Questions I received about the study of Gematria, characters from ancient texts, and the two forms of desire:

Question: Is the study of Gematria related to Kabbalah? What is the goal of this science? What do we have to learn from it?

My Answer: Gematria is a method for recording the relationships between spiritual properties and different souls. It is similar to modern methods of recording information. Letters represent properties descending from the ruling system of signals. If we depict the sequence of letters as words, then we do not read the actual words but rather the program, which runs our world.

What Gematria gives us is an example of how we should be. Our entire work is to come to be similar to the Creator. This similarity can be achieved only by copying His actions, just as a child learns from adults in this world.

Question: Kabbalah speaks of Adam, Eve and other characters from ancient texts. I would like to know who these people were.

My Answer: They are internal forces of the root of the soul: the giving male source and the receiving female one. In Kabbalah, these are the systems of Z”A and Malchut. For more information, read The Book of Zohar.

Question: Can we say that there are two forms of desire? The first one is the desire to please oneself and the second – to please others. The first is very limited, and the second is eternal and infinite.

My Answer: This is true!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Truth Belongs To Everyone
Laitman.com Post: Perfection Is The Unification Of Light And Desire
The Open Book: “The Language of the Spiritual World”
A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: “Behind the Monitor”

Filed under: Q&A - No Comments →

Questions I received concerning women studying Kabbalah, sensing eternity, the drinking of alcohol at Congresses and the legalization of marijuana:

Question: Yesterday a friend of mine said to me that we, women, should not study Kabbalah, because when we study, we draw demons (negative forces) instead of the Upper Light.

My Answer: Utter nonsense! Women, as well as men, must correct their egoism, connect their desire “to give and love the neighbor” into one common desire, and to reveal the Creator in this desire!

Question: Why is it that when I study Kabbalah, The  Zohar, or the Torah, I begin to cry involuntarily?

My Answer: It’s because you feel a connection with eternity and perfection.

Question: During meals and various events, such as Kabbalah Congresses, we always raise toasts with alcohol, as though it is not unhealthy and is permitted in the spiritual world.

My Answer: This was the custom with my teacher Rabash: to drink moderately, up to 50 grams.

Question: There are hard drugs and soft drugs. Marijuana is considered a soft drug. Do you have anything against its legalization?

My Answer: I am against it! That would lead to harder drugs.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What Should Women Strive For?
Laitman.com Post: Enjoy Your Love For Others
Laitman.com Post: Drugs and Attainment Are Incompatible
Shamati #173 : “Why Do We Say L’chaim”

Filed under: Q&A - 1 Comment →

Two questions I received about happiness and Kabbalah as a science:

Question: As Kabbalists, should we always be happy?

My Answer: If a person feels miserable, he thereby curses the Creator. This has to do only with the feeling in one’s heart, and not the words that he utters. If a person is happy, he thereby blesses the Creator, without any words and without even addressing Him.

Question: You claim that Kabbalah is a science. Personally, I love science; it is one of my favorite subjects. I am also fascinated with the wisdom of Kabbalah. I know that there are requirements for a study to pass in order for it to be considered a science, and not a pseudoscience. One such requirement is that the study can be falsified (proven false). So, for honesty’s sake, is there any way for Kabbalah to be falsified?

My Answer: If Kabbalah is studied through the original sources such as The Book of Zohar, and teachers such as the ARI, Ramchal, Baal HaSulam or from a teacher who received his knowledge from a great Kabbalist of the previous generation, the rest depends only on the student.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Recipe To Happiness
Laitman.com Post: The One True Science That Can Reveal The World
Shamati #103: “Whose Heart Makes Him Willing”
Attaining The Worlds Beyond: “Advancing Toward Altruistic Pleasure”
What The Bleep!? Quantum Physics Meets Kabbalah
Kabbalah As Compared With Other Sciences

Filed under: Q&A - No Comments →

Questions I received about loving your neighbor, God as an illusion, and angels:

Question: Can we say: “Love your neighbor as yourself”? – Love him as if it’s you, since he is you: ultimately, when all the souls connect in you? And that is the Creator. Or is my interpretation wrong?

My Answer: Until the final correction when all the souls become corrected and merge into one, differences between the souls do not disappear; the connection is built despite the disparity.

Question: Why do you need God? Why are you chasing after an illusion?

My Answer: There is no God! There is Creator = Nature = law of bestowal and love, that we attain in our corrected state.

Question: I have a question about Kabbalistic interpretation of the Jehezekel prophecy. Many “scientists” view images in the prophecy as evidence of existence of aliens. How do Kabbalists interpret, for instance what angels are in this prophecy?

My Answer: Angels are forces of bestowal that act between souls.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Practical Advice by Rabash
Laitman.com Post: All of Humanity is the Body of Your Soul
Laitman.com Post: Besides Kabbalists, Everything and Everyone Are Angels
From Chaos to Harmony: Chapter 9- A Reality of Wholeness and Infinity- “Nature Plan”
Talk 1: Baal HaSulam Article – “Finding the Creator Within”

Filed under: Q&A - 1 Comment →

A question I received: Since I cannot contact you directly, let me throw out some burning questions…

My Answer: I’m here for you on this blog, in direct contact with you!

