A question I received: Many people around me are experiencing failures in different areas, including money, their feelings, and family relationships. Should a person try to figure out where and how he made a mistake? In other words, should he view his current state as being strictly individual and directly dependent on his own actions? Or, should he begin studying the wisdom of Kabbalah and expect inner changes to happen to him as a result of the Light’s influence, without worrying about what he did or failed to do, and what brought him to this problem?

My Answer: Since we are all interconnected, no one is personally responsible for what is happening in the world or to them personally, because everything is pre-programmed and descends from Above. We have to react to things realistically on the corporeal level and, at the same time, correct ourselves on the spiritual level. This is how we unite the two worlds, unifying the Creator’s governance of us through the influences of “Havayah-Elokim.”

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In the News (translated from Newsland.ru): Scientists have discovered that mental exercises have a powerful positive effect on the human organism. It turns out that we can do gymnastics without exerting any physical effort.

My Comment: The power of thought (“the Thought of Creation”) lies at the root of all creation. All of creation developed from this thought, including all the particular forces that descended and coarsened, until they became the physical forces of our world. The coarsest of these forces formed a material shell around them.

However, within all of matter, there is a spiritual force which governs it, driving all of matter toward similarity to the Creator, to the quality of bestowal and love.

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Questions I received on how to correct our egoistic nature:

Question: What do I have to do to persuade the Upper Light to correct me?

My Answer: You have to reach the point where you discover that by hating someone else, you hate yourself, and you harm yourself just by thinking badly of someone, with your negative attitude to others! In addition, you won’t just desire for bad things not to happen to others because they will negatively affect you, but more than that, you’ll begin to discover that your bad, egoistic thoughts about others immediately return to you.

And then you’ll discover that another person and you is the same thing, and you cannot think of others badly as this would be equivalent to thinking badly about yourself. But at the same time, you cannot stop thinking badly of them.
That is when you’ll come to the necessity for the Upper Light, which will correct you.

Question: I hate successful people, and I feel good when others feel bad. I hate the entire world and the entire humanity. What should I do?

My Answer: Actually, you cannot be any different. Everyone feels this way, but most people just haven’t discovered the evil inside them. It is written, “I created egoism and I created Kabbalah for its correction, because the Light of Kabbalah corrects a person (returns him to the Creator).” So, keep on advancing!

Question: What’s the best way to deal with the hatred, envy and jealously that I feel toward others in the group?

My Answer: You will never be able to overcome them. Only the Upper Light, which affects you during the study of Kabbalah, will correct you.

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A question I received: I just came across Pulsa d’Nura which is supposedly a Kabbalistic practice to curse someone and apparently they have used it in Israel to curse Ariel Sharon and others, and it worked every time. This is horrible! Is this true? Can someone use Kabbalah to hurt another person?

My Answer: Usually this happens the way it happened to Rasputin: He cut the chandelier in the lounge and warned that something horrible would if a prince were to enter. Then when the chandelier actually fell, everyone said he was a prophet. So it’s the same here: the moment something happens, hundreds of charlatans appear and shout, “We told you so!” So calm down – there are no miracles in this world!

The world is what we perceive. We call that which is revealed to us “this world” or “our world,” and that which isn’t yet revealed to us, “the concealed world.” And we constantly reveal the world to a greater extent. Therefore, “the hidden” and “the revealed” are constantly changing, since the boundaries of “the revealed” expand.

We are now approaching the stage of the full revelation of the world, where nothing will remain concealed. The Creator (all of Nature) will become revealed to us because we will become equivalent to the Creator’s nature by changing our common egoism to the quality of bestowal. Then, we will all reveal Him, as it is written, “Everyone will know Me, from the greatest to the smallest.”

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A question I received: I don’t know what to do. I feel as if I’ve lost all my energy and I am “hanging in the air.” Nothing interests me at work. Even though I do everything possible in my spiritual work, I feel despair as I’ve never experienced it before. I have no “fuel.” Nothing affects me anymore. I feel no desire for anything in this world, and the only desire I have is to escape to somewhere, but I don’t know where to. My heart tells me that this place exists, but I’m still not there. I have been studying with you for over three years and I can’t imagine life without Kabbalah. But I am getting desperate because I feel like nothing is happening to me. On the contrary, the desires of the external environment are affecting me, making me even weaker. What can I do? I can’t continue like this anymore! What should happen now?

