Listen to Sarah

Question: People say that only Jews are allowed to study Kabbalah. Is this true?

Answer: I have another question: Who are these “Jews?” Originally those who studied the wisdom of Kabbalah were called Jews.

People who gathered around the forefather Abraham called themselves Jews. He brought them from ancient Babylon to the land of Canaan. The nation of Israel originated from this group. “Jews (Yehudim)“ comes from the word “unity (Yehud)” – connection. That is, the original meaning of the concept “Jew” is precisely the one who is engaged in Kabbalah.

Question: What if a Turkish-Muslim studies Kabbalah?

Answer: It doesn’t matter who he is. There were many tribes and various communities in ancient Babylon. Those who joined Abraham became “Jews.”

In essence, a Jew is not a nationality like all other nations. One can be French and become a Jew. Being a Jew does not mean to belong to one’s father and mother, but rather to belong to an idea, to the aspiration to find the meaning of life, the purpose of development.

A Jew is a spiritual notion. Therefore, any person can be a Jew. A French or German who devotes himself to this approach, to one upper force (the good who does good) where there is nothing else besides this force, and to the law of love the other as yourself becomes a Jew. This is what determines his “Jewishness” (Yehudiut).

Question: Can a woman study Kabbalah? Did women Kabbalists exist in the past?

Answer: Certainly! All Jewish foremothers and prophetesses were Kabbalists. Up until the destruction of the Temple, both men and women of the nation of Israel possessed spiritual attainment. They lived simultaneously in sensation of the two worlds as one whole.

Question: It turns out that there is no difference between men and women in Kabbalah?

Answer: There is a difference. Just like in our world a woman is different from a man in her perception of reality and her behavior. However, with respect to the upper force and the goal of creation both of them have the same direction. Therefore, any person can study Kabbalah regardless of their nationality and gender.

In previous centuries there were such prophetesses as Huldah, Deborah, Miriam, and foremothers of the Jewish nation. Their spiritual levels were not less but even greater than men’s. Not without reason the Creator says to Abraham “Listen to what Sarah tells you.”
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From the Israel Radio Program 103 FM, 2/28/16

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Question: The Torah attributes stars to different astrological signs. Does the Creator manage people’s souls by the stars? What is the relationship between the soul and the stars?

Answer: There is nothing special about the stars. It is simply an allegory and that’s all. There is no power in the stars and it makes no difference whether a certain star is destroyed or remains. These are simple inanimate systems that have no effect on anything that is spiritual and upper.

Astrology first appeared a long time ago because people wanted to know where they are, how they should behave, how to measure time, and what to do.

In ancient Babylon astrologers could tell a person’s character and what will happen to him according to the stars. In those times people were much more sensitive and closer to nature and could say a lot about a person according to different signs. But this isn’t the system of the upper management. This is the system of our corporeal existence that could make life safer and more comfortable.

Today it is quite meaningless since we have lost our sensitivity to nature and there are no sages like the ones who lived in the past; they couldn’t help us anyway today. We are so negative in our thoughts and desires and so polluted by different chemicals that nothing can help us.

Comment: But people are still interested in the predictions of the Bulgarian Baba Venga and others.

Answer: This is only natural, but it isn’t the wisdom of Kabbalah and they cannot teach us anything correctly either. They can only accurately predict something in advance, but they cannot change anything.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/27/15

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In the news (bbc.com): “Sophisticated geometry – the branch of mathematics that deals with shapes – was being used at least 1,400 years earlier than previously thought, a study suggests.

“Research shows that the Ancient Babylonians were using geometrical calculations to track Jupiter across the night sky.

“Previously, the origins of this technique had been traced to the 14^th Century. …

“It had been thought that complex geometry was first used by scholars in Oxford and Paris in medieval times.

“They used curves to trace the position and velocity of moving objects.

“But now scientists believe the Babylonians developed this technique around 350 BC. …

“Prof Ossendrijver examined five Babylonian tablets that were excavated in the 19^th Century, and which are now held in the British Museum’s archives.

