Two questions I received on suffering:

Question: Why do our five senses feel our lack of similarity to spirituality as suffering?

My Answer: It’s because our senses are desires for fulfillment. They were fulfilled in the World of Infinity and were later emptied due to the breaking – the common soul’s separation into a multitude of separate parts or souls. Each soul has recollections (Reshimot) of the past fulfillment, and these Reshimot are now awakening and demanding fulfillment.

What you call suffering is this emptiness you are feeling. When you change your attitude to the sensation of suffering, then you will experience it as fulfillment and happiness. Our attitude or intention can change everything.

The actual state we’re in is static and constant; the only thing that changes is our attitude to it. It determines whether we feel ourselves as being in this world – in the concealment of the Creator, or in His revelation – on the degrees of the five worlds, or in the World of Infinity.

Question: What should I do if my only appeal to the Creator is: “Give me strength not to hate you,” and if despite my work in the group, dissemination, and lessons, the only thing I feel is that my situation at home is getting much worse, my economic circumstances are constantly deteriorating (and I can’t even find a job), and so on. I suddenly started feeling completely estranged from the Creator. Is it normal for Kabbalah to bring material devastation?

My Answer: Rabash told me how difficult it was for him to find work, and how many times he had to change jobs, which included being a shoemaker, a concrete worker, a scribe and a servant.

You must have the same attitude to this as everyone else, but at the same time, regularly (according to a set schedule) continue engaging in that for which you are living in this world – the correction of your soul. Be a little more humble – think that everything comes from the Creator, and the only thing you desire is to feel that this is so.

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A question I received: I have a question about the sages of the past. I have heard you mention that they used to sleep on the ground and restrict themselves in many ways. I was wondering why this was so, because we learn that only the Light can change us and also that Kabbalah forbids things such as starving ourselves, running away to a monastery, and so on. The way they behaved in the past seems just like Eastern teachings.

My Answer: It’s because the development of egoism (which determines all human development) is a process, and back then egoism was developed only on a small level. To attain correction, it was sufficient to limit oneself physically and study the Torah, as Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot“: “Eat bread with salt, drink little water, sleep on the ground, and labor in the Torah. If so you do, happy you will be; happy in this world and happy in the world to come.” This shows that no one revoked the correction by the Upper Light, because initially it is written: “I created egoism and I created the Torah for its correction, because its Light returns one to Me.”

However, later, during the destruction of the Temple (about 2,000 years ago), there was a sudden jump in the development of egoism, and people fell into egoism (the Temple was destroyed). Kabbalists then performed a special correction in the system of the Upper Worlds that govern us, so that instead of using restrictions, we would also use the Upper Light (Ohr Makif).

Hence, when a person with great egoism fasts (limits himself), then he usually begins to take pride in his actions and moves away from the goal even more. He thinks that by increasing the limitations and the details of observance, he will become more righteous. This is why Kabbalists completely canceled the outer, physical conditions, actions and limitations, and by so doing they moved away from religion even more. This was done because a person can get confused and think that physical actions amount to correction.

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Two questions I received on efforts and desires:

Question: When your desire is “turned on” from above, then you make efforts, but they don’t count as yours. On the other hand, when you don’t have a desire, you understand that you don’t have it. But if you then attempt to make efforts, then they also aren’t perceived as yours, but like they’re being “switched on” from above. How can I distinguish between my efforts and help from above? What is the difference?

My Answer: Stop trying to sort this out, as it will only confuse you. What’s important is to constantly:

1. Feel the importance of the goal,
2. Feel your own weakness,
3. Be convinced that the true desire will receive immediate help.

See Baal HaSulam’s article: “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before“(Achor Ve Kedem Tzartani).

Question: I’m sick and tired of waiting to cross the Machsom. I don’t want anything anymore, I hate everything, and nobody can help me.

My Answer: This is exactly the state from which you can ascend to the Machsom, with the help of the study, the group and the Creator! Do you understand that the Machsom is the opportunity to connect with others like yourself in order to reveal the quality of unity? Is anyone preventing you from doing this? If yes, then why aren’t you asking for help to be able to love your friends? What are you waiting for? And what is it that you hate so much?

