A question I received: Free will does not exist in this world, but only environmental pressures. The only free choice that exists is which group of people one wishes to associate with. One must recognize oneself as a wretched egoist – and not only as an egoist, but as the worst of the worst ilk that has ever walked this glorious planet. One cannot get to appreciate the extent of one’s abhorrent nature without the help of Ohr Makif (the Surrounding Light), which descends on us during the study of Kabbalah. When one perceives oneself as this grotesque creature, this results in prayer, and one is then granted by the mercy of the Creator freedom from one’s evil inclinations, and becomes one with the Creator.

Now for my question: Given the fact that free will does not exist, how can an individual rationally see oneself as the worst? Yes, one may come to recognize that one is at odds with the Creator, but how and why is it necessary to come to realize that one is the worst of the worst of the worst? Would it not suffice to just see oneself as an egoist, like the other egoists? Why the worst? And how can one believe that of oneself when one is aware that free will does not exist?

My Answer: Only a new, spiritual environment will give you the confidence and forces to demand the Light of Correction. Then, in this Light you will discover that you are the only evil egoist who is harming everyone. However, rather than making you depressed, this realization will give you a push to demand the Light of Correction from the Creator.

On the other hand, if the environment will not give you the force to do this and the importance of the goal, then upon discovering your egoistic qualities as evil, you will fall into depression and despair.

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Questions I received on faith above reason, belief in oneself, and the purpose of suffering:

Question: Sometimes this world looks so wonderful, but in spite of it I try to hold on to the point in the heart. Is this the meaning of advancing with “faith above reason?”

My Answer: “Faith above reason” means “bestowal above reception.” It’s when you prefer to be inside the quality of bestowal in spite of the egoism that weighs you down, regardless of all its pleasures. Your entire reward lies only in remaining in this state, because it pleases the Creator, even though no one knows anything about what you are doing, and no one will find out.

Question: Why don’t I believe in myself? I am stuck in this.

My Answer: That’s good – rely on us!

Question: I don’t understand why the Creator is giving me so much suffering in the corporeal world. How can I unite with Him in this state?

My Answer: He wants you to come close to Him precisely from this state, and hence He gives you an aspiration toward Him. See the article “There Is None Else Besides Him.”

Question: How do we overcome despair, blows of fate, and hopelessness that haunt us on the path to the spiritual world?

My Answer: By receiving support from the group in study, dissemination, and revelation of the fact that the Creator is one – that “There is none else besides Him,” that He is Good and does only good.

Question: Two months ago I studied Kabbalah a lot, but now I am in a descent. Over the last month I started feeling a need for respect and honor. Before I do anything, I prepare ahead of time to acquire respect and honor. What should I do?

My Answer: You are advancing wonderfully: it’s taken you just two months to start seeing your true nature! Be grateful for the realization of evil and start trying to correct it. You will soon learn that this is impossible to do, and then you will ask the Creator to help you do this!

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Two questions I received on the ego:

Question: What does it mean to hate the ego? Before we cross the Machsom, our entire nature is the ego. So doesn’t this mean that I’m supposed to hate myself?

My Answer: Kabbalah speaks to those people who start feeling a duality inside them: the ego that desires this world, and a point in the heart, which aspires toward the Upper World. Kabbalah helps one turn this point into a vessel for the reception and perception of the Upper World.

Question: During the morning lessons you often speak about the meaning of difficulties (the “guards”) that we receive. But what is the Creator’s objective in giving us success in corporeal things, such as a promotion at work, a perfect grade on an exam, and so on? The ego gets blown up when this happens. Should I try to suppress it or “go with the flow” of the success?

My Answer: You should control it: your actions should be determined by the importance of life’s meaning. And you shouldn’t refuse success at work or school. The intention of attaining the Creator does not conflict with career.

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Two questions I received on love:

Question: What is “the suffering of love”?

My Answer: There is no love in our world. What we call love is the aspiration for pleasure, or to be fulfilled by pleasure. In other words, corporeal love is one’s attitude to that which gives one pleasure. It is measured by the degree of one’s fulfillment from the source of love.

Spiritual love works differently. It’s when a person rises above his egoism and no longer depends on it. He then begins to perceive the desires of others as his own, and unites with the entire desire that was created by the Creator (with the common soul, Adam).

Once he acquires this property of bestowal and concern for fulfilling desires outside of him, he then finds the Creator – the general quality of love, inside this common desire. In this case, “the suffering of love” is when one suffers because he still doesn’t love the Creator, or in other words – because he is not inside the property of bestowal completely.

Question: If spiritual love can only be felt toward one’s neighbor, then it is probably impossible to love those who are not part of my close environment (spiritually speaking)? And when we say “love for others” this means that we understand the egoistic nature of others and realize that these egoistic qualities are temporary?

My Answer: That is absolutely correct. But in addition, it’s also necessary to provide them with a way to become acquainted with Kabbalah in a form suitable for them, and to put it in front of them discretely, so that as soon as their “point in the heart” (a desire for something other than this world) will surface, they can immediately discover the means to fulfill it.