“The script reveals that they were using four-sided shapes, called trapezoids, to calculate when Jupiter would appear in the night sky, and also the speed and distance that it travelled.

“’This figure – a rectangle with a slanted top – describes how the velocity of a planet, which is Jupiter, changes with time,’ he said.

“We have a figure where one axis, the horizontal side, represents time, and the other axis, the vertical side, represents velocity.

“The area of trapezoid gives you the distance travelled by Jupiter along its orbit.

“’What is so special is this type of graph is unknown from antiquity – so making figures of motion in this rather abstract space of velocity against time – this is something very, very new.’”

My Comment: According to the writings of the wisdom of Kabbalah, Abraham, who was a Babylonian priest, lived during that period and according to our opinion, would be considered a scientist and his father was as well. They were a famous family of scientists; there they also developed the wisdom of Kabbalah, which had been handed down for generations from Adam HaRishon (First Man). The wisdom of Kabbalah was used for correction of the person, in his union with others, and for discovery of the upper force through this unity.

In those days it was considered to be an absolutely practical science, a science for discovery of the upper force of nature. And in our day we are also returning to the same attitude toward the wisdom of Kabbalah. If so, it is possible to say that Babylonian civilization also developed the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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Question: Can a person who adheres to the principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” be considered a part of the people of Israel even if he doesn’t ethnically belong to these people?

Answer: In the Bnei Baruch International Academy of Kabbalah, nearly two million people of all different races and nationalities study, and all are representatives of ancient Babylon who are now beginning to gather under the concept of unity because otherwise humanity will not be able to survive.

It is precisely because we are bringing the principle of unity to the world that this ideology is considered as something unique that belongs only to the Jews, but in fact, it belongs to all of Babylon, to all of humanity.

So, when we openly disseminate it to the world, they receive it well, and people come to us without feeling that they are foreigners. On the contrary, they feel a kinship with us and certainly not in any way inferior.

The fact is that all of humanity comes from ancient Babylon when suddenly the opposition between the dominant king Nimrod and a Babylonian priest named Abraham emerged. Nimrod believed it was necessary to develop capitalism, that is,  to advance through egoism, and Abraham said humanity had reached a state in which it needed to unite above egoism, otherwise it would destroy itself.

The people who joined Abraham and whom he took out of Babylon became historically known as the Jewish people. Nimrod’s policy led to the dispersion and settlement of all of the rest of the Babylonians all over the globe.

Thus the egoistic principle softened since people were separated from each other and no longer in such close contact with each other. And so humanity distanced itself from the idea of unity for 3,500 years. Today, we are again gradually uniting again around the globe as we are discovering the interdependence between us and the egoistic opposition to each other—that is, we have come to the same Babylon.

And we can’t do anything. Here also an alternative appears before us: either we cruelly fight with each other (Kabbalists wrote about the possibility of two more world wars, including nuclear force), or we succeed in explaining to people that there is no other choice but connection and unity.

The still, vegetative, and animate parts of nature are in correct mutual interaction. Only our egoism forces opposition between them. Everything depends upon people. Therefore, we are compelled—either by the rod or consciously—to reach full mutual cooperation between us as one single body.
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From the Talk at the Moscow Jewish Cultural Center, 11/24/15

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Question: What is the destiny of the Israeli nation, which is undergoing difficult times now?

Answer: If the Israeli nation wants to survive, it must implement the method of salvation that it has and pass it on to the rest of the world. In his time, Abraham discovered this method of integral unity of all of humanity.

Abraham, being a priest in ancient Babylon, engaged in the ideological education of the people. Suddenly, he noticed that people had become very egoistic, hostile, and intolerant toward each other. He began to study what was happening to his people and realized that egoism was growing. He described the method of coping with egoism in his book, The Book of Creation.

Egoism is the natural force of nature. It is said that the Creator created the evil inclination, but at the same time gave man the opportunity to extract the force of goodness that is concealed in nature.

In other words, our world exists only in evil, but if we want to, we can balance it by the good force that is concealed in nature. This is attained by the connection and unity between us. The more we strive to get close to one another, despite our egoism, the more that the connections established between us will reveal the good force and balance the evil force.

