Our entire life comes down to trying to fulfill our desires, or anticipating the moment when our desire will meet the pleasure, such as the first sip of water you take when your are dying of thirst. But we only feel the pleasure at that first moment of contact between the desire and the pleasure. As soon as the pleasure enters the desire, it immediately begins to nullify the desire, and consequently, the pleasure.

Even sexual pleasure, which is so powerful that it is considered the root of all pleasures, lasts for just an instant. Then the person must think of other ways to fulfill himself. Thus, we are always compelled to chase after something, because this encounter between the desire and the pleasure is what we call life.

Without this constant chase of trying to bring pleasure into one’s desire, a person cannot be considered alive, for he has nothing to live for. In fact, if a person cannot fulfill his desire, he will be willing to take his own life. Yet, humanity is bound to reach a point where people will feel this way, but they won’t even be able to take their lives and bring an end to their horrid state for lack of strength. So what are we to do?

Baal HaSulam says that there is only one solution: “Instead of egoistic reception, we must reach bestowal. Fill yourself with bestowal, because you will never be able to fulfill yourself by receiving. You have tested it and seen it for yourself. But I will tell you a secret: there is a method that can give you the ability to feel perfect, unlimited pleasure. It will give you fulfillment which includes everything, even that which lies beyond the boundaries of this life. But you must know that this fulfillment does not happen through egoistic reception, but through bestowal. It is because everything that pertains to your human qualities exists outside of you – in the desires or souls of others.”

This is what Baal HaSulam means when he says: “Taste and see that the Creator is good.” Try and see for yourself that bestowal (the Creator) is fulfillment, goodness, and perfection. And then you will feel an infinite desire and infinite fulfillment.

The sole purpose of the science of Kabbalah is to bring a person to this state.

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Shamati #207: “Receiving in order to Bestow”
Shamati #30: “The Most Important Is to Want Only to Bestow”

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Two questions I received on the personal life of a Kabbalist:

Question: Is it ok for a Kabbalist to use hypnosis? Is it a tool the Creator allows us to use?

My Answer: No, and it is not permitted.

Question: In your short bio you talk about your life path, your children, and your grandchildren, but you don’t mention whether you’re married. This leaves me confused because I know how important you consider women in Kabbalah. Why don’t you write anything about your wife?

My Answer: So others won’t be jealous – and that’s not a joke!

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Kabbalah Today Article: What is (and is not) Kabbalah?

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In the News (from Matzav): “Fischer: Israel One of World’s Safest Places for Investors” “Israel was barely scratched by the global banking and credit crisis” … In an exclusive interview at the Bank of Israel headquarters in Jerusalem, the Governor of the Bank of Israel said foresight and “some luck” not only helped the tiny nation in the Middle East avoid the credit crisis, but stabilized and subsequently strengthened its own currency in the process.

My Comment: He may be right, but as the saying goes: the night is still young.

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From Chaos to Harmony: Part II. Israel’s Role – “Humanity and the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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It is very difficult to explain how to enter spirituality to someone. To do it, one must understand that it pays to be a giver. A person is willing to do anything, to pay any price, including his corporeal life, in order to attain eternal life. And we do see people paying for this with their lives. A person is willing to invest all of himself, to sacrifice everything he has, in order for everyone to know about him and to remember how great he was. He thinks, “I will show them all!”

We feel this way because our egoism is an imprint of the spiritual world. This is why we sense eternity inside our egoism. But when you tell a person to revoke his egoism – his entire foundation, without getting anything in return (in this world or the world to come), then he feels that he will have nothing left. It’s because he was hoping to receive a reward inside his egoism. Therefore, it seems absurd to him to nullify it. He reasons, “If I start bestowing to others, I will disappear. Where will I be then, and what will happen to me?”

The transition point from this world into the spiritual world “the world to come” is the most sensitive, significant, and crucial point in all of reality. It is the point of transition between the two worlds, a switch from reception to bestowal.

In order to draw people closer to it, even a little bit, we have to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah in a broad sense. We have to explain these concepts clearly and very professionally. And slowly but surely, we are getting there.

As a result, we will save people many years of suffering. We are thereby speeding up time, giving the world the chance to take a leap and perform the necessary corrections. Instead of going through terrible physical suffering and learning from it (which may drag on for decades), you are giving people knowledge and understanding, so they won’t have to go through the suffering physically, in the corporeal world. The explanation should be given to them with love, out of the realization that it’s necessary, while seeing the whole system and understanding that it is good in the Creator’s eyes. This is how you can do something good for the world.

Related Material:
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Shamati #30 : “The Most Important Is to Want Only to Bestow”
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Attaining the Worlds Beyond: Chapter 14. “Transforming Egoism to Altruism”

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In the News (from The Economist): The Nobel Prize Laureate, Dr. Peter C. Agre writes, “Rather than arguing that science will save us simply through new inventions, let me suggest that it is wisdom from our history that may save us. … Given proper investment, scientific development of renewable and environmentally friendly sources of energy is likely. Design of modern, livable cities with expedient forms of public transportation is feasible.”

My Comment: But will this make people happy and fulfill all their needs?

Related Material:
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Shamati #75 : “There Is a Discernment of the Next World, and There Is a Discernment of This World “

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A question I received: What does it mean to make money for the sake of money?

My Answer: It means that people live for money, and they don’t need anything else.

Suppose I want to buy a yacht so I can enjoy it. I want to sail out into the ocean and swim far out into the open waters. It is for this sake that I am working hard now. I’m not doing it for the money, but for the yacht. Actually, I’m not even doing it for the yacht itself, but for the pleasure I’ll receive through it. I imagine how I’ll dive off the yacht into the sea and there will be dolphins skipping along in the water next to me. And I have this picture in my mind all the time.

