Questions I received about loving one’s neighbor:

Question: You say that it is possible to love others as you love yourself. I want this very much. Please tell me, is there someone who could pray for his friend with all his heart, so that the friend would love his friend as a mother loves her son?

My Answer: This has to be your own prayer, because your request – provided it is complete – will surely evoke the Upper Light, which will correct you and give you this quality.

Question: We know how to “love” for the purpose of receiving love in return. But what is it to “love your neighbor as yourself?” How is this love different from the egoistic “love?” We do not know this “Supreme Love.” How are we supposed to implement it in our daily life?

My Answer: The study of Kabbalah involves all the actions that attract the next, more advanced state (these actions include the studies, unification in the group, and dissemination). Otherwise we are pushed toward the same state by suffering. Our task is to aspire to this state before the suffering will push us from behind and make us aspire toward the next level just to avoid the suffering.

So, only the force that attracts us to the next state, called the Upper Light (Ohr Makif), is able to “explain” to us what is “genuine love” – love for someone other than yourself.

Question: What if my neighbor is not nice to me, and is mean? How do I rise above this and love my neighbor?

My Answer: You will do this for the sake of the Creator if He is more important to you than yourself. And this importance of the Creator has to come to you from your environment.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What Is a True Prayer?
Laitman.com Post: Babies – Physical and Spiritual
Laitman.com Post: Overcome Yourself by Raising the Importance of the Goal
Article: Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings
The Open Book: “Freedom of Choice”

Filed under: Love, The Creator - No Comments →

A question I received: When people suffer, they unite. Now that the entire world is suffering, there’s a chance for unity, but won’t this unity dissipate the moment the situation improves?

My Answer: People aren’t uniting because of hunger. Rather, the system we live in is being revealed as a network that lacks the right interconnection. This is why the unity will not take place on the level of the banks, the economy or human relationships. This crisis will drive everyone into a dead-end, and the situation will improve only when people connect with each other. The recognition of evil will continue to grow, and accordingly, people will correct themselves more and more.

Today, the whole world is beginning to work for the Creator. The whole world – which comprises one soul – must ascend up the spiritual degrees all the way to the World of Infinity. In the past, only a small group of people wet through this path of ascent to the World of Infinity, but today, the whole world must go through it.

This is called, “the coming of the Messiah,” and the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah to the whole world is called, “the horn of the Messiah.” There is a law that states: the general and the particular are equal. Therefore, the whole world will undergo all the same processes as the group.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Have to Reveal the Magnificence of the System We’re In
Laitman.com Post: Being “Chosen” Means Having the Responsibility to Spiritually Serve the World
Kabbalah Today Article: Echoes of the Future
Baal HaSulam Article: “Messiah’s Horn”

Filed under: Unity - No Comments →

In the News (from National Geographic): Today many scientists say there is no conflict between their faith and their work, and few scientists seem to think much about religion in their research. In a 1997 survey in the science journal Nature, 40 percent of U.S. scientists said they believe in God. “In the last few years astronomy has come together so that we’re now able to tell a coherent story” of how the universe began, said Joel Primack, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “This story does not contradict God, but instead enlarges [the idea of] God.”

In the News (from The Stanford Review ): Students and staff packed Memorial Auditorium [at Stanford University] to hear Dr. Francis Collins, the renowned head of the Human Genome Project and author of The Language of God discuss his views on science, faith, and the ease with which the two can be reconciled. According to Collins, “naturalism has its limits.” Collins cited pointers to God in nature such as the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics,” and the precise tuning of physical constants during the Big Bang. Examples of such improbability suggest that there is a creator God. There is an obvious way to reconcile [faith and science], Collins shows, through a rejection of extremes, and the embracing of “harmony in the middle.”

