Two questions I received on advancing on the path to spirituality:

Question: I have been watching Channel 66 and the morning lessons for the past few months, and I was at the Congress. But I still can’t understand the purpose of my existence in this world. Is there any sense in hastening the correction if it was initially determined to be completed at the end of this millennium? Is there a way to reach it faster?

My Answer: The program of correction will be completed by the forces of Nature (the Creator) by the end of the sixth millennium. This can happen in 231 years under the influence of the coercive forces, which we perceive as suffering. However, we were given Kabbalah in order to hasten the path of correction and to go through it pleasantly. Kabbalah explains the Creator’s plan, and to the extent we are willing to attain this plan, we proceed along the good, short, and simple path, arriving at same result.

Question: Nature constantly pressures us, forcing us to develop. Theoretically, we can classify the pressure into three types:

• strong, as when a child develops physically, not by his own free will;
• weak, such as a person who lives a regular life thinking that he is free in his actions; and
• intermediate, when a person discovers Kabbalah and acquires the freedom of will to choose to advance by the path of Kabbalah or by the path of suffering.

Is this classification correct?

My Answer: No, because the pressures differ in their nature and quality.

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A question I received: Several years ago I revealed my predestination: to be a messenger. And there are many people like me – those who are waiting for the Hour of Command, and this Hour is close. I have much knowledge and I am ready to connect, but I don’t want to come out just yet. I found your TV channel, and it seems like the right place to make a heartfelt appeal: I am destined by the absolute kingdom to serve as a messenger of knowledge. It is in my power to change the order of the world. I need your guidance and advice.

My Answer: You are right: we are all messengers who came to this world from the Upper World, sent here in order to rise above the egoism of this world and return home, to the Upper world. As Ostap Bender, the hero from The Twelve Chairs, used to say, “Kabbalah (the international force) will help us!”

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A question I received: I have been studying Kabbalah for over a year. Since I began, I have felt mental and inner changes happening within me. On the mental level, I experience problems in coordinating my movements when I walk outside. Sometimes I don’t even feel that I am walking. I had tests done and the results are normal. On the inner level, I experience mood swings: I feel wonderful for a couple of days (and there are no words to describe this state!), and then over the next few days I don’t feel anything at all.

Tell me, did these changes occur as a consequence of studying Kabbalah? Is it possible to feel the Light while one is still below the Machsom? If not, please advise me on what I should do to advance.

My Answer: You are going through new states because a new, sixth sense is being formed inside you, which you did not have from birth. With this sense, you will eventually feel the Creator, when it will broaden enough to become capable of revealing the Creator inside. Patience, composure and endurance will enable you to achieve quick results. Look at yourself from afar and study the Creator’s work on you. Remember: these are His actions!

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Two questions I received on the role of Kabbalah in daily life:

Question: I study Kabbalah intensively and I was at the 2009 Congress. The more I begin to understand Kabbalah, the more I want to move away from the egoistic society. Isn’t that egoistic on my part?

My Answer: We need to exist in this world and to help make it better through our participation in it. You should perceive the world’s influence as help rather than an obstruction: it is “help against you.” These obstructions are actually constant additions to your desire (Aviut), and by overcoming them you will rise toward the Creator. Without them, you would be deprived of the opportunity to ascend.

Question: How can I incorporate Kabbalah into my daily life? I feel that the environment really influences me. Does the fact that I study Kabbalah mean that I have to forget my other interests?

My Answer: Without forcing yourself, put yourself under the influence of the group and the studies. Start participating in dissemination and teaching others, and then you will gradually move away from your other “interests.” Later, other obstructions will emerge, and you will have to apply the same remedy to them, until you’ll reach the state of complete unification with others and a sensation of the Upper Force within it.

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A question I received: The Creator created us and placed us in a vessel. In this physical world, He is not apparent. And when changes are made, it is His manipulation.

My Answer: That’s right.

Question cont’d: What the Bible teaches of the end of the world is that the Creator will destroy everyone in fire and brimstone.

My Answer: Correct.

Question cont’d: But that is an ultimate breach of everything He’s done so far.

My Answer: That’s also correct. The fire represents man’s revelation of his own ego and the desire to become free from it.

Question cont’d: He has designed these vessels with such egoism as to multiply, desire, take, destroy, and every other bad action.

My Answer: Yes.

Question cont’d: What if these bad things are happening as He planned?

My Answer: They are.

Question cont’d: What if He knew that, in their unquenchable lust for more, people would destroy themselves and the entire world?

My Answer: On the contrary, suffering is bound to correct us.

Question cont’d: He doesn’t have to destroy the world.

My Answer: This is why the final goal is our similarity to the Creator.

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A question I received: You recommended watching the shows on the Kabbalah channel, since doing so draws the Upper Light. You quoted the following: “While one has not attained perfection, the Light that is destined to fulfill his soul is considered the Surrounding Light. Hence, when one engages in the wisdom of Kabbalah, the Light immediately shines upon him to a certain measure, bringing him much closer to reaching perfection.” How is this different from tying a red string around the wrist or reciting blessings and prayers?

