Questions I received on feeling empty, connecting with the virtual group, dealing with contradictions, and not wanting to study:

Question: Why is it that the more you disseminate and make efforts, the emptier you feel?

My Answer: The feeling of emptiness emerges when one does not realize the importance of dissemination as an act that’s favored by the Creator. By disseminating, you bring the world closer to Him. However, one’s constantly growing egoism does not feel the importance of this action. Egoism constantly grows, especially in those who study Kabbalah, in order to give them the opportunity to overcome it and to thereby rise to the level of the Creator.

You should compensate for the feeling of emptiness quickly by receiving the greatness of the goal and the Creator by connecting with books and friends. The Shamati articles explain this in great detail.

Question: How can you advance spiritually without being in physical contact with a group?

My Answer: If you keep virtual contact with the world group, then you are guaranteed to receive an impression and connection that are just as powerful. In addition, you can physically participate in the Congresses, as well as visit and train at our Israel center.

Question: How should one deal with the contradictions in Kabbalah? One day things are explained one way, and the next day – the opposite way!

My Answer: When you gain the right understanding, then all these “contradictions” will actually complement each other and connect into one whole. The contradictions lead to understanding, because they are an indication of your imperfection.

Question: There are days when I really want to study Kabbalah, and there are also days when I don’t want to think about Kabbalah at all, and instead I want to do the corporeal things that attract me. Does this indicate that I don’t have the point in the heart yet?

My Answer: During these days you receive an opportunity to advance independently, through your own efforts, rather than through the desire that you receive from above.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Redemption Will Come At the Hands of the Creator
Laitman.com Post: Only the Upper Light’s Influence Can Give You the Importance of the Group
Laitman.com Post: The Moral Norms of a Kabbalist

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: A recent news report stated that “Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has announced that he will be resigning, following the numerous scandals, investigations and failures of his term in office.” I would like to know what you have to say about this as a Kabbalist.

My Answer: The society’s leaders match the society. The leaders cannot be better than the society because they are produced by it. Moreover, their egoism is even bigger than a regular citizen’s – otherwise they wouldn’t be able to achieve their high positions.

The correction of society must happen from the inside out – it has to start with the masses rather than the leaders. The leaders will never understand anything except their own egoism – the desire to rule, and they will always use the people and the nation to satisfy this desire. History shows us that this law works in 100% of the cases.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Why Does Everyone Hate Israel?
Laitman.com Post: Another Pointless Conference of the World’s Leaders

Filed under: Israel - No Comments →

Two questions I received on women, love and egoism:

Question: In one of your talks you mentioned that women know how to love or have this ability and men don’t. If we all egoistic, then what kind of love can women give?

My Answer: Egoistic love. A woman can take care of the people whom she egoistically loves or respects.

Question: Dear Rav, I have been studying Kabbalah for some time. I realize fully that I am totally egocentric and hope that the Creator will help me with this. But I also seem to note more than ever the egocentrism of other people in my every day life and I really don’t like it. What can I do to overcome judgment and be at least polite to them if not compassionate, which I find very hard to do?

My Answer: What you are seeing in others is your own reflection, according to the rule “Everyone who condemns others, condemns himself.” However, if you loved them, then you would love their egoism as well – just like you would a baby of yours.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: On Love
Kabbalah Today Article: “Love, Love, Love”
Article: “Fairytale Love is Just That – A Fairytale”

Filed under: Women - No Comments →

Three questions I received on my connection with Rabash:

Question: Rabash wrote that Baal HaSulam’s students fell from the spiritual level they were on after Baal HaSulam died because they no longer had anyone to support them. Didn’t they notice this? And more importantly: How does a Kabbalist guard himself from this, what does he use for support? Baal HaSulam didn’t have a Rav, and neither did Rabash, and now you don’t have a Rav either. How do you guard yourself from descents and mistakes?

My Answer: Just like them – by being connected with them directly and clearly! One who has attained the Creator’s plan continues to advance. One who realizes that it is necessary and feels responsible does not leave the path.

Everyone experiences descents and ascents until the end of all the levels. However, beginners fall into their egoism and can’t even “move a finger” on their own, whereas the advanced students experience this in another way. Hence, one should focus all of one’s energy on overcoming the first part of the path.

Question: What do you do when you run out of answers?! If Rabash was still with us today, then you would still be studying with him and asking him questions. But what do you do when you have questions now? Do you ever have questions that you haven’t found the answers to yet?

My Answer: If I have questions, then I ask Rabash. This isn’t mysticism, but reality. I am his student because I attained a connection with him – not a physical connection, but an inner connection through equivalence of form. Hence, when I have questions, I turn to this image, to greater equivalence of form with him, or in other words, to “his image in me,” and this is how I find his answers to my questions – like a lower degree learns and receives from a higher degree.

It’s because the lower one feels the Upper One. One always feels only himself, and he feels it only inside him. Rabash remains the Upper Partzuf for me and I have a connection with him. Otherwise I wouldn’t call myself his student.

