Why do religious people suffer less from stress?

Question: It is a well-known fact that religious people suffer less from stress. What is the reason?

Answer: It is because they believe that there is a higher purpose and upper forgiveness. So they believe that everything will be fine in the end. It does not matter how they act or what happens, everything is predetermined from above the way it should be, and therefore, what will be, will be, and for the best.

Question: Does reading prayers and texts such as Psalms help to manage stress?

Answer: Of course. Take any text, start reading it, and you will see that you have a completely new sense of reality. I am not saying that you actually change yourself or your reality, but it is reassuring. This is the meaning of religion.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 6/25/20

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Question: Why should we correct something if we have not spoiled anything through our own will?

Answer: The plan of creation is predetermined and we are invited to correct it, just like when we buy a small child a puzzle or give him the parts of a construction toy and invite him to assemble it so that he will develop, so that he will understand the world better and develop.

We actually don’t correct anything. The Creator initially created an ideal state and then destroyed it on purpose so that by reconnecting each particle with the others, we will reach the state of the absolute whole. In other words, so that as a result of our work we will attain the wholeness that was determined in the initial state.

The difference between the initial state and the ultimate state is in our awareness, in our multiplying ourselves by ourselves and attaining all the combinations, all the combinatorics between us, and thus reach the whole state, the understanding of the internal essence, of what the Creator has actually done, the reason for it, what He has filled the desire with, and what the essence of the light is.

By attaining that, a person becomes equal to the Creator in his understanding, in the recognition of the whole process of creation, and ascends above the corporeal world to the world of forces, to the state of infinity, and eternity.

This is infinite attainment and recognition, which are independent of the parameters of time, space, and motion.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 9/16/18

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There are three states according to the thought of creation: the initial state–Adam, the second state–our individual ego, and the third state, which we have to attain–the ascent above our ego despite the egoistic network that divides us and integrating in unity between us.

In order to reach the third state, we need to multiply the first state (the desire to receive) times the second state (our individual ego) so that we have a huge egoistic desire.

Then we have to turn this desire into a connection between us so that the egoistic networks that divide us will connect us. Thus, we will reach the third state in which we will be in complete bestowal. This is the Creator’s attribute and this is what we need to attain.

No one is asking us if this is necessary or not. Everything is programmed so that eventually we will reach one desire for one attribute, for bestowal. Then it will be revealed to us that we are connected between us and filled with the Creator.

If we spread these three states on a timeline, the first state is the beginning of the creation, the second state is the correction, and the third state is the end of creation.

The correction is gradual. If we count from zero to 6,000 years. Today we are actually in the last phase, in the year 5779, and there are about 221 years left until the end of correction.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 9/16/18

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Question: 600,000 souls, is this a random number?

Answer: No. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the most precise science.

The number 600,000 stems from the structure of the spiritual system. Malchut, the created being, connecting with Zeir Anpin, the Creator, attains His six Sefirot, and is multiplied by the height of the discrepancy between them. The result is 600,000.

But the fact is that there is further division to reach the required quantity because everything depends on the resolution of our emotions, our awareness, connection, and mutual integration into each other.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 9/16/18

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Rejection of the Religious Perception of the World

Question: In the first half of the 19th century, the struggle within the Jewish people began to subside, and it is perceived as a single whole. However, another problem arises, the era of the Enlightenment begins, the development of sciences, the acquisition of civil rights by Jews, and freedom of movement.

This again led to a split among Jews: on one side, the Orthodox society, and on the other side, people who began to leave religion. That is, there was a rejection of the religious perception of the world.

Why, for the first time in history, Jews, as well as other nations, began to leave religion en masse and engage in science?

Answer: It is because religion did not explain to them that love for one’s neighbor is its main law.
Following religion consisted only in the fulfillment of prescriptions, fasts, and all kinds of holidays.

It obliged people to observe traditions, but at the same time it did not explain at all why this was necessary and to what it should lead. Therefore, a person who did not feel why he was doing things and what positive purpose they had, simply renounced religion.