My Comment: The study of Kabbalah enables people to change their intention from “for one’s own sake,” where one perceives our world, to the intention of “for the sake of one’s neighbor,” where one perceives the Upper World. By uniting with one’s “neighbors” through the intention “for the sake of one’s neighbor,” one discovers that others are a part of him and that everything in existence consists of two parts – myself and the Upper Force. See the section on “Perception.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Will Evolve to Acquire Power Over All of Nature
Laitman.com Post: All of Evolution Is Aimed at Making Us Attain the Upper Level of Consciousness
Talk: “Perception of Reality”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

Filed under: Science - No Comments →

Question: How do you raise a child through reward and punishment?

Answer: We don’t have any other means. That’s how the Creator treats us. We must learn from Him and treat children as He treats us. That’s the only thing we can do – learn how to rear children from the Creator’s attitude toward us.

We should study the way He controls us, the way He plays with us, pretending to mislead us, though in reality He misleads our ego. We will then begin to understand that He misleads our ego wisely, in order to show us how to become like Him.

He constantly increases our reward and its quality. He doesn’t just give us sweets, but changes the ways of encouraging us so we’ll advance and shift from the value system of “sweet vs. bitter” to the value system of “true vs. false.” In fact, Adam HaRishon fell when he confused the “true-false” and the “sweet-bitter” evaluations.

Therefore, when we rear children, we too must help them to gradually understand that they shouldn’t be making efforts just to receive sweets, but to constantly raise the value of “the truth.” This is the most important thing, in spite of the bitterness they will feel as they replace the “sweet” with the “truth.” This is what true education is!

In order to do this, we have to give them examples, invent games, and provide the support of the society. All of this must be a part of the education system. There is nothing more important than this. In fact, the only problem in the entire world is the problem of education. If we manage to educate just one generation that will understand the Upper Governance and will react towards this governance correctly, then we won’t need to do anything else, because the purpose of our life is to establish a connection with the Upper Force.

Everything comes from this force, and hence the only relationship one must establish is one’s relationship with the Upper Force. One must clearly reveal it so he will actually see it, be in dialogue with it, interact with it, and have a clear connection with it. This is the only thing every person needs and this is why we need the wisdom of Kabbalah – the Creator’s revelation to his creation.

We must reveal Him now, while living in this world, as otherwise we won’t know how to live, how to rear our children and how to raise the next generation. These are all things that are necessary for us, and this is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed now: because we desperately need it.
(From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” on 02.17.2009)

Filed under: Children, Education - No Comments →

A question I received: What do you mean when you say that animals, plants, and matter (as a substance) don’t exist? Only the human being exists? The attainment of the Creator occurs only through the human souls? I understand that everything we feel here is an “imprint” of reality – the trees, the starlit sky, the tall mountains, and landscapes. So is all of this only present in our imagination?

My Answer: The only thing that was created is the desire. It contains a feeling that’s separated by egoism into “me” and “what surrounds me.” By correcting the egoism, the feeling merges into one whole “me” and the feeling of my source, the additional sensation of the Creator.

Everything you perceive on the outside is perceived inside your consciousness. This is, in fact, the “reality.” Everything is present only in one’s consciousness, like in a dream. Our inability to objectively compare feelings, due to having only a perception of “our world,” constrains us. But very soon, humanity will begin to “awaken” from its slumber and people will find other possible existences.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Reality Is In Our Imagination
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah, Science and the Perception of Reality
Kabbalah Today Article: Baal HaSulam on the Perception of Reality
Kabbalah Revealed: Chapter 5. “Whose Reality Is Reality? – In A Nutshell”

Filed under: Perception - No Comments →

Today’s crisis is the revelation of the Creator to the creatures, but it is happening from the opposite side. Globalization is the Creator’s force of unity and connection. Today, this force is being revealed to everyone, and this is why every person is starting to feel more and more dependent on everyone, that he belongs to everyone and shares the same pain.

So, the Creator is already being revealed to the creatures, but from His opposite side. I see this like a doctor who looks at a patient and sees that the patient is beginning to feel all the symptoms of his illness. Humanity’s illness is becoming revealed, and we have to turn it around – meaning, accept it in the right way.

