Question: I’d like to ask you about the story of Golem in Prague. Is there any truth to this story? After all, the grave of the Rav who allegedly made the Golem is still there.

My Answer: The great righteous man in Prague certainly existed. As for the Golem – the humanoid that he allegedly created – that’s a fairy tale. There are no miracles in the world! However, people want to believe in miracles, and this is why fairy tales endure for such a long time.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: There Are No Miracles

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A question I received: You said that men are polygamous by nature and are always looking for new sensations. In the past every man had several wives, and he would buy a new wife whenever he wanted one. There was no love involved in this, and sometimes men and women did not even know each other before being married. This is also the reason why men today cheat, get divorced, and find new wives.

On the other hand, you speak about spiritual marriage – man, woman, and the Shechina between them. How is it possible to attain the presence of the Creator between a man and a woman in the spiritual marriage if the modern man always needs new experiences with different women (today this is called cheating).

This is very painful and difficult to accept. Please help us, women, understand men’s behavior. Why is it so difficult for us to accept the fact that men are always attracted to other women? Do men do this because of some anomaly? Or is it just natural for them to constantly need new women, and it’s us, women, who are so uncorrected that we simply cannot understand their needs?

My Answer: This is the curse of egoism, which we fell into from the spiritual level. God said to the woman: “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” So my advice to you is: Don’t look for truth, justice, loyalty, and love in marital relationships. They aren’t there from the beginning, and they can’t be there – the Torah warns you of this. Quit trying to resolve the mess in the physical world, and instead aspire toward correction. As a result of it, your relationships will be corrected as well.

You have to understand that egoistic nature cannot be changed, and everyone suffers from it until they rise above it. You should transfer your worries from the corporeal level to the level where you realize “Why did the Creator do this?” It is in order to push you toward correction!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Polygamy – a Matter of Culture
Kabbalah Today Article: ” Man, Woman and the Snake Between Them”
Article: “Today It’s Spiritual Relationship or No Relationship”
Article: “The Spiritual Root of Cheating”

Filed under: Body and Soul, Crisis, Economy, Internet, Love, Q&A, Spiritual Work - 2 Comments →

A question I received: What do you think about disseminating Kabbalah to the masses through Christianity and Islam? Applying the method of Kabbalah to the study of the Gospel yields tremendous results. You begin to understand that you’re not reading fairytales about magic tricks, but about attempts to change something in the spiritual world, and you want to explain this to everyone who doesn’t yet know or understand it. I think that you should explain this to your Christian students, especially since the Old Testament is a major part of the Bible. Once they understand this, once they feel the bliss of true attainment without having to be detached from their culture and religion, then perhaps they will take it even further.

My Answer: Religion is not connected to Kabbalah in any way, but is actually opposite to it. Religion was given to humanity to be a framework for life in the time of darkness, before the revelation of Kabbalah. And this is why religion is dying out in our times, although this process is lengthy and it’s possible that there will still be religious wars in the future.

We do not approach religious Jews, and we disseminate Kabbalah only among the secular public. There’s nothing new about showing religious people that the Torah contains a deeper meaning. However, they’re not interested in this, because it knocks out the foundation of their faith – the egoistic principle of our world, “Do certain actions and you’ll receive a reward.”

Kabbalah, on the other hand, contradicts egoism, and tells you that you won’t receive anything for your actions (you won’t receive anything into your egoism, that is). Your entire reward lies in being corrected by the Upper Light, in loving your neighbor as yourself.

This is something you can only say to people who have already gone through all the egoistic desires and have a “point in the heart” – the desire for the Creator or the meaning of life. People who are still satisfied by faith do not have a “point in the heart” yet, and therefore we cannot talk to them for now. Kabbalah reveals the law of spiritual development to a person, but this development can only happen when it’s free and non-coercive – and that’s another aspect that’s fundamentally opposite to religion.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Where Is Jesus Christ In Kabbalah?
Laitman.com Post: Religion and Kabbalah Are Opposite
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Teaches Love and Bestowal, and Nothing Else

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism, Health, Love, Q&A, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

Two questions I received on whether spiritual correction requires observance of physical rituals:

Question: You say that it’s possible to attain spiritual correction without physically observing the commandments of Judaism. Maybe you’re just saying this out of your concern for Kabbalah’s dissemination around the world? Or maybe what you really mean is that people can’t understand these commandments by simply reading them? If you can’t publish the answer on the blog, I would like to receive a private answer.

