A comment I received: I’m curious about other methods because Rav has mentioned them, and I’ve heard that there are other schools in America. In fact, the first Kabbalah book I read was written by an American author. I’m wondering what Rav thinks about other Kabbalah methods, even though I’m pretty sure that he has a negative opinion of them, judging by what he said about Madonna. Still, I’d like to know why he feels this way, and would appreciate a better explanation than “Other methods have nothing to do with Kabbalah.”

My Response: Instead of talking about some other methods in particular, I’ll tell you what authentic Kabbalah is.

It’s not amulets, red strings, holy water, Tarot cards, sorcery, blessings, fortunetelling, dream interpretation, self-help, or healing. That is to say, it’s not any of the things that pertain to our world, aiming to improve one’s life or to give one control over it.

Neither is Kabbalah the study of false Kabbalistic sources, that is, texts written by people who are not recognized Kabbalists, such as philosophers, theologians, researchers, modern gurus, and others.

Moreover, Kabbalah is not when one studies authentic Kabbalistic texts in order to know what they say or to be able to “manipulate” this knowledge as if one understands it. In truth, all this is nothing more than intellectual exercises.

Furthermore, Kabbalah is not the promises that religious leaders make of a better life, a reward in this world or in the world to come, which they wrongly believe awaits man after death.

All these methods aim to receive a profit or reward from the study of Kabbalah, either in this world or in the world to come.

But authentic Kabbalah is just one thing – “the revelation of the Creator to a person.” This means that within oneself, one reveals the property of love for one’s neighbor, the property of bestowal, and rejects one’s egoism – here and now! A person stops thinking about himself, and his only motivation is to improve the situation others are in, in order to give the Creator delight.

Obviously, this is not what a person wants when he first begins to study Kabbalah. Instead, he is driven by a desire to understand the meaning and purpose of his life, to answer the question “What am I living for?” or “What is worth living for?” But as he keeps studying, he gradually starts to understand that this world, and him, exist for a reason – to attain the Creator, the property of bestowal and love.

This property, “love for others,” is absolutely opposite to one’s egoistic nature. Therefore, the goal of Creation – for one to acquire this property – becomes revealed to a person gradually, as much as he’s capable of hearing about it. To this extent, he begins to understand the Kabbalistic texts, to feel what they describe through the newly acquired property of bestowal and love.

In the article, The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Baal HaSulam writes:
What is the wisdom of Kabbalah? To sum it all up, the wisdom of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator by all possible means. It’s the revelation of all His properties and manifestations, which are revealed in the worlds or which will be revealed in the future, until the end of all generations.

My Current Mood: jealous

* Myths About Kabbalah

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A question I received: What do you mean by saying that sex is the root of all our desires? What does Kabbalah have to say about everything that’s going on today surrounding sex, like pornography, prostitution, and so on?

My Answer: In Soviet times, there was a popular slogan that stated, “There’s no sex here!” It was meant to poke fun at people, because all pleasures are based on sex – that’s how nature has made us.

The reason for this is that in the spiritual world, sex represents a union of opposite desires with a mutual intention of pleasing one another. It’s when the soul receives for the sake of pleasing the Light, and the Light fulfills or pleases the soul. This union is called Zivug de Hakaa, an explosive union, where by means of an explosion the soul nullifies its egoistic use of egoism, and instead uses it to bestow or mate (Zivug). It does this to enable the birth of a new Partzuf – an act of fulfilling the Creator and uniting with Him. The way to tell whether an action is correct or not is to check whether a new Partzuf was born.

In relation to this, it’s written that after the destruction of the Temple, Kabbalists were the only people who could still enjoy sex. Why? It’s because they always develop greater desires as well as greater pleasures, but they do so in order to rise above them, that is, to receive for the sake of bestowal. There are many articles by different Kabbalists on this subject.

