Question: Why is modern humanity yearning again for religion?

Answer: There is a crisis in the world. After the last world war, which was less than three generations ago, the population of developed countries with predictability, stability, and confidence in the future. Whereas now, with the appearance of the global crisis, it feels uncertainty, instability, a lack of a quest, certainly lack of a future, and a lack of hope for success.

Moreover, this feeling encompasses the entire planet. This feeling summons waves of concern all the time. Nothing is stable, not the future, nor any plans. After losing all hope, only one hope remains, which is hope in the Creator, an image ready to take the first position in the world and  to stabilize it. So a person creates the Creator for himself.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that there is nothing in the world other than nature, the force of bestowal and love that creates everything, directs and develops us to a state where we can understand our difference and opposition to this force and want to resemble it; which is to say, to acquire the characteristic of bestowal and love. Therefore the goal, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Vayikra 19:18) must become the principle for all of our activities.

Religions heard this commandment and forgot it, because in order to implement it, they had to change the egoistic nature of the person to an altruistic one (to bestowal and love for all). There is no profit in altruism; therefore all the religions speak about “And you shall love,” but not one of them implements it or understands its intent, because within the egoistic characteristics it is not possible to understand the characteristic of bestowal..

If they would understand what “And you shall love” means, then all religions would disappear and everything that separates people would disappear. The modern yearning for religion will lead to its reassessment by humanity and its replacement with a religion called, “love.”
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Also see the article, “The Essence of Religion and its Purpose”

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Question: Does studying Kabbalah seriously interfere with a person’s religious beliefs?

Answer: If a person is religious, Kabbalah does not prevent him from keeping his habits, traditional customs and the culture of his people. But he can no longer blindly believe in the other world that contains the reward of heaven and the punishment of hell, since Kabbalah will show him how to reveal the Creator in this life. One contradicts the other.

He gradually stops waiting for the reward that awaits him somewhere after death in another world. With difficulty, this image disappears and all his expectations shift to the present and revelation in the here and now! The entire focus shifts from the other world to this world and to this life.

In this way, his attitude gradually changes towards the “future world” and the Creator as the reality that he approaches and plans on revealing in this life. This is his goal, his purpose in life, and why he lives and carries out the advice of the Kabbalists.

For this reason, it becomes difficult for a person to remain in his previous religious environment, because he feels that he no longer relates to it in spirit. Those people still believe in reward after death and all their actions are determined by this. They even view reward in this life differently, which is why he feels different from them, and differences create distance.

But this does not lead to some kind of depreciation of religion, because this form eventually must bring the whole of mankind to Kabbalah and the actual attainment of the Creator and the Light. Kabbalists respect every faith. Religion was founded by Abraham, and will exist for as long as people need it and until they become ready to attain the Creator.

As they ripen, they will go from religion towards actual revelation, gradually changing their goal. We are forbidden to rush this process of development and can only show the possibilities that mankind has before it.

And of course, the first people to come to Kabbalah will be the nonreligious people, because they feel a greater lack of satisfaction than the religious people. A secular person thinks that he controls his life, and suddenly it is revealed that he does not have any freedom. This humiliates him and forces him to either forget or turn to Kabbalah.

Meanwhile, a religious person still thinks that he has a Creator who will take care of him, and for this reason, he will close his eyes to everything he can, and become an even bigger fanatic in order to protect himself from doubts and emptiness.

He will hate Kabbalah even more for opening his eyes to the fact that there is only one goal – the revelation of the Creator. But he is still better protected from shocks until this lack of satisfaction comes to him from nature, the Creator, and will speak within him. Then he will submit to Kabbalah.
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Excerpt from the lesson “Body and Soul,” 11/30/2010

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Question: Why was the paper The Nation that Baal HaSulam published immediately shut down?

Answer: The paper was shut down because of the mixed multitude that joined the Israelites during the exodus from Egypt. According to them, the correction is in remaining the way we are now and waiting for the Messiah, instead of connecting according to the principle of “love thy friend as thyself.”

Of course, they don’t like it when someone like us calls for the love of others and for the connection among the whole Israeli nation.

Their objection is clearly understood since when we call out for that it stands in their way of pulling people in their direction. Instead we guide people in a totally different direction, letting the whole nation know that the correction is in connection and unity, as the Torah requires.

It turns out that our Torah, our teaching, is opposite from their study. It says: “the opinion of the Torah is opposite from the opinion of the landlords.” A landlord is someone who thinks that he is his own boss, while we think that it is the Creator who has to correct us, that this is what we should pray for, and that our correction actually depends on the connection among us, when we become as one man in one heart.