This balance is actually what we need in order to exist. This method is called the wisdom of Kabbalah. Abraham discovered it and began teaching it to his students, and thus the nation of Israel was born from this group and lived in unity for 1,500 years, keeping the principle of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and then fell from this level to unfounded hatred. It has been in exile ever since.

But the method of unity has remained. It is in the wisdom of Kabbalah, although the people didn’t even know. For many years, the wisdom of Kabbalah was considered a secret wisdom that was concealed because no one had a need for it. Today it is coming back to life because humanity has reached a state where it should be used, not only by the nation of Israel, but by all of the people on earth.
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From “The Echo of Moscow” Radio Program 11/25/15

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Comment: Currently, the world situation is very tense: Terrorist acts in Paris, the downing of the Russian airliner in Egypt, war in Syria. One gets the feeling that everything is falling apart.

Answer: We have entered into a completely new period that the wisdom of Kabbalah calls “The Last Generation.” This speaks of the last egoistic generation that must be replaced in the next level of existence with a new regime, a new humanity.

But the birth of something new is always painful; this is what we are experiencing now. It is the birth of a completely new humanity, which ends the egoistic state. For thousands of years we have developed with the help of the ego, and now we must move to a new level of development in which we will balance the ego through the good forces of nature.

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about this. It appeared 3,500 years ago in ancient Babylon where a crisis developed that was identical to what we are experiencing today.

In those times, all of humanity was concentrated in a small part of the earth in Aram-Naharaim (northern Mesopotamia), and the people who lived as one family suddenly felt themselves interconnected with hostility, major opposition appeared among them, which we call the Tower of Babel, great mutual hostility towards each other. They weren’t successful in tolerating this any longer, so they defined a domain for themselves and scattered all over the world.

Some of them, a few tens of thousands of people, joined Abraham who called for everyone to rise above the egoism that was raging within them. Later, he took them out of ancient Babylon and founded an ideological group that began to live according to the teaching of Abraham, according to the principle, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).

Since then, humanity scattered all over the face of the Earth. For a long time things were good and at ease for us, and now we have come to the same Babylon, meaning we have again become locked in, but now this is all around the Earth and we have nowhere to disperse.

And this is the entire problem: We are again dependent upon each other egoistically, the world has become a small village and we need to find a way out of the situation that has been created.

So now again the wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed, which was hidden from humanity since the days of ancient Babylon due to the lack of necessity. Today it is taught by 1,800 faculties in the world. It speaks about how we need to adapt and learn the method of “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” and at least learn to accept others as ourselves.

The ego dwells in everyone regardless of sex, age, political views, and religious aspirations.

We see how much the younger generation does whatever seems good to them; people cannot get along and live with each other, families are destroyed, problems appear on all levels, even on the political level. The influence of the ego puts humanity into very strong antagonism.

It follows that, on the one hand, it is tearing us apart inside and we want to stay away from each other, but on the other hand, the flow of nature, our evolution, connects us with each other. These mutually conflicting tendencies arouse enormous tension in the world and fears of how this might end up.
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From Radio Program, “The Echo of Moscow” 11/25/15

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Important Definitions: “Israel” and “The Nations of the World”

Question: What does “Israel” and “the nations of the world” mean?

Answer: Israel are those who are directed strictly to the Creator (Yashar-El). People that belong to Israel have a point in the heart that shines in them, that is, a point inside the ego that seeks an answer to: what the purpose of life is, why we live, what the goal of creation is? All these questions lead to Kabbalah.

The nations of the world are those in whom the point in the heart has not yet been revealed; this is why their actions are triggered by pure egoism.

Points in the heart opened in some people in ancient Babylon, at the time of Abraham, and the same is happening in our time. This aspiration of one’s heart defines Israel.

Further, the historical people of Israel emerged from the same group and departed ancient Babylon with Abraham. They came together based on a feeling that made them stand out from all the Babylonians: they had the same desire, the point in the heart. So they joined the Abraham, who led them out of Babylon.

