News Report (from The Independent): In an article called “Scientists prove it really is a thin line between love and hate,” Steve Connor, The Independent’s science editor, reports: “Scientists studying the physical nature of hate have found that some of the nervous circuits in the brain responsible for it are the same as those that are used during the feeling of romantic love – although love and hate appear to be polar opposites … the ‘hate circuit’ shares something in common with the love circuit.”

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, the difference between love and hate lies only in the aim of one’s intention: “toward oneself” or “away from oneself.” Furthermore, if we begin doing systematic work to acquire the feeling of love, then we will feel that we “come out of ourselves.” There – “outside of ourselves” – we will feel a completely different flow of time, space and perception, to the point that we will cease perceiving ourselves, and replace “self” with “others.” By transferring the center of perception from “inside of us” to “outside of us,” we will feel the Upper World, the Creator. We will feel this precisely in the desires of others!

Question: What is the spiritual root of unrequited love?

My Answer: There is no such thing as unrequited love in spirituality! It exists only in our world, when one’s egoism doesn’t feel that it could be fulfilled by one’s partner. It’s because our egos distance us from one another, and everything is built upon using one another.

However, when there is a spiritual connection, then everything is built upon bestowal and complementing one another. To the degree we are corrected, this definitely happens.

Related Material:
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Preface to the Science of Kabbalah (“Pticha”) – Item 1, summary:

1. The Creator’s plan is to create the creatures in order to delight them. This is why He created the will to receive pleasure – the pleasure that He wishes to bestow. This desire is the creation that was created.

The Creator’s desire to fulfill is infinite, and therefore the desire to enjoy He created is also infinite.

The pleasure (the Light) creates a matching desire (Kli or vessel) for itself. Hence they are completely interconnected from the very beginning. Nevertheless, the pleasure is primary, and the desire it created is secondary. The pleasure determines the desire, although both stem from the Creator.

The Light exists in the Creator from the very beginning, whereas the will to receive (pleasure) He created is something essentially new, which never existed before. That’s because the only desire the Creator has is to love and bestow.

Desire is the essence of the creation, its matter. All of the various creatures originate from it; they are different “portions” of the desire. All the events happening to them are changes in their desires.

Everything that the desires or creatures have, everything that fulfills their desires, is Light or pleasure which comes directly from the Creator.

Therefore, everything that exists is comprised of the Light and the Kli, and comes from the Creator. It either comes directly – as Light, or indirectly – as the desire, which is absent in the Creator, but was created by Him for delighting the creatures.

Related Material:
Download PDF version of Pticha

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Questions I received on the soul’s correction:

Question: Which actions bring about the soul’s correction?

My Answer: When the quality of bestowal is born in a person, helping him rise above his egoism.

Question: How is this expressed on the corporeal level, among people who study and don’t study Kabbalah?

My Answer: It doesn’t. No one around you will notice anything. How could they?

Question: How is love for others implemented if the corporeal aspect is not used?

My Answer: Through thoughts and intentions. If possible, also through actions – the dissemination of Kabbalah.

Question: What is the purpose of this blog?

My Answer: To explain the purpose of the world’s creation and how to attain it through the good path.

Question: What is the purpose of man’s existence?

My Answer: To attain the purpose of his creation.

Question: Why don’t these two things coincide?

My Answer: Because people do not want to actualize the method of attaining the goal and instead prefer to be on the path of suffering.

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News report (translated from Utro.ru): V. Makarov, president of “Russoft,” announced that the Russian segment of the Internet must be protected from the rest of the World Wide Web with a special gateway filter. Similar gateways are already operating in China and Singapore. The gateway consists of hundreds of thousands of servers that receive information from international sites and then filter it. The project is estimated to cost 1 billion dollars.

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, everything that goes against drawing closer together, communication, integration, and globalization, also goes against Nature. Nature’s objective it is to develop man and society, to bring mankind to unity, reciprocal love and bestowal. Projects like this will bring the people who implement them nothing but crises and miseries!

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Two questions I received on prophecy:

Question: You don’t say whether there are any great Kabbalists in our time. What about prophets?

My Answer: As my answer I’ll quote the following news report (from livescience.com): “Hours before China’s worst earthquake in three decades, animals at a local zoo began acting strangely. Three days before the earthquake, thousands of toads roamed the streets of Mianzhu, a hard-hit city where at least 2,000 people have been reported killed. The day of the earthquake, zebras were banging their heads against a door at the zoo in Wuhan, more than 600 miles east of the epicenter. Elephants swung their trunks wildly, 20 lions and tigers, which normally would be asleep at midday, were walking around, and five minutes before the quake hit, dozens of peacocks started screeching.”

Question: Are these animals prophets?

