A question I received: It says in the book Shamati, Article #16: “The rooster said to the bat: ‘I await the light for the light is mine; but you, what need have you for light?’” My question is: How does a person go from the state of being a bat to the state of being a rooster in this lifetime?

My Answer: Those who use Kabbalah (Torah) to attain the property of love and bestowal will see the Light of life in this property. On the other hand, those who use Kabbalah (Torah) for their own sake (to get rich, satisfy their pride, attain honor and confidence, to feel like they’re better than others, to justify their existence, and so on) are in the state of darkness; yet they are convinced that they are in the Light of the Creator. They are like bats that mistake the darkness for the light, and hence they are content to remain in exile from spirituality, to perform mere physical rituals – and they don’t feel like they need anything more.

Look at what Baal Hasulam writes in the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” about the words of the prophet Amos, “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! Wherefore would ye have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light!” “There is a parable about a rooster and a bat that were awaiting the light. The rooster said to the bat: ‘I await the light for the light is mine; but you, what need have you for light?’ (The Talmud. Sanhedrin 98:2)” This means that without the Light (which descends only when one studies Kabbalah), one doesn’t even understand that he is in darkness, because he only perceives our world.

If a person doesn’t aspire higher, above our world, but is satisfied with mechanical observance of rituals, historical and philosophical investigations, theology, holy water, amulets, and meditation (as we can see, this covers the whole gamut, from the naïve to the erudite), in other words, if one doesn’t have a “point in the heart,” then nothing will help him. It’s because his desire is still on the level of our world, and people always act exclusively according to the desires that surface in them.

Hence, Kabbalah is intended only for those who are searching for a genuine answer to the question, “What is the meaning of life?” And this answer lies in attaining the Source of one’s existence. This is how one reveals the meaning of what is happening as well as its final outcome.

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Two questions I received on overcoming our fears:

Question: In one of your lessons on the book Shamati you spoke about fear, and you said that when a person is afraid, he should immediately connect to the Creator. Can you elaborate on this? What should I do when I feel chilled to the bone with worry about my loved ones?

My Answer: You should connect everything that is happening with the Creator, with yourself, and with the entire world, so that all of these will unite into one and there won’t be any difference between them. All of your doubts and fears should vanish within this union. And if they don’t – then it’s even better! Then you can ask the Creator to help you.

Actually, if you open The Book of Zohar , you’ll discover that the first correction, “Pkuda Kadma” (in Aramaic) is when one attains true fear. In fact, fear always haunts everyone and everything: On the still level of nature, there is fear to preserve its structure, on the vegetative and animate levels of nature, there is fear to become filled with what’s necessary and to push away what’s harmful. And it’s the same with man.

Question: Can studying Kabbalah help one get rid of his fears, for example, the fear of being on stage or of expressing one’s opinion?

My Answer: Yes, because studying Kabbalah develops your perception of the unity of everything, of the integral universe. It also replaces one’s earthly fears with the true fear – the need to attain the Creator.

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Power is the fundamental property of egoism. When we lose it, we feel as if we’ve lost ourselves. Even our perception of the things around us is based on the sensation of power: Our senses perceive everything by evaluating their influence on different objects, things, and forces – by weighing, “who is stronger?”

When one becomes aware of his constant aspiration to rule over his environment (and again – without this aspiration, one cannot perceive the environment), then this realization leads one to recognize the evil within himself. He then feels the need to revoke his all-inclusive lust to rule over everything, and to replace it with the opposite quality – “Anava” (being absent).

Inside this aspiration or quality, one discovers the Creator. The Creator hides from us inside this property in order to give us the opportunity to attain (without His obvious influence) the same height, omnipotence, independence, greatness, and humbleness of love as He has.

One then discovers that he acquires power over everything precisely by yielding to others, because he then becomes incorporated into the general Light. This correlation – “the Creator and the creation” – can be described as calm, omnipotent, and uniform white Light that fills everything, and inside it there are small, black, egoistic balls that are anxiously jumping because they aspire to realize their foolish pride, conceit, and power.

