A question I received: I was an alcoholic and drug addict for 20 years. A year ago I went through rehabilitation and have stayed off drugs and alcohol thanks to a “12 step” program – a program of spiritual growth. Recently I started studying Kabbalah and became confused – should I continue the “12 step” program or devote myself completely to Kabbalah? Or should I combine both paths? Maybe some Kabbalah students are anonymous alcoholics and drug addicts, but I haven’t been able to find them yet. Can they share their experience with me?

My Answer: Kabbalah is spreading throughout the world. Obviously, the people who begin studying it come from all walks of life. I recommend and ask you to support each other.

A question I received: Suppose that a person is above the Machsom and he already attains and feels the connection with the Creator. As he continues working on his correction, he still decides to experiment with LSD in order to compare the different states. Will he not feel the Upper World then? I’d like you to give this question the attention it deserves, because modern science doesn’t consider LSD an ordinary drug, but an extremely powerful psycho-stimulant.

My Answer: As soon as a person takes drugs, he detaches from the perception of the real world and enters a realm of “wandering,” illusory images.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Drugs Have No Connection With the Attainment of the Upper World
Laitman.com Post: Can Identifying the Chemical Pathways and Brain Structures that Generate Religious Experiences Lead Us to Spirituality?
Kabbalah Today, Quote from the book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah

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Power is the fundamental property of egoism. When we lose it, we feel as if we’ve lost ourselves. Even our perception of the things around us is based on the sensation of power: Our senses perceive everything by evaluating their influence on different objects, things, and forces – by weighing, “who is stronger?”

When one becomes aware of his constant aspiration to rule over his environment (and again – without this aspiration, one cannot perceive the environment), then this realization leads one to recognize the evil within himself. He then feels the need to revoke his all-inclusive lust to rule over everything, and to replace it with the opposite quality – “Anava” (being absent).

Inside this aspiration or quality, one discovers the Creator. The Creator hides from us inside this property in order to give us the opportunity to attain (without His obvious influence) the same height, omnipotence, independence, greatness, and humbleness of love as He has.

One then discovers that he acquires power over everything precisely by yielding to others, because he then becomes incorporated into the general Light. This correlation – “the Creator and the creation” – can be described as calm, omnipotent, and uniform white Light that fills everything, and inside it there are small, black, egoistic balls that are anxiously jumping because they aspire to realize their foolish pride, conceit, and power.

It is written: “In the place where you attain the Creator’s greatness, you attain His humbleness (Anava).” Hence, power comes through the property of love and bestowal.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Egoism Is Destroying Itself
Laitman.com Post: The Revelation of Godliness (Baal HaSulam)
Laitman.com Post: Practical Advice by Rabash
Laitman.com Post: This Is How I Am
Laitman.com Post: Guidelines for Achieving Unity – Selected Quotes of Baal HaSulam
Laitman.com Post: The Conditions for Correcting the Soul

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A question I received: Do we have a memory (Reshimo) of freedom? I think we have to have it, because otherwise how do you explain the fact that we are always searching for freedom? So, assuming that we have this Reshimo, then the Light also fills us, but we just don’t feel or remember it. And one’s aspiration for spirituality is also determined by the Reshimot, isn’t it? This yearning for spirituality and freedom can’t just appear in us out of nowhere, and this means that we have Reshimot of something that once filled us. So my conclusion is that the entire problem is with us – how to awaken our Reshimot , how to wake up from the dream?

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct – our task is not even to awaken or revive the Reshimot, but to realize the Reshimot that have already surfaced in us. And the way to do this is by drawing the Upper Light (Ohr Makif) upon the Reshimot. However, this work has to be done constantly, and it can only be done in a group, by receiving the following things from it:

1. The importance of the goal.
2. The realization that it’s impossible to attain the goal with your own desire, but only with the group’s desire.
3. The help of the Upper Light, Ohr Makif.

This means that the Reshimot are awakened by the desire that we receive from our environment! And the awakened Reshimot in turn awaken the Light (Ohr Makif) that corresponds to them. This Light then corrects them, gives them the screen, and fills this screen with Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi).