The souls of those that once rallied around Abraham underwent numerous reincarnations and currently constitute contemporary Jewish people. Due to the endless afflictions and pain they went through, a corrupt egoistic desire concealed their points in the heart; however, the points are still there inside them, only hidden.

In Shamati #199, Baal HaSulam wrote: Every man of Israel has an internal point in the heart, which is considered simple faith. This is an inheritance from our fathers, who stood at Mount Sinai. However, it is covered by many Klipot (shells), which are all kinds of dresses of Lo Lishma (not for Her Name), and the shells should be removed. Then his basis will be called “faith alone,” without any support and outside help.

So, this is why the first ones who we appeal to are the Jews. Actually, we address the same pool of people. Contemporary Jews represent only two tribes of Israel; the other ten tribes are spread among humanity and are concealed from us.

However, it is not important: Anybody who feels aspiration towards the goal of creation is called “Israel” in accordance with the most accurate definition of this word based on unity of the group that originated in ancient Babylon.

These people do much more for the cause of correction than a regular Jew who has an Israeli passport and lives in Israel, but doesn’t feel any aspiration towards the goal of creation. The more one corresponds to the spiritual definition of “Israel,” the more good one can bring.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/9/15, Lesson on the Topic: “Selections from the Source on the Topic of Connection Between Internality and Externality in the Torah to Israel’s Redemption”

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Question: Last weekend was relatively quiet, we thought that it was about to end, and here on Sunday we came back with a terrorist at the central bus station in Beer Sheva. When will all of this end?

Answer: The situation will not improve and will even become worse. The problem is that the cause for all these events has not been resolved. A few days ago Ynet  published my article, “Who’s Behind The Situation in Israel?” in which I again explained how we can deal with this situation, rise above all the events, begin to calm the situation, and gain control over it.

The reason for everything that is happening is still the same: the lack of connection and unity among us influences the stability of all parts of nature. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that we affect all of nature; whether it is a tsunami, a volcanic eruption, or a hurricane, we are forming all of this volatility.

After all, only through our unity can we have an influence over all the levels of nature —still, vegetative, animate and human—encouraging people to unite themselves and to connect through mutual participation and concern for one another. And the people of Israel provide all of this.

Many articles and books have been written about this. And this is what I have tried to explain in my article with sayings by Rabbi Abraham Issac HaCohen Kook, Baal HaSulam, quotations from the Babylonian Talmud and other sources that are familiar to all the people of Israel in all generations. They all speak unanimously that it is only unity between us that will bring goodness to all of the people of Israel, and the lack of unity invokes all evil.

Question: What is the connection between unity among the people of Israel and goodness or evil all over the world?

Answer: In the sources, it is written that the moment problems, unrest, riots, and conflicts appeared in ancient Babylon, Abraham began to think: “What has happened to these people who were relatively peaceful until now?” From a desire to understand what was happening in human nature and the world, he discovered that there is only one reason for everything— our ego, which was growing in each person and in everyone all together. It is possible to calm all problems down only through connection and unity above the ego.

The ego is constantly growing, keeping us apart and creating more and more tension between us. This is a law and it is impossible to stop it.

We see that this is truly so, and throughout the history of humanity, for thousands of years, our ego has been growing more and more; people have become more and more distant from each other, even though we became much smarter, more understanding and sensitive, and have developed our lives through technology, commerce, and industry. But at the same time, we have become worse and worse in our nature.

The solution to all problems is only the creation of good and wonderful connections between people. Abraham started this, and as Maimonides wrote, a multitude of people joined him and from whom he created a group that would specifically be involved with connection and union between them.

This group became the people of Israel, a people founded on an ideological principle and born from a social agreement of many people who were strangers to each other. So we now feel ourselves to be relatively alien and divided from each other as long as we don’t work on unity between us.

Abraham determined that if we began to connect with each other, we would influence all the rest of the Babylonians. But they didn’t succeed in this because Nimrod, the King of Babylon, was against it. He thought that the inhabitants of Babylon should disperse and settle all over the face of the Earth to calm down the unrest, but this problem still exists today. However, the wisdom, the method that our father Abraham discovered of how to calm humanity down, still exists and is called the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 10/18/15

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Question: Why in these days, from the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, is a completely unique atmosphere felt?

