A question I received: According to the Ari, the people of Israel were exiled to different countries in order to collect the “sparks” of the nations of the world into one large force, directed toward the Creator. Could it be that the Eastern meditations and teachings, used by many Israelis to come closer to spirituality, are these sparks, and therefore these teachings are necessary for us to develop?

My Answer: It is written that once Abraham revealed Kabbalah, he started teaching it to others who were interested in the opportunity to attain the purpose of life – the revelation of the Creator, adhesion with Him. These people became his students. However, there were others who still hadn’t revealed this desire, the question about the meaning of life – see item 2 of the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.” He gave these people another teaching as preparation.

Those who followed him – his students, are called his sons. Those who weren’t yet able to follow him, but listened to him, are called the sons of his concubines or slaves. It is written in Midrash Raba that he taught them religions and sent them to the East.

However, today we are only starting to rethink religions and beliefs. People must realize and feel that religions and beliefs were given to us temporarily, to last through the period of the Creator’s concealment in order to then be replaced with His revelation. When He is revealed, the only thing that will remain of them are folk customs and traditions. Meanwhile, all the nations of the world will unite under one Creator, and He will be revealed to them.

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A question I received: When does the Surrounding Light influence me – only during the lesson or also during dissemination? (Considering that while I’m doing it I aspire to attain the Upper One through the unification with the group.)

My Answer: It influences you during the study, dissemination, and other group actions, depending on your intention to connect with everyone in order to reveal the Creator – the quality of bestowal and love. The Surrounding Light is the Light that will fill you on a higher level.

The fact is that you already exist in all of your future states. However, you don’t perceive it. You must attain these states yourself. By aspiring to them, you draw the influence of your future state upon you and it changes you, making you similar to it. Everything depends only on your desire, your aspiration to that future state.

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Two questions I received on the role of this world in the soul’s correction:

Question: I read that when a person dies who hasn’t developed the sixth sense (a soul), which enables him to perceive the Upper World, he returns for another incarnation. Then why do we mourn someone who dies? From the moment I began thinking this way, I don’t see any point in life. Things happen all around me but I feel that they’re not important to me.

My Answer: This is wonderful, because it means that you nearing the recognition that the entire meaning of life lies only in attaining the Upper Goal – the Creator, and that there is no other meaning to life on the earthy level! The higher meaning to the earthy life is to attain the Creator while living in this world!

Question: Is it possible to correct the soul in between two reincarnations, when the soul is not in the body?

My Answer: No. Correction can only occur while you are in this world.

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A question I received: Can you explain the phrase “falling in order to rise” and how it is expressed in action? When a person who’s been studying Kabbalah for a year suddenly falls so deep into the animate level that he does things he never did before Kabbalah, is this falling in order to rise? Is this the correct process of revelation? How is this useful?

My Answer: This is explained by all the books on one’s inner work:

• First, a person’s egoism increases,
• Then he recognizes that the egoism is evil,
• He then desires to break away from it,
• But then he realizes that it is impossible,
• He then recognizes that only the Creator can do this to him if he will ask,
• Then he makes lengthy efforts to appeal to the Creator,
• And finally, the Light corrects him, revealing the sensation of the spiritual world – the quality of bestowal and love.

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Globalization is the revelation of the law of connection among people. However, instead of being beneficial, it is causing problems in our society because every person desires to use the global system of people’s connection into one organism, for his personal gain, instead of the way the system is designed to be used: for everyone to use it together for the well-being of us all.

Today we are interconnected with each other like organs in one body, and the life of the collective depends on everyone. Under these conditions it is useless to be egoistically honest – to create a global government, a world bank, or a common regulator. This will not help us stop being opposite to Nature and its law of universal interconnection. Instead, we must change our relationships from commercial to integral, to be based on the consideration of others as yourself. Even the most honest relationships of “what’s mine is mine and what’s your is yours” and the politics of non-violence will continue evoking crises until we realize what we have to do.

