy are already in a deep crisis. This crisis is likely to plunge us all into a deep recession, affect the structure of society, and shake relationships between various nations and economies.

But what is causing this crazy turbulence, and how do we curb the erosion? Or in other words, what does a fallow year have to do with the stock market in Chicago? Here is the gist of the Kabbalistic explanation to the crisis, along with suggestions for a solution.

In economy, just as with any social system, interdependence is the name of the game. Crises where one factor “infects” others and brings the market to the verge of collapse are part of the symptoms of modern economic globalization. However, the attempt to predict economic crises using sophisticated models has failed time after time. It turns out, that the economic system cannot be controlled or predicted accurately, and an action in one place causes far reaching changes in other, unexpected places. [Read more →]

Filed under: World - No Comments →

A question I received: In the beginning of the article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” where Baal HaSulam refers to the science of Kabbalah by the word “religion,” why does he write that “the second generation has almost completely slipped from under our hands”?

My Answer: In my opinion, he means that with the opportunity to return to the Land of Israel, we also have the opportunity for common spiritual correction and ascent. Moreover, the fact that we’re not realizing such correction means that the exile from spirituality has ended, all the souls have intermixed, but we are late with our correction. This is making the two new generations, which have arrived since the full end of the exile (late 19th century – early 20th century), ask the question about the meaning of life, which remains unanswered.

People are leaving religion, which supported them during the period of exile, because they aren’t receiving answers to their new questions. Only Kabbalah can provide such answers, because it provides answers on the essence of life, governance, the essence of the Creator, and the reasons and purposes of our lives. That such questions remain unanswered spawns more and more crises in all areas of life, which then becomes a general crisis concerning the negative influence we have on our environment. How do we fix this state of affairs? There is only one way to fix it, and that is by changing human nature. This is what the method of Kabbalah is for, as it is the method that guides such a change.

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: I would like to understand the meaning of the sacred name HaVaYaH: the beginning of the letter Yod, the letter Yod, and the rest of the letters in their order. How do they designate the Sefirot in our Kelim and in the worlds, and how does all this relate to Malchut both in the spiritual world and in our world, in our souls from Nefesh to Yechida?

My Answer: The letters and the Sefirot are the same thing. There is nothing besides the desire and the Light that created and fills it. Everything else is a designation of their mutual states. The framework of the spiritual desire is the five-level desire, whose last level constitutes the final desire.

It’s the same with us: The desire forms until we start perceiving and realizing it. It must go through four stages of development, beginning from the Light that begets it as a point, the beginning of the letter Yod, and then continuing along the four phases of the development of the HaVaYaH. Once the desire is formed, it starts reacting to the Light that begot it, and this is already the reversed HaVaYaH. [Read more →]

Filed under: Zohar - No Comments →

A question I received: Religious people, especially those who became religious, say that they feel an enormous force, the joy of life, and lights that do them miracles. How can they feel all that if the Light only comes through the study of Kabbalah and related activities?

My Answer: We constantly develop from one generation to the next, each person at a different rate. Some people – the secular – are content with simply living domesticated, earthly lives. Others need more, a connection with something higher, and a hope of reward – these being the religious.

There are also those who need nothing more than to attain the Upper One, called Kabbalists. Kabbalists are people who attain the Creator, as written, “Know your Creator in order to work with Him” (Da Hashem Elokeycha Ve Avdeu). In our times, egoism is outgrowing the regular, earthly boundaries, and both secular and religious people are starting to feel empty. This feeling of emptiness will bring people from all walks of life – secular, religious and whatever else one wants to call oneself – to Kabbalah, the science of fulfillment (by the Light of the Creator).

Filed under: Spirituality - 2 Comments →

A notice in Ynet, a popular Israeli online magazine: Good Deeds Day

“On Tuesday, June 17 2008, we invite you to stop for a moment in the flow of life and take part in an Israeli community effort. You can volunteer in your area together with you friends and colleagues in a way that suits you. Each one of you can take part in the day when tens of thousands of Israelis will open their hearts to one another, and we will all feel what mutual responsibility toward each other is. What do you think?”

My Response: This is a wonderful initiative, but in order to produce results, it needs to be connected to the Governing Force, the Creator. Even without mentioning Him, we must explain to people that everyone is interconnected and dependent on everyone else. The whole world exists according to the rule of “love thy neighbor,” and only humans break this rule with our egoism, which is why we suffer.