Answer: These are days of judgment, and we see this when we look at the events that are happening in Europe and Israel. The world requires our correct participation.

In the days of judgment we need to judge ourselves, our behavior, our deeds, to clarify the cause for all of the failures and the unfavorable fate.

It is always necessary to examine ourselves in relation to the origin, and our origin is Adam HaRishon (the First Man). The sin of Adam HaRishon is the reason for everything that happened after it.

Twenty generations after Adam, one of the great sages of ancient Babylon Abraham began the correction of the sin of Adam HaRishon; he called for all the Babylonians to unite and rise above the mutual hatred, which is called the Tower of Babel that led to a crisis.

Some of the Babylonians heard the call of Abraham and joined him. Abraham taught his students “to love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), so that love will cover all crimes, over all hatred. So Abraham gathered a group that later evolved into the people of Israel.

These events are directly related to what is happening today. After so many events we have experienced throughout history, we are still in the same situation of Adam HaRishon; we must correct his sin.

The people of Israel were chosen from among all the other peoples for this purpose because they had the desire for unity, spirituality.

These are a unique people possessing a unique desire, a special readiness of mind and soul that can achieve such a unity between them by which the whole world is then united. The great Kabbalist Baal HaSulam wrote about this in the article, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.”

The sin of Adam is the basis of the breakup of humanity, all of its suffering and troubles. All of our problems come from this sin because of which one great desire, one soul, was shattered into a multitude of fragments. In each one of us there is a tiny fragment of the collective soul.

If eight billion people are living in the world today, there is a part of the soul of Adam HaRishon, of Adam in each one of them. So we need to connect with each other so that all of these parts will merge together.

But the realization of this function isn’t imposed upon eight billion but upon the people of Israel. If the people of Israel will correct themselves and unify according to the conditions of “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” then all the nations of the world will automatically be integrated within it.

This is specifically what Abraham taught the ancient Babylonians who joined him and created the people of Israel. They were selected from all of the humanity that existed then, when for the first time the shattering, the first crisis after the shattering of Adam was discovered.

Abraham gathered around him all those who wanted to correct the primordial sin. These were unique people who yearned for the goal of creation, the attainment of the meaning of life, and Abraham taught them the method of connection and unity.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 9/20/15

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Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” that the wisdom of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to the creature in this world.

This means that every person who exists in our world can discover the Creator, i.e., the higher force that encompasses everything, manages everything, holds everything, is responsible for all activity of every atom, molecule, still, vegetative, and animate nature, and humans, surrounds everything, and fills everything, and there is none else besides Him.

This is the one and only higher force, and we can discover it with the help of a method called the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Throughout all of history, there were many people who discovered this force. They are called Kabbalists from the word “Kabbalah” (Reception) since they work on this discovery and receive this revelation.

To the degree that they discover the higher force, what is happening will become clear to them: why we are alive, for what do we live, how do we move correctly in this life, what must a person achieve as a result of his life, with what is he connected every day, what guides him, how must he respond correctly to the world that surrounds him at every moment of his life, how something is changed in him and in the world, why these changes happen in the world, and where all of this is leading.

A person begins to feel that he exists in a unique universe filled with forces and achieves the purpose of creation. This fills his life. He knows why he is alive, what he got up in the morning for, and with what is his day filled.

He isn’t advancing toward the end of life, but discovers the higher force more and more every day until he begins to feel it as the force that animates and guides him. He achieves this intellectually and emotionally.

Every person in our world can achieve this, as it is written, “…for they shall all know Me from their smallest to their greatest…” (Jeremiah 31:33), and “…for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). But first the people of Israel must achieve this and after that the entire world.

There was a time that Abraham wanted to bring all the Babylonians to this method, to truly carry out a spiritual revolution, but only a small number of the inhabitants of ancient Babylon joined him. He brought them to the land of Canaan and built the people of Israel from them. However, from the start, he wanted to bring all people to this spiritual level, so the wisdom of Kabbalah was intended equally for all.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 8/9/15

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