Kabbalah proposes that we start seeing humanity as a single organism and learn about how to behave correctly in our new state. Even if we don’t change anything about our relationships in the beginning, by just studying the laws of communication and distribution in a single organism, we already stop being opposite to nature – and then we will immediately feel a reduction in the suffering.

The most practical solution to the crisis is to study its true cause. Or in other words, to learn to live in an integral society, where the benefit of every individual depends on every other individual. Moreover, we must teach this law of nature to our children.

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A question I received: I still don’t understand why the Jews concealed Kabbalah until now.

My Answer: I understand you: if Kabbalah is only meant for man’s correction, is a science, and doesn’t manipulate the world in any way, then why was it concealed for 5769 years, since the time it was first revealed by Adam? Is there a prohibition on correcting egoism?

The fact is that throughout all human history, there was only one time when Kabbalah was open to all. That was in Ancient Babylon, which was a “small village” where every person influenced everyone else. When society is in this state, being a single system, it necessitates people to follow the law of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This is what the Babylonian priest Abraham urged his countrymen to do.

However, only a few people listened to him, those in whom “the point in the heart” was revealed. They followed him and received a name according to their aspiration: Israel, which means Isra (straight) + El (Creator). The rest chose not to unite, not to correct their egoism, nor to acquire the quality of love and bestowal, but to separate from one another. Hence they removed the effect of a single system, of a “small village,” from the society, and scattered all over the world.

Meanwhile, Abraham’s group evolved and grew until the time when, 2000 years ago, an enormous egoism was suddenly expressed in it. That’s when they (Israel, the Jews) fell from the level of “Love thy neighbor as thyself” to the level of unfounded hatred for each other. As a result, they lost the perception of the single system, and therefore their perception of mutual love, the Creator, disappeared as well: the Creator “concealed Himself” from them.

Today, once again, the world has reached a state of a single system, “a small village,” just like in Ancient Babylon. In this state, where all the people are completely interconnected, in order to exist (for us to survive) we have to observe the condition: “every person is responsible for everyone.” And this can only be done under the condition of mutual love. How can we attain this quality and survive? This is what Kabbalah explains. And this is why Kabbalah is being revealed again today – because there is a need for it.

It is because we have revealed precisely the global, systematic egoism that has to be corrected, rather than the individual egoism. As long as this egoism wasn’t yet revealed, Kabbalah – the science about its correction – was also concealed. But today it is revealed to everyone, because everyone will have to correct their attitude to others! This is a law of nature. Because the global egoism has been revealed, there is no prohibition on its correction, and this is why there is no prohibition on Kabbalah. So go ahead and study about what we should be like in a new world.

(On the photograph above, I’m standing on the background of the Tower of Babel. You have to feel that all of it belongs to you!)

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News Report (from Gold-Eagle): “Some Straight Talk On the Stock Market” …lots of bankruptcies in inefficient businesses are going to occur over the next year. … Businesses that do not or are unable to cut costs will simply go out of businesses. …there can be a huge wave of bankruptcies next year – especially when it comes to small businesses. The downturn is already wiping out people who don’t cut expenses.

News Report: (from SCORE.org): “Small Business Effects on the Economy” The estimated 25.8 million small businesses in the United States have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade, employ 50.6 percent of the country’s private sector workforce, represent 97 percent of all the exporters of goods, represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.

My Comment: The Creator will “get” everyone and will force all of us to understand what He wants from us! And what He wants is for us to desire to become like Him. All we need to do is just desire it, and He will make all the changes to us!

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1. The Light is the Creator. The Light is always the source of everything! In the beginning the Light created the creation, and hence creation is completely subject to the Light. If the Light were to disappear, then the creature would cease to exist. Every movement and change that takes place in the creation happens only under the influence of the Light.

Creation is lifeless and motionless when the Light influences it with the smallest possible force. If the Light shines stronger, then to this degree the creation undergoes a qualitative change, transforming from “still” to “vegetative,” where it starts to sense and perceive. And so on.

