My new article on Linkedin “Understanding the Point in the Heart”

One of the first things people learn about when they first come to study Kabbalah is a concept called “the point in the heart.” We are told that those who come to study Kabbalah, especially those who persist with it despite difficulties and hurdles, are people with a developed, or a strong point in the heart. Those who have it, kabbalists tell us, are more likely to succeed in their learning and advance on spiritual degrees.

Among my students, there are people of all races, faiths, ages, and nationalities. Some of them are highly educated, and some are laypeople; some are sophisticated and eloquent, and some can hardly express a thought. Yet, the one thing they all have in common is a point in the heart, that burning question about the meaning of life. And that point unites them above all differences.

But what is it really? Rav Yehuda Ashlag, aka Baal HaSulam for his Sulam [ladder] commentary on The Book of Zohar, wrote that the point in the heart is really a question. In the beginning of his introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, he writes that the point in the heart is an “indignant question that the whole world asks, namely, ‘What is the meaning of my life?’” Baal HaSulam further asks, “These numbered years of our life that cost us so heavily, and the numerous pains and torments that we suffer for them … who is it who enjoys them?”

These days, many people ask this question, but not many people are driven to search for answers. Many despair and turn to escapism of all sorts. When someone’s point in the heart is strong enough, that person will begin to search rather than give up and sit by the wayside.

Among my students, there are people of all races, faiths, ages, and nationalities. Some of them are highly educated, and some are laypeople; some are sophisticated and eloquent, and some can hardly express a thought. Yet, the one thing they all have in common is a point in the heart, that burning question about the meaning of life. And that point unites them above all differences.

There is a good reason that people with points in the heart easily unite among them. When one studies authentic Kabbalah, one discovers that the meaning of life is found only when connecting heart-to-heart with others. In other words, if we remain confined within our personal space and concerned only with ourselves, we won’t discover anything. This is our initial state of being, and if we don’t develop beyond it, how can we discover anything? Therefore, those who find the meaning of life, find it in their connections with others. When they rise above preoccupation with their own needs and start thinking of others, they discover new worlds, new realms of existence that they didn’t know were there. When this happens, the question of the meaning of life receives its answer. The bonding that people achieve makes them wise and sensitive, and cognizant of all of life. When they achieve this, they understand why they were born, why they live, why they will sometime die, and even what happens afterwards.

In addition, a person who is busy giving is never sad, never dispirited, and is always hopeful and excited about life. Such a person always seeks more people with points in the heart with whom to share that they will find the meaning of their lives in connecting heart-to-heart with others.

Every person has a point in the heart. In most people, it is dormant. But today, more and more people are seeking answers to life’s trials and tribulations. This is why kabbalists have opened the wisdom to everyone, so that anyone who asks, like Baal HaSulam, “What is the meaning of my life?” will find the answer and find peace and happiness.

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Question: A certain teaching tradition has developed in Kabbalah based on the fact that there is content, but the form, methods, and commentary on it are determined by the teacher himself. In this case, we are too dependent on his personality.

And there is another approach when forms and methods of the work are clearly prescribed, and the task of the teacher is not to deviate from what is offered to him.

Which is correct: to focus on personal factors of a person or on the approved technology?

Answer: I don’t think you can separate one from the other. But since Kabbalah is an ancient science that has been taking shape over many thousands of years, it is natural that we should attach ourselves to those great personalities who laid down this structure.

Kabbalah has developed several trends that have taken shape over the past 500 years in Western Europe, the Baltic States, and the Middle and Near East. Each of these regions includes different sub-areas. They are described in different sources and there is a lot of material on all the branching directions. This regards explanations from the sources to the consumers.

And if the teacher’s charismatic personality also manifests here, then of course, he can change something, compare and apply it. I do not think that the science of Kabbalah is a rigid science that cannot be changed and somehow adapted to the audience, to the teacher, especially in our time. The main thing is to convey its essence, i.e., the revelation of the Creator to every person in our world. This is the subject of its study.

The Kabbalistic methodology is changing and will continue to change, and we must look at it very pragmatically and not go into inertia.
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From KabTV’s “Integral Course” 3/19/21

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Question: How can one explain in the language of science that the attainment of the integrality of the world is connected with the ascent of a person to spiritual levels, how to include spiritual worlds in the structure of the integral universe, and explain the very fact of their existence?

Answer: The science of Kabbalah is a science that reveals itself to a person living in our world, then, of course, all this is possible. We just need to try to understand this correctly and explain it to others.

We attain our world to the extent that our ego grows, takes shape, and develops. Therefore, Kabbalah is engaged in the development of egoism in its correct form, that is, in its correct setting when we understand the desire to receive as the basic desire of our nature and above it we form another structure, a desire to bestow as an artificial reaction that we must achieve above ourselves.

