Three questions I received relating to the Torah and inner work:

Question: Can you explain the meaning of the story about Cain and Abel? I suppose that it speaks about the struggle between the will to bestow and the will to receive. Could you please explain this in more detail, especially the meaning of the Creator’s reaction?

My Answer: Cain and Abel are two forces within a person. One of the forces is egoism, and the other is the Creator’s property, bestowal, which descends into a person, and which the person develops from its initial manifestation, called “the point in the heart.” The entire story in the Torah talks about people conquering, killing, and competing with one another – everything in our lives until we take the control into our own hands and start progressing toward the goal on our own – by restraining the egoistic force, using it constructively, and dominating it with the Creator’s force in us.

Question: I tried translating this chapter into the Kabbalistic language, and got stuck on the verse: “My soul will despise you.” How do I translate the world “my soul” in this context?

My Answer: A person’s soul falls into egoism, which is opposite to the property of Bina of the World of Atzilut, the property of absolute bestowal, and hence the soul becomes repelled from Bina, the Creator.

Question: Could a desire for correction after the revelation of evil be called an act of bestowal?

My Answer: Not yet, but it leads to it.

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Two questions I received on “Who is the Creator?” and “Who am I?”:

Question: On the one hand it says that the Creator is a quality – the quality of bestowal, which the person needs to attain, and which is within the person. But on the other hand, the Creator is always described as something outside of me, someone I must pray to. He’s described as an essence that is separate from me, as a force that controls everything. So who is the Creator? Is He inside me or outside?

My Answer: The Creator is the innermost part of you, but as long as you don’t perceive Him this way, you imagine everything to be outside of you, including Him.

Question: In the morning we say: “Lord, the soul that you have given me is pure… You have breathed it into me… and you will return it to me in the future…” My question is: Who or what is this “I,” “inside of me,” “within me,” etc., that this blessing speaks about? According to the blessing, if the soul is inside this “I,” then who am “I”?

My Answer: You are a desire, an aspiration toward the Creator. That is what the soul is. Everything else is desires needing connection to this aspiration, and you are the one who needs to make such a connection. It is possible to the extent that you feel the Creator’s importance. However, you need to first correctly define who the Creator is: the property of bestowal and love for others.

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Baal HaSulam Article: Body and Soul

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Two questions I received on our perception of the world:

Question: How can I understand this paradox: On the one hand, we are being treated as one integral system of Adam, but at the same time we feel like individuals? And what about the individual who is incorporated into all the general suffering and woes, which happen to the entire system? How can he go through this path pleasantly and safely? And who is to blame for the fact that this system is so opposite to the laws of bestowal?

My Answer: Everything is built perfectly and logically. What you perceive is not a lousy world, but your own imperfections, your own picture of the world. If you correct yourself, then everything will radiate harmony.

It is because the screen on which you see yourself and your surroundings is your qualities, and in order to change yourself to see the world as eternal and perfect, or in other words, to live in this kind of world you depict, is by acquiring eternal and perfect qualities. This is why Kabbalah has been given to us.

Question: Why was the world created precisely the way it is? Why is there nature, attitude, change in attitude, suffering, pleasure, the will to receive, the will to bestow, etc.? Who needs all this? Why can’t we just enjoy and so be it? What is there to do for someone who has no patience and who doesn’t even have a desire to exist (not in a body or without a body, but to simply not exist)?

My Answer: The soul was created in perfection, in the World of Infinity. It lacks only one thing: the perception of this perfection. The only way to achieve this perception is by comparing the opposites of darkness and light – the absence of perfection and its presence. Its presence is there, but its absence is missing. This is why our world was created; it is the place where we have to fully perceive the absence of perfection, and together with it, return to the world of infinite perfection. There we will feel true fulfillment through these opposites.

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Lesson: Shamati Article #34 – The Profit of a Land [53:59]

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(A Joyous) News Story: Trust Drug May Cure Social Phobia

“A nasal spray which increases our trust for strangers is showing promise as a treatment for social phobia, say scientists from Zurich University.