So the Soul = Reshimo + screen + Ohr Pnimi.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Build Our Soul by Correcting the Reshimot that Come to Us (Advanced)
Chapter 1 from the book Interview with the Future: The Spiritual Gene and the Reshimot
Chapter 3 from the book Interview with the Future: The Creation of the Reshimot
Chapter 4 from the book Interview with the Future: The Acceleration of the Reshimot

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A question I received: What do you think about disseminating Kabbalah to the masses through Christianity and Islam? Applying the method of Kabbalah to the study of the Gospel yields tremendous results. You begin to understand that you’re not reading fairytales about magic tricks, but about attempts to change something in the spiritual world, and you want to explain this to everyone who doesn’t yet know or understand it. I think that you should explain this to your Christian students, especially since the Old Testament is a major part of the Bible. Once they understand this, once they feel the bliss of true attainment without having to be detached from their culture and religion, then perhaps they will take it even further.

My Answer: Religion is not connected to Kabbalah in any way, but is actually opposite to it. Religion was given to humanity to be a framework for life in the time of darkness, before the revelation of Kabbalah. And this is why religion is dying out in our times, although this process is lengthy and it’s possible that there will still be religious wars in the future.

We do not approach religious Jews, and we disseminate Kabbalah only among the secular public. There’s nothing new about showing religious people that the Torah contains a deeper meaning. However, they’re not interested in this, because it knocks out the foundation of their faith – the egoistic principle of our world, “Do certain actions and you’ll receive a reward.”

Kabbalah, on the other hand, contradicts egoism, and tells you that you won’t receive anything for your actions (you won’t receive anything into your egoism, that is). Your entire reward lies in being corrected by the Upper Light, in loving your neighbor as yourself.

This is something you can only say to people who have already gone through all the egoistic desires and have a “point in the heart” – the desire for the Creator or the meaning of life. People who are still satisfied by faith do not have a “point in the heart” yet, and therefore we cannot talk to them for now. Kabbalah reveals the law of spiritual development to a person, but this development can only happen when it’s free and non-coercive – and that’s another aspect that’s fundamentally opposite to religion.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Where Is Jesus Christ In Kabbalah?
Laitman.com Post: Religion and Kabbalah Are Opposite
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Teaches Love and Bestowal, and Nothing Else

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A question I received: I searched the Internet for criticism of you – I just couldn’t hold myself back because I’m constantly having doubts and so I search for criticism to check whether I’m on the right path or not. I found that many people accuse you of not telling your students to observe the commandments. This is clear – you’ve answered this question a hundred times.

What’s strange is that many people also accuse you of the opposite – of forcing your students in Bnei Baruch to observe the commandments. I found stories about you kicking people out of the group because they talked on the phone on Saturday, and other such things. (I also noticed that you don’t write on the blog on Saturdays). Is it true that your students in Bnei Baruch have to observe the commandments? If yes, then why do you tell other people that they don’t have to observe them if it’s not their custom? And if it’s false, then did people just make these things up out of nowhere?

My Answer: Anyone who finds out about me will either love me or hate me. People who have a point in the heart are happy to find out about Kabbalah, and they see me as a Rav (meaning “great” in Hebrew). And if they don’t have a point in the heart, then they don’t understand me.

I teach authentic Kabbalah, and I received my knowledge of it through personal study with Rabash. No one else received this knowledge. It’s a known fact that I was Rabash’s unique student. I teach based on my personal attainment of the Upper World and the Creator. My opponents can accuse me of anything they want to, but they can’t say that I don’t understand the subject. In this regard, I haven’t found anyone equal to me so far. Let them listen to my lessons and they’ll be convinced of this.

Usually everything comes down to the question “Is Laitman for or against the commandments?” But this has nothing to do with Kabbalah! (See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.”) Laitman is “for” all the cultural traditions of his people, and he believes that it’s better to follow them. However, no one can be forced to do them. Laitman also believes that every person in the world can observe the traditions of his people if he wants to. Baal HaSulam writes that a person can keep his religion while studying Kabbalah and uniting with the Creator, because religions are no more than frameworks for corporeal, national traditions, and they bear no relation to the Creator and to spirituality, the Upper World. Religion borrowed these notions from Kabbalah.