We can ascend to an existence of mutual responsibility and love for all eternity, and not just for one day. With this aim, we should continue explaining how to achieve harmony with nature, which operates by the principle of interconnection, and we are willing to work together with you in this endeavor. However, without such an explanation together with your efforts, they will be empty. There have been many initiatives like yours, and they all turned into nothing more than a national party.

Related Material:
Article: Rising Above the Ego to a New Level of Consciousness
Article: Cracking the Happiness Code

Filed under: Israel - 1 Comment →

A question I received: What makes a woman truly happy? And is such a thing even possible? After all, every pleasant sensation passes, and is replaced by another. What change is needed for someone to feel happy? And how would a woman experience it?

My Answer: Happiness lies in fulfillment: the Light fills the vessel, and the vessel thus experiences happiness. Fulfillment by reception immediately disappears, leaving behind even greater emptiness. Perfect and eternal fulfillment is possible only through bestowal to and love for the one whom you fulfill, and this is what fulfills you. Therefore, “love your neighbor as yourself” is the rule for personal happiness!

Related Material:
Article: Love, Deciphered
Article: It’s All about Pleasure

Filed under: Women - 1 Comment →

A question I received: You hold interviews with famous people who have found their place in life. They take up important positions thanks to their high level of egoism. However, you’re using their popularity to disseminate and advertise Kabbalah. I don’t understand: How can you combine Kabbalah and a person’s career? Can a person aspire to have a high position in society and study Kabbalah?

My Answer: I think that in the future, humanity will still need to work in different trades and sciences. If we do this with an intention of love, to benefit people, it will then only bring us even closer to the Creator.

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Q&A, Society, Spiritual Work - 2 Comments →

News Story: Vatican – It’s OK to Believe in Aliens

“‘Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God,’ the Vatican’s chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones … Funes said that such a notion ‘doesn’t contradict our faith’ because aliens would still be God’s creatures.

Funes urged the church and the scientific community to leave behind divisions caused by Galileo’s persecution four hundred years ago, saying the incident has ’caused wounds.’

In 1633 the astronomer was tried as a heretic and forced to recant his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.

‘The church has somehow recognized its mistakes,’ he said. ‘Maybe it could have done it better, but now it’s time to heal those wounds and this can be done through calm dialogue and collaboration.'”

My Response: Kabbalah says that relative us and this program of actions, we are the only ones in the universe. This is because humanity constitutes one created soul, and by attaining ourselves and the Upper World within this soul, we discover that we are united into one whole with the Creator. We cannot discover any more than this (see the related material below on the attainment of reality). It explains that everything we attain, everything we perceive as existing, is what we reveal inside us, and anything we don’t feel remains outside us, as if it is nonexistent. Everything exists relative the observer. The religions will experience such setbacks again and again, because they are based on suppositions rather than attainment.

Related Material:
TV Program: Perception of Reality – Lesson 1 of 2 (25 min)
TV Program: Perception of Reality – Lesson 2 of 2 (25 min)
Article: Baal HaSulam on Our Perception of Reality
Article: “I Saw a Reversed World” – What Is Reality? How Do We Perceive It?
eBook: Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life

Filed under: World - 2 Comments →

News Story: Inmate Count in the U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations

Information released in this recent article on U.S. inmate count in comparison with other countries’:

* The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners

* The U.S. has 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation

* China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison

* The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people

* Americans are locked up for crimes that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. In 1980, there were about 40,000 people in American jails and prisons for drug crimes. These days, there are almost 500,000.

‘The simple truth is that imprisonment works,’ wrote Kent Scheidegger and Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in The Stanford Law and Policy Review. ‘Locking up criminals for longer periods reduces the level of crime. The benefits of doing so far offset the costs’

* The reason for the crime? “It could be related to economies that are more capitalistic and political cultures that are less social democratic than those of most European countries,” Mr. Tonry wrote. “Or it could have something to do with the Protestant religions with strong Calvinist overtones that were long influential.”

The American character – self-reliant, independent, judgmental – also plays a role.

“America is a comparatively tough place, which puts a strong emphasis on individual responsibility,” Mr. Whitman of Yale wrote. “That attitude has shown up in the American criminal justice of the last thirty years.”

My Comment: All the world’s pains are in one country.

Related Material:
What Follows American Dominion?
America – Optimistic, and Why?
Who’s the Judge?

Filed under: World - No Comments →