My Answer: A prophet is someone who is connected with Nature (the Creator). If one unifies with Nature, then he perceives it beyond time – not in relation to himself, but the way it truly is. The past, present, and future converge into one. So go ahead and make predictions!

A Kabbalist is someone who has restored a part of his connection with the Creator, and to that degree he understands His thought, plan, and goal. He can continue increasing his similarity with the Creator (the quality of bestowal that exists in Nature) to the level where he can fully comprehend Him – the level of a prophet.

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A question I received: If hunger spreads all over the world, how will it affect the Earth’s population?

My Answer: The Malthusian theory says that the world’s population has always been limited by the natural fertility of the land and the development of bio-technologies:

• with natural farming – up to 10 million people;
• with extensive farming – up to 100 million;
• with intensified farming – up to 1 billion.

However, all models expressing the dependency of the earth’s population on its fertility assume that the world’s population is a natural (egoistic) system.

In the past, a process taking place in one part of the world did not have a significant influence on the other parts, and even less so on the population. But the moment the planet’s population became one collective whole, the laws of the system changed. Today, despite cultural differences and physical distances, an intrinsic phenomenon of global interdependency of all people is becoming apparent.

How will this affect the earth’s population? Our planet can even feed 100 billion people, provided that they observe the system of interconnection in which they exist. If people obey the laws of nature and consume only what is necessary for their existence, in brotherly interaction among them, as parts of a single organism, then they will never have to fear a demographic crisis. After all, the only cause of all the crises is our cruel attitudes to each other. Nature destroys us to the degree we oppose it.

Take Russia for example: There is a huge difference between its level of  economic development and how the population uses it. Cruelty, insignificance of human life,  abundant prisons and concentration camps, alcoholism, and lack of decent medical service – are all contributing factors to a short life span and high mortality rate.

In countries that are less developed than Russia, the life span is longer because the attitude to people is more merciful. In Russia it’s almost as if the government itself is interested in the destruction of its own people! How else can you explain the encouragement and proliferation of the “beer and vodka culture,” as well as drugs? However, fighting alcoholism directly is always ineffective, and only increases the number of people in prison.

The attitudes of the government and of every person to man, society, and mankind must be changed. This must become Russia’s national idea. Quit the path of trying to “force respect” and “force peace,” and instead set an example of sympathy, bestowal, and love for everyone in the world. This will elicit well-deserved respect and honor.

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Questions I received on the source of our problems and the way to solve them:

Question: Is the source of all the problems taking place in the world my desire “to receive for myself”?

My Answer: Yes. And this is true for each and every one of us.

Question: Does the solution lie in redirecting this desire so as to use it for the good of the society?

My Answer: Yes. Then it will come back positively for you.

Question: Do I have to develop the desire to bestow?

My Answer: Yes. In fact, this is the only commandment (instruction given by the Creator).

Question: But if I don’t have this desire, how will I know what to develop?

My Answer: From the point in the heart, with the help of the right environment.

Question: I don’t understand: what kind of a connection do I have with the Creator?

My Answer: You’re connected to Him through the spiritual “navel,” and you’ll discover it through connecting with friends.

Question: How can we do something good for those who don’t aspire toward spirituality?

My Answer: Tell them about the cause of the suffering in the world and how to transform it to joy.

Related Material:
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A question I received: I recently started studying Kabbalah, and I am still curious about “practical Kabbalah” and the attributes it uses, such as red strings, holy water, and so on. If these things have been in use for such a long time, then they must also have meaning. For example, a red string symbolizes Rachel who protects a person from the evil eye, or from people’s harmful energy.

My Answer: Practical Kabbalah is when you correct your egoistic qualities, transforming them to the qualities of bestowal and love in practice. This is what is written in all Kabbalistic books, and it is done by studying in a group that unites in order to attain the goal – “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Can you show me any authentic Kabbalistic source texts, from the Ari to Baal HaSulam, that talk about using red strings, fortune telling, holy water, and so on?These things have only a psychological meaning, just like religion. On the other hand, Kabbalah is a practical correction of yourself and as a result of it – attainment of the Creator, in this world, and in this life. This is practical!

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News Report (translated from 7KANAL.com):“The Study of Economics in the Spirit of Judaism.”

The Jerusalem Institute of Hi-Technology, “Machon Lev” is opening a unique course, which will certify students with a Masters of Economics degree. This course includes the study of economic aspects of the Jewish Halackha based on the commandments of the Torah.

The Torah contains many commandments and instructions that regulate economic relations, such as, “Do not retain a worker’s day wage,” “Do not collect interest or lend out money on interest,” “Do not use faulty scales for measuring weight and volume,” “Do not pressure your impoverished neighbor by requiring him to pay back his debt,” and many others.

