Whose Money Supports the Existence of the Kabbalah Academy?

Whose Money Supports the Existence of the Kabbalah Academy?

Two questions I received on how the International Kabbalah Academy is funded and how to explain this to others:

Question: I’d like to know whose money supports the existence of the International Kabbalah Academy?

My Answer: It’s supported only by the Maaser (“one-tenth”) contributed by the students. We do not receive help from any fund.

Every person who wishes to develop spiritually, to participate in the system of the common soul’s (Adam’s) correction, must allocate 10% of his income to the correction of the world. This rule comes from the structure of the soul: We can correct the first nine Sefirot on our own, but we have to hand over the tenth Sefira, Malchut, for correction to the Temple. But as long as there is no Temple, we give it to the dissemination of the method of correction around the world.

If a person doesn’t do this, then he won’t be able to attain his private correction. It’s because his point in the heart is only the initial desire, but the rest of the desire (which enables him to unite with the other souls, to create a common vessel for receiving the Light, for revealing the Creator) can only be received from others. This is why it is written, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This is the main principle of the Torah, or in other words, of receiving the Light.

This is also a way to tell whether you are simply satisfying your curiosity or seriously desiring to participate in your private correction and the general correction of the world. You can even spend your own contribution, provided that you coordinate it with our common dissemination center.

No one pays our center. It is supported by additional contributions made by the students, besides the 10% that goes to dissemination. I hope you will understand this and use it as an example!

Question: I’m married, and I’d like to know what I can say to my family when they ask me why I pay Maaser? I understand why I do it, and I feel great responsibility and the importance of dissemination and of the goal. I don’t intend to stop deducting this part of my salary.

However, if I try explaining this to them using words from the spiritual world, saying that it’s the tenth part of the soul, Malchut, then they simply won’t understand me. On the other hand, if I don’t try to explain it to them at all, they will think I’m crazy for paying Maaser. What explanation can I give them (even a temporary one), so they won’t think that Maaser is pointless?

My Answer: Tell them that you are putting it aside for “the world to come,” for them and for you, and that you’re all definitely going to get there. Calculate how much you’re spending, even without realizing “what” you are spending it on.

But in general, no one is obligating you. See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Peace.” There he explains that the Creator is like a salesman in a store, and He gives everyone whatever they take from this world, and writes it down in His notebook. And afterwards He systematically collects the payment from you, whether you realize it or not.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Peace (Baal HaSulam)
Laitman.com Post: The Cycle of Descents and Ascents, and the Correction of the Maaser (Advanced)
Laitman.com Post: The Solution – Excerpts from the Writings of the Last Generation by Baal HaSulam
About Maaser

The Cycle of Descents and Ascents, and the Correction of the Maaser (Advanced)

The Cycle of Ascends and DescentsTwo questions I received from women about the purpose of preparation in one’s inner work, and the need to pay Maaser:

Question: I always try to be in the state of “preparation” – to hold the intention, connect to my husband who also studies Kabbalah, disseminate, and study. Still, sometimes I experience descents and lose all of my connection with the Creator. Later I come out of them and try to increase my preparation even more, as much as I can. But after that there are more descents, and then I again increase my preparation and aspiration, and this is followed by more descents.

I understand that there will always be descents and ascents, and that they are necessary. However, if I lose my connection with the Creator, doesn’t this mean that I don’t spend enough time preparing? Or am I wrong about the purpose of the preparation? Isn’t it intended to help you get out of a descent faster? Or is it intended to prevent the descents, to have less of them?

My Answer: If you prepare correctly, then whenever you experience some state, and then this state finishes passing over you (it finishes manifesting fully, through all ten Sefirot or all four stages), then if you prepared well beforehand, you’ll immediately begin perceiving the end of this state as a descent. And then you’ll immediately want to ascend from it, and you’ll begin intensively attracting the external forces of the group. The group will give you:

1) The importance of the goal;
2) The sensation of your own weakness;
3) The necessary aspiration to ask for correction from above.

As a result of all this, you will produce a request (a MAN), and then the Light of correction (Ohr Makif, MAD) will descend during the general group study. And then you’ll ascend – that is, you’ll perceive and value the property of love and bestowal as if it’s the highest possible thing.

And that’s how a new cycle begins.

Question: When women participate in the group together with men, do they also have to pay the Maaser?

My Answer: Yes. Every person who advances must give a tenth of his net profit to Kabbalah’s dissemination around the world – to the world’s correction. This is not a tradition, but a necessity in order to correct a tenth of your egoistic desire, Malchut. The other parts become corrected by your efforts in the study, the group, and dissemination. You can’t just “buy them off” the way you do to correct this “still” part of your desires.

Isn’t that a shame? It would be so easy to just pay someone, and then suddenly to find yourself in the spiritual world! However, since our act of giving 10% for the correction of the world is part of correction, our egoism objects to it in every way possible, and this is why every person receives enormous disturbances when it comes to giving away the Maaser. Yet every person normally has no problem gambling away or spending 10% of his earnings in any other way, on things he doesn’t really need at all or on entertainment. However, without participating in the common correction this way, one cannot undergo any private correction either! We usually recommend using this money to buy Kabbalistic materials and disseminating them yourself – in other words, putting your own 10% to the right use.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Women Need to Work On Correction Just Like Men
Laitman.com Post: The Woman’s Correction
Laitman.com Post: Be Happy about the Descents!
Maaser FAQ
A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development #1 [40:34m]
A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development #2 [1:35:23m]

Nirvana and Games with the Leviathan Are Ahead of Us!

Nirvana and Games with the Leviathan Are Ahead of Us!A question I received: Hello to all the spiritual “sharks,“ to the people creating a revolution in love! I have a question about the great Kabbalists who have stopped reincarnating. Why did they agree to end their reincarnations? It’s such a shame! Instead of coming back here and helping us, helping Rav Laitman give lessons, disseminate, and correct the world, they are sitting up in nirvana, in the World of Infinity, connected to the Source of the soul of Adam HaRishon, at a time when we need them the most! If I were granted the final correction, I wouldn’t just agree to stop reincarnating and passively wait for the other parts of my soul to be corrected through suffering. I wouldn’t agree to “play with the Leviathan.” So why did they agree to it? Where is their conscience?

My Answer: I completely understand your egoistic anger about not receiving help from above, but I can’t share it with you! When a person ascends and matures spiritually, he gains a new understanding of the causes of what’s happening, the purpose of the world and the method of its correction. He reveals the integral picture of the universe and clearly sees all the causes, phenomena and effects. And when he reveals all this, he becomes “righteous” – that is, he justifies the Creator.

Continue studying and evoking the Upper Light, and then your “eyes” (your soul’s vision) will open and you will attain the same state as the great Kabbalists – you will become like them. According to nature’s plan, we must all reach the state where we understand and justify all of the Creator’s actions. So nirvana and games with the Leviathan are ahead of us! It’s written, “The purpose of creation is to please the creatures.”

Related Material:

Kabbalah Today Article: Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai
Article in Ha-Aretz: Latter-day Luminary
Lesson on the article: “What Is the Degree One Should Reach In Order Not to Reincarnate Again?”