Question: You have often recounted how your teacher held meals. Their meals included onions, olive oil, bread, salt, pepper. Was this simple diet chosen on purpose so that the food didn’t interfere with the intention? Or was there some other reason?

Answer: It was at the very beginning of my journey. When I came to class in the evenings, I went into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee and saw simple plastic plates with slices of half-eaten bread and the remains of chopped, peppered onions sprinkled with olive oil. There were always a couple of empty beer bottles nearby.

It turned out that five to six students of my rav’s father Baal HaSulam, old people already more than 70 years old, gathered together for classes and every evening finished their day with a meal.

I don’t think they needed any other food; that was enough for them in the evenings. Such food represents a meal of gratitude to the Creator, gratitude to each other for the fact that they gathered, studied together, and comprehended the universe in their studies. It was with this gratitude to the Creator that they ended their day.

Question: Would you agree that if they had some kind of sophisticated diet, special, very tasty dishes, it would probably be harder to keep the intention of why you are doing this. Was that why such a simple food was specially chosen?

Answer: I don’t think it would be difficult for them. Such a modest meal is not arranged for this. You just don’t need more. This is no ordinary lunch or dinner. With such a symbolic meal, friends who have lived together for 50 to 60 years sat down at the table and ended their day in this way. By this joint union, they emphasized their spiritual exaltation.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/9/21

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If we consider the biblical story of Adam and Eve from a spiritual point of view, then first the property of Adam is revealed in a person: he feels good, calm, he does not harm anyone. Then the egoistic property Eve is revealed, and then the property of the serpent.

After Adam and Eve started to feel their egoism, they revealed the feeling of shame. They needed to get dressed, that is, to acquire some property of bestowal in order to hide their nakedness.

When a person, feels his inner properties, feels the egoism in him, along with the property of bestowal and evaluates one against the other, he starts to feel vicious and as if hides it in himself under his clothes.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #16

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Question: The whole world thinks that Adam sinned because he fell for the temptation of the serpent.

Answer: He did not sin. What could he possibly do—this piece of animal flesh that could not even become a human?

Comment: It is written that God warned: “But of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for on the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” But the serpent came and began to persuade: And the serpent said to the woman, “You will surely not die.” And when Adam tasted the forbidden fruit, God said: ” And He said, “Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

My Response: “You shall surely die” is good. It means that your egoism will die in you, and you will reach another level.

The serpent is a necessary egoistic desire that finally begins to awaken in a person. And then he sees that he is opposite of the Creator, and he has where to advance to, what to correct in himself, and what to ascend to.

Today such a snake is necessary for many people in the world. I would say—for everyone! Everyone thinks that everything is fine: “We live just fine. We were born, we live, we die, everything is okay. Just let me calmly stretch out these years and that’s it.” But why does man need these years? What are they for?

The serpent shows you that you live in vain, that you are an animal, that you have the germ of evil in you. It does not allow us to live in peace. The serpent is a strong, powerful driving force of nature, i.e., a huge egoism that starts to awaken us and sets us against each other.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar,” #16

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Question: There is a well-known phenomenon in physics regarding the effects of a nuclear explosion. I do not exactly know the process, but when two protons with the same charge are connected, they repel each other. And if you apply a certain force, overcome some barrier, and connect them, then an explosion occurs and energy is released.

The same thing happens to people. Trying to unite with each other, at first there is rejection between them, but if they overcome this barrier, they begin to unite and energy is released. What is this energy?

Answer: This is spiritual energy. If people overcome selfishness, mutual rejection and try to get closer to each other, then this is a completely different state. They begin to regenerate between them, to equip the higher world, the higher relations, the property of bestowal.

These are not the attraction and repulsion that exist in our physical world, but the properties of attraction that we must create over our negative, egoistic properties. There is one property in every person—what is considered egoism, that is, the desire to please oneself—which can be satisfied either by rapprochement, or rejection from something, to something, and so on.

If we try to create the property of love in ourselves over the properties of egoism, then we begin to feel how it is possible to exist in the property of love. This existence is called the property of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/2/21

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Question: Does the mind change according to the material a person studies? Is the mind of a person who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah different from the mind of a person who studies astronomy for instance?

Answer: Yes. A person who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah studies about the actions of the Creator. He thinks differently.

There are five worlds, one inside the other. The upper light goes through all the worlds, all the way to the center. These worlds are called Adam Kadmon (early man), which means the prototype of man, Atzilut, Beriya, Yetzira, and Asiya. The smallest circle in the center is called our world, in which we live.

We live in the darkest place, while the upper light reaches us through all the worlds from the world of Ein Sof.

Question: There is so much light around us, but the section of our world remains in the dark.