We are the generation that is experiencing the revelation of the Creator, and it is already happening! Today, the views of an ordinary person and a Kabbalist are not so different. It’s as if a person is floating in a stormy sea, thrown around by the waves like a small chip of wood, up and down and from side to side. Everything depends on his agreement to cling to and unite with this stormy sea.

As soon as he agrees, he will immediately cease feeling any agitation and changes in the sea. A perfect peace will immediately overtake the sea of the Upper Light. It only storms because we resist every action the Creator makes, and therefore we can’t relax and yield to Him, and thus rise above our egoism, which wants to struggle.

If we do this,  we will feel that there are no changes taking place. All the changes are the results of one’s struggle against the Creator, and it is this struggle that makes the sea storm. The moment one will cease resiting, he will stop feeling the storm, and will instead feel absolute peace.

(From the lesson on Rabash’s article, “The Activity of the Greatest of the Nation,” on 03.17.09)

Filed under: Unity - No Comments →

A question I received: As a student of Kabbalah, I am finding myself questioning my religion (Christianity), but my faith in God is ever increasing. I want to keep a religious life but find myself with an urge (a pull) to convert to Judaism. This is a serious matter when looking at it from a Christian viewpoint. Your thoughts, please.

My Answer: The attainment of the goal of creation bears no relation to religion. Religions are no more than the cultural framework of a certain society. In this sense, they can continue to exist, but everything that’s above them can only be attained through the method of Kabbalah. This is true for any person, religious or not.

People usually abandon religion when they begin to attain Nature, the Creator. But later, once they see that religion is no more than a framework in our world, like a social club, they become ready to physically observe their religion.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The True Origin of Religions
Laitman.com Post: Why Religion Is Against Kabbalah
Article: The Difference between the Science of Kabbalah and Religion

Filed under: Religion - No Comments →

A question I received: Recently I came to the conclusion that what causes us suffering is our desire. It is impossible to reduce and it never ends. I want to stop desiring anything. I simply don’t wish to desire anything, and I just want to do what I must, no matter what comes my way. Is this possible? Don’t tell me, “try it and see.” I understand that this is impossible. But what should I do now?

My Answer: Try it and see. “Try” means to study and disseminate Kabbalah. You will then gain an understanding from being connected to the group, and will begin to feel the influence of the Upper Force on you. The group is like a tuning fork for a musician – it is an instrument for attuning yourself to the Creator, since the direction leading to him is hidden from us.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Condition of Entering the Upper World Is Mutual Guarantee
Kabbalah Revealed: “Handling Desires”
Wondrous Wisdom: “Intention – Our Work”
The Path of Kabbalah: “About the Study”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: Many phenomena in the world change from one extreme to another: from light to dark, cold to hot, life to death, minus to plus, motion to rest, and so on. Isn’t there another method of spiritual development besides including all the opposites in ourselves?

My answer: The Creator is the feeling of one quality: bestowal, love. However, since we are the created beings, we can only feel something on the background of something else, or in comparison with it.

Pleasure inside the desire is the Light of the Creator inside of you. This constitutes the whole of creation. Therefore, as a result of our development, we must come to incorporate the entire desire – the Kli of the World of Infinity, and the entire fulfillment – the Light of the World of Infinity, the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We’re All Playing Tennis Against the Wall
Laitman.com Post: Preface to the Science of Kabbalah (“Pticha”) – Item 1
Laitman.com Post: The Purpose of the Crisis Is to Bring Us to Perfection
The Path of Kabbalah: Chapter 2.4 – “The Attibutes of the Light”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: What is your opinion on preparing the Torah scroll in order to bring it into the Temple?

My Answer: It is necessary to prepare the people to serve at the Temple so they will attain the quality of the Creator. Hence, the Torah scroll isn’t the most important thing. It’s because the Torah has been given to us for our correction, as written, “I created egoism and the Torah for its correction.”

The Torah scroll will not be beneficial if man isn’t corrected. So it’s best if you put your effort into the correction of people.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Difference Between Spiritual Correction and Ritual Observance
Laitman.com Post: Building the Third Temple
Introduction to the Book of Zohar: “Items 45-59”

Filed under: Torah - No Comments →