Love Thy Neighbor

Question: The purpose of creation is to become like the general power of nature, the Creator, in terms of properties. His property is to bestow.

Baal HaSulam writes in his article “Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings” that one cannot just jump over and acquire the property of the Creator because one can deceive oneself.

To make sure that I indeed achieve this property, an image of our world was created with all kinds of creations: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and most importantly, human. I must correct my attitude toward people.

Therefore, as it is written in all the original sources, the basic law is “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” What does it mean? Everyone understands this in their own way.

Answer: “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is the goal that a person must achieve if one works on one’s correction. This goal is a very distant one, but in the beginning there are other preliminary stages of correction.

“Love thy neighbor as thyself” means that just as today I love myself and I instinctively, consciously, and subconsciously put myself at the head of the whole world and only through myself do I perceive this world, and only from myself onward do I look at the world, and only for my dear own self do I work and do everything, so I must change myself for the whole world, work for the improvement of the world only, and only feel pain for it as if it were my beloved little child.
[256811]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 2/7/19

Related Material:
The Method Of Correction, Part 2
The Method Of Correction, Part 1
The Soul Is the Property of Bestowal, and Without It We Are Animals

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Lectures - No Comments →

Question: How does a Kabbalist know that there is a common good? This reeks of communism and a desire to make everyone happy without their desire for it.

Answer: No, it is impossible to make a person happy without his desire for it.

There is an upper abundance, the source of which is the Creator. We just need to develop our correct desires in order to be fulfilled. That is why Kabbalah is called “the wisdom of reception.”

There is no coercion in spirituality. We ourselves must want, ask, and convince ourselves and our friends that reception for the sake of bestowal is perfect because it is infinite and unlimited.

By receiving in order to pass onto others, I become a conduit, like a pipe through which the fulfillment flows. However, since everything passes through me, all of it is mine and I transfer all this further, and in the same measure am emptied for a new reception.
[233809]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/13/18

Related Material:
How To Imagine A Spiritual Life?
What Can We Give?
Giving Means Filling The Desires Of Others

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Lectures - No Comments →

Question: Is the human physical body part of creation?

Answer: The physical body is not a part of creation and has nothing to do with the soul. You can do anything with your body, but the soul develops according to its own specific laws.

Question: What does it mean when it is written that the sparks of the soul fell into this world and dressed in bodies?

Answer: This world only means egoism. Therefore, the sparks of the soul fell not into this world and not into the bodies, but into egoism.

Our body and what we observe, see, and perceive with our five corporeal senses belongs to the animate level. Kabbalah says nothing about the animate level.
[225586]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/14/18

Related Material:
Above Body And Soul
How Is The Soul Connected To The Body?
What Is The Soul?

Filed under: Body and Soul, Kabbalah Study, Lectures - No Comments →

Question: What does it mean that Kabbalah is revealed in the world if the main Kabbalistic book, Moses’ Pentateuch has been published in billions of copies?

Answer: And how is the Torah (The Bible) revealed? Its essence remains concealed.

This book was written 3,000 years ago. Its appearance is an extraordinary event. How it is written, its language, is wondrous!

However, the fact is that no one understands the true essence of the Torah, and this true essence must be revealed.

After the Torah, there are Prophets (Neviim) and Scriptures (Ktuvim). These are all great books, but they are written in a language that needs to be deciphered.
[224247]
From the Kabbalah lesson in Russian 12/17/17

Related Material:
What Came First, The Torah Or The Wisdom Of Kabbalah?
When We Open The Torah
The Torah Is A Program And A Guide

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Lectures - No Comments →

Question: What is envy, and how can you use it for spiritual advancement?

Answer: Envy is a very good quality, as is shame. However, shame seems to slow you down, stop you, make you hide and shrink, but envy, on the contrary, expands you and pushes you forward, and therefore, we must use it.

However, the most important thing is envy between the friends. When I sit in class, I look at each one and envy them endlessly. I do not hate them, but I envy them. We need to control ourselves here because dislike appears along with envy.

