A song performed by the Bnei Baruch band (with translation into English, Russian, French and Italian):

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE9UMt9o9GE]

The central Bnei Baruch group in Israel has several musical bands – this one is one of them. The band’s leader, songwriter and singer is Moti Mor – a famous Israeli lyricist and songwriter, musician and performer. The band performs many of our songs, and of course, all of the songs are about the purpose of our lives.

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Two questions I received on how to read and relate to The Book of Zohar:

Question: I am trying to study The Book of Zohar that you translated. I’ve reread many times the part where you talk about how to relate to the material in order to go deeper into the inner part of it – but so far it’s not working. I don’t feel like I’m advancing, and I think that I lack definitions, the way things are clearly defined in the Talmud Eser Sefirot. Do these definitions exist, and if yes, where can I find them? Or is there another, special approach to The Book of Zohar?

My Answer: The Book of Zohar should be read only in order to evoke the Light of correction onto yourself. To the degree the Light will influence you, you will begin to perceive the Zohar (which means Radiance). And to the extent that you’ll feel the Light, the property of bestowal, you will also begin understanding what The Book of Zohar says.

In addition, there are four introductions to The Book of Zohar, and it’s necessary to know them (or to have at least general knowledge of them) in order to understand the book.

Question: Recently I made the decision that I will read The Book of Zohar. During Book Week I bought the full set. However, I spoke to a person who told me that religious authorities have put a curse on this set of books, and this set of books is “impure.”

My Answer: You can go ahead and read these books, but this is only recommended for people who have studied all the works of Baal HaSulam. In addition, there are four introductions to The Book of Zohar, and it’s impossible to understand The Book of Zohar without thoroughly understanding these introductions!

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Questions I received on how to disseminate Kabbalah:

Question: I went through a period when I had problems with my career, business, money, and so on. Still I did not stop working on my spiritual development and focused on it even more intensely. I wanted to share Kabbalah with others and to get them excited about it. However, since people knew what was happening in my daily reality, they would just smile at me or quickly cut off the conversation. I think that I discredited Kabbalah by doing this. Is there a “constitution” that one should follow when disseminating Kabbalah?

My Answer: The correct dissemination has to be:

1. General – impersonal, inconspicuous, non-coercive. It’s when you give a newspaper, book, or information about our website or television to a stranger without making him feel obligated in any way.

2. Personal – only when a person clearly asks you for it, or if he shows clear signs that it’s necessary for him (such as depression, questions about the meaning of life and so on, but provided that these are really his own questions and not the results of your hints).

Any other kind of dissemination is harmful for others and for you. If a person asks about the meaning of life and this question is genuine (that is to say – it demands to be answered through the attainment of the Source of life, the Creator), then he will find Kabbalah with his “sixth sense,” regardless of where he lives, what language he speaks, and by what form of media or means it will reach him. By disseminating (publishing Kabbalistic material in different languages and making it free or as cheap as possible) we want to accelerate and ease the process of contact between Kabbalah and those who need it.

Question: I want to study something that I will be able to use to disseminate Kabbalah. What will be the best thing to learn, so I won’t waste time? Every person has unique qualities that he needs to capitalize on and direct to the goal. How can I find out what my unique qualities are?

My Answer: You should try your hand in all forms of dissemination: transcribing text, editing, translating, writing articles for print or Internet, making brief article summaries, working with photos, editing and creating video material, creating and editing radio programs, simultaneous translation, editing and creating computer programs, and so on – the list is endless!

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Noah, the well-known character from the Torah, represents a stage in one’s spiritual development. It’s when a person realizes that his egoism is evil, and that he cannot save himself from it because it is his entire nature. He then understands that only the Upper Force, which is outside him, can change him. This is why he builds the Ark – or in other words, in response to his appeals, the Upper Light creates the property of Bina (bestowal) in him, and he then remains inside it so that his egoistic desires and properties will no longer rule over him. When he enters the Ark, he ascends above egoism and enters the realm of bestowal, isolating himself from his egoism, his nature.

