Entries in the 'egoist' Category

Where Is the World Going – Nazism or Global Unity?


A question I received: There are many lies, but only one truth. Our entire world is a crooked mirror, and everything is not what they taught us in school. I learned this from the introductory lectures on the Concept of National Security by K.P. Petrov, leader of Russia’s political “Unity” party. Later I came across Kab.tv and started watching your lessons. What was remarkable is that after Petrov’s lectures, I found all your answers to be obvious. Could Petrov’s concept be a stepping stone on the way to Kabbalah?

What Petrov does is use very simple language to get ordinary people interested in reevaluating their preconceived notions, in going from the concept of “divide and conquer” to “unite and flourish.”

Could you comment on whether Petrov’s concept is useful or harmful, since this movement is gaining popularity and could be an alternative to the present regime?

My Answer: I am not familiar with Petrov or his concept. I don’t explore any other concepts besides Kabbalah. I know that the next regime will be either:

  • Nazism in all the developed countries, and then the path of great suffering will nevertheless bring people to the second path;
  • Or we will directly go to global unity of the entire world – above egoism, by means of the Upper Light that’s drawn through Kabbalah.

All other concepts will vanish before they even have time to develop.

I don’t believe in anything, including Kabbalah. I know the Upper World and its laws, and therefore I am not interested in any human concepts. There are laws of nature, and they govern our development regardless of any concepts we invent.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Nazism – The Future of Humankind?
Laitman.com Post: Why Don’t Kabbalists Enter the Political Arena?
Article: “Influence of the Creator”
Article:  “Peace in the World”

When Will Suffering Disappear?

When Will Suffering Disappear?

Three questions I received on suffering:

Question: It is said that there is no punishment in spirituality. Yet there is the curse of egoism which we fell into from spirituality. Does that mean that women only suffer in this corporeality as a result of our egoism?

My Answer: Yes, just like men!

Question: Will suffering disappear after we become fully corrected?

My Answer: Of course, because suffering is the sensation of empty desires.

Question: Kabbalah says that a person could choose either the path of Kabbalah or the path of suffering. But people who study Kabbalah still suffer, don’t they?

My Answer: An egoist feels one kind of suffering – bitter suffering, because he doesn’t get what he wants. But those who study Kabbalah feel the suffering of love – sweet suffering, because they yearn for their beloved.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Why Do We Feel Suffering?
Laitman.com Post: What Is the Purpose of Women’s Suffering?
Laitman.com Post: A Question Is the Sensation of an Empty Desire
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: Chapter 34 – “Suffering Sent As Absolute Kindness”

Immerse Into the Waters of Bestowal, and You Will Become Pure

Immerse Into the Waters of Bestowal, and You Will Become PureA question I received: I read that Rabbi Nachman said the following about a Mikveh (ritual immersion): “When a man immerses in a Mikveh (a basin filled with rain or spring water, or in an ocean or river), his enemies are destroyed, and all his troubles and disturbances disappear, which prevented him from serving the Creator.” Is this talking about a combination of a Kabbalist’s inner work with the corresponding mechanical actions of his biological body?

My Answer: It means the following: “When a man immerses all his desires into the property of bestowal, then all his egoistic intentions disappear and nothing prevents him from being similar to the Creator.” There is no need for any physical actions of the body, because when a Kabbalist’s body dies, his soul still continues to feel its existence through similarity to the Creator.

The soul exists outside of the body, independently of it. It does not incarnate into the body, and it cannot be affected by any physical actions performed with the body. The soul is a part of the Creator from above, whereas the body is a form of existence of protein matter.

Everything that Judaism advises one to do with the body is a tradition, a framework that helps one remain externally similar to the Upper World. But unfortunately, today – when it’s necessary to come out of the spiritual exile, the same framework that helped the Jewish people survive through the exile is holding them back from the correction they must perform today.

It is written, “As the Mikveh purifies the impure, the Creator purifies Israel.” Immerse into the Creator, the property of Bina, the waters of bestowal and mercy – and you will become pure!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Creator Does Not Have Arms or Legs
Kabbalah Today Article: “Love Is the Way”
Kabbalah Today Article: “Who Are You, People of Israel?”
Lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article: “Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”
Shamati #79: “Atzilut and Bya”

There Is No Time In the Torah


A question I received: I don’t understand where we are in the Torah at the moment. We know that it speaks only about ourselves, and that the historical path is really a spiritual one that we all must go through. At different times you say that we are in different time periods of the Torah:

  • In this entry we are Noah before the flood;
  • In entries like this you talk about how we are at the foot of Mt. Sinai and we must come together to rise above it, which happens years after the Flood;
  • And Mt. Sinai is after the Exodus from Egypt (or our egoism), so shouldn’t we have to do that first, before climbing the mountain?