My Answer: The reason you are feeling so weak on the spiritual path is that you lack a connection with the group. You aren’t receiving the importance of the goal from the environment, but this is the most important thing – it’s the foundation of our advancement!

You can read more about these states in the Shamati articles and the Letters of Baal HaSulam. There are Reshimot (information or the genes of our spiritual development) concealed in us, which constantly become revealed, causing our egoistic desire to constantly grow. And we must constantly ascend above these Reshimot using our intention to attain the quality of bestowal and love for the Creator. This is exactly why our egoism grows: to give us the opportunity to rise above it, to rise from our world to the level of the Creator.

And then we will understand Him, as it is written, “For they will all know Me, from the smallest of them to the greatest” (Yirmiyahu 31:33). But the process is always the same: the Reshimot that become revealed in us are always egoistic, and every time, we have to receive the force to rise above them by increasing our connection with the environment (the group).

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Two questions I received on what conditions are necessary for one’s spiritual advancement:

Question: I am 18 years old. I live in Brazil, far away from any group, so I am studying online and my only contact with the group is through the Internet. Since my point in the heart woke up, I keep on the path as much as I can, but sometimes I feel alone here, not being able to attend the Congress or to be part of a physical group. What’s your advice: is it enough for me to be connected with others through the Internet? What else can I do to accelerate my correction?

My Answer: Staying virtually connected suffices in order to advance. Watching the lessons, keeping a virtual connection with the entire worldwide group of students, and participating in Kabbalah dissemination are the sufficient conditions for revealing the Creator!

Question: It seems to me some people live in conditions (socially, financially, physically, mentally, etc.) that are simply not conducive to entering spirituality, even though they may have a point in the heart and even though they may want to study Kabbalah. Can they cross the Machsom?

My Answer: If a person has received knowledge about this opportunity, it means that the Creator has given him a freedom of will, and after that everything depends on the person. Every Reshimo that emerges in a person contains all the data about his inner and outer Kli (that is, about him and his surroundings). This gives him the feeling that there is “him” and “the world,” including everything necessary for his advancement and free choice (including the group, whether virtual or physical). This is why it is written, “A person should always say, ‘The world was created for me’ (for him to realize his inner Reshimo at every given moment). If one sways oneself to the scale of merit, he sways the whole world to the scale of merit. And if one sways oneself to the scale of evil, he sways the whole world to the scale of evil.”

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A question I received: What should my attitude be towards the Holocaust? Also, being that the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” says that all of the nations could become Nazi regimes if Israel doesn’t fulfill its duty, and also given that everything in this world is pre-determined, how am I to feel anything but fear and hatred towards the Creator?

My Answer: See Baal HaSulam’s article “Matan Torah (The Revelation of Godliness)”: Kabbalah (the authentic Torah, Torah Emet,) was given to us in order to correct the egoistic desire “to fulfill only yourself” into the altruistic desire “to fulfill others.” Since the entire system of souls is built as a pyramid, similar to our physical body, the correction isn’t done by all the souls at the same time, but happens in a specific order. This order depends on the souls’ desire to break free from “pursuing things in order to receive.”

This concealed desire to reveal the Creator is called “the point in the heart.” The heart is all of a person’s desires, and the point in the heart is the desire for the Creator. This is how parts of the souls unite together and – within their unity – reveal the Creator. This is referred to as the “Reception of the Torah” (revelation of the Light, the Creator).

Also, see Baal HaSulam’s article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: Receiving the method of correction (Torah or Kabbalah) is only the initial stage in the general correction of all the souls. Hence, the corrected part must fall into the common egoism, intermix with the uncorrected part – the rest of humanity, so together they can become corrected.

