I’ve received many requests to explain the correlation between a baby’s development in this world and the soul’s development in the Upper World. Here is an explanation:

The Talmud Eser Sefirot – the fundamental Kabbalistic textbook with over 2,000 pages of difficult text, has about 300 pages that talk about the soul’s intrauterine development in the womb (the AHP) of the Upper Partzuf (the mother – Ima, Bina). This development may continue for seven, nine, or twelve months – but usually it continues for nine months. It is followed by birth and then 24 months of nursing – which is also described in 200 pages of very difficult text.

What are these lengthy, complex descriptions saying in simple language? The soul begins its development with the point in the heart, when a person asks, “What is the meaning of life?” Next, the person begins developing his soul by attracting the Upper Light to this point. He first goes through preliminary stages called single concealment and double concealment, and then enters a state called conception (Ibur). In this state, he attaches to the Upper Partzuf, provided that he agrees to stay together with It regardless of all the difficulties! And the difficulties keep increasing, but by strengthening his connection with the Upper One, despite the disturbances created by egoism that keep pulling him back, he continually absorbs the qualities of the Upper One – love and bestowal. This process continues until he attains all of the Upper One’s properties by means of annulling himself. This self-annulment also prevents him from becoming a disturbance or a foreign body in the Upper One.

When he absorbs all of the Upper One’s qualities, this concludes the period of passively absorbing the Upper One’s properties – of developing in the form of an embryo. An embryo develops by passively receiving the Light, and this is why it is referred to as blood (Dam, from the word Domem – still), or a passive adoption of the Upper One’s properties.

Stated differently, the state called pregnancy ends when a person desires to go from nullifying himself to actively interacting with the Upper One. This compels the Upper One to push him away, in order to end the previous kind of interaction – similar to when an embryo remains in the mother’s womb for too long, and evokes rejection. The Upper One pushes the lower one away from Him and forces the lower one to begin interacting with Him more actively – to nurse. The Upper One does this by creating conditions that enable the lower one to receive the Light of Hassadim (milk). However, the milk still turns into blood (Dam) in the lower one.

This nursing period lasts for 24 months, and during this time the lower one gains active properties of bestowal (Bina, Galgalta Einaim). This level enables a person to exist in the complete volume of the Upper World, and to be completely independent of his egoism – to perceive the Upper One and learn from Him.

Knowledge of the laws operating in our roots and of how the Upper Forces operate, gives us an absolutely precise understanding of how to ideally and most correctly treat and raise a child, how to interact with a fetus and a newborn, as well as with a teenager and adolescent. It enables us to build the correct system of interactions, and to create the conditions for optimally realizing the opportunity we have in this life – to attain the purpose of our creation.

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A question I received: What do you expect from the development of the Internet and other means of communication? I see how much you depend on them and their development.

My Answer: The Internet connection lets humanity progress inconceivably faster. However, I think that in the future the means of communication will rise to yet a different level, because our interconnectedness has to be even more evident. Very soon there will be new possibilities of unification, which will erase the sensation of distance between us altogether. Time and space will cease being obstacles between us.

This is necessary for egoism to develop and for us to recognize that it is evil. This is how Nature has arranged things, and this will soon become revealed to us. Interdependence and communications enable us to go through many experiences by connecting with others who feel them, without actually going through them ourselves. By becoming included in one another, we accelerate every person’s development and maturation. We are seeing with our very eyes how civilizations that were isolated from the whole world for millennia – Japan and China, are merging with the whole world within a mere decade. (From the lesson on the article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” on 21/07/2008.)

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In our world, pain is the organism’s reaction to a problem in it. It’s the organism’s way of telling us that something is wrong with our body. For example, pain warns us of danger and makes us pull our hand away from fire. Pain compels us to move, to come closer to something/someone, or to get away from them, to change our qualities, to adopt new opinions, to realize the reason for the pain, to draw conclusions, and to progress to new states of being.

In fact, pain is the only force that is able to affect our egoism: pain when we feel bad, or when others feel bad, or when others feel good. Pain pushes us from behind and forces us to develop. The pain of feeling empty pushes us ahead, toward fulfillment. Pain is everywhere! All our sensations come from clashes, contact, pressure – or in other words, from pain. We feel pleasure only when it’s preceded by the painful sensation of an unfulfilled desire, suffering, or expectation.

