A question I received: If I create a Kabbalah related blog on LiveJournal and other virtual communities, is this considered dissemination?

My Answer: Kabbalah dissemination on the Internet, in all languages, is the most important kind of dissemination. Anyone can learn to do it, it’s free and accessible. However, you have to know which materials to disseminate and how, depending on the website (whether a forum, a social network, a scientific site, a site for families, and so on). You should first get in touch with our center of dissemination, in order to receive an explanation and an assignment. When fulfilling your part in the general dissemination, you have to do it systematically, together with others and in contact with them. And by doing so, you will become part of the common Kli.

The purpose of dissemination is:

1. To give every member of the worldwide Bnei Baruch group an opportunity to participate in the common work and thereby to become part of the common soul (Adam), or in other words, to receive the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) from the common soul. Without receiving from the common soul, a person studying Kabbalah will not have the sufficient desire and forces to attain the goal, the revelation of the Creator.

2. To give every person in the world the opportunity to find out “What is Kabbalah?” in his native language, in order to answer his question about the purpose of life and how to attain it.

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I had a video conference with two Toronto TV stations – one in Hebrew and one in Russian. I found that Israeli television outside of Israel is exactly that – “Israelis outside of Israel,” or in other words, the greatest and most primitive egoism in the world. There are many primitive egoists, but only theirs is both great and primitive at the same time.

Nevertheless, it appeared as if they too are starting to ask questions, have doubts, and feel desires “above the stomach.” Canada, Australia, and similar countries squeeze everything that’s human out of people, and all that remains is an animalistic aspiration for a full stomach and a peace of mind. You can see this with every person who enters that environment.

One’s environment determines one’s destiny – whether he will go through life worrying only about the comfort of his animate body, until it finally dies, or he will actually think about something besides this. By no means does Kabbalah encourage people to deprive themselves of anything or to suffer. It only explains that a society which eliminates a person’s questions about the meaning of life, turns him into an animal.

But to be frank, lately even the “bourgeois” are beginning to ask questions about the meaning of life. In the past they couldn’t even comprehend the possibility of someone asking such questions, and would look at anyone who spoke about it with a blank, dumbfounded gaze…

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Questions I received on accelerating one’s spiritual path and realizing one’s Reshimo

Question: What’s the purpose of us participating in acceleration?

My Answer: By accelerating, we change ourselves, and this is the result we need, rather than the acceleration itself. And we can only attain this result by accelerating our movement through applying our personal, free desire, which we acquired through interacting with others.

Question: How can there be freedom of will in acceleration?

My Answer: It exists due to the freedom of will one has in interacting with others and in receiving additional desires and aspirations toward the goal from them. One’s freedom of will lies in using the environment.

Question: There is no time, but even if time did exist, the Creator and the goal of creation wouldn’t be limited by the parameters of time, right?

My Answer: Yes, and we have to enter this timeless space of sensations precisely by using our freedom of will.

Question: It’s a blessing to go through 1,000 states in two minutes. But what about going through 1,000 states in a day – is this worse? I know that there are Reshimot, which are predetermined, but does the speed of their unraveling depend on the power of the Surrounding Light’s (Ohr Makif‘s) influence?

My Answer: Yes, it only depends on this. Of course, even without it we would still be forced to develop our aspiration for the goal through the group, but by means of suffering and a lengthy path. But we can also go through this development quickly and with pleasure, by realizing that it’s necessary, with the help of the forces that we receive from the environment instead of the compulsory forces, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Freedom.”

Question: Does the way a person realize his Reshimo depend on the environment he’s in?

My Answer: It depends on how he uses his environment. If a person finds out about the opportunity to advance through freedom of will, this means that the proper environment for doing so has been prepared for him as well: a teacher, books, and the group.

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News Story (translated from 1tv.ru): “Lately there have been many publications in the mass media claiming that our planet is facing a catastrophe. The panic is caused by the announcement that a gigantic particle accelerator is about to be launched. Scientists refer to this construction, which is positioned one hundred meters into the ground, as the greatest achievement of human thought. They say that the accelerator will help us reveal many secrets of the universe. But this unique experiment also has many opponents, who believe that excessive inquiring into the secrets of matter and anti-matter will entail a global threat to humanity.”

