Question: Baal HaSulam writes in his articles that egoism is not the same for everyone. There is gross egoism when a person uses it without hesitation and there is a veiled, more developed one, when a person realizes that it is bad and sort of acts secretly. What is the difference, in principle?

Answer: If a person realizes his egoism, then this is good, you can talk to him, discuss that; he can come to some kind of decision: is it right or not, should he be in this property or not?

He can determine that it is evil and try to get rid of it in some way. He sees how this property harms him and makes him rise above others. And this is his whole life.

He begins to understand what he spends precious seconds of existence in this world on. And what if he treated others differently, in a completely opposite manner? Perhaps in doing so he would find such a form of sensation of life which in our world is not perceived by us at all. After all, we are constantly tuned in order to influence, control, rule, and absorb.

And if I set myself up differently, I might be free. Free! First I would not be pressed from behind by this terrible force that guides me like this. I would feel myself in a free space, independent, not connected to anything.

I would begin to see everything around me in a different way – not from the point of view of what threatens my power, self-preservation, security: what should I take possession of, what should I suppress, absorb, crush under myself, and so on, where is everything around in the world? A person only looks like this, initially. Look at young children, how cruel they are, how they treat each other. This is our nature.

And if I began to relate to the world in a different way, I would see a completely different picture of the world around us, which is a consequence of my attitude to it. Now I selectively see only what is good or bad for me. Bad, I have to do something about it; good, I can enjoy it.

But if I had a different attitude to the environment around me, I would see circumstances, objects, and actions of a different type, a completely different world that is called the upper world in Kabbalah.

That is, the perception of the world and what happens to us depends on our focus; the way we look at the world is how the world appears to us. Therefore we need to change ourselves.
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FFrom KabTV’s “Close-Up. Fire Island” 1/1/10

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Question: Is it egoism or is it a transgression when I do bad to others in order to feel good?

Answer: Egoism on its own is not a transgression, it is our nature. Transgression is when we use it to the detriment of others.

This is very simple. If you do something to make you feel good but at the same time it is bad for others, then this is a transgression. Also vice versa—if you do it just to feel good without harming others, then this is all right.

Question: By denying the initial freewill, Kabbalah gives a person the opportunity to choose between egoistic and altruistic forces. How can we understand this?

Answer: This is our freewill. I must rise above my egoism and try to act only for the good of my neighbor, which is called in the name of altruism.
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From Kab TV’s “Conversations” 11/1/21

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Question: In the article “The Freedom,” Baal HaSulam writes that the law of development pushing us toward its goal makes us captives because a person is always drawn to pleasure and flees from suffering. Is there any freedom within this?

Answer: No. And what kind of freedom can there be if I am just a desire to receive pleasure? There are always a certain number of options for pleasure and suffering in front of me, and I, according to my understanding and mood, choose for myself seemingly the best option. In this state, I am like an animal that simply chooses to escape from bad to good whenever possible and as soon as possible.

Question: Baal HaSulam and you too often use the term “animal” in relation to a person. Why? It sounds harsh.

Answer: This does not mean that we reduce man to the level of an animal.

The point is that our nature controls us absolutely rigidly, specifically, according to a certain formula, and thus makes us choose at every moment the state that seems the best for us. The only problem is that both animals and we choose these states according to our understanding of what is revealed to us.

A person, seeing a certain number of possibilities in front of him, chooses the best: partly instinctively, partly reasonably, by calculating his options. The animal does the same. However, it makes fewer mistakes because it has more developed instincts, which are in a smaller set of variations and possibilities.

But, in principle, it is the same program. And there is nothing a person can do here. Therefore, if we just live our life in the usual way, then we are led by nature, and we have no freewill at all.

How then can you define what freedom is? Freedom from what? I have no freedom from my desire to receive pleasure. The only thing is that I can choose a certain kind of pleasure for myself. In this case, I substitute one for the other.

For example, I can enroll in a weight-loss group. They will “brainwash” me there, and I will behave differently—I will choose other forms of pleasure instead of eating sweets. Or, I might prefer to do art, science, etc.

