A question I received: In an interview you gave about men and women, you said that a woman’s soul has male components and a man’s soul has female components. Considering this and the law of “love thy neighbor as thyself,” how can you say that a woman will consent to her partner – a man – having many other women, and that she will be happy with this situation? This is illogical. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman, but I feel that I can easily put myself into a man’s shoes, and I know that if I were a man, I wouldn’t have other partners just like I don’t have them now, being a woman, because this would harm the soul of another person.

My Answer: Male and female properties are incorporated in each other from the beginning, back in the root of creation. This incorporation exists because the property “to receive” cannot exist without including the property “to bestow” – the desire (Kli) cannot exist without the Light (pleasure), which creates and nourishes it, and determines its existence. On the other hand, even though the property of bestowal and Light seems to exist before the creation of desire, in any case, this is just our hypothetical way of describing it, because there is no pleasure without desire, no Light without a vessel. The abstract form only appears after the form embodied in matter manifests, and we can then visualize the form as existing without matter.

In ancient civilizations, polygamy was a normal occurrence, and acquiring a woman for money, through a contract with her father, was always popular, and this took place among ancient Jews as well. The Talmud says that a woman is acquired for money or through coitus. She is acquired, purchased. As you see, it doesn’t speak anywhere about love! Polygamy is manifested at the basis of the nature of the human society. You aren’t being objective about this because you’re a prisoner of the European culture you’re living in.

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Two questions I received about the soul

Question: You say that there are only 600,000 souls, or in other words, 600,000 fragments of the soul of Adam. But today there are 6.7 billion people in the world. Does this mean that over six billion people don’t have a soul? I hope you can clear this up for me.

My Answer: 600,000 is the number of initial fragments, but after that they are fragmented again into whatever number is necessary for the optimal correction in each generation – so that each fragment will have as much egoism as it’s able to correct. Therefore, to the degree that egoism grows, the world’s population grows as well.

Question: As I understand it, the higher a soul was in the spiritual world, the lower it fell after the breaking. So whatever seems to us as being the lowest will become the highest after correction. If this assumption is correct, does it mean that the people who hate Kabbalah now will become the highest souls after correction?

My Answer: No, since this doesn’t indicate that their souls fell to a very low level, but it only indicates people’s opinions, which they were taught from childhood (Girsa de Yankuta). These people don’t have souls at all yet. The soul emerges from the point in the heart (the desire for spirituality) and develops from it only under the influence of the Upper Light, which shines upon a person only during Kabbalah studies, and in our generation only while studying the works of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. You can’t tell anything about one’s soul by looking at external expressions of one’s thoughts, desires and actions. Those people do not have a soul yet. It is concealed from you, since you – the observer – aren’t able to “see” the spiritual structures. You should therefore relate to everyone equally, seeing them as people who are being controlled and who need help in becoming spiritually independent.

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A question I received: The more Kabbalah is revealed to the world, the more the forces controlling this world are revealed. Does this mean that we’re going to see more and more of the world’s problems resolved if we realize that we’ve created an illusion for ourselves in this world? I am particularly referring to cancer. With our egoism we have created a terrorist in our body that we can’t control. We have built a massive industry around this illusion, including our educational system, medicine, fund raising, government, the pharmaceutical system, and health care industries. The pain and suffering that have been created by this illusion are just as enormous as the stress and anxiety it has created in the world. The realization that cancer is a force in the body that’s controlled by the brain makes it something that can be fully controlled by the mind.

My Answer: Certainly everything we perceive is a picture created by us, by our egoism (the picture of our world) or by the quality of bestowal (the picture of the Upper World). How we “depict” it depends on us, on our desire + intention. However, it is impossible for an individual to “depict” the picture of the world – it can only be done with everybody together, or in the very least, in a group. This is because spirituality is “depicted” in the connection between us, between the souls.