Question cont’d: Do you consider Kabbalah to be a complete and absolute wisdom that cannot be supplemented by anything?

My Answer: Every person who attains Kabbalah today adds his part to it, along with the Kabbalists of the past. It works the same way in any science. However, in Kabbalah, this is done through one’s attainment by the method of correction, rather than through egoistic knowledge or theories. So, you are welcome to reveal and supplement the general picture with your own observations.

Question cont’d: Say a person has attained the full correction, but was forced to return to this world in order to complete certain tasks. Does he have to undertake the correction of the entire corrupted world once again? In other words, one’s individual correction is not final until one leaves this world?

My Answer: That’s correct.

Question cont’d: Were there any Kabbalists in the Sanhedrin aside from Kayafa? If yes, what was the percentage?

My Answer: All 120 members of the Sanhedrin were great Kabbalists who attained the Creator.

Question cont’d: Was Avesta knowledgeable in Kabbalah? If so, why did Alexander burn her, considering that all his actions were controlled by the Creator?

My Answer: The Creator governs everything. Avesta and Alexander were like robots that He controlled.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Only The Upper Light’s Influence Can Give You The Importance Of The Group
Laitman.com Post: Only Kabbalah Combines All The Right Ingredients
Article: “The Purpose of Reincarnation According to the Zohar”
Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life: Appendices.”Kabbalists Write about Kabbalah”

Filed under: Q&A - No Comments →

Questions I received about man’s descent into egoism and his ascent into spirituality:

Question: How is it possible within a short time-frame to transform our egoistic nature to one of altruism since we have been developing over thousands of incarnations without doing so?

My Answer: Over the last 5769 years and the span of thousands of incarnations, we have developed on the inanimate, vegetative and animate levels. We have been growing desires of the “human” level: fame, power, money and knowledge, and all of them fueled by envy.

Our egoism has continued growing with each generation until reaching the current state where it has become integral. We are fully bound together, completely dependent on one another!

Our development is akin to a pyramid. The top of the pyramid is very small, which is why the period of correction is very brief and must be made within the span of one generation. This is how time contracts – as we move along the pyramid from the base to the top.

Question: Why then did the Kabbalists of past keep quiet and not accelerate our historical development?

My Answer: Before we became united into one system (in the second half of the 20th century), we considered egoism the engine of progress. Now that it has begun to pit us against one another rather than uniting us, we are beginning to perceive it as evil. It will continue to reveal itself as the source of all evil in the world; it will force us to correct it to the opposite form of connection – towards compassion, contribution and love.

Today Kabbalists must assist the world to quickly realize the source of our suffering by revealing our egoistic nature as the source of all evil in the world. And to explain the rationale behind these events occurring within ourselves and our environment as the effect of that power that forces us to attain the highest goal – to attain life on the level of the Creator.

Until recently, this process of development was concealed from the masses. But today it has revealed itself and demands clarification so as to help diagnose these events and also provide the remedy. Because we live exclusively in the world of egoism (the force of reception) we cannot transform ourselves or even begin to consider how it can be done.

This is why we have been given the science of Kabbalah. When we study it, we draw onto ourselves the force of bestowal, the Creator, “the Light that returns to the Source,” meaning the force that transforms egoism into love and bestowal. That is the remedy that cures us.

Question: Where do we get the strength to make the ascent?

My Answer: The forced descent from perfection to imperfection is extremely “slow,” because egoism must gradually reveal itself and bring itself out of the Creator’s domain. On the other hand, our ascent from the bottom upwards happens under the influence of and with “the speed of Light.”

Question: Keeping in mind that it took matter in our world billions of years to develop after the descent from the Upper worlds, how can the ascent only take several years?

My Answer: We can make the correction in the span of several years because it happens under the influence of the Light. Perfection is revealed automatically from the state of imperfection merely because of our changed attitude toward it.

Our entire role in the correction is similar to the desire of a drop of semen to become a human being – that’s how indistinguishable it is in comparison with the actions of the parents at its conception, birth, upbringing and becoming a person.

Besides the indistinguishable desire to become Adam (from the word ‘Dome’ – similar to the Creator), the Creator does everything else. So let us do what He expects from us and become like Him.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Where Are You In Humanity’s Pyramid?
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Is The Science Of The World’s Correction
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Raising A Prayer” – 1
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: 27. Stages of Correction.”Light that brings Correction”

Filed under: Q&A - No Comments →

Questions I received on the Light’s influence and the difficulties experienced while studying Kabbalah:

Question: Is it possible that the Light influences us even if we are unaware of Kabbalah yet feel attracted to it? Perhaps subconsciously, previous life cycles when we intensively engaged in Kabbalah awaken in us and cause us to search for Kabbalah?