The concealment (Tzimtzum) was done only on the Light of Hochma (reception), but not on the Light of Chassadim (bestowal, love). So if this is exactly what you want, then you will reveal it. The concealment (Tzimtzum) is inside you, and no one is concealing anything from you! What you have to do is go from reception to bestowal inside yourself, and then you’ll discover the quality of bestowal, the spiritual quality, inside you. It’s not supposed to come to you from “somewhere out there,” and you’re not supposed to ascend somewhere to cross the Machsom. Rather, the passage of the Machsom is a change of qualities inside you!

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A question I received: In one of your lessons you said, “To be kind means to give people spiritual food.” What is spiritual food?

My Answer: Spiritual food is the Light, that which corrects one’s soul and fills it. It’s because the only things in existence are the Light and the soul. The Light influences the soul, correcting or filling it according to the soul’s desire. If the soul is healthy, then the body will be healthy as well, but not vise versa – see the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” item 19:

“But this agony is felt only by the shell of our body, created only to be perished and buried. And that teaches us that the will to receive for oneself is created only to be eradicated, abolished from the world and turned into a will to bestow. And the pains we suffer are but discoveries of its nothingness and the harm in it.

Indeed, when all human beings agree to abolish and eradicate their will to receive for themselves, and have no other desire but to bestow upon their friends, all worries and jeopardy in the world will cease to exist. And we will all be assured of a healthy and complete life, since for each and every one of us there will be a whole world ready to satisfy his every need.

Indeed, when everyone has only the will to receive for himself, from here originate the pains, the wars and slaughter which we cannot escape. They weaken our bodies with all sorts of sores and maladies and you find that all the agonies in our world are but manifestations that are offered to our eyes, so as to push us to annul the evil shell of the body and take on the complete form of the will to bestow. And it is as we’ve said, that the Path of Pain in itself can bring us to the desired form.”

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Two questions I received on how to tell whether Kabbalah is the right method:

Question: My question has two parts:

1. Besides Kabbalah there are many methods of revealing the Creator. I can agree that they don’t explain the structure of the Upper Worlds or the rules of governance, but why would a person who is united with the Creator need this anyway? And if the goal of creation is adhesion with Him, then why does Kabbalah deny all other methods of attaining this? Besides, someone studying Kabbalah is not guaranteed to attain the goal of creation – it doesn’t have the “guarantees” that other sciences provide.

2. Physically you look a lot like Osho (or Osho looks like you). Both of you interest me and have my respect. Forgetting the terminology for a minute, you bring Light to the people through the power of logic (physics), and Osho did it through the beauty of poetry (lyrics), but your content is the same. How can I know whether you have really tested your path? Without this verification, Kabbalah is no different than any other religion and requires blind faith.

My Answer: The answer is inside you. A question is the sensation of an empty desire, and its fulfillment is the proof.

Question: In a previous blog entry, you wrote: “The problem with amulets, spells, and mysticism is that they distract us, and we start being late with correcting ourselves. This causes an accumulation of evil that’s expressed as suffering.” But what if it’s too late by the time a person understands this?

My Answer: Nature treats us according to our similarity to it, and to the extent we realize how similar or dissimilar we are to it. It’s the same as how in this world, our judgment of someone who made a wrong action changes depending on whether the action was intentional or not. Suffering that comes from unintended dissimilarity to nature forces us to discover this dissimilarity, and hence it is a correcting signal of an “illness.”

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Two questions I received on how Kabbalah answers the question of life’s meaning:

Question: Why should Kabbalah be studied only by those who have lost their way in life, in their interests and goals? Why shouldn’t people who are successful and talented study it too? It sounds like you’re saying that not all people are equal when it comes to their aspiration to get rid of egoism.

My Answer: Kabbalah only answers the question about the meaning of life, which may be expressed by any of the following questions: “What is the purpose and meaning of life? What’s the purpose of so much this suffering? Who needs it, who receives pleasure from it? Who receives, and who can I give to?” Only people who persistently ask these questions need Kabbalah, because they won’t find the answers to them anywhere else!