My Answer: The Creator created the will to receive pleasure with an intention “for one’s own sake,” and this is how we find ourselves in this world. We were created this way in order to correct our intention to “for the sake of the neighbor or the Creator,” on all of our 613 desires. This correction happens under the influence of the Upper Light, Ohr Makif, which descends during the study of Kabbalah.

This bears no relation to the observance of religious rituals. A person can attain correction and spiritual attainment without physically observing the commandments, or rather – the traditions. This is true for both Jews and the nations of the world. Moreover, every person can keep his religion, because religion is no more than a nation’s cultural framework. Kabbalah only teaches us about the intention “for the sake of the neighbor,” how to love and bestow to others – and nothing else.

Question: You’re all about spirituality and the love revolution. But what about connecting the root with the branch? After all, the still, vegetative, and animate levels are also levels of the will to receive. You always speak about the internality without any externality, and this confuses me. Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” that the internality should be preferred over the externality. But it looks like Bnei Baruch gives 100% of their attention to the internality, and 0% to the externality! This is difficult and confusing. Why not make a small change and pay a little more attention to the externality? Why not combine both parts? Dedicate 90% of your attention to the internality, and 10% to the externality. This will really help everyone! What do you think?

My Answer: We at Bnei Baruch actually do this – we follow the traditions. But do you really think that all the people in the world – who are now approaching correction – have to observe the physical commandments of Judaism, even if it isn’t their tradition? In the article “The Future Generation” Baal HaSulam writes that every person can keep his religion!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Religion and Kabbalah Are Opposite
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Laitman.com Post: Intention Is Action

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Egoism, Love, Perception, Q&A, Quora, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Two questions and answers on the issue of questions and answers

Question: What’s the point of listening to someone else ask you a question? And in general, what’s the point of questions?

My Answer: It is written that “a shy person cannot study.” One has to ask questions, but at the same time one should heed the answers and delve deeper into them, until they become absolutely clear, that is, until they enter you. When you listen to your friend, you unite with him in his desire for the goal, and this is important for uniting within the group. I mean, your desire on its own is never enough to attain the goal, for the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) to evoke a new intention “for the sake of another” in your desire. It was only for the sake of such unity with others that the worlds appeared, that the soul of Adam was created and then broken, and that this world was created so low. This was all done in order to create for the person a place for free will. Therefore, the only thing we do is realize our free will in our attempt to absorb the desires and goal of our friends in the entire world group.

In such a way, humanity will have to solve its common crisis, i.e. the revelation of mutual hatred and separation. People will discover that this mutual hatred and separation is causing a life threatening situation, to the point of the destruction of their lives. Even though their life is empty and worthless, they treat it as being very valuable since it is the only life they have, and as such, people will start listening to questions – to the desires of others – until everyone will unite in one question (as stated in item 2 of the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot“): “What is the meaning of our lives?” They will then come to Kabbalah.

Question: You often say that spirituality is beyond time, motion and space. What do you mean?

My Answer: You need to find the answer in Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 1 “Histaklut Pnimit (Inner Reflection).” You can’t get around it – you have to study. Those who are looking for an easy way out by asking questions don’t understand that only by studying Baal HaSulam’s materials (in any language) can they evoke the Upper Light of correction. Questions and answers are only intended to introduce beginners to the path. At the very least, you should go through all the posts on this blog. Perhaps, for now, this form of studying is most appropriate for you.

Related Material:
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A question I received: Why is it that during the period of concealment, you feel as though you’re in a dark room, receiving punches from every direction? It’s as if the Creator is waiting for you to fall into frenzy, or apathy… And all this happens in spite of all the work you’re doing in dissemination and the group. Is this, as the Russian proverb says, “Love her like your soul, punch her like a punching bag” (meaning, “those we hurt the most are often those we love the most”)?

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct, “I love her like my soul, so I punch her like a punching bag,” because your egoism has to be punched out of you, or you punched out of your egoism, so that you’ll want to part with it no matter what. The unpleasant states are precisely the states that push us out of the common egoistic swamp, to the Creator.

“The Creator spares no blows for those He loves” – this is widely explained in Kabbalah, and no Kabbalist hides the fact that “the true path to the rose is through the thorns” (through the thorns to the stars), and not through buying a fifty dollar red string or through meditating in order to relax.

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A question I received: You hold interviews with famous people who have found their place in life. They take up important positions thanks to their high level of egoism. However, you’re using their popularity to disseminate and advertise Kabbalah. I don’t understand: How can you combine Kabbalah and a person’s career? Can a person aspire to have a high position in society and study Kabbalah?

My Answer: I think that in the future, humanity will still need to work in different trades and sciences. If we do this with an intention of love, to benefit people, it will then only bring us even closer to the Creator.

