Two questions I received on expressing love and egoism

Question: Imagine a situation where a person who has no connection to Kabbalah sacrifices his life in battle to save his friend, even though he knows that he will die doing this. Isn’t this the revelation of the greatest love possible?

My Answer: In our world, this may very well be the greatest possible expression of love, but this is not the case in the Upper World. It’s because people are taught to die this way through education, examples, and brainwashing, which teach them concepts that they must adhere to, even at the expense of their lives. For example, submarine crews are trained in such a way. However, these people still remain as egoists, it’s just that they receive a different program of fulfilling their egoism. There are many instances when people risk their lives and even go to their death willingly. It is much more difficult to reject egoism than to die.

Question: Do egoists perceive the Upper World?

My Answer: They think they do.

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Two questions I received on this perfect system we live in:

Question: How is it possible that we perform actions that don’t exist in the Creator? That is to say, He doesn’t have to change His nature, but we do. Is this like sacrificing oneself for one’s new “I,” which is real and perfect?”

My Answer: I will slightly correct you: We were created perfect by the Creator, and as a consequence, we don’t perceive this perfection. Hence, He took us out of that state and put us in the opposite state, so we would find the best state on our own – and become convinced that this is exactly what He gave us from the beginning.

Question: I recently began studying Kabbalah, and have reached the conclusion that the diversity or “division” of human (corporeal) desires begets the retardation or as you have said, “the feeling of a dead end” in the development of science, technology, and humanity in general. Is this really so? Have I reached the right conclusion?

My Answer: Obviously, the more harmoniously this single organism of Nature works (in which only man adds disorder, because only he has the freedom of action), the higher is our state, until we reach the point where we perceive the world’s harmony. This is perceived on spiritual levels, degrees of unity with the Creator, the general force of Nature, to the degree that we are equal to him through bestowal and love.

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A question I received: How should a person who is beginning to study Kabbalah behave when he encounters a person whose desire to receive wants to harm their neighbor, taking the following into consideration:
1. There is none else but Him
2. The desire to bestow is good
3. Teach by example
4. If I don’t do it for myself, then who will?

My Answer: He needs to understand that the person standing before him probably isn’t a Kabbalist or a beginning student like himself, and that it’s likely that he’s misunderstood this person. These four conditions can be misunderstood to such an extent that they will allow absolutely anything to take place:
1. There is none else besides Him: anything is allowed since everything comes from the Creator;
2. Bestowing is good: I can pressure others to bestow and accuse them of stinginess when they don’t bestow;
3. I demand examples of good behavior from everyone: continue nurturing and educating me, while in the meantime, I haven’t been fully taught, so I can do anything I wish;
4. If I don’t do it for myself, then who will?: this is why I only care for myself. I know that I also need to care for others, but I don’t have enough time, etc. Instead, it should be read in the following manner: “If I don’t force myself to become corrected, then no one, even the Creator, will be able to do it,” because this is where one has free will.

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Two questions I received on corporeality’s relationship to spirituality:

Question: You’ve said that if people don’t study Kabbalah, it will lead to material consequences such as murder, destruction, and corporeal suffering, and that by studying Kabbalah, we can prevent the suffering. You have also said that the spiritual and the corporeal aren’t connected. How do you explain this contradiction?

My Answer: Spiritual forces operate from above downwards. They create and determine everything in the corporeal world. However, it is impossible to have a reverse effect, from below upwards, and influence the Upper World with one’s corporeal, physical actions. One can, however, influence the Upper World with one’s desires, by becoming similar and balanced with the Upper World to the extent of one’s desire for it. As a consequence, a force descends upon you from the Upper World – a Light that corrects you, making you similar to the Upper World.

Question: Is there a connection between a person’s place of residence and his luck, health, and happiness? How can someone find out where he should live?

My Answer: It doesn’t matter where one lives. It only matters if you live in a physically or spiritually dangerous place, near physical or spiritual criminals, because they influence you negatively. See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom,” section “The Environment as a Factor.”

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A question I received: Thank you very much for answering my questions and the questions of the visitor’s of your blog. Many things are becoming clear, but for some reason, more and more questions keep arising within me. Do you think that the books of Abulafia, Cordovero, Luzzatto, and others were written in the Kabbalistic language? Have they progressed Kabbalah with their attainments? Maybe they didn’t even know that they were Kabbalists?