2. The Light is the Actor. The Light is always the source of everything! This is why it is written: “There is none else beside Him” and “The Creator is your shade.” You must “find” the Creator in every circumstance and definition, since He is the one who made this state happen.

3. I Control the Light! When you strive to change something in you, you must evoke the Light upon you, and It will change you. The Light can influence me and my Reshimot, and it will change me only in a way that brings me closer to the goal of creation. In other words, the only thing that I can ever do in my life is accelerate my spiritual development. Or, through my lack of desire to evoke the Light’s influence upon me, I can evoke the Light’s absence, and then I will experience all kinds of suffering – because the Light is life.

However, if my desires come from the Light, then I cannot exert a return influence on the Light with my desires. I must receive a desire for the goal from a source other than the Light, and then I will be able to influence the Light with this desire and evoke an additional influence of the Light on me, accelerating my path. This is why I am given the correct environment (the group), which is the only opportunity for me to evoke acceleration toward the goal.

4. The Woman’s Role. The group isn’t influenced physically, but through one’s desire. Hence, a woman who participates in the group’s work (by studying virtually and disseminating Kabbalah) and desires to receive the correct influence from the group, receives it and uses it to involuntarily turn to the Creator (the Light). With the exception of physically participating in communication with the friends and studying virtually, she does everything else just like a man and goes through the same states.

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Preface to the Science of Kabbalah (“Pticha”). Items 6 – 9, summary:

6. The five phases of the desire’s development from the Creator to its completed form comprise all of creation. Subsequently the desire is divided into different parts, but each part also consists of all these parts (according to the principle of a holographic image).

The Worlds of Adam Kadmon and Atzilut are still not separated from the Creator through their qualities. Hence, when the soul ascends to these worlds from our world, it merges with the Creator.

7. In the World of Beria, just as in phase 2, the desire to bestow is manifested. Therefore, when the soul is there, it feels independent from the Creator. Nevertheless, this does not make it separate it from the Creator, because it desires to bestow just as He does.

8. In the World of Yetzira, just as in phase 3, the desire to receive is manifested. However, this desire is still insufficient to separate the soul from the Creator.

9. In the World of Assiya phase 4 is manifested – the fully developed desire, called “the body.” It is completely separated from the Creator and feels absolutely independent. The Light inside it is called Nefesh – still, because the desire has no movement of its own.

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Three questions I received on work in the group:

Question: You say: “Don’t connect through your bodies, but through the ‘points in the heart’ – you must feel that they are together.” How do we do this?

My Answer: The point in the heart is a Reshimo (reminiscence) from a past spiritual state. However, now it desires the Creator, spiritual fulfillment, egoistically. With the help of the group, you should try to connect these aspirations for the Creator, even if they are egoistic. Together with the group, you suppress all your other aspirations for this world. You exalt the Creator and belittle this world.

As a result, everyone starts to feel that it’s vitally import to reveal Him, and this will bring you to the goal. See Baal HaSulam’s Letter from p. 70, “I am Sick With Love.” It’s an egoistic aspiration, just like a man yearns to be united with the woman he loves! Nothing more is required of us, because the actual correction of our egoistic nature to equivalence with the Creator is done by the Upper Light (Ohr Makif) – see item 155 of “The Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.” It created us and only It can correct us! However, It’s waiting for our desire and readiness for this to happen.

Question: What is the difference between nullifying oneself before the Bnei Baruch group and nullifying oneself before other groups that have similar ideas of equality?

My Answer: The difference is the groups’ goal and the method of attaining it.

Question: What should we do when we meet the friends, but there’s no connection between the points in the heart and the meeting turns into a painful and boring pretense? Is this still considered an attempt at the mutual guarantee, unity, and overcoming the ego, or is it better not to even go to these meetings at all?

My Answer: It won’t happen by itself, you have to make efforts and work on it. We’re working against our ego, after all; this isn’t exactly “love at first sight.”

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