The Soul Is the Part of One’s Desire That’s Similar to the Creator

The Soul Is the Part of One\'s Desire That\'s Similar to the CreatorQuestions I received on death, reincarnation, the body and the soul:

Question: How can you do spiritual work with a friend who has passed away?

My Answer: In exactly the same way as you do with the souls of your other friends. Integrate that soul’s aspiration toward the Creator together with your aspiration as well as the group’s.

Question: In one of your lessons, you said: “A person’s soul is eternal because it is part of the Creator. This is why one imagines that he will live with his soul forever. However, the Creator changes one’s soul, and this is the meaning of the reincarnation of souls – it’s when the previous state dies and ‘a new person is born.’” My question is: When the souls reincarnate, does one keep the same physical body (does it happen in one physical incarnation), or does the body also change?

My Answer: Every time we change our spiritual state, we change our soul or our degree of similarity to the Creator. When a person rises to the level of being similar to the Creator, then his reincarnations happen during the life of the same body. However, if he hasn’t completed correcting his soul yet, then his body is changed for another one.

Question: When a person’s soul is replaced and he is given a new soul, where does the previous soul go? Does it incarnate in another body?

My Answer: A soul is the state that appears in the desire due to the realization of the Reshimo. The soul is a part of the entire desire – it’s the part that is similar to the Creator.

Question: When one’s soul changes, then it would seem to me that its properties shouldn’t be very different from the properties of the previous soul. Is this correct?

My Answer: The soul is stronger and larger every time.

Question: Does a person notice when his soul changes?

My Answer: A person changes his soul for a more perfect one with his own efforts.

Question: Recently I read a newspaper that talked a lot about Kabbalah, and there was an interview with you where you talked about the person’s “I.” You said that the body is only a shell for this “I,” and that a person won’t change if any of his physical organs were to be replaced – even his brain. I would like to know: What happens to this “I” after the body dies?

My Answer: If a person has expanded his “point in the heart” during the life of the body by uniting with others (by coming out of egoism and crossing the Machsom), then he has already revealed the Upper World. But if he hasn’t attained it yet, then he remains a point and reincarnates again in order to cross the Machsom.

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What Is Sin In Kabbalah?

What Is Sin In Kabbalah?Two questions I received on sin and forgiveness:

Question: Dear Rav, if all of our thoughts and desires come to us from the Creator, then how is it possible to “sin”? Or, in other words, would you please explain what “sin” is in spirituality (or as it is understood in Kabbalah). Baal HaSulam makes many references to sin in Shamati, and I’m trying to understand what appears to be a paradox.

My Answer: “A sin” is when one’s thoughts disconnect from the Creator.

Question: In Kabbalah, are one’s sins forgiven if one really repents from them?

My Answer: We all start out as absolute sinners, because we are absolute egoists. Then we begin correcting ourselves until reaching the level called “absolutely righteous” – the level of bestowal and love for one’s neighbor and the Creator.

It is written, “There is no righteous person in the world who didn’t sin beforehand.” This means that a person first reveals his egoism (this is considered a sin, even though the egoism is given to us from above), and then he corrects it. When one corrects his egoism to the quality of bestowal and love, through the force of the Creator – this is called forgiveness.

In the Torah (Kabbalah), these notions are completely different from the way we ordinarily define them. We think that we were the ones who created our sinful qualities, and that we can correct them on our own, without the Creator’s help. We don’t realize that we are sinners from the beginning; we think that we only sin when we do something bad. However, in fact, everything about us is sinful, egoistic. When a person reveals the egoism inside him, he then feels that he is a sinner. However, he is already on the way to becoming righteous, unlike those who still don’t realize that they are sinners.

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Why Does Everyone Hate Israel?

Why Does Everyone Hate Israel?News Report (translated from mignews.com): “Recently a report was published by Dr. Richard Cravatts of Boston University, who analyzed the results of a survey on the world’s most hated countries. The survey, which was administered on college campuses around the globe, revealed that Israel is the most hated country in the world. No one was surprised by this, but Dr. Cravatts decided to take a closer look at the causes behind this phenomenon.

He reached the following conclusions: 60 years after the establishment of the Jewish State, its right to exist continues to be questioned. Jews are accused of stealing the Palestinian lands, and of brutal and unlawful occupation. Israel is considered the greatest threat to world peace.”

