Question: How should a student prepare himself for each lesson?

Answer: Any study begins with preparation, and we need to understand the importance of it. To prepare for the study means to clarify what I want to achieve by it. Then, the study becomes a means of achieving the goal. Preparation specifically determines the direction in which I advance as I study. For this reason, preparation is more important than the study, and this is what the student must learn.

The wisdom of Kabbalah differs from the corporeal sciences where the direction is clear from the beginning: I want knowledge and nothing else. However, in Kabbalah, I don’t want knowledge. Rather, I want to change myself so as to bind myself to others. The entire study is a means of achieving this connection with others and, through them, with the Creator.

If I have learned all kinds of information during the study, but haven’t made even the slightest step in my inner correction, this means that the study was useless. What was missing from the study was the proper preparation, intention, and goal. This is the only way to evaluate if the intention was correct. Knowledge in and of itself is irrelevant.

Some people are drawn to the structure of the upper worlds and their actions. Others are more concerned with the psychological aspects, history, and tendencies of development. However, Kabbalists pay no attention to the quantity of knowledge for “it’s not the wise one who learns” (Lo HaHacham Lomed). Everything depends on using the wisdom for the soul’s correction.
[22354]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/1/10, Kabbalah Learning Approach

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Question: What should a student receive as a result of studying with you: knowledge or a certain attitude toward the study?

Answer: The primary goal is to master the method because the method of Kabbalah differs from all other educational methods. All other ways of study have specific, material criteria by which a person can assess his or her advancement. Whether it’s sports, school, or science, the grades a person receives determine his success.

But the method of studying Kabbalah is different because here a person is preparing to start sensing another world. So how can he check how close he’s come to a world that’s concealed from him? The assessment is performed through the group: to what extent a person feels connected to others, awaits the Creator’s revelation precisely through this unity, and wishes for the whole world to unify? In other words, a person’s degree of solidarity with the Creator’s expectations of him, his proximity to His thoughts and plans determine how close he is to actualizing himself.

The concealment remains in effect until his thoughts, actions, and desires become 1/125 equivalent to those of the Creator. At that moment he will feel Him at the first degree of revelation.
[22356]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/1/10, Kabbalah Learning Approach

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Main Kabbalistic Sources: Baal HaSulam’s Commentaries on the works of the ARI and The Book of Zohar

And who better than I knows that I am not at all worthy of being even a messenger and a scribe for disclosing such secrets, and much less to thoroughly understand them. And why has the Creator done so to me? It is only because the generation is worthy of it, as it is the last generation, which stands at the threshold of complete redemption. And for this reason, it is worthy of beginning to hear the voice of the Messiah’s Shofar, which is the revealing of the secrets, as has been explained.
– Baal HaSulam, “Messiah’s Shofar”

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A question I received: How can love between people be a law if love is about a person’s feelings?

My Answer: Desire is the material of creation. Desire is a force – a force of attraction and a force of repulsion. There are laws in the world that are obvious, and we obey them involuntary. Other laws are still concealed from us, and thus we do not obey them yet. But if they do become revealed, it is best for us to learn them quickly and start obeying them.

What is “love” in our world? It’s when something awakens a feeling in me that I might get pleasure from it. I then aspire to this thing, to this spark of light. I want to get closer to this light and connect to it, so it will fulfill me. The pleasure can come from food, sex, family, money, power, or knowledge. But what do I really connect to? I connect to the spark of pleasure that enters my desire for pleasure. This is what “love” in our world is.

In Kabbalah, “love for your neighbor” does not mean that you like someone’s face, personality, or status, although this is exactly how people interpret love for one’s neighbor in our world. The latter is not love for him, but just a feeling of attraction to something that fulfills you.

True love is when you fulfill the desires of another as if they are your own. This means that you love your neighbor rather than yourself. It is when you work with and fulfill his desire. This is love for one’s neighbor.

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A question I received: There are people, groups, and organizations that see themselves as one whole and close to nature. They say they love each other, plants and animals. Is this “love your neighbor?”

My Answer: “Love your neighbor” is a law of Nature, a condition in the world around us. This condition is suddenly being revealed to us now because we have grown into it, similar to a child that grows up to be an adult and suddenly has to abide by the laws of the society.

Imagine that all the media channels suddenly announced that everyone has to follow the law of “love your neighbor” by the end of the year, and anyone that won’t be able to do this will be executed. This is not funny at all – this is the condition Nature has set for us. However, we are unable to see it.

So, what are we going to do? We have to learn how to attain “love for your neighbor.” We must find out what this law means, what Nature wants from us. We cannot avoid this law – we must learn it. But how?

Through studying. This is the only means that will enable people to understand that there is no place to run and the only solution is to be corrected by a special force of Nature. This special force influences a person who desires to be corrected, to attain the degree of “love your neighbor.”

It is like a wave or frequency among billions of frequencies, and you will perceive it only if you desire it. Nature requires you to tune in to the frequency where you will feel that the only thing you want is to love your neighbor! Then this force of Nature will come and correct you.

All other attempts will lead us to a crisis, in order for us to find this path to the goal. Other directions are gradually dwindling all around us. This is called the “Egyptian plagues,” and they will eventually make us see that there is no other choice. When we find ourselves in total darkness, we will be willing and eager to run away and attain just one thing – “love your neighbor.” Where did the people run to from Egypt? Only to love, as evidenced by the unity that later took place by Mount Sinai.

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A question I received: I accept the idea that giving to everyone is very good. But how can a person attain love for everyone in order to give them love? Is it enough to just pretend to love them? We play these games all the time. We always try to display ourselves in the best possible way. So what will have to change once everyone learns that our nature is global?