My Answer: They were great Kabbalists, and one can only dream of becoming like them! However, if you read Baal HaSulam’s explanations about Kabbalah’s disclosure, you will understand that there were great Kabbalists that received no permission to disclose Kabbalah, and there were Kabbalists who were much smaller than them, but whose souls came from the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light), which gave them the opportunity to disclose Kabbalah. Accordingly, we choose the nearest source to us who was permitted to disclose Kabbalah – Baal HaSulam – and we base our studies on him. Once we study his works, then we can also start understanding the other Kabbalists properly.

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Two questions I received on Kabbalah and religion:

Question: I converted to Judaism five years ago, after an entire lifetime of studying and searching. Over the past several years I have been very devoted to Torah and its pardes. Now I have a dangerous question as a consequence of your lessons. When Bore Olam says: “my thoughts are not your thoughts,” and a sage says that the Torah is Bore Olam’s wisdom (that is His thoughts), does it mean that those Jews who observed Judaism over the last several thousand years understood everything incorrectly, and in reality, my search brought me to the wrong place?

My Answer: Without a doubt, you’re not in a perfect situation, and your place, just like everyone else’s place, is in the union with the Creator. If you search for this place, you’ll find Him.

Question: Were such great Kabbalists as Rav Baruch Ashlag, Moshe Cordovero, and others religious? And why do you wear a skullcap?

My Answer: It is not a question of faith. When Kabbalah refers to faith, it speaks of the perception of the Creator, the property of Bina, bestowal, which becomes revealed in us through the study of Kabbalah. I respect religious observances because they are my people’s cultural traditions. I understand that by observing them, I am not correcting my soul in any way, and that I observe only the framework within which my people lived over the entire course of history. Religious observances are not required in the study of Kabbalah.

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Question: What are the 613 desires?

My Answer: They are desires not for pleasures in our world, but are egoistically directed toward the Creator, and for this reason they are called “impure,” “Pharaoh,” and so on. In order to discover these desires within oneself, one needs to study Kabbalah and do a great deal of work upon oneself. While these desires are being discovered, the shame that Adam had discovered also begins to be felt, and begins to become corrected. As such, only through the study of Kabbalah can a person come to spiritual work, and the attain the goal of creation.

A dialog with a user called Caligula (from my Russian blog):

Caligula’s Comment: “Spirituality is above time, motion, and space; that is to say, when these parameters change in our world, they never influence a person’s spiritual state!” – that’s a quote. In other words, no matter what we do, study, and aspire to – it is all in vain and unnecessary.

My Response: That’s wrong! We cannot influence the Upper Light directly, but we can evoke it indirectly, by making efforts in the group and proper study. Read the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” item 155.

Caligula: Yes, but there’s more to it… If we follow Rav Laitman’s assertion in this case, we can reach an absurd conclusion – I don’t know what this is about, but you are demonstrating such great confidence in understanding what I said that it’s worthy of envy.

I am not speaking about regular people, but about those who aspire toward the Creator and study Kabbalah. Actually, I’m not the one saying this, but the Ari in Shaar HaKedusha. There he lists certain age-specific levels in a person’s life. A child is when the vessels of the will to receive haven’t yet developed; age 13 is when a person is already governed by his Yetzer Ra; and age 21 is when a person gains the ability to spiritually ascend

My Response: This is all wrong! Specifically, see the Ari in Etz Chaim or part 12 of Talmud Eser Sefirot. Birth means spiritual birth, regardless of one’s age. All people, except Kabbalists, die physically without even having been born spiritually.

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Two questions I received on what will happen to us at the time of final correction:

Question: After the full correction, will the corporeal world disappear forever? Or will it constantly return depending on our behavior?

My Answer: The full correction means that it’s final, marking the correction of all desires that the Creator created in the World of Infinity. Therefore, there is no longer any “return to the corporeal world,” as you say… by the way, there is no such thing as a return to an older desire that had been corrected and then became corrupted – that’s impossible. A “return to the corporeal world” in the spiritual work means the revelation of a new, uncorrected desire, which was always in you, but hidden from you until it became revealed. Therefore, once all desires become corrected, there is no more revelation of new, uncorrected desires.

Question: After the full correction, will there will be any more “natural disasters”? Do these phenomena happen only because the human race is opposite to the laws of nature, and not due to any other “natural” causes?

My Answer: Only we evoke all the natural phenomena, both good and bad. From the Creator’s side, everything is in balance.