Question: Dear Rav Laitman, who authorized you to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah?

My Answer: My teacher Rav Baruch Ashlag (Rabash), the eldest son of Baal HaSulam. I wrote my first three books while I was by his side. I was his secretary, assistant, and student for twelve years. The most important thing in Kabbalah is who you learn from. In addition, “learning” means that you are really a student of your teacher and are connected to him in every way. See “A Speech in Celebration of the Conclusion of The Zohar” by Baal HaSulam.

After my teacher passed away, I continued doing our common work in this world. Rabash was the only Kabbalist in the previous generation, and I am his student. I think that my lessons, books, and everything I do indicate this. I only teach the works of Baal HaSulam and Rabash.

Incidentally, did you ask this question of other people who teach “Kabbalah” today?

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Always With Me
Laitman.com Post: Eventually Everything Will Come Together In Peace and Correction
Baal HaSulam Article: “Time to Act”
Kabbalah Books for our Generation
Bnei Baruch Learning Center

Filed under: Spiritual Teacher, Spirituality - 1 Comment →

A question I received: You said that men are polygamous by nature and are always looking for new sensations. In the past every man had several wives, and he would buy a new wife whenever he wanted one. There was no love involved in this, and sometimes men and women did not even know each other before being married. This is also the reason why men today cheat, get divorced, and find new wives.

On the other hand, you speak about spiritual marriage – man, woman, and the Shechina between them. How is it possible to attain the presence of the Creator between a man and a woman in the spiritual marriage if the modern man always needs new experiences with different women (today this is called cheating).

This is very painful and difficult to accept. Please help us, women, understand men’s behavior. Why is it so difficult for us to accept the fact that men are always attracted to other women? Do men do this because of some anomaly? Or is it just natural for them to constantly need new women, and it’s us, women, who are so uncorrected that we simply cannot understand their needs?

My Answer: This is the curse of egoism, which we fell into from the spiritual level. God said to the woman: “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” So my advice to you is: Don’t look for truth, justice, loyalty, and love in marital relationships. They aren’t there from the beginning, and they can’t be there – the Torah warns you of this. Quit trying to resolve the mess in the physical world, and instead aspire toward correction. As a result of it, your relationships will be corrected as well.

You have to understand that egoistic nature cannot be changed, and everyone suffers from it until they rise above it. You should transfer your worries from the corporeal level to the level where you realize “Why did the Creator do this?” It is in order to push you toward correction!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Polygamy – a Matter of Culture
Kabbalah Today Article: ” Man, Woman and the Snake Between Them”
Article: “Today It’s Spiritual Relationship or No Relationship”
Article: “The Spiritual Root of Cheating”

Filed under: Body and Soul, Crisis, Economy, Internet, Love, Q&A, Spiritual Work - 2 Comments →

A question I received: Dear Rav., When I turned thirty, I stopped feeling anything. My life became gray, worthless, and empty. I thought that this is what old age feels like and just accepted it. The years went by, and then one day I “accidentally” saw a program where you spoke about Kabbalah. It touched me, so I went to your website and spent three years studying materials there on my own. But a year ago I was so “shaken up” that I couldn’t remain alone anymore, so I started looking for other people who were interested in Kabbalah. And the ball started rolling! In the past year we formed a group, rented a study hall, went to a congress, and held a book fair that brought more people to Kabbalah. Now when men and women come to our center for the Sunday lesson, I feel responsible for making sure that everything goes smoothly. And all of this is happening after just one year!

Time seems to have gone by incredibly fast. More things happened during this one year than in my entire lifetime. My states change so fast that I don’t have the time to think about what is happening. My question is: Am I going through my reincarnations faster, or am I feeling this reincarnation more strongly, or am I making up for lost time, for the things I needed to do but didn’t?

My Answer: There is no “fast” path, there is no speed limit, and there are no speeding tickets. However, you must always check:

1. What is your goal? Is it to attain absolute bestowal by connecting into one whole with your friends, through the mutual guarantee?

2. Is this the goal you’re racing to attain? You have to gradually attain the property of bestowal, the opposite of your present state.

3. Where do you get the strength to advance? If you get it from yourself, then you are being pushed by your natural egoism – and it’s not pushing you toward the goal. However, if you are receiving your energy from the group, then you are advancing toward the right goal.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Correction Lies In Unity
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Is Not for the Weak
Laitman.com Post: Where Is Our Moses?
Kabbalah Today Article: Storks and Teamwork
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: I have a question about the moral norms of people who study Kabbalah. You have explained that there is no time or space in spirituality, and our actions in the physical realm are insignificant. What matters is only our mental connection with one another and our thoughts about the Creator. Are you saying that a person who studies Kabbalah in a group can do anything he wants to in the corporeal world, without observing any moral norms, but turn into a wonderful friend as soon as he shows up to the lesson?

