In the News (from Haaretz): “The majority backs civil marriage” The vast majority of the Jewish community (65 percent) supports civil marriage. Among those who describe themselves as “traditional,” just over 50 percent support civil marriage. Among religious and ultra-Orthodox respondents,13 percent supported it. Among the secular, about 90 percent support it.

My Comment: This is a result of people’s adverse reaction to the religious decree governing marriage in Israel, and the absence of the proper, conventional education that nurtures love and respect of Israel’s traditions. The people’s attitudes to the Jewish traditions would improve a great deal if religion was separated from government. Giving people orders and using violent methods is not the way to have people develop the proper attitude to their cultural traditions correctly!

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Questions I received on observing religious practices:

Question: I practice Torah and the Mitzvot (commandments) in my daily life and my practice often becomes mechanical – not spiritual. You state that Kabbalah has nothing to do with religion, yet it seems inextricably linked to Torah.

Please advise me on how I can re-engage with the Mitzvot in a way that will correct my “desire to receive” to a “desire to give.” Surely that is what they are for. Please shed some light on the connection of the Mitzvot to Kabbalah, and the significance of the Mitzvot for a Jew.

My Answer: Kabbalah is the method of the soul’s correction by means of revealing the Creator. The soul bears no relation to the body.

If you want to follow the tenets of Judaism, it’s your business. Personally, I abide by this framework because it is the tradition of the nation I belong to. However, I have hundreds of thousands of students who are not Jews and who do not follow these commandments. This does not impair their spiritual development in any way. It is written: “They will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” and “My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” This means that everyone will unite by revealing the Creator.

Kabbalah was revealed in Ancient Babylon to everyone, and today it is being revealed to everyone again. Regardless, every person can practice his own external cultural traditions.

Question: How can we observe 613 commandments if we are not Jews? Where can we find the list of these commandments? How do I observe Shabbat and holidays: should I go to a synagogue or a Kabbalah center that observe such events?

My Answer: The 613 commandments are the correction of 613 desires. These desire will only be revealed inside you after you cross Machsom. They are not related to any actions in our world – they are desires.

Religious actions, however, are traditions and do not correct a person or his soul. It’s not necessary to observe them in order to attain the goal of creation. They are there for you in case you want to be connected to the culture of your people.

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Two questions I received about religion:

Question (in response to the post, Why Religion Is Against Kabbalah): This is exactly why I left Christianity! I strongly disliked how belonging to one religion automatically excludes others. I’m so happy to have found Kabbalah! I didn’t know there was something out there that emphasized unity. But what about Judaism? Judaism does not try to convert people of other faiths and does not seem to “hate” the other religions.

My Answer: Kabbalah is the method of correcting man, making him similar to the Creator by obtaining the quality of bestowal and love. This has absolutely no relation to any religion. It is for everyone and does not entail any obligations, restrictions, observance of religious rituals, and so on.

Question: In some spiritual writings, religion is described in a positive way. In others, religion is not recommended as a path to enlightenment. Is religion better for some people than others? Is religion good or bad?

My Answer: Religion is useful only during the period of the Creator’s concealment. But even then, it is only good for confining people’s egoism. In our generation, religion is being replaced by Kabbalah, and will remain only as a social, cultural framework.

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Questions I received about the relationship between spiritual correction and corporeal commandments:

Question: How does one receive the Light or the screen?

My Answer: This can be achieved only by studying Kabbalah – see Item 155 of the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot.”

Question cont’d: Does one have to observe the 613 (or 620) commandments?

My Answer: One observes the 613 commandments when he corrects his 613 desires by the Upper Light during Kabbalah studies. However, mechanical actions do not correct anything!

Question cont’d: Does putting on the Tefillin and saying the Shema prayer also play a role in receiving the Light?

My Answer: No.

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A question I received: As a student of Kabbalah, I am finding myself questioning my religion (Christianity), but my faith in God is ever increasing. I want to keep a religious life but find myself with an urge (a pull) to convert to Judaism. This is a serious matter when looking at it from a Christian viewpoint. Your thoughts, please.

My Answer: The attainment of the goal of creation bears no relation to religion. Religions are no more than the cultural framework of a certain society. In this sense, they can continue to exist, but everything that’s above them can only be attained through the method of Kabbalah. This is true for any person, religious or not.

People usually abandon religion when they begin to attain Nature, the Creator. But later, once they see that religion is no more than a framework in our world, like a social club, they become ready to physically observe their religion.

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Two questions I received on how religions emerged from Kabbalah:

Question: Where is the proof that all the religions developed from Kabbalah? Are there any sources confirming this, other than Kabbalistic ones?

My Answer: This is a historical fact – read any of the books comprising the Torah, The Book of Zohar, and so on. Religions emerged 2000 years ago, as a consequence of the Jews’ descent from the level of Kabbalah – the level of bestowal and love. Their fall from that level led to the destruction of the Temple and the emergence of the Jewish religion, which came to replace knowledge, attainment, a perception of the Creator and a connection with Him.

