Comment: Criticism from the outside is considered an additional proof of the righteousness of the group is purported to be a defining factor of cults.
My Response: I do not think this is correct. Criticism from the outside is the natural criticism of people who do not understand what we are dealing with.
I think that we should not pay attention to criticism. Personally, it does not put me out of temper and does not set me against the critic. I do not disrespect him. There are even philosophers who come out against me. I do not perceive their words as criticism at all.
You can criticize when you understand the subject, when you have a clear opinion about it from the point of view of the knowledge of this subject. What if they do not know it? That is, they themselves have not attained it. Even so there are disputes among Kabbalists because this is science and this is the disclosure of a certain part of the universe—gradual, stepwise, to a bigger and bigger extent. There are Kabbalists who have revealed more and those who have revealed less, like scientists in our world.
Therefore there is discrepancy among them, disputes, and so on. I do understand this. There are some very interesting fights going on there. There are entire books devoted to how each of them perceives the unfolding universe and why. But they discuss it pointedly. Why do I perceive things differently from you? What is the problem? Why are we built in the way that we perceive the same thing differently?
There are different types of souls. Some of them relate to direct light, others to surrounding light, and so on. And it is precisely in their clash, in the process of clarification, that an even greater elevation of both of them takes place. They zealously argue among themselves, but these are people who are in the same attainment, in the same world, they have what to talk about, they understand each other, and their clarifications are very serious.
And what is there to talk about here? If I am reading a novel and crying, or watching a movie on TV and laughing, and a cat is sitting next to me, how can he participate in this? Not in any way. He is only moving his ear toward the sounds I am making and thinking: “What is the matter with the master? I wish he would sit quietly and doze.”
It’s the same with those who criticize. You irritate them with your studies of Kabbalah. They feel that there is something in you that you can explain everything and that your predictions come true, although you are not a fortune teller. Long before the crisis I said that it would come. And when it started I said that it would not end. But they shouted: “The crisis will be over in a year or two.” And now they are silent and do not contradict me.
But who is pleased when you predict such bad events? Moreover, nothing will change because of your predictions.
Everything can change only due to our intensified dissemination, and there is no point in just talking. There will be still more critics. Still more people will slander us, that we, so to say, hate everyone because we are talking badly about the future when we say: “We ourselves are to blame for what is happening.” And so on.
That is, people will of course defend themselves; this is their natural reaction. That is life.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalah about Cults” 12/18/13
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Any light that expands from Him instantly consists of two discernments: The first discernment is the expanding light itself, before the form of “desire to enjoy” appears in it. The second discernment is after the form of “desire to enjoy” appears in it, at which time it becomes coarser and somewhat darker due to the acquisition of disparity of form (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 6, Item 24).
