Question: If the Creator intends to give us pleasure, why is He hiding?

Answer: How else could He fill us if we didn’t have a desire for pleasure?! So this is necessary. First the Creator hides Himself, creates the desire for pleasure, and then this desire develops itself to feel a great need, a yearning for fulfillment!

And then to the degree that the huge egoism is corrected, he feels the Creator. Otherwise a person will not appreciate the immense pleasure that the Creator prepares for him. Moreover, this fulfillment exists around us and within us now, but we don’t feel it! So to tempt us, the Creator hides and creates all kinds of problems for us.
[181854]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/14/16

Related Material:
What Is The Creator’s Image Built Of?
Work In The World Of The Creator
Forward, Toward Concealment

Filed under: Q&A, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

Question: In the course of human history, there has hardly been a day without war in the world. Even in our day, many cruel wars are happening. Why do even advanced people like Kabbalists suffer from this?

Answer: The Kabbalists suffer even more than others because they feel responsibility toward everyone. They sense the huge mass of suffering that war carries with it. In addition, they also experience a huge mass of pleasure that humanity could get instead of the suffering were it to invest a bit of effort to correct itself.

A Kabbalist in relation to an ordinary person is like an adult in relation to an infant. An infant who is ill only suffers because of the illness whereas the adult close to him suffers much more and is ready to take all of the pain of the infant upon himself.

About this it is said, “he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow” (Ecclesiastes 1:18). Because of this, we must unite, quickly overcome this period of suffering and war, and enter into the feeling of the upper world.
[181860]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/14/16

Related Material:
What Makes A Kabbalist Suffer
Practicing Kabbalist
A Kabbalist Can Stop A War

Filed under: Q&A, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

Question: What is a soul?

Answer: A soul is a spiritual organ by which we feel what is external to us. If a person has created it, he feels the upper dimension outside himself. No one has a soul except for those who worked especially in order to find it, to acquire it, to create it, inside them.

A soul is a desire to bestow, the ability to feel the world that is external to you, a special sensor. This sense is acquired and it enables us to feel others even if they don’t have this sensing organ.
[181502]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/21/16

Related Material:
Is The Soul Inside The Body Or External To It?
Finding Your Soul
Once Again About The Soul

Filed under: Body and Soul, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: How can we imagine the revelation of the upper world and the appearance of the Creator to man?

Answer: When we are born, we are on the animal level of our development. We feel what is around us in our egoistic properties, and Kabbalists call what is depicted in them as our world or this world.

If we manage to create altruistic qualities (love of others) by implementing the wisdom of Kabbalah, we will discover an additional world in them.

In that additional world, everything will be depicted and presented to us in the form of forces that manage the objects in our world. This is how we actually will discover the system of leadership of this world called the upper world or the Creator.
[181648]

Related Material:
How Can We Feel The Upper World?
Where Is The Upper World?
How To Attain The Upper Worlds

Filed under: Perception, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Why does the Creator allow murder and suicide?

Answer: If a person cannot cope with his great egoism, then the suffering forces him to end his life. From the point of view of the wisdom of Kabbalah there is nothing special about this because a person doesn’t “fly off” somewhere; rather, he ends his difficult, present life, and in this way he rejects the possibility of correcting himself, ascending and attaining the upper world. So he returns to this world but on different terms.

I don’t think that suicide is a correct decision, but I also don’t condemn these people because undoubtedly they are found in very difficult situations. We cannot blame or condemn anyone. We should always try to understand others.

Comment: Why do all religions strongly opposed to suicide?

Answer: All the religions claim that a person should still correct himself in any case, and that he has no right to part with life, because in his life he is given an opportunity to attain the goal of creation. Even the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about this, yet in contrast, it doesn’t condemn or judge a person for this reason.
[181482]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/14/16

Related Material:
Changing Our Way Of Life
If There Is No Goal, There Is No Joy In Life
Suffering Due To A Meaningless Life

Filed under: Body and Soul, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Can we feel shame before the Creator? If so, what are we ashamed of if the Creator is the inanimate nature and not some figure that knows you and sees you? Or is there a live boss in addition to the still nature?