Question: How did this period affect the correction of all humanity and the role of Jews in this process?

Answer: I believe that this was a necessary period, firstly, because nothing happens in vain. It was necessary to sober up and cut off the figurative fulfillment of the laws of the Torah without any thoughts and feelings when they were realized only because this must be done, scrupulously and mechanically at that. After all, this is not what the Creator requires of us, but that we correct our thoughts and feelings, mind and heart.

Comment: In principle, such a mechanical religious approach is quite egoistic. I follow the traditions, and for this I am entitled to something in this world and in the other world, paradise is promised to me.

My Response: This is an egoistic, medieval approach that did not provide a person any development. Naturally, the great sages knew and understood why and for what purpose everything was happening this way, but there were only a few of them.

Question: It was necessary, because it kept people within limits and gave some kind of confidence in life?

Answer: Yes, this was demanded by the current period of human development. Everything depends on the development of the person’s inner desires.

Question: Why weren’t all these laws revealed 1,000 years ago and their disclosure took place precisely in the short period of Lurianic Kabbalah?

Answer: There are periods of accumulation of some internal tensions in a person and in society, and then they are released, as a rule, in an explosive way.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 8/5/19

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The Confrontation Between Two Movements

Question: Some time after the expulsion of Jews from Spain, spiritual movements began to flourish in Safed, and Kabbalistic knowledge among the masses began to spread.

But then the rapid dissemination of the new movement caused a response and resistance. Spiritual teachers of the traditional Lithuanian school began to oppose the spread of this knowledge with boycotts, slander to authorities, and physical extermination.

How does one explain this? Why did the teaching of the Ari, which should have already been embodied in humanity, suddenly fail and the fall began again?

Answer: This is not a failure, but a natural development of the method of correction, which cannot go by only one line. It goes precisely by two lines and is realized between them, in the third one.

As a result, it turned out that the Kabbalah of the Baal Shem Tov is the same Kabbalah of the Ari, which was understood by the masses. He organized a Cheder, that is, a place for classes. He recruited talented young people into his group, completely regardless of their status. And then large groups of students and leaders of Hasidic movements were formed from his students. They were especially popular among the Jewish population of Ukraine, Belarus, and Eastern Europe where their own schools were organized.

But at the same time, another school, which was founded by the Vilna Gaon appeared. He believed that people should be taught gradually, and only those who had achieved great knowledge in the Talmud, in a simple study of the Torah.

In his opinion, studying Kabbalah should be spread not among ordinary people, but among the elite to whom the spiritual worlds and other predestinations of humanity can be explained only after they had seriously mastered the “dry” Torah.

Question: Kabbalah speaks of love for one’s neighbor in its simplest, earthly form. What could be the danger of studying Kabbalah?

Answer: The fact is that when you simply talk about love for your neighbor, by that you let a person think that if he treats others correctly, then nothing else is needed. Therefore, there is some lightheadedness in the understanding of “love for one’s neighbor.”

This is how a movement was formed in Hasidism that if you love another person and seem to treat him correctly, then this is enough. Nothing more is needed, and you are already fulfilling your predestination.

And the Vilna Gaon claimed: “No, it is necessary to seriously study the Torah, the Babylonian Talmud, and carefully keep all the laws. Only after that one can study Kabbalah.”

Therefore, in the introduction to his great work, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Baal HaSulam pays much attention to this. At the very beginning, he asks the question: “Is it really necessary to fully know all the great laws of fulfilling the Torah in our world and only after that study Kabbalah?

“Or is it enough to do it in parallel? Or even, perhaps, is it not at all necessary to know and obey all the laws so scrupulously? Because the Creator requires us to correct our hearts more than to fill our heads with all kinds of laws.”

So here we are in a state of great ideological contradiction. And it is very serious because it speaks of the method of the soul’s correction. Should it be taught to children from the age of thirteen or even earlier? Or maybe, it can be explained to women as well? Or only to great experts on the Babylonian Talmud?