Answer: A person has no need for this light, because we cannot stand the light of bestowal. It is death for us. We can only perceive the egoistic light and we live within it.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 4/21/19

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In everything that happens in the world, we should see the good and benevolent governance of the Creator who brings us only good. In this way, He corrects the souls and connects them together into one common soul.

However, we see everything in a different way, and the question is how much I want to discover the truth in order to justify the Creator and be grateful to Him for his kindness by adhering to Him. This is my correction.

If I see a corrupted world, it is because I judge from my flaws. We do not see anything outside of us but only what is happening inside each of us and all of us together. All floods, fires, and pandemics are symptoms of our own disease.

If we went to a doctor who could diagnose each of us and all of us together, he would be horrified at how serious our disease is. He would say: “You see fires? It is because you have a high fever. You see floods? These are also diseases within you. At one point you feel the forces of Gevura on the right side appearing as floods and another time on the left manifesting as a fire. In the middle, between them, there is another blow, the pandemic. You are yet to uncover many other blows on the right, on the left, and in the middle, because I have no other way to convince you of the need for correction except with such blows.”

It turns out that we are to blame for being in the difficult state we are in now because many years have passed and we still did not wake up for corrections in any way.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/21, “Entry Into the Spiritual Degree”

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Question: Why did the priests not enter first when they went to the land of Israel? They waited until the entire army had passed and then they completed the transition.

Answer: The most important thing for them is to keep the border because it should be that all the people go through dry land. As was the crossing of the Red Sea, so it is here when crossing the Jordan. After everyone had passed, the functions of the priests were fulfilled at the moment and the waters closed again.

Comment: In some ways, this is similar to how Moses told Pharaoh that he would take everyone and wait until everyone came out.

My Response: But there was an exit from Malchut to Bina through Zeir Anpin—to the intermediate state of “desert.” Here there is a transition to Bina, to the property of bestowal.
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From KabTv’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/5/21

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Question: What is the connection between knowing about the upper world and the development of the soul? Why does the information that we acquire about the structure of the soul develop our soul?

Answer: It is because spiritual knowledge is an indication that I receive the upper light that changes me. It is not like what I hear from a teacher at school or at university, because what I hear from a teacher cannot impact me in any way.

To the extent that the upper light enters me and changes my attributes, I begin to perceive these attributes. After all, I do not immediately understand what is happening to me, but only as a result of the changes that take place in me.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 6/16/19

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Comment: We know from history that they not only sacrificed animals in the Temple, but also they arranged large meals there.

My Response: The fact is that the Temple was also a place for studying—where people from all over the country gathered. When a person would come to the Temple, he had to bring sacrifices with him and some of them were used to prepare food.

These dishes were placed on common tables and anyone could come and take part in the meal.

A Kabbalistic meal is usually attended by those who, with its help, want to ascend spiritually. They understand what they are coming together for; it is huge internal work, a great effort.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/9/21

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The 15th of Av is a special holiday called “The Day of Love” because love is the ultimate goal of our corrections. It is said that there has never been a happier and better day than this. And we are not talking about earthly love between a man and a woman. This is the day of everyone’s love for everyone and for the upper force that also envelops us with its love.

This has a completely different meaning. The day of love is not even a day but a state to which we come after destruction and problems. And when we turn to the Creator for help and with His help establish unity and love between us, this state continues forever.

In the Mishnah it is written that on the 15th of Av the girls would put on white dresses and go out into the garden and sing and dance in circles and the young men would come to choose their brides. However, we are not talking about young people but about aspirations of our soul, about the power of reception and the power of bestowal, which we must try to unite in order to come to their unification and the birth of a new world.

If we want to achieve correction, we must unite the two opposite forces so that the force of reception and the force of bestowal work together and give birth to a new state, a new generation created by the union of the right and left, masculine and feminine principles. It is the woman who gives birth to a new state, a new generation, and leads to the correction of the world. The color white symbolizes the property of the upper force, full surrender, pure, good intention, and openness. And all this takes place in orchards where grapes and fruits ripen, which testifies to the renewal of life.

Before this, we believed that we were living, but it was not life but continuous suffering. We considered it life only out of hopelessness. But now we really understand what life of love, union, and devotion to each other and the Creator is. And now we all unite with each other and with the upper force into one whole, one Kli, and then we really feel that we are beginning to live.

Everyone is looking for the opportunity to bestow, to get closer, to love, to give to everyone impartially, without any boundaries. So we come to the union from which a new life is born; from two forces, right and left, a third is born—the middle line, which opens the heavens to us and allows us to see life at a perfect spiritual level.
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From KabTV’s “The World” 7/20/21

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