Three questions I received on balancing spirituality with this world:

Question: I heard you say at the children’s lesson that we should envy people who contribute to the group and love others. Should I lie to myself, telling myself that I envy those who contribute even though in reality I envy someone who has a new car, for example? Please give me advice on what to do according to Kabbalah.

My Answer: Continue studying; the group and the lessons will give you the feeling that other values are more important. This is better than surrendering yourself to accumulating things and later finding yourself disillusioned. The Upper World that will start being revealed to you will make you feel vastly more fulfilled than a new car. The car is important to you because society values it. But if your society will value other things, your preferences will change as well.

Question: Sometimes I get angry at the Creator, but in truth I get angry at myself because I ask myself, “Why is the process of correction so lengthy!?” And then I answer myself: “Because I don’t make enough efforts!”

My Answer: You lack the pressure of the correct environment.

Question: I’m having an inner debate: on one hand, I have a new job that’s interesting to me and gives me free time to improving my professional level in order to have a good permanent occupation in the future. On the other hand, I don’t have much energy left after the morning lessons, so I’m thinking of cutting them down, yet this bothers me. What’s the right attitude to have to this situation?

My Answer: You have to finish your professional education so you’ll be able to support yourself and your family, while keeping the study of Kabbalah “on a low burner.” However, in all other respects, devote yourself to the study of Kabbalah. If you keep this balance of time and energy, you’ll succeed in both.

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News Report (translated from og.ru): The global financial crisis is bringing people all over the world to a state of severe hysteria. People cave in to panic, where they are prone to thoughtless actions in an effort to preserve their savings. The Germans are looking for an answer in socialistic literature, the Chinese are rallying against the Communist party, the Americans are suppressing their fear of losing money with antidepressants, and the Russians are going to psychics and fortunetellers for advice. People all over the world are suddenly drawn to religion.

My Comment: Man is a weak and fragile creature. When he feels afraid, helpless and uncertain, he needs support from the environment, whether it’s a therapist, a group of friends, a war, a family or so on. Or he disconnects from reality through drugs, mystical methods or religion. This is why Hollywood became popular during the Great Depression.

However, now the times have changed because we are in a period of transition from a world of individuals to a global world. The only salvation lies in the source that will tell us about this new world, and that source is Kabbalah – and nothing else. That is because we are now revealing the quality of unity in the world, which is the Creator’s quality. And the method of Kabbalah is the way to attain it.

Hence after all their quests and errors, people will come to Kabbalah. Alternatively, we can explain to people that the key to happiness is already in their hands, like in the Pinocchio story!

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Two questions I received on relating to one’s environment:

Question: In one of your lessons in the United States, you said that people who are ready for a new worldview should voluntarily limit their needs to the minimum bodily necessities for food, shelter, leisure and knowledge. What should we do about the rest of our surroundings such as children, spouses, and parents, who are not ready to limit themselves? Is it sufficient to limit myself while giving those around me what they desire, and show them that my path is correct just through personal example? By the way, I have acted this way all my life, and in return everyone around me tacitly hates me and puts me down.

My Answer: If one’s head is “in the clouds,” then he naturally takes no more than the necessities from this world. He does not have to limit himself because this just comes to him naturally. This is the attitude one has when he realizes that the whole world is one family.

If the people around you hate you and put you down, it’s probably because you’re forcing them or prohibiting them from something.

Question: Can one person make another person feel a lack or need (whether spiritual or corporeal)?

My Answer: The environment can evoke or suppress any earthly desire in anyone (see the article “The Freedom”). Moreover, if a person has a point in the heart, the society can accelerate its development.

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On November 25, at the Foreign Press Association Media Award in London, Prince Charles stated:

Humanity has a natural tendency to consume and if there are no limits on that tendency we can become obsessed simply with satisfying our desires. The desire grows ever more potent as we consume ever more, even though we achieve very little of the actual satisfaction we desire…

We hear so many people admitting to feeling deeply dissatisfied. This reminds me of that wise observation about Gross National Product made by Robert Kennedy forty years ago, that it “measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile.”