Thus, I can fall under the influence of certain external factors, and they will give me a different scale of values. That is, I can say that now I choose a certain activity it becomes important and for me, now I derive pleasure from it. But still, someone pushed me to it. In any case, I am within the same nature that consists only of pleasure and suffering.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Fire Island” 1/1/10

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Question: Why does nature conceal information about the future from us?

Answer: To create in us the illusion of freewill. In Kabbalah, fortune-telling is forbidden, but we do not need it anyway. We only need to follow the rules of getting closer to each other according to the laws of nature.

Question: Then why are some people given the ability to foresee the future?

Answer: It is because they have different souls. We all have different souls. There are souls that are more developed, less developed, more shattered, less shattered, and so on. In different souls, there are different paths to perfection, to ascending to the level of bestowal, love, and connection with others because their basis is different by nature.

Question: Still, there were people who could predict the future. For example: Wolf Messing, Nostradamus. Why did nature give them such ability?

Answer: These people have a special sense. However, there is nothing supernatural in it. What does a fortune-teller mean? It is a person who sees a little more and further than ordinary people. In the same way, an adult is a fortune teller for a child. He can tell the child in advance what will be the result of what is happening now.

Question: How is it possible to predict the future if it depends on people’s actions?

Answer: At our level, everything depends on the person. And at a higher level, nothing depends on him. This is not a contradiction but really the same as in the case of an adult and a child.

Question: I have heard from you that earlier, when there were fewer people who wanted to unite and reveal the upper force, it was possible to predict how humanity would naturally develop. Today, however, when millions of people have such an opportunity, the future can no longer be predicted because these millions are building this future.

Answer: No. The millions who are building this future do not control anything either. They only confirm their commitment to the law of natural development: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/26/21

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Question: Who determines the fate of a person? You write in your blog that fate depends on the root of one’s soul. Even the Creator does not determine this, but everything is written in the root of the soul. What are we talking about?

Answer: The root of a soul is the initial normative data in a person that he must implement.

These initial data, the so-called Reshimot, force a person to act in a certain way and lead him to his ideal state. What depends on a person is only the time he spends on the realization of this path: faster, slower, in a more comfortable way, or through suffering. In other words, the fate of a person is predetermined, but it depends on him how he will go through it, how long it will take, and how he will feel in these deterministic states.

Our freedom lies only in how to perceive the deterministic path of our development and how to implement it in the best way.

Question: So, I am just changing my reaction?

Answer: But this means a lot, because depending on our reaction, we influence the upper force in a positive or negative way.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/26/21

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Question: Can you describe the state or some conditions in which a person is free and can choose? After all if we are in our egoistic nature, then any choice is out of the question.

But the fact is that in the altruistic nature of the Creator, we also have no choice. Then what is a person’s choice?

Answer: In the thing that the one chooses between this and that, when one knows what is good in the eyes of the Creator, in the eyes of the absolute law of the universe. And this is rapprochement, mutual assistance, connection, right up to love.

Love is a selfless connection for the sake of others. Then we will have nothing to be afraid of, we cannot do anything wrong and we will move as quickly as possible, the shortest path toward our best state—complete correction.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/26/21

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Question: The great Kabbalist of the twentieth century Baal HaSulam wrote about the possibility of third and fourth world wars. Today, many people say that a third world war is inevitable. If it is inherent in nature and it should manifest itself in this world, then what can I change? If this is predetermined, I cannot change the course of events, only my attitude.

Answer: No, we can change absolutely everything. What is written is subject to complete change from beginning to end.

Comment: This is already encouraging. But you say that a person can only change his attitude to what is happening.

My Response: Changing your attitude is the change of fate. The whole range of possibilities is in front of you.

As we rise above our own egoism, we enter completely different states, into a different connection with nature, the Creator.

Then we feel our interaction with nature in a completely different way—a two-way channel of good-evil communication and so on. This means we begin to understand how everything works and we can pull all the strings ourselves.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/26/21

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Question: We understand the unification at the level of inanimate elements. For example, we combine hydrogen with oxygen and we get something else—water. And what should happen when people unite sensorially?