In addition, see Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to the Book of Zohar (item70)“: When egoism becomes revealed as evil in the world as a whole, this is the beginning of the period of the revelation of Kabbalah, the method of the entire world’s correction. But because this method is still in the possession of the group of people who have used it – the people of Israel, they must master it and pass it on to all the nations of the world. The destiny of the people of Israel and of the entire world depends only on this. When the method is not passed on in time, then all kinds of problems appear in the world – aggression, wars, extermination, and so on, including the Holocaust.

You cannot justify the Creator because the degree of the righteous (one who justifies the Creator) is still far above you. Therefore, I can understand what you are feeling, though I do not feel the same way.

Related News Story (from Associated Press): Israel’s chief rabbinate severed ties yesterday with the Vatican to protest a papal decision to reinstate a bishop who publicly denied that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

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The Introduction to the Book “From the Mouth of a Wise Man” – Lesson of June 16, 2004

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A question I received: Please show me practically, using examples from history, how do Reshimot change?

My Answer: The periodical change of our attitude to life is dictated by the changing “genes” in us (Reshimot, which comes from the word Roshem – “recording” in Hebrew). The stages of egoism’s changes are recorded inside each of us from the beginning, when the common soul divided into many souls.

Reshimot are revealed in us in an increasing, consecutive order: 0-1-2-3-4. Therefore, at the beginning stages of their realization in us, the Reshimot brought forth a small egoism in us; and in those lives we were “naïve” – slaves and masters. Then, as more advanced Reshimot surfaced in us, when we were born in the next epochs, we desired to be freer, to be workers, such as vassals or serfs. Women were married off without their permission, and this was considered “correct.” They loved their husbands because their small egoism did not get in the way. This was the accepted norm.

And after that, as more advanced Reshimot were expressed in us, we desired to be “free” workers for hire, employers but not masters. We desired freedom and equality (including for women), and so on.

Reshimot elicit desires in us, and the desires provoke the mind to achieve what we desire. Today we can see nations in whom different Reshimot were expressed in the same epoch, and therefore we don’t live in one cultural zone, but in different cultures and formations. However, globalization is bringing about a quick realization of Reshimot in every person and in everyone together.

In regard to choice:

• marriage (voluntary – through love, or forced – stealing the bride, paying a ransom, marrying by the father’s order, and so on),

• power (coercive – although later accepted and loved, like in Russia until today; by election; or inherited),

• place of residence (being attached to the place, having a residence permit, a passport system, free movement),

• and according to other signs, one can tell which Reshimot were realized in a nation or a civilization.

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A question I received: I am non Jewish, and I have been studying Kabbalah for several years. I am considering the path of conversion. However, I am trying to find information on the concept of Chasid Omot Olam. All I know is that this is a non Jewish person who lives his life according to the precepts and the cause of spreading Kabbalah. Is this correct? How can I find more information on this concept?

My Answer: There’s no need to convert. You have to correct yourself to “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and today this is required of all people. Nationalities and religions will vanish, and our world will disappear from our perception. The only thing that will remain is the one common soul, united with the Creator in the state of the World of Infinity, just as it was at the beginning of creation. Read the section about the three states in Baal HaSulam’s article, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar.”

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In the News (from The New Scientist): According to physicist Craig Hogan, GEO600 [a detector of gravitational waves] has stumbled upon the fundamental limit of space-time – the point where space-time stops behaving like the smooth continuum Einstein described and instead dissolves into “grains.”

If this doesn’t blow your socks off, then Hogan has an even bigger shock in store: “If the GEO600 result is what I suspect it is, then we are all living in a giant cosmic hologram.” … Our everyday experience might itself be a holographic projection of physical processes that take place on a distant, 2D surface.

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, “The particular and the general are equal as two drops of water.” Everything consists of ten Sefirot, which in turn divide into an infinite number of parts, each of which repeats the same structure of ten Sefirot. This was even described by Abraham in his book, The Book of Creation (Sefer Yetzira), where he writes: “Ten Sefirot: Ten and not nine, ten and not eleven.” It’s the same in all parts and in the entire creation.

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