…many do not even realize that we have lost something very precious – what I might best describe as that intuitive sense of our interconnectedness with Nature… I consider our problems today not to be an environmental crisis per se… nor a financial crisis. They all stem from this fundamental crisis in our perception.

…the denial of our real relationship with the universal truths through a deep connection with Nature and her laws has engendered a dangerous alienation. In denying or forgetting the invisible “grammar of harmony” we create cacophony and dissonance.

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News Report: (translated from gazeta.ru): Analysts are eagerly looking for signs that the world’s financial markets are nearing the end of their collapse. Investors all over the world are waiting for the markets to finally hit the “bottom.” They’re hoping that this will be followed by a recovery, and then they will be able win back their losses, or perhaps to gain even more than before.

My Comment: The collapse will not be followed by a recovery. People are very far from understanding the cause of the collapse, because the cause lies deep in the egoistic qualities of our egoism and its opposition to the Creator. Even if the financial crisis will end, it will be replaced by another crisis, whether shortage of food and water or an environmental crisis. “The plagues of Egypt” will continue until we realize their cause – our egoism, called “the Pharaoh” – and annul it.

We must realize that the way out of the crisis is the way out of “Egypt” – out of our egoism. There is no other way.

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1. The Light is the Creator. The Light is always the source of everything! In the beginning the Light created the creation, and hence creation is completely subject to the Light. If the Light were to disappear, then the creature would cease to exist. Every movement and change that takes place in the creation happens only under the influence of the Light.

Creation is lifeless and motionless when the Light influences it with the smallest possible force. If the Light shines stronger, then to this degree the creation undergoes a qualitative change, transforming from “still” to “vegetative,” where it starts to sense and perceive. And so on.

2. The Light is the Actor. The Light is always the source of everything! This is why it is written: “There is none else beside Him” and “The Creator is your shade.” You must “find” the Creator in every circumstance and definition, since He is the one who made this state happen.

3. I Control the Light! When you strive to change something in you, you must evoke the Light upon you, and It will change you. The Light can influence me and my Reshimot, and it will change me only in a way that brings me closer to the goal of creation. In other words, the only thing that I can ever do in my life is accelerate my spiritual development. Or, through my lack of desire to evoke the Light’s influence upon me, I can evoke the Light’s absence, and then I will experience all kinds of suffering – because the Light is life.

However, if my desires come from the Light, then I cannot exert a return influence on the Light with my desires. I must receive a desire for the goal from a source other than the Light, and then I will be able to influence the Light with this desire and evoke an additional influence of the Light on me, accelerating my path. This is why I am given the correct environment (the group), which is the only opportunity for me to evoke acceleration toward the goal.

4. The Woman’s Role. The group isn’t influenced physically, but through one’s desire. Hence, a woman who participates in the group’s work (by studying virtually and disseminating Kabbalah) and desires to receive the correct influence from the group, receives it and uses it to involuntarily turn to the Creator (the Light). With the exception of physically participating in communication with the friends and studying virtually, she does everything else just like a man and goes through the same states.

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A question I received: I recently find that there are some companies that I want to avoid, but I’m not sure whether this is the result of my Kabbalah studies or personal growth. There are some friends of mine who are mostly concerned about issues such as sex, and I feel uncomfortable in their presence when they spend so much time talking about topics I find so uninteresting. But at the same time, I can’t find many people interested in spirituality, perhaps in religion, but not in spirituality.

Is it better to be alone than surrounded by people with “wrong” values?

My Answer: A person reaches a point where he grows bored with life and does not see meaning or a purpose to life. When he looks at others, he doesn’t understand how they can possibly be fulfilled by the things they do. He tries to imitate them, to become part of their social circle, and to be like everyone else, but he can’t because it does not fulfill him.

When he reaches the complete realization that he’s alone, he then reveals the point in the heart within – an aspiration to an unknown source of fulfillment. He follows this aspiration and finds the right books, the group, and the Kabbalah website.

So look into yourself – maybe you’re ready for a new environment?