However, when we come out of egoism and rise above the Machsom, we begin to realize that instead of living our lives based on lack or absence, we can live based on total fulfillment and fullness. Instead of basing everything on pain, we can take perfection as our starting point. Instead of doing the things we do because we need to, we can do them out of love, without needing anything.

This is a completely different kind of existence, a different attitude to the world, to people, to yourself, and of course – to the Creator. And when we attain it, the Creator immediately becomes revealed to us, because then we become perfect, just like Him.

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Question: You say that the Creator is the quality and act of giving or bestowing. However, if we are able to attain this quality, to attain the Creator, doesn’t this make us greater than Him? We are able to incorporate both egoism and its opposite, but the Creator is only a part of this antinomy. So how can He be superior to us? Maybe we just can’t categorize Him as superior but only as Different?

My Answer: One reveals the Creator’s status only after he attains the Creator’s quality. Then he is able to see where his qualities really stand in relation to the Creator, and what the purpose of creation is. Until this happens, all our words are empty because we don’t know what stands behind them.

This is why Kabbalah hates philosophy and considers it empty talk about things that philosophers don’t attain. Philosophy is opposite to Kabbalah – see the article “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy.” Kabbalah prefers to deal with actual attainment and it talks only from the level of attainment. This is the meaning of the verse, “The judge knows no more than what his eyes see,” and, “If we don’t see something, we don’t talk about it.”

Question: Is the main intention behind the Mitzva of Yirat Hashem (fearing God) the perception of God? Thank you, Rabbi Jose.

My Answer: Absolutely, since the perception of the Creator is what enables man to rise above his egoistic nature and to use it (the Aviut) in the opposite way – as bestowal and love, according to how the Creator reveals this to him.

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Questions I received on how to work in a Kabbalistic group

Question: In one of your lessons you said that the people in the group are sent to me by the Creator, and if I will love them, then the Creator will love me. This is clear with regard to the spiritual, Kabbalistic group of friends. But in my daily life I’m surrounded by other groups – my family, neighbors, coworkers, and others. Are the people in these groups there by coincidence, or must I have the same attitude to them as to my spiritual brothers?

My Answer: In these other groups, you have to behave just like everyone else – function like a regular person, and conceal your spiritual questions and attainments. Otherwise people will feel that you are an “alien from another world,” that you are different from them, because you have different thoughts, decisions, and qualities – anti-egoistic ones. This will make them feel repulsed by you. So conceal yourself!

Question: I don’t understand what this means: “Lower and nullify yourself before the group, but not before other people, so you could firmly feel that you are worse and lower than all the people in the world.”

My Answer: All your spiritual discernments take place in your spiritual world, in the single soul, or in other words – only relative your friends in the group. As for the rest of the world – consider it just a place where your body exists.

Question: Is it correct to say that spiritual development is when you constantly try to feel “What is the force of bestowal?” through your connection with the group?

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct. There is only one creation – the common soul. To the degree you perceive it, and inside of it, you perceive the force that created it and enlivens it – the Creator. With every action you make, you must first define the objective of the action, and there is only one objective to all actions (whether they are unconscious actions taking place in all of nature, or conscious actions that we make) – to reveal the Creator in us.

Question: Baal HaSulam says that the only choice we can make is to choose the correct environment, in order for it to influence us. What happens once I’ve chosen the environment and I study in it? What should I do next? Where is my daily free choice then?

My Answer: The choice is the daily effort you make to be a part of the group. You’re incorrect in thinking that you made the choice when you came to the group. It was the Creator who brought you to the group (see the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” items 3 and 4), and now you have the freedom of will to participate in it by making daily efforts, in spite of your desire.

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Questions I received about Reshimot

Question: I’d like to ask about Reshimot: The point in the heart is a Reshimo, and Klipot are also Reshimot, but broken ones. What other kinds of Reshimot are “registered” in Kabbalah? There are probably more of them than elements in the periodic table!

My Answer: Reshimot accumulated during the common soul’s descent from its spiritual level of love and bestowal into reception and love for oneself. Altogether there are Reshimot from 125 levels of descent, and we have to correct them in the reverse order. By realizing these Reshimot in order, we ascend along their levels and reveal our spiritual senses, which feel the Upper Light, the Creator.

Question: How can a person tell what level are the Reshimot coming from, according to the special qualities of his individual soul? Do the Reshimot always come to help us grow and develop? And what about the Reshimot of the Klipot – why do they come to a person?

My Answer: Reshimot surface in us one after another, from below upwards, and they always become expressed in the form of broken levels (Klipot, the ego). By correcting them, we build our soul – the vessel in which we perceive ourselves, our spiritual life.

