A question I received: I watched your children’s lesson where you explained that everything around us is an imaginary world (Olam Dimioni). In this lesson and other lectures you gave on this topic, people always reach a point of confusion and bring up the question, “So this means that I can imagine anything whatsoever? Then why does this world still appear corporeal, and why do my fantasies remain fantasies?”

My Answer: Man has two mechanisms for creating the imaginary reality. One if them lies beyond our consciousness. It is deeper, and is responsible for creating the picture of the world that we call “reality.” The second mechanism of creating pictures lies within our consciousness and is more superficial. This is the one we all know and we use it when creating our fantasies.

We are only able to control the second mechanism, but not the first, fundamental one. That’s because it forms and begins working in us even before we achieve self-awareness. Hence the work of this mechanism is not registered in our consciousness and simply appears to us as the normal, habitual picture of reality.

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Two questions I received on the New Year:

Question: Lately there has been a lot of talk about the year 2012, as a time of change of the cosmic consciousness. Are there grounds for this in Kabbalah?

My Answer: I think that the change of consciousness will happen before that. No year is “special.” All the changes – whether for the worse or for the better – depend only on us. In addition, the New Year that we celebrate here in Israel isn’t a calendar holiday, but a celebration of the first time that egoism was recognized as evil and the first time its correction had begun. This happened in man 5,768 years ago. The New Year is the beginning of correction, and today we are continuing it on a global scale!

This is why we consider the first spiritual birth a holiday, and this is why Adam is called the first man – the word Adam comes from the word Dommeh, similar to the Creator. This is what each one of us is waiting for.

Question: Lately the the mass media is writing about the development of a plan spanning from now until the year 2020. Can we plan ahead for such an extended period of time, today, when everything is so interconnected and changes so fast?

My Answer: Unfortunately, extended plans are usually composed to satisfy specific egoistic goals that benefit someone today, and that’s where it all ends, while the extended plans become forgotten. The distant goal serves as a justification and cover-up for immediate fraud.

Just like it happened in the times of terror regimes and wars, people will once again be forced to suffer and even die in the name of a national idea. If a goal entails casualties, then it’s a false goal! I think that everything will happen differently. Globalization and global interdependence will compel us to act together!

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A question I received: Four years ago I had a tremendous thirst for science and knowledge. I saw so much meaning in these things that I devoted my life to them and became a Doctorate student majoring in environmental law. But since I found out about Kabbalah in 2006, my values gradually changed from material to spiritual. The 2008 Congress in Israel played a major part in this. I see great spiritual meaning in Kabbalah and it has become my true goal. But what should I do with my corporeal science? I’m no longer interested in it because now I know that I can bring harmony to the surrounding world only by changing myself.

I have a problem now: I am unable to complete my dissertation on the environment the way I’d like to – by integrating Kabbalistic elements, because legal scholars consider that environmental problems can only be solved by developing legal regulations and programs, such as reducing carbon emissions, and so on. But I can already see that these means will be ineffective and pointless. I feel that instead of working on my science I want to work on translating Kabbalah texts and do something real like write for the mass media and disseminate in other ways.

So my question is: Should I continue writing my dissertation “the proper way” just to get a PhD, or should I drop out of the doctorate program?

My Answer: I also wrote my dissertation on the topic “Kabbalah as a Method of Irrational Attainment,” even though I personally find Kabbalah to be the most rational science of all. I had to write something that I personally disagreed with because otherwise I would never have defended my dissertation. But after I received my PhD, I gained an ability to speak on a different level – as a Doctor of Philosophy. When I appear at international forums and interviews, the fact that I have a PhD changes something in people’s consciousness. This is why I think that you have to complete your dissertation.

You cannot write “against science” while you aren’t a scientist yet. First you must become a scientist (get a PhD), and then you will be able to legitimately speak “against science” and offer your view of the problem and its solution. Do this step by step. Good luck to you, and I would be happy to work with you on your topic!

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A question I received: Do you really think that the time has already come to implement Baal HaSulam’s dream about the State of Kabbalah in a virtual space?

My Answer: I see that everything is already technologically ready in the Internet and people’s consciousness has developed so they feel the need to exist in a spiritual society. According to research (published by Reuters in the news article, “Porn passed over as Web users become social”) people today are already more drawn to virtual communication (social networking sites) than to sex (pornographic sites). This clearly indicates that the modern society, the youth, has a demand for communication. It’s because the desire for sex is the fundamental desire of the animate level, the foundation of the egoistic desire. And if it is being voluntarily replaced with the desire for communication, then the time for correcting egoism has come!