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A question I received: I have a very important question! Fifteen years ago, I became religious and joined a religious school because the point of my soul awakened in my heart! I wanted Eternity, but did not know how. I found the studies at the religious seminary to be shallow, and anything that reached deeper required me to “break” my personality, making me sad and remorseful (for having a boyfriend). I cried, had conversations with “G-d,” felt hopeless, fearful, envious, and nullified my desires!

I tried to wipe out my personality, and suffered in order to become righteous! But it was all foolish! Little by little I understood that I was doing idolatry, yet I told myself that this was impossible – after all, it was the Torah! And all the rabbis said, “The Torah, the commandments!” For years I knew that this wasn’t it, and I was struggling, yet wasn’t able to explain it! I was studying at a very prestigious religious school in Jerusalem, with the best rabbis, yet I intuitively understood that they were lacking something! I felt depressed, alone, and couldn’t find myself. I argued with them, saying that they were engaging in questions of minor importance! A week ago, I was lucky to turn on the Kabbalah channel, and I said, “This is what I need! This is what I’ve been looking for!” That was after I saw just one TV show.

I got lucky! And this is just the beginning! I pity many rabbis! I got burned, not warmed, by their Torah! Maybe it’s because my father was a righteous man that I merited not to believe their nonsense, their empty words! I’m sorry for saying so, but in my opinion they are all the same – just lecturers!

Finally, here is my question. After being so suppressed, that I can’t even describe it, do I have a chance to be spiritually revived to the state I was born into? By my nature, I was connected to society, and I understood what “Israel” is, but religion spoiled this eternity for me! I apologize for such a long question and the efforts you’re making for me! In the past I thought, “It’s fine to break your character.” That’s what I was taught, and I simply wiped myself out, I fasted and was even happy to suffer spiritually. Later, I began crying because everything was passing me by!

Do I have a chance? If yes, what is it? It’s very important to me! Will I ever regain the strength I once had? I used to feel love for the people, love for deliverance, love for modesty, love for eternity, love for society! And suddenly all of this turned into anger, fear, failure, religious egoism, collecting commandments, and religious idolatry.

My Answer: Everything you studied, and everything that happened to you, was supposed to happen exactly the way it did, and will be of use to you. You shouldn’t accuse anybody, because until this moment in your life, everything took place according to the Creator’s will. From this moment onward, you should continue behaving as usual, but supplement your life with Kabbalah study. Start with the book Shamati (ed. see below), and then continue with the articles of Baal HaSulam. Or it could be better for you to listen and watch our lessons (ed. see below) instead of reading by yourself. Try it. You should only look forward – never backward!

The Book Shamati (I Heard):
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Lessons by Michael Laitman:
Daily Kabbalah Lessons given by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD are broadcast live on Kabbalah TV: 3:20am until 6:00am Israel (GMT+2) time, Sunday to Friday, [Time Zone Converter], and are archived on the Kabbalah Media Archive.

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Two questions I received on the connection between the corporeal and spiritual worlds:

Question: When a person starts developing spiritually, he loses interest in matters of this world, including university studies. I understand that it’s important to combine both worlds, but I don’t feel the connection between spiritual development and academic development. It’s written that the source of suffering is the lack of connection between the different parts of creation. How can I create this connection within myself, between the spiritual calling I am discovering and my responsibility as a student? How can I relate my academic studies to the goal of creation? Am I supposed to find the answer on my own, and see my confusion as just a part of my development?

My Answer: That’s right. Your confusion is part of your development. My practical advice for you is, in your thoughts, create an empty section in your mind that you will use to think about your academic studies, and with the rest of your mind, think about spirituality. Don’t mix one world with the other, and progress simultaneously in both. Good luck!

Question: How do I separate everyday life from the spiritual life?

My Answer: Other than studying Kabbalah in your free time, you shouldn’t change anything in your life. To avoid confusing Kabbalah, the study about “that” world, with life in “this” world, try thinking about Kabbalah with “one part of your mind,” and about our world with another part. Don’t appear different from other people in any way, or from the way you were in the past, and don’t talk about Kabbalah with anyone other than the people you study with. Study Rabash’s articles on the group (ed. see below) and bring them to realization. The most important thing is to be present (virtually) at least in a part of our daily lessons (see below).

Lessons by Michael Laitman:
Daily Kabbalah Lessons given by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD are broadcast live on Kabbalah TV: 3:20am until 6:00am Israel (GMT+2) time, Sunday to Friday, [Time Zone Converter], and are archived on the Kabbalah Media Archive.

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