Two questions I received on the benefit of charity work:

Question: I am a member of an international altruistic group. They dedicate time to help the community in many ways and they want me to be the treasurer. I want to dedicate my time to Kabbalah and therefore I feel divided about what I should do. Please help. Is helping the community considered bestowal or is disseminating Kabbalah more important?

My Answer: It’s a pity to spend time on things that do not do any good in the end, as we can see from the work of different charitable organizations.

Question: For decades I have given away at least 10% of my income. It goes to charitable organizations that provide people with ways to improve their lives as well as to the spiritual communities I belonged to prior to Kabbalah. Does this giving fit the definition of Maaser?

My Answer: No, because this money was not used to help others draw closer to the Creator and to develop their souls, but for servicing earthly bodies.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Does Charity Really Help Anyone?
Laitman.com Post: Maaser Is A Law Of Nature
Laitman.com Post: Giving And Receiving In The Spiritual World
From Chaos to Harmony: ”Everything is Ready (for Life’s Purpose). Egoists and Altruists”
Rabash Article: “The Importance of the Association (2)”
Altruism (0:59)

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It is written that the language of The Zohar can do anything. What does that mean, exactly?

We exist inside a system. This system is comprised of individual souls that separated one from another after the breaking from Above. In the space between us, which is outside our points in the heart, we’re building a Kli (vessel) to sense the spiritual world. This vessel is necessary in order for the Creator to be revealed to the creature. This is the goal of the science of Kabbalah as well as the goal of our entire existence.

Our intention should be aimed at making the connection between us powerful enough for this vessel to become similar to the Light and to become a vessel of bestowal. The moment this vessel becomes similar to the Light on the most minimal level, the Light will be revealed in accordance with the law of equivalence of form. All of our meetings and Congresses and our entire work is intended only for us to create this common vessel of bestowal.

In the creation of this common vessel lies a very interesting phenomenon. Naturally, we must all think only of the connection between us, of the partnership, the mutual guarantee, and the unification “as one man with one heart.” This is the condition for creating this vessel and the Creator revealing Himself in it. Otherwise, He will not be revealed.

At the same time, it cannot be that I labor with great effort while others are still impeding the creation of this common vessel. By not exerting the degree of effort requisite for its revelation, others are stifling the whole process. It is possible for me to labor greatly and have the vessel reach its full power while I don’t yet feel this state nor the results of my efforts.

After all, in this common vessel of the soul, everyone depends on everyone else. This is called the mutual guarantee. Every person is responsible for everyone else for better or for worse. It’s for better in that everyone could support, encourage, and assist one another in the work. This is called the positive mutual guarantee.

The negative mutual guarantee is when everybody is connected to one another whether they want it or not. This is because the system has already been formed in the first state (state Aleph) of Infinity. However, everyone also affects others in a negative way if they are lazy and careless. This causes others to also feel a lack of a desire to advance and the goal becomes vague.

Yet, as the Kabbalists say, the language of The Zohar can do anything. Our entire advancement is recorded, remains, and exists in the system. Even if it isn’t revealed, none of our efforts disappear in the spiritual world. Rather, all of our efforts remain and are saved in the system.

As soon as our common vessel is ready on the most minimal level to be like the Light (bestowal), the Light will be revealed. We’re talking about both the quantity of friends as well as their unity as a whole to form a common vessel for sensing the spiritual world.

Therefore, we must approach the study of The Book of Zohar with the right intention, with the feeling that everything is built in the connection between us and everyone must care for his friend.

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Preparation to the Lesson
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Shamati #10: “What Is Make Haste My Beloved, in the Work“
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Miketz (At The End),” Item 209
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In the “Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Baal HaSulam explains that the science of Kabbalah examines everything with regard to the soul. This is because we are not actually aware of anything outside of ourselves; rather, we reveal, perceive, and evaluate things through our feelings.

Therefore, when we read about the processes that occur between Zeir Anpin, Bina, and Malchut, and the connection and actions between them, it is all happening inside us, in the connection between others and me. We learn about what happens in our soul, or what our soul feels and reveals to us. Where it feels and reveals is only inside it.

That connection between me and others is, in fact, my soul. However, right now we feel that we exist in our inner corporeal body; this is our world because we don’t perceive anything else.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Miketz (At The End),” Item 164
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A question I received: While reading The Book of Zohar, I try to imagine what I am reading within my own desire, but this makes me disconnect from the text and submerge into my internal stresses. I then realize that I have lost focus and it is as if I am floating away, not understanding anything. What should I do?

My Answer: The most important thing is whether those “inner journeys” are supported by the question: When will salvation arrive, brought to us by the Light that Reforms ?

It doesn’t matter how a person imagines what’s written in The Zohar or how he goes about his inner search. The most important thing is that in the background of his thoughts and efforts, he continues to wait for the Light to come. He waits for it to change him and to reveal the contents of The Book of Zohar – the sensation of the Upper World and the property of bestowal.

