Question: What are the main stages of the spiritual path of a Kabbalist, beginning from the awakening of the question about the meaning of life until entering spirituality?

Answer: In general, the question about the meaning of life arises in a person very early, at the ages of five to ten. But until he searches for an answer to it and finds a teacher, he could already be 30 to 35 years old. To understand what it means to realize the meaning of life, we might go through at least another 5-10 years. As a rule it is more, 15 or even 20 years.

Therefore, a period of 25 to 30 years is considered to be a normal preparation period for entering into the upper world. It all depends on what age this happens. Beyond that, his guiding star will lead the person.

Question: Does the awakening of a person depend on the root of his soul?

Answer: Certainly, otherwise he would not find this way. How much time it will take him depends on the general state of the entire system that is advancing toward correction and how he is required for it.

A person is a small part of the system, and it determines his appearance in this world and movement toward the goal. It is up to the person to do everything that he can, and how this will happen no longer depends on him because the entire path is divided into stages: knowledge, understanding, and attainment.

Sensory attainment is the longest stage, after which awareness follows. This is not just talking about knowledge and comprehension, but recognition of the system that a person discovers in feeling, understanding its intelligence, fully internalizing all of its connections, and working with it as a partner of the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/29/17

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Question: A Kabbalist’s development includes three phases: knowledge, understanding, and attainment. You found your teacher in 1979 and two years later you began to write books. What stage of development were you at then?

Answer: At the initial phase of course, at the stage of knowledge.

Question: Does that mean that it is possible to write such wonderful books as the System of the Creation even before reaching the level of attainment?

Answer: I had not yet reached the internal attainment in which you discover the system and feel it internally. I had a certain revelation but not attainment. Besides I wrote what I felt, what I discovered in the books of Baal HaSulam. I simply wrote my internal impression of his writings. But the fourth book Attaining the Worlds Beyond, which is based on Shamati, already had passed through me.

Comment: Baal HaSulam wrote for 30 to 40 years of his life. Surely his attainment constantly changed?

Answer: It is hard to speak about people who even in their initial attainments were much higher than us.

Question: Does that mean that special sparks break through a person into the world even if he is not in attainment?

Answer: Yes, it depends on the person. I wouldn’t write such books today because they contain too much information, too many impressions, feelings, and attainments. I wouldn’t be able to describe everything so naively today.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/29/17

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Torah, Deuteronomy 23:16 – 23:17: You shall not deliver a slave to his master if he seeks refuge with you from his master. [Rather,] he shall [be allowed to] reside among you, wherever he chooses within any of your cities, where it is good for him. You shall not oppress him.

If master wants to kill a slave or cause him some damage, you must hide him and then somehow return him to his master. It means that if some desire can’t succeed while undergoing correction, then there is a whole system of connections of several desires that together can make a correction.

Therefore, any desire that is part of another desire can always be corrected by this other desire. There is always a connection.

The interesting fact is that we never or in any way correct ourselves, but always correct our inclusion in others or inclusion of others in us. After all, I don’t even know who I am. I only know how I treat others and how others treat me in the relationship between us.

However, we know neither who “I” am nor who “another” is. Our “I” remains outside of us, whereas connections between us are revealed to us, and exactly in them we attain the Creator.

Question: When we speak about desire, do we mean the desire that is directed to the connection?

Answer: Of course, because brother, father, wife, children, slave, virgin, and so on are just different types of connections between us. The shattering is a destruction of these connections. For example, if we take shards of a pot, then they by themselves are whole, we just need to glue them together properly. It turns out that we are always brewing “the glue.”

There are desires that don’t have their own intention. They can be corrected only by joining them to other desires with intention.

A “master” is one who has big desires with correct intentions and who can attract other desires to himself and correct them with his intention. Let’s say you are a master relative to me. It means that you take some of my desires, we connect with each other, and I seemingly correct these desires by becoming included in you. In reality, you correct them with your intention, with your Masach (screen).

Therefore, when it is said that the master wants to kill his slave, it means that the Masach can’t correct him. Someone else has to do it. In other words, we always just correct others and not ourselves.

