Question: It is said that to inherit the land requires a lot of preparation. What is this preparation?

Answer: The land of Israel is that same Babylon or Egypt, but corrected. In the beginning there was no land of Israel, only the land of Canaan. There is no land of Israel without the nation of Israel. The inheritance of the land of Israel is when you take the desires of Babylon, the desires of the Pharaoh, that are discovered as cruel, terrible, and egoistic, put them to work, and transform them for the sake of bestowal.

And the corrected desires are called the land of Israel because they are directed for the sake of bestowal, straight to the Creator. If I am in the desire to receive that is called Egypt, under the control of Pharaoh, and yearn to reach the state that is for the sake of bestowal, to reach the state of love the other as yourself, then this is called that I want to escape Egypt.

I rise above those egoistic desires that are called Egypt because when I am within them, I can never correct them. Thus, I rise above them, detach from them, and am able to use them in such a way that I correct them. The correction of these desires is such that I detach from them and don’t want to be influenced by them.

This work of rising above the desires to receive are called the forty years of wandering in the Sinai Desert. And after I process and transform these desires and can already work with them for the sake of bestowal, then that is called Egypt, which at the beginning turned into the Sinai Desert and now turned from the Sinai Desert into the land of Israel.

These are very accurate specifications. One only needs to learn how to interpret them correctly, and then everything becomes very simple.
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From Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/14

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Every person is created with an egoistic desire, but in addition to it, we are given the Torah, which can turn this evil desire into a good one. The desire remains, but, instead of using it for our own benefit, we begin to use it for the good of others.

This revolution in the use of one’s desire can be performed with a tool called the Torah, the Reforming Light. Studying my egoistic desire, I discover that it consists of 613 parts, 613 desires, that together comprise my evil inclination.

I need to correct all these desires, from the lightest to the heaviest, in order to stop using them for myself and start using them for the benefit of others. I must make a complete revolution in this. It is impossible to correct them halfway in order to make it beneficial for me and for you.

Therefore it is said that a person must perform 613 commandments. This is about 613 corrections of my desire from evil to good with respect to the other. As a result of these corrections, I come to love, fulfilling the main law of the Torah.

It is this method of correction that the people of Israel once received. For this, we are given the Torah. The task of the people of Israel is to implement this method, setting an example for the entire world and becoming a Light to the nations.

Therefore, the Torah contains so many warnings. Our entire fate depends on the fulfillment of this condition of love for one’s friend as for oneself. Let’s see whether we are approaching this realization or not.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/3/15

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Question: How is it that the three world religions that have so many disagreements with each other agree that Jerusalem is the holy city?

Answer: All three religions of the world are connected with Abraham and with the fact that the wisdom of Kabbalah went into concealment. About two thousand years ago, after the destruction of the Second Temple, the people of Israel fell from the spiritual degree they were previously on, from brotherly love, and fell into unfounded hatred.

All that the Jews had taken from the holy Kabbalistic books turned into the Judaism of exile. Thus, Judaism developed followed by Christianity and then Islam. All of these religions emerged because the people of Israel lost their spirituality.

Both Christianity and Islam borrowed their symbols from Judaism, and that is why Jerusalem became a holy city for them. Everyone feels that this city has something special—Jews, Muslims, and Christians—because such an attitude is instilled in a person from his childhood.

But it is one thing to attribute sanctity to stones and another thing to build Jerusalem in one’s heart. Jerusalem is a “perfect city”; it is the properties in which a person reveals the Creator. The upper force of bestowal and love is revealed in the land of Israel, in Jerusalem.

The heart is all the human desires. To reveal the Creator means to achieve these corrected properties that allow me to bestow to everyone. If I come out of my egoism and begin to love the other like myself, then in this aspiration I reveal the land of Israel (Yashar El – straight to God), the perfect city Jerusalem, my corrected properties of bestowal, and the Temple, and the Creator in them, and unite with Him.

Everyone eventually strives to achieve this true concept of Jerusalem, but does not know what is hidden behind it. All the people must go through this process of internal creation of oneself, regardless of the religion they profess.

Indeed, we all came out of Babylon. Some joined Abraham and went with him, and some of the Babylonians were not yet ready for this. But in the end, everyone should come to this, as it is written, “…for they shall all know Me from their smallest to their greatest” and “…my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Therefore, Jerusalem is at the center of general attention because all the peoples should gather in it—not physically, but in a spiritual sense. Religions only prepare humanity to the stage where we are now, to come to the revelation of the Creator.