Today every one of us and the entire world as a whole are beginning to feel that we are in a threatening state – the state of Noah before the Flood. We are being threatened by the inner (individual) and outer (worldwide) Flood (egoism), which we have brought upon ourselves and cannot overcome on our own. Our only salvation is to hide in the Ark, that is – for every person and for everyone together to acquire the property of bestowal, to ascend above our egoism. Then everything will reach harmony – just like all the species of creatures that were in the Ark, and we will make the transition to renewed life.

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Questions I received on what happens after death:

Question: My name is Daniel and I am fifteen years old. Recently I had a conversation with my uncle about the wisdom of Kabbalah. He said that people who study the wisdom of Kabbalah live forever, but this doesn’t seem logical to me. I would like to know what happens to the soul after death.

My Answer: It’s true: a person who has attained the life of his soul perceives his existence as eternal. But you probably think that eternal existence is impossible because you are connecting it to your body. Of course we can’t exist forever in the body, because this kind of existence is imperfect (egoistic). It was created to be brief (opposite to the Creator), and its only purpose is for us to correct it, to make it similar to the Creator. And the corrected state is eternal. Moreover, our temporary state is actually an illusion, given to us only to realize its evil, like a bad dream, so we would get an impression of it and separate from it!

Question: I really enjoy listening to your lessons and studying with you. You have revealed a beautiful world to me. Suppose that someone has crossed the Machsom, but then died before completing his entire correction. The next time this person is born, will he immediately perceive the spiritual world?

My Answer: No, but he will quickly go through all the preliminary stages and reach the state he attained before, and then he’ll go on from there. One must keep returning to our world until he attains the full correction, because a desire can only be corrected “from outside,” that is to say, while one is in this world, which is external in relation to spirituality.

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A question I received: In Tel Aviv, Yaffo, in the district Neve-Tzedek, there is a synagogue called “Marot HaSulam” (מראות הסולם), although unfortunately, it is in ruins. Can you please explain its name? Is it related to Baal HaSulam’s Perush HaSulam (The Ladder Commentary on the Book of Zohar)? I know that some commentaries on The Book of Zohar were written in this synagogue. The synagogue was founded in 1910, and Baal HaSulam wrote his Perush HaSulam in 1940. Did he write it in this synagogue?

My Answer: Baal HaSulam was forced to move from Jerusalem to Yaffo to get away from his opponents. He lived there and attended this synagogue. Then he moved to Tel Aviv, to a neighborhood near Rothchild Street.

Just like my teacher Rabash, Baal HaSulam’s oldest son, I was never interested in history, but only in ascending from our world to the Upper World. People who are attracted to history and what happens to the body are not attracted higher – to spirituality. Personally, I don’t feel any interest in this place. However, it would be nice to turn it into a museum about Baal HaSulam, into a place that explains Kabbalah to people!

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Questions I received on movement, celebrities, the Masons, and pop music that uses prayers for lyrics:

Question: Dear Rav, I envy everything that moves. What can I do about it?

My Answer: Also move! (Meaning spiritual movement!)

Question: Why do you have conversations with celebrities, with people who are famous, instead of ordinary people? Do you really need the publicity? Do these talks with celebrities flatter your ego?

My Answer: Famous people meet different people thousands more times than ordinary people do. After my conversations with them they gain an understanding of the great value that Kabbalah has for every person and for the whole world, and they begin disseminating Kabbalah on a broad scale, or rather – they bring the Kabbalistic idea to the world. Experience proves this!

The reason I’m doing this is to accelerate man’s recognition of evil so he wouldn’t have to actually go through it in reality. As the Soviet satiric writer Zhvanetsky once said, “The difference between a clever person and a wise person is that a clever person gets out of a difficult situation with huge efforts, but a wise person never gets into that situation.” I want to be wise and I wish the same for everyone else.

Question: What is the connection between the Masons and Kabbalah, if there is any?