My Answer: All our actions, as well as what comes before and after, are contained in the Creator’s plan from the beginning. They emerge there, appear in us as thoughts, and became transformed into actions, which we also carry out according to the Creator’s program. All of us are always in Him! Desires and thoughts descend to us from above, but we think they’re ours because their Source is concealed from us. “Our” desires and thoughts descend from above, from the Creator, even before we desire or think them, and this is what makes us desire and think the things we do.

Man has a limited perception of what’s happening, and that’s why he thinks that he produces his desires and thoughts on his own, and that he can change things in this world with his physical actions. But in truth, this can only be done from above, through the Creator, the Light, Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light). So I recommend calming down, since the scientists are like puppets and all their actions are dictated by the Creator.

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A question I received: I understand that corporeal acts have nothing to do with spirituality, but until a screen is acquired our acts are of the ego and take place in the corporeal world. If I desire a milkshake although I just ate and have no nutritional need for one, then do I resist this desire altogether and deny myself this treat? Do I have the milkshake because it is just a corporeal act and does not matter anyway? Or do I drink the milkshake and pretend that I am receiving for the sake of the Creator? I am seeking guidance on how to deal with the desires of the ego that come up in the corporeal world. Do we pretend? Do we fake it until we make it?

My Answer: Religion and upbringing teach you to pretend, but Kabbalah only tells you to do one thing: attract the Upper Light by studying authentic Kabbalistic sources. After all, the Light created you, along with your desires and thoughts (your mind and heart), and hence only It can correct you. In order for your life to have results, the most important thing is to constantly be concerned with just one thing – the importance of the goal, and don’t bother trying to figure out how to handle thoughts that are remote from the goal. Then everything else will turn into temporary means that help you. So drink your milkshake and study Kabbalah!

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Two questions I received on combining spiritual development with one’s day to day desires and responsibilities

Question: I’m seventeen years old and I have been studying Kabbalah for about three to four months. Sometimes I get disturbed by other desires, and then I forget about Kabbalah and try to latch on to these desires. Sometimes it even seems that they’re more important to me than my correction. What should I do? Is this problem caused only by my age, or are these Reshimot that I have to correct?

My Answer: Don’t pay attention to the disturbances and continue studying, and then the Upper Light will correct you. As you advance along the spiritual path, you will realize just how much your desires control you and that the only thing that can save you from yourself is help from above. Only patience will make you a Kabbalist.

Question: Do you seriously believe that we can attain the highest level in this lifetime, even if we don’t fully devote ourselves to the studies? How can this be possible in this life, considering all the responsibilities we have toward the people around us and society?

My Answer: I have no doubt that everyone is capable of it, and even if a person won’t reach the Machsom in this life cycle, he will have very little left to do to reach it the next time around. And after that, your soul will lead you along the steps of ascension!

Only the efforts we make to reach the Creator remain forever. Everything else disappears because it comes from above and isn’t considered to be something we did. So in any case, the best thing to do is to strive toward the goal, and leave the result up to the Creator!

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A question I received: What does Light mean in the spiritual sense? What is the difference between the Light in the lower spiritual worlds compared to the higher ones that are closer to the Creator?

My Answer: Everything that is received in the Kli (the soul) is called Light. See this definition in Talmud Eser Sefirot. The difference between the Lights is not the Lights in and of themselves, but the vessels, Kli, the desires they fill – the measure of bestowal, the force of correction.

Likewise, the light in our world is simple and white, but it consists of the seven lights or colors because potentially it can be revealed by the seven kinds of Kli. However it doesn’t exist on its own. There is no Light outside the Kli; there is no Creator outside creation.

We only study matter and its form. We are unable to study the abstract form and the essence since we can’t attain them in a reliable way. In outer space, there is no light, but only darkness, because there is no object that could stop it or reflect it – there is no Kli.

