Question: Every person wants to receive rewards for their actions in life, not punishments. But sometimes, even though we try with all our might, no matter what we do, everything turns out unfavorably and it is not even clear as to why. Is there some kind of connection between our actions and the results we experience in our lives?

Answer: This is not a simple question because the entire system is hidden from us. We receive rewards and punishments for all of our actions, but who knows what exactly is considered a reward and what is punishment for us?

Only one thing can be said for sure: We exist in a strict system of nature, and that is why each of our desires—and its use, act, word, or deed, each nuance of our behavior, unconscious or intentional, each thought—all affect the system, and the system responds to us.

We all exist as if in a web, and the problem is that we do not feel this web. But without a doubt, there is a reward or punishment for everything. This entire system is called “reality” or “world.” But, this is the real world, not the one that appears in front of our eyes. We are seeing just a small segment, a minute part of the actual reality.

It is impossible to imagine the entire system if we want to understand the meaning of our actions through the small part of this general system that we are able to perceive and call “this world.” This is why we do not know what responses our actions trigger. I do something and do not understand what kind of influence I have on the system, and likewise, I do not feel the action in response in its full and true form.

This is the problem of concealment. The entire system is concealed from us. Rewards and punishments are an incomprehensible and unknown area that we cannot investigate, and the more we study the system of nature with the help of all our sciences, the more we are convinced that we are entering ever more inner and deeper spaces that become even less comprehensible to us.

Nature does not become clearer to us, but rather even more clouded. There is no end to this depth. This is why it is unlikely that at some point in time we will uncover the nature of man with the aid of science. At one time, this was attempted through psychology, but very quickly we became convinced that this is not the way because we immediately plunge into unknown areas that do not yield to the strict scientific methods of investigation.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that we need to move away from investigating the outer world. This is because the outer world is an illusion that forms within us, within our five sensory organs, in response to our interaction with a minimal part of the system. Essentially, this is the tip of the iceberg, while 99% of this system remains unknown.

For this reason, it is worthwhile to concentrate our efforts on discovering the inner system of perception, in other words, to expand our sensory organs to such an extent that we will perceive and gradually reveal the entire system of nature. When we begin to uncover this system, we will feel what reward and punishment mean and what kind of effects our actions actually have, that is, which of them are good and which are bad.

We will begin to perceive the unfolding events more accurately. Considering that it is possible that today we perceive rewards and punishments as little children who think that sweets and a can of soda is a reward. But, we know that this is entirely not true and that it is a punishment for the body, a negative influence, not positive.

Therefore, everything depends on who is doing the judging. In other words, will we be able to rise to a higher level each time, like a mother with respect to the child who protects him from all problems and will not do anything that may be harmful? That’s why what seems like a reward to the child, to the mother, is a punishment.

In this way, we can always check ourselves with respect to the upper degree and, accordingly, examine and decide where, in reality, is the reward and where is the punishment. The science of Kabbalah enables us to do this, even though it requires us to exert a great deal of effort. But only in this manner can we discover that everything is actually the opposite, just like with children. That which seems to us today as rewards are discovered to be punishments, and seeming punishments are actually rewards.

We exist in a false system built entirely on our egoism, our desire to receive pleasure, and the entire reality, the entire system, behaves according to a completely different law, that of mutual bestowal. It is an integral system within which each element interacts in complete harmony with all other parts.

In this system, no one makes a calculation for their own benefit, but only for the well-being of the entire system, and that which is beneficial for the general system is called a reward for all its parts. That which is beneficial for one part that opposes the entire system is called punishment.

According to the degree of our development and correct connection with the general system, we change our understanding of rewards and punishments in such a way as to deem a reward that benefits the entire system, and that which is good for my egoism, in opposition to the system, I deem as punishment.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/2/17

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Comment: Between Dershowitz and Stone, Dershowitz is pointlessly correct – The Jerusalem Post mobile website

From Twitter, 6/22/17

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Question: Each generation is characterized by different values: some value money, others knowledge, and every subsequent generation will decreasingly appreciate the material and will increasingly seek inner values.