My Answer: We are dealing with people who are in the process of development and correction. Their egoism is developing quickly, and only later this is followed by slow and gradual correction. I have been observing this for thirty years already. How many years does a child have to spend getting his diapers dirty and getting help from others until he grows up? In other words, we have to remain patient for many years while the Upper Light does its work, and then the person becomes different! What else can you do, if “man is evil from birth?” It is forbidden to force him to conceal his evil. This will stop his correction, since he won’t be aware of his own evil.

In addition, when one studies Kabbalah one’s evil grows until reaching a state when one cannot tolerate it anymore. This is a wonderful moment because then one is ready to ask the Creator to help him get rid of the evil.

Observing moral norms looks good on the outside, but it is harmful if it prevents one from seeing his flaws. The only solution is to give people the method of correction and the environment for actualizing this method.

Related Material:
Chapter from the Book Interview with the Future: Proper Development
Chapter from the Book The Open Book: The Contemporary Generation of Kabbalah

Filed under: Egoism - No Comments →

A question I received: In reference to your blog entry, Interview With Canadian Television, I am not surprised that people’s egoism is growing primarily in Israel and Canada. I see this egoism every day, and regrettably only 0.01% of the people actually ask themselves about it. Looking at this from a purely human position, it’s a pitiful state. Does Kabbalah explain why this is happening, and why don’t the world’s religions deal with this question?

My Answer: Egoism has to keep growing until people will realize that it is evil. So let it grow faster! It grows fastest in people who start studying Kabbalah. Their growth of egoism accelerates and reaches its maximum quickly, and then they see that it is evil and they have to get rid of it.

This is why Kabbalah welcomes the growth of egoism, while religions and all the “spiritual” methods strive to suppress it, since they don’t have the method to correct it. However, one way or another, egoism has to grow to the maximum, and therefore all the methods will prove to be incompetent. We’ll be left with egoism at its peak and Kabbalah as the method of correcting it and using it correctly, that is – filling it with the Creator!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Questions from Pharaoh – Our Egoism (Advanced)
Laitman.com Post: Religion and Kabbalah Are Opposite
Laitman.com Post: Everything Comes From Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: Why Can’t Religions Unite?
Kabbalah Today Article: Humankind and Human Kindness

Filed under: Egoism - No Comments →

Questions I received on perceiving the common soul and the Upper World:

Question: Everyone and everything is inside of me. The Creator is all around me and inside me. Once you understand that everything is inside you, you start desiring to unite with everything that “surrounds” you. So far so good. However, this means that I will be doing everything only for myself, since even a chance passerby is actually inside me. So in reality I actually want to correct everything for myself and not for others?

My Answer: A person certainly discovers that everything around him is part of him, and is incorporated in his egoism. However, this only happens when one aspires to come out of his egoism and be inside others – inside the environment. First he acquires the property of Bina, bestowal, “not for one’s own sake”; and then, once he is above this property (Tshuva mi Iraa, Hafetz Hesed), he attaches everything to himself and makes everything a part of him. Then he perceives all the souls as his own (Tshuva mi Ahava) and receives the entire Upper Light into this united Kli.

Question: How do we know that the Upper Force is the only one, and that what we will feel after the Upper Worlds are revealed is not our imagination or an illusion?

My Answer: We will know this by revealing the Upper World in our soul and comparing the two worlds. Everything in spirituality is attained inside us – just like we attain this world. We draw our conclusions only from our attainment of the Upper World. The science of Kabbalah is based exclusively on Kabbalists’ practical experience.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Method for Achieving Happiness is for All or None
Laitman.com Post: Unattainability In the Mind of a Kabbalist
Free Ebook download – Attaining the Worlds Beyond

Filed under: Perception - No Comments →

Questions I received on the role of Israel in the world and how Europe compares to the United States:

Question: You speak a lot of how Israel has to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah to the ‘nations of the world’ but currently is not doing this. My question is: What happens if Israel does not do this sooner rather than later – does my spiritual development as a gentile become sacrificed? What happens if the point in the heart arises in others before it does in Jews?

My Answer: Then the nations of the world will use force and pressure to make the Jews reveal Kabbalah to them.

Question: How can it be that the economy of the nation of Israel is prospering unlike the rest of the world, considering that the people living there are responsible for the horrible crisis that the world is in?

My Answer: In our time the blows aren’t measured by hunger or money, but by inner problems and the sensation of emptiness – an unfulfilled Kli! The developed and wealthy countries top the charts when it comes to depression, drugs, and suicide.

Question: My question is about the European Union. Why hasn’t Europe succeeded in unifying as well as the United States? Is Europe more egoistic than the US?

My Answer: The problem of creating something new is that you first have to the destroy the old. We can abandon the old state and create a new one only when we recognize that the current state is so evil that it becomes impossible for us to remain in it. Europe hasn’t reached this realization yet. As for America, it was created out of nothing and by combined efforts, since people didn’t have any other choice.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Why Does Everyone Hate Israel?
Laitman.com Post: Israel Isn’t What You Think It Is
Laitman.com Post: America – Optimistic, and Why?
Article – “Why Kabbalah? Why Now?”

Filed under: World - No Comments →