This Sunday from 4:00pm to 5:15pm I gave another virtual lesson. It was the sixth lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.”
You can join us live for these lessons, or you can watch or listen to them using the links below.
News Report (from Leadership Nigeria): Pope Benedict XVI yesterday warned that the world was swimming toward ruin if self-interest prevails over solidarity during tough economic times… Benedict said, “If people look only to their own interests, our world will certainly fall apart.”
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Two questions I received on finding the truth:
Question: I have a friend who started studying Kabbalah with Bnei Baruch but left because you are a liar (at least that’s what he says). Personally I think he’s accusing of this because sometimes you say contradictory things. However, later I realize that I misunderstood you or that you were just explaining something very succinctly. Yet your opinion is still unclear on many things.
Sometimes you say one thing, and then you contradict yourself, and I can understand how my friend – who is interested in Kabbalah and understands that there is much truth in it – finds it difficult to study with you. I don’t even know what to tell him. I will be glad to hear your answer.
My Answer: I won’t try to defend myself. Listen to the explanations by my teacher, Rabash (all the recordings of his lessons are available online), and check: how do you understand him? Don’t listen to me, but read the original articles by Baal HaSulam (which is what we study), and instead of my explanations, try to understand them on your own.
A person should choose a teacher that suits his personality, goal, and so on, as it is written, “Let a person study where his heart feels joy.” Why is it possible for different places of study to exist? It’s because as long as a person’s desire for the Upper Goal hasn’t formed inside him, he feels drawn to this goal in different ways: by withdrawing from the world, through religions, “spiritual” practices, diets, omens, and so on. We cannot interfere with this, because one has to go through the search for the truth on his own.
So it’s possible that your friend is still at this stage of searching. For example, some people who come to study with me are just “passing by” and they later turn to religion.
I explain things to the extent of my knowledge, attainment, and ability to express what I feel and realize (in the heart and mind). Your accusations are sincere, and they should emerge in a student as he studies Kabbalah, because everything is built through combining two things that are incompatible: egoism and the Creator. Perhaps you still have to sort things out, and possibly look for a different place of study. But one way or another, the truth will become revealed.
Question: How do we make “sure” that the Kabbalah teachings we receive are truly Kabbalah? Since it’s a very high level of knowledge, how can the clueless make sure he is receiving true Kabbalah, and not “mysticism”? How can someone who does not know Kabbalah filter the teachings to make sure he is on the right path?
My Answer: Don’t believe anyone! Regardless of what anyone might say, he could be a liar. And the more eloquent and persuasive he is, the greater liar (or actor) he could be.
It’s also possible that a good, honest person is speaking from the bottom of his heart, but he is simply mistaken. So who can you believe? No one! Everything was arranged this way in our world on purpose, to enable a person to shape himself by searching for the truth. One does it precisely through doubts, without any foundation, belief, or hope placed in someone else. It’s like he hangs over a cliff, not knowing how to take the next step.
You are the only one who can find the truth. But if you believe what someone else says, then you won’t be realizing yourself and will remain a puppet. Hence, the lack of confidence and the total disorientation will force your egoism to turn to the Creator. This is how He entices us to Him!
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A question I received: You used to say that Kabbalah is only for those who want to listen and study, for those who aspire to reveal the Creator. But now you say that everyone has to hear about it, even if they don’t aspire to the same thing. Why this change of opinion? Do you think that because of the global financial crisis, we now have to involve even those who couldn’t care less about Kabbalah, or about anything at all but their earthly, egoistic desires?
My Answer: I don’t think anything myself. This is what Baal HaSulam wrote, and I am just following his instructions as much as possible. I am certain that only this knowledge can benefit the world. And if someone disagrees, I don’t take their opinion into consideration! How can I consider the opinions of people who can’t see beyond their egoism, don’t understand the world’s governance, and don’t feel the Creator and His actions? If you have the remedy for a dying patient, how can you just stand by and not hand it to him?
In your opinion, who should people listen to if not the Kabbalists? The global nature of the crisis indicates that everyone must know about the reason for their suffering. This is exactly why Kabbalah is now being revealed. See the articles “Time to Act,” “Messiah’s Horn,” and others.
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A question I received: In the article, “Building the Future Society,” in item 18 of section 3, “Principles of the Future Society,” Baal HaSulam lists three fundamental principles of disseminating Kabbalah in the world:
1. Satisfaction of Desires; 2. Proof; 3. Circulation.
From your lessons I’ve understood that in our time of an escalating crisis, the method of “Proof” is the most suitable. But what is your opinion about the method of “circulation” (agitation and propaganda)? Is it necessary in order to accelerate the dissemination of Kabbalah?
My Answer: When we’re dealing with a patient who has a deadly illness, we use any means possible to save him. Similarly, if we are in a situation that threatens the world’s existence, we must use any means possible to prevent the suffering, ruin and death. However, in our case, circulation (agitation and propaganda, as you put it) must be a non-coercive explanation of the fact that we won’t survive without using the method of Kabbalah. The dissemination of Kabbalah must be general, directed at everyone rather than at specific individuals. We cannot try to scare people into it, because in order for a person to correct himself, he must gain an awareness of the reality.
The correction of one’s egoism (one’s nature) is the only truly conscious act a person can make in this world, because he does it through understanding and comparing this world with the spiritual world! All other actions are made only from one’s understanding of the egoistic world and false gain, where one is entirely controlled by one’s egoism, like a puppet.