Answer: There is only an upper mind and force, which are revealed to us as the force of love. The force of love generates all of creation, manages it, and brings it to the state of wholeness. A Kabbalist is a person who actively participates in this process.

Question: What brings the Creator contentment and delights Him?

Answer: Resembling Him.
[181073]

Related Material:
What Can We Give The Creator?
The Spiritual World – The World Of Qualities
Not In Words But In Deed…

Filed under: Q&A, The Creator - No Comments →

Question: In your opinion, who can consider himself a spiritual person?

Answer: This is someone who transcends himself with the help of the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah, creating within him a new feeling called a “soul.” A person who does this, perceives spiritual substance through the characteristic of bestowal, meaning not within himself but outside of himself. In our world there are few people like these, nobody recognizes them, they are not revealed to anyone, and don’t teach anyone.

The only organization that is seriously involved with this is Kabbalah La’Am (Kabbalah for the People), which acts as an international Kabbalah Education Center, setting for itself the goal of teaching the wisdom of Kabbalah to other people because it receives this mission from above. We try to create the right conditions so that every person who wants to attain a spiritual state and feel the world outside of him can do this.
[181509]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/21/16

Related Material:
A Spiritual Person
Spirituality And Warm-Heartedness
Where Is The Upper World?

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Q&A, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: How does the ego feel the plagues of Egypt?

Answer: The Egyptian plagues are felt once the ego is built in the form of Egypt and Pharaoh,which is opposite from the nation of Israel and Moses, is created in a person. These blows are needed to tear us away from the ego and to prepare us to break away from it.

Question: I don’t understand how we can ascend above the ego and love it at the same time. We are used to suppressing our ego, to eradicating it in every possible way, so what does it mean to ascend above it?

Answer: It means that you should focus your desires on filling others and receiving pleasure from that.

Question: How can I understand that the ego is evil if the groups don’t talk about it and try to blur it by playing games of love?

Answer: We should talk about it!
[181781]

Related Material:
The Ten Plagues Of Egypt
Ego That Is Squeezed Out Like Lemon Juice
Questions About Pesach

Filed under: Egoism, Group Work, Q&A, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: How should we use the power of Kabbalistic books?

Answer: There is no special force in the book itself. The power is in the person who connects to what is written in the book and who tries to attain the internal essence, the spiritual level, that the letters and the words in Kabbalah books represent.

For example, take two words: “steak” and “Malchut.” We know what a steak is and we immediately feel its flavor in our mouth and understand what it is and when we need it, but we don’t know what Malchut is. Therefore, from our perspective this word is like tasteless grass that invokes no feeling.

Kabbalistic books were written in such a way, in such terminology, and in such a language that do not invoke any thoughts or feelings.

How do we connect with them, because they tell us about the upper world, our management, and our destiny? In this case, it is necessary to do what Kabbalists tell us. Kabbalists advise us to unite with a group of ten friends and to study together in a circle.

By studying Kabbalistic books together we must feel we mutually connect to one another, and will reach a state where our desires and thoughts are compatible, when each one annuls himself before all the friends and everyone feels as one unique whole.

This means that we have to resemble the Upper Light as much as possible in our corporeal world, the Light, which is one and unique, and then it will shine on us according to our efforts.

Question: On the one hand, we say that the wisdom of Kabbalah is not mysticism, but is drawing the Light a mystical act?

Answer: There is nothing mystical here. The self is the physical body that has certain forces of attraction and rejection. Drawing the Light is not mysticism but a physical action.

Question: How will we discover that the books influence us?

Answer: It isn’t the book that influences you but your common desire.

You will feel it as the warmth toward the friends according to the common force that appears between you and connects you. You will begin to feel what the Kabbalist books say about merging, connection, the qualities of Bina and Malchut, and the force of bestowal between them.
[181105]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/7/16

Related Material:
The Power Of The Book Of Zohar
What Are Kabbalah Books About?
Books With A Spiritual Subtext

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Why do you believe that you are allowed to teach the Torah to people who are not Jewish?

