Two questions I received about happiness and Kabbalah as a science:

Question: As Kabbalists, should we always be happy?

My Answer: If a person feels miserable, he thereby curses the Creator. This has to do only with the feeling in one’s heart, and not the words that he utters. If a person is happy, he thereby blesses the Creator, without any words and without even addressing Him.

Question: You claim that Kabbalah is a science. Personally, I love science; it is one of my favorite subjects. I am also fascinated with the wisdom of Kabbalah. I know that there are requirements for a study to pass in order for it to be considered a science, and not a pseudoscience. One such requirement is that the study can be falsified (proven false). So, for honesty’s sake, is there any way for Kabbalah to be falsified?

My Answer: If Kabbalah is studied through the original sources such as The Book of Zohar, and teachers such as the ARI, Ramchal, Baal HaSulam or from a teacher who received his knowledge from a great Kabbalist of the previous generation, the rest depends only on the student.

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In the News (from CNN Health): “Pucker up: Scientists study kissing” – Now, scientists are investigating the biological factors underlying that ubiquitous expression of love. The science of kissing even has a name: philematology. Research on the subject was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago. Research led by Wendy Hill, professor of neuroscience at Lafayette College, looked at how kissing affects the hormone oxytocin, sometimes called the “love hormone,” which is associated with social bonding, and cortisol, a measure of stress.

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, there are three kinds of connection between a soul and the Creator: a hug (His left arm is under me and the right one embraces me), a kiss (spirit) and a merger (on all levels). Therefore, a similar interaction exists between bodies in our world. It is studied in the Talmud Eser Sefirot on thousands of pages with scientific description of causes and effects. The book is available and open for everyone.

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A question I received: How can one evoke his feeling toward his neighbor as to his own children? How will those who do not aspire to the meaning of life correct themselves?

My Answer: The study of Kabbalah and the correct environment helps us understand the nature of the Upper State (World) and the unity of all parts of the world.  We are given an opportunity to try to implement it amongst ourselves in our group and to therefore come to the realization that this is not possible, even though we are bound to each other and depend on one another. Today people are gradually beginning to explicitly sense the net that connects us all.

The current crisis is here to show us our harmful interconnection and our inability to correct it, although we recognize that mutual egoism is the cause of all our troubles.

The sooner this knowledge reaches the masses through the media, the sooner the evil will be recognized, and the shorter will be our path of suffering.

Our feeling of helplessness, of our evil egoistic interconnection will unite our suffering and our desire to find a way out and a solution to the problem.

As soon as each person feels his dependence on others, he will become interested in their condition and will care about their well-being. At first, the feeling of a united family comes from an egoistic interest; however, as we join and come closer to each other, we will reach the proper condition in feeling our commonality.

Everyone will learn to take his neighbor into consideration and to treat him as a relative, egoistically sharing everything with him evenly, until we reach full equality in the world.

With this kind of distribution, people will have everything that they need, since Nature will provide for everyone.

By egoistically following the law of similarity to the Creator, people will start to reveal their bond with the spiritual root, just as an arm or a leg reveals its bond with the brain.

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A question I received: If I feel pleasure from the fact that I subject myself to the Creator, where is my free will here?

My Answer: Certainly it brings pleasure, but pleasure is not the principal issue here. The main factor in your decision is the loftiness and importance of the attribute of bestowal per se. There’s pleasure, no doubt, but the importance of bestowal is a priority.

I am drinking green tea and feel pleasure. Can it be called pleasure, or not? No, it can’t, because I feel satisfaction by knowing that the tea is good for my health. In other words, my pleasure is a result of correction, not of my natural desire to receive that would never allow me to drink such a “disgusting thing.” It means that pleasure derived from the sensation of importance is a result of correction.

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When analyzing the statistical data across the world concerning  negative social phenomena such as the rate of incarceration, drug abuse, depression, divorce, domestic violence, parent and child estrangement, we come upon some very interesting findings.

It turns out that these problems are almost nonexistent in poorer countries. When offered antidepressants, people in countries with a greater level of social equality would not understand what you are talking about. However, in societies where there is more social disparity, taking antidepressants is commonplace and many people have their own personal psychologist or therapist.

In the end it turns out that the problem lies not in poverty, but in the disparity between the various standards of living and how I assess myself in relation to others and in the inequality between us.  Equality is a law of Nature, so the less balanced a society, the more problems it has: crime, drugs, depression, divorces, etc. At the same time, the closer people are in their standard of living, the fewer problems of this sort we see plaguing their society.

You can live in a cave and be happy, or you can live in complete prosperity without any problems whatsoever – as long as everyone in your society lives in the same fashion. Problems arise solely from inequality, as it is precisely the lack of balance that is the root of all evil.

Bringing people to equality however, is no simple task, since it contradicts our egoistic desire. Thus, a person must be compensated: what will we get for being equal to others, since right now our desire is to be above others? Kabbalah tells us that only by revealing the Creator can we change this desire and therefore, live as equals. Revealing Him will fill all feelings of disparity and this will be the reward for the compromise we make to be equal to others.