What matters most is: Does a person feel that his heart wants to move in this direction? If he does, then his thoughts, confusion, and reminiscences about himself, as well as the fact that he doesn’t listen to the reader, become unimportant. Underneath it all, he is bothered only by one thought: “When will the help from Above come to me?”

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In The Zohar, we read about all types of qualities and desires that exist within every one of us, as well as the states they go through. Together, we must exert the effort to try to recognize them within us.

It is not effective for every person, individually, to try and reveal these qualities and desires. Rather, we should all strive to reveal them within our common vessel of the soul (Kli) as if these desires, such as the Pharaoh, Moses, and others do not exist within oneself. A person doesn’t know who they are or what they symbolize. He cannot recognize these qualities, see the connection between them, or appraise their level. He only hears the sounds and the words. He must try to view them as a collective structure and as the ten common Sefirot of our soul.

Indeed, the authors of The Book of Zohar were ten friends who had united together into one whole vessel and attained the correction of all the degrees. In this same way, we must imagine our own state.

Of course, every person has their own personal sense with which to feel the spiritual world for everyone is comprised of the ten Sefirot. However, our work will not be complete unless we connect the common vessel of the soul, which also is comprised of the ten Sefirot, into the complete HaVaYaH.

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A question I received: Why does Kabbalah talk about “the signs of the zodiac” (Mazalot), making it seem like it has a connection to astrology?

My Answer: Well, where did astrology take all of these notions from, if not Kabbalah? The use of this terminology dates back to Abraham. After all, our entire system on all levels (inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking) is parallel to the system of the Upper Worlds, from where forces descend and become imprinted in our world on all levels. This is why we see the same correlations in the celestial constellations, as they are built by the same laws in accordance with the connection of the branch and root.

The only problem is our approach. The text Midrash Raba (The Great Commentary) says that Abraham used to come outside at night to look at the stars. He would ask, “Am I under the stars’ control or is there an Upper Force that is higher than all of them?” If I am under the power of the stars, then I have to worship them, but if there is an Upper Force above them, then the stars are mere signs. Granted, these signs are correct when read by those who know how to read them in order to tell what is happening in the system above them. After all, all the events take place parallel in all the systems (or worlds) from Above downward. We only have to know how to read or interpret them.

Yet, do all the astrology experts really understand this? If they are like Haman, who is described in “Megilat Ester” as being a great astrologist, then it would be interesting for us to hear what this great astrologist has to say. After all, he had attained the Creator!

A person who desires to attain the truth aspires higher than the stars and the signs of the zodiac. This is why we view the celestial signs as mere symbols demonstrating higher forces. Our real aim is to attain the Force that governs these symbols, to unite with It, and to rise to Its level.

The celestial signs are structured in the same way as the signs of Zeir Anpin “in the sky,” which is Bina. All the stars in the sky are Bina’s connection with Zeir Anpin, and we are influenced by them when they attain Sefira Yesod. A person who knows how to read this “celestial book” can understand these symbols.

But what use is it for us to understand these signs? Our focus and attention must be higher than the stars and the signs of the zodiac. We have to look to the force that controls them. Therefore, it is forbidden to engage in astrology because it obstructs us from attaining the goal of creation. It doesn’t lead us to the goal, but distracts us from it.

If a person ascends and attains the Upper System, then he understands all the signs and how they are reflected below. Yet, he is not interested in this, because his entire work is focused on the Upper Forces, which influence his soul directly. He isn’t interested in mechanical signs in our world, which are simply a lower level demonstration of what has already occurred higher. Even the occurrences that will take place in the future have already descended and materialized; we simply don’t feel them yet.

Therefore, there is no use trying to reveal the future because we will not be able to change our fate this way. If you want to change your fate, you have to ascend to the level of fate. This is the level of luck (Mazal) – the level of the Light.

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When reading The Zohar, we have to aspire to feel as one man with one heart in order to be similar to the Upper Light, because we desire to evoke its influence upon us. The great Kabbalist Moshe Cordovero (the Ramak, 15^th century CE) writes the following in his book Ohr Yakar:

“When we study The Book of Zohar, we awaken the force of the souls of the righteous men and renew the Light that was revealed at the time of this book’s composition. Thus, the Shechina – the assembly of all the souls – shines and illuminates us with this Light. And all those studying this book return and awaken the Light which Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his friends had revealed at that time…”

Therefore, we too expect for the Light that was revealed by the authors of The Zohar to influence us through all the systems they had gathered after the breaking. They prepared these systems for us in order to influence us through the corrected system from the World of Infinity itself.

These great Kabbalists were acting toward us similar to how we act in this world toward our children, wishing to leave them a good inheritance. This is why they prepared the corrected system for us, as well as the Kabbalistic books and all sorts of “study materials.” They also left us advice on how to build a Kabbalistic group and what its statute should be.

All that remains for us to do is to try to cling to them like little children to the best of our ability. Then the system they prepared for us will begin to affect us.

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