Answer: They will complement each other until they are united into a single system called “one soul” or “Adam.” In this state, they will fully accommodate the properties of the Creator.

Question: Is it in this state that there is freedom of choice?

Answer: No. Freedom of choice appears at the very beginning, when we choose that we will follow the path that makes it possible to feel the common soul. Choice is a consequence of what we choose in our relationship with the Creator.

Question: By practicing the Kabbalistic method can we accelerate our spiritual development? And can we somehow influence the earthly, corporeal?

Answer: Corporeal changes can only be a consequence of the spiritual. Through the spiritual, I can influence our earthly life both negatively and positively.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/26/21

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Question: Fate is the totality of all events and circumstances that are predetermined and primarily affect either a person or the entire nation. Do you agree with this definition?

Answer: No, I do not agree because you cannot just talk about fate as a combination of some circumstances. Fate is what happens to us in our sensations, in our life, in our conditions, and is a consequence of the influence of nature or the Creator (which are the same thing) on us and our interaction with it.

Question: There are three main characteristics of fate according to something I found on the Internet: totality, unknowability and independence from human will. Do you think this is true?

Answer: No. With regard to totality, I can say that there are private destinies and common destinies, and total destinies too. As for unknowability and independence, on the contrary, we can learn our destiny and manage it if, of course, we wish to, and apply a certain quantity and quality of efforts to this. That is, both cognizability and control can be in our hands. It depends on us.

Comment: If you look at the history and culture of different peoples, then in most cases fate is defined as negative, gloomy, meaningless, blind, and ruthless.

My Response: So we speak because we do not understand the essence and purpose of what is happening.

Comment: By the way, nothing good is written in the Jewish religion, in the Prophets either.

My Response: It depends on how you look and with respect to whom it is said. In principle, the fate of humanity depends on itself. Nothing can be said here about some kind of fatal predestination.

Question: What adjective would you give to destiny?

Answer: Managed.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/26/21

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Baal HaSulam, “Letter 21“: And the most important is to pray extensively and strengthen the confidence that the Creator will help you succeed in meriting complete repentance, and to know how to adhere to Him in one connection for eternity. This is the most important, and this is what distinguishes one who serves the Creator from one who does not serve Him. “Do not rest, and give Him no rest” until He forgives all your sins and crimes and brings you close to Him forever and for all eternity.

By sins and crimes we mean that we forget the Creator, we do not remember Him, and do not attribute every moment in life to Him. These are our crimes and nothing else. He manages everything else, and “There is none else besides Him.”

I exist under His complete control except for one thing. I have the ability to connect myself to Him in a reciprocal connection. This is the only thing that does not come from Him. This is the only freewill I have. We will gradually discover more and more how everything is determined only from above except for: “There is none else besides Him,” “The Good that does good.”

All our so-called sins result from the shattering of the connection between us, which we can restore. Here we need to help each other by showing each other what can be done by creating a certain brotherhood so that everyone can feel how the friend thinks and cares about the goal and never leaves it.

Our role is to return to the thought that I am connected to the Creator at any given moment and that He determines everything that I receive in my mind and feelings. Everything that happens to me and those I come in contact with is all the ways the Creator appears before me.

“There is none else besides Him.” This is not just a force, because all manifestations and appearances of the friends, the group, the world, nature, and even me regarding myself are all His manifestations and revelations. We need to know, to understand and determine this clearly, and constantly strengthen in it.

Other than that, we need to multiply the prayer and strengthen the confidence that the Creator will in return grant us complete repentance. We will return to Him again and again until we acquire total adhesion with Him, which means connection in which we will feel that everything that happens inside us stems directly from Him. Then this whole world, which in itself is a partition between us and the Creator, will disappear, and melt away. Each of us will totally feel that there is only me and the Creator. But I will no longer be alone, but will be a huge group, the whole general soul.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/13/19

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