This ideological contradiction was a necessary process and was brewing by itself.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 8/5/19

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Question: What is the difference between orthodox people for whom there is nothing other than God and people who engage in studying the wisdom of Kabbalah for whom “There is none else besides Him?”

Answer: The difference is very simple; these two types of people are completely dissimilar. First, the wisdom of Kabbalah is not a faith or a religion. It engages in faith, but does not obligate anyone to believe. Instead, it calls for a person to reveal the Creator.

A religious person says, “I believe!”

“Why do you believe?”

“I was told to believe and it was explained to me, and so I believe what I was told.”

“Okay, that is your business.”

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, on the other hand, faith means knowledge, attainment, feeling, sensation. It is not what we call faith in our world, when I don’t know whether something is true or not, but I accept it and live as if it is so. Who can prove it? No one. Is it true or not? There are as many views as there are people.

There is thus no connection between the wisdom of Kabbalah and religion. On the contrary, the wisdom of Kabbalah is completely unrelated to religion. It is aimed only at revelation, at knowing and feeling, not at things someone tells us about. There is a huge difference.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/24/20

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Hasidism: Touching the Spiritual Truths

Question: The Hasidic movement appeared in the third decade of the 18th century and was founded by the Baal Shem Tov. The approach of the Hasidic teachers allowed ordinary people to touch spiritual truths. If earlier only sages studied them, now ordinary people could do so as well.

What was so special about the teachings of Baal Shem Tov that they captured the hearts of so many people to such an extent?

Answer:  The Baal Shem Tov followed the path of the Ari and explained in a simpler language, close to the people, how to act and connect with each other in order to achieve the revelation of the Creator.

He set a very practical goal: to explain to any person who is in absolute ignorance about what kind of world he exists in, what states he passes through, why the Torah is needed, and why people exist.

It turns out that the Baal Shem Tov gave ordinary people life. He explained to them how to live correctly and that behind every inner movement of a person in mind and feelings is a huge force that is correcting the world. Therefore, every person who treats the world like that is engaged in correcting it.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 8/5/19

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The Ari’s Contribution to the Development of Kabbalah:

Question: It is considered that since the time of the Ari, the period of correction of humanity began because he empirically derived a method that could be used by everyone. What is this method?

Answer: It is about uniting people. The Ari organized a group of students and he taught them the structure of the upper worlds and he explained the methods of their functioning and the development of a common desire in the group, which is yearning more and more for similarity with the Creator. He presented all of this as necessary spiritual steps.

He raised the teaching of Kabbalah from the corporeal to the spiritual level using what is called “the language of branches,” in which we call something by corporeal names, but in fact, we do not mean any material forms of objects and phenomena but only our spiritual qualities.

Gradually, people began understanding that Kabbalah does not belong to our world at all. Moreover, our world is an illusory world that appears to exist only in our perception. In general, this is a whole system of views, a science that is available for everyone. The Ari outlined it very specifically.

In principle, the Ari invented a new language that explained the interaction of light and Kli. A Kli is a desire that includes everything there is in the world. The only thing that this desire feels is light.

It is the interaction of light and desire, the Creator and creation, that the Ari fully described in his books.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 5/8/19

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What is the benefit of Kabbalistic knowledge?

Question: What is the benefit of Kabbalistic knowledge for humanity? What is so special about it?

Answer: The fact is that Kabbalistic knowledge is necessary for people who are interested in the meaning of life, for what purpose it was given to them. After all, a person, unlike an animal, sometimes asks himself: “What should I do?” and begins to seek the meaning of life. “Where did I come from?” “Why am I here?” “Where do I go after I leave this world?”

If such questions torment a person, then he can no longer abandon the desire to attain them. The rest of life becomes as mere support for existence, which does not make sense since life is finite. What is the point of supporting it if in the end you do not achieve some higher predestination?

This is how certain people who have a “point in the heart,” that is, a desire that urges them to know the meaning of life, feel. They strive for this and tell everyone else who also want to attain the essence of existence.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 8/5/19

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