So where are we exactly?

My Answer: Everywhere. You’ll find confirmation of this in Baal HaSulam’s and Rabash’s articles, because there is no time in the Torah – it talks about all of man’s states. We perceive our world within the framework of place-time-movement, but these three coordinates do not exist in the spiritual world!

This is why Kabbalah calls our world unreal or a dream. We perceive it through the part of Malchut that’s most detached from the Creator and has opposite qualities to Him. Each of our states may include several states described in the Torah, from different sections (times).

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Time – Illusion or Reality?
Laitman.com Post: The Machsom Can Be Crossed Individually and As a Group
Shamati Article #50: “Two States”

How Can Religion Come Out of the Crisis It’s In?


A question I received: You said that religion did us a service by showing us how to coexist with each other, and that human egoism became tolerable thanks to religion. Now let’s imagine that religion never existed. Egoism would have torn human society apart, and because of the great suffering we would have reached our logical conclusion much faster – study of Kabbalah and attainment of the goal of creation. Doesn’t this mean that religion is not just harmful, but very much so?

My Answer: The role of religion in man’s (the soul’s) development will become clear only after we attain the Governing Force. In the meantime we have to learn from reality: This is how our world develops, first going through the primitive beliefs, then faith in religions, then faith in science, and finally – the science of Kabbalah. This is when you gain the possibility of opening up your eyes with the help of a new quality and seeing the universe for what it really is.

Kabbalists compare the state before this to sleeping or being unconscious. So while you still don’t have the ability to perceive the true world – while you’re asleep, you should just accept what you feel, and keep advancing. Then the Light of Kabbalah study will “awaken” you.

I accept everything taking place in the world as things that are given to me for my development. I form an opinion about everything that happens only from this perspective. In our time religion must transform and give way to Kabbalah. It should only lay a claim to the cultural content of people’s lives, without any claim to the soul, the world to come and so on, since it doesn’t really know anything about these things. Its task is to give psychological support to weak people, like a psychologist or therapist, but no more than that. Then religion will be able to get out of the crisis it’s in, stop using threats and force to influence people, and earn people’s respect.

The relationships between man and God are explained in Kabbalah by revealing the Creator to man. I consider myself religious because this is the “religion” I follow, rather than the distorted and mechanical one that demands submissive and pointless observance (Musar).

When Baal HaSulam says religion, he means only Kabbalah, while referring to all the rest as culture, tradition, or ethics (Musar). Here’s an excerpt from the article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose“:

“Many are mistaken and compare our holy Torah to ethics (Musar). But that has come to them because they have never tasted religion in their lives. I call upon them: ‘Taste and see (receive the Upper Light into your soul and reveal) that the Lord is good.’

It is true that both ethics and religion aim at one thing – to raise man above the filth of the narrow self-love and bring him to the heights of love of others. But still they are as remote one from the other as the distance between the Thought of the Creator from the thought of people. For religion extends from the Thoughts of the Creator, and ethics comes from thoughts of flesh and blood and from the experiences of their lives.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: “And God Created Man In His Own Image”
Chapter from Book “The Path of Kabbalah”: Uprooting Prejudice
Baal HaSulam Article: Exile and Redemption
Shamati #66: The Giving of the Torah

Annunaki and Kabbalah Have Nothing in Common


A question I received: There’s one problem I must resolve before I can start studying Kabbalah. I would really appreciate an honest answer from you, and I hope that my question won’t annoy you.

What is the connection between Kabbalah and Annunaki? If Kabbalah can “turn off” your ego, then what forces will take you over afterward? Before I start “turning off” my ego, how can I make sure that Kabbalah does not take advantage and seek control over people who aspire for greater self-awareness?

My answer: I am not familiar with Annunaki, but this teaching is not connected to Kabbalah in any way. A person who studies Kabbalah does not “turn off” his ego, and he is always able to control the situation. One also doesn’t turn off one’s mind or desires, but on the contrary – they grow together with one’s ego. In Kabbalah, one learns how to control his mind and desires, and to this extent, they grow.

Related Materials:
Laitman.com Post: Be Happy About Egoism’s Growth!
Laitman.com Post: The Creator Cannot Be Attained Anywhere Besides Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: The Goal of Creation Is Perfect Fulfillment
Kabbalah Today Article: “Kabbalah Chronicles”
Chapter from Book  Interview with the Future: “The Exodus from Egypt – from Corporeality to Spirituality”
Shamati #86: “And They Built Store-Cities”

Freedom from the Angel of Death

Freedom from the Angel of DeathA question I received: I would really appreciate it if you would explain the following quote from Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Freedom”:

Whereas if there is no such spark in man, but all the sparks of his essence are dressed in bestowal of contentment to their maker, then it is neither absent nor dead. For even when the body nullifies, it only nullifies from the aspect of reception for self gratification, in which the will to receive is dressed, and has no right to exist but through it.”

