Question: In Kabbalah is there a kind of meditation, an inner contemplation or concentration? How is it different from Eastern meditation?

Answer: This is a completely different action. Kabbalistic “meditation” is the creation of intentions. The difference is that with intentions I concentrate my inner efforts on connection with others to unite practically with the people who aspire to unity between us. We want to reveal the power of unity and the love in this unity.

In other words, in Kabbalah a person is not isolated from the environment, but, to the contrary, seeks as much as possible to connect internally with it.

In the Eastern methods, a person can meditate alone, needing no one else. Even if people come together for this meditation, there is no practical connection between them. The method of Kabbalah suggests that it is within the group that we are looking for an opportunity to feel ourselves as one man.

Only under the condition that we achieve such unity like one man can we say that everyone loses his sense of self and is included in “we,” and when this “we” becomes “one” with the help of this one force, we reveal a spiritual degree.

To do this everyone must virtually cancel his egoism within the group, completely nullifying himself before the others. He cancels his “I” and accepts friends, instead of himself.

Thus, he comes out of himself to them so that his previous “I,” which supposedly existed separately, individually, disappears completely, and he feels himself in a new reality inseparable from others.

This feeling does not exist in our world and only can be achieved by using a special upper force of nature. It is the main engine of the method of correction.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/25/15

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Question: For me personally, there is nothing more important than my family, children, and home. Although, nowhere else do I feel so cozy and warm as at home, at the same time, it does not always go smoothly in the family. What is the secret of the family? How should the family be to support us in life, to help us grow and move forward?

Answer: First of all, we must understand that the family is a natural phenomenon and in some form exists in animals as well. As much as the growing offspring need the family, it exists in nature.

The same can be said about people. Being born helpless, the human being is totally dependent on the love of parents who care about him and put him on his feet in a literal and figurative sense.

The family instills in the person the first most basic habits that he follows later in life and one is not able to get rid of them. Indeed, they are transformed into a conditioned instinct that exists forever. The family establishes values that are permanently rooted in a person. They can be good or bad values, but they will dictate a person’s behavior, whether one likes it or not.

Subconsciously, a person will seek to create the same form of the family that he had as a child. Marrying and having children, he still will constantly remember what his parents’ family was and will imitate it, trying to make his family similar.

It is very difficult to separate oneself from the influence of the parental home, no matter what relationships existed there. One simply must go back to the same form of family. Even if he was not comfortable in his parents’ home and he suffered and did not want his family to be similar, he still subconsciously comes to the same thing. It is very important to understand.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/15/15

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Torah, “Leviticus” 27:31 – 27:33: And if a man redeems some of his tithe, he shall add its fifth to it. Any tithe of cattle or flock of all that pass under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to the Lord. He shall not inspect [a tithed animal] for a good or a bad one, nor shall he offer a substitute for it. And if he does replace it, then [both] that one and its replacement are holy; it cannot be redeemed.

The tenth part of our desires cannot be corrected by ourselves. It must be separated from all of our efforts and transmitted to the Creator through the Cohanim (Priests) and Levites as the maaser (tithe). The same thing affects the vegetative and animate levels: The tenth part is separated from the produce of the field and from the beasts that we eat.

This means that the tenth part of everything that goes through a person must be given for the good of all.

In the Torah, there are a multitude of laws, but they all speak only about one thing: how it is up to us to be connected with each other correctly, to become one common general desire, even though we are completely different and far from each other. If we attain a strong mutual connection, then the characteristic of bestowal and love that is called the Creator will be revealed among us, and we will feel a perfect and eternal life.

And if we don’t yearn for this, then wholeness and eternity will begin to work against us and will fill our lives more and more suffering.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/10/14

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The Torah, “Leviticus” 26:36 – 26:37: And as for them that are left of you, I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one fleeth from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. And they shall stumble one upon another, as it were before the sword, when none pursueth; and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.

If the Israeli nation doesn’t choose to correct itself voluntarily, there is a need for a very tough external force that will suppress the ego and force it to behave properly. This is called the path of suffering. Along this path people realize what they have been through, how far they have diverted from their goal, and that they need to fully understand this in order to return to fulfilling their duty. But in order to do so, their eyes have to be opened so that they become aware of the two forces in nature and how they operate.

You can only demand something from a person according to his level of development. When does a child begin to understand that he is in a certain framework? First he goes to kindergarten where he is taught what is allowed and what is forbidden. This continues in school. It is only at the age of 14-15 that he becomes responsible for his actions and understands that there are certain laws of behavior that if he breaks, he can be arrested by the police. After the age of 18 he is an adult, although he is not yet fully mature.

In any case, we have to bring a person to the recognition of what he is required to do and so he must fulfill that requirement. Only then will it be possible to hold him responsible. This is the reason that we undergo such a long preparation period of thousands of years. The problem today is that even the sufferings we have undergone don’t help us.

The question is if they were enough. At the end of the 19^th century for example, the first settlers arrived in Israel. They were ready to live under difficult conditions such as a hot dry climate, swamps that needed to be drained, and the suffering of malaria in order to build the Kibbutzim. In 10 to 20 years, people began to forget all that. The second Aliya (wave of immigration) began and then the third, but they were different people because the ego kept renewing itself. A person doesn’t believe that what happened to him yesterday can be repeated today. It is not even his fault that it is all erased from his memory since he is a new person each day. Therefore, the main thing is education and the teaching of the principles of national and global unity.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/10/14

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Question: From the first day of Obama’s tenure it was clear that he seeks to change US policy in the Middle East, moving closer to the Islamic world in general, to the Arab nations in particular, and improving relations with Iran.

