International Kabbalah Congress in New York

International Kabbalah Congress in New YorkLast week, we held an International Kabbalah Congress in New York with five hundred people attending from twenty countries. One of the Congress’s main areas of progress was the launch of a new approach to dissemination in the English-speaking world. Among the participants were many students of the Internet-based ARI Online Kabbalah Education Center, who used the opportunity to meet with one another in person, and increase their connection through their common aspiration for discovering the Creator.

Divorce Is Morally Acceptable and Adultery Is Morally Unacceptable – So Say the Majority in a Recent American Survey

Recent American Survey Says Divorce Is Morally Acceptable and Adultery Is Morally UnacceptableNews Story: Cultural Tolerance for Divorce Grows to 70%

The Gallup service published the results of a traditional survey where Americans were asked to evaluate the moral acceptability of various actions. The survey results show that U.S. residents regard divorce as the most morally acceptable act from the list, while adultery receives the most disapproval.

My Comment: Why is it considered “moral” to break up a family and separate its children in order to satisfy people’s individuality, their egoism? It’s because the society that judges such values as morally acceptable is the same society that places most of its value on the individual. Simply put, divorce and destroying the family is much easier than building the family and developing it, so people view divorce as being something normal.

On the other hand, animalistic affairs, relationships without any deep feelings that are forgotten about as soon as they’re over with, and that take place much more often than divorce, are for some reason looked upon as being the most morally unacceptable acts.

Is this a high level of morality? Is it self deception? Or is it a special institution in a deceitful society? It’s quite possible that any kind of a moral evaluation of behavior has been replaced by whatever people find most convenient. In this same manner, all the “honest” men and their “faithful” wives together scoffed at Clinton! Could it be that people really can’t judge themselves properly? People’s egoism blinds them.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Avalanche of Divorces Can Only be Stopped by the Ultimate Reward
Kabbalah Today Article: Man, Woman and the Snake Between Them

Everyone’s Place Is in Union With the Creator, and You Don’t Have to Follow Religious Observances to Get There

Everyone\'s Place Is in Union With the CreatorTwo questions I received on Kabbalah and religion:

Question: I converted to Judaism five years ago, after an entire lifetime of studying and searching. Over the past several years I have been very devoted to Torah and its pardes. Now I have a dangerous question as a consequence of your lessons. When Bore Olam says: “my thoughts are not your thoughts,” and a sage says that the Torah is Bore Olam’s wisdom (that is His thoughts), does it mean that those Jews who observed Judaism over the last several thousand years understood everything incorrectly, and in reality, my search brought me to the wrong place?

My Answer: Without a doubt, you’re not in a perfect situation, and your place, just like everyone else’s place, is in the union with the Creator. If you search for this place, you’ll find Him.

Question: Were such great Kabbalists as Rav Baruch Ashlag, Moshe Cordovero, and others religious? And why do you wear a skullcap?

My Answer: It is not a question of faith. When Kabbalah refers to faith, it speaks of the perception of the Creator, the property of Bina, bestowal, which becomes revealed in us through the study of Kabbalah. I respect religious observances because they are my people’s cultural traditions. I understand that by observing them, I am not correcting my soul in any way, and that I observe only the framework within which my people lived over the entire course of history. Religious observances are not required in the study of Kabbalah.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: You Can’t Step into the Same River Twice
Laitman.com Post: What Is Religion?
Laitman.com Post: A Kabbalah Museum – Can There Be Such a Thing?
Article: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion
Lesson: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion [01:51:45]
Lesson: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion [01:51:45]
Lesson: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion (Transcript)