A question I received: If a person concludes that there’s no need for Kabbalah since he has a good job, a family, and everything is fine in this life, then how will that person reach spirituality?

My Answer: It means that the time hasn’t come yet. We disseminate the knowledge of Kabbalah for everyone, and anyone who needs it will use it. However, in order to aspire to spirituality, corporeal suffering is completely unnecessary. A person reveals spirituality only under the condition that it is the only thing one lacks.

The words “exile” and “freedom” differ only with the letter “Aleph,” which means “Ruler of the world;” a person only lacks the Creator and doesn’t take anything else into account. One could have endless possibilities in this world, but this has nothing to do with the desire to reveal the Creator. For example, I never had any material problems, yet the need to reveal spirituality gnawed away at me as though I had nothing at all in this life.

It’s written that Jews in Egypt built great cities of Pithom and Raamses. They had everything necessary on the material level, but they possessed nothing with which to revive their souls. Therefore, they cried out from that work since they couldn’t achieve spirituality.

Hence, the instrument for spiritual revelation is only the need to reveal the Creator so that a person would be governed by the quality of bestowal. If all that one lacks is bestowing to everyone, then such a person is ready for spiritual redemption. Redemption is when one is able to not think about himself, and to give to everyone else.

We’re approaching the Independence Day holiday in Israel and we need to know this. After all, we can only be independent from our egoism. A “free nation in its land” is freedom from our egoistic desire, which will be governed by the quality of bestowal. Only then we’ll be free.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/10, “Inheritance of the Land”

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“The day” is not “sunshine,” rather it is the revelation of the spiritual Light to a person. Revelation can happen several times per month, once in a lifetime or at every given second.

Each time revelation is complete and perfect. That’s why a person has to say: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). When a person pronounces these words it means that he attained “the One,” and revealed the Single and the Only Force of Nature.

“Listen” stands for the level of Bina (hearing, ear), “Isra-El” means someone who is heading “straight to the Creator;” Malchut rising to Zeir Anpin (ZA) and then ascending, together with ZA, to Bina is “The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” In other words, everything merges into Bina and becomes One Whole.

The souls that connect within Malchut bond with ZA and unite with Bina; all of them are included into one word “Oneness.” The word “Oneness” summarizes the whole process of correction redeemed by a person when he reaches a state called “He and His revelation are One” (Hu Ve Shmo Ehad.) This explains why the prayer “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one” became a sign of redemption and fulfillment.

This is how we are supposed to announce that we reached a new state at each level we go through, every “day.”  To “speak” means not only to attain, but also be able to express our attainment.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: My friends sent me a video clip, “The Western Wall,” that was presented on a Christian video club site. There are sequences including footage of you that was shot at Baal HaSulam’s tomb. Could you please comment on this?

My Answer: Our archives contain movies that were shot during our trips to great Kabbalistic sites in 1999 including Safed and the Idra Raba cave. The titles of the movies are, The Nights of Kabbalah and We, Bnei Baruch. I have no idea where the creators of the video clip in question got the footage.

We’re well-known; many people study our concepts and materials. I’ve already mentioned in this blog that people write dissertations about us in universities all over the world (for example, at Cairo University). Also, in the United States, I’ve lectured at many universities, and there are quite a few people who study our activities. We have a large educational organization in the Midwest, in  St. Louis, that accommodates many Protestant and Catholic students. We’re open to everyone.

By all means, one can continue observing his own religion and stick to his or her traditions, but, in order to correct our egoism and advance spiritually, we have to study Kabbalah. Imagine that two things are excluded from each religion: 1) teachings about “afterlife” and 2) rules of controlling our destiny (which, by the way, have nothing to do with any religion). Without these two major elements, any religion simply turns into a set of routine traditions and becomes a sort of a “weekend get-together club.” There is nothing else to it.

“Afterlife” is revealed to a person through our current reality by attracting the Light while studying Kabbalah. It’s possible to control our destiny only by attracting Ohr Makif (the Surrounding Light) and by using The Book of Zohar, each and every one of us, for our personal benefit.

Kabbalists aren’t against any religion, but intend to treat them rather as cultural inventions of humankind and not more than that. If we stick to this approach, spiritual exploitation and religious dictatorship will cease to exist and humankind will attain enlightenment.

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Preparation to the Lesson, Shamati #77 “One Learns From One’s Soul“
Humanity can no longer develop without a spiritual goal. It will advance only if it takes an upward course.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And the Lord Appeared),” Item 367
Guarantee is a constant inner unrest and worry for others, without whose help, I can’t save myself from a deadly threat.
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Beit Shaar HaKavanot, Item 60, Lesson 20
The Worlds BYA Conceal the Upper Light and on the other hand they reveal it by means of engagements.
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Article, “Exile and Redemption,” Lesson 1

 In the spiritual system each part is connected to all the others; therefore, by correction itself it corrects others.
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We want to build a global system that will serve as a new kind of connection for humanity. It will bring people into situations where they will discern that due to the laws of nature, it pays more to bestow and be close to others. Eventually people will come to experience everyone as one organism.

This will be a system of education that will make a person feel how, step by step, he is being taught about the laws and rules of the new society. These laws are derived from attainment of the general system of nature, of which we are part. Similarity to the main law, “love your neighbor,” is universal and primary. Everything else is a derivative from it. (See Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Law.”)

