Question: If everything in life is predetermined, isn’t better to remain passive?

Answer: If a person waits passively, ill fate will still force him to look for a solution to improve his life. We are in a continuous search for this solution through science, art, having children, etc., until we find the best and only solution—the correction of the connection between us  because the upper force is revealed in the good connection between us, and then we merge with our root. Only the return to our root, from which we were created and to which we should return, can fully satisfy us.

Question: Is a person immune from ill fate if he studies the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: If you implement the wisdom of Kabbalah and don’t just study, then not only can you avoid ill fate, but you can also receive gifts from Heaven. I am absolutely serious!

A person suddenly begins to feel that he succeeds in everything. Not everyone feels this, but nature tends to be merciful with those who make an effort to resemble the attribute of bestowal in nature.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/08/15

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From the words of the “Midrash Rabba,” Parshat “Balak”: For the most part, Balaam has very little interest in his curses. He worked solely and only in exchange for money, and if the agreement assured him of a profit, he could curse anyone whom he formerly blessed and vice versa.

Balaam acts like a contemporary politician; he only does what is useful in a given moment, without any emotional involvement.

Comment: But nevertheless Balaam confronted the Creator; he could feel the “master of the house.”

Answer: Moses often confronted the Creator too. He struck the rock with a staff and asked to be taken and the people spared. Basically, he had many arguments with the Creator and so did Balaam. Both of them, both Moses and Balaam, had the possibility of turning toward the Creator with a call, with pleading, with a request, and even with a demand.
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The Torah, “Numbers,” 22:28: The Lord opened the mouth of the she-donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?”

The word “she-donkey,” like the word “donkey” (Hamor), stems from the Hebrew word “Homer” – matter, and refers to to a person’s egoistic nature. The Creator operates as the vital direct force on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, so they don’t object to it. But the moment the she-donkey begins to talk, it is raised to the human level, the level of Balaam himself.

Compared to the other levels, it is possible to make mistakes on the human level because the Creator is concealed. The Creator is not concealed from nature itself, and in fact the laws that are revealed in matter are the direct revelation of the Creator.

The questions, doubts, and speculations come up on the human level, and so a person makes mistakes and corrects himself and then makes mistakes once more and corrects himself again.

The she-ass represents matter on all of the levels of life; it represents nature that is controlled by positive and negative forces that are balanced instinctively, aimed at clarifying actions according to the law of nature.

On the human level there are doubts and problems that must be solved. This is the reason that the she-as is much smarter than Balaam because the Creator is revealed in the animate level it is on, while He is concealed on the level of the speaking and is not revealed.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/15

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The Torah, “Numbers,” 22:28 – 22:30: The Lord opened the mouth of the she-donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?” Balaam said to the she-donkey, “For you have humiliated me; if I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.” The she-donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your she-donkey on which you have ridden since you first started until now? Have I been accustomed to do this to you?” He said, “No.”

As long as Balaam didn’t use his entire ego for his own sake, which Balak forced him to do, he didn’t have any problems and lived with his ego in peace. However, when the time came to use the ego against the goal of nature, trouble started. Today, everyone encounters these problems. This is the reason for the global crisis.

Question: Isn’t using the ego always against the goal of nature?

Answer: During our lives, we build houses, dress ourselves, create different machines, develop technology and communications, and seemingly improve the world. We use the ego in this way. We must gradually understand that all of this is in vain and is not the right fulfillment of the ego. Although this trend is against the goal of nature, this is how we approach it.

Question: Why did the she-ass stop and begin to speak? After all, the ego always works contrary to the goal of nature.

Answer: It is because the ego is on the level of the desert here. There are six parts to the desire—food, sex, family, wealth, honor, and knowledge—but there is an additional part, which is the yearning for the Creator, to be in His place, to remove Him from the top, and this is actually what the ego wants.

First, Nimrod, the symbol of egoism, embodies this desire, and then Balak and Haman who wanted to take the Creator’s place, that is, to use the ego to its fullest intensity in order to be filled. After all, there is nothing in nature but the ego. And if we fill it, the ego will continue to exist forever.

But we have a more sublime mission—to use the ego in order to bestow. This means not to imprison all of nature, all of humanity, and all of the worlds in the ego, but rather to turn it inside out and use it in infinity, eternity, and perfection. The ego doesn’t feel this mission, and therefore people don’t understand it.

The only ones who do understand it are several thousand who have the desire that is above the human desires for food, sex, family, wealth, honor, and knowledge. They also have a desire to attain the laws of the universe and to exist on a level of general harmony and perfection.

The people who yearn for this are called Israel, and therefore when the question about the fulfillment of the ego comes up through exiting the desire—exiting outside of ourselves and not by the desire to be filled as Balak and Balaam wanted—the she-ass in us awakens and asks, “How do you want to use me? What do you want from me?”

