Two questions I received about destiny:

Question: From a broader perspective, do you think that it is possible that things turn out the same whether you choose one way or another in life? Man’s perception of one way or the other way, meaning his decision and its consequences may be different, but is there still something like destiny lighting life’s path?

My Answer: Everything is predetermined except your aspiration, either to yourself or to the Creator. This is where you will feel the difference in your destiny.

Question: Since Kabbalah states that all is programmed or predetermined, is our time of “death” of the bodies we now use also predetermined?

My Answer: Undoubtedly it is, but what would be the point of knowing it?

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Kabbalah is a science that reveals the Upper Governance over the entire universe, including our material world. The entire universe is governed by a single law, which may be called Nature’s Law or the Creator’s Law. It is the law of universal love, harmony and goodness.

The method of Kabbalah grants humanity an opportunity to study this law and structure their lives in congruence with it. Just as we need to study the laws of physics, chemistry and biology in order to lead a normal existence in the material world, the study of Kabbalah is no less essential for us.

Only the knowledge of the single law of the universe and equivalence to it can save the world from wars, natural disasters, suffering and catastrophes, bringing all humanity to total harmony and equilibrium with Nature.

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A question I received: Why doesn’t the point in the heart awaken in all people? Why does one person feel it at 20, while another feels it at 50?

My Answer: This is not our business, and we shouldn’t think about it. We have no freedom of will in this regard – everything depends on the common system, the enormous system of souls that needs to advance.

This is like our bodies which consist of billions of little cells. Each cell needs to develop, and they are all connected to each other.

Therefore, each person depends on the other in their correction – first one advances, then another, or two of them advance together.

It is the same kind of system as that of an embryo developing in a mother’s womb, where the head, the arms, the legs, the ears, the nose, and so on, develop in a certain order.

This is a very complex system. So how can we begin to ask why we were awakened only now and not ten years ago, given that we have limited understanding of anything in our material lives, and even less in the spiritual?

Do you know what part of the soul you belong to, and what part you are destined to carry out?

If however, a person strives to understand, he begins to feel where he is being led. Our freedom of choice lies in figuring out what work is placed upon us and then doing that which is dependent on us.

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What is a human being? A human being is a mountain of egoism and hatred towards everyone. If the Light influences this mountain of hatred (the mountain of Sinai),  it raises a person onto the mountain.

Precisely due to the egoism, a person has something to rise above, then under the influence of the Light, the egoism is ready to receive pleasure, using itself for the sake of bestowal.

The Light does everything. One can be the most righteous person, who has ascended high into the degrees of the worlds, but if the Light stops affecting him, he will immediately fall into his initial egoism. There are no other alternatives – either we are controlled by our egoistic nature or we are controlled by the Light.

This will never end, since while I am in any spiritual state, I must always hold onto the Light in order for it to influence me. If I let go of it, I will fall immediately.

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A question I received: I have heard many times in your lectures that pleasure nullifies the desire, meaning the desire gets fulfilled and disappears. The same happens with spiritual desires, which get fulfillment from the Creator. Therefore we should hold the pleasure from the Creator aside, and not be pleasured by it, in order to pass the fulfillment to “the neighbor,” so that he might be fulfilled.

It turns out that at that time we get fulfillment from him in return and fulfillment becomes eternal. Why is fulfillment from “the neighbor” eternal and doesn’t disappear with time as does  individual fulfillment?

My Answer: It is because you use your neighbor’s desire  (as a mother uses a desire of her child) and not yours, and you are just a means to fulfill that desire. That is why your fulfillment doesn’t become nullified.

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Two questions I received on man’s imbalance with the environment:

Question: According to the UN, 2.8 billion people won’t have enough water to meet their basic needs by 2025. Can you comment on this?

My Answer: It’s true, and this, as well a all the other blows we receive from Nature, will compel us to correct ourselves. Our correction at the highest level, the human level, will correct everything and bring harmony to all the lower levels. That is when we will see abundance in the whole world.

Question: I disagree with what you say, that “None of our actions really have any effect on climate change.” Our actions are driven by our egoistic desires, and therefore they do have a direct impact on climate changes. Doesn’t this make sense?

My Answer: No, it does not make sense to me, because you are only seeing the effects and then making up theories about what you’ve seen.

Our world is a world of consequences and everything descends upon us from Above. This is why correction at a higher level will bring a result in our world, while in our world, we can never make any “correction.”

We learn from Kabbalah that everything happens under influence of the Light from Above.

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There is a stage in the revelation of the Upper Force when one encounters two opposites and needs to make a special discernment.

On one hand, he exists in the world with the understanding that he is that entire world. On the other hand, he is incapable of relating to this world as an integral part of himself and to connect it to himself.