My Answer: A person’s awakening to study Kabbalah is a result of Reshimo emerging in him. Maybe it’s the first time for him, or perhaps a continuation in this life of what began before. The sequence of Reshimot are revealed one by one, leading us to Kabbalah even if we don’t know anything about it.

Question: Would the difficulties that we experience when studying Kabbalah which are brief sufferings in a condensed form, still have come to us even if we weren’t studying Kabbalah?

My Answer: Definitely. However, when we study Kabbalah we suffer, not in reality, but in the mind, and with understanding and love.

Question: The force which acts upon us, given our desire to advance spiritually, is called the “Light” because it “illuminates” the darkness, i.e. the unconscious. Then it becomes conscious?

My Answer: Yes it does, to the extent of our equivalence to it.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Reshimo Is One’s Complete Future State
Laitman.com Post: History Is The Unraveling Of Reshimot Inside Us
Laitman.com Post: The Path Of Light Versus The Path Of Suffering
Shamati #3: “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment” – Lesson 2

Filed under: Q&A - No Comments →

A question I received: You say that if a person has a natural inclination to help the needy, this is not the same as loving others. Can you please explain what “loving others” means then?

My Answer: “Love of others” is a special quality that comes to a person during the correct study of Kabbalah. This quality enables a person to sense the interdependence between everyone and the need to fulfill others through himself. It is similar to a lover who wants to fill the object of his desire.

“Love of others” begins from its opposite – the revelation of hatred, rejection and separation from others. This is how one first feels when he reveals his complete dependence on others. It is as though the faucet that dispenses the air you breathe is under someone else’s control. One reveals that he is completely and utterly dependent on the whole world, and everyone is dependent on his kind behavior toward them. He reveals that he is the only one who determines his state by having good or bad relationships with the world.

Every day, this sensation of dependence grows and one becomes more reliant on others in order to receive basic necessities such as water, bread, work and security. This is how the global, integral system is revealed to us, and we start seeing the Butterfly Effect in action. At the same time, we also reveal our hatred toward each other and that our egoism produces this hatred in all people of this world!

The image of utter interdependence among all people that is being revealed to a person makes him desire to “open the faucet” for everyone. And this is what “love of others” is.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Unity Among People Is Unique In Nature
Laitman.com Post: Unity – the Force of Salvation
Laitman.com Post: How Do We Connect Our Points in the Heart?
Laitman.com Post: All of Humanity Is the Body of Your Soul
Rabash Article: “The Need for Love of Friends”
Article: “Attaining the Unity of the Universe” – Lesson of July 13, 2004

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

Two questions I received about aliens and medication:

Question: A question about perception of reality: if one fine day an alien spaceship lands on Earth, will this mean that some egoistic quality has been revealed within me that is being reflected externally in the form of “little green men”?

My Answer: That’s absolutely right!

Question: Antidepressants – do they ruin our souls and diminish our connection to other worlds or do they completely destroy it?

My Answer: No. Take them as required, and later you will feel that you can reduce the dosage. Kabbalah will provide the cure, but it will have to come of its own accord. Do not rush.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: All the Pictures We See Are Formed Inside Our Brains
Laitman.com Post: The Mysteries of Our Perception
Laitman.com Post: Antidepressants and Kabbalah

Filed under: Q&A - No Comments →

Questions I received about desires, virtual study and Christian beliefs:

Question: I am only twenty six years old. I am studying at a university in Berlin and I am under a lot of pressure. Recently I started noticing that my desires are starting to disappear. Sometimes I am not interested in anything at all. How do you explain these feelings?

My Answer: Many people develop this attitude to life. I have a simple piece of advice for you: split yourself in two parts – one part studies at the university, and the other studies Kabbalah in your free time. Don’t be influences by your moods and your desires, but only by rational thinking. And if you cannot manage it, then stop studying Kabbalah. You’ll be able to resume at a later time.

Question: I’ve been reading your blog for about a year. I live far away and I can only study virtually, and I cannot afford the trips to the Congresses. Is it enough to study Kabbalah through the computer?

My Answer: Yes!

Question: My brothers, who was brought up in a Christian environment, believes in the Christian Messiah, and he is trying to get me to go back to Christianity as well. I understand his motives since I was brought up in Christianity myself and used to think this way too. I don’t want to argue with him, since these arguments lead to nowhere, but I feel like I have to say something in response.

My Answer: Kabbalah is not against faith – you can believe in whatever you wish. Kabbalah is a science about the part of the world that is presently concealed from us. It becomes revealed as a person comes out of his egoistic thoughts about himself and develops altruistic thoughts about others. That’s all there is to it. Is that contrary to Christianity or any other religion?

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Advice for Beginners
Laitman.com Post: Who Can I Talk to About Kabbalah?
Laitman.com Post: Religion Is a Cultural Tradition, Kabbalah Is the Method of Correction
Article: “The Need for Learning Kabbalah”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”

Filed under: Q&A - 1 Comment →