This means that, when a person works with his ordinary human desires, everything is normal. He uses the ego, plows it and rides it, but now the ego says, “You cannot use and exploit me anymore. I cannot go on or do anything.” Here, the ego is helpless.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/15

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Midrash Rabba, Parshat “Balak”: When Balaam was advisor to the Pharaoh in Egypt, he advised the leader of Egypt to bathe himself in the blood of Hebrew children. He also insisted that Pharaoh should throw all newborn Hebrew males into the Nile.

The ego needs to get its vital force from the Creator that moves through the blood because the blood is the spiritual force of the body. As a person’s blood is the force that animates the body, the Upper Light also breathes life into the spiritual body and is called blood.

Therefore, the left line, which embodies Balaam and all of the nations of the world, advises Pharaoh to stand against Israel, which is the right line, and then connect with the Creator, the middle line.

Basically, Pharaoh represents superficial egoism. He would put a golden crown on his head or fill a pyramid with everything that he would need for the afterlife, and nothing else. This world with all its gold satisfies him.

But this is not enough for Balaam. The ideological forces like Balaam, such spiritual strength, are above egoism to a particular degree, so Balaam could talk with the Creator.

His essence is derived from the same upper source as Moses. It is possible to say that they are moving against each other: Moses is from the side of the Light, and Balaam is from the side of desire. These forces must be in alignment, matched, but this cannot happen except in a serious battle between Gog and Magog.

Then Balaam and everything below him must be defeated. This means that the ego, with its intention for its own sake, will die and no longer be able to use or even retain this intention for its own sake.

Question: What does Balaam’s advice to Pharaoh, to bathe in the blood of Hebrew children, mean?

Answer: The ego must begin to receive the life force from the Creator, which is symbolized by the Hebrew children, and Balaam wants to turn this power of Light toward himself and Pharaoh.

He insists that all of the newborn Hebrew boys must be thrown into the Nile. Boys symbolize the power to overcome the ego, the masculine side. Egypt symbolizes the power of the entire ego, and the Nile is its life force.

Thus, if the Nile is filled with blood, then the power of Din (Judgment) comes wherein the ego no longer can exist. Therefore, all vitality in the Nile dies.

It turns out that the life-giving force is filled with the characteristic of Din; no life force comes from above; there is no white Light, and the characteristic of Bina disappears. With this, Egypt is finished and dies.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/5/15

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Question: What does it mean to strive for a higher nature? It is possible to understand this with the intellect, but what does one do with the ego?

Answer: It is not necessary to do anything with the ego. We should not fight with the ego, but should develop altruism. This is achieved by attracting the higher, positive force to us, and it will correct everything.

It is up to us only to make an effort to be connected with other friends and call the positive force to us that will balance the negative force, our ego.

We aspire to the higher force by doing this, as it is written, “I created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice” (Kiddushin 30b). I cannot pull myself up by my hair and take myself out of the egoistic swamp I’m in. After all, I am a complete egoist. How can I fight with myself?!

All I need is to leave my ego at rest and only be involved with the method that teaches me how to draw the Upper Light toward me. As a result, I will see myself, but that is not what should concern me. Most importantly I think only about inviting the force of correction upon myself.

Question: Then why did the Creator create our lower level?

Answer: In order to rise above it to higher levels. At the same time, we ascend from our world completely independently.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/8/15

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Torah, “Numbers,” 22:22 – 22:27: God’s wrath flared because he was going, and an angel of the Lord stationed himself on the road to thwart him, and he was riding on his she-donkey, and his two servants were with him. The she-donkey saw the angel of the Lord stationed on the road with his sword drawn in his hand; so the she-donkey turned aside from the road and went into a field. Balaam beat the she-donkey to get it back onto the road. The angel of the Lord stood in a path of the vineyards, with a fence on this side and a fence on that side. The she-donkey saw the angel of the Lord, and she was pressed against the wall. She pressed Balaam’s leg against the wall, and he beat her again. The angel of the Lord continued going ahead, and he stood in a narrow place, where there was no room to turn right or left. The she-donkey saw the angel of the Lord, and it crouched down under Balaam. Balaam’s anger flared, and he beat the she-donkey with a stick.

We see that the space for a person to exist becomes narrower. First it is a field, then a road, and after that an even narrower place through which it is not possible to pass.

This is an indication of Dinim (judgments) and of the difficulty of maintaining the laws. First the person uses the ego without any limitation in all situations in life; then he gradually discovers how the ego brings him closer to a realization, moving him against his will towards realizing the goal of creation.