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Two questions I received on why people sometimes stray from the right path and what to do when it happens to you

Question: Why do people sometimes drop out of the group? Do they leave on their own, or does the group somehow influence them to make them leave?

My Answer: One’s only freedom is to participate in the group. If one does this, then he advances toward the Creator, and if he doesn’t – then he leaves the group. However, it’s also possible that a person isn’t given the freedom to participate in the group, but rather, he simply exists in it. Our archive contains many talks on this topic. In the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” items 3 and 4, Baal HaSulam writes that the Creator brings a person to the group and teacher, and his freedom of will then lies in strengthening his connection with them. But if a person’s desire for the purpose of life isn’t ripe yet, then he leaves or “wanders away” from the group.

Question: Dear Rav, suppose that a student was in the group, he really advanced and understood the inner part of the study, and raised a MAN, but then he fell into the state, “His wisdom exceeded his actions.” Can he still regain the property of “faith above reason” and the skills needed for spiritual work, get back on the path, and cross the Machsom?

My Answer: Don’t despair – the path is available to everyone. This student should continue advancing from the state he is in, but he should advance toward the goal honestly, rather than through deceit. (You got it!?)

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Here is some guidance on how to read the Torah chapter summaries posted on this blog:

The Torah lays out the foundation of the theory and practice of attaining spiritual life. Neither Adam nor Abraham received the full method of attaining the Creator; only Moses did. All other texts are commentaries, that is, other ways of describing the attainment of the Creator or descriptions of partial attainment of Him.

Torah comes from the words Ohr – Light, and Ora’a – instructions. It is written in the Language of Branches, which names spiritual forces by the things they produce in our world. So even though we think that it’s describing our world, it’s actually describing spiritual forces, since in the spiritual world there are only forces without matter.

Why do we need these descriptions of the Upper World?

1. So that by reading them, we will evoke the influence of the Correcting Light (Ohr Makif) on us.

2. So that after we correct ourselves by the Light, we will then be filled by It to the degree we’re corrected.

If it weren’t for this method, we would remain on the animate level of existence forever. We wouldn’t be able to reach the level of eternity, perfection, and equivalence to the Creator.

The Language of Branches (which describes the Upper Forces with the help of their results or branches) has four modifications, or in other words, there are four languages of branches:

1. The language of Tanach – historical narration, like the one used in the Torah chapter summaries posted on this blog;

2. The language of Halacha – laws;

3. The language of Hagadot – legends;

4. The language of Kabbalah – this language is closest to the spiritual roots and the most precise of all the languages. For more on this, See Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.”

My suggestion: As you read the Torah, start imagining that it’s talking about egoism, the desire that has to be corrected, so that instead of being used for the sake of oneself, it will be used for the benefit of one’s neighbor (or the Creator, which is the same thing); and this correction happens gradually, in parts. Everything divides into the force of bestowal (the Creator) and the force of reception (the creation). The part of creation that’s corrected or undergoing correction is called Israel (Isra-El – straight to the Creator). It also has parts called people, rulers, slaves (of desires), overseers (of correction), Levites, Kohens, and so on. Check yourself to see how much you’re able to discern actions of forces that govern our world behind the “theatrical” scenes you read.

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A question I received: It says in the Torah, chapter Beresheet, that the Creator said to the woman: “הרבה ארבה עצבונך” (your grief will be very great). Is there a connection between this verse and the fact that women are two times more likely to be depressed than men?

My Answer: Absolutely. A man has many sources of pleasure in our world, and moreover, these pleasures don’t depend on other people (for example, hunting, fishing, sex, soccer, and so on). But a woman was programmed by the Creator to desire and need a man’s attention, and to have one man that will belong to her only. And this is the source of her misery.

It says in the Torah, chapter Beresheet, 3:16, “And the Creator told the woman, ‘I will greatly increase your grief during pregnancy, you will give birth in grief, and your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’”

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Below are some quotes by Albert Einstein that reveal some parallels between his conclusions and the principles explained in Kabbalah:

• Man’s real value is defined by the degree to which he has liberated himself from egoism and by the means he used to attain it.
• A person starts living only when he managed to surpass himself.
• One who wants to see immediate results from his work should become a shoemaker.
• A human being is part of a whole, called by us universe – a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a prison, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Nobody can fulfill this task to the end, but just the efforts to reach this goal are a part of liberation and a foundation for inner confidence.

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