And I’ll tell you one more thing: Even on the lowest spiritual degree, a person is fulfilled billions times more than by anything he can experience in this world…

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Do what you can and the Lord’s deliverance is as a wink of an eye. And the most important thing today is the unity of friends. Exert in that tenaciously, as it can complement all deficiencies.
–Baal HaSulam, Pri Hacham (A Sage’s Fruit), Letters, p. 48

I have provided you with conducts by which you can nevertheless endure without regressing. The most special of them is adhesion (attachment) of friends. If you strengthen yourselves in that, you will certainly go from strength to strength on the rungs of sanctity.
–Baal HaSulam, Pri Hacham (A Sage’s Fruit), Letters, p. 142

Hence, I shall remind you of the power of love of friends, especially at this time, as upon this depends our right to exist, and by that is our near success measured. So put away all your imaginary dealings and let your hearts devise and contemplate the proper modes to bond your hearts as one. Then, the verse “love thy friend as thyself” will literally be applied within you.
–Baal HaSulam, Pri Hacham (A Sage’s Fruit), Letters, p. 144

One who is delivered by the Creator is delivered only when he needs deliverance today. One who can wait for tomorrow will gain his reason after his years. This happened to you because of neglect in my request to exert in love of friends. I have already told you in every possible manner that this remedy is sufficient to complement all your deficiencies.
–Baal HaSulam, Pri Hacham (A Sage’s Fruit), Letters, p. 56

I shall ask of you to exert in love of friends, devise ways that can increase love among friends, and revoke the body’s lusts, as this is what casts hate, and there cannot be hatred among those who bring contentment to the Creator. On the contrary, there is love and compassion among them.
–Baal HaSulam, Pri Hacham (A Sage’s Fruit), Letters, p. 145

If one does not have any desire and craving for spirituality, if he is among people who have a desire for spirituality, if he likes these people, he, too, will take their strength to prevail, and their desires and aspirations, although by his own quality, he does not have these desires and cravings and the power to overcome. But according to the grace and the importance he ascribes to these people, he will receive new powers.
–Baal HaSulam, Shamati, “He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous,” article no. 99

Love one another as much as you can, as much as you love yourselves. Sympathize with your friend’s adversity, and rejoice in his joy as much as you can.
–Baal HaSulam, Pri Hacham (A Sage’s Fruit), Letters, p. 54

One cannot raise oneself above one’s circle. Hence, one must suck from one’s environment. And one has no other counsel, except through much work and Torah. Therefore, if one chooses for oneself a good environment, one saves time and efforts, since one is drawn according to one’s environment.
–Baal HaSulam, Shamati, “Raising Oneself,” article no. 225

You must know that there are many sparks of sanctity in each of the friends. And when you gather all the sparks into one place, as brothers, with love and friendship, you will certainly have a very high level of sanctity.
–Baal HaSulam, Pri Hacham (A Sage’s Fruit), Letters, p. 56

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A letter I received: Dear Michael Laitman, I’ve been studying Kabbalah for about five years, and I’ve become more and more concerned about the fact that I no longer find anything new in the text. I’m wondering whether I need to deepen my understanding of the text. In my heart, I try to constantly pray to get closer to spirituality. I’ve also begun translating The Talmud using the dictionary from the book, The Science of Kabbalah. As I understand it, I’ve strayed from the path. What should I do? Should I apply more effort in my studies?

My Answer: I advise you to start studying regularly with us in our virtual lessons, connected with the virtual group. This will allow you to acquire greater thoughts and desires from uniting with others, and out of such a unity, you will create a vessel. This vessel will be within you. And you’ll start feeling fulfilled in this vessel through understanding the Thought of Creation. [Read more →]

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Do demons and spirits exist in our world? The Kabbalists describe demons and spirits in their books, while using words, names and descriptions of our world. So how does Kabbalah define demons and spirits?

As forces. All in all, there is nothing in the universe but forces. These forces make us depict all kinds of shapes and images within us, like on a TV or a computer screen. Everything we see in our world is the product of how these forces are displayed within us.

In the spiritual world there are no images whatsoever, but only forces and properties. Therefore, there’s nothing out there beyond the things that we clearly see. Names such as angels, devils, demons and so forth are used to indicate forces. For instance, you can call the force of gravity – the angel of gravity.