On the other hand, there are other people who work for the sake of the money itself, just in order to add zeros to their bank accounts. I want to see the balance grow on my statement every day. This is what gives me pleasure. I look at the numbers and this activity fulfills me. I don’t need anything else. I don’t imagine anything else standing behind these numbers. I don’t see a yacht, restaurants or vacations, but only the numbers in my bank account. They give me pleasure. This is the meaning of “money for the sake of money.”

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Kabbalah Today Article: It’s All about Pleasure

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A question I received: You talk a lot about upbringing and education. However, nothing was ever accomplished through persuasion.

My Answer: My organization and I do not want to persuade anyone who does not wish to listen to us. Actually, we don’t want to persuade anyone about anything. We are only addressing those who want to learn about the method of Kabbalah. We address those who feel a need to find a new way of life.

In fact, persuasion is contrary to the laws of nature. This is because a person’s only freedom of will is to change himself, and it is forbidden to deprive him of this opportunity!

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Interview: “I Don’t Believe You”
Talk: “There is No Coercion in Spirituality”

Filed under: Free Will - 1 Comment →

A question I received: Are you critical of the United States, like most people? Do you think the United States is responsible for the financial crisis? And do you think that only the United States can find the solution?

My Answer: The whole world blames the United States. But if any other country would have had an opportunity to do the same thing, would it not have? Americans built a system that enabled them to “use” the whole world. But who wouldn’t want to do the same thing? The United States was successful, and everyone else is offended that it was able to profit using everyone, and not them. So blame yourselves for your failure, rather than them for their success!

The capitalistic principle, “mine is mine and yours is yours,” worked well for some time, and at one point people were proud of it. But now it is beginning to feel completely unfair. This is because the world is revealing a spiritual layer, and it is becoming clear to everyone that people are inherently unequal.

For this reason, not all people can be given the same opportunities: this destroys society rather than building it. Opportunities should not be simply equal; they should be equal with regard to one’s personal capabilities, education, and abilities.

The less a person is able to do, the more society should help make up for his deficiencies. If you are stronger than me, you should receive less help. This will be fair. After all, we receive our capabilities from Nature (or the Creator), and the compensation for them should come from society.

So are equal opportunities good? No, they are destructive. We have to know how much each person received from birth and what kind of upbringing this person was given, and then we should supplement him so he will live at the same level as others. That is justice, and it will lead to peace. Then, no one will have a reason to complain of being deprived of something or of being treated unequally. And as long as that’s not happening, there will be no peace in the world.

Yet, is it possible to implement this? Yes, but to do it, we would have to know the inner data of every person, and this is only possible by revealing people’s souls, the inner forces and traits of each person. This revelation occurs when we all strive for unity.

In Kabbalistic terms, I, for example, will add you as an AHP to my Galgalta Eynaim, and this will result in a full Kli made of ten Sefirot, which I will fulfill. This is how each person fufills the desires of everyone. And this is the only way to reach equality and perfection.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Inequality Is The Source Of All Society’s Problems
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Baal HaSulam Article: “Building the Future Society”
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Three questions I received from beginning students:

Question: We are located at the center of the Philippine archipelago, and there are no recognized Kabbalists here. Can we learn Kabbalah from you? Do we need a real person to activate the 10 Sefirot of our bodies? Who is our initiator if there are no representatives here from the Kabbalah center?

My Answer: If you connect to our studies, the group, unification and dissemination through the Internet, this will provide you with everything you need to advance spiritually.

Question: I have always searched for the meaning of my life, but I could never find a good enough teaching to fill the gap and to complete the missing pieces of the puzzle, until I met you and your wonderful teaching. I would just like to express my gratitude to the Creator and to you for bringing the Light to this world and for sharing it with the blind, like myself.

My Answer: Hold on to this admiration: it will give you strength to advance toward the Creator. And good luck!

Question: What should I do if I feel that I am a Kabbalah prodigy at 20 years old? Should I just keep learning or am I allowed to teach from my own analogies of what I know so far?

My Answer: Your knowledge is a delusion. You have to let the Kabbalistic texts go through you, and when you do, you will soon see how mistaken you were.

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A question I received: In Kabbalah, “to come out of exile” or to want to come out of exile means to want to rise above one’s egoism. But why would people want to come out of it? A person feels that his egoism is him. Why would he want to come out of himself?

My Answer: Because it’s inevitable! The Creator is the Light that created our desire. Sometimes He shines on a person with the Light a lot, and sometimes not so much. He uses these changes to build new desires in us. However, He does not fill these desires; He simply awakens them and causes them to grow.

This is why, with every passing day, we feel worse in every aspect of our lives. This is also why we want change, since we want changes to happen in order to feel good in our desire to receive pleasure.

And then one day, a small spark appears inside our desire, which comes to us from the Creator Himself. It’s a spark of Light, the property of bestowal, and from this spark or desire, we start to yearn for bestowal.

At first we don’t understand what it is we want. We only feel that what we want must come from a different world. All of a sudden, a person starts feeling that it is useless to receive, that there is no end to reception, and that it doesn’t have any meaning. He wants something different.

Thus, instead of the question, “How can I have meaning in life by receiving pleasure?” a new question arises in a person: “How can I have meaning in life by giving pleasure to someone else?” This question originates from a desire called the point in the heart.

Gradually, a person continues to grow and reaches Lo Lishma, a spiritual search for one’s own sake, and from there he reaches Lishma – for the sake of bestowal.

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Interview with the Future: “The Exodus from Egypt – from Corporeality to Spirituality”
Wondrous Wisdom: “A Point in the Heart – the Soul”
Lesson on Shamati #64: “From Lo Lishma to Lishma”

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