To be in the egoistic desire is to lack the instrument to turn this quality of egoism into the quality of the Creator. The Upper Light, the very quality of the Creator, is that special force that reforms us.

But it only does so in conjunction with our desire to change our qualities from egoistic to altruistic. It must be a true desire, i.e. it must come from the heart, and not by way of words or tears.

To reach such a genuine desire to change constitutes our entire work on ourselves in this life. Those who have undergone this process of transformation of their egoistic desire into the desire to bestow tell us about it in their books.

Just as in our world, parents provide all the necessary conditions for babies and their development, so have the Kabbalists prepared for us all that is necessary for our spiritual development. They have already united into one great soul over the course of centuries and have prepared our future world – and they are waiting there for us.

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A person never knows what desires will awaken inside him a moment later. He is also unable to determine the direction of his desires. A person is ignorant of his future state.

Humanity has always been interested in knowing its future state, but has never been able to satisfy its interest. All of our speculation is rooted in the fact that the future is unknown to us.

Why is it so? The reason is our ignorance of the system in which we exist. Actually, it’s quite a simple system of mutual connections between all of us. We are the ones who determine these mutual relationships. I shape your condition with my thoughts, and you do the same to me with yours.

My subsequent desire is a result of the desires of other people who are within the system, since we are absolutely mutually interdependent. If I  think good thoughts that will make you think similarly. If what I have is bad thoughts, you will have bad thoughts too. It’s similar to the situation, where a victim causes the appearance of a murderer, as if both of them determine and seek one another.

You are placed inside a network. The sum total of everyone’s state  determines your state, the way you feel, think, want and react.

You act unconsciously; you don’t have your own free will! Besides that universal mutual interdependence, there’s a plan at work, a program that leads all the souls to a pre-determined goal which is total harmony and absolute connection between them.

The process of our development is a process of purification, awareness and understanding of how each individual can consciously take part in it.

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A question I received: When you speak of the Creator, one might think that you are talking about religion. Can you explain this in everyday, down-to-earth terminology?

My Answer: I understand that these words set off unpleasant associations and that for everyone, they are related to a myriad of stereotypes. But at the root of the biblical story is the revelation of the Upper Force to man, and no one religion is privy to that narrative. No one was ever granted the personal right of owning Him. Quite the opposite: every person has to reveal the Creator for himself. The first to do this are the ones who feel that there is something within them to correct, as it is said: “I created the evil inclination and the Torah as the means of its reform.”

The science of Kabbalah is the true Torah. Indeed, it is called “Torah-emet” (“emet” is translated as “truth”). That is why you have to understand that the entire Torah speaks only of the spiritual – and belongs to all! As one studies Kabbalah and corrects himself, he will understand the meaning of these words.

This is why we must change our attitude towards references to the Torah, Psalms and Mishneh made by Baal HaSulam and other Kabbalists. The goal is not to memorize all the words, but to feel them inside oneself.

Suppose someone memorized the entire Talmud. Do you think this means that he corrected some part of his soul? He will have to come back to this earth in another incarnation as if though he did nothing in this life. It is better to know just one sentence and, by correcting himself, to attain that part – to feel it within. This will be more valuable than a thousand memorized pages of the Talmud.

That is why you must not shy away from references to the Tanach and its interpretations by wise men; you must simply understand what they are talking about. It is difficult to convey Kabbalistic explanations using secular language. But it is not necessary. For example, the book of Psalms is read by people all around the world, and so are the Five Books of the Torah. These texts are, more or less, familiar to everyone. You just have to explain their real meaning, and a person will see that this comes to him from the original source. This source belongs to all of humanity and contains the method for correcting the soul. If a person does not use the reforming light contained in the Torah, he does not have the Torah. All he has is a book with words printed in it.

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Our times are different in that the question “What is the meaning of life?” is becoming relevant to all of humanity. We begin to realize that life demands our mutual accordance, compromises, understanding, and coexistence. And we can create the kind of connection among us that is necessary for our survival only through the method of Kabbalah.