With the help of these two actions, directions, and intentions, we can feel and grasp absolutely the entire nature in all its manifestations, realize it, and transmit it to others. The science of Kabbalah enables us to do this.
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From KabTV’s “Integral Course” 3/19/21

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All nature—still, vegetative, and animate —develops according to its own laws. We humans are also part of animate nature. But there is another part in us, which is called “human.”

It is interesting that the constantly growing egoism in us is the human component that drives us toward development. But we are misusing it.

That is, our body is an animal, and our spiritual component, the human in us (in this animal there is something else called a man), does not develop according to natural laws. It is given to us so that we ourselves develop it correctly, but we cannot manage it.

First of all, we must reach the realization of evil, that by natural egoistic development we cannot bring ourselves to a right life, to a good, kind state. When we put ourselves on the brink of disappearance, extermination, destruction, then humanity will come to its senses. This is stated in Kabbalah, and this should be decided in the coming years.

Question: What if people don’t listen?

Answer: They will listen, they will make you suffer. After all, our nature is the desire to enjoy. Therefore, if we experience suffering, we are ready to do everything to get rid of it. And now we are stuffing ourselves with bumps, we are introducing ourselves into suffering, which ultimately will unite in such huge, unbearable sensations that we will be ready to change everything.

Question: But what way out does a person have today?

Answer: Find out what is happening to us. This is revealed by the wisdom of Kabbalah. It tells about the history of our development, starting with the higher forces of nature, how the network of forces in the universe was created, and then gradually the universe and everything in it was formed, and where this should lead us.

The wisdom of Kabbalah has nothing to do with religion. All religions are only 2,000 years old. And Kabbalah originated in ancient Babylon. The first Kabbalistic books date from this period.

Today Kabbalah is becoming so popular and in demand because by studying it we begin to understand the origins of our nature, our life, and our development.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Common Law Marriage” 8/11/09

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Question: Inside a man there are desires called “mixed multitude.” On the one hand, they fear the Creator, but on the other hand, at the same time they are workers of the Pharaoh. That is, a man uses the connection with the Creator for his own sake. This, as it is written in the sources, is the most insidious impure force (Klipa).

What does it mean that they fear the Creator? If the Creator is the property of bestowal, the power of emanation, the altruistic power of nature, how can one fear it?

Answer: The point is that we can use the connection with the Creator in two ways: egoistically and altruistically. That is, I may not relate to the Creator at all, but I can relate to Him with the understanding that I have a certain attitude toward Him and I want to deserve something from Him.

I want to reveal, to understand, to become aware of Him. I want to earn a connection with Him and get something from this connection. Thus, my attitude to the Creator is purely consumeristic: I demand from Him. And then my connections with the Creator represent a continuation of my egoistic inclinations in our world.

That is, I am already going further as it were, into the spiritual world, into my connection with the Creator, and demand that He reveal to me, reward me for my striving for Him, and so on.

Question: It turns out that, in principle, I fear the Creator. He is great in my eyes, but for my actions I demand payment from Him?

Answer: Yes, I demand either a reward in this world, or, as we die, then perhaps a reward in the future world. Such an egoistic attitude toward the Creator is called a “mixed multitude.”
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/2/21

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Question: Why did the perfect Creator create place for the dense tales of simpletons in His design? If it were not in the design, it would not exist in our world either.

Answer: Initially, the Creator created the light, which contains everything formed by Him and is under it.

Each upper level includes all lower levels, so the upper light includes the whole plan of creation, its goal, the method of its implementation, and its ultimate state.

Everything in creation exists in this light in the form of a very precise original record. Just as in the human genome there is everything that can be said about men’s past, present, and future. If we took all the genomes from all the people and connected them correctly, we would know everything about humanity.

It is the same regarding the upper light; it contains everything.

Question: So it is the ultimate scenario that contains all records?

Answer: Yes. Now everything is revealed to us as if we are at a certain stage along the path (to give us the illusion of freewill), and we supposedly have to reach this goal by ourselves.

But when you move forward, your own path opens for you because you are given “obstacles,” which you seemingly overcome and thus acquire a new feeling and begin to understand the Creator, to justify Him, identify with Him, and this is already worth something.

As a result of going through this path, we become aware of who created us, what He has done for us, and we feel immense gratitude.

But everything is predetermined, of course. Everything initially exists in its ultimate form. But by discovering this, we perceive everything as a great adventure.