Hence, it is written about people who haven’t yet begun analyzing their nature and comparing it with the Upper Nature: “They are all like beasts.” It’s because “Man” (Adam) means “To be similar to the Creator.” It is also written, “Let us make man in our image and likeness” – from the beginning. After this man’s ruin (the downfall of sin) occurred, and this is what we must correct.
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Two questions I received on Kabbalah’s relation to other sciences:
Question: When you say Kabbalah is a science, do you mean in the ancient sense of the word? That is, Kabbalah is a body of knowledge (either practical or theoretical wisdom)? Or are you using it in a more modern way: Kabbalah is like chemistry, biology, and geology?
My Answer: Kabbalah reveals the nature of the Upper Light to us. A spark of this Light caused an explosion that created our entire Universe and everything that fills it: the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, including the animate part of humans.
By studying the foundations of everything that exists – matter (desire) and the Light (pleasure), we learn the basis of all the objects and phenomena in our world. For more on this, see the article, “Kabbalah as a Root of All Sciences,” and Part 1 of Talmud Eser Sefirot – Inner Observation.
Question: Kabbalah is not philosophy, but is one philosophy more compatible with it than another? Are there any truths found in philosophy even if they only speak of this world?
My Answer: There is no truth in philosophy because it engages in questions that it has invented for itself, or it tries to answer questions based on suppositions that are unrelated to practical experience (it tries to speak about the “abstract form”).
Even when philosophy speaks about our world, it doesn’t reason about it practically. That is to say, it speaks about something as a form or essence that’s separate from matter. Kabbalah, on the other hand, speaks of the form or essence inside matter and about the form of the matter (see the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”). Therefore, all the philosophical conclusions made throughout all of human history were erroneous at worst, or imprecise at best. See Baal HaSulam’s articles on this topic.
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News Report (from Federal Highway Administration): “Nearly 10 Billion Fewer Miles Driven in May 2008 than May 2007” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters said that Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) in May 2008 than in May 2007, according to the Federal Highway Administration data. … This continues a seven-month trend that amounts to 40.5 billion fewer miles traveled between November 2007 and May 2008 than the same period a year before, she said.
My Comment: This will not only put an end to a completely excessive production, but will also help clean up the atmosphere. This is one example of nature using alternative methods to force man to become an ecologically integral part of it.
News Report (from The Wall Street Journal): “An Ode to Oil” by Roger Howard: While there are, of course, circumstances in which oil can exacerbate tensions and be a source of conflict, it can also act as a peacemaker and source of stability. … Leonid Fedun, a top official at Lukoil, Russia’s No. 2 oil producer, admitted … that “the period of intense oil production [growth] is over.” Without foreign money and expertise to extract offshore oil and prolong the lifespan of existing wells, Russian production will fall dramatically.
My Comment: And that’s how we get operation “forcing peace” – through oil! The Russian economy is based on oil production, and from now on it will be dependent on foreign investments and technologies. This will force Russia to make peace with other nations.
News Report (from The Economist): According to Google’s annual list of popular search terms, even in these times of economic crisis, people are most concerned with working out what love is.
My Comment: This shows the truth of the verse, “Love and hunger rule the world.” The forces of nature (Reshimot and the Light) acting within us will force us, in accordance with nature’s plan, to ascend from the animate love and hunger to the spiritual ones: hunger for unification, and fulfillment by the common Light of love.
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Two questions I received on humiliation and humility:
Question: Baal HaSulam writes in the book Shamati, in article #27, “What Is, The Lord Is High And The Low Will See,” that if a person annuls his “I,” he sees the Creator! What is this feeling of shame and humiliation that is being spoken of here? Why does the world humiliate and degrade him?
My Answer: A person who corrects himself constantly receives new, additional portions of egoism so that by correcting them he can rise even higher. This is how he rises through all 125 degrees until reaching the full correction.
In order to help a person overcome the new egoism that is constantly being revealed in him, the Creator sends him the disdain of the society. Otherwise a person would hear praise from the society and “sell himself” for it. He would begin to enjoy the honor and glory of being a “righteous man,” since he still doesn’t have the protection of the next portion of egoism that will be revealed.
Question: It is written that the Creator loved Moses for his humility. I see that different trials in life make us more humble. You recommend for us to see our friends as being greater than us. What does it mean to be humble? When we nullify ourselves, how do we avoid making the same mistake as the followers of the Eastern teachings make?
My Answer: The humility does not come from “killing the flesh” or self-destruction, but from:
1. Realizing that you cannot go through correction on your own, but you aspire to this and desire the Upper Light to correct you. A person cannot correct anything about him on his own! Otherwise, instead of being humble, he will feel proud of his humility!
2. Humility emerges as a result of revealing the Creator’s greatness. One who does not reveal the Creator by studying Kabbalah, does not attain humility and is sure to be full of empty pride.
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A question I received: The Book of Zohar states that in the year 66, the Messiah will be revealed in the Land of Galilee. What does that mean? And what will happen then? Will there be war?
My Answer: It means that Channel 66 (our organization’s Kabbalah TV Channel) will give people the strength to correct their egoistic nature, and by doing so they’ll rise from the sensation of our world to the sensation of the Upper World. The Messiah is the force that elevates man out of egoism into the quality of bestowal!
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Every Sunday, I give a virtual lesson from 4:00pm to 5:15pm Israel time. This week’s virtual lesson was lesson #5 on Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.”
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