The wisdom of Kabbalah rejects the concept of death thereby revealing the only action that we are able to perform. In everything else we are totally dependent on nature and act involuntarily. We spend our entire lives trying to ignore death, as if medicating ourselves in order to avoid the truth. It is a game we play, chasing money, honor, and power within an imaginary reality.

What do we do with the help of Kabbalah? Kabbalah provides a solution to this fundamental human dilemma by explaining how to reach eternal life here and now. We are shown how to gradually transition into an additional dimension without leaving this life; in fact, we become fully integrated together with it.

This is the meaning of “freedom from the angel of death,” described in the Torah as the covenant carved on stone tablets. Torah offers: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life… (Deuteronomy 30:19).”

However this opportunity was concealed, and people learned how to distract themselves. Therefore, the dissemination of Kabbalah has to include the explanation of this choice. In other words, Kabbalah not only leads to a good life on this earth, but also helps attain everlasting existence. When masses come to this realization they will no longer hide from the idea of death.

The practice of spiritual advancement proves that a person begins to acquire this realization (presentiment) only after initial studies, which bring the influence of the Upper Light. Then one is granted a chance to sense eternity to the extent one moves closer to the property of the Creator (bestowal, Hafetz Hesed). By doing so, a person enters eternity and is already present in the infinite flow of life. This opportunity is available to everyone.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/10, Article “The Freedom”

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A question I received: You say that Kabbalah allows a person to reach eternal life, but Kabbalists die. So how can this be?

My Answer: A Kabbalist dies in your eyes since you do not see his life the same way a Kabbalist sees it. You see only a part of him – his body, which certainly dies, just like any other animal. However, his godly, spiritual part, which he has developed inside, continues to live eternally. The moment that one acquires this part, he gains possession of it and it gives him a sensation of eternal existence; the quality of bestowal that one has acquired is eternal.

We begin to comprehend this only as we approach the Machsom, when the premonition of bestowal emerges in us. The Light that begins to reach a person, gives him a sensation of what it means to rise above matter and to think somewhat differently, to relate to others from the point of view of bestowal. A person does not exist in bestowal yet, but he can already touch it somehow. Then he gets a premonition that it is possible to adapt to this quality, a sensation that belongs to eternity.

Before this occurs, a person does not have the ability to comprehend, as the Light is not close enough to him yet, and the words are meaningless. A person wants to eat and rest, but eternity seems too far away and he doesn’t feel it. Only when one begins to feel the breath of the Light from afar, like fluttering wind, does he begin to understand that Kabbalah contains liberation from the angel of death. When the Light draws closer to a person, it brings him the sensation that eternity exists.

This is the initial condition for the only free action that we can perform. Otherwise, why do you need freedom? What else is there for you to do in life, in your animal body? Everything else is done for you from above; you do not do it yourself. The only thing that you can do on your own is reach eternity. Bestowal is eternal, while reception is temporary. The Light of Hochma does not come to us forever, but only if it is perceived within the Light of Hassadim. Therefore, in order to acquire eternity, first we need to acquire the desire to bestow, and then within this desire we will be able to feel our life as eternal.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/10, Article “The Freedom”

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When we come to a real crisis, we will realize that we are entirely controlled. This fact has already started to surface. Science, culture, education, family, and all other aspects of our life will come under serious scrutiny and reassessment.

As a result, we will come to the conclusion that we know nothing about our world, that we don’t have a clue about what’s happening and we are completely controlled. Together with that, we will sense the need to rise above this condition of slavery. That is the exact state that is called the “Egyptian bondage.” It’s indeed slavery, for a person sees that he is a slave to his egoistic nature, which corners him and does what it pleases with him, taking advantage of the fact that a person is obliged to obey his egoism’s every whim.

That’s when he feels the need to come out from under the yoke of his nature, and he then receives a spiritual force to counter the force of the corporeal. And in between the influence of two forces, he finds his free will.

This crisis is a turning point, when we cease being animals and become free. After all, animals are completely governed, so we are still animals, where there’s neither reward nor punishment. All of our development was intended only to lead us to the realization of our own futility, that we are nature’s slaves. When we realize this, we will cry out and come out of slavery to the level of “Human.”

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A question I received: Our family often watches your programs. My wife says that you often contradict yourself, even during the same program. For instance, in one of the “Ask the Kabbalist” episodes, you categorically denied that Kabbalists engage in predicting the future of our corporeal bodies. But later, in the same program, you said that in the 1930s Baal HaSulam predicted two world wars. This relates to corporeal matters, doesn’t it? My wife wants to know why is it that you always contradict yourself?

My Answer: What I meant is that Kabbalists know the way the future will come from Above, or in other words, what will happen if things advance along the path called Beito, meaning “in due time,” or when things follow the unchanging, rigid laws of nature. However, when we make corrections, we shift to the path called Ahishena, and thus we affect how these forces will manifest in our world and how they will be expressed inside us.

To the extent we correct ourselves and understand things better, we will feel good instead of bad. But no Kabbalist, or anyone else for that matter, can ever know how anything will actually turn out, because man has freedom of will to change his destiny. (See Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Freedom.”)

