Questions I received on Maaser:

Question: Can we advance spiritually if we don’t pay a tithe (Maaser)?

My Answer: No.

Question cont’d: I bought the book Kabbalah for the Student and printed “The Introduction to The Book Of Zohar” from it myself. Is this considered as a tithe?

My Answer: No.

Question cont’d: With the obligation of paying the tithe, many people will be turned off to Kabbalah and this will not be a solution for them. At first they engage in Kabbalah with all of their desire, and after a while they understand that they have to pay Maaser in order to advance spiritually. I wonder, if a person is already above the Machsom, will he also be obliged to pay Maaser in order to attain the whole goal?

My Answer: Yes.

Question cont’d: Even on the last 125th degree of the ladder?

My Answer: Yes.

Question cont’d: But the poor won’t be able to advance even a millimeter.

My Answer: If they’re poor, their Maaser is also small, accordingly.

Question cont’d: I am very disappointed that one has to pay to attain spirituality. The Maaser has to be removed because it is a limitation to attaining the so called “new civilization.”

My Answer: Maaser is a law of nature, and no one can remove it. You are not paying anyone; you are merely deducting the part of you that is impossible to correct and giving it to the world’s correction through a different method. You are realizing your own Maaser for disseminating Kabbalah around you. You should read about it (you can also look it up on Google.com).

The Maaser is 10% of your desires, which pertain to Malchut and which you are incapable of correcting on your own. You can only separate a tenth of your income, which corresponds to them. Otherwise your soul will not be corrected; however, it’s not corrected by the money, but by your rejection of it. This is why you are able spend this money on all kinds of empty objects, but find it practically impossible to spend it on Maaser!

Question: I understand that we are to pay 10% of our net/gross income as our Maaser. Where do we make the contribution? Are we to do it once a month according to our monthly income or can we do it bi-weekly with our pay cycle? Are you saying that, if we do not participate in the Maaser, we will still advance spiritually, but we will hinder the whole from advancing quicker?

My Answer: You should look for the answer in previous posts on this topic.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How to Calculate the Maaser

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