They, on the other hand, want to separate everyone and to pull them apart from one another, since that way it is easier to control people. This is the style of the mixed multitude.

They are called the great affliction that accompanied our exodus from Egypt until this very day. They are the ones who bring about all the dangers and the problems of the Israeli nation, including the destruction of the first and second Temples, the exile, and today’s interferences. It is all their doing.

Their role will be revealed, but one way or the other, we have to do our job.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Why did the Creator choose one nation for a special mission, and is this choice related to religion?

Answer: The true religion is to love your friend as thyself. This is the rule that Abraham publicized in ancient Babylon, and he gathered the people around him according to this rule into a group called Israel, which means Yashar El (straight to the Creator).

Only some of the people of Babylon followed Abraham; those who had greater vessels of bestowal. All the others had vessels of receiving. This was intentional so that they would have a chance to help one another.

First the vessels of bestowal are corrected so that they can ascend to a spiritual level. When Abraham collected them, they had nothing. So first they had to go through the hardening of the heart called Egypt, that is, they don’t ascend but rather descend.

After the exodus from Babylon, they go down to Egypt, then come out of Egypt and ascend to the receiving of the Torah. They then cross the desert, build the first Temple, and fall. They ascend again to the height of the second Temple and go through another descent to the corporeal level. This is in order to be mutually incorporated with the nations of the world and get ready for the end of the correction of the world.

The whole process, starting with the exodus from Babylon and everything that follows, is in order to reach greater connection. This is what Abraham taught. The moment they started to connect, they felt that they were in a greater and greater descent.

The Light that shone on them made it possible for them to descend more and more deeply into their ego and to see that they were far from bestowal, from the Light. Therefore, they felt the gap, the delta between the state of the exile in Egypt and the level they were on when they left Babylon, and they would have remained on that level if it weren’t for the Light. This is the gap between the Light and our ego.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: A new student who comes to the Pesach meal sees many religious customs and doesn’t understand what is going on.

Answer: These are not religious customs. All the customs of the Israeli nation stem from the wisdom of Kabbalah, and are transcendental and illogical. All this doesn’t exist in nature and so we don’t need to follow them blindly.

The 18 minutes during which the Matzo are baked, for example, are made of  the nine Sefirot of the Direct Light and nine Sefirot of the Returning Light. If we don’t manage to bake the Matzo during this time, a process of fermentation begins, which means that the egoistic desire will begin to swell and to rise. So we don’t eat leavened bread during Pesach since the fermented desire cannot receive the Light of Hochma (wisdom).

What does it mean to escape from Egypt? It’s a very quick transition when a person comes out of egoism and enters altruism, out of our world and into the feeling of the upper world, the feeling of the Creator.

Here, like in the time of birth, you cannot stall since you cease to be nourished by the previous system that provided you with oxygen and other nutrients. It operated upon you through the umbilical cord and your body functioned.

Now a totally different system operates upon you, as your lungs begin to receive oxygen through the air and you begin to breathe independently and to function; your temperature changes and totally new systems begin to operate, a different world and different senses. All this happens at once.

All the Jewish customs stem from the spiritual world and have no corporeal basis or justification. They gradually became customs of other religions as each religion received them in its own way and changed them to suit them.

For the Arabs, an offering is slaughtering a lamb. The word “sacrifice” stems from the Hebrew word “close.” The external customs of different peoples are not very different, but they all stem from ancient spiritual customs.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/14, Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 34:29-34:30:So Moses came down from Mount Sinai. And as Moses came down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact, Moses was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant, since he had spoken with Him. Aaron and all the Israelites saw that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant; and they shrank away from him.

The vivid story of the Torah is expressed by images and so we may think that Torah is the source of the drawing of icons and figures with a halo. But in fact, icons came into use as a means for telling ignorant people what cannot be expressed in writing since people were illiterate. So the content of the Torah was passed on orally and expressed in pictures.

The pictures are original conventional symbols, each conveying a specific event, like the “life of the holy.” This is where all the icons and from which everything that we call the “pictures of the saints” stem from. On the whole it is a means of conveying information, since in those days there were no other means but drawings.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/30/13

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The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 32:19-32:20: Now it came to pass when he drew closer to the camp and saw the calf and the dances, that Moses’ anger was kindled, and he flung the tablets from his hands, shattering them at the foot of the mountain. Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in fire, and gave [it to] the children of Israel to drink.