A person doesn’t know and will never know himself because this relates to the prerogative that is above the attainment of the Creator, to what is called Atzmuto. And we just correct the connections between us. As it is written, “Make your desire like his,” which means that I always correct others in myself.

Question: Do I become “Israel” when I begin to understand this and work on this?

Answer: Yes, this is a completely different level of attitude toward the world. The world becomes different. You have a different attitude to people, to yourself, and to your role. You look at everyone and understand what is happening to them, with whom it is worth meeting or not, and for what, how, if you are ready for this communion or not, and so on.

This presents a very interesting problem: who you are in contact with, in what way, and with those who you meet in life, should you distance yourself from them or can you get closer?
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/19/16

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Deuteronomy, 23:10 – 23:11: When a camp goes out against your enemies, you shall beware of everything evil. If there is among you a man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come within the camp.

During the night a person cannot be in spiritual union with the Light, a screen, and a desire because there is no Zivug (coupling) of Light and screen. In our world, sexual coupling usually happens at night. But here we are saying that it should happen only during the light of day.

Question: Does it mean that a person is unclean because this coupling happened at night?

Answer: Not only because of that, but also because this ejection of the Light is happening without a screen and without the Kelim (vessels) that are necessary if there is to be reception in order to bestow. In other words, there is no receiving, feminine part here and the ejection of the seed occurs without a vessel, and the vessel is necessary in order to then birth the next state, the next level. This is considered unclean.

Question: If, as you say, coupling must take place in the light, then why does it say that it happens in darkness?

Answer: Precisely when it is dark, when there is absence of the upper Light, contact between the male and the female aspects occurs. This symbolizes preparation for the union between a screen, a desire, and the upper Light. That’s why this happens only at night and only on specific days and in specific states.

As a rule, it must be during the day, especially on a Saturday. After the meal entering Shabbat, from Friday to Saturday, when Saturday comes, a man must be with a woman. And then again on Mincha, that is, before the end of Shabbat. This corresponds with the Light which, at this particular time, shines in the spiritual world.

Naturally, in our world there is no Light whatsoever. Everything simply happens as an analogy to spiritual actions, as they say, “a pale copy.”

The birth of the next level during the day on Saturday is the most auspicious time for correcting the Kli. This is the time when all the conditions are positive for the feminine part (desire) and masculine part (intention and union with the upper Light) to create the proper action of bestowal.

This is a very complex system of forces that subsequently materialize in our world in the form of male and female organs, which then interact in a way that produces the continuation of life. With respect to this, there are days (seven unclean days), when it is forbidden to touch a woman. After this, another seven days are counted; fourteen days in total. Finally, there are only two weeks remaining, which are appropriate for insemination.

All this was calculated during those times when all women had the same lunar cycle. The lunar month is twenty-eight days and corresponded exactly to the women’s cycle. There was a sense of one single woman because it was a time that was close to spiritual correction.

It is written in the Talmud Eser Sefirot that the first seven unclean days are Gevurot (screens), which must form within the woman in order for her to correctly receive the seed into herself, the seed, representing the upper Light. The second seven days are preparation, formalizing her desire together with the screen.

Afterward, the woman bathes in the Mikveh. This means that the desire is bathed in a certain light called Mikveh, water, the light of Bina. After this, she becomes completely ready to act in order to bestow because this is the quality Bina imparts to her. And then, within her, forms a desire that is able to receive the upper Light to its point in the heart and to begin to develop a soul from it. In this way, birth can occur only from the quality of Bina joined with Malchut.
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From KabTV’s “The Secrets Of The Eternal Book,” 10/19/2016

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Question: Why does a Kabbalist need to work in this world?

Answer: A Kabbalist must be a part of and participate fully in everything in which humanity participates. He is a natural part of this world and therefore needs to exist in the same system in which everyone is found.

A Kabbalist cannot climb to a mountain peak and live there as a hermit. He must live together with everyone, have a family, have children, and earn money for his livelihood, etc.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/18/16

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Torah, Deuteronomy, “Ki Titze,” 21:10: If you go out to war against your enemies…

When you go out to war you must know clearly that you are fighting with yourself, and if you don’t, you will eventually lose. Such is the program of nature, a war brings benefits only if you change yourself in this war.