The gap between the generations becomes so huge that it is unclear how parents can today bring up a new generation living in a world that is completely unfamiliar to us. After all, we grew up in the old world, which perhaps has already passed into history.

Answer: This is rightly noticed. Imagine that a pair of dinosaurs gave birth to a monkey, marking the beginning of a new era that will last many thousands of years ahead. And these dinosaurs look at the monkey and do not know what to do with it. It is not even clear what to feed the monkey, how to play with it, what to talk about.

This is how we often feel today in the role of parents-dinosaurs, whose baby monkey was born a thousand times smarter than us. A child also looks at his parents and does not understand what they want from him. His parents do not understand him and they have no connection with his world. They are connected with him only financially, so he waits to be fed, given money, and left alone.

After all, he wants to realize himself in life, like every generation, meaning, to fill his desires. And these desires are not at all like those of his parents. Parents wanted to dress nicely, and the young man does not think about clothes.

Parents appreciated classical music, and the child starts itching from it, and he does not understand how it can be listened to. The entire culture of parents is so opposite to the culture of children that there is no understanding between them.

Some do not understand others and cannot understand. They meet only on the ground of food and money—as far as bodily desires are concerned. But even in the bodily desires, there are differences among us: what we eat is not the same, the concept of work, money, and career in the sense that is familiar for us, no longer exists for the younger generation.

It follows its own nature and does not want to adapt to the nature of its parents. The child thinks that since his parents gave birth to him, now they are obliged to provide for him—perhaps even until the end of life.
Parents hurried to get an occupation quickly, to start working, and to create a family. But their children do not have such thoughts and motivations; they are ready to spend their entire lives in their parents’ house, in their room, with their computer.

Question: And what do you advise parents to do in such situation?

Answer: Nothing can be done if parents and children do not reach the same depth. To do this, they need to obtain a similar level of inner development so that it becomes common to both of them, a kind of “common denominator.” And at the moment we do not have such a common denominator; it can only be in the future, depending on where the younger generation can reach in the development of the soul.

In every person there is a part that is eternal, not subject to time and does not change with years. If I, who am seventy, and my grandson, who is now ten years old, begin to work together on our soul, then we will have a common place— eternal and perfect.

It will be very important for the child; in fact, this topic is much closer to the modern generation than all the previous ones. And through it we can achieve contact, connection, mutual understanding, and support—a truly global life.

I see this in two of my children, who, like myself, are engaged in Kabbalah. Therefore, there is no misunderstanding between us because they feel that Kabbalah speaks about the meaning of life, about its purpose, and this occupation will never become obsolete.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/18/17

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Torah, Deuteronomy 25:07 – 25:10: But if the man does not wish to take his brother’s wife, the brother’s wife shall go up to the gate, to the elders, and say, “My husband’s brother has refused to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel he does not wish to perform the obligation of a husband’s brother with me.” Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and he shall stand up and say, “I do not wish to take her.” Then his brother’s wife shall approach him before the eyes of the elders and remove his shoe from his foot. And she shall spit before his face and answer [him] and say, “Thus shall be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s household!” And that family shall be called in Israel, “The family of the one whose shoe was removed.”

“‘My husband’s brother has refused to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel’” means that he doesn’t have the ability to reestablish the name of his brother into the system of the collective soul. He is not able to do this because he feels that his screen is not adequate to correct his brother’s wife.

And that is why he refuses; he has to carry out a correction of a different sort. It has to do with the fact that this woman goes to the elders, that is, rises to the next level, connects with the elders, and they vouch for her. She removes his shoes – naal (from the word “nael,” which means closed or locked), which symbolizes completion of this level.

Question: Why were the Jews required to wear footwear?

Answer: All parts of a person’s body always have to be covered; this speaks to the fact that a person exists within a system of ten Sefirot. This is how we are created in the image and likeness of the upper system and that is why this is the manner in which we must keep ourselves in our world.