Therefore, today we see the disintegration of the iron wall between the science of Kabbalah and humanity, which Baal HaSulam discussed.  The wall has existed for 2000 years, and is now breaking. This is because questions have arisen along with the development of relationships among people, and therein lies the precise location of the breaking. It is here that the science of Kabbalah (and only the science of Kabbalah) can help.

Therefore, salvation will not come on its own. Humanity will not find any regulators to correct our fall, but will find that everything depends only on the development of positive relationships among people. Many people are talking about the need for proper relationships, but no one has the means for correction, the ability to draw the Light, the Upper energy, the force of Nature. If people need to connect to each other by rising above their egoism, they will be unable to do this without the science of Kabbalah.

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A question I received: Can you please explain the question “What is the meaning of life?”

My Answer: The question “What is the meaning of my life?” can be answered on the level of our world by “With what am I filling myself?” Or on the level of the spiritual world, the question is addressed by asking, “Whom am I pleasing?”  “What should I do with my life?”  “Where should I go?”

I have to unravel the mystery of the “meaning of life.” These related questions deal with the source of life:  “What do we live for?”  “Why do we live?” “What is the secret of life?”  “How and why did life appear?”  However, questioning “the meaning of life” isn’t necessarily a question about the origins of life, it’s more of an inquiry about why this all happened and where it is leading me. The question “What is the meaning of life?” deals with all the unanswered questions of my entire life.

Humanity is now asking this question. However, how profound or purposeful is the question that is actually being asked? For example, if a person has a mishap in his life or feels even the slightest dissatisfaction, he may ask, “What is the meaning of my life?”

The answer is revealed only after that question has been examined and toiled upon by hard labor and exertion and which is precisely directed toward the goal.

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A question I received: Why is it so hard for us not to be immersed in that corporeal, imaginary world we live in, despite all the knowledge that we receive from the studies and the lessons? Sometimes I am frightened by realization that I have to drastically change my way for a path unknown to me. I believe in what you are saying and see the importance of the group. I just do not feel worthy of such responsibility. How do I overcome my feeling of total futility, come out of my state and join my friends in our great work?

My Answer: You will never be able to rise above this world on your own, if you are not helped by your environment – see Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom”.

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A question I received: I have just completed Kabbalah and Quantum Physics, and began reading The Book of Zohar with your commentary. Could you explain through some concrete example how one should change his qualities to those of bestowal in order to feel, even just for a split second, what the science of Kabbalah describes? I gathered from the books that it is not necessary to change the actions in our lives – we just need to change the intention.

No matter how much I try to find precise instructions about what to do, I cannot find any. Or do the instructions consist of memorizing everything that was told to us by Kabbalists in order to gather all of this knowledge into one whole, and only then to finally begin to feel and understand how the world is arranged and be able to penetrate through matter with his whole soul? Please tell me how you were able to rise above your ego.

My Answer: Perception occurs within a correctly attuned desire: towards connecting with everyone into one whole. This is because a breaking and separation occurred in this connection, and only this separation between us requires correction. Pursuing this goal is called the “intention” (Kavana).

This intention should accompany your studies of Kabbalah, your relationship with your fellows, and your actions in dissemination. Specifically the intention to reach unification, through Ohr Makif, rouses a correction of the desire, and, to the extent that it is corrected, you begin to feel in the desire, the intention (Ohr Hozer) that outlines of the Upper World.

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A question I received: How can we distinguish true bestowal from egoistic bestowal?

My Answer: Until a person becomes worthy of the revelation of the Creator, his bestowal is purely egoistic, i.e. for his own sake. Just as when we perform a service for another person, we consider what we will receive in return. Further, we consider our profit: the gain from the bestowal must be greater than the loss!