I am grateful for the fact that my friend demonstrates to me what he can do, what he knows, the way he feels, and so on. A white envy grows in me toward his aspirations, and it pushes me forward. Therefore, envy is a very good quality.
[217842]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/13/17

Related Material:
It Is Good To Envy
Useful Competition
Envy That Helps Us Advance

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Lectures - No Comments →

Question: How not to quarrel in the Third Temple?

Answer: The Third Temple operates on completely different grounds, according to different criteria. Quarrels are not possible there. When we ascend to the spiritual world, egoism no longer grows; we are only influenced by the correcting force that we add to our egoism. Therefore, there cannot be further shattering.

All this is stated in theory according to the laws of the correlation between the negative force of reception and the positive force of bestowal. By studying the methodology, we understand that we really are moving toward this state, and there will be no other.
[215966]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/23/17

Related Material:
A Temple That Is Built In The Heart
Building The Third Temple
The Third Temple – Correction of Humanity

Filed under: Lectures, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: What is the difference between conscious spiritual work and unconscious spiritual work?

Answer: Unconscious spiritual work is summed up by the fact that all of us automatically carry out the instructions of nature, the work of the Creator. Working consciously means to begin to participate independently, wisely, with understanding, through planning in advance; and then our eyes will open and we will see where we are truly found.

In what way is the intelligence of a little child different from the intelligence of an adult? An adult understands where he is and what he is doing while a little child does not. The same thing happens even in the spiritual world. We still don’t understand or see the spiritual world because we cannot exist within it correctly. When we begin to acquire its characteristics, to the degree that we become equal to its characteristics, we begin to discover it among us.

Question: What does it mean that all of us are working for the Creator? If we are already carrying out the laws of nature, so where is the problem?

Answer: We carry out the laws of nature automatically, against our will. The problem is that you must consciously take upon yourself all of the functions of the Creator and fill His place. When we are in His place, meaning that we adhere to Him and fully attain His relationship with creation, to that degree we become like Him. This is the goal of development that has been placed before us.

Question: Does this mean that I am a slave of the Creator against my will?

Answer: Certainly. You are now like a guest sitting in front of the host and swallowing everything that the host gives him. So you must get up and say: “Stop! I am not interested in carrying out your instructions, except on condition that I will carry them all out independently, with the understanding that I am doing this to bestow to you both pleasure and goodness; I no longer want to be a slave but a conscious human being; I want to be like you!”
[205435]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/18/16

Related Material:
Understanding The Goal Of Life
How Can We Awaken The Creator?
What Do We Live For?

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Lectures, Meaning Of Life - No Comments →

Question: If the wisdom of Kabbalah is the only true study, is there a way of checking this other than the feeling in the heart? After all, one lifetime is not enough to check thousands of methods, each of which claims that it is the only true method. What can you advise?

Answer: You can check as much as you like. The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us where everything stems from. You shouldn’t believe any method blindly.

You should work through the sources, and if necessary, we will help you develop them further. There are all kinds of courses, and we have prepared a great amount of supplementary material in Russian. Most of our friends in different countries around the world are Russian speakers, and they will gladly help and support you.

I am not saying that you should leave everything. You should simply approach the study and attempt to solve the question about the meaning of life wisely. You should discover the picture of creation, of the forces that operate on you, and how you can use them while still in this life, not postponing anything for the next world.
[199784]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/2/16

Related Material:
Discovering The Management System Of The World
Don’t Believe Me, Find Out Yourself
What Does The Wisdom Of Kabbalah Offer Us?

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Lectures - No Comments →

Question: In what way is the spoken language of Kabbalah different from the written language?

Answer: They are very different. The written language is much higher than the spoken language. It also appeared much later. It is a language that expresses the spiritual attainments of the person who writes and not his feelings. This is the reason that it differs from the spoken language by which a person conveys his feelings, intonations, expressions, sighs, and so on.

There are five groups of letters in Hebrew: guttural, palatal, of the tongue, of the jaws, and of the teeth. When using texts, all this disappears and the groups of letters are classified differently: the first nine letters stem from the Sefirot of the lower seven of Bina, the next nine letters stem from the Sefirot Zeir Anpin, and the last four stem from the Sefira of Malchut. There are five more letters, the final letters MaNTZePaCH, altogether 27 letters.