Even when we watch some movie again and already know the end and what leads to it, we still enjoy it. Moreover, the second time we watch it, we enjoy it even more than the first time.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/10/19

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Question: What research is Kabbalah based on when it speaks of the relationship between a man and a woman?

Answer: I believe that not a single science except Kabbalah has the basis to talk about a man, a woman, their relationship, their nature, where they come from, why they were created in this way and exist in this relationship.

All this comes from the fact that Kabbalah opens up to us in the upper world, in our roots. Based on them, we can already talk about something.

Why does the Torah say: in the beginning, one man was created and then he was divided in two? Why are there two genders and not one creature that either reproduces or does not reproduce at all? All this is revealed by the science of Kabbalah.

It explores our spiritual roots, that is, the forces from which the spiritual worlds gradually developed. In the process of their development, these forces descended, and then a very small spark, the energy of the spiritual world, burst into the volume of the then empty universe and began to create matter in it: stars, galaxies, nebulae, planets, until, in the end, it created the Earth. So life began to develop on our planet.

These processes are studied in Kabbalah. And if we are talking about the end of creation, which goes from top to bottom, then a man, a woman, their historical development, their relationship with each other, and what they have come to today, all this comes from the same spiritual roots. Therefore, asking a question about the relationship between a man and a woman on the earthly level, we cannot understand the answer.

And although I have great respect for psychologists, sociologists, sexologists, and other scientists, I can say that they have only small fragmentary knowledge from observations in our world, which are constantly changing and contradicting each other. And Kabbalah answers this from a single root.

But the problem is that Kabbalah was hidden until now because the world did not yet have suitable conditions for people to start practicing it. They did not have any need for it.

Therefore, for a long time, Kabbalah did not develop attached to our world. Only now is it starting to be engaged in it.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Common Law Marriage” 8/11/09

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Question: There is an expression “the desire to give.” What is its root, its attribute, and its development?

Answer: The desire when I want to give is the desire to bestow. There is nothing other than the desire to bestow (the Creator) and the desire to receive (the created being).

The fact that we see concrete items and objects around us is an illusion, and all this actually does not exist. Initially, there was only one desire, the Creator, the desire to bestow, which later created a desire to receive. These two desires exist one opposite the other.

In order to give the desire to receive independence, it was created and developed with the intention for itself. To the extent that it feels the desire for its own sake, meaning the ego, it is separate from the Creator.

As one moves away from the Creator, the desire to receive at the same time feels that it is detached from something and wonders: “Why do I exist? What is happening to me? Who manages me?”

All these questions remain empty, unanswered, and then it starts looking: “Who created me, for what, and why? Gradually, it begins to act, to make progress in the search for its source, and eventually it finds the desire to bestow.

When one begins to understand that another desire exists around him, a desire for bestowal, but he exists inside himself and does not feel that he is in the desire to bestow, all kinds of conflicts and decisions take place in him. Then we can speak about a created being who wants to exit himself and be in contact with the Creator.

Question: Is the desire to give the initial, original desire given to a person who enters a group?

Answer: When the Creator pushes a person toward Him and wants to bring him closer to Him, He gives him such desires. He sort of lures a person, He flirts with him.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 4/7/19

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Question: When we study The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah (Pticha) should we be impressed by the material or rather work with it dryly?

Answer: You should be impressed by it and try to transform it into sensations. To feel it!

We are talking about connecting with each other and connecting with the Creator. And how can we connect? In what?

The only way to connect is with our hearts, and heart means sensations. The head, the mind, are necessary only in order to know how best to achieve unity. We use them as tools to achieve connection.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 4/4/19

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Question: In Baal HaSulam’s book Shamati (“I Heard”) it is written that a person who is, as it were, in the sensation of hell, understands that the only thing that can get him out is the upper force, from which everything emanates. But for this must he feel this upper force because only then can he truly ask?

Answer: Of course. Until a person feels it, everything is pointless.

Therefore, Kabbalah does not require any preliminary conditions from us. Just listen, read, and see everything this science is talking about. It reveals the force that changes you in the same way a child changes in our world by acquiring new properties as he is growing up and becoming different every day.

An adult does not become different. He fills himself with all sorts of new impressions and delights. But a child is changing, gaining more and more.

This is the way Kabbalah, as it acts on us as adults, raises a new person in us. Therefore, we acquire new properties, a new mind, and feel new every day. This is a special property due to which we become “Adam“—equal, similar, to the Creator.

This will certainly happen. You just need to open the book and study systematically. There is every possibility for that on the Internet. I invite everyone. And people will see what changes take place in them literally from day to day or at least from week to week.

Kabbalah invites us to become as naive as children in order to get closer to the perception of the new reality that should be revealed for us. And if we behave this way, we will really become adults.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #9

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