My Answer: There is no connection at all. Even my attempt a few years ago to give a lecture for the Masons in Jerusalem failed – they were scared. Secret brotherhoods of any type feel sick in the stomach at the thought of Kabbalah, because Kabbalah promotes wide dissemination to everyone, while the Masons aspire to maintain secrecy. However, there are no hidden forces there, but only traditions and a belief in their exclusivity.

I’m sure that the wave of world-wide change will soon overtake them, as well as all the other philosophies and religions. The only things that will remain will be man, the Creator and the connection between them, while the Masons’ protocols and religious faith “in something” will disappear.

Question: Recently we often hear the song “אנא בכוח,” with moving lyrics that go straight into the heart. Can you explain this text?

My Answer: Why does it move you so much if you don’t know the meaning of the text? Who taught you to think of this prayer in a special way? You wrote, “Recently we often hear” – but I’d like to ask you: who hears it, and where? I have never heard about it! I only know this prayer from the prayer book. In religion and in Kabbalah, no one treats it in a special way. This is just another “sensation” – someone just wants to stand out!

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Two questions I received on whether spiritual correction requires observance of physical rituals:

Question: You say that it’s possible to attain spiritual correction without physically observing the commandments of Judaism. Maybe you’re just saying this out of your concern for Kabbalah’s dissemination around the world? Or maybe what you really mean is that people can’t understand these commandments by simply reading them? If you can’t publish the answer on the blog, I would like to receive a private answer.

My Answer: The Creator created the will to receive pleasure with an intention “for one’s own sake,” and this is how we find ourselves in this world. We were created this way in order to correct our intention to “for the sake of the neighbor or the Creator,” on all of our 613 desires. This correction happens under the influence of the Upper Light, Ohr Makif, which descends during the study of Kabbalah.

This bears no relation to the observance of religious rituals. A person can attain correction and spiritual attainment without physically observing the commandments, or rather – the traditions. This is true for both Jews and the nations of the world. Moreover, every person can keep his religion, because religion is no more than a nation’s cultural framework. Kabbalah only teaches us about the intention “for the sake of the neighbor,” how to love and bestow to others – and nothing else.

Question: You’re all about spirituality and the love revolution. But what about connecting the root with the branch? After all, the still, vegetative, and animate levels are also levels of the will to receive. You always speak about the internality without any externality, and this confuses me. Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” that the internality should be preferred over the externality. But it looks like Bnei Baruch gives 100% of their attention to the internality, and 0% to the externality! This is difficult and confusing. Why not make a small change and pay a little more attention to the externality? Why not combine both parts? Dedicate 90% of your attention to the internality, and 10% to the externality. This will really help everyone! What do you think?

My Answer: We at Bnei Baruch actually do this – we follow the traditions. But do you really think that all the people in the world – who are now approaching correction – have to observe the physical commandments of Judaism, even if it isn’t their tradition? In the article “The Future Generation” Baal HaSulam writes that every person can keep his religion!

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A question I received: Hello dear Rav Laitman. I tried to get my father interested in Kabbalah lessons, but he didn’t like them and two weeks later he said that I listen to the lessons too much. He found a small ad in the local newspaper that said, “We teach practical Kabbalah.” My father – who is a religious, decent and straightforward man – called them, and when the conversation was over he wanted to speak to me. He said that the man he spoke with told him that if a person studies Kabbalah alone, he will end up in the “Gates of Menashe” (a psychiatric clinic)! This made me very angry and upset, since I am studying something completely different. I started defending myself and arguing with him. He also got angry and said that this is no way for a daughter to speak to her father, and that my behavior was unacceptable. What should I do to prevent others from interfering with my “life-line” and my true development?

My Answer: You should conclude that 1. Not all the salesmen teach authentic Kabbalah – there are phoneys. 2. “Practical Kabbalah” is practical fraud. 3. There’s no sense calling random phone numbers in the local newspaper, or thinking that everyone is like us. 4. Bring your father to my lecture at “Beit Kabbalah L’Am” on Tuesday, 7:30 PM.

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