The violence and crises that have come one after another in the Middle East have forced Obama to deviate slightly from the direction that he has chosen. But both regarding the Palestinian question and in the repeated attempts to get closer to Iran at the expense of traditional allies of the United States in the region, we see that his line of conduct has remained as it was. How can we and will we be able to oppose this?

Answer: It was precisely when Pharaoh was bad that we left Egypt. One cannot say unequivocally that Obama is bad for us—his hatred of Jews and Israel in particular holds potential for our development.

His hatred and policies only accelerate our waking and influence on our fate through the Upper Light, as it is written in Proverbs 21:1: “The hearts of princes and kings are in the hands of the Creator.” So, we determine our fate, not Obama.
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 4 

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Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam,” Article 195

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Writings of Rabash “Rungs of the Ladder,” Item 29

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The Torah, “Leviticus” 27:20 – 27:21: But if he does not redeem the field, and if he has sold the field to someone else, it may no longer be redeemed. But, when the field leaves in the Jubilee, it shall be holy to the Lord like a field devoted; his inherited property shall belong to the Cohen.”

We can give or sell our field to others in our world and in the 50^th year the debts are erased and everything goes back to the way it was before. In the spiritual world this is a very complicated system, but it also works that way. We work very hard on our desires for a long time and on the 50^th year (the Jubilee) we reach a level where these desires ascend to the next level.

Repaying the debts in the 50^th year (the level of Bina) is not a descent and ascent but an ascent to a new level because everything accumulated during this time becomes the next level thanks to the work of the Upper Light. It corrects what we wanted to but couldn’t. This special state is called “Jubilee.” If it were kept even on the corporeal level it could bring the world to a totally different state. Unfortunately, a person in this world thinks that what he has is his own private property, but everything is temporary and after a certain period of time everything goes back to its root, to the Creator.

Question: Does this mean that when I think “I will buy a house and leave it to my children” it is a mistake from a spiritual perspective?

Answer: A person has to take care of himself so as not to be a burden on society. He has to take care of his children and teach them a profession and leave them some inheritance. But the Torah advises us not to tell them about the inheritance because this can spoil them. If a child knows that he will receive everything from his parents, it leads him to live a carefree life simply waiting: “The time will come and I will receive everything from them, so I can take it easy.”

He has to earn things by himself. Therefore, parents should be strict with their children, which is what happens to us when we are brought up spiritually. We are given certain conditions and we have to keep them, but if we don’t we are given even tougher conditions.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/10/14

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In the News (rg.ru):  “The separation of boys and girls in school leads to greater academic success than when they study in mixed classes.

“Students do not feel embarrassed and are not distracted by the other sex, which means that they can better concentrate on their studies. …

“Even knowing the answer, girls will be silent and wait until someone responds. In general classes, boys raise their hands first to answer the teacher’s questions.

“In women’s classes: everyone knew the answer, but said nothing because they were afraid to make a mistake. The teacher felt like she was in an empty classroom.  But if the students are praised, next time they will respond actively. A girl should be commended, even if she was wrong, or else the next time she will again remain silent. Interestingly, a boy does not understand this approach, and will spend a long time thinking about why he was noted for giving the incorrect answer

“Girls are calm and never shout. … In mixed classes, teachers yell more than in single sex classrooms. In a single sex classroom, there were fewer disciplinary problems in boys’ classes and they responded more calmly to the teacher’s remarks. In mixed classes, the boys tended to argue more with the teacher in order to show off in front of the girls.

“The great advantage of single sex classes is that the children are not distracted and thus better learn the material. With single sex classrooms in ordinary schools, there are very few drawbacks.”

My Comment: I think that children should study in single sex classrooms. Moreover, I believe that male teachers should teach boys and female teachers should teach girls. That’s the way it has been throughout history and I maintain that we should return to that. In my opinion, humanity will return to that after it learns from all the studies, experiments, and mistakes.
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The Torah, “Leviticus” 27:11 – 27:12: And if it is any unclean animal, of whose type shall not be brought as an offering to the Lord, then he shall stand up the animal before the Cohen. The Cohen shall then evaluate it whether it is good or bad; like the evaluation of the Cohen, so shall it be.

This speaks about the desires of the animate level. In every person there are a great number of desires: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, that is, five levels from zero to four. Each one of the desires must be integrated with the others to work in full bestowal with an intention for the sake of the Creator.

But some of them cannot be corrected so that they work with an intention for the sake of bestowal by themselves. They cannot act directly, but alternatively. Let’s say that a donkey is an unclean animal that cannot be brought to the Temple as a sacrifice. So it can participate in the general system of management by carrying out its task, and that is how it is with everything in nature.

Nothing should be annihilated; it is only necessary to use what is presented to us in the right way. Since the Torah is talking about our inner desires, we need to investigate them within us, classifying and differentiating them according to their character and correcting them gradually so that each one of them will be directed toward bestowal in some way.

All of the desires must pass through the examination of the Cohen (priest). The Cohen is the point of contact with the Creator. So a person needs to find the Cohen within himself, this being the highest point in his state, and view the world through that. Only then will he examine and clarify everything correctly.

Viewing the world through the Cohen signifies that I am looking at the world through the characteristic of bestowal and I see that everyone except for me is in a corrected state. And so I constantly continue to bring myself to see clearly that the whole world depends on me and how I need to bestow to it, to come to the right mutual cooperation with all of humanity. And this is the point of the Cohen. So he becomes a teacher. It is said: “and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests….” (Exodus 19:6), meaning teachers who are concerned about all of humanity.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/10/14

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