My Answer: We start with egoism, with making actions for our own sake, and then the study of Kabbalah corrects our intentions to bestowal and love. There is no other force of correction in our world!

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Three questions I received on love for others:

Question: One sometimes feels a sensation of connectivity, unity, and pleasure during the lessons, as if one’s spiritual issues are actually the spiritual issues of others in the Kli and that it’s these collective deficiencies you address. Is it advisable to relish this sensation, or should we strive to restrict it lest it become egoistic pleasure?

My Answer: You should enjoy your love for others! People can only grow out of positive emotions; after all, the purpose of creation is to delight the creatures!

Question: Last night I got a strong desire to do good to everyone without getting anything in return, and I am enjoying it. And today I woke up feeling my usual egoistic, melancholic self. Tell me please, what was it that I was feeling? Was it a higher stage that opened itself to me for a minute?

My Answer: You are studying Kabbalah and the Light is influencing you. The Light gave you this inner sensation to give you an example of what you should aspire to (this is called “awakening from Above” – Itaruta de Leela). Now you should continue in the same direction as that sensation (“awakening from below” – Itaruta de Letata), until you acquire these new qualities and sensations forever!

Question: When a person realizes the evil within him and changes to be an altruist, how can he live and survive among others who are egoists?

My Answer: By loving them! It’s because he will be corrected and his attitude toward everyone else will be equal to the Creator’s attitude.

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The global education system should include the theory and practice of attaining the concealed world. It should teach humanity “the attainment or perception of reality.” Scientists already admit this, but are yet to fully comprehend the fact that we cognize the surrounding reality only in our consciousness, and we cannot perceive the “objective” reality, or what lies beyond the limits of our consciousness.

We must cast aside theories that view the universe as existing outside the limits of our consciousness. Reality is composed of our general experience, including scientific experiments, as well as our thoughts, feelings, and intuition. In addition, to the extent we correct our egoism, we reveal a new world inside our corrected consciousness. However, this new world does not exist until we reveal it within.

Actually, our consciousness is a fundamental concept, and modern science already acknowledges this. We never attain anything outside of our consciousness. This is what the principle of “perception’s self-sufficiency” (autopoiesis) says: everything we perceive as our surroundings, the whole universe as it is perceived by man, exists only in the form that we reveal it.

Self-sufficiency does not come from the nature of the universe, but rather from the nature of our attainment, perception. We cannot suffer from lacking a sixth finger, because the sensation of a desire is the preliminary state, preceding the revelation. The Upper Level is first expressed in us in the form of a desire for it, and then It’s revealed in this desire.

Astrophysicists create new models of a “self-sufficient” universe and describe its structure and functionality as being similar to a living system. They are finding more and more evidence for the fact that the universe is alive and connected into one whole on all its levels. Scientists who study evolution agree that the Earth is similar to a huge living cell because of its global, interconnected system on all its levels of life and development.

However, we are still left with the problem of correction: simply studying and accepting the facts does not mean that you are being corrected and becoming similar to Nature. For this, it is necessary to study the next level of our existence, which is explained only in Kabbalah. It turns out that we are left with the same problem of disseminating Kabbalah in the world. At first this should be done without specifying “Kabbalah,” and only gradually, as Rambam suggests, we should reveal the Source of true wisdom.

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Three questions I received on the great sages of the past:

Question: You quote writings from sages other than just Baal HaSulam, Rabash, and Ari, although Bnei Baruch’s teachings are founded upon these. Is it permitted to study other sages’ works beside those three? Are there any sages whose writings should not be studied?

My Answer: Before Shelah (Isaiah ben Avraham Ha-Levi Horowitz, also known as Shelah HaKadosh – the Holy Shelah, 1565 – 1630), all Teachers and authors of books were great Kabbalists, but not so after him. However, you won’t be able to understand any of the books by any author from any period, except the books of Baal Hasulam, Rabash and myself. Go ahead and try it! But be careful of wasting your time.

Question: Was Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (Rambam) a Kabbalist?

My Answer: Yes, he was a great Kabbalaist.

Question: Tradition says that Moses is the author of the Torah, the book where his own death was described in advance, and that the Jews were given the book containing a description of their future as well. Do you have any rational explanation of how it was possible that Moses and the Jews could get the book with a detailed description of far reaching future events, so they were able to know their destiny, but were not able to change anything about it!?

My Answer: It is written that Moses was writing the Torah while the events unfolded in the desert during their 40 year long journey. The Torah describes only those events, allegorically telling us about what happens inside a person during his correction. And because “the particular and the general are equal,” as both consist of ten Sefirot, we can also read what is written as a description of all humanity’s development.

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News Report (from Physorg): “Reverse evolution in real-time” Evolutionary biology tells us that replaying life’s tape will not look at all like the original. Now, scientists provide the first quantitative genetic evidence of why this is so. In this study, to be published online this week in the journal Nature Genetics, scientists recreated natural selection in real-time, in the laboratory and provide the first quantitative evidence for natural selection on so-called standing genetic variation. The researchers used laboratory-grown populations of fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster)… some of the ‘reversed’ flies may be phenotypically identical to the ancestral flies, but they are genetically different.

My Comment: Creation descended from the highest level to the level of our world in order for man to consciously ascend – along with our entire world – back to the perfect level of bestowal, love, harmony, and balance. All movement is pre-programmed in advance, so as to advance only toward the final goal. This goal will necessarily be attained, and everything is moving along just one path.

However, man can either slow the process down or accelerate it. By doing the former, he evokes suffering and crises, and by the latter – abundance and comfort.

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