Answer: According to the Torah, the goal of creation is to bring all the created beings to adhesion with the Creator. Adhesion is attained by the correction of the ego to love, as it says: “love thy friend as thyself; this is the great rule of the Torah.” Jews are a nation that has to fulfill the Creator’s rule first, and then teach it to the whole world. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah says and what I believe. I will refer to the following items:

The source of the prohibition

Contemporary Rabbi Yoel Shwartz, says: a non Jew who studies the Torah commits a sin. It is forbidden for Jews to teach the gentiles the Torah. The prohibition for a gentile to study the Torah is first mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud: Rabi Yochanan said “A gentile who studies the Torah should die, as it says, ‘Moses commanded us a law, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.’ (Deuteronomy 33:4). This is our legacy and not theirs!” (Sanhedrin 59:1).

“It is forbidden to teach the Torah to gentiles” (Hagigah, 13:1). Rambam quotes Rabi Meir as the authority, “a gentile who studies the Torah should die, and they are allowed to study only what is related to the seven commandments” (Mishna Torah, the Laws of Kings 10:9).

Shmuel Abuav who lived in the 17^th century said: The Christians use the Jewish writings in order to prove the reliability of their faith and it is therefore forbidden to teach them the Torah.

However, there are quite a few examples of famous rabbis who taught the Torah to gentiles. A teacher of the German researcher of Judaism Johan Raichlin was the composer of the classic commentary of the Bible, “Our Story.” Such people knew the Halacha and couldn’t consciously break the rules of the Torah!

Rambam said that it forbidden to teach the Torah only to the gentiles who don’t acknowledge the Godly nature of the Torah. “We can teach the Torah to Christians because they believe that our Torah was given to us by God through our teacher Moses (Pe’er Ha’Dor, 38).

The Talmudic scholar of the Middle Ages Menachem HaMeiri said that if a gentile studies the Torah out of curiosity, it is not forbidden to teach him. This became relevant in modern times when the question of whether it is allowed to teach Jewish matters at universities arose.

The American Rabbi Jacob Weinberg said that when a gentile studies the Torah for academic purposes, there is no prohibition to do so. He was a lecturer at the non-Jewish University of Giessen in Germany who taught the Torah and the Talmud.

In the 19^th century the Lithuanian, Rabbi Israel Salenter dreamt of turning the Talmud into one of the subjects at non-Jewish universities and at that time only gentiles studied at universities.

Teaching mixed groups

Halacha authorities such as Jacob Weinberg, Isaac Klein, Moshe Finestein, Ovadia Yoseph and others claimed that the prohibition to teach the Torah refers only to a group that is totally non-Jewish, but it is possible to reach the Torah to a Jew in the presence of gentiles even if they can also study.

According to Rav Finestein a non-Jewish slave of Raban Gamliel, Tabie, is mentioned in the Talmud as a great expert in the Torah. Tabie acquired his knowledge when he was present in the lessons given by Raban Gamliel to his Jewish students. The sages of the Talmud had no problem teaching the Torah even when there were non-Jews among the listeners.

The seventh Rabbi from Lubavich welcomed the study of the Torah by modern means of communication and in modern languages although this form of teaching included many non-Jewish readers and listeners.

Constraint: The prohibition to teach the Torah to non Jews is cancelled if there is a government decree because disobeying such a decree might endanger the Jewish community. Today any attempt to separate Jewish and non-Jewish students in academic institutions might arouse negative responses. Thus a Jewish lecturer may believe that he is constantly under the government decree which nullifies the prohibition to teach the Torah to non-Jews.

Is there a prohibition to teach the Torah to non-Jews?

Rav Isaac Ilinburg (1550-1623) noticed that his Italian colleagues taught the Torah to non-Jews. He emphasized that neither Rambam nor other Halacha authorities ever mention the prohibition to teach the Torah to non-Jews.

He thus concluded that parallel expressions in Masechet Hagigah are not the Halacha at all. He said that he was not ready to publicly declare that only for fear of the reactions of his colleagues.

Rav Arie-Leib Ginsburg (1695-1785), the author of The Lion’s Roar, holds the same opinion.

Summary:

History provides us with plenty of examples of non-Jews who studied the Torah and used their knowledge not in order to harm the Jewish nation but in its favor, in order to contradict false accusations against Judaism.
[180588]

Related Material:
This Isn’t The Torah Yet
The First Innovation
Be More Serious In The Sand-Box!

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Q&A, Torah - 2 Comments →