Incidentally, it’s the same with our egoistic world – we depict (imagine) it in our attitude to others, i.e. in selfish desires. Souls do not see the picture of the world within themselves; they see it in what’s between them, in the quality of the connection between them. Therefore, because of your dependence on others, the other cogs in the system, you cannot use Kabbalah to cure yourself or put yourself into a comfortable state. Moreover, as long as there remain to be people needing correction, disasters and diseases will also remain. We will “depict” one beautiful picture only when we (i.e. humanity as a whole) correct ourselves together.

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Two questions I received about the Creator

Question: I don’t get it. We are trying to connect with a spiritual being we can’t perceive, called the creator, who in fact is in charge of everybody’s fate and wants us to strive for him and only him, by studying books, and you tell me there is nothing magical or mystic about it?

My Answer: The Creator is the corrected you, because you were created ideally opposite to Him. We write “Him” with a capital letter only as a sign of respect for this property of “selfless love and bestowal.” That is to say, you are researching yourself in order to change yourself to the reverse. That’s what Kabbalah is – the discovery of the property of bestowal within you.

Question: How can the connection with the Creator, who’s good and does good, be expressed through negative feelings?

My Answer: As long as a person hasn’t corrected his desires, he can experience negative sensations in them, but at the same time he can rejoice at the fact that he is having these sensations as part of the process of correcting these desires. And once they become corrected, he rises over them, and despite any sensations he feels in them (even lack of fulfillment!), he will be able to feel only the happiness and goodness that fill the world! It’s because he acquires faith above reason – he is filled by the property of bestowal, even though his desires to be filled are empty.

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Questions I received on life in the Upper Worlds

Question: What is “heaven” from Kabbalah’s point of view?

My Answer: Heaven is the Light of Hochma. The “Garden” is Malchut. Malchut filled with the Light of Hochma is called the Garden of Eden. In this state Malchut is the Malchut of the World of Atzilut for the souls.

In other words, the Garden of Eden refers to a place (or a state) where the souls are filled with the Light of Hochma. Stated simply, the Garden of Eden is Malchut of the World of Atzilut. The Upper Garden of Eden is Bina of the World of Beria, and the Lower Garden of Eden is Yesod de Malchut of the World of Assiya. Of course, this bears no relation to people’s regular notions about heaven and its inhabitants. In spirituality there is no space, images, sounds and etc., but only forces unclothed by matter. The soul is a desire. To the degree that it’s equivalent to the Creator, to the quality of bestowal and love, it becomes filled with the sensation of the Creator, the sensation of this quality within itself. This sensation is called “heaven,” and there’s no heaven besides it.

Question: Does a person use the system of ABYA de Kedusha even before the Machsom?

My Answer: This system only starts after the Machsom. See the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” where it speaks about the attainment of Malchut de Assiya.

Question: After the breaking of the vessels (Shevirat ha Kelim) in the World of Nekudim, how did the Parsa reinforce itself to avoid breaking again?

My Answer: In order to receive the Light, it’s necessary to ascend from BYA to Atzilut – this is one of the Parsa’s reinforcements.

Question: Why is Ein Sof (Infinity) surrounded by Igulim (circles)?

My Answer: Because everyone is equal and there are no limitations.

Question: In Kabbalah, are there things like the devil and other evil forces, or are these just metaphors for egoism?

My Answer: The only thing that was created is desire. Its different, particular forms have different names. My sensations of myself and of my surroundings are also desires or forces, but we perceive them as vectors on a TV screen, as pictures. In reality, the only things that exist are the force of reception (creation) and the force of bestowal (the Creator). They depict the entire picture we see. When we attain these forces, we are immediately freed from the illusion of the visible picture of the world, and therefore, Kabbalah describes our world as being imaginary and dreamlike.

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Two questions I received on bestowing upon one’s neighbor

Question: I’ ve been studying with you, and I just don’t have the words to express my gratitude. It’s as if you take each of us by the hand and lead us to realize where we are. With your help, I’ve merited attaining a small but unmistakable glow, and working together with you.