Even in the corporeal world, a war with an external enemy doesn’t determine anything, we see that precisely losers become winners.

For example, when the Romans conquered Europe up to northern Scotland, they built roads, cities, installed communications, and brought civilization to the barbarian continent. As the result, barbarians came out of the woods and the Romans fell.

Therefore, we need to go out to the internal war with our egoism because the external war gives no results. He who conquers will himself become conquered.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/26/16

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Torah, Deuteronomy 22:20 – 20:21: But if this matter was true: [indeed,] no evidence of the girl’s virginity was found they shall take the girl out to the entrance of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall pelt her with stones, and she shall die…

“No evidence of the girl’s virginity was found” means that this isn’t my personal desire. I choose and analyze whether it belongs to me or not. After all, the point in the heart is called a person and all the rest is a desire.

In the light that comes from the so-called girl’s parents, the level of Abba ve Ima, I see that it really isn’t mine.

“They shall take the girl out to the entrance of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall pelt her with stones” is the correction of this desire. It is so egoistic and impure that it should be in the Lev HaEven (stony heart), meaning in the uncorrected place.

In the meantime, I continue to search for desires that can be learned, investigating with the help of which desires I can go forward and with the help of which I can’t. This way I utilize one desire after another until I correct all 613 desires.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/5/16

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The implementation of the Torah starts from the fact that while reading it we begin to understand what it is calling for and what it represents, and then we move on.

Comment: But there is great resistance to it.

My Response: It is not resistance because everything comes from the broken desires that remained the same desires but without a screen, which counteracts egoism and raises it to its inverse state, that is, to the level of bestowal and love for others.

First, egoism should be revealed as a demonstration of its nature, a demonstration of evil. Naturally, at this stage, Kabbalists receive many obstacles that haunt them and are revealed as evil.

This also happened during the exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt. After all, it isn’t a stroll in the Sinai desert, but an escape from our egoism, separation from it, and elevation above it. Therefore, the desires that are called Egyptian were practically killed within a person. Pharaoh himself agreed to this and released them.

However, the so-called “mixed multitude” (Erev Rav) didn’t release them. These are people who think that they have another, more correct Torah. As it is written, they are “God-fearing servants of Pharaoh.” They are characterized by a dual state, when they, while being in this world, at the same time, wish to earn the next world—paradise, for their egoistic work.

“Tell us what to perform in this world without correcting ourselves,” this is the work of Pharaoh. Pharaoh says, “Why do you need all your problems? Work, do whatever you want. Pray, act, everything is open to you. The only thing that you shouldn’t do is correct yourselves. All the rest is in front of you; you will be respected and honored. You will possess the entire world.”

Unfortunately, or I would say, to great joy, our goal is to achieve connection with the Creator, integration and full equivalence with Him. It’s not just to perform physical commandments, movements, actions, and to consider that we will obtain this or the next world, or both worlds together for doing so; it is to rise to the state where we don’t need any rewards.

We want to receive the upper Light of correction that returns to the source, to the Creator, and to become fully equivalent to Him when we won’t have any personal desire left in us. It’s not that we pretend or don’t understand it because it manifests in us more and more, but we receive greater and greater strength to work against egoism from the upper Light.

In this case, we ascend 125 degrees to the level of the Creator. This is the implementation of the Kabbalistic method. Therefore, the main problem for those who don’t agree with advancement to the Creator in this world is the problem with the wisdom of Kabbalah.

It is necessary to do everything in order to reveal this wisdom to the wide circles of the Jewish people and the nations of the world. Baal HaSulam in the article “Messiah’s Shofar” writes that Kabbalah should be spread around the world even before the people of Israel begin to master it.

He calls to penetrate into it gradually, and then we will understand the need for it. After all, even Pharaoh understood what the realization of the method of correction of humanity is, and therefore he let the people of Israel out of Egypt. But it came to him with great difficulty, through heavy blows.

Therefore, obviously, now the opponents of Kabbalah dissemination will also receive big blows, and we must distribute it as widely as possible.

This is not an easy task with many challenges on our way.

Question: So, do you believe that the Kabbalists couldn’t confine themselves to the internal work alone?