They found that people who inhaled the ‘love hormone’ oxytocin continued to trust strangers with their money – even after they were betrayed.

Brain scans showed the hormone lowered activity in the amygdala – a region which is overactive in social phobics.

Drug trials are under way and early signs are promising say the scientists.

Nicknamed the ‘cuddle chemical,’ oxytocin is a naturally produced hormone, which has been shown to play a role in social relations, maternal bonding, and also in sex.

Lead researcher Dr Thomas Baumgartner said: ‘We now know for the first time what exactly is going on in the brain when oxytocin increases trust.

We found that oxytocin has a very specific effect in social situations. It seems to diminish our fears.

Based on our results, we can now conclude that a lack of oxytocin is at least one of the causes for the fear experienced by social phobics.

‘We hope and indeed we expect that we can improve their sociability by administering oxytocin.'”

My Comment: Here we’ve been wondering how to change human nature so people would start trusting each other, being friends, and loving and caring for one another, but now all you have to do is take a sniff, and then you’re already like the Creator!

Related Posts:
* Can Identifying the Chemical Pathways and Brain Structures that Generate Religious Experiences Lead Us to Spirituality?
* When Will Scientists Trying to Control Nature Realize that Nature Is Controlling Them?
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The Corrected Society
Accepting the law, “Love your friend as yourself,” word for word.
Just division of the profits so each will work according to ability and will receive according to need.
Public opinion should be based on “Love your friend as yourself,” so one who receives more than one’s needs will be considered a killer.

Transformation
The will to receive, imprinted in every creature, is in disparity of form from the Creator. Hence, one’s soul is separated from Him, since disparity of form separates in spirituality. It is therefore clear that what the Creator wants of us is equivalence of form, at which time we will cling to Him once more, as prior to our creation.

This is why Kabbalists said that one must cleave to the attributes of the Creator – “as He is merciful, so you are merciful” – so all our actions will be only to bestow upon our fellow person to the best of our ability. This is how we achieve the goal of cleaving to the Creator, equalizing with Him.

What one must do for oneself, in the necessary measure for the sustenance of oneself and one’s family, is not considered disparity of form, since “necessity is neither praised nor condemned.”
All these conditions will arise in the days of the Messiah. And when they accept this lesson we will be awarded complete redemption. [Read more →]

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A question I received: I’ve been studying in a group for several years now. Lately I’ve noticed that I don’t want to study Kabbalah. Am I feeling this way because my egoism is growing? I don’t feel a desire to correct myself or to become similar to Him. Instead, I have a new desire, which I don’t understand. Why did it appear in me? For what purpose?

In addition, I can’t shake off the feeling that this desire isn’t mine, as though it came to me from outside. I don’t know what to do with it, and the more I try to ignore this desire, the bigger it gets.

My Answer: A person shouldn’t decide anything about his spiritual development ahead of time, because he has no idea how he needs to develop, and what states he needs to go through.

Therefore, he should make efforts to progress, and greet everything that reveals to and inside him, as necessary in his path of development. An ascent is always preceded by a state of confusion, lack of understanding – and then suddenly comes clarity, a new realization.

Perhaps you’re already in such a state as I’m writing you this answer. Or maybe you have already gone through it and are again searching, feeling weak and confused – and facing a new ascent?

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A question I received: Does the Creator respond to requests for things that are necessary, or only to requests for correction?

My Answer: The Creator responds to all the requests in one’s heart, because we are talking about the Upper Light’s influence on our desire, and this influence is taking place all the time. The two stand one opposite the other. Nothing depends on a person, on his awareness of the Light’s constant influence on the Reshimo. He can only receive the desire for bestowal and love from his environment. The Upper Light is always pushing him toward this desire, by influencing the Reshimo. That is to say, by constantly influencing the Reshimo, the Light moves him closer to making the decision that it’s necessary to acquire the property of bestowal and love. However, it moves him along naturally, through blows. If a person, however, adds his own aspiration, which he receives from the group, from friends who aspire to it, then he himself evokes the Upper Light’s influence in the same direction. And now he already perceives the results of the Light’s influence positively, since he himself desired it, instead of perceiving it negatively, the way we usually do: When we desire greater egoistic fulfillment, we instead receive an even stronger push toward bestowal, and experience even greater suffering.