I don’t understand – how is it possible that when this body dies (which you said is perceived as changing one’s shirt), the desire to bestow does not die with it? When I die, then even if I will still have the desire to bestow, I won’t be able to bestow anymore – I won’t be able to realize my desire!

Or suppose that instead of dying, I survived a car accident or a serious disease, but I lost my limbs and had brain damage; then even though I am still alive, I will not be able to bestow! Without a body you can’t bestow to your friends or participate in dissemination. So how does one’s desire continue to exist and be realized if the body no longer exists?

My Answer: Here’s an explanation of Baal HaSulam’s quote that you cited: “Whereas if there is no such spark in man, but all the sparks of his essence are dressed in bestowal of contentment to their maker, then it is neither absent nor dead. For even when the body (egoism) nullifies, it only nullifies from the aspect of reception (the desire) for self gratification, in which the will to receive is dressed, and has no right to exist but through it.”

The desires remain. What changes is their intention or “clothing.” We live inside these desires, and we also perceive our body, or its presence, inside a certain desire, which becomes revealed in our “I” for a period of time (our life), and then decreases and disappears. This is what gives us the feeling of life and the gradual death of the body.

Read the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar ” and you’ll see what Kabbalah means when it says:

  • The death of the body – the death of the egoistic intention
  • The revival of a body – the birth of the altruistic intention

We only perceive our animate body until we correct our entire soul; that is to say, until we correct all our desires from “for myself” to “for others, for the Creator.” Then the perception of the body will disappear, because the desire in which we perceive this body will be corrected into bestowal, and it will become eternal because it helped us correct all the other desires.

Take this as a foundation: There is only the Light and the desire, and you feel everything (this world or the world to come) inside the desire. Everything depends on the desires – their size, quality, and similarity to the Light.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Why Do We Have to Keep Coming Back Here?
Laitman.com Post: Always With Me
The Open Book – Chapter:”The Purpose of Reincarnation According to the Zohar”
Baal HaSulam – Shamati #28 “I Shall Not Die But Live” – Lesson

The Third Temple and the Coming of the Messiah

The Third Temple and the Coming of the MessiahA question I received: The Second Jewish Temple was built under circumstances of violent opposition — both from the external foes of the God of Israel and also from within the Jewish community in Jerusalem. Does not the building of the Third Temple (as soon as possible) surely speed the coming of the Messiah – God’s man who alone can bring about peace?

My Answer: It will not accelerate anything, but will only bring more harm. It’s because the nation must first be corrected on the spiritual level, as this is the meaning of building the Temple (the common soul, in which the Creator is revealed). We have to build the Temple inside us by attaining brotherly love, and inside this love we will attain the Creator (the presence of the Shechina), as it is written, “Prepare a place (the common desire) for Me and I will dwell among you.”

Only then can we build a symbol of the Temple in stone. The Messiah is not a person, but the force that pulls the entire humanity out of egoism. Baal HaSulam writes in the article “Messiah’s Horn” that the way to reveal the Messiah in the world is by disseminating Kabbalah among all the nations. And this is what we are trying to do.

It’s possible that the Messiah – the force and method of the souls’ correction, will be represented by a person – a Teacher who will enlighten and lead by example.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Building the Third Temple
Laitman.com Post: The Solution – Excerpts from the Writings of the Last Generation by Baal HaSulam
The Kabbalah Experience – Chapter 10: “The Messiah and the End of Days”

Correction Depends Only On Desire, Not Knowledge

Correction Depends Only On Desire, Not KnowledgeThree questions I received on dissemination:

Question: When will Baal HaSulam’s difficult language (such as the Talmud Eser Sefirot, Pticha, and the Commentary on The Book of Zohar) be brought down to the level of the modern day egoism and restated in a language that regular people can understand? Isn’t this the reason why we are running late with our correction?

My Answer: You should study all of these materials in our lesson archive. We always study the Talmud Eser Sefirot, and we are studying The Book of Zohar on this blog, with links to the full commentaries.

My entire mission is to bring Kabbalah closer to our generation and to all the people in the world. However, this is only for those who are seeking knowledge. In order to realize Kabbalah in practice, one does not need any knowledge of it (unlike the way one learns a science in our world).

It’s because one must first create an inner instrument of attainment, the Kli or soul, from “the point in the heart.” One’s correction does not depend on knowledge, but on the desire. One reveals the Upper World by making efforts to understand spirituality correctly, by revealing that it’s the property of love and bestowal to one’s neighbor, and by unifying these aspirations into one whole.