Question: How will our world look when every person builds Jerusalem inside himself?

Answer: All the people will become brothers. The concept of Jerusalem means that we all are connected to each other and become brothers, as one man in one heart. This state is called the “perfect city.”

Question: In this case, it does not matter which religion one professes, correct?

Answer: Then, there will be no religion. They all will disappear, as they are replaced by the knowledge of the Creator, as it is written, “Know your Creator.”
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/7/15

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Question: There are holidays that we remember and celebrate like Rosh Hashana and Pesach (Passover), while Shavuot isn’t so impressive as compared to them. Can we say that it is less important than the other holidays?

Answer: On the contrary, it is the most important holiday. On this day we received the method according to which we can raise our life to a spiritual level and discover the next world here and now, just as it is written, “You will see your world in your life.”

We all were created in this world from the evil force, our ego, but we can add the good force to the evil force by this method and balance them. Our entire world is merely an evil inclination. This inclination is a desire, and it is evil because everyone thinks only about how he can fill it at the expense of others, without taking others into consideration. This is the reason that our nature is evil, as it is written, “…man’s heart is evil from his youth.”

If we begin to see that everything is evil and that only the evil is revealed as it is revealed now in our state, then we will be able to reach a state in which we will say, “Enough! That’s it! We must change something!” Then, we have the opportunity to bring in the good force. When we discover this force in nature, we can balance the evil force with the good force, and we can manage ourselves correctly with these two forces like with two reins. Without the good force, which the wisdom of Kabbalah helps us reveal, we are lost. We will not be able to do anything with our egoistic nature.

This is why I am happy that we have reached this evil state because it is actually from the evil that we can ascend and reach the good.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/17/15

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Weitzman recalled in his memoirs, “A notable feature of the vote was that among those who spoke out against Uganda, the decisive majority were the delegates from Russia.” The representatives of Kishinev unanimously rejected the Uganda plan. The Western Zionists were shocked.

I remember how after the vote, Herzl said about the Russian Jews, “If these people had a noose around their neck, they still would be stubborn!” Next to him was a young woman who tore the map of Uganda off the wall. She angrily exclaimed, “Mr. President, you are a traitor!” Herzl sharply turned away. (From the book by Felix Kandel, The Land Under our Feet, Book 1, Part 3, Chapter 11).

An uncompromising spirit always characterized the Jews of Russia. They were people forged by suffering. When they lived in difficult conditions of limited space, they understood that Uganda wouldn’t be much better for them and that it was necessary to return to the true values.

In addition, in those times, the Jews of Russia were more religious than now, and even if the Zionists at the Basel Congress were no longer great supporters of religion, still there existed a spiritual foundation in them that they received from their family home. They all completed one religious school or another, and so they couldn’t imagine how one could break from a religious and ideological basis.

Therefore, as a reason for rejecting the establishment of the nation in Uganda, they used, first, the spirit of Russian Jewry, and, second, an order from above. Still we have to understand that our world evolves according to a particular program by particular forces, and it was understood that life in Uganda or any other place would cost us a few hundred years of intense suffering. Without a doubt, a hand from above brought us to the land of Israel to show how much this land matches the inner potential that exists in us.
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/7/15

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Herzl knew of a rumor about Russian Jewry, but, after he became familiar with representatives from Russia, he noted that he was convinced that they required his help and spiritual leadership, and here at the Basel Congress, he saw that Russian Jewry had brought such a powerful culture that he couldn’t even imagine.

He continued, saying that they have an inner wholeness that had been lost by most of the Jews of Europe. They weren’t assimilated into any other nation, but drew upon all the good that there is in these peoples. By looking at them, he began to understand what gave power to our ancestors to survive in the most difficult times. Once, they asked Herzl, “What would happen if only the Jews of Russia follow you?” He answered, “Only? This is absolutely enough for me.” (From the book by Felix Kandel, The Land Under Our Feet, Book 1, Part 3, Chapter 11)

Russian Jewry is characterized by the integration of many different factors. First, it is very multifaceted. Jews were scattered to all corners of the empire. They settled in Moldavia, Crimea, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Secondly, a serious attraction to inner spiritual development was observed in them, whereas the environment around them was very limited. This is because, at that time, there existed the law of serfdom, a monarchy, and, in an especially rigid way for Russians, they didn’t let the Jews do anything, and a threat always hovered above them, and they feared for their lives. So, they had to provide themselves with at least some kind of security.