It is possible to say that in the beginning, the ego pulls a person forward and seduces him with egoistic benefit, assuring him that everything will be his and for his sake. This is what Balaam wanted, and so he continued walking with his donkey, and then begins the realization stage, the restriction of the ego.

The restriction of the ego happens gradually, by levels: Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, in which these levels become narrower. The more that the ego comes closer to realization, the more compressed the conditions become, and ultimately the ego surrenders under the desire of the person and becomes the basis on which the person must carry out all of his actions. That is, he begins to work with the ego in its opposite direction.

The ego is ready to be used with an intention for the sake of bestowal, and not in the form that it originally wanted to work, for its own good. So the action of restriction is to show a person the direction in which he must go.

Question: Must a person understand this temporally?

Answer: Even if he doesn’t hear and doesn’t understand, ultimately the continuous increase in suffering will cause him to hear and will give him a clear and precise direction. We see how humanity has developed and has become wiser as a result of everything that has happened throughout all of history, whether voluntarily or not, even though it happens very slowly and very unpleasantly.

Question: If Balaam had listened to the voice of the Creator, then it would not have been the way of suffering for him?

Answer: No, he would still have gone through all this suffering, otherwise it would have been impossible to advance! Baal HaSulam wrote that there is an ideal correct way and an ideal incorrect way, but the true way is between them, and it is called Derech Eretz (the way of the land).
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/15

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Torah, “Numbers,” 22:20 – 22:22: God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If these men have come to call for you, arise and go with them, but the word I speak to you—that you shall do.” In the morning Balaam arose, saddled his she-donkey and went with the Moabite dignitaries. God’s wrath flared because he was going, and an angel of the Lord stationed himself on the road to thwart him, and he was riding on his she-donkey, and his two servants were with him.

“Hamor” (donkey) is from the word “Homer” (substance), this is the substance of all of nature and the donkey particularly symbolizes the female part called Nukva; these are all the deficiencies, all the desires, and all that is included in our egoistic nature.

Balaam uses his entire ego here and therefore the most strict conditions, the Dinim (judgments), worked against him, for when a person begins to use the ego, he apparently “walks on the razor’s edge.”

“God came to Balaam at night, and said to him: “If these men have come to call for you, arise and go with them, but the word I speak to you—that you shall do.’” (“Numbers,” 22:20), which is to say, the Creator apparently said to Baalam: You will use your donkey, your ego, but you will bless the work of the ego through My blessings. And everything that I say to you, meaning all the altruistic intentions, will be involved in this.

We see it in all cases. How, for example, and Haman: first, he is given the opportunity to participate in the selfish actions to build a gallows, prepare yourself a horse and robes, and then suddenly everything changes!

But Balaam always wanted to receive for himself.  We see it in the case of Haman: first he is given the opportunity to participate with egoistic characteristics, building a noose, preparing a horse and the clothes of a king for himself, and after that everything suddenly changes.

That is, when using the ego it seems to a person that he is now going to get something for himself and begin to receive benefit. That is how all of humanity thinks, but actually nobody benefits from this, because according to the program of creation, it is only possible to use egoism to advance towards altruism.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/15

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Question: How can I know whether I am moving in the right direction?

Answer: When you pursue spiritual development, perhaps in the beginning, you will not feel the result of your correct actions.

However, if they are directed toward bringing a person to the method of unity—that is, to Kabbalah, and to be learning that everything has to come down to uniting humanity and carrying out the main law of the universe, “Love your neighbor as yourself”—then one is acting in the positive direction in the straightest and most obvious way.

By taking these actions, you will begin feeling the way that you are influencing the world positively. After all, the positive forces of the upper governance begin passing through you.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/8/15

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Torah, “Numbers,” 22:16 – 22:18: They came to Balaam and said to him, “So said Balak the son of Zippor, ‘Please do not hesitate to come to me.

For I will honor you greatly and do whatever you tell me to do. So please come and curse this people for me.'” Balaam answered and said to Balak’s servants, “Even if Balak gives me a house full of silver and gold, I cannot do anything small or great that would transgress the word of the Lord, my God.

The ego was born in order to correct it and not in order to use it. Therefore the single state that will bless it is when submits itself in the intention for the Creator, for bestowal and love. It is impossible to use the ego by itself. In Kabbalah “forbidden” means impossible.

It is clear to see that Balaam understands that he cannot use the ego, because the ego that is his nature and controls him was given to him only in order to serve Israel, meaning his intention in order to bestow and love, for the Creator.

Therefore there is useless to try to do something else in the ego, because by that it might cause enormous pain to humanity as it already experienced in the past: war games, destructions, and sufferings, which were clarified in the historical perspective as useless processes.

Therefore Balak cannot curse Israel because the ego was born especially for this need in order to build above it the next degree.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/15

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