It is written: “In the place where you attain the Creator’s greatness, you attain His humbleness (Anava).” Hence, power comes through the property of love and bestowal.

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Two questions I received from women about the purpose of preparation in one’s inner work, and the need to pay Maaser:

Question: I always try to be in the state of “preparation” – to hold the intention, connect to my husband who also studies Kabbalah, disseminate, and study. Still, sometimes I experience descents and lose all of my connection with the Creator. Later I come out of them and try to increase my preparation even more, as much as I can. But after that there are more descents, and then I again increase my preparation and aspiration, and this is followed by more descents.

I understand that there will always be descents and ascents, and that they are necessary. However, if I lose my connection with the Creator, doesn’t this mean that I don’t spend enough time preparing? Or am I wrong about the purpose of the preparation? Isn’t it intended to help you get out of a descent faster? Or is it intended to prevent the descents, to have less of them?

My Answer: If you prepare correctly, then whenever you experience some state, and then this state finishes passing over you (it finishes manifesting fully, through all ten Sefirot or all four stages), then if you prepared well beforehand, you’ll immediately begin perceiving the end of this state as a descent. And then you’ll immediately want to ascend from it, and you’ll begin intensively attracting the external forces of the group. The group will give you:

1) The importance of the goal;
2) The sensation of your own weakness;
3) The necessary aspiration to ask for correction from above.

As a result of all this, you will produce a request (a MAN), and then the Light of correction (Ohr Makif, MAD) will descend during the general group study. And then you’ll ascend – that is, you’ll perceive and value the property of love and bestowal as if it’s the highest possible thing.

And that’s how a new cycle begins.

Question: When women participate in the group together with men, do they also have to pay the Maaser?

My Answer: Yes. Every person who advances must give a tenth of his net profit to Kabbalah’s dissemination around the world – to the world’s correction. This is not a tradition, but a necessity in order to correct a tenth of your egoistic desire, Malchut. The other parts become corrected by your efforts in the study, the group, and dissemination. You can’t just “buy them off” the way you do to correct this “still” part of your desires.

Isn’t that a shame? It would be so easy to just pay someone, and then suddenly to find yourself in the spiritual world! However, since our act of giving 10% for the correction of the world is part of correction, our egoism objects to it in every way possible, and this is why every person receives enormous disturbances when it comes to giving away the Maaser. Yet every person normally has no problem gambling away or spending 10% of his earnings in any other way, on things he doesn’t really need at all or on entertainment. However, without participating in the common correction this way, one cannot undergo any private correction either! We usually recommend using this money to buy Kabbalistic materials and disseminating them yourself – in other words, putting your own 10% to the right use.

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Two questions I received on how to read and relate to The Book of Zohar:

Question: I am trying to study The Book of Zohar that you translated. I’ve reread many times the part where you talk about how to relate to the material in order to go deeper into the inner part of it – but so far it’s not working. I don’t feel like I’m advancing, and I think that I lack definitions, the way things are clearly defined in the Talmud Eser Sefirot. Do these definitions exist, and if yes, where can I find them? Or is there another, special approach to The Book of Zohar?

My Answer: The Book of Zohar should be read only in order to evoke the Light of correction onto yourself. To the degree the Light will influence you, you will begin to perceive the Zohar (which means Radiance). And to the extent that you’ll feel the Light, the property of bestowal, you will also begin understanding what The Book of Zohar says.

In addition, there are four introductions to The Book of Zohar, and it’s necessary to know them (or to have at least general knowledge of them) in order to understand the book.

Question: Recently I made the decision that I will read The Book of Zohar. During Book Week I bought the full set. However, I spoke to a person who told me that religious authorities have put a curse on this set of books, and this set of books is “impure.”

My Answer: You can go ahead and read these books, but this is only recommended for people who have studied all the works of Baal HaSulam. In addition, there are four introductions to The Book of Zohar, and it’s impossible to understand The Book of Zohar without thoroughly understanding these introductions!

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Noah, the well-known character from the Torah, represents a stage in one’s spiritual development. It’s when a person realizes that his egoism is evil, and that he cannot save himself from it because it is his entire nature. He then understands that only the Upper Force, which is outside him, can change him. This is why he builds the Ark – or in other words, in response to his appeals, the Upper Light creates the property of Bina (bestowal) in him, and he then remains inside it so that his egoistic desires and properties will no longer rule over him. When he enters the Ark, he ascends above egoism and enters the realm of bestowal, isolating himself from his egoism, his nature.

Today every one of us and the entire world as a whole are beginning to feel that we are in a threatening state – the state of Noah before the Flood. We are being threatened by the inner (individual) and outer (worldwide) Flood (egoism), which we have brought upon ourselves and cannot overcome on our own. Our only salvation is to hide in the Ark, that is – for every person and for everyone together to acquire the property of bestowal, to ascend above our egoism. Then everything will reach harmony – just like all the species of creatures that were in the Ark, and we will make the transition to renewed life.

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Two questions I received on whether spiritual correction requires observance of physical rituals:

Question: You say that it’s possible to attain spiritual correction without physically observing the commandments of Judaism. Maybe you’re just saying this out of your concern for Kabbalah’s dissemination around the world? Or maybe what you really mean is that people can’t understand these commandments by simply reading them? If you can’t publish the answer on the blog, I would like to receive a private answer.

My Answer: The Creator created the will to receive pleasure with an intention “for one’s own sake,” and this is how we find ourselves in this world. We were created this way in order to correct our intention to “for the sake of the neighbor or the Creator,” on all of our 613 desires. This correction happens under the influence of the Upper Light, Ohr Makif, which descends during the study of Kabbalah.

This bears no relation to the observance of religious rituals. A person can attain correction and spiritual attainment without physically observing the commandments, or rather – the traditions. This is true for both Jews and the nations of the world. Moreover, every person can keep his religion, because religion is no more than a nation’s cultural framework. Kabbalah only teaches us about the intention “for the sake of the neighbor,” how to love and bestow to others – and nothing else.

Question: You’re all about spirituality and the love revolution. But what about connecting the root with the branch? After all, the still, vegetative, and animate levels are also levels of the will to receive. You always speak about the internality without any externality, and this confuses me. Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” that the internality should be preferred over the externality. But it looks like Bnei Baruch gives 100% of their attention to the internality, and 0% to the externality! This is difficult and confusing. Why not make a small change and pay a little more attention to the externality? Why not combine both parts? Dedicate 90% of your attention to the internality, and 10% to the externality. This will really help everyone! What do you think?

My Answer: We at Bnei Baruch actually do this – we follow the traditions. But do you really think that all the people in the world – who are now approaching correction – have to observe the physical commandments of Judaism, even if it isn’t their tradition? In the article “The Future Generation” Baal HaSulam writes that every person can keep his religion!

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Two questions I received on the differences between Rabash’s students:

Question: Your teacher Rav Baruch Ashlag (Rabash) had many students, including Rav Gotlib, Rav Brizal, and others. Every one of them understands and interprets your common teacher in his own way. In particular, there are great discrepancies about religion and dissemination of Kabbalah. How do you explain this?

My Answer: The reason several versions come from one teacher is to give every person the opportunity to find a teacher who suits his upbringing and aspiration. Check all of these versions, and then choose the one that’s right for you. I’m sure that all of these teachers teach the same basics: by studying in a group to evoke Ohr Makif, one attains the property of bestowal (the Screen and Ohr Hochma), and then one ascends by nullifying oneself before the AHP of the Upper Level.

Question: And how do you explain the fact that Rabash’s students don’t keep in touch with one another?

My Answer: Each of them is following his own path, as it is written: “There are many paths to the Creator” (Yesh Harbe Drachim Le Makom). When Rabash passed away, he left his entire archive to me, and I let all of his students make copies of all his notes, as well as giving them all of the original audio tapes to copy – over a thousand of them. And I wish them success in everything!