My Answer: The Upper World is a world of laws, not mysticism. The acting force in that world is your desire, provided that it is aimed at your next state. While studying Kabbalistic texts, you learn about your corrected states. If you strive toward these states, then your desire causes you to advance through the field of Light, bringing you closer to that Upper State. It works just like a piece of metal or an electrical current in a magnetic field which is drawn to the source.

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Two questions I received on combining professional work with Kabbalah:

Question: I grew up in an intellectual environment that considers having a university education a top priority, yet now I cannot think about anything except my daily Kabbalah studies. What should I do? Previously I was very interested in getting a higher education, but when I found Kabbalah, I lost all interest in my prior plans. I would like to know what is the right thing to do in this case.

My Answer: Every person has to learn a practical trade! And after that, one should devote the rest of one’s time and efforts to spiritual development.

Question: I am finding it more and more difficult to concentrate on my professional work. I have a wife and a child, and I understand that I also exist in this world and must provide for my family, but my desire for these things is gone. What is your advice?

My Answer: Divide your day into two parts and focus on each part using the appropriate part of the brain: put the professional part of your brain to work when it comes to earning money, and then put the spiritual part of your brain to work when you study Kabbalah or work on dissemination.

It is like there are two different people living inside you at different times, and you shouldn’t combine the two. Later, they will start working together at the same time, and you will discover that the whole world and everything taking place is one integral revelation of the Upper Force!

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Three questions I received on spiritual progress:

Question: How do I find a Teacher and become part of a group? I have been taking the online course, but I really feel that I need a Teacher. I know I need help on this spiritual course.

My Answer: The most important thing is to participate in everything together with all the students. You should humble yourself, as if you are in a group of children, and be like everyone else. When you begin to understand the others, their knowledge will flow into you. It is only by uniting with them that you will be able to understand how the Creator becomes revealed, because He is revealed inside the unification of people’s desires.

Question: How can I become a part of a group to study Kabbalah, such as Bnei Baruch?

My Answer: Our website contains all the information about us, our groups, and so on. Welcome!

Question: When I had just discovered Kabbalah, I felt like I was feeling spirituality. It was a feeling of overwhelming happiness unlike any I had ever experienced. This feeling prompted my continuing study of Kabbalah, and in my mind I constantly return to that feeling. I know that it is forbidden to turn back, but what can I do if I always think about spirituality and about that “unearthly” state that I felt?

My Answer: Seek a better future, without turning back to your past.

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A question I received: Why did you support the “right side” in the Israeli-Gaza war by saying, “If someone comes to kill you, forestall him and kill him first”?

My Answer: This is written in the Bible. Clearly, if evil in our world cannot be corrected, then its source – the person committing evil – should be destroyed, and this will be his correction. A person must protect his life, even if he has to kill someone who wishes to kill him. But at the same time, if a person is faced with the choice, “Kill someone else or we will kill you,” then he must sacrifice his life, as otherwise he will be a murderer.

I am not supporting or condemning anyone, and if I seem biased at times, ask me about it and I will try to explain my opinion and behavior.

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A question I received: In the article, “What Is Half a Shekel In the Work,” Rabash states, “If a person prays, even without understanding the meaning of the words, simply pronouncing what is written in the prayer book established by the Sages, saying these words while drawing nearer to the Creator, it is irrelevant if he knows what he is saying or not…”

Also, Baal HaSulam says in Item 155 of the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” “…even if a person does not understand what he learns, his yearning to understand draws upon him the Light of Correction.”

It follows that praying using the Prayer Book has great spiritual value, and what some say, that it is just words and tradition, is not really the case. What is your opinion about this?

My Answer: By “some,” you mean me. Yes, I do say so. Here’s why: The result of the reading depends on the reader, not on the text or its author.

Baal HaSulam says in Item 147 of the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” “There is no difference between the Torah of the world of Atzilut and the Torah of this world, meaning, between the wisdom of Kabbalah and the revealed Torah. Instead, the only difference is in the person who engages in the study of the Torah. Two may study the Torah, the same text and the same words, but one will perceive it as the wisdom of Kabbalah and the Torah of Atzilut, while for the other it will be the revealed Torah [of Assiya].”

Of course, the Prayer Book was compiled by the Members of the Great Assembly – the Great Kabbalists who lived 2000 years ago. If you read it in order to connect with the Creator, then you will draw the Light from the Source, of which the Prayer Book speaks. The same occurs when you study the Talmud Eser Sefirot. However, if one does not think about this because one does not have a desire to reveal the Creator, then regardless of what one reads – whether the Talmud Eser Sefirot or the Prayer Book, will give him any result.

If you want to understand what the Prayer Book is talking about, then you should use the Prayer Book of Rashash. There you will find the meaning of the prayers presented in the Kabbalistic symbols – as adherence of the corrected desire (soul) to the Creator through the system of the spiritual worlds. The same thing is discussed in Tamud Eser Sefirot and, generally, in all the Holy Books. They all speak about one’s connection with the Creator, His revelation to a person.

To pray means to reveal the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love inside you. All other prayers are egoistic and therefore, do not attract the Upper Light. They only have a psychological effect on the person who prays.

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