A question I received: I am a single, 31 year old woman, and a few rabbis I met advised me to change my name, even though I never even asked them anything about this. So I talked to my parents, and it turned out that my father is against it. What’s your say on this? Is it important? Is it worth doing?

My Answer: Kabbalistic books say that changing your name means changing your luck. “Name” corresponds to attainment: Kli, 26 in Gematria, and the Light in it together provide the name to your spiritual attainment. Nothing here relates the corporeal world. However, if you change the name people call you, it might help you psychologically.

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

A question I received: Do Kabbalists need an army? King David was fighting and it did not prevent him from attaining the Creator. Should the Israeli army become an army of Kabbalists? Of course, a war has to be fought on the levels higher than our world but we always say that until Gmar Tikkun (final correction) we have to react adequately on all corporeal dangers. The more Kabbalah spreads, the more it will attract enemies who will fear and hate it because of its mysterious force. Egoism will react, defending itself by all means. Maybe we need to create a Kabbalistic “militia”?

My Answer: In general, all correction should take place at the level of forces/desires. However, when a man fails, or moreover, if he doesn’t want to correct himself and thus breaks his communication with the Creator, with the Light, with the desires at that level, then that same Light will influence him on the level at which he descended: our corporeal level, “our world.” Then, all the forces he should have corrected become his enemies, diseases, and other plagues at the level of our world. Thus, the need to fight each other at the level of our world is a consequence of the failure to correct our egoism, the failure to achieve “Love Thy Neighbor,” and the failure to correct ourselves in due time. If we would have succeeded in correcting ourselves, then all wars would have taken place at the level of forces. Kabbalists have their forces, and as such, have no need for an army. I’m positive that the world will see a need in us, and won’t see us as enemies.

Filed under: Spirituality - 3 Comments →

A comment I received to my post “Religions are Expressions of Culture, Not Absolute Higher Knowledge”: All the religions that exist in our world are not real. They are nothing more than cultural traditions. Baal HaSulam writes about genuine religion in his article, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.” There he answers three questions: “What is the essence of religion? Is religion’s purpose attained in this world or in the world to come? Is religion intended for the good of the Creator or the good of the creatures?” Further on he explains what genuine religion is, and it’s clear that by the word “religion,” he means Kabbalah. What should this religion lead to? It should lead to man’s correction. And how will this correction be realized? It’ll be realized through the Light that returns us to the source, called “Torah.”

My Response:
But still, a question remains:
What religion is common to all?
What’s your opinion?

Filed under: Spirituality - 5 Comments →

A question I received: Man is the most intelligent creature on the planet. Yet the more intelligent and developed he is, the more he wholeheartedly believes in the biggest nonsense. People accept superstitions without any criticism. And the same thing happens when “smart” men, with academic degrees and professorial positions, begin to mumble something about God and faith, start spitting when they see a black cat, or throwing the dice with their “lucky” hand. Why does this happen? Why does a rational person become totally brainless when he encounters the unexplained?

My Answer: A smart person is one who understands that he actually doesn’t understand anything and never will. He sees the limits of what’s attainable and the limited human ability to attain. This is a sign of great development, and the reason behind today’s renewed interest in religion. Such an interest, however, will be short-lived. It will be replaced by disappointment and the revelation of Kabbalah, which provides knowledge, the means to attain the Upper world, eternity, and control over one’s fate.

A question I received: How does Kabbalah explain the existence of psychics and their abilities?

My Answer: Psychic ability is nothing more than a sensation on the animate level of our world: a sensation of the human organism, nature, and society. Kabbalah has no engagement with this level, because it will ultimately vanish.

Related Material:
* Myths About Kabbalah – a page that aims to clear up commonly associated myths about Kabbalah.

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

A question that I received: How can it be that a woman is incapable of independently merging with the Creator if that is her desire? Can there even be a desire without the potential to be fulfilled? If women feel the need to merge with and feel the Upper World, do they need to study and pray for the men’s mercy so that they would fulfill this need? If they are incapable of making any independent steps toward drawing closer to and attaining the Upper One, that right there says that from the very beginning they’re inferior to and smaller than the men.