Instead, in religion, people believe in something without actually perceiving the things they believe in. Because of this, other interpretations of the same religion later emerged – since no one sees anything clearly and people just presume things! This is how the other religions came about, although they describe themselves as new religions or new revelations.

However, before all of this began, the Jews perceived the One Governing Force of Nature – the Creator. This is what they described in all their holy books, such as the Mishna, the Talmud, The Book of Zohar, the Tanakh, and others.

Question: In one of your articles, you wrote that after the Jews were exiled from Israel, Christianity, brought there by Greeks and Romans, became dominant in the whole world. You also emphasized that they are not religions. If they are not religions, what are they?

My Answer: I don’t think you understood my article correctly. The three main religions – Judaism, Christinity, and Islam – are, in fact, religions. However, Christianity did not emerge from Romans or Greeks. It emerged in Israel, among the Jews, after the destruction of the Temple, and was later dispersed throughout the world.

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In the News (from Gallup): “Religion Provides Emotional Boost to World’s Poor” Gallup Polls in 143 countries reveal that among countries where average annual incomes are $2,000 or less, 92% of residents say religion is an important part of their daily lives, [whereas] among the richest countries surveyed ($25,000/yr or more) – that figure drops to 44%.

Societies naturally grow more secular as they modernize; religion is in fact a powerful positive force for disadvantaged populations – a literal form of “social security” – in times of crisis.

My Comment: The time of enlightenment isn’t here just yet. Kabbalah will enable humanity to reveal all of creation – this world and the Upper World together, and then the age of unfounded faith will be replaced with the age of Knowledge, as it is written, “And all will know Me, from the smallest to the greatest.”

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In the News (from WorldNetDaily): ”U.N. to make ban on criticizing Islam mandatory?” Muslim-dominated nations at the United Nations are once again pushing a religious “anti-defamation” plan that would bar worldwide, all criticism of their founder Muhammad and his teaching.

“The U.N. now wants to make that anti-blasphemy resolution, making it a crime to criticize religion, in particular, Islam,” reports CNN’s Lou Dobbs.

My Comment: It says in The Book of Zohar that during the times when Kabbalah – the method to revive the world – will be revealed, the Muslims will rise and desire to conquer the entire world.

Announcement: Our materials are now available in Arabic. You can also contact us at [email protected]

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In the News (from AFP): “Afghan editor arrested for alleged blasphemy” An Afghan news editor has been arrested for publishing a newspaper article rejecting that religions, including Islam, were passed to humans through divine revelations. If found guilty under Afghanistan’s law, he could face a sentence ranging from a reprimand to the death penalty.

My Comment: All religions are the same in that they are intolerant of anyone who repudiates them. After all, religion is founded upon stories and interpretations about things that ordinary people have never seen and have to believe in. And the belief is not really in God, but in the people who tell them about Him, in the way they describe Him and the conclusions they make. This is how all the religions emerged. Therefore, if we let religion be our authority, we’ll end up with laws similar to those in Afghanistan practiced everywhere.

Religions would have liked to dictate their rules to the society for all time, and the only reason this ended was that egoism developed and the public was given a new, scientific education. As a result, today religions and their rules are there to supplement the laws of the state and the society.

This is why the religions are so afraid of Kabbalah – because Kabbalah reveals the Creator to people, leaving no room for religious speculation about a divine reward and punishment for man’s actions, which is done to intimidate the masses and extort things from them.

However, religion is still in power in some places in the world, and there we can see the true essence of religion.

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In the News (translated from Washprofile): What Americans really think about God and religion:

42% – God is male

1% – God is female

38% – God is neither male nor female

9% – God has arms, legs, a head, and other human body parts

48% – God has a body, but not necessarily a human body

27% – God does not have a body

29% – God has full control over everything

50% – God closely observes everything, but does not intervene

6% – God pays no attention to what is happening on Earth

53% – Christians, Muslims, and Jews believe in the same God, but pray differently

42% – The Bible is the actual words of God

37% – The Bible is affiliated to God, but should not be taken literally

14% – The Bible was written by people

56% of US residents are Protestant, 28% are Catholic, 2% are Jews, and 1% are Muslims. 3% practice Hinduism, Buddhism, the Baha’i faith, and other religions. One out of ten is atheist.

My Comment: People’s relationship with God is no better off in other nations. Humanity has to undergo many more changes to begin to feel (or reveal) the Creator as He had planned. However, Kabbalah enables people to reveal Him quickly by changing under His influence. Then everything will become clear as day and all of our preconceptions about God will disappear.

We have made great progress in revealing the physical world, which is open to our perception. But we have made no progress regarding that which is concealed from us. When modern scientists, politicians, or businessmen talk about God, it’s clear that they are no different from Neanderthals who used to worship images, spirits, and the signs of the zodiac.

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