The state of affairs itself led to the appearance of an inner craving to find somehow to express oneself. In order not to be dependent on society, the Jews needed to give expression to some value by themselves, to reach their own self-expression within themselves, but from the outside, permission was not given to them. In principle, this has continued to our day, maybe not on such a level, but if we compare this with the days of my youth, I also felt a violation of human rights.

In this way, the general atmosphere in the remote places pushed a person toward great inner attainments since he knew that he only had what was found within him. He could not be a doctor, a politician, or a professor as it was in the West. At that time, there already existed a strong stratum of Jewish intellectuals there. At the same time, there was an an active distancing from Judaism. Many Jews changed their religion, like Strauss, or they completely assimilated into the society that surrounded them. Much later, they were the first who began to leave Western Europe and move to America where they created an absolutely new community that didn’t preserve their customs.

When I asked my grandfather, “Why, in your time, didn’t you travel to America along with everyone else?” He answered, “How could I go where I would have had to work on Shabbat? So, I stayed here.” For him, it was completely clear that in spite of all the pressures and terrible circumstances, he could maintain his internal law here. This was the essential difference between the Jews of Western Europe and the Jews of Eastern Europe, even though the latter were far more oppressed. The Czarist regime couldn’t leave them in peace and quiet. The Jewish question was a sickness within him, and it caused him great suffering. So, new decrees were constantly being issued that limited the rights of the Jews, and the opinion spread that they should be pursued and deported to the backyard of the empire. There, they could exist more or less quietly in spite of everything if only given the opportunity.

Question: Did something unique exist in the Russian people that compelled them to violate the rights of the Jews and thereby prepare them for the great breakthrough?

Answer: I wouldn’t say this. The Russian character is very full of contradictions because it is created from the symbiosis and conflict of different cultures. So, a Russian can begin to beat someone and, immediately after begin to hug and kiss him with great weeping. He himself doesn’t know what manages him, and this is a clear Russian characteristic. So in Russian society there are many bursts of cultural achievements that are impossible in the West. This made an impression on the Jews while they stayed within the irascible Russian society..

The atmosphere itself pushed them to develop. Because you don’t know what will happen to you in the next moment, you need to be directed only toward what is in you, what you know and can do, what you are in yourself. So, the most important were science, knowledge, and understanding of how to become something compared to others, but that this uniqueness will be within me because tomorrow I could become naked and barefoot, but, this they can’t take from me. So, the Russian Jews, who didn’t know what would come tomorrow, were obliged to go into science or culture, to gather an inner cultural or scientific charge, and when the time arrived for some kind of small self-expression, then all of the gathered inner potential began to erupt. The main thing for them was to express themselves.
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/7/15

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Baal HaSulam, “The Writings of the Last Generation.” Introduction: …and looks into the past as one looks in the mirror and sees one’s flaws so as to correct them. Similarly, the mind sees what it has been through, and corrects its future conducts.

Question: At the end of the 19^th century, the first emigration of Jews from Russia to Israel began. Preceding this, there were brutal pogroms in Kutaisi and, after that, in Kishinev. However, the Jews still remained, living there for some time. Why?

Answer: An inner development was required both for the individual and for the people to move them from their place. For example, you can sit and suffer all the time, but still won’t be motivated enough to leave. However, when you are under the influence of external and internal pressure, the awareness of the accumulation of evil and bitterness leads the individual or the entire people to no longer being able to remain in the same place, and they must move.

Question: But why did the Jews specifically begin to leave Russia? After all, the accumulation of evil happened no less in Europe also.

Answer: In the 19^th century in Europe, there was relative calm. On a general background of anti-Semitism, the life of the Jews there passed quite well, and they prospered; whereas, at the same time in Russia, the “Black Hundreds” movement became active (extremist right-wing organizations who were active from 1905 to 1917, who among other things were also anti-Semitic). The Jews were put into settlements with defined borders and could not develop cities or villages.

The problem was that Russian society was very backward in much of its development in comparison to European society, whereas the Jews of Russia, according to their rate of advancement, were ahead of the Russians who lived with them. So, Russia was like a prison for Jews. They couldn’t do anything. Only the abolition of serfdom and the first Zionist Congress in Basel created the opportunity for a change in atmosphere, and they could just leave.
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/7/15

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Question: Today the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah has become fashionable. Its devotees are celebrities, like Madonna. Does this disturb or help your global goal to bring a person to a spiritual nature?