My Answer: Men don’t have an independent desire to merge with the Creator either: they need to pass their desire through the group. In other words, in place of their own desire to receive, they need the desire of the group – the desire to bond the souls with the Light of the Creator, the Light of bestowal and love (toward one’s friend). This is the state the souls were in before the breaking of the vessels. It is the only desire that the Light perceives, and it is the only desire that the Light realizes (corrects).

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: It’s good to be able to justify, but how can I do it if I feel a burning anger for the whole world? I mean, a person has nothing but his own feelings, and if he feels bad, then how can he justify it? I know that you have to remember everything as coming from above, and that “there is none else beside Him.” But what about everything that is truly wrong? Even when I do appeal to the Creator to save me from my feelings, and to correct my intention, I feel stuck. What should I do?

My Answer: We can’t correct our own selves; only the Upper Light can, because only the Upper Light can create every action in our world. We are under the illusion that we do things. We move as if we’re in the dark, thinking that we are this world’s active objects. However, in reality, our desires influence the Upper Light and evoke its reactions to the degree of our similarity or dissimilarity to Him. The Upper Light’s program is to raise us to become like Him. If our actions are against this program, we then evoke upon ourselves its corrective response, the negative force – suffering. If we study His action, and aspire to become like Him and correspond to His program, we’ll then start feeling comfortable. We’ll begin revealing the Light – the Creator – and feeling ourselves inside Him, in the world of eternity and perfection.

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: What do you think, will Kabbalah be able to compromise with other teachings, or will it swallow everything in its process of spreading? I’m talking with regard to religions, other views of Kabbalah, and other teachings in general. We who spread Kabbalah will have to react in some kind of way sooner or later. So how should we react?

My Answer: Truth will emerge on its own, but by means of lengthy suffering, wars, and destruction. Every person who disseminates Kabbalah is motivated by the aspiration to diminish the suffering of the masses. Thus, to answer your question of how we should react: we need to speak the truth about the world and the cause of suffering. And then, should we criticize others in the process? Generally, no – because the evolution of egoism itself will bring them to their failure, and they will gradually change and become like Kabbalah, or they’ll disappear altogether. Compromising means coming to terms on common grounds and agreeing on certain matters, but this is impossible when it comes to Kabbalah, as there is no compromising with the laws of nature.

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

A question I received: My name is Noga and I receive messages from angels. I feel that my purpose and mission is to help people, and deliver them these messages. I am interested in studying Kabbalah, and I watch your broadcasts every morning. What I wanted to know is whether Kabbalah believes in this ability to communicate with angels? And is it positive?

My Answer: Angels are not images but forces, just like any other force in our world, such as gravity, pressure, radiation, and so on. Being at the level of these forces means ascending spiritually to the levels of the worlds Yetzira and Beria, and acquiring the equivalent forces of bestowal at these levels, instead of the desire to perceive, as is the case with you. You will see just how difficult this is to do when you read the article “Preface to the Book of Zohar.” My suggestion to you is to either stop fooling yourself or stop studying Kabbalah, which is nothing other than a science of self-correction.

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

A question I received: In order for people to understand one another, i.e. to speak “one language,” they need to operate with the same concepts. I think that you are often misunderstood because when we hear your Kabbalistic terms, we inject our own familiar meaning into them. So can you please definite the following terms:

My Answer:
Desire – the entire material of Creation, the place where Light (the sensation of the Creator) is received.
Intention – the purpose, the goal for which an action is performed.
State – a sensation in the desire and intention.
Feeling – a) sensory organ, b) sensation.
Sensation – the desire’s reaction to what it feels within.
Perception – the measure of sensation.
Joy – the sensation of fulfillment within oneself or in another.
Euphoria – the feeling above the Masach (screen).
Sorrow – the sensation of the absence of what is desired.
Sadness – a state of low fulfillment.

Related Material:
* Kabbalistic Terminology

Filed under: Spirituality - 4 Comments →

A question I received in response to my post “Abortion – How Does Kabbalah View It?”: What does Kabbalah think of sex that’s not intended for reproduction?

My Answer: Kabbalah treats all expressions of egoism in our world simply as expressions of egoism, and we shouldn’t think about them. Instead, we should think about egoism’s essence – the intention “for one’s own sake.” If this intention was to become corrected and turned into the intention “for the sake of the Creator,” then all of our actions would become spiritual.

Related Material:
* One Law – article by M. Laitman

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →