Two questions I received relating to free will:

Question: Do our actions in this world influence the Upper Worlds?

My Answer: Only one of them. It is called “free will,” and it lies in receiving the greatness of bestowal from one’s environment (from the teacher, books and friends), as well as the knowledge that freedom can be achieved only with the help of the Upper Light. No other action of ours, in any of the worlds, can be considered “free,” or in other words, as being an action that we do “on our own.”

Question: I have been studying for about a year and have read many of your books. At first, I was extremely inspired by the material I studied; it awakened many different thoughts and feelings in me. Now I am absolutely indifferent to my corporeal life, but I also don’t feel any inspiration from the material I study. What should I do?

My Answer: It’s good how you feel no inspiration from this world. However, in order to feel inspired from the spiritual world, you need to fight for it. You can get spiritually inspired from the teacher, books and friends who are aspiring to spirituality. You will never find this inspiration within yourself; only in the correct environment. Read the article “The Freedom,” as it discusses this. You can progress toward creation’s goal only to the degree that you acquire the greatness of this goal!

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Three questions I received relating to the Torah and inner work:

Question: Can you explain the meaning of the story about Cain and Abel? I suppose that it speaks about the struggle between the will to bestow and the will to receive. Could you please explain this in more detail, especially the meaning of the Creator’s reaction?

My Answer: Cain and Abel are two forces within a person. One of the forces is egoism, and the other is the Creator’s property, bestowal, which descends into a person, and which the person develops from its initial manifestation, called “the point in the heart.” The entire story in the Torah talks about people conquering, killing, and competing with one another – everything in our lives until we take the control into our own hands and start progressing toward the goal on our own – by restraining the egoistic force, using it constructively, and dominating it with the Creator’s force in us.

Question: I tried translating this chapter into the Kabbalistic language, and got stuck on the verse: “My soul will despise you.” How do I translate the world “my soul” in this context?

My Answer: A person’s soul falls into egoism, which is opposite to the property of Bina of the World of Atzilut, the property of absolute bestowal, and hence the soul becomes repelled from Bina, the Creator.

Question: Could a desire for correction after the revelation of evil be called an act of bestowal?

My Answer: Not yet, but it leads to it.

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Two questions I received on “Who is the Creator?” and “Who am I?”:

Question: On the one hand it says that the Creator is a quality – the quality of bestowal, which the person needs to attain, and which is within the person. But on the other hand, the Creator is always described as something outside of me, someone I must pray to. He’s described as an essence that is separate from me, as a force that controls everything. So who is the Creator? Is He inside me or outside?

My Answer: The Creator is the innermost part of you, but as long as you don’t perceive Him this way, you imagine everything to be outside of you, including Him.

Question: In the morning we say: “Lord, the soul that you have given me is pure… You have breathed it into me… and you will return it to me in the future…” My question is: Who or what is this “I,” “inside of me,” “within me,” etc., that this blessing speaks about? According to the blessing, if the soul is inside this “I,” then who am “I”?

My Answer: You are a desire, an aspiration toward the Creator. That is what the soul is. Everything else is desires needing connection to this aspiration, and you are the one who needs to make such a connection. It is possible to the extent that you feel the Creator’s importance. However, you need to first correctly define who the Creator is: the property of bestowal and love for others.

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Two questions I received on astrology’s connection to Kabbalah, and whether there is life on other planets:

Question: I have been engaged in astrology for twenty years now, and since 1998 I have also been studying Kabbalistic psychology, which is based on the law: “Something born at a given moment receives the properties of that moment.” Why don’t you give lessons on this topic?

My Answer: Because there is no connection between astrology and Kabbalah, even though many try to pass Kabbalah off as being part of astrology. The Torah strictly states: “Don’t do magic and fortunetelling,” because they distract a person from correction, pointing him to false paths and ways to “get around” the Upper Governance.

The only way we can influence our destiny is by influencing the Upper Light, and we influence the Upper Light to the degree that we aspire to become similar to It, by aspiring toward love and bestowal. If this is our true aspiration, the Upper Light descends upon us, corrects us, and changes our state. The Supernal, with the exception of the person, is in a state of absolute rest, and only our positive changes can change our destiny. This is why fortunetelling is forbidden.