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Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Love, Mutual Guarantee, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

A question I received: This New Year what would you wish to the people who rule the world – the presidents?

My Answer: I still remember the times when one person who believed that he knew how to fix Russia and even the entire world, climbed atop an armored car and spoke such nonsense that it still makes people feel sick to this day. But they went ahead and performed their experiment – and attained the usual horrific results. Such experiments still take place in every country of the world to varying degrees, and they always prove inadequate, whether it’s done in Russia or America, the Third Rome or the Third World.

All the world’s rulers are like little boys who pretend to be grown ups. They don’t realize that they live inside nature and are parts of it. They don’t know the laws of the world they live in, and instead invent their own laws. Within this “lawful” world they build their own small “play world,” complete with made up relationships and laws. Obviously, these do not correspond to the natural laws of society.

Notwithstanding, everything in nature has its own place and law. Animals follow the laws of nature blindly and instinctively, and hence they don’t make mistakes. Man, on the other hand, was created free in order to complete himself, and to reveal – within this realm of freedom –  the laws of nature, the Creator. By doing so, man becomes equal to Nature or the Creator.

However, instead of doing this, man is performing experiments on himself! Until the times of Ancient Babylon, man developed on the animate level and his behavior wasn’t so different from nature. But as soon as his egoism began “acting up,” he decided to build a “tower up to the sky” and people started “speaking different tongues” – stopped understanding one another. As soon as this occurred, man was offered the chance to learn about the purpose of his creation – to attain the level of the Creator, as well as the means to attain this goal – the method of Kabbalah.

Just as Kabbalah predicted 4,500 years ago, we are now finding ourselves in the Global Babylon once again. We have to grow up and learn the laws of nature, instead of inventing our own, artificial laws. After all, there are laws of nature for every kind of behavior – including private and social, and ignorance of these laws evokes Nature’s negative reaction, which we perceive as suffering.

One way or another, Nature will compel us to become similar to it. And if we are opposed to this, it will bring us there by force. Hence, today we – each and every one of us – are more than ever in need of revealing and understanding what Kabbalah says.

My wish for the world’s rulers, and for all the people in the world, is to study the laws of nature and of society that Kabbalah explains. Kabbalah speaks only about this, explaining how everything develops – gradually, logically and lawfully.

Our dissemination of Kabbalah around the world is expanding, and is tipping the whole world over with its force, quality, and connection with the Upper Light. Hence I truly wish everyone “SHANA TOVA” (a happy New Year) – and I am optimistic that this will indeed be so!

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Filed under: Holidays - 2 Comments →

Two questions I received on the New Year:

Question: Lately there has been a lot of talk about the year 2012, as a time of change of the cosmic consciousness. Are there grounds for this in Kabbalah?

My Answer: I think that the change of consciousness will happen before that. No year is “special.” All the changes – whether for the worse or for the better – depend only on us. In addition, the New Year that we celebrate here in Israel isn’t a calendar holiday, but a celebration of the first time that egoism was recognized as evil and the first time its correction had begun. This happened in man 5,768 years ago. The New Year is the beginning of correction, and today we are continuing it on a global scale!

This is why we consider the first spiritual birth a holiday, and this is why Adam is called the first man – the word Adam comes from the word Dommeh, similar to the Creator. This is what each one of us is waiting for.

Question: Lately the the mass media is writing about the development of a plan spanning from now until the year 2020. Can we plan ahead for such an extended period of time, today, when everything is so interconnected and changes so fast?

My Answer: Unfortunately, extended plans are usually composed to satisfy specific egoistic goals that benefit someone today, and that’s where it all ends, while the extended plans become forgotten. The distant goal serves as a justification and cover-up for immediate fraud.

Just like it happened in the times of terror regimes and wars, people will once again be forced to suffer and even die in the name of a national idea. If a goal entails casualties, then it’s a false goal! I think that everything will happen differently. Globalization and global interdependence will compel us to act together!

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The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Fifth Commandment” (abridged)

215. The fifth Commandment. It is written: “LET THE WATERS SWARM WITH SWARMS OF LIVING CREATURES.” This verse contains three Commandments. The first is to study the Torah (as it is written, “I have created egoism and the Torah for its correction,” which is achieved only through the study of Kabbalah, which attracts Ohr Makif – the Surrounding Light), the second is to procreate and multiply (spiritually; that is to say, to develop the point in the heart to its full capacity – the soul), and the third is to remove the foreskin on the eighth day (to make the corrections under the condition of complete bestowal, cutting off from oneself the work in desires that are impossible to correct – “Lev haEven” – the heart of stone, Zivug in Sefira Yesod, and not Malchut). And it is necessary to study the Torah on all the days, at all times, in order to correct one’s soul and spirit (to search within oneself for the Creator and for a dialogue with Him every minute of one’s life).