Question: One of the forefathers of Kabbalah asked the question, “What’s the meaning of my life?” After this he had such a great epiphany that he was able to write down the method for having this epiphany, which he named Kabbalah. I think it’s highly unrealistic to say that he was the only one who asked this question – there must have been at least a few other individuals of the Homo sapien species who also asked this question before him.

My Answer: To ask the question “What’s the meaning of my life?” is still not enough to reveal the Upper World, its system of operation, and program of governance. One also needs to receive a special desire (a soul) and a mission (its realization). This is not given to a person according to his initial purpose only, but also depends on his efforts. You should try to have an “epiphany” like this happen to you as well!

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Three questions I received on dealing with fears and doubts on the path to revealing the Upper World:

Question: I have been drawn to Kabbalah for the last two years. My problem is that although I read the books you recommend and try to study, I seem to get no understanding. I worry that the Creator hasn’t opened my point in the heart. Also, when I feel as though something real might be taking place in me, some external influence takes my attention from my studies. Does this mean that this isn’t my time for drawing nearer to the Creator?

My Answer: No. You just need to:

1. Accumulate inside you the desire for the correct goal.
2. Realize that you cannot correct yourself – only the Light can correct you in accordance with the goal.

This is the only way to reveal the Upper World. It takes time and a certain amount of effort and experience. Concerning the efforts, it is written that you have to be “As an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load,” and “Know that it’s not up to you to complete this work, but you are also not free to leave it.”

If you accept these conditions for changing your nature, then you will attain the goal. You will reveal the Upper World inside the property of bestowal, and then you’ll discover that our entire world is but a small, insignificant dimension.

Question: Is crossing the Machsom the most difficult part in the spiritual ascent? Once you cross over, is the process accelerated?

My Answer: Yes, it is accelerated by many times, and this happens clearly in your perception and awareness.

Question: Rav, I’ve read that as one studies Kabbalah, he is shown his egoistic side and that as the Creator wants someone to advance, His blows against him are harder and harder.

In the past few months, my “luck” (for lack of a better term) has gotten much worse. What is the Creator telling me? That I am not putting enough effort into Kabbalah? I feel beaten down. My only consolation is that maybe, just maybe, this is the precursor to the Creator correcting my egoism. But what if I’m wrong? I think we are all here studying Kabbalah because of the promise of the reward, but am I doing something wrong to be on such a path of pain while trying to reach the goal of correction?

My Answer: You must read the Shamati articles immediately. Precisely your current state will help you understand what the Creator wants from you.

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Two questions I received on the soul:

Question: After everything that has been said, I still don’t understand – does the soul exist? You said that we don’t have a soul and that we need to develop the point in the heart, which will evolve into a soul. On the other hand, you said that the soul incarnates into a body. So do we have a soul or not? Are we the soul? If not, then what are we?

My Answer: We are the animate level of the will to be filled by pleasure, or the will to receive pleasure. Inside this will to receive arises the will to bestow pleasure, or in other words – the will to be filled with the property of bestowal. This desire is called “the point in the heart.” As its name indicates, the point in the heart is small and does not have room in which it can feel fulfillment from bestowal. It is clothed by the “heart” – desires of the animate (bodily) and social levels, desires for the pleasures of our world.

If we develop this point through the influence of the Upper Light (which descends during Kabbalah study by the authentic sources, especially when studying in the group) until the smallest necessary size – the first ten Sefirot, then inside these Sefirot we will discover the property of bestowal, Ohr Hozer, and pleasure from bestowal, Ohr Hassadim.

Hence, the soul is the property of bestowal, according to the definition: “The soul is a part of the Creator from above.” It is the degree of one’s similarity to the Creator. But as long as we haven’t acquired the smallest property of bestowal, we remain animals.

Question: My husband is Jewish and I am not, and he tries to practice his belief. But from him and many rabbis I have been told that we cannot belong together because my soul is not pure. I tend to disagree – I have a soul and I think I am here to repair and prepare my soul for the Upper World.