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A question I received from an attendee of the Israel Kabbalah Congress: The Kabbalah Congress in Israel was a great success in uniting so many people from so many different backgrounds, but after going back to our respective countries, why are we letting distance separate us so much?

My Answer: Because we are weaklings! Where’s that Boy Nipper Pipper who would give us wimps a good smacking, and make us furiously run into battle?

“Hey, get up everyone! Or are we boys only good for playing sticks and skipping rope?” (A. Gaidar, A Tale about a War Secret, about the Boy Nipper Pipper, and his Word of Honor). To guide us into this battle, Kabbalists have given us “The Ten Rules of Spiritual Work.” Three of these rules can be learned from an infant and seven of them can be learned from a thief:

The infant:
1. is happy for no reason,
2. does not rest even for a minute,
3. demands what he wants with all his might.

The thief:
1. works at night,
2. attempts to gain this night what has not been gained the previous night,
3. is loyal to his friends,
4. risks his life to gain even the most insignificant things,
5. does not value that which was stolen, and sells it for pennies,
6. is beaten, but does not turn from his path,
7. sees the advantages of his occupation and does not wish to change it.

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A question I received from Chanah, in response to the post Why Kabbalah Disgusts Us: I thought that existence in egoism is only a shadow of a far removed reflection of the Creator – so the Creator is not actually “making misery” … it’s our inability to sense correctly, right? What I sense as struggle is the fact that I cannot rely on most of my perceptions to navigate to the truth, yet I’m required to move forward.

My Answer: If we would continue progressing egoistically, remaining in our inborn egoistic nature, we would navigate ourselves with whatever we know in our familiar egoistic understanding of the world. However, if we want to progress toward spirituality, we need to exit our egoistic nature and enter into an opposite, unknown nature. As such, we need to progress “in the dark,” so to speak, in qualities and feelings that we don’t yet perceive, and continue progressing like this until we master these new qualities and learn to live in them.

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A question I received: Although Baal HaSulam writes that a spiritual person leaves for himself only what he needs to survive and gives the rest to society, for some reason you don’t advise anyone to act this way. Don’t you agree with Baal HaSulam? Or are you afraid that this will scare people off? For instance, even though I myself am in need of money, I’m still scared of this!

My Answer: All our actions must correspond to Nature’s law. Should that be the case, we would feel ourselves as Nature’s integral parts – in the World of Infinity, that is, in the state of eternity and perfection, just like Nature (the Creator) itself.

Kabbalah – the science of the whole of Nature – helps us reach this state not through blows and suffering, but through conscious development. [Read more →]

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Question for ML: What’s the connection between Kabbalah and Gematria? For instance, the Creator and Nature have the same numerical value in Gematria. What is Gematria and how does it prove anything? My Answer: It’s not a number game, as some people think. Kabbalists use Gematria to designate properties, forces and degrees that the soul goes through. There’s nothing hidden in it, and Kabbalists use it for no other purposes. Gematria is simply terms, or designations, indicating relationships between forces and phenomena in the Upper World, and its writer is a person who discovers and observes such relationships. “The Creator” and “Nature” are terms designating the all-encompassing general force.

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Kabbalah contradicts humans. This isn’t because it’s from a foreign nation or ancient civilization, and not because it’s mysterious or even antireligious… Kabbalah contradicts human nature, because human nature is egoistic. No single person will find anything more despicable than this method, which talks about the need to love others. Moreover, Kabbalah asserts that nobody can escape these changes within us either, because Nature (the Creator) makes our ongoing existence in egoism more painful with every passing minute. Even if it seems like we’ve managed to hide from the relentless law of development, which evolves us from egoism to altruism, Nature will still force us to achieve correction: either through suffering, or through our deliberate attraction of the force of correction. We feel this instinctively, which is why we resist it. And if someone doesn’t resist, it’s because he doesn’t yet know what he’s in for!

My Current Mood: worried

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