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A question I received: Whenever I recommend Kabbalah to someone, I do it on the basis of my personal sensations and experience. I feel a loss for words because I’m talking about sensations that can’t be put into words. The more I study, the more I realize that this is such an intimate path, and that this inner path can only be explored by someone asking “What’s the meaning of my life?” – one who has come to strongly feel that there’s no fulfillment in the material world. I find my meaning only from sensing clearly that this world has nothing more to offer. So how can I spread this to the entire world?

My Answer: Many people feel that the world has nothing more to offer them, so help them!

(Continuing the question) I think that the only thing I can do is give people the exalted words of Kabbalists, and nothing more than this – that they’ll touch whoever they touch. I understand that this is something we need to do, but I don’t know what to do about not being able to say anything about it.

My Answer: Imagine that you’re speaking to the person’s point in the heart, their desire for spirituality.

Another question I received on the topic of dissemination: I understand the “top of the pyramid” concept, where the smallest minority of people in the world have the highest quality of desires, i.e. those for spirituality. But at the same time, all the other levels of the pyramid are needed too. So what is the purpose of dissemination? Is it only for personal progress past the Machsom?

My Answer: In our era, personal progress is impossible without all souls moving toward unity as one whole. The entire pyramid has to be pulled upward. When you acquire the property of love and bestowal, then you disseminate for the sake of those whom you love.

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Two questions in response to the post “Men and Women in Kabbalah“: Is it possible for woman to achieve Moses’ level of development of the soul?

My Answer: The Torah states that every person will achieve this level.

Question: Were there women who became true, great Kabbalists? And if the first is true, then why aren’t there any female teachers?

My Answer: There have been both female Kabbalists, and female teachers, for example, the prophetesses.

Question in response to the post “Why Is Studying Kabbalah Good for You?“: I neither have a teacher nor a group, so does that mean that I don’t have a choice and I have nowhere to go? The only thing that people around me think about is how to survive another day, how to pay rent, and getting some food makes them happy. So what am I supposed to do, wait for another reincarnation? Did I end up in the wrong place at the wrong time?

My Answer: The Creator has placed you into the most appropriate conditions for your correction in this world. Also, He may possibly change these conditions according to the extent of your movement towards Him. In any case, since you see the truth, you need to concern yourself with studying and correcting yourself regardless of your location, and Kabbalah has found its way to you, which means that the Creator has sent it to you. Read the article: “There Is None Else Beside Him.”

Question in response to the post “How to Make Nature Change“: How will people be able to change their desires, mind, and heart over a short period of time? The only thing that we see is the growth of anti-natural technologies and an increase in the quantity of ingenious methods of gaining control over the human mind. Don’t you think that it’s too late to save us from our own selves?

My Answer: No, it’s not. The time of correction will be millions of times faster than the time in which we’ve developed through our egoism, because it will take place through the Light’s influence. This means that we will spend our time only correcting whatever we have done over the thousands of years!

Question in response to the post “Love Covers All Sins“: Concerning your speech in the film The Seed of Life*: I am a lady. Will I always recarnate into a female body, and never into a male body? Did I understand you correctly?

My Answer: Yes – be happy about getting a chance to realize the calling that the Creator has given to you!

Question in response to the post “Where Is Our Moses?“: As I read your posting and “The Arvut,” I cannot help but feel that this applies to my own country, the United States. Politicians and televangelists preach “God’s word,” but the U.S. honestly does not love one another as the Wisdom of Kabbalah states. Though I know it has another meaning according to Kabbalah, we are not our brother’s keeper.

I am a beginner and am making a lot of mistakes in my path of learning this wisdom, but I see now how huge the ego of myself and my country is and the destruction it is causing inside and outside. The fact that the United States does not have national health insurance like Europe and other continents and countries says a lot.

I am re-reading your Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah, and I am not sure if I understand this correctly – the chaos outside me actually comes from within me. To correct this, I need to correct myself. I will read your post “How to Make Nature Change” for more wisdom.

My Answer: Correction begins with the person, and it takes place by disseminating Kabbalah throughout the world, in order to provide every person with the opportunity to discover it, without pressure, and start their correction. After this, the rest of the world will follow.

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Two questions I received in response to my post “On Love”:

Question 1: When I do not feel that my relationship with my friends is based on love, is it because my attitude towards them isn’t as it should be?

My Answer: Of course, it depends only on you.

Question 2: If love is only possible between the Creator and man, how is it possible to know when the Creator is among the creatures’ relationships?

My Answer: You discover it through your love for Him.

Related Material:
* Practical Advice by Rabash

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