My Answer: Tell him that neither of you have a soul. However, you already have the rudiment of the soul coming through – the point in the heart, but he still doesn’t have anything. And even if the point in the heart will also emerge in him, it will be much worse than yours because his point once fell from the spiritual level into the egoistic level, which makes it impure (Klipa), whereas yours is better in comparison to his because it has never been in the spiritual world and hence it did not fall from it. It is written, “When Israel falls (from the spiritual level of love and bestowal, which happened during the fall of the Temple), it is worse than everyone (its egoism is worse than the egoism of all the nations of the world), and when it rises (becomes corrected), it becomes higher than everyone.”

In addition, your husband is obligated to correct himself quickly, and then to help you and the entire world to correction (this is the meaning of Ohr Le Goim – being a Light onto the nations). See “The Preface to the Book of Zohar,” items 70 and 71. Hence, before he is corrected, you are better than him. And after the correction, everyone is equal.

My Comment: Religion believes that a person does not have to correct himself through the commandments, but just observe them. It says that one does not have to change from being an egoist to loving his neighbor.

The reason for this is that religion does not have the instrument of correction, the Upper Light, the Light of the Torah. It is written: “I created egoism and I created the Torah for its correction” – and only Kabbalah engages in this. This is why religion does not urge people to observe the main condition of the Torah – “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” but instead tells everyone to egoistically follow as many prescriptions as possible.

The deception of it is that there is actually no reward for following them! The only possible reward one can have is to come closer to the Creator – to attain adhesion (Dvekut) with Him. And this is only possible through similarity to Him, and cannot be attained through any action other than Kabbalah study!

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Questions I received on how to get through the difficult times on the path:

Question: You live and work, raise your children, and study Kabbalah for a hobby. Everything is good. You even think that you’re successfully managing your life in both worlds – this world and the spiritual world. But suddenly you lose your job, your house, and your savings, and in addition someone in your family gets very sick. And for some reason, along with this world, your “spiritual world” falls apart too. Does this mean that everything you attained in spirituality was only a higher form of egoism, a desire for knowledge?

My Answer: This only means one thing: your conditions for advancement have changed, and now you are being offered new conditions for advancement. Why? Because this is how the common desire (the common soul) develops, and you are one of its parts (a particular soul). If you don’t want to advance under the new conditions, then you will leave the path of individual development, and from then on you will be led down the general path of suffering, “forced to happiness.”

Question: “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! Wherefore would ye have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light!” (Amos, 5:18) Initially the Light blinds all of our senses and seems like total darkness. However, this darkness is useful for one who aspires toward spirituality, since it shuts off all egoistic aspirations, and one’s egoism loses all interest in spirituality. And only one who keeps on stubbornly moving toward the Goal, “harnessed” together with Rav and the Creator, receives support, assistance and instruction. He then surmounts this part of the path, “the darkness of the night.”

I must admit that I am still a denizen of this world – the world of darkness, and I need the Light in order to acquire “sight,” the ability to see in the world of Light. My question is: What else can a student of yours add to all that he is already doing to attain this?

My Answer: Only more efforts to unite all aspirations toward one goal. It’s because the Creator, the quality of love and bestowal, is revealed only in the unified desire to be together in one desire, to reveal the property of love and bestowal between the souls.

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Questions I received on various discernments one makes along the spiritual path:

Question: Baal HaSulsam says, “Make yourself a Rav and buy yourself a friend.” What is the difference between “making” and “buying?” And how do you make and buy someone?

My Answer: “To make” means to exalt someone (to see them as great), and “to buy” means to invest in someone. For more on this, see Baal HaSulam’s article “A Speech in Celebration of the Conclusion of The Zohar.”

Question: What should I do with all the different feelings of sadness and depression that I experience? Most of these feelings are related to thoughts that it will still take me a very long time to correct myself, and to correct the world in general.

My Answer: Become more incorporated into the world Kli, and read quotes of Kabbalists about the importance of what we are doing. Let other readers give you advice about what to read from their experience.

You’re worried that it will take a long time? But you have your entire life, which was given to you just for this!

Question: I have been studying Kabbalah for a long time, but I still don’t quite understand – what is a Reshimo?

My Answer: It is information about the future spiritual degree, which demands to be realized.

Question: Why does every person receive a unique situation in life in order to advance?

My Answer: It’s because every person has unique initial properties and a unique final state. Nevertheless, the method of correction is the same for everyone.

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