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I’ve received many requests to explain the correlation between a baby’s development in this world and the soul’s development in the Upper World. Here is an explanation:

The Talmud Eser Sefirot – the fundamental Kabbalistic textbook with over 2,000 pages of difficult text, has about 300 pages that talk about the soul’s intrauterine development in the womb (the AHP) of the Upper Partzuf (the mother – Ima, Bina). This development may continue for seven, nine, or twelve months – but usually it continues for nine months. It is followed by birth and then 24 months of nursing – which is also described in 200 pages of very difficult text.

What are these lengthy, complex descriptions saying in simple language? The soul begins its development with the point in the heart, when a person asks, “What is the meaning of life?” Next, the person begins developing his soul by attracting the Upper Light to this point. He first goes through preliminary stages called single concealment and double concealment, and then enters a state called conception (Ibur). In this state, he attaches to the Upper Partzuf, provided that he agrees to stay together with It regardless of all the difficulties! And the difficulties keep increasing, but by strengthening his connection with the Upper One, despite the disturbances created by egoism that keep pulling him back, he continually absorbs the qualities of the Upper One – love and bestowal. This process continues until he attains all of the Upper One’s properties by means of annulling himself. This self-annulment also prevents him from becoming a disturbance or a foreign body in the Upper One.

When he absorbs all of the Upper One’s qualities, this concludes the period of passively absorbing the Upper One’s properties – of developing in the form of an embryo. An embryo develops by passively receiving the Light, and this is why it is referred to as blood (Dam, from the word Domem – still), or a passive adoption of the Upper One’s properties.

Stated differently, the state called pregnancy ends when a person desires to go from nullifying himself to actively interacting with the Upper One. This compels the Upper One to push him away, in order to end the previous kind of interaction – similar to when an embryo remains in the mother’s womb for too long, and evokes rejection. The Upper One pushes the lower one away from Him and forces the lower one to begin interacting with Him more actively – to nurse. The Upper One does this by creating conditions that enable the lower one to receive the Light of Hassadim (milk). However, the milk still turns into blood (Dam) in the lower one.

This nursing period lasts for 24 months, and during this time the lower one gains active properties of bestowal (Bina, Galgalta Einaim). This level enables a person to exist in the complete volume of the Upper World, and to be completely independent of his egoism – to perceive the Upper One and learn from Him.

Knowledge of the laws operating in our roots and of how the Upper Forces operate, gives us an absolutely precise understanding of how to ideally and most correctly treat and raise a child, how to interact with a fetus and a newborn, as well as with a teenager and adolescent. It enables us to build the correct system of interactions, and to create the conditions for optimally realizing the opportunity we have in this life – to attain the purpose of our creation.

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A question I received: I’m able to intrigue many people with a “trick” that lets them be in the present, after they discover that they are always thinking and feeling the past or the future. The moment they’re “enlightened” by this realization, should I talk to them about Kabbalah? If yes, then what’s the best thing to let them read? They usually have preconceived notions, so it’s better to give them something easy to start with. For example, maybe I can let them read something by the American mystic and spiritual teacher Gurdjieff?

My Answer: The first time you talk them, don’t talk about Kabbalah but rather show them what is the reason for the crisis – both the personal and general one, and explain that the correction lies in unification, attainment of the quality of bestowal. Show them that this is the only freedom of will we have, and we are like robots in every other regard. Moreover, the attainment of this quality has to be evident in one’s perception and mind.

However, we can’t change our egoistic nature, but only an external force – the force of bestowal – can make this change in us. Explain how one can attract this force, that there’s a method for it, and so on.

Mystics and philosophers such as Gurdjieff, Madame Blavatsky, Solovyov and many others were true seekers of a connection with the Upper Force, but they didn’t have the right Teacher and the authentic method. Hence, their compositions only express their attempts to use human qualities and reason to figure out something that’s impossible to attain with our qualities. This can only be done with help from above, through the Upper Light.

Kabbalah draws the Light of Correction (Ohr Makif) by combining the necessary “ingredients”:

1. The person
2. The group
3. The text that talks about one’s corrected state
4. The Teacher who guides the way

This is why Kabbalah is the only method of attainment that allows one to enter or clearly perceive the Upper World.

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