Two questions I received on the masses’ participation in the method of correction

Question: Please let me know whether I understand you correctly or not: You’re saying that there will be a very small quantity of people serving the Creator through studying the science of Kabbalah in comparison to the whole of humanity?

My Answer: No. Everyone needs to understand that there is a method of attaining happiness. Until everyone comes to this understanding, then no one will actually achieve it. That’s the condition. People subdivide into four groups according to their natural development and the size of their desire. Those with the largest desire are Kabbalists, and those with the smallest desire are people who will merely understand that they need this method for survival; that they need to join the rest and do everything like everyone else, like in a herd. It’s the same way as the masses operate today, according to social influence and advertisement.

Question: You have described the main mass of society (99% of people) as being “individually and socially passive.” These are, apparently, people who don’t ask questions about the meaning of life, i.e. people without a point in the heart. Are all such people just flesh and bones made for the herding, or can they all be “awakened” in the foreseeable future for spiritual progress?

My Answer: Every single person has free will. The only difference is the extent to which one’s free will becomes realized within oneself. However, according to one’s soul, each one needs to completely and independently realize oneself. There are leaders and there are followers, but all are conscious!

Related Material:
Part 1A from eBook Interview with the Future: A Hidden World
Chapter 12 from the eBook The Open Book: Four Degrees in the Development of the Desire
Article: Freedom of Will

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Two questions I received on a woman’s relationship to a man in spiritual progress:

Question: I may be wrong, but I think that a woman can attain correction on her own, with the help of Rav’s instructions, books, and dissemination, without a man to attract the Light for her.

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct. If you do everything you should, then you will not need the men’s help. Even without knowing who you are, the common men’s world group will do all their work for you to the degree that you do your work, because on the spiritual path, we exchange desires.

Question: On the one hand, my desire is constantly growing and is becoming difficult to bear, and on the other hand, my ability to disseminate and study is limited due to various circumstances (if I am able to do it at all). I think that if I had a stronger sensation of my desire’s influences on my husband or the men’s group, then I would feel useful and blessed. Do you have advice or a solution to this?

My Answer: You should delve deeper into yourself, work through the new sensations you feel, define them, and demand less from others. Everything depends only on you. Besides you, everything is ready and prepared for your correction.

Related Material:
A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development, #1
A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development, #2

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Two questions I received on what will happen to us at the time of final correction:

Question: After the full correction, will the corporeal world disappear forever? Or will it constantly return depending on our behavior?

My Answer: The full correction means that it’s final, marking the correction of all desires that the Creator created in the World of Infinity. Therefore, there is no longer any “return to the corporeal world,” as you say… by the way, there is no such thing as a return to an older desire that had been corrected and then became corrupted – that’s impossible. A “return to the corporeal world” in the spiritual work means the revelation of a new, uncorrected desire, which was always in you, but hidden from you until it became revealed. Therefore, once all desires become corrected, there is no more revelation of new, uncorrected desires.

Question: After the full correction, will there will be any more “natural disasters”? Do these phenomena happen only because the human race is opposite to the laws of nature, and not due to any other “natural” causes?

My Answer: Only we evoke all the natural phenomena, both good and bad. From the Creator’s side, everything is in balance.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: Soul Splitting
Kabbalah Today Article: Rabbi Hya’s Vision
Chapter 2.12 from the Book The Path of Kabbalah: The Body at the End of Correction
Rabash Article: To which level does a person have to reach in order that he should not need to be reincarnated a second time?

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Three questions I received on shame and overcoming:

Question: In one of the lessons you teach, you said: “You have to do something that you will be ashamed of. Otherwise you won’t have any impressions (Havchanot).” What is this shame you’re talking about?

My Answer: It’s something you’ll understand in more advanced states. It’s practically impossible to explain, since it is attained from within. But you shouldn’t do anything shameful on purpose. The Creator will “set you up” as to reveal all of your worthless nature to you. Thanks to such a horrible revelation of your nature within you, you will desire to rid yourself of it with all your strength. And this desire – your request for correction – will be realized by the Creator. All the stages of correction will become revealed gradually, one by one, to the extent of your efforts. All you can do is accelerate this development through diligence and patience.

Question: Is shame the sensation of the revelation of evil within me? And in that case is the prayer for help during the lesson, a prayer to rise above yourself, with the purpose of attaining adhesion?

My Answer: That’s right. Shame is a sensation given from above, and as soon as you receive it, a desire appears – not simply a desire to avoid it, since such a desire is egoistic, but a desire to rise above it. Thanks to this, you attain a connection with, and adhesion to, the Creator. Moreover, you feel gratitude to the Creator for everything, including the sensation of shame He evoked within you, and you justify Him for doing this to you.

Question: Abraham endured a physical test. He overcame it, and this gave him the understanding that he fears the Creator. Do we, today, also receive all our tests only physically? That is to say, in order to attain the level of fear, will I also have to go through such a great test, which will show me that I fear the Creator?

My Answer: Just like Abraham, you will also go through these tests, but they will never be physical – only spiritual.