First Israel had to go down to Egypt with Jacob and his sons, and although they had a good life, they felt that were slaves in Egypt since it wasn’t their home. When they made the golden calf it was the same Egypt, but it was already desirable. They wanted to develop according to the example of Egypt and to build themselves a wonderful state without the help of the Creator; they built a golden calf.

Therefore any figures or images that they bow to in various cultures or societies, this is the personification for the golden calf. A person builds himself a corporeal idol in order to bow to it. It’s totally opposite from the Kabbalistic perspective, but in every religion and belief, until this very day, there are idols to which everyone bows.

A person needs to have something that is sacred; he has to keep something like a child who plays with a toy. He cannot exist without it since everything that is beyond matter is beyond his understanding. He must have certain figures. Thus, there has always been a bitter conflict over the question as to whether we should build a corporeal Temple or not, whether we need a king in this state or not. A king refers to a monarchy and the upper Providence is also a monarchy.

Why do we need all that? It’s a very delicate fulfillment of the social structure, so that society will yearn only upwards, and only the actions will remain below, which means that everything else should only be the intention.

So a person has to constantly distinguish between the fact that spirituality should be in the air and not in a corporeal form, while corporeality should be expressed only in actions that focus us on one another. Then only the positive mutual bestowal will remain until the absolute revelation of love and the connection between us. If people act this way, they will establish the temple in the connection between them in which they will discover the Creator. Only now, after humanity has been through all the levels of its historical evolution, can we gradually explain to people how to give up all the external signs.

The body doesn’t exist. There is only the desire that we must connect and then we will be able to discover inside us, between us, in the neutral area, in the connection between us, the new attribute called Adam (a human being), and in it we will discover the Creator, the force that has created us and which revives us. It’s a great maturation process that a person goes through.

We have to keep all the symbols the Torah tells us about: the flags, the banners, the Tabernacle of the covenant, the tent of assembly, etc. in spirituality and not as a corporeal fulfillment. In order to succeed in doing so, we need to connect. On the one hand, the connection guards you, and on the other hand, you guard the connection. Everyone supports everyone in the spiritual yearning; this is precisely the reason for the connection between us where everyone worries about everyone else.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/9/13

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Question: It is said in the Koran: “The Almighty does not need helpers.” Why then does Kabbalah teach us that we have to become the Creator’s partners and assistants?

Answer: Religions originate from the right, left, and middle lines. Islam derives from the right line relative to the Creator; Christianity comes from the left line; whereas Judaism originates from the middle line. That is why the Muslim calendar is based on the lunar movement, the Christian calendar is based on solar cycles, and the Judaic calendar is based on both of them and is built in accordance with the middle line.

It is true that Koran says: “the Lord does not need helpers.” This is because human participation is impossible in both the right and left lines. People start taking part only when the middle line is built out of the right and left lines. Thus, we ascend to becoming partners with the Creator by becoming similar to Him.

This is why Kabbalah speaks about partnership between a man and the Creator. This is not the usual practice in Judaism as it emerged after destruction of the Temple and the people of Israel fell from their spiritual level. Today, after two thousand years of exile, we begin correcting the devastation that happened after the collapse of the First and the Second Temples. We have to establish a middle line inside us, i.e., we should ascend above our ego.

Religions are built in a way that they don’t require people to get rid of their egos. On the contrary, religions use the ego to attract us, involve us, calm us down, and promise a tranquil life, health, success, and wellbeing. Religions are a structure associated with exile; they are totally suitable for exile. We don’t reject this phenomenon at all!

However, now we live in an era when people of all faiths start rising above their religions and strive to attain the Creator. On one hand, they don’t have any other choice because their lives are so unpredictable! Our internal desire advances and demands that we know and reveal the Lord. In each of us there is a spark: in the sons of Israel, the spark is a consequence of their prior spiritual step; in the nations of the world, it is a result of a mutual penetration with the children of Israel during the period of exile.

That’s why today so many people begin awakening. When one is ready to attain the Creator, one doesn’t need a religion, but has to study Kabbalah since Kabbalah is the wisdom of the revelation of the Creator to the creations in this material world. This is the difference between all religions (the right, left, and middle lines) and the authentic “religion” (Kabbalah) as Baal HaSulam defines it in his writings. In his article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” Baal HaSulam writes that there is only one authentic religion:  the wisdom of Kabbalah that brings us to attainment of the Creator by obtaining His properties.

All other religions were active during the exile. Their goal was to lead us to our time so that from now on we start the process of self-correction. During the exile, the purpose of religions was to educate people, support them in a civilized manner, and provide them with knowledge, morality, and ethics. Religions have fulfilled their roles. They acted inside humanity, thus letting us advance. Religions served human interests.