This is a totally different tool and a different form of expression of the same forces that are conveyed by sounds.

In addition to transmission of vocal information or written information from one person to another, there is another way of conveying information, substantive transfer, that is not used today. It was used during the time of the Temple when people also communicated by offering sacrifices, which is a totally different language.

Comment: There is a complementation of the letters in Hebrew in the form of vowel marks under the letters or markings in the shape of crowns above them, which indicate where one should put the stress and help a person read the words correctly.

Answer: All the languages lose their basis since they don’t fully convey all the information of a letter or a word, but in Hebrew it is not so.

In Hebrew all the letters are consonants with vowel marks below them which indicate the missing vowels in the written language. There are also different signs above the letters in the shape of crowns which convey forms of musical notes so you can convey everything by such an illustration of information.

In Hebrew there are also many marks inside the letters, beside the letters, and between the letters. They are the subtext that is not conveyed by sounds but by a pause in tone, by raising or lowering the tone of speech. The overt text is the notes and the covert text are the signs, which convey a second layer of information that is the subtext.

Today, however, we don’t use all these signs because the consonants are enough for a person who is used to the language.
[199279]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/24/16

Related Material:
Sounds Of Letters
The Letters As Models For Managing Our World
Letters Of The Higher System

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Language of Branches, Lectures - No Comments →

Question: Why are we given fantasies?

Answer: Fantasies are given to embellish a lie with a lie.

Question: Does this mean that fantasies are false?

Answer: Yes, as is our whole world, even though it seems real to us.

Question: Must a person understand that he cannot find happiness in this world?

Answer: It is for each individual. Yet I would not say that a person must prove to himself that there is no happiness in the world. We simply need to aspire to true happiness.

Question: What kind of benefit do I get as a result of others or the Creator being fulfilled, but not myself?

Answer: If I am fulfilled through them, this is a higher egoistic system of fulfillment; if I fulfill the whole world through me, then I am fulfilled with everything that I have transmitted to the world.

Question: What does it mean to fulfill the desire of others?

Answer: Fulfilling the desire of others is a means for fulfilling yourself, a means of fulfilling the Creator.

Question: What will happen in the physical world when people attain the highest level of pleasure? Will the population decrease or increase as a result of this?

Answer: Our world will disappear from our senses; after all, it only exists within our senses.

Question: There is a philosophy called Aikido by which the negative changes to positive. You claim that the wisdom of Kabbalah transforms the ego to have the characteristic of the Creator, altruism. Is this a kind of Kabbalistic Aikido?

Answer: The ego remains, we just use it correctly.

Question: Is it possible to call the relationship between parents and children “bestowal”?

Answer: No, because this connection is personal, so what am I bestowing to whom? Is it to myself?

Question: How are “ego” and “light” components of my soul?

Answer: The ego that is corrected to the level of bestowal is the soul; besides the ego, we have nothing.

Question: Will I be able to bequeath to my children the same pleasure that I derive from the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: No, it is not inherited. You can be a great Kabbalist, as were many women before you, but as a rule, their children weren’t receptive to the wisdom of Kabbalah. But in our time, this might be different.

Question: What is the connection between the “end of creation” and “pleasure”?

Answer: Creation is what we feel. When we correct all of our senses, the creation in its present form disappears and in its place an absolutely new creation appears that is called the upper world.

Question: If I am already experiencing the pleasure that you are talking about, must I still learn the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: If you have a desire for it, then study; if not, then don’t. Everything is completely voluntary; nothing is imposed on anyone. The method of the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed only to someone who wants it, there is no coercion. If you leave the wisdom of Kabbalah, you will not be punished. If you study it, you will be convinced by the reward. It is not found on the same plane on which you are accustomed to seeing. You must choose for yourself. This is wisdom that is only given to those who need it.
[198190]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/28/16

Related Material:
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 6/26/16
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 7/10/16, Part 2
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 7/17/16

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Lectures - No Comments →