Predictions can partially come true, if a person does not do anything to become corrected, because then, such a person is under the influence of nature’s negative reactions to his behavior (i.e. his lack of independent correction) on the path of Beito (lit. in due time), and this path can be predicted. However, when we intervene with the Upper Governance by correcting ourselves, then there is no way to predict the future, since it changes depending on us, along the path of Achishena (lit. “I will hasten it”). The harm done by fortunetelling is twofold:
1. the predictions are incorrect, and
2. they distract people from correction.

As such, there is a corresponding reaction from above: correction, or twice the suffering!

Question: Is there human or animal life on other planets? If not, then how and based on what does Kabbalah explain this?

My Answer: Everything stated in Kabbalah is based on received data. Read some materials on the attainment of reality. If we don’t attain something, we don’t know it. So far, in none of our earthly or spiritual sensations senses (the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of attainment) have we attained anything rational, existing either in our world or the spiritual world, besides ourselves. (As for angels, they are particular forces of the soul and the Creator).

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Two questions I received on our perception of the world:

Question: How can I understand this paradox: On the one hand, we are being treated as one integral system of Adam, but at the same time we feel like individuals? And what about the individual who is incorporated into all the general suffering and woes, which happen to the entire system? How can he go through this path pleasantly and safely? And who is to blame for the fact that this system is so opposite to the laws of bestowal?

My Answer: Everything is built perfectly and logically. What you perceive is not a lousy world, but your own imperfections, your own picture of the world. If you correct yourself, then everything will radiate harmony.

It is because the screen on which you see yourself and your surroundings is your qualities, and in order to change yourself to see the world as eternal and perfect, or in other words, to live in this kind of world you depict, is by acquiring eternal and perfect qualities. This is why Kabbalah has been given to us.

Question: Why was the world created precisely the way it is? Why is there nature, attitude, change in attitude, suffering, pleasure, the will to receive, the will to bestow, etc.? Who needs all this? Why can’t we just enjoy and so be it? What is there to do for someone who has no patience and who doesn’t even have a desire to exist (not in a body or without a body, but to simply not exist)?

My Answer: The soul was created in perfection, in the World of Infinity. It lacks only one thing: the perception of this perfection. The only way to achieve this perception is by comparing the opposites of darkness and light – the absence of perfection and its presence. Its presence is there, but its absence is missing. This is why our world was created; it is the place where we have to fully perceive the absence of perfection, and together with it, return to the world of infinite perfection. There we will feel true fulfillment through these opposites.

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A question I received: I study Kabbalah through the Internet, the TV and books. My entire worldview has changed – I now view everything differently and understand creation much better. I feel that I am on the right path. Nevertheless, I find it difficult to overcome the quality of anger. I realize how harmful it is, and that it’s making me suffer. How can I overcome my anger?

My Answer: A person shouldn’t change anything about himself, and if he tries, he will only do more harm. Everything in you is given from above, by the Light and by your Upper state. You differ from this Upper state in just one way: by “your attitude to what’s outside” (to nature, society, or the Creator). Instead of bestowal and love, our attitude fell to reception and hatred.

The only thing we have to accomplish in this life, and the reason life was given to us, is to return to that original attitude toward everything outside of us. As I return to that state (of bestowal and love to my surroundings), I begin to feel that I am one whole with them, and the quality (bestowal and love) that binds us together is called “the Creator.” It initially created us and intentionally “dropped” us into the opposite quality, so we could evaluate all the perfection of the state it created us in, and aspire to it on our own. And to the degree you aspire toward it, you will reveal it within you.

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A question I received: Does the Creator respond to requests for things that are necessary, or only to requests for correction?

My Answer: The Creator responds to all the requests in one’s heart, because we are talking about the Upper Light’s influence on our desire, and this influence is taking place all the time. The two stand one opposite the other. Nothing depends on a person, on his awareness of the Light’s constant influence on the Reshimo. He can only receive the desire for bestowal and love from his environment. The Upper Light is always pushing him toward this desire, by influencing the Reshimo. That is to say, by constantly influencing the Reshimo, the Light moves him closer to making the decision that it’s necessary to acquire the property of bestowal and love. However, it moves him along naturally, through blows. If a person, however, adds his own aspiration, which he receives from the group, from friends who aspire to it, then he himself evokes the Upper Light’s influence in the same direction. And now he already perceives the results of the Light’s influence positively, since he himself desired it, instead of perceiving it negatively, the way we usually do: When we desire greater egoistic fulfillment, we instead receive an even stronger push toward bestowal, and experience even greater suffering.