Why does the world view Israel this way? Why do the Palestinians have the right to personal identity, but Israel does not?

My Answer: This is happening because as long as Israel remains in its present non-spiritual form, it really does bring harm onto everyone, and the world subconsciously feels this. Baal HaSulam writes in item 71 of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” that if Israel does not fulfill its calling in our times, then it makes the nations of the world feel that it is unnecessary and harmful to the world. Israel must give the method of correction to the world, or else the world will enter the ultimate crisis.

We received an opportunity to establish the State of Israel in order to assemble the nation according to the Biblical rule – “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and in so doing to provide the world with an example of the new society. However, instead we are showing the world the opposite of what it subconsciously expects from us.

If we do not change soon, then we will cease our existence as a “state” and a “nation.” I put them in quotes because neither actually exist right now. However, there is an opportunity to create them, provided that we let the wisdom of Kabbalah show us how to do it, as this was the conduct of our nation before it was destroyed.

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A Wealthy Person Is One With A Wealth Of Knowledge Of The Creator

A Wealthy Person Is One With a Wealth of Knowledge of the CreatorQuestions I received on perception, mountains and poor people:

Question: Do animals and nature feel their “self”? Do they perceive reality differently than we do, or do they perceive limited reality like us?

My Answer: They live, but they don’t feel that they live. They don’t have a perception of their “self” or that it’s “their life.” They also don’t feel jealousy of others, but are concerned only with survival.

Question: If we exist in an imaginary reality that we create in our consciousness, then where are we all actually going?

My Answer: By gradually discovering that our reality is distorted, we unknowingly prepare ourselves for attaining the true reality. Science is discovering that matter and waves are the same thing. By studying our perceptions, we have discovered that solid can turn into liquid, and liquid can then turn into gas – a substance that’s imperceptible to our senses. But then the imperceptible gas becomes liquid and then solid again. For example, a piece of ice melts and evaporates, and then condenses into water and becomes solid ice again.

Reality is subjective and depends on our senses. We create it within us. All development is aimed at bringing us to the true state – “There is none else but Him.”

Question: What are mountains from the point of view of Kabbalah – for example Mount Miron and Mount Sinai?

My Answer: A mountain is a mass of egoism, because earth is desire (Aretz means earth, and it comes from the word Ratzon – desire). A mountain is a “protruding” desire. By rising to the top of the mountain – by rising above one’s egoism to the Creator, to equivalence with the Creator, one attains Him.

Question: The Bible very often speaks about poor people. What is a “poor person” in spirituality?

My Answer: In Kabbalah (the Torah) a poor person is one who does not have any knowledge of the Creator (Ani be Daat). It’s because knowledge of the universe and attainment of the Creator (of the only force in existence, the source of everything and the one who governs everything) – is the same thing. A wealthy person in Kabbalah (the Torah) is a one with a wealth of knowledge (of the Creator).

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If There Is a Question, It Will Receive an Answer

If There\'s a Question, Then There Will Be an AnswerQuestions I received on the limits of perception and the proper way to understand Baal HaSulam’s words:

Question: It is written that we can only perceive the Matter and the Form in the Matter, but not the Abstract Form and the Essence. It is also said that when we become one with the Creator, we achieve all His qualities, which means that we’ll be able to perceive as He perceives. In the book Kabbalah Revealed it is stated that we can never perceive the Abstract Form and the Essence.

I cannot agree to this, because as I wrote, when we become united with the Creator, we will have the same qualities as He has, and He is surely able to perceive the Abstract Form and the Essence! So, I can agree that we cannot perceive these states for now, but at some point or state (Gmar Tikkun) we will be able to do so! Please comment on my question.

My Answer: At the end of our correction we will definitely be able to fulfill all our questions and desires. If a question (desire) arises in us, then someday, at the end of its correction, it will receive an answer (fulfillment).

Question: Dear Rav Laitman, I am reading the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” and in item 6, at the end, it says: “Even the souls of other creatures passing through this world (Atzilut) merge with the Creator.”

Will you please explain who the other creatures are and what do you mean by passing? I suppose it is on the way up, but I am not sure what is meant by “the other creatures.” I hope you will answer this question.

My Answer: These are Baal HaSulam’s words. He is referring to the souls – the desires of the still, vegetative, and animate levels, or all the degrees besides the fourth degree – the “speaking” level. The speaking level passes independently, and it incorporates the other levels.

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