216. Because man labors in the study of the Torah, he corrects the other holy soul, as it is written, SWARMS OF LIVING CREATURES, referring to the life-giving holy soul, Malchut. For when man does not study the Torah (the method of correction), he lacks the holy (loving and bestowing) soul and the (quality of) holiness that descends from Above (from the Creator). Yet, when he does study the Torah, he merits its Light (correction and fulfillment), just like the holy angels (he merits full equivalence to the Creator, just like the angels; the only difference is that they are mechanical creatures, whereas man attains equivalence consciously, with his desire and efforts).

217. It is written, “Angels of the Creator (people who have attained the level of the Creator Himself, and who are hence called ‘angels’) shall bless Him.” This refers to those who study the Torah (correct themselves), as they are called His angels on earth (those who have corrected their desire, while in and of themselves the angels are qualities of Bina, the Creator, bestowal). It is also written, “BIRDS SOARING OVER THE EARTH.” This refers to this world. However, in the world to come, as it is said, the Creator will make them (those who correct themselves) wings like those of an eagle so they may soar (with their corrected desires of love and bestowal) over the whole world (over their whole egoism).

218. It is written in this regard: LET BIRDS SOAR OVER THE EARTH, for the Torah, called “THE WATERS” (the quality of Bina, love and bestowal) will SWARM WITH SWARMS OF LIVING CREATURES (will be filled with the corrected souls of people) from its place of life (the desires that feel themselves, their lack of correction), called Malchut (all the created desires), and all will descend down below (the intentions “for one’s own sake” will disappear and only the pure intentions – “for the sake of others” – will remain). This is what King David referred to when he said, “THE CREATOR CREATED IN ME A PURE HEART” to study The Torah (correct oneself), and “A HOLY SPIRIT (of love and bestowal) WAS RENEWED WITHIN ME (what was contained in the Thought of Creation now became my conscious aspiration, to fulfill myself).”

Related Material:
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A question I received: You say that the only important thing to reveal the Light while reading a text is the intention to reveal the Light, to change ourselves and to become like the Creator. So, if I have this intention but I read other spiritual books like the Gospel, Dharmapada or the Quran, if I read them with the intention to change, will I change and reveal the Light? I find some of these books very emotional and I feel that they help me to change just like Kabbalistic books do.

My Answer: The fact is that Kabbalistic books were written by people who attained the Upper World or the Creator through their corrected qualities, and who then wrote their books from that spiritual level. The same people also drew special connections between their writings and our world.

Hence, if we want to raise our qualities to their spiritual level, to become similar to them or to the Creator (which is the same thing), then the Light of their spiritual levels descends from those levels to us only when we study their books, which describe the qualities of their levels. This Light shines on us from afar, gradually reforming us to match the qualities of these levels (qualities).

It says in the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot” that the authors of the Talmud made special spiritual corrections so that when we study their books, we can receive Upper Light (Ohr Makif) from the study. No other means can help us reform ourselves, and this has been verified for millennia! In our days, the only thing that can withstand the egoism of our generation, the only texts that can help correct our souls, are the compositions of Baal HaSulam. The choice is yours.

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Filed under: Books - 1 Comment →

A question I received: I began studying Bnei Baruch Kabbalah through the arionline.info website in April. It appeared I had a set schedule and steady life for a time. Then I heard that a man studying Kabbalah should have a family in order to be corrected even further.

As I tried to find a mate, it put distance between me and my studies, and it seems that I was “handed over to a cruel ruler.” I ended my relationship with that girl, and I’m trying to get back to the studies, but now I feel as if my hunger to satisfy my corporeal urges increased 50 fold and now there’s a battle in me, and I fail each time. It’s as if Pharaoh gets stronger and stronger and my own self-hatred for giving in is getting bigger. I’m trying to see the Creator in all of this. What should be done?

My Answer: You lack a connection with other people like you. Only the group can help you get out of the confusing states correctly. Don’t fight egoism alone – it will always win! Or it will deceive you, making you believe that you won. Let’s talk when we meet at the congress in Saint Louis!

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Questions I received on tears and crying:

Question: I’ve never seen you answer a question about tears on this blog. What is the spiritual root of this phenomenon?

My Answer: In spirituality, tears are the expression of a passive participation in correction. They’re a sign that a person (a Partzuf or soul) is spiritually weak and in the state of Katnut. This is a small state where one has a small screen. That is to say – a screen that only protects one from egoism but doesn’t enable one to work with egoism directly, to bestow.

It is written that the Creator sheds tears into the Great Ocean because He cannot make the correction for the person (see the chapter “The Vision of Rabbi Chiya” in The Book of Zohar). A person has to want to be corrected, but he doesn’t want it. And the Creator is more pained by this than the person, and He sheds tears (Light) into the Great Ocean – the desire He created, and because of that the toughest part of the desire – Malchut de Malchut – is corrected.

Question: When we cry, are we crying for ourselves?

My Answer: Our tears are the ego’s way of expressing itself when it can’t have something it wants or when it feels “compassion” for someone else, which means that we imagine ourselves in someone else’s shoes and are afraid that the same thing will happen to us.

Question: Do such tears indicate spiritual closeness with the Creator?

My Answer: Never!

Question: Then why does one feel “lighter” after crying?

My Answer: Because the animate organism becomes psychologically more relaxed after a nervous stress.

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