A question I received: According to what you said, if two hundred million Muslims will really wish for Israel to disappear from the face of the earth, will their desires come true?

My Answer: All desires of all people are included within the common soul of Adam. However, each desire has its own weight or influence, which depends on many things: What group of souls does the desire belong to – just like in the body some organs are more important than others. It also depends on what they are asking for – whether their appeal is directed toward the goal of creation or against it; whether it’s a desire to hate or to love, and so on.

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A question I received: How does the suffering, embarrassment and shame one feels before society, correlate to his hatred of society?

My Answer: We learn that shame is the basis of correction. The feeling of shame by Malchut in the World of Infinity led to Tzimtzum Aleph – the refusal to receive for one’s own sake. After that, that same shame pushed Malchut to find a way to bestow – to receive for the Creator’s sake.

As that same shame developed further, it continually showed the creature, the soul of Adam, what to do in order to become similar to the Creator. And the same shame drove Adam to sin: Adam wanted to overcome shame all at once, and as a result he revealed his entire egoistic nature (reception for one’s own sake), as well as the opportunity to correct this shame (reception for the Creator’s sake). But this must be done gradually, over the course of thousands of years, inside many individual souls (during their life cycles), by overcoming their repulsion to one another.

When a person begins to study Kabbalah, after a certain amount of time he reveals his egoism, which grows bigger and bigger. As he continues to study, he constantly learns that egoism is evil, but he doesn’t feel this in any way. He learns that spirituality is bestowal, love for one’s friend, and that he can sense the Creator only within this quality, or to be more precise, that this quality is the Creator.

As more time passes, he begins to view egoism as evil, because he gradually discovers egoism’s connection with spirituality, how opposite the two are, and that it’s impossible to attain spirituality together with egoism.

After some more time passes, he’s “set up” from above in such a way, that he feels as if he is “burning with shame,” and that he’ll adhere to the Creator only by renouncing his original qualities. This is when his correction begins. He is willing to feel the burning shame for the sake of acquiring the property of love and bestowal!

A question I received: On the one hand, during the preparation period, before coming out of Egypt (crossing the Machsom), one’s egoism grows. But on the other hand, in order to cross the Machsom, one has to be absolutely pure! He must go from unfounded hatred to love. How does this occur together? [Read more →]

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Other than exhibiting manuscripts of source texts, there cannot be such a thing as a Kabbalah museum, because authentic Kabbalah has nothing to display. However, an advertisement I received is trying to state otherwise: “A museum devoted exclusively to Kabbalah, the mystical aspect of Judaism, is to open its doors in Jerusalem, Israel, on the 25th of June.

The Jerusalem Kabbalah Museum – one of the first of its kind – will display artefacts such as amulets, garments and historical manuscripts.

The museum will display a timeline of the Kabbalah from its inception through modern day.

The museum will have a strong educational aspect to it and will provide personal Kabbalah training for those interested, as well as offering tours of Israel focusing on sites of Kabbalistic interest.

Exhibitions will include detailed descriptions of most prominent Kabbalists, rabbis and scholars of the Kabbalah, their works and accomplishments.”

My Comment: There is a Kabbalah museum in the archive at the Bnei Baruch center, which contains manuscripts by Baal HaSulam and other Kabbalists. Authentic Kabbalah is not “artefacts, garments and amulets.” It is exclusively handwritten and printed materials, which deliver the thoughts of Kabbalists to its readers.

Spirituality doesn’t incarnate into corporeality, and hence nothing in our world – besides manuscripts – has Kabbalistic content. Similarly, there is nothing sacred, or in other words, spiritual (“spiritual” meaning the property of bestowal), in clothing, amulets, and other “exhibits.” A Kabbalistic museum cannot exist, because there is nothing to “exhibit” – spirituality cannot be displayed. It would be more accurate to title this museum “Mysticism in Judaism.”

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A question I received: What makes a woman truly happy? And is such a thing even possible? After all, every pleasant sensation passes, and is replaced by another. What change is needed for someone to feel happy? And how would a woman experience it?

My Answer: Happiness lies in fulfillment: the Light fills the vessel, and the vessel thus experiences happiness. Fulfillment by reception immediately disappears, leaving behind even greater emptiness. Perfect and eternal fulfillment is possible only through bestowal to and love for the one whom you fulfill, and this is what fulfills you. Therefore, “love your neighbor as yourself” is the rule for personal happiness!

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