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Two questions I received on people who don’t study Kabbalah:

Question: Those who feel the point in the heart are already receiving blows of fate in order to make them follow the designated path. But what about everyone else?

My Answer: Everyone is pushed toward the goal of creation by blows of fate because we go through a part of the path – before revealing the point in the heart – unconsciously, by means of blows and running away from the suffering. However, after the point in the heart is revealed in us, we still receive the blows, but gradually we discover the cause behind them and their purpose.

From that moment on, we must already aspire to the goal (the Creator) consciously and through our own additional desire – a desire that isn’t received from above, but from our environment (the group).

Question: As far as I can tell, there is no group in France that’s close to me. Are there any plans to establish one? I am new to Kabbalah and feel a bit lonely sitting in front of the computer screen by myself, even though there are other students in my country who feel the same way.

My wife is not against me studying Kabbalah. She says that it’s ok because it’s kind of “biblical.” However, I am already afraid that the community will influence her and she will blame me for engaging in “satanic” things. How should I react to this? I am sure that it will be a struggle, but I don’t want to stop studying Kabbalah.

My Answer: The global connection between all people that’s being revealed in the world, and the nonconformity (and opposition!) of human relationships to it, will bring about such immense blows of Nature upon humanity – from climatic to economic – that people will quickly discover that Kabbalah’s method to change the world for the better is unique.

However, we should try by all means to inform people today about the reason for the crises and suffering, in order to shift humanity’s development from the path of suffering to the path of conscious correction. Then the suffering will be replaced by Nature’s favorable treatment of humanity.

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During the international children’s lesson that was held on 10.10.2008, we talked about prayer. Prayer is the most secret, concealed desire in one’s heart. It hides so deep down in our hearts that we don’t even feel it. But precisely this desire has a connection with the Creator, or we can say that the Creator dwells inside this desire.

In order to reveal the Creator, we must reveal this desire for Him. But how can we influence this desire? A person cannot reach it himself, but only through the environment (the group). He evokes all sorts of influences from the environment, which make his desire for the Creator, for love and bestowal, grow. In fact, these influences have a direct effect on one’s heart.

In this manner, through the group, one can evoke such a great desire for love and bestowal in his heart that it will become similar to the Creator in the minimum degree, and then he will immediately sense the Creator within it. This is the meaning and purpose of prayer – to gradually reveal the Creator in one’s heart!

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During the following international children’s lesson, held on 10.17.2008, we talked about blessings. A blessing is a sensation of gratitude that involuntarily appears in one’s heart. It is gratitude for the corrections that take place within a person under the influence of the Creator’s Light:

“Blessed are you, Ruler of the world… Who opens eyes to see the Upper World… Who spreads the earth (the desire to receive) upon the waters (the desire to bestow)… Who gives the heart the understanding to distinguish day (the Upper Light, the quality of bestowal) from night (egoism)… Who clothes the naked (with the Light of Hassadim, in which the Light of Hochma is revealed)… and so on.

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Three questions I received on ups and downs along the path:

Question: For many years I felt that I was an egoist. Then I came to Kabbalah and understood why I felt that way. Now I study and participate in dissemination, but I started to feel even emptier. On the other hand, there is hope.

My Answer: The feeling of emptiness comes from the influence of the Light, which shows you that you are empty and that you can only fill this emptiness with the Light. For this to happen, you must desire it – and this desire can only be received from the environment.

Question: Lately I don’t feel like I’m a bad person anymore. Of course I’m still an egoist, but I no longer feel bad about it. On the contrary, I feel uplifted, I am more focused during the lessons and I do more dissemination than before. How can I tell whether I’m still on the right path?

My Answer: If you always focus on being united with the group, if you understand that by uniting you will receive the desire that will evoke the Light of correction – then you will reveal the Creator.

Question: I ask the Creator to correct me, since it’s not in my power to correct my own state. On the other hand, I’m ashamed of this request because it means that I’m dissatisfied with the state I’m in – a state given to me by the Creator in order for me to develop. How should I understand this contradiction?

My Answer: In each and every state, the Creator is waiting for you to move closer to Him.

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