Thus, when light goes through glass, which absorbs one of the light’s components, it is perceived as the absorbed light. If the glass absorbs red waves, then the light is perceived as red. So we don’t sense the Light in and of itself, but only its expression in the soul. More accurately, the soul’s or desire’s reaction to something external in the spiritual world is called Light. In other words, the Light is the property of bestowal which the soul has attained and which it now senses. So we don’t see the Light, but the properties of the Kli or soul, which are expressed through something called Light.

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Two questions I received about using Kabbalah incorrectly and the possible outcomes of doing so

Question: Is there a chance that someone will start studying Kabbalah “too early,” and then not have the time to develop his ego, in order to then defeat it and transform it to the will to bestow? After all “The Light is only born out of darkness.” While one’s will to receive develops, one can use this time to build his career, create a family and provide for it, so that later he would really be able to concentrate on studying Kabbalah and growing spiritually (for example, after he’s forty years old).

My Answer: A person should test Kabbalah as soon as he hears about it, because one must develop everything harmoniously from the early years: family, children, work, etc., as well as spiritual development. Otherwise he will grow up to be an animal and his entire life will have gone to waste. Kabbalists do not put any age restrictions on revealing Kabbalah. Moreover, they write that if it were up to them, they would teach Kabbalah to children from an early age. My students and I teach our children Kabbalah while they are still babies – after all, this is the most necessary knowledge a person can have, and without it he’s just a miserable animal. With this education we protect our kids from drugs and other problems; they stay with us and do the same thing their parents do – it’s been tested!

Question: I’m scared, I think that I won’t be able to resurrect, I’m afraid that I’m not doing enough, that I lack strength and desire.

My Answer: The worst thing that can happen is that you won’t attain your full correction in this life, and then you’ll return into this world again to “finish correcting yourself.” You will definitely return if you don’t finish the correction, because in the final and perfect state, we already exist in “state 3,” and it must be really attained by everyone!

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Baal HaSulam – Letter from page 61

Before making an action, a person mustn’t think of private governance, but on the contrary, he must say: “If I don’t do it for myself, then no one will help me.” But once the action is completed, he must inquire and believe that he did not perform the action with his own force, but with the force of the Creator, who planned everything for him ahead of time and performed the action, and hence he was obligated to perform this action.

Hence, before he starts the day to earn his daily living, he must get rid of the thought of his private governance, and say: “If I don’t do it for myself, then no one will help me,” and then do everything necessary to make a living just like all the people.

But at night, when he comes home with the earnings, he mustn’t think that he earned them with his own efforts, but he should think that even if he had been idle all day long, he would still have them. It’s because the Creator planned this for him ahead of time, and hence it had to happen.

And even though our mind perceives this as a contradiction, and we can’t accept it in the heart and mind at the same time, man must believe that this is how the Creator has made the universe, and this is what the Kabbalists tell us about the Upper Governance, which exists above time, space, and development.

The source of this seeming contradiction lies in the singularity of the governance through two ways [Read more →]

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Yesterday I went to a museum called “A Dialogue in the Dark,” where the visitors enter a completely enclosed hall that’s absolutely dark inside. Our guide explained that when a person is in the dark, he starts perceiving the world differently – not through the sense of sight, which normally gives us 80% of our information, but using the other senses. And they somehow compensate for one’s loss of eyesight.

Similarly, in order to develop the spiritual sense, we have to realize that we are in the dark. That is to say, we have to feel that we can’t make our lives good in this world using our five bodily senses, and that even when we have all of our five senses, we are still left in the dark. This is the feeling we must attain in order to desire to develop the spiritual sense. And that’s exactly what’s happening today to all humanity – it’s gradually realizing that it is in the dark.

Our sight is an internal vision; we perceive everything inside us. It’s possible to depict the same picture by transmitting electrical signals to the brain. What’s important is that one perceives the internal picture on the screen that’s on the reverse side of the brain. So what’s the difference if I have eyes or not? The important thing is that the picture is formed in my consciousness, and the same could be achieved by developing other senses and additional qualities.

That’s why I asked our guide – who wasn’t born blind (since one who is born blind can’t compare one picture of the world with another) – whether he has been able to develop his remaining senses [Read more →]

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