A question I received: According to what you said, if two hundred million Muslims will really wish for Israel to disappear from the face of the earth, will their desires come true?

My Answer: All desires of all people are included within the common soul of Adam. However, each desire has its own weight or influence, which depends on many things: What group of souls does the desire belong to – just like in the body some organs are more important than others. It also depends on what they are asking for – whether their appeal is directed toward the goal of creation or against it; whether it’s a desire to hate or to love, and so on.

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A question I received in response to the post Women as Leaders of Nations: Concerning women as leaders of nations… Since it doesn’t correspond to the spiritual system, and since “there’s only one truth and only one path to it (the same path through which we descended from the World of Infinity),” does this mean that a woman did not come down from the World of Infinity and cannot ascend there, and therefore she does not have any reasons to study Kabbalah?

My Answer: Your conclusion is unclear. A woman has a root in the thought of creation because she represents the created desire. A man, on the other hand, represents the Creator’s attributes and realizes correction based on the woman’s desire. Both must be partners in spiritual correction, each in their own role.

A question I received: I feel a bit of a paradox here. Men and women operate on different frequencies and don’t understand one another very well. Also, a man needs a woman’s desire in order to attain the goal. If the Upper Force is the only thing that can bring people to “mutual understanding,” how should the male part ask to perceive the female desire?

My Answer: Desires are transferred “through the air,” they “linger in the air,” so to speak. People have no need to communicate in order to perceive each other’s desires.

A question I received: If God created Adam, why did He need to create a woman after Adam’s separation?

My Answer: It is precisely the female part of man, of nature, which creates the desire to bring everything to correction.

A question I received (from a woman): Can a woman ask that a man would finally feel the desire for correction to its fullest extent?

My Answer: This is the only thing that will force men to ask for correction, both for the man and for you.

Related Material:
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A question I received: Please explain why questions about history are inappropriate? Studying something without knowing its basic principles, such as its history, is rather difficult, if not outright impossible.

My Answer: Rabash taught me to be concerned not with history, but with actual practical attainment. Why scatter about with external phenomena and images of people when you can be attaining? Beginners, however, and those without a point in the heart (i.e. a desire for spirituality) are attracted to history. The same applies to the study of Kabbalah: someone with a point in the heart doesn’t study it, but attracts the Upper Light, whereas someone without a point in the heart studies it like a science and knows the printed material much better than someone who has actually attained this material. See Baal HaSulam’s commentary on the Jerusalem Kabbalists. [Read more →]

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A question I received: I am a woman who’s invested a lot of time and effort in my academic education and work. At the same time I have a strong need to invest in my child. In addition, I have many talents that I haven’t yet realized in my career. Searching for answers, I stumbled upon Kabbalah books, which have stirred me and fulfilled me. But I still haven’t resolved this problem.

My Answer: So now you have an additional problem: How do you realize yourself in Kabbalah? My advice is to study Kabbalah, raise your children, and advance your career, and gradually you will find the balance between all of them. Our existence in this world obligates us to do so.

A question I received: Recently I started feeling sorry for myself: How do I combine housework, family, children, and spirituality? How do you suggest I deal with this state? Besides, since I started studying Kabbalah, I find it boring to be around friends. And I also have a desire to belong to a group.

My Answer: Every person who encounters Kabbalah experiences this state. This science is about correcting oneself in all aspects of life, including family, work, children and so on. Within all of this, we must solve the question of searching for the Creator and uniting with Him, and then we will discover Him in everything that surrounds us.

A question I received: You teach that first and foremost, a woman must “fulfill her earthly responsibilities, and only in her free, personal time, study what interests her, without imposing it on anyone else.” My question is: Does a woman have personal time? Where can I get personal time if I have practically no remaining time?

My Answer: Among thousands of women studying in our network, I haven’t yet encountered one woman who, if she wanted, could not free up at least half an hour a day to read or listen to something. Nevertheless, you can listen while doing any household chores…

Related Material:
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