The entire Torah and Kabbalah come down to observing the condition, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This is the general, all-enveloping and main Commandment of the Torah – the law of the universe, because it’s the Creator’s property. Kabbalah evokes the Upper Light of correction on a person, which endows him with the property of “love thy neighbor.” Religion, on the other hand, does not do this, and therefore instead of correcting man (which is what the Creator demands), it tells him to study and observe corporeal rituals and limitations.

In the Bnei Baruch center, where 300 men study with me on a regular basis, we abide by the traditional statute of the Kabbalists – observance of the main commandments (such as wearing a skullcap, keeping the Sabbath, observing Kashrut, getting married under a Huppah, and so on). We don’t allow alcoholism or drugs (not even if someone wants to “smoke a joint” in private on occasion). We require daily lesson attendance, participation in the group’s unification, dissemination responsibilities, and so on. And I have never concealed any of this – for example, I always wear a skullcap.

The entire problem of my critics is that they are still underdeveloped, that is to say, their point in the heart hasn’t surfaced yet. They’ll understand when they grow up. It’s impossible to understand spirituality through reason, but only through a desire that’s mature and ready. My critics don’t criticize the actual content, the things Kabbalah actually talks about, but rather they pick on everything “around” it, all the external aspects, the things they can grab hold of in order to snatch something for their egoism – like Klipa. This is their food, because they don’t have anything of their own to nourish them – they are empty. I understand their nature, and I’m willing to tolerate them and forgive them. Time goes by, and it favors the revelation of authentic Kabbalah. Eventually everything will come together in peace and correction.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Life Goes On and It’s In Our Favor
Laitman.com Post: Why Does a Kabbalist Wear a Skullcap?
Laitman.com Post: Everyone’s Place Is in Union With the Creator, and You Don’t Have to Follow Religious Observances to Get There
Laitman.com Post: What Is Religion?
Baal HaSulam article: The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose

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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

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Two 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]

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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?”

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Every summer we disseminate our newspapers “New Humanity,” “The New World,” and “Kabbalah Today” all along the Black Sea coast, to the eleven million vacationers and local residents who are there. With each passing year, more and more vacationers recognize us and greet us with a smile. Many of them even begin studying with us and become our friends.

This happy couple, whom we’ve never met before, took our newspaper and said: “Maybe they’ll post a picture of us on Laitman’s blog – cool!” And I’m indeed happy to post it. Enjoy your vacation!

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: The Freedom Blues
Help Share Kabbalah

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Questions I received on being able to read original Kabbalistic sources alone and achieving something great in life:

Question: You often emphasize that people should only study according to your lessons. I agree that at first there’s no other way, but later on a person reaches a point when he wants to read the sources on his own and to understand them in his own way. I have a different Kli than you, and I can see the Light only in my own Kli. Can a student independently decide when he is ready to advance on his own?

My Answer: You are absolutely right – you should study Baal HaSulam’s texts on your own, independently, and try to understand what’s written there on your own! However, you should only do this after properly attuning yourself using our lessons. Otherwise you will get confused and it will take a long time to “disconfuse” you, and it would be a shame to waste so much time! Besides, usually it’s impossible to do this. So it’s best to first read the text with the help of my lesson, and then to read the original text without my explanations.

Question: Dear Rav Laitman, I’m 37 and by now I’ve done many things that got me in trouble. This year everything is going wrong. I feel like I’m under huge pressure, and I can’t do anything to stop it. Ever since I was a child I felt that I was meant to do something great in my life, and that my life is being wasted. But instead, I have completely isolated myself. How can I come out of this vicious cycle? Should I repent? I wouldn’t even know how.

My Answer: The greatest thing you can do is attain the greatest thing that there is. And the greatest thing that there is – is the Creator. There is no goal higher or greater than Him! So you should read only Baal HaSulam’s materials 24 hours a day!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: If I Don’t Do It for Myself, Who Will Help Me?
Laitman.com Post: The Solution – Excerpts from the Writings of the Last Generation by Baal HaSulam
Laitman.com Post: The Revelation of Godliness (Baal HaSulam)
Laitman.com Post: The Freedom
Laitman.com Post: The Peace (Baal HaSulam)
Laitman.com Post: The Writings of the Last Generation
Laitman.com Post: Guidelines for Achieving Unity – Selected Quotes of Baal HaSulam
Laitman.com Post: New Book – Shamati (I Heard)

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