Answer: On the one hand, it draws people’s attention to the wisdom of Kabbalah since they begin to read and become interested in it. On the other hand, Madonna and others  are not actually engaged in Kabbalah. Nothing can be done about it; this is how humanity develops. When it comes to the great spiritual system, there is no immediate understanding nor perception of what this is, so people approach this question from various angles.

Even the students who come to us to study don’t understand exactly where they are for half a year or more. They can be compared to those who studied quantum physics. There too, for a year students go around half in despair from lack of understanding. A person cannot immediately enter into a new dimension, so in the wisdom of Kabbalah, there must be a period of adjustment.

Question: Do these celebrities help you?

Answer: This doesn’t depend on them; rather, it is the need, the demand, and the imperative of the person. People come to the wisdom of Kabbalah when the question about the meaning of life pokes at their soul: “What am I living for?!” If this question burns in a person, he feels a lack of meaning in his existence and he cannot be at peace with this, so ultimately he reaches us. But if the question about the meaning of life is satisfied for him through food, sex, wealth, family, knowledge, etc., then he is stuck somewhere in these levels of satisfaction. This is neither good nor bad; in the meantime, the person is simply found on this level of development.

For some time I myself searched for the meaning of life, beginning with science and after that religion, and I didn’t find it in them. And when this became completely unbearable, I was advised to search for Kabbalists. I searched for my teacher for four years, and when I found him, I understood that this was for me.
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From the press conference 3/11/15

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Question: All three religions consider Jerusalem as a holy city. Why is there a very special attitude to this city as if it connects a person with the upper force?

Answer: “Jerusalem” means “perfect city.” It is a spiritual concept that does not add holiness to the material city and its stones.

While the human being is made very complex, he is strongly influenced by the force of simple human faith, the power of placebo, his beliefs. Thus, arriving in Jerusalem, people feel that this is a special place.

But this is a special holy place created by people themselves by their attitude to this city, but the material city has no holiness. All the differences between geographic locations are in their spiritual roots.

It is written in the book of the great Kabbalist Ari, The Tree of Life, that the whole land is divided into areas according to special spiritual powers that affect them: Jerusalem, the land of Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Babylon, and all other countries of the world.

This refers to the spiritual roots, but there is no difference in physical stones. But people who live in this world are impressed by each other and thus give these these stones, air, and geographical location special designations.

We need to understand that only by rising above these material human experiences will we be able to achieve a true, correct impression that will come from the spiritual property called Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, the Temple, Israel, the nations of the world.

All these are inner properties of the human being; the upper forces that we need to reveal. Then the spiritual Jerusalem will be revealed to us and inside of it the spiritual Temple, which is the “holy of holies,” where we will meet with the upper force.

So, everyone has to come to the reevaluation of the upper force and adhesion to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/7/15

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Question: Why has the world always hated the Jews?

Answer: It is because this group of people who left Babylon and began to unite understood and agreed that through connection and unity, we re-educate ourselves and become like nature, a nature that exists according to a single solitary law, the law of general reciprocal connection.

This system exists within us, and in the remaining part of Babylon that was scattered over the face of the entire world, the method doesn’t exist. So, the nations of the world subconsciously feel that we have something that they don’t. It seems to them that we are hiding this, even though most of us don’t know ourselves about that secret.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the right, good, and mutual rapprochement between people above all the divisions and contradictions that separate us will bring them to resemble the general law of nature, mutual connection. This mutual connection is now being revealed more and more in the world and in human society. In its appearance in us, it arouses a completely different feeling of the world. We go out to a level, which is outside of time, movement, and location to other strata of the attainment of nature that are much deeper than those that we feel with our five physical senses.

For the first time in life, freedom of choice has been given into our hands. This is because all seven billion people are acting according to an inherent program. But when we begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, freedom of choice appears in us, and we begin to feel what it is. The uniqueness of the wisdom of Kabbalah is in changing a person, giving him an additional sense that helps him feel in what kind of world he really exists. He begins to feel not only the world and our small space, but also the next dimension. The wisdom of Kabbalah raises a person above his egoistic nature.
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From the Press Conference 3/11/15

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