However, today their role expires; this phenomenon is obvious in all religions. Soon, we will witness huge transformations, increased resistance and big fights. The epoch of correction has been launched. Nothing can stop it. The world is degrading day after day, like a cart rolling downhill with tremendous speed. That’s why nowadays all religions will have to comply with and adjust to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Let’s hope that it will happen in a mild, civilized way and that religions will eventually accept their new roles and places.

Religions are important for our self-correction in so far as they begin to implement the principle of “loving our neighbors as ourselves.” All of them have this principle “on paper.” All they have to do is start practically implementing this doctrine; there is nothing more we can expect from them. As a result, they will revise themselves and then they will come to support the wisdom of Kabbalah, thus giving it a chance to correct everybody without exception.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Opinion (His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet): “The planet’s resources are being depleted; the number of natural disasters is increasing. This poses new challenges for people. To solve them, we must learn to see the entire humanity as a whole.

“In today’s world with its global economic and environmental problems, the state borders become secondary. The same can be said about religious differences. Global challenges, rising before us, go beyond the framework of countries and religions. They relate to the entire humanity, and therefore we must act together.

“Through education, we can change people’s thinking, so that their priority becomes not self, but the global we. Each of us is part of a greater we. Conversely, the whole world is part of each of us. So, it is in our own interests to seriously take care of the welfare of the entire humankind and the environment.

“The idea of socialism is founded on the welfare of society as a whole, but not of one individual. Marxist economy talks about the equal distribution of wealth. And in capitalism, everyone pursues only his own profit.

“We can change the world only by relying on people’s goodwill, through education, rather than by force.

“The modern education system is focused on material values. As for spiritual values: love, compassion, forgiveness – various religious traditions talk about them. We must teach children the basics of morality. But it is difficult to do, relying solely on religion. We need a secular ethics.”

My Comment: The conclusions are correct, but there is no solution, only wishes. But it is also good—if it is heard. Usually, people nod in agreement to those like the Dalai Lama and then forget. But they need to hear, and then, with appropriate suffering, they will remember not only wishes, but also will find the solution: integral education.
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Question: What are the lines of similarity between the wisdom of Kabbalah and Sufism and where do they diverge?

Answer: Sufism is not contrary to the wisdom of Kabbalah. They speak about the same thing. But Sufism doesn’t explain the technique of the construction of creation, the system of creation, and its conduct. It’s more adapted to the masses since it speaks about the solution to human and spiritual problems but on the level of our world.

Sufism doesn’t explain the structure of the upper world in the precise form as is recorded in the wisdom of Kabbalah:  Sefirot, Partzufim, Olamot, Ohr, NRNHY, KHB ZON, Tzimtzum, Masach, Ohr Hozer, and all the rest of the concepts. Only in the wisdom of Kabbalah is a description given of the “celestial mechanics.”

In principle, you could say that you have no need for it. Yet in fact this is not so. When you begin to attain the upper world, then these mechanics becomes necessary. You cannot make order and clarification within you, relying only on your emotions or the guide. For you the guide has already transformed from being a person into an internal characteristic. You don’t see faces, rather you feel the Creator. Then you require deeper definitions and emotions, you must work with more subtle and more measured states.

I am not a big expert on Sufism, but it seems to me that it is a part of Kabbalah. And if we penetrate more deeply into true Sufism, then it’s possible to discover where that divider is found beyond which the wisdom of Kabbalah is imperative. According to its foundation, Sufism is the right study for leading the person precisely towards the goal, but up to a particular limit.

The idea is that with all of us there are different levels of ego. Sufism stops at a deep level of ego. And for people with a big ego, Sufism is not enough; they require a greater weapon against themselves. Therefore they require the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Unfortunately, Sufism has stopped its development for some time. Today in the Muslim world it’s not wanted at all. This is a great shame because once there was a connection between Jews and Muslims through Sufism.

Question: I have friends among the Sufis. Can I try to explain to them how the level of their development could be changed in this way?

Answer: I think that it’s not worthwhile to attract those who are involved with Sufism to the wisdom of Kabbalah. We are against coercion. We have free entry and exit. They can come, listen, and go; there is no obligation here. But I would give them some popular book on Kabbalah so that they will see where there are similar lines and where there is a difference.

In principle, the wisdom of Kabbalah is the inner part of the Torah and most parts of the Koran are based upon the Torah. The Torah constitutes the basis for all the religions. Therefore there are no contradictions here.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Three 12/15/13, Lesson 5

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