Answer: No. During the exit from Egypt and also now, the “mixed multitude” (Erev Rav) will persecute people departing from Egypt (from their egoism) and rising to the correction. This is the army that Pharaoh sends after the Jews. His soldiers think that they are protecting the sanctity of the Torah and so they, by all means, prevent the spreading of Kabbalah.

In fact, the mixed multitude is the most ardent opponent of the ascent of humanity to the level of the Creator.

Question: The mixed multitude wanted the people to stay in Egypt. So why didn’t these people stay there, but instead they followed the others when they started to exit Egypt?

Answer: No, they stayed at first. But when they saw that the people already approached the Red Sea (Yam Suf), they chased after them. Without them, the people wouldn’t have made the crossing because they were afraid to go further when they approached the Red Sea.

Here they were supposed to rise by faith above reason, to put themselves into the power of the Creator, to make the first inclusion into Him. And in this they received help precisely from their pursuers who came very close to them.

This is when Nachshon was manifested, the special force that pulled everyone after it. However, if it were not for the negative force of the mixed multitude, the people of Israel wouldn’t be able to make the crossing.

The most important contradiction between them is: is it necessary to fulfill the Torah not for one’s sake, not in order to receive some material privileges, but only for the sake of one’s neighbor without any reward? If they agree to this, they are obliged to break through the Red Sea, and the so-called mixed multitude helps them in it by sharpening the problem. Then the conquering of the method of elevation to the Creator starts.

Unfortunately, the mixed multitude follows them and constantly spoils their lives. All the problems come only from it. In particular in the desert it incites the people to make the golden calf.

This is the force that must be corrected gradually, understanding that everything is done only by the upper force, and we need to interact correctly with all the obstacles that it brings to us in order to direct us to the correct goal. Therefore, all the obstacles have a clear direction, showing us how to advance.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/14/16

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Question: From your personal experience, what does it mean to be a Kabbalist?

Answer: To be a Kabbalist means to live a double life: on the one hand to be found in particular relationships with the people around you, including family, students, if you are a teacher, and so on, and on the other hand, one is in internal contact with the higher force.

As a general rule, this contact shatters everything that a person feels in our world, yet in spite of it all, he is forced to live in two worlds. It is up to him to clarify his inner states with the Creator constantly, and he must simultaneously be in contact with those around him. This is the double life of a Kabbalist.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/29/17

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Torah, Deuteronomy 23:05: …He [the people of Moab] hired Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim against you, to curse you.

Question: Bilam was hired by the Ammonites and Moabites (the desires that can’t be corrected) in order to curse Israel. However, at the same time, the people of Israel were already heading to the Creator. Is it possible to associate this with today’s Israel that still must be forced to move forward?

Answer: We can’t compare ourselves with the Israel that once was ascending the spiritual ladder. After all, this is the movement through an internal spiritual desert.

Bilam is a prophet that has connection with the Creator. He understands what Israel is and acts naturally and clearly according to the command of the Creator, like everything else in the world. Therefore, we need to respect this force even from the opposite side, meaning from the side of impure forces. Although from the negative side, Bilam represents the force through which the Creator rules the world. It means that He rules the world exactly through our impure desires in order to pull a person “by the ears” from spirituality.

He resists, he wants to reach spirituality, but he is dragged away more and more. Then, when his “ears” are stretched to the limit, he is suddenly released and flies directly to spirituality. This is useful.

This is precisely the work of Bilam. He intentionally goads a person to criticize, to think that everything is not the way it is, and so on. The left line must exist in parallel with the right line, and between them we build analysis and synthesis of all possible states through which we begin to understand how the universe is organized.

Question: Does it mean that Bilam in a person makes him advance even faster?

Answer: Probably not faster, but this is a necessary state in a person, when he denies the Creator, wants to rebel against Him, and doesn’t want to consider anything, egoism in him rises so much that he wants to rule the entire world. This happens to every person.

Here it is about the same actions on the higher levels. Therefore, the force of Bilam is necessary for the correct analysis of the entire path.

Nothing superfluous was created in the world, everything depends only on the extent that we will correctly work with these forces. Everything is just for our correct advancement. Thus, it is necessary to eliminate intention of the desires called Ammonites and Moabites (meaning for oneself), and the very desires to begin correcting to bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/19/16

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