However, even if people begin to give and help each other in this manner, while also taking into account each others’ interests, this mutual (albeit egoistic) bestowal will give us the opportunity to feel the benefit in mutual aspiration towards equal goodness, balance, acquired confidence, and we will begin to value the quality of bestowal on its own merit. The resultant act of bestowal will become less important to us, unlike the sense of this quality, the positive realization of it in ourselves, and the positive feeling from bestowal itself.

Furthermore, if a person receives something good from some source (action, deed, or from another person), he or she begins to love and admire the source itself.

Therefore, people will value the quality of bestowal, which gives them vitality, support, and confidence. They will want to acquire this quality and come closer to it. Consequently, the Light that reforms will come to them, and they will understand that it pays for them to give to each other. This is called “go and earn from each other” in the true, non-material sense. By striving for a good life, society will begin to respect bestowal and thus reveal the Creator.

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A question I received: I completed the ARI Online beginner and advanced classes, and for the past two years have been attending your online classes daily. I’ve studied Pticha, Shamati, and The Book of Zohar. Your wisdom is profound. But, lately, the only portion of the lesson that that I feel I can relate to is Talmud Eser Sefirot. The abstract seems more real to me than the discussions concerning present world conditions. Is this normal, or am I losing my way?

My Answer: It’s temporary. You will discover that Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator in our world and is realized by studying correction of oneself and of the whole world. To the extent one is corrected, one perceives the world as unified and transparent, for all of universal creation is perceived by us in a single desire that was created. It begins to appear as unified, and all of the worlds will appear as sensations in different layers of that single desire.

Subsequently, the study material, too, will begin to reveal one and the same thing, only in different languages. Finally, everything will come to be seen as one picture, static, whole and perfect.

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When the knowledge about the science of Kabbalah reached the nations of the world, it stimulated the development of the world and, at the same time, caused great damage. Until this time, Kabbalah had only been revealed to special chosen individuals among the people of Israel. Once it was revealed to the world however, people began to egoistically attain the system of the construction of the universe, to study the laws of Nature and to brutally exploit Nature and their neighbors in order to use them for their own interests.

This has led to all the destruction that has occurred and continues to occur in the world, in spite of the fact that Kabbalists hid the science of Kabbalah.  It still remains so concealed that a person who is not ready for it is incapable of understanding anything in the books of Kabbalah. One must first correct his qualities into bestowal and love for his neighbor, and only then will the great forces of Nature be revealed to him.

However, over the span of mankind’s search for knowledge, we obtained and were able to use the ordinary sciences to learn about the external forces of Nature. This led to technological development, which we see has obviously been to our own detriment.

As a result, we see that the entire development of the whole world, built by us throughout all of human history, has not been to our benefit, since it has served only our egoism. All the knowledge that we have received about Nature, all the laws and examples that we attained and tried to implement for our own benefit, turned against us in the end. This has been a cumulative process that has led us to the global universal crisis that is occurring on all the levels of Nature and in all areas of human activity.

Everything that human beings have done for thousands of years in history is today being revealed as evil. It is as though we are drawing a line between the entire former development of human civilization and the present. From this point on, we must honestly tally up everything we have done and decide how we should develop in the future.

It turns out that the direction of our future development is quite simple. After all, if all our knowledge about the laws of Nature and all our sciences, have proven to only bring us harm because we had turned them into a servant for our egoism, then let’s turn everything around! If we use science and all our knowledge on the good path, truly for the benefit of humanity, it will become our helper and bring us genuine prosperity. We will no longer destroy Nature, our environment, and ourselves, putting ourselves in danger of self-destruction. On the contrary, we will rise to a completely new level.

We use the forces of Nature and its examples either to our detriment or for a noble purpose.  These two opposites are called the “servant” who is in power instead of her mistress, or the “mistress” who rises and reveals herself with the help of the servant. The “mistress” is the science of Kabbalah, which teaches us how to correct our nature, and by using it correctly, to reveal another part of Nature and its enormous forces. All of this is given to us for our use and eternal existence.

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