I’d like to ask you the following: Suppose that I receive for the sake of bestowal, and the more I enjoy, the more I bestow. Or in other words, the more Light I reveal with the intention, the more I bestow. If I want to pass the Light on to my neighbor, and the Light has to go through me, through the Guf of my Partzuf, to my neighbor, so that more Light will be revealed in him than in me, then in order for this to happen, do I have to reveal more Light in the Guf of my Partzuf, or can it also happen without me revealing it, since I don’t want anything for myself except correction?

My Answer: Everything will happen automatically if you will think (and accordingly act) about everyone’s connection together into one Partzuf, and you desire and act for it to be filled, like the Creator. In this case, this Partzuf becomes filled with Light. And then you’ll perceive not only the Light of fulfillment, but also the pleasure of those whom you have fulfilled. The latter is a different kind of Light. It’s like a mother who perceives her children’s fulfillment, rather than what she fulfills them with. However, the Light that you pass to them also fulfills you, as it is written: “Every person who asks for his neighbor, receives first.”

Question: Suppose that a person has started perceiving the influence of the Upper Light and how to bring his neighbor to the same perception using the simplest words and notions – is this possible? If yes, then wouldn’t he be stealing his neighbor’s individual attainment? After all, he’s making the task easier for him, since the main thing is to start perceiving?

My Answer: It is written in the Torah: “Go and earn from one another” – all of us together need to adapt the harmony of the common mechanism of Adam, the common soul. By oneself, a person can never attain even a single spiritual state. It’s because, in essence, all of them are an even greater connection between the souls, the restoration of our breaking of the single soul of Adam into billions of pieces or souls. And everything has been prepared for you by the Kabbalists and by your friends. You’ve arrived when everything has already been prepared for you. Maybe you don’t feel it, but the entire world has been prepared for you by all the previous generations, and then you appeared in it as a baby. It is written: “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and this is how you should act, in order to help others in the same way that you want to be helped. However, you shouldn’t do this coercively, but the way you would treat a child – show them the sources, introduce them to the foundations, and then leave it to them to understand themselves, their path, and Kabbalah.

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Two questions I received on Kabbalistic texts

Question: I understand that Kabbalah is focused on changing life. But I can’t find instructions on how to integrate all the other fundamental texts, such as Humash, Mishnah, Talmud, Halachot, and others. How do you use them? Do we even need them? And how do we put it all into perspective?

My Answer: Once you learn Kabbalah, then when you will read other sources you will begin to understand that they all speak about spirituality or the Creator alone. That is to say, they are also Kabbalah, only written in a different style! For example, right now I posted an abbreviated translation of the Torah weekly chapter. Why? Because in this book, the greatest Kabbalist of all times, Moses, describes the ascent of man’s soul along the 125 steps of the ladder of similarity to the Creator. We must now realize this ascent – all of us together and each one of us individually – uniting more and more on every level, so that at the end of the ascent, we will become the single soul of Adam. No other source explains about this path so precisely and in so much detail!

The Zohar is a commentary on the Torah. Our next step is to gradually start studying The Book of Zohar through this blog, and then we will begin to see what was really passed down to us in the Torah. Then, after the Torah (Humash), we will also be able to learn Mishnah, Talmud, and Halachot in this manner. All of these books only speak about the correction of man, his soul, or the egoistic desire – Yetzer Ra – that was created by the Creator. And after that, the Torah (Tavlin) was given, only for its correction. Those who don’t feel egoism within themselves don’t study the Torah. They read an “empty” text instead of the text that Moshe gave them. You will be able to correctly “integrate” all of these books only after you properly attune yourself to using holy books (holiness is something that brings you to the property of holiness – love and bestowal).

Question: When I studied Kabbalah in college, a book titled Sefer HaBahir was mentioned many times, but you don’t mention this book on your website or at your lessons. Did this book ever exist?

My Answer: Yes, the book Sefer HaBahir exists. However, we mainly study the works of Baal HaSulam, who was the last Kabbalist and therefore is the most suitable for the correction of our souls. In addition to his works, we also study the works of Rabash, Ramchal, and Tanach.