There is nothing excessive here, no “pros” or “cons.” A person must be clothed continuously, even during sleep. There is nothing here that can be interpreted in any other way. That is why Jews, as a rule, went about in shoes, which practically did not exist in other nations until modern times. Only in the last 200-300 years did wearing footwear become widespread, but at that time, everyone walked barefoot and felt no discomfort.

By the way, a person’s feet are so peculiar that by constantly walking barefoot, they develop such rough skin that a person does not even feel when he is standing on sharp stones. He can run in a field and stumble across sharp objects and not feel it, as if he were wearing shoes.

But Jews in ancient Israel and throughout the millennia walked in shoes, which symbolizes a person’s detachment from the earth (from the will to receive).
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book,” 11/2/16

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Preparation for the Lesson

Preparation for the Lesson for the Italian Convention

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”  

Writings of Baal HaSulam,“Time to Act”

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Question: Is self-love a bad thing?

Answer: On the contrary, it is a necessary sensation in a person when he or she realizes that one loves oneself and does everything for one’s own good. For the sake of this good, he discovers the method of attaining life until he reaches its essence. All this stems only from self-love, from great egoism.

Question: Is self-love an attribute of egoism?

Answer: Self-love is egoism: I love myself and want to fill myself, it is crucial for me.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/26/17

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Question: At what point can a person who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah be considered a Kabbalist?

Answer: A person is called a Kabbalist when he reaches the level on which he can perform the first restriction on himself and nullify himself before all the of the Creator’s bestowal.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/29/17

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Question: How can we accelerate the frequency of the change of states during a convention?

Answer: That depends on many parameters, but mainly on the group, on the ten you are in.

If you are ready for a breakthrough, you will be able to do it even independently of others. It is very important to know that and to try to fulfill it.

Question: What does the pace of the transition from one level to another depend on? Does it depend on our degree of despair or on our sensitivity? How can we go through the states of despair faster?

Answer: That depends on your merging with others.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/19/17

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Torah, Deuteronomy, 26:12 – 26:13: When you have finished tithing all the tithes of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give [them] to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, so that they can eat to satiety in your cities. Then you shall say before the Lord, your God, “I have removed the holy [portion] from the house, and I have also given it to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, according to all Your commandment that You commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten [them].

You should give everything you can to others, and what you can’t give, you grudgingly leave for yourself because your egoism doesn’t allow you to tear away more from yourself. Therefore, the instruction is to give away a tithe, nothing more is required from you. But it is a tough condition.

A tithe is a tenth part of the net earned product that you have to pick out and instead of using it yourself, you give it for the use of others through the Temple. Through the Temple means for full bestowal that has no relation to you. This means giving to the Creator. You give unselfishly, without gaining any benefit for yourself, because this is for the Creator.

Question: Does it mean I don’t even know where it is going?

Answer: This isn’t yours! You give and that’s it. Let’s say, you have 100 sheep, 10 of them you give away, but it isn’t easy, as if you cut something from yourself. It is very difficult for a person.

However, the fact is that this difficulty isn’t even quantitative, but qualitative because you must give constantly despite your egoism. Many people in our world give various donations. A person clearly understand that it is all for him! Otherwise he wouldn’t be able to give because we all are egoists.

However, here the state appears when you understand that you throw away your tithe into vacuum, into an interplanetary emptiness. Therefore, it breaks away with an incredible difficulty.

Comment: Sometimes you say that if a person doesn’t give away this ten percent, they won’t do him any good anyway.

Answer: Everything in our world happens in this way: If you don’t voluntarily give something that you need to give away, it is taken from you forcibly. After all, the world nevertheless must exist, and it exists according to the laws in which the principle of giving away the tithe is observed. Although we don’t see and don’t know it, it is taken away from us. At that we suffer, we don’t want, we are not ready to give, but we see that we lose.

And all this instead of the opposite, to receive while giving.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/9/16

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