Related Material:
Chapter 23 from the Book Attaining the Worlds Beyond: Spiritual Work
Chapter 1.10 from the Book The Path of Kabbalah: Faith Above Reason
Baal HaSulam Articles on the Inner Work with Corresponding Lessons
eBook: Attaining the Worlds Beyond

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Two questions I received on spiritual relationships in geographical locations:

Question: How did the pyramids in Egypt materialize, and why did it happen there of all places? How could they possibly have been built with such precision without powerful technologies? The First and Second Temples were destroyed, but the pyramids still stand.

My Answer: Nothing simply appears out of thin air, from “above,” materializing out of nothingness. People built the pyramids, and they still stand because they represent the universal egoism that is alive and growing stronger. The Temples, on the other hand, were destroyed because the necessary mass of people for perceiving both worlds and connecting them together is lacking. In the future, when egoism becomes corrected, the common soul will appear, together with its earthly symbol: the Third Temple. However, after humanity’s general correction, this world will start disappearing from our perception.

Question: On Israel’s Independence Day, I saw a program with you speaking about the spiritual independence of Israel. Among other topics, you spoke about the spiritual geography of the Land of Israel. But to my regret, I was surprised that you did not mention the southern part of Israel – the Negev Desert. After all, it is a part of the nation. Does this mean that the spiritual forces only influence the part of Israel that extends from Ramat HaGolan to the Dead Sea?

My Answer: Of course not. The Negev Desert has always been a part of Israel, but this place is influenced by the minimal spiritual forces, and hence this part is naturally inanimate. For more on this, see Part 16 of Talmud Eser Sefirot.

Related Material:
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Chapter 1.6 in the Book The Path of Kabbalah: Landmarks
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Lesson: General Overview of Creation

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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.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: Kabbalah Explains the Bible
Article: Finding the Creator Within
Article: Exodus – From Physical to Spiritual
Lesson on the Article “From My Flesh I Shall See God”
Lesson on the Article “From My Flesh I Shall See God”

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News Story: Museum Kills Live Exhibit

At a New York art exhibition, a living coat made out of living mouse stem cells started growing uncontrollably, and had to be killed. The exhibit was put together by a group known as SymbioticA, based at the School of Anatomy & Human Biology at the University of Western Australia in Perth. The group’s director, Oren Catts, stated that the need to kill the exhibit served to exemplify the group’s overarching goal, which is “to present the end of our projects in ways that remind people that these works are/were alive and that we have a responsibility towards the living systems that we engage in manipulating.”

My Comment: While we’re on the subject of people’s responsibilities, then can we say that our future with nanotechnology and stem cells is in the “trustworthy” hands of “responsible” people? If we continue relying on people’s better judgment, then just imagine what kind of a world our future generations will be living in? We simply need to change ourselves, ASAP, otherwise the world’s really going to get out of control.

I have a question for all the responsible people, wherever they are: Are you spreading the method of correction?

Related Material:
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A question I received: Deepak Chopra wrote that a human organism is renewed every few hours, as well as all the parasites, viruses and diseases in it. Apparently, it’s not a matter of physiology, but programming. Can we use the power of intention to influence our body’s changes, cure serious diseases, and even grow limbs? And another question: If we progress further, can we change the reality around us or our life’s situation? And the main question: Do we need to learn how to do it if it’s possible?

My Answer: Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to a person. The Creator reveals Himself to a person to the extent of the level of correction of one’s egoism to altruism, and love toward people. This world has no miracles in it. Fairy tales are either for children or are the products of charlatans. There are laws; laws of nature. We will learn how to grow limbs, but within the boundaries of these laws. Reality depends on you, on your properties. Take a look at how you can change it: “Preface to the Book of Zohar.”

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A question I received: Do Kabbalists need an army? King David was fighting and it did not prevent him from attaining the Creator. Should the Israeli army become an army of Kabbalists? Of course, a war has to be fought on the levels higher than our world but we always say that until Gmar Tikkun (final correction) we have to react adequately on all corporeal dangers. The more Kabbalah spreads, the more it will attract enemies who will fear and hate it because of its mysterious force. Egoism will react, defending itself by all means. Maybe we need to create a Kabbalistic “militia”?

My Answer: In general, all correction should take place at the level of forces/desires. However, when a man fails, or moreover, if he doesn’t want to correct himself and thus breaks his communication with the Creator, with the Light, with the desires at that level, then that same Light will influence him on the level at which he descended: our corporeal level, “our world.” Then, all the forces he should have corrected become his enemies, diseases, and other plagues at the level of our world. Thus, the need to fight each other at the level of our world is a consequence of the failure to correct our egoism, the failure to achieve “Love Thy Neighbor,” and the failure to correct ourselves in due time. If we would have succeeded in correcting ourselves, then all wars would have taken place at the level of forces. Kabbalists have their forces, and as such, have no need for an army. I’m positive that the world will see a need in us, and won’t see us as enemies.

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A question I received: What is the spiritual root of the Holocaust?

My Answer: When the discrepancy between the nation of Israel and its spiritual root reaches a critical point, it produces an impact effect from the correcting, reforming force of the Light. Baal HaSulam writes that even in our time, by not wanting to fulfill our task of correcting ourselves and the world, we are attracting upon ourselves the next blow.

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