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Two questions and answers on the issue of questions and answers

Question: What’s the point of listening to someone else ask you a question? And in general, what’s the point of questions?

My Answer: It is written that “a shy person cannot study.” One has to ask questions, but at the same time one should heed the answers and delve deeper into them, until they become absolutely clear, that is, until they enter you. When you listen to your friend, you unite with him in his desire for the goal, and this is important for uniting within the group. I mean, your desire on its own is never enough to attain the goal, for the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) to evoke a new intention “for the sake of another” in your desire. It was only for the sake of such unity with others that the worlds appeared, that the soul of Adam was created and then broken, and that this world was created so low. This was all done in order to create for the person a place for free will. Therefore, the only thing we do is realize our free will in our attempt to absorb the desires and goal of our friends in the entire world group.

In such a way, humanity will have to solve its common crisis, i.e. the revelation of mutual hatred and separation. People will discover that this mutual hatred and separation is causing a life threatening situation, to the point of the destruction of their lives. Even though their life is empty and worthless, they treat it as being very valuable since it is the only life they have, and as such, people will start listening to questions – to the desires of others – until everyone will unite in one question (as stated in item 2 of the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot“): “What is the meaning of our lives?” They will then come to Kabbalah.

Question: You often say that spirituality is beyond time, motion and space. What do you mean?

My Answer: You need to find the answer in Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 1 “Histaklut Pnimit (Inner Reflection).” You can’t get around it – you have to study. Those who are looking for an easy way out by asking questions don’t understand that only by studying Baal HaSulam’s materials (in any language) can they evoke the Upper Light of correction. Questions and answers are only intended to introduce beginners to the path. At the very least, you should go through all the posts on this blog. Perhaps, for now, this form of studying is most appropriate for you.

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A question I received: In one of the lessons you said that in the full correction, only souls, not bodies, are taken into account, and it could be that out of the seven billion people living in the world, only seven of them will attain the full correction! How is this supposed to mean that the Creator is good and does good, if He lets people reach total correction at the price of total annihilation! And I’m supposed to feel good and justify the death of those close to me!? Is this what you call “good and does good”!? And at the same time, you also express sadness that your teacher, Rabash, has passed away; I see how you talk about Rabash with your eyes closed, and I am in awe from how much you love him.

My Answer: There is a law by which the program of creation’s correction becomes realized (the Reshimot from the fall of the separated spiritual souls, from the descent of the worlds). When we willingly incorporate ourselves into this law, it feels absolutely comfortable, but to the degree we don’t conform to the realization of the plan of creation’s correction, we feel suffering, to the point of the destruction of bodies. It is impossible to destroy the souls, but by decreasing the number of bodies, the souls unite together (many small souls unite into a few large souls), not through our efforts, but through suffering (the destruction of bodies). The Creator desires goodness – to bring us to similarity to Him. Read Baal HaSulam’s article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” which explains that our development is purposeful, and the Creator does not consider intermediate states, but only the final state! And I don’t grieve for Rabash, I’m always with him! It’s not something that happened in the past, but now, and I am grateful to the Creator for such a teacher and intermediary between me and the Creator.

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A question I received: Lately there’s been a dramatic rise in domestic violence in my country. Every day women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends, and it seems that men hate women. My colleague’s daughter was murdered by a man whom she dated for just two months. This happened after she decided to break up with him. In comparison, it’s very rare for women to murder men. Why is this violence toward women happening?

My Answer: From the beginning, a man feels that a woman is inferior to him. This feeling is enrooted in him by nature. Allegorically speaking, we can understand this from the story about the downfall of sin: from the spiritual root, the woman’s correction depends on the male part of the Kli, and this is reflected in our world as our sensations and the woman’s dependence and need for help to give birth and raise her children – even though this is accredited to the husband. The only thing that can correct this relationship in our world is the realization that in order to advance toward the Creator, they have to be partners, and moreover, the woman’s help and desire have an enormous role, which makes the women necessary, valuable, and indispensable for men who desire to reveal the Light.

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