Baal HaSulam’s words about the future society (see the article “The Future Generation” and the newspaper “The Nation“) must already be implemented in the virtual space. Of course, this is just the beginning, but I’m sure that as soon as we’ll be able to offer people a good platform for spiritual communication, then the masses will aspire to it. I look forward to receiving your ideas and technical proposals!

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Questions I received on how to communicate with children and spouses:

Question: I think that people shouldn’t satisfy all of their children’s needs and desires. For example, I sent my children to expensive schools far away from home, but recently found out that they are using the opportunity to take drugs. Should I set an ultimatum for them – that I won’t support them financially unless they stop taking drugs? In the past I threatened one of my children this way, and I even stopped supporting him. But it didn’t help and only had the opposite effect, making us alienated from each other for a long time.

My Answer: You’ve reached you own understanding of the fact that you can’t teach anyone through force. This will only push them away. What should you do? Put them in the correct environment! There is no other solution.

Question: I’m in a situation where I can do something for my child, but I think that this action will harm him or prevent him from learning on his own, and in the long run it will only create greater difficulties for my child because one way or another he will have to learn on his own. However, my wife still insists on doing it. Is there anything I can do other than propose my point of view?

My Answer: Express your point of view calmly and objectively. Explain that there are laws of nature, and we all carry them out whether we like it or not. Don’t be frantic or angry when you explain this. Perhaps this will help, and if it doesn’t, then they will learn from the blows of fate, but already on a conscious level.

Actually, nothing enters a person’s consciousness without blows of fate. However, the blows can come in the form of our realization, without having to reach practical manifestation.

Everything depends on your wife – both the outer one and the inner one (your desires). I think that dealing with the inner wife is even more difficult than with the outer one.

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Questions I received on how to study in the United States:

Question: We have heard that it is better to study with the world Kli live than at other times viewing the recorded lesson. In this post you say that it doesn’t really matter what time we study. Would it benefit the American groups to study together in the morning at a certain time each day?

My Answer: Yes, together is always better. Even if you are in front of a computer screen on your own, you should know and feel that there are many other friends together with you.

Question: Does it make a difference that we watch the three hour lesson before going to sleep whereas others watch it first thing in the morning?

My Answer: It’s better to watch the lesson in the morning, but if this isn’t possible then you can watch it in the evening, or even split up the lesson into parts and watch it at different times. In any case, at least half an hour in the morning is a must.

Question: If we were to study at a different time, what is the minimum size group that would be beneficial to study in?

My Answer: At least three men.

Question: Does this create more isolation for the American groups in comparison to the World Kli?

My Answer: No, provided that you work together with others on dissemination.

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In the past, before the destruction of the Temple, children were born into a society that perceived the Upper World and the Creator, and based its life on the spiritual laws. Children perceived the relationship of “love thy neighbor as thyself” as an obvious fact of life. They always saw the adults setting this example and aspiring to attain greater connection with the Creator, whom they clearly perceived. Children understood that they were born into this world and exist in it temporarily only in order to create a connection with Him.

In the Bnei Baruch group, our children (and grandchildren) participate in Kabbalah lessons prepared especially for them. Their relationships are built under the guidance of teachers according to the principle of the Torah – bestowal and love of friends. They completely understand that they, and all people in general, are interconnected. The lessons take place on Sundays and during the whole day on Saturday. On Saturday, boys come with their fathers to the morning lesson and then stay for the whole day. We have a special course for them. Every few months I also give a lesson (a test) to all the children.

It’s a great pleasure to see and hear them, their questions and answers, and to observe these growing people forming a completely new outlook on the world. We don’t realize what it means to receive the true picture of the world during the childhood years, to understand the world’s origin, meaning, and purpose. This picture permeates a child’s consciousness and remains in him as his nature. By watching their daily behavior when they are together or apart, when they are at our center our outside of it, in daycare centers or schools, we can see that they behave differently, and have a special, refined inner quality – spirituality. Their similarity to the Upper Force guarantees them success and safety in our world.

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Two questions I received on how Kabbalah answers the question of life’s meaning:

Question: Why should Kabbalah be studied only by those who have lost their way in life, in their interests and goals? Why shouldn’t people who are successful and talented study it too? It sounds like you’re saying that not all people are equal when it comes to their aspiration to get rid of egoism.

My Answer: Kabbalah only answers the question about the meaning of life, which may be expressed by any of the following questions: “What is the purpose and meaning of life? What’s the purpose of so much this suffering? Who needs it, who receives pleasure from it? Who receives, and who can I give to?” Only people who persistently ask these questions need Kabbalah, because they won’t find the answers to them anywhere else!

Question: One of the forefathers of Kabbalah asked the question, “What’s the meaning of my life?” After this he had such a great epiphany that he was able to write down the method for having this epiphany, which he named Kabbalah. I think it’s highly unrealistic to say that he was the only one who asked this question – there must have been at least a few other individuals of the Homo sapien species who also asked this question before him.