If you read the terrible prophecies of the future, keep in mind that the prophets were describing only the path of Beito. They did not know how corrected we will be, and therefore, how we will handle certain situations.

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A question I received: You talk a lot about upbringing and education. However, nothing was ever accomplished through persuasion.

My Answer: My organization and I do not want to persuade anyone who does not wish to listen to us. Actually, we don’t want to persuade anyone about anything. We are only addressing those who want to learn about the method of Kabbalah. We address those who feel a need to find a new way of life.

In fact, persuasion is contrary to the laws of nature. This is because a person’s only freedom of will is to change himself, and it is forbidden to deprive him of this opportunity!

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If we free ourselves of the unnecessary, extraneous activities which are not related to the correction of relationships between people, we would do what is necessary. This is the only action where we can implement our freedom of will, and we would see precisely what we need to do and where we need to correct ourselves.

This is only a small area, but it should be clear to absolutely every person that this is where the focus of our choice lies. If we correct our relationships, we will reach the end of correction and the goal of creation. However, if we do not clarify this, we have no choice in our actions and will remain like animals.

Nature will show us our corruption in all of its aspects: in the state of the economy, health problems, the system of upbringing and education of children and family relationships – in all the forms of egoism that are enclosed within us.

If we do not correct the relationships between people, everything else will be presented to us by Nature in a broken manner.

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Questions I received concerning freedom, balance and the meaning of the Egyptian plagues.

Question: What does a free person feel?

Answer: Man’s freedom lies in being able to maintain the equilibrium in all of creation, to sustain it and balance it “standing on one foot.” On the right side of the scale is the Creator’s force of bestowal. On the left side of the scale is the Creator’s force of reception. These are direct and opposite sides; the holy and evil forces. And if a person can balance himself in between them, he is given the freedom of will from the influence of both and can thereby express his free choice.

Question: How is it possible to balance on the tip of a needle?

Answer: You have to glue yourself to the Creator, draw Him to yourself with all your might and get close to Him, as a baby to his mother. The baby loves to feel himself under her protection, and from there can boldly look onto the whole world. Or, while sitting in her arms, he can point his finger  to where he wants to go – thereby expressing his will!

This is the correct way in which a baby develops. He knows that with his mother he is safe, and that she will use all her strength and every opportunity to fulfill his desires.  This is the correct way for us to work with the Creator!

Question: What do the Egyptian plagues refer to?

Answer: This is how the Creator teaches a person to battle with his nature, while hardening it and warning man against it. He provides examples of how we can fight our egoism.

This is the Creator, saying: “Go to Pharaoh! This is what you have to do. Take Me by the hand and hold onto Me. I will also hold you, but you have to learn how to cling to Me, so that you can resist the monster, which is revealed within you through his 10 primary unclean forces. All that is required of you is to sit in My arms and desire for this monster to be vanquished. I will appease the monster according to your instructions only if you glue yourself to Me.”

If a person performs this work, it means that he has freedom of will, since in this state, he has all the conditions needed.

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A question I received: If I feel pleasure from the fact that I subject myself to the Creator, where is my free will here?

My Answer: Certainly it brings pleasure, but pleasure is not the principal issue here. The main factor in your decision is the loftiness and importance of the attribute of bestowal per se. There’s pleasure, no doubt, but the importance of bestowal is a priority.

I am drinking green tea and feel pleasure. Can it be called pleasure, or not? No, it can’t, because I feel satisfaction by knowing that the tea is good for my health. In other words, my pleasure is a result of correction, not of my natural desire to receive that would never allow me to drink such a “disgusting thing.” It means that pleasure derived from the sensation of importance is a result of correction.

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A question I received: You always say that man is not free and obeys his genes, instincts, and influence of society. At the age of 20 he is fully formed, like a freshly minted coin, and all his actions are predefined in advance. So is it possible to be a free man, and what does it mean – to be free?

My Answer: To be free means to feel that you are 100% dependent upon the Creator, but “of your own free will,” meaning that it is your decision to be so.

Man feels free when he decides, on his own, that he wants to remain under the influence and authority of the Creator, instead of being slave to his egoism.

We can’t imagine what freedom means, because we think of it as the absence of any influence. However, that is an impossibility, as there is no such thing as an empty void free from any influence whatsoever.

Freedom is a balance of forces, achieved through one’s conscious choice and effort.

We can only become free if we rise above our egoistic desire.  This does not mean that we involuntarily and completely fall under the dominion of the Creator and the desire to bestow.  Instead, it is a choice we make to be governed by the desire to bestow instead of the ego.  It is then that we can reside in the balance between the attributes of reception and bestowal. Such a state is called freedom (Klipat Noga).

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A question I received: How can you explain the meaning of freedom to a person born into slavery and sitting in a cell? How does it feel to be free?

My Answer: You can feel freedom only when that you want to bestow, and you are given that opportunity. If someone doesn’t let you bestow, it means that he robs you of freedom and oppresses you. Lack of freedom doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything you want.

It’s written, that we will be a “free people in our land.” In our land means “in our desire” (land – aretz, from the word ratzon – desire). Freedom is prepared for us precisely within desire to bestow.

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