My Comment: If they were to take the real foundation of the entire Torah, its general law, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and make it the basis of all relationships, then all the other rules would fall right within its margins. But instead, they are just studying how to do business correctly, egoistically.

This is similar to the way people learn to “speak properly” with one another in order to avoid using “Lashon Ra” (bad language), instead of attuning their hearts to love for one’s neighbor. If they did the latter, then naturally everything they said would also be good! However, instead of correcting their hearts, they will learn to do business and communicate strictly “according to the law.” There won’t be anything to pick on, but they will still be opposite to the Torah!

This is the difference between religion and Kabbalah: Religion does not aim to correct man, since it doesn’t have the instrument of correction, the force of the Light. On the other hand, Kabbalah’s objective is precisely this: to correct man and raise him to the level of similarity to the Creator, since only Kabbalah contains this force (see item 155 of Baal HaSulam’s “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot“). This is the difference between their objectives. One’s purpose in religion is to look proper in the eyes of the society, whereas one’s purpose in Kabbalah is to attain approval in the Creator’s eyes.

Appendix: Baal HaSulam. Article, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose“

Many are mistaken and compare our holy Torah with Ethics. This is because they have never attained the meaning of true religion through revealing the Creator. I call upon them: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” But still ethics (Musar) is as distant from the true religion (Kabbalah) as the distance between the thought of the Creator from the thought of man. For true religion extends from the thought of the Creator, while ethics (the system of Musar) is produced by thoughts of flesh and blood and from man’s life experience. Therefore, the difference between them is obvious, both in practical aspects and in the final aim.

For the recognition of good and evil that develops in us through ethics as we use it, is relative to the success of the society. With religion (Kabbalah), however, the recognition of good and evil that develops in us as we use it is relative to the Creator alone. That is to say, from a change of form with the Creator, to equivalence of form with Him through the quality of bestowal and love, which is called adhesion.

For the purpose of Musar (ethics) is the well-being of society as it is understood by practical reason, which is taken from the events of life in this world. However, Kabbalah allows one to attain love for others, and thereby to reach similarity and adhesion with the Creator. And along with it man passes from his narrow world, full of pain and impediments, to a spacious and eternal world of the Creator.

Thus it is obvious that true religion (Kabbalah) is only for man’s correction. And the goal is attained during one’s life, while living in this world. However, if one has not attained equivalence with the Creator, one dies just as he was born, having achieved nothing in his life.

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A question I received: You say that Kabbalah has nothing in common with religion. Then why don’t Christians, Muslims, and followers of other belief systems have books on Kabbalah? Didn’t they all come from the Jewish religion?

My Answer: Baal HaSulam writes that all people may keep their respective religions even after reaching the final spiritual correction – adhesion with the Creator. This is a sign that the external actions bear absolutely no relation to spirituality, even though many people want to attribute this to them.

Kabbalah was developed by Abraham in Babylon 4000 years ago. The Jewish religion as we know it today appeared after the downfall of the Jewish people from the spiritual level 2000 years ago. Kabbalah then became concealed (when The Book of Zohar was written), and all that remained is a corporeal, egoistic “imprint” of the previous, spiritual way of life. This is how Judaism was formed in the way it exists today. Later Christianity and Islam also originated from it.

The Jewish religion divides into the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform branches. However, they differ only by having greater or smaller limits of observing the physical commandments. Hence they understand each other, are on the same side of egoism, and work to preserve it. In other words, the aim of one’s actions is inside a person, in the intention “for oneself.”

Kabbalah, on the other hand, summons people to observe the intention “for bestowal” (for one’s neighbor or for the Creator – that is, “outside oneself”), rather than to observe physical actions. It deals with the internality rather than the externality (see item 61 of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”). Hence Kabbalah is opposite to all religions.

This is why all the religions understand each other, but they consider Kabbalah absolutely unacceptable. Humanity will receive many more blows of fate before it will uncover the Creator’s Plan – to come close to Him through one’s intention.

Today Kabbalah is coming back into use, in order to correct man. We have to add it to our lives by beginning to correct ourselves. There is also a place for religion: to remain as a form of culture. This is because Kabbalah reveals the Creator and the Upper World to a person, leaving no room for suppositions about them. In this case, all that remains of religion are customs or traditions.

The reason why the religions are hostile toward Kabbalah is that Kabbalah gives every person an explanation of how to reveal the Creator, and in doing so it negates the need for religion. By giving people a personal connection with the Creator, Kabbalah strips the religious leaders of their power over the people.

Nevertheless, Kabbalists are in favor of preserving religion as a tradition or culture, as a nation’s framework and way of life. At the same time Kabbalah says that we should complement this way of life with the attainment of the Creator – which is the purpose of man’s creation and his perfect state.

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