Society is already beginning to understand that inequality breeds evil, as it opposes the main force of Nature in accordance with which everything must be balanced and congruous. We receive fulfillment from infinity, which exists in absolute equality and we therefore perceive any phenomenon opposite to it as ruin.

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A question I received: You always say that man is not free and obeys his genes, instincts, and influence of society. At the age of 20 he is fully formed, like a freshly minted coin, and all his actions are predefined in advance. So is it possible to be a free man, and what does it mean – to be free?

My Answer: To be free means to feel that you are 100% dependent upon the Creator, but “of your own free will,” meaning that it is your decision to be so.

Man feels free when he decides, on his own, that he wants to remain under the influence and authority of the Creator, instead of being slave to his egoism.

We can’t imagine what freedom means, because we think of it as the absence of any influence. However, that is an impossibility, as there is no such thing as an empty void free from any influence whatsoever.

Freedom is a balance of forces, achieved through one’s conscious choice and effort.

We can only become free if we rise above our egoistic desire.  This does not mean that we involuntarily and completely fall under the dominion of the Creator and the desire to bestow.  Instead, it is a choice we make to be governed by the desire to bestow instead of the ego.  It is then that we can reside in the balance between the attributes of reception and bestowal. Such a state is called freedom (Klipat Noga).

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A question I received: What is your take on President Obama’s recent speech in Cairo?

My Answer: Such cliché-filled speeches are a hallmark of any leader.
Everyone wants to open a new page, to restart relationships based on common interests, mutual trust and respect. To conduct an open dialogue, everyone needs to have the same rights and opportunities, aspire to peace, and what’s left is for us to do it together, etc., etc.

It’s written in the Bible “The hearts of rulers are in the hands of the Creator” – in other words, all of them are puppets, carrying out His will. Simple people are the ones who have freedom of will, they are the ones that can influence the Creator, and He, through his presidential puppets, changes the world.

The subject of the science of Kabbalah is how to influence the Creator. Up until now we had to develop egoistically. From our time and on, we have to unite together into one society. With such understanding, we must turn to the Creator for help to achieve that – then the world will become peaceful and kind.

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Questions I received about loving your neighbor, God as an illusion, and angels:

Question: Can we say: “Love your neighbor as yourself”? – Love him as if it’s you, since he is you: ultimately, when all the souls connect in you? And that is the Creator. Or is my interpretation wrong?

My Answer: Until the final correction when all the souls become corrected and merge into one, differences between the souls do not disappear; the connection is built despite the disparity.

Question: Why do you need God? Why are you chasing after an illusion?

My Answer: There is no God! There is Creator = Nature = law of bestowal and love, that we attain in our corrected state.

Question: I have a question about Kabbalistic interpretation of the Jehezekel prophecy. Many “scientists” view images in the prophecy as evidence of existence of aliens. How do Kabbalists interpret, for instance what angels are in this prophecy?

My Answer: Angels are forces of bestowal that act between souls.

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In the news (from Jpost): “Israel 141st out of 144 in Global Peace Index” Only three countries in the world are less peaceful than Israel, according to Global Peace Index figures released this week… Israel is positioned 141st out of 144 countries, fourth from the bottom, with only Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq ranking below… The report uses 23 indicators to determine the existence or absence of peace, such as respect for human rights, military capability, potential for terrorist attacks and perceptions of criminality in society.

My comment: Antisemitism first appeared in ancient Babylon with the establishment of the first Kabbalistic group started by a Babylonian priest named Abraham. Hatred is a result of the fact that this group operated under a different system, one of bestowal and mutual love. By the appearance of this Kabbalistic group, the world first saw a part of humanity that was under the direct influence of the Creator through a force similar to Him, that of bestowal and love. This is opposite to the naturally egoistic force under which everyone, other than the Babylonians, operates, as the non-Babylonians took the path of the development of egoism

There are two parts of humanity. One is Israel which aims itself toward the attainment of the Creator’s qualities. The other is the Nations of the World who develop under the influence of natural egoism and are in opposition to the higher forces of development. This is where hatred stems from.

Hatred will be eliminated only through the correction of all humanity. This must happen during the remaining 230 years of a total of 6,000 years of humanity’s egoistic development.

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In the News (from Rush University Medical Center ): “Having a Higher Purpose in Life Reduces Risk of Death among Older Adults” – Possessing a greater purpose in life is associated with lower mortality rates among older adults according to a new study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center. After adjusting for age, sex, education and race, a higher purpose of life was associated with a substantially reduced risk of mortality. Thus, a person with high purpose in life was about half as likely to die over the follow-up period compared to a person with low purpose.

My Comment: And those who possess the spiritual goal to attain revelation of the Creator in this life, reach not only longevity but also possession and perception of eternal life.

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