The connections that will develop within this system will turn it into a virtual state where people will bring a spiritual component into the virtual connection. Within this system people will begin to create connections among them that are inherent even in our mundane lives. From the new awareness of the right relationships, they will also begin creating the appropriate connections in business, family, and others.

Gradually, all forms of connection among people will develop within this system, until it comes to replace all the systems of egoistic connection. The latter is what appears to unite people today, although in reality it only separates people and puts them at odds with one another.

The nature, goal, and influence of the new system upon every person is completely different. It has to contain an intellect, an ability to learn and teach the people that use it, as well as to give advice to those who set it in motion. It also has to listen to their suggestions regarding which changes must be executed in the connection among people so they gradually advance to closer connections among each other, until reaching a connection that is above egoism.

From A Talk about a New Internet 4/4/10

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Lately, as the systemic global crisis becomes more apparent, there is a sense that it’s necessary to create a proper system of global functioning. Baal HaSulam writes that we have to transform our society according to new conditions, which are nature’s demands. The crisis is making it apparent that we have to become similar to nature or the general interconnection.

I see that it is possible to gradually implement relationships of love and bestowal which are similar to nature. This can be done in the virtual realm; there all the people in the world can feel connected with one another and experience their existence together. Out of all the existing means of communication, only the Internet can serve as this place of connection; it can’t be done through television, newspapers, or books.

Only the World Wide Web, the Internet, can satisfy the demands of dissemination and unification in order to create a global system of upbringing for children and adults alike. Only it can provide the global connection in order to form a common force of unity. Then we will all feel each other through the channels of connection, and reach a spiritual connection.

From A Talk about a New Internet 4/4/10

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The Light’s revelation in the spiritual world is called “day.” Hence, “morning” is followed by “noon” and the afternoon prayer. The desire to enjoy grows inside of a person and he feels that he passes through various states. The “daytime hours” go by until this new egoistic desire grows so strong that the Light begins to be restricted and the sun begins to set. The person no longer has a sufficient amount of the Light of Hassadim in order to retain the Light of Hochma. His desire to enjoy has grown before receiving corrections.

As a result, “evening” sets in when he no longer can discern the desire to receive from the desire to bestow or the light from the darkness; everything is mixed together. He enters a “recumbent” state when Rosh-Toch-Sof (the head, body, and extremities of his soul) of his spiritual Partzuf are on the same level. He makes no calculations as he’s incapable of any.

The only thing he can do is maintain his “still” level and so he “goes to sleep,” which is a state that is very close to death. It’s in that state of “night” that he re-attains “unity,” the bond between souls and their union with the Creator, so that the Upper Light upholds him even in descent.

From here, we need to draw conclusions as to how to prepare ourselves for darkness at this preparatory stage before reaching the spiritual degrees. This is done by binding ourselves to the group, the Kabbalah books, and the study to form as many connections or “support blocks” as possible. When we make this correction, the “night” will end and “day” will begin anew.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 04/04/10, The Zohar

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Early in the morning, at first light prior to sunrise (when the Light is starting to be revealed) one needs to recite the prayer, “Hear O Israel.” A person stayed in the night, in the darkness, without strength and under the dominion of his egoistic desire. However, he has done the proper preparation and triggered the Zivug Aba ve-Ima at midnight which started correcting his desires.

This is how a person begins to add the property of bestowal or the Light into the darkness – his big, cruel, egoistic desire to receive sensed as night or darkness. The Light comes to him, but he can’t feel it because this is the Surrounding Light that shines during the night, in the darkness, in the exile from the spirituality.

However, this Light corrects a person and, suddenly, he starts feeling that this is not darkness. The darkness comes only from his side, but, in reality, there is Light. If he, on his side, adds the property of bestowal or the Light of Hassadim, then the Light of Hochma is revealed within Hassadim and “darkness starts shining as light.” That is, the day begins.

In other words, the day starts not because some new Light descends from Above, since nothing changes Above. Rather, a person corrects his desires through his efforts and begins revealing the Light of “day.”

This is when, for the first time, he should recite the prayer, “Hear O Israel.” This is how a day in the spiritual world begins. Later on, he says other prayers, that is, he triggers special acts and the uniting (Zivug) of the Light and the desire.

The Kabbalists wrote a prayer book based on this. It helps us understand the actions we’ll have to perform in the spiritual world when we reach it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 04/04/10, The Zohar

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Some stars are so condensed that light cannot escape from their field. We also are inside our egoism as in a black hole, and cannot break out of it, neither in our feeling nor perception.

My feeling that I am contracted and enclosed within myself and sense all of reality only within me, that is, my feeling that I don’t sense the Creator and external world yet I need Him desperately, is a necessary preparation (Kli) for revealing the spirituality. This happens on every state and in every degree.

First, I have to reveal what I’m lacking, that is, I start with revealing negativity. I gradually raise within myself the sensation of deficiency and desire for the next degree. Initially, I simply think that I could get something from it for my current degree. Then I begin to think that the next degree is itself superior. This degree becomes so important to me that I am willing to forget about benefits that I can get for my current degree and I become disinterested in it.

I want to be at and inside the next degree so I completely reject my current degree and all its profits. I am prepared to trade anything to get to the Upper degree. This is how I shift my values from the lower to the Upper World, and if I really want it, I then ascend and enter it.

From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 13, 1925, pg. 25

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