Question: How important is the form (or the quality) of the material that’s used in mass dissemination? What I mean is, how important is it to have a professional approach, a good use of language, and no foreign accent when explaining Kabbalah? I think that if a person has a point in the heart, then it won’t make any difference how the information is presented – he will be attracted to it regardless.

My Answer: The form or “wrapper” is important in the first encounter, but not later on. In fact, at later stages it works in the opposite way – the concealed is more attractive.

Question: How can I help disseminate Kabbalah in the city of Baku in Azerbaijan?

My Answer: Like in many other countries around the world: without mentioning Kabbalah or myself; by presenting it as a science that offers deep attainment of reality.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Rose,” Items 1-3
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Flower Buds” (Items 4-6)
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter, “Who Has Created These?”
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Who Has Created These, of Eliyahu”
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter, “The Mother Lends Her Clothes To Her Daughter”
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Letters by Rabbi Amnon Saba”
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Supernal Wisdom”
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Lock and the Key”
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Avraham”
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Vision of Rabbi Chiya”
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Who Is Your Partner?”
Archived Talmud Eser Sefirot Video Lessons
Help Share Kabbalah

In All Life Situations, Your Behavior Should Be Determined Only by the Spiritual Goal


Questions I received on the loss of desire and other disturbances:

Question: I’ve been studying Kabbalah for over a year, and lately I’ve been faced with a problem. My desires for different pleasures of this world are gradually disappearing, and the only desires left are the minimal desires needed for bodily survival. Is this regression? Can I somehow develop desires for fulfillment? I feel like I am turning into an amoeba. Even though I don’t limit myself in any way, I don’t see any point in making “unnecessary movements.” Where did my egoism go? If it fell asleep, then how can I wake it back up?

My Answer: You’re discovering that it’s pointless to fulfill your egoism, and because you’ve made this revelation, you have lost the energy (Homer Delek) to aspire for material things. This happens to many people in our world, resulting in a feeling of emptiness and depression – the most widespread disease in the world. However, spirituality also disappears and ceases to attract you.

Both of these feelings are evoked in you by the Creator on purpose, in order to create a place for freedom of will, a place for you to make your own efforts above your nature. It’s because all the things that you can do on your own are actually done by the Creator. But if you reveal the emptiness of this world and become indifferent to this world, and in addition you also reveal a special emptiness of the spiritual world, and the spiritual world also ceases attracting you, then you should participate in the group and the study correctly, in order to evoke the importance of the spiritual goal – “the revelation of the Creator (love for your neighbor).”

This desire draws the Upper Light (Ohr Makif), which will bring you the perception of spirituality – the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love. So you should receive the importance of spirituality from your friends!

Question: Dear Rav, after my study visit to Bnei Baruch I really felt that my soul, for the first time, felt that it was at home. It was a power that was stronger than my body. It caused many conflicts when I tried to balance my time between the desire of my soul and doing my bodily things. Now that I am back I feel like I have no desire for anything. This happens to me after each congress and each time I have a very strong contact with Bnei Baruch. Why does this happen and how can I pass these states?

My Answer: This is natural, because we at Bnei Baruch have a very intense spiritual atmosphere, and you are being imbued by it. After returning home from your visit to us, you have to heighten your spiritual life so it will take place on the same level that you felt while being with us.

Question: I encountered many problems while doing dissemination actions. For example, I fell down, my eyes and teeth became infected, and so on. Public opinion says that the obstacles are telling me that I shouldn’t be doing this, that I have to change my outlook, and so on. But I believe differently – that I have to make efforts in order to reinforce my intention for reaching the goal. Please explain, how should I interpret the disturbances?

My Answer: If your body is physically and psychologically healthy, then you have to overcome the disturbances without paying attention to your body. However, if the disturbances need medical treatment, then you should immediately go to the doctor, while continuing your studies and dissemination.

Comment: In a previous blog post I wrote that Kabbalah is more important than family – that if a man’s wife is against Kabbalah and it’s impossible to compromise or persuade her, then it’s permissible to get a divorce for the sake of your soul. I received a few perplexed responses – “How can this be?” People don’t understand that life is meaningless if it’s not used to attain the goal that has been set before every person. The sky, the earth, and every one of us were created for attaining this goal, and not for creating a marriage on the animate level and becoming a slave of your partner’s egoism.

So the conclusion to be made from this is: In all life situations, your behavior should be determined only by the spiritual goal!

Related Material:
Latiman.com Post: The Method of Attaining Happiness
Laitman.com Post: Corporeality Has No Effect on Spirituality
Laitman.com Post: The Only Thing That Can Justify Getting a Divorce
Shamati Article#4: “What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling Before the Creator in the Work?”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”