My Answer: To ask the question “What’s the meaning of my life?” is still not enough to reveal the Upper World, its system of operation, and program of governance. One also needs to receive a special desire (a soul) and a mission (its realization). This is not given to a person according to his initial purpose only, but also depends on his efforts. You should try to have an “epiphany” like this happen to you as well!

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Two questions I received on evolution and history:

Question: If we were monkeys in the past then who created the monkeys? I’m not sure what to believe in, evolution or religion?

My Answer: Kabbalah says that development in our world does not occur by natural selection, where forces and qualities of “the fittest” are chosen, but rather by the sequential emergence of Reshimot in us. Reshimot is information about the souls’ descent from above downwards – from the World of Infinity to our world. This informational data formed in us as a result of creation’s descent from the World of Infinity to our world, and hence it is built into us as a spiral of data about each degree of descent.

Today we (as well as everything that exists in general) feel the manifestation of this data (Reshimot) inside us about these degrees (from below upwards), and we have to realize them. We can realize the Reshimot in two ways – either through the path of Light or the path of suffering. The path of Light is when we study Kabbalah in order to learn about our future degrees, and we thereby draw the Correcting Light, Ohr Makif. The path of suffering is when we don’t study the structure of the system and don’t draw the Light from the next degree, but only feel the pressure of the following Reshimo that demands to be realized.

Hence, there is no evolution, but only a gradual expression of data that’s already known in advance. Everything is known ahead of time, other than the method of ascending the degrees – whether it will happen consciously (quickly and pleasantly) or forcefully (slowly and painfully). It’s like a film strip where all the future frames already exist, but they gradually appear before the viewer.

Therefore, both Darwin and religion are incorrect.

Question: Do you believe that history can repeat itself? And do you think that people have the right to call their methods using their own names, or should they explain them anonymously?

My Answer: History does not repeat itself. The history that unfolds before our eyes is Reshimot (informational data) that become expressed sequentially (step by step).

In reference to your second question – I don’t care whether people have the right to do something or not; I only care whether their method is a science. If it isn’t a science that’s based on facts, according to the principle “The judge knows no more than what his eyes see,” then I will not take it into consideration. In our times, all “sciences” and “methods” will be tested for authenticity, and to the degree they are authentic, they will become part of Kabbalah.

Today this revolution in our consciousness is not evident yet, because Kabbalah is still concealed. But when Kabbalah will become revealed, then scientists will be amazed at the possibility of “pure” experiment – one that’s not obscured by the egoistic mind. They will then discard everything that is not related to clear attainment of the world, according to a principle that’s explained in The Book of Zohar: One can only attain the material and its form, but not the abstract form and the essence (see the article “Preface to the Book of Zohar”).

As for how a method should be named, this doesn’t matter at all. We either name it according to our egoistic demands, or according to the necessity of scientific notation and definition.
[1727]
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Questions I received on perception, mountains and poor people:

Question: Do animals and nature feel their “self”? Do they perceive reality differently than we do, or do they perceive limited reality like us?

My Answer: They live, but they don’t feel that they live. They don’t have a perception of their “self” or that it’s “their life.” They also don’t feel jealousy of others, but are concerned only with survival.

Question: If we exist in an imaginary reality that we create in our consciousness, then where are we all actually going?

My Answer: By gradually discovering that our reality is distorted, we unknowingly prepare ourselves for attaining the true reality. Science is discovering that matter and waves are the same thing. By studying our perceptions, we have discovered that solid can turn into liquid, and liquid can then turn into gas – a substance that’s imperceptible to our senses. But then the imperceptible gas becomes liquid and then solid again. For example, a piece of ice melts and evaporates, and then condenses into water and becomes solid ice again.

Reality is subjective and depends on our senses. We create it within us. All development is aimed at bringing us to the true state – “There is none else but Him.”

Question: What are mountains from the point of view of Kabbalah – for example Mount Miron and Mount Sinai?

My Answer: A mountain is a mass of egoism, because earth is desire (Aretz means earth, and it comes from the word Ratzon – desire). A mountain is a “protruding” desire. By rising to the top of the mountain – by rising above one’s egoism to the Creator, to equivalence with the Creator, one attains Him.

Question: The Bible very often speaks about poor people. What is a “poor person” in spirituality?

My Answer: In Kabbalah (the Torah) a poor person is one who does not have any knowledge of the Creator (Ani be Daat). It’s because knowledge of the universe and attainment of the Creator (of the only force in existence, the source of everything and the one who governs everything) – is the same thing. A wealthy person in Kabbalah (the Torah) is a one with a wealth of knowledge (of the Creator).

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