It is the Upper Force, the Creator, that is preventing him from doing just that. Until one attains Him (the complete quality of bestowal), he cannot connect all the different parts of the world within himself.

An additional force is revealed, one that governs over his nature. At this point he wants to connect and change the world for the better, but is unable to do so, since he is unable to change himself!

In order to change, one needs to ascend to a higher degree. By connecting with these external parts, which he now sees as parts of himself, he can no longer remain egoistic.

It’s not the same as finding out that your long-time enemy is actually your close relative. When this happens, all that’s left is regret for the bad relationship you had prior to the discovery.

However, this kind of correction is not enough, since the hatred in him vanishes and is replaced by love. In reality this isn’t so. Instead, the hatred remains and love is built on top of it!

A person comes to this new degree with all of his prior egoism, which doesn’t vanish, and there is nothing to be done with it.

Sometimes a situation comes up when a person must have a good attitude towards someone, but cannot force himself to do so. No matter how hard he tries, he will still only feel hatred and repulsion toward another person.

So what can one do? The only option is to exert an additional effort so as to build a new relationship over the existing dislike and hatred.

This attitude is called a new intention for the sake of bestowal over the previous state of egoistic desire.

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A question I received: You said at a lecture that the soul of a man consists of 613 egoistic desires and that one has to correct them to bestowal by attracting the Light during Kabbalah studies, thus coming to the quality of “loving one’s neighbor as oneself.”

This correction of the 613 desires is called observation of the 613 commandments. You also told that the soul is like a pomegranate that consists of 613 seeds in the same manner as the soul consists of 613 desires. But who checked this?

My Answer: You have described it correctly. There was an article written about the pomegranate which recounts a project where the researchers took a number of pomegranates from different countries and counted their seeds. Each pomegranate had a different number of seeds – some less than 613 and some more, but the average number of seeds was 613.

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A question I received: In recent years, especially in times of crisis, the study of Kabbalah is offered as the only means to ensure continued existence of mankind in general, and to overcome the economic crisis in particular.

You must understand that this is likely to cause a backlash, because everything that is not a natural human need causes rejection. Moreover, is the science of Kabbalah itself ready to open itself to universal learning? It is clear that spiritual advancement is universal, and everyone will find their path by means of study, however this is what it is, a path, and a distant one. You are already beginning to voice the need for a differentiated approach to learning.

Most importantly, should all of humanity study Kabbalah, or is it enough to reach a certain critical mass of humanity in order to advance humanity? Who then should be studying? Who has need of this? In this case however, the science of Kabbalah, in all probability, needs to come up with different ways to study.

Certainly Kabbalah should be open to all who seek it, but doesn’t such massive missionary work devalue the science in the eyes of those exposed to it? In my opinion, such, excuse the term, “vulgarization” of Kabbalah, that is, an attempt to explain such concepts as “mutual love” or “union of souls,” at a primitive level, is unlikely to succeed. The wish to find a simple explanation of these eternal truths is to every person, of course, understandable. But don’t you yourself mention that such understanding is possible only after correction, and in such case, doesn’t it harm dissemination?

My Answer: One of the easiest answers is the following:  I follow the instructions of my Teachers. Read what they wrote and you will agree with me.

Kabbalah is a practical science that reveals the Creator to every person in the world (definition of Kabbalah from the article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah” by Baal HaSulam). Therefore, there is a need to bring it to each and every person. Who are we to judge who is capable of implementing it, for all will gradually come to this necessity? My role is that of a circulator.

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We feel that we are in a world, which we separate into “me” and the people around me, and we try to use everything for our own benefit. This is how we act in accordance with our inner nature, and other people around us act the same way.

However, once a new desire awakens in a person, it cannot be filled by anything available in this world. This causes confusion, as a person wants something, but doesn’t know what it is that they want.

This small new desire haunts a person. It grows and brings him to a place that contains an answer. This is how a person discovers the wisdom of Kabbalah.

One doesn’t understand right away what it is, but an instinctive feeling keeps him holding on to these books and to a new society. He studies, like a child that is just imitating grown-ups.

This is how a person advances until, after some time, he begins to understand that the goal is to reveal another world in addition to the world he currently perceives.

In this second reality, everything is different. Both the person himself and the world are new.  The new desire that awakens in him is the beginning of his new “I.” When this desire develops, he discovers himself in a new world.

This is like changing the channel on a TV. A person is watching one channel and sees an image of the world. He changes the channel and suddenly finds himself viewing a completely different world. A person changes along with the new world that is revealed to him, and he begins to understand what is being revealed through the science of Kabbalah.

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