A question I received: In a previous blog entry you wrote, “Kabbalah welcomes things that were derived from experience or strictly scientific research.” Can you please elaborate on what exactly Kabbalah welcomes in regular science?

My Answer: 1. Everything that’s necessary for the body’s animate existence (that is, for its minimal, normal existence), according to the law “Necessity is neither praised nor condemned” (Echrahi – Lo Igune Ve Lo Ishubah). Just like it’s the case with animals, when man consumes to the extent of his body’s animate desires, he is in balance with the nature, with the Creator, and hence this is welcomed by Kabbalah.

2. Everything relating to the body’s desires (such as food, sex, and family) that exceeds the normal needs, is superfluous. Hence it is harmful for the body and the soul, as well as for all of the surrounding nature, and it makes man imbalanced with nature. These excesses usually appear under the influence of society.

3. Besides the bodily desires, there are additional desires that emerge in man because he lives in society. If he lived alone in the woods, then these desires would never emerge in him. There are the desires for wealth, fame, power, and knowledge.

Desires 2 and 3 disrupt nature’s balance on the level of our world and prevent man from coming out of his egoism. The earthly science is developed precisely to fulfill desires 2 and 3 – it is developed by man’s egoistic incentives, and hence it is harmful to man.

Imagine that man did not intend to wage war, make money, or win scientific awards and prizes. Then science would never make any progress. Hence science will soon enter a crisis, its present form will due out, and the science of Kabbalah will reemerge to the forefront. I am explaining this very briefly and hence unconvincingly, but I advise you to learn about this in more detail by listening to my lessons on Baal HaSulam’s article “Kabbalah as Compared with Other Sciences”.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Scientists Have Turned Everything Upside Down (Again)
Kabbalah Today Article: Contradictory Phenomena
Kabbalah Today Article: Desires – the Engine of Change

Filed under: Science - No Comments →

A question I received: Lately you’ve been talking about going from regular newspaper dissemination like in Sochi and other places to dissemination through the Internet. Does this mean that we are going to stop publishing newspapers and magazines, producing TV shows, and so on?

My Answer: We are not going to make any hasty changes. We are continuing all of our present means of dissemination, including publication of books and newspapers, productions of films, and so on. However, gradually the priority is shifting to dissemination through the Internet. Here’s why:

Necessary for existence. Nature on the still, vegetative, and animate levels is programmed to consume only what is necessary for existence. The rest of the time, it rests.

Excess or luxury needs. Unlike animals, man strives to satisfy more than the natural (animalistic) needs of the body, such as food, shelter, sex, and family. He starts feeling additional desires for excess or luxury things by absorbing them from society. Hence, he begins wanting things like wealth, respect, fame, and knowledge. This is why man is forced to work more than is really necessary, in order to satisfy these excess demands. However, these desires aren’t actually his own, but society’s, and they were imposed on him by society. He devotes most of his life to satisfying these demands, and along the way, burdens many other people with extra work.

Needless luxuries are the cause of self-destruction. Nature’s harmony becomes disrupted when man, as a species, takes more from nature than what he needs for existence. This is why we are witnessing the exhaustion of the planet’s natural resources as well as the general crisis.

A society of necessary consumption. The solution to the problem lies in establishing a merciful attitude to one another. When we achieve an attitude of love, then society will no longer impose extra desires and work on man, but only those necessary for existence.

The time and efforts that will be freed up by this will be used for man’s spiritual development – a connection with the Creator, the highest reward. This will be realized by means of a greater connection between people (souls), until they are all drawn together into a single system of total inner interconnection – the single soul of Adam.

Establishing new relationships. New relationships between people – bestowal, mutual guarantee, and love for one’s neighbor, will mainly be realized through the virtual World Wide Web, which will incorporate all people. The diversity of the Internet will enable every user to satisfy all his needs, including study, communication, work, rest, and even some of the physiological needs, and so on. Even the necessary work will mostly be done through the Internet. Only a small number of people who work to produce goods and services necessary for human existence, will retain work outside of the World Wide Web.

Changing man. If we could transfer all the lessons, teaching, dissemination work, and the realization of the program of union with the Creator (gatherings of friends, communication, and congresses) to the virtual World Wide Web environment, and attract all of humanity into our environment, then we will be able to revive the world, making it ecologically healthy, and reeducate man.

The realization. People’s entire connection through the Internet is based on their desire to communicate with each other. Therefore, we have to show that we are willing to have any kind of contact with all the users. The development of Kabbalah on the Internet is a top priority. It will allow us to bring man not only to the perception of our world or the virtual world – but the true Upper World and the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Equality and Brotherhood Are the Means of Attaining Spirituality
Laitman.com Post: Disseminate Kabbalah on the Internet, But First Find Out How
Laitman.com Post: The Conditions for Correcting the Soul
Kabbalah Today Article: “The Untold Story of: a Consumer Nation”

Filed under: World - No Comments →

A question I received: I strongly believe in the methods and wisdom of Kabbalah, especially after struggling with my old faith and then struggling with atheism and other beliefs. I can’t explain it – there is something in me that’s 100% sure that Kabbalah is the right way. Still, I have doubts, not about Kabbalah itself, but about its relation with our corporeal world.

For example, if Kabbalah came before all religions and religions are inspired by Kabbalah, and this is why we find some similarities between them, then why do historians say that Hinduism was founded before the birth of Abraham, historically speaking? Can you explain this please?

My Answer: There are only three religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and they all appeared after “the destruction of the Temple” – after Israel fell from “love for one’s neighbor” to “unfounded hatred.” First Judaism emerged, then Christianity, and then Islam.

Of course, different beliefs existed even before that period, and even before Abraham, as well as before Adam. Abraham himself, as well as his father Terach, were priests in Babylon. And various beliefs existed not only in Babylon, but all over the world.

The Torah, on the other hand, only talks about the spiritual aspect of the world. For example, it talks about the Great Flood, but this flood didn’t happen in the entire world. Likewise, there were people who lived before Adam and believed in different forces and images. The Earth has been around for billions of years, and humans appeared hundreds of thousands of years ago. However, the Torah talks only about humanity’s spiritual development – about 6000 years, starting with the first correction (starting with Adam – one who is similar to the Creator) and until the last one.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How Can Religion Come Out of the Crisis It’s In?
Lesson: The Difference between Kabbalah and Religion
Baal HaSulam Article : “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” – Selected Lessons
Kabbalah Today Article: “Love Is the Way”

Filed under: Religion - No Comments →

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

Filed under: Religion - No Comments →

Questions I received on the prophets, the future of humanity, and the Bnei Baruch community:

Question: I’m wondering whether I understand this correctly: None of the prophets ever spoke about what was happening in their time nor about the forthcoming destruction of the Temple, but only about our times – the spiritual ascent and elimination of egoism that will take place?

My Answer: Yes. See the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin, page 99 А.

Question: I am worried: will humanity be able to change and understand what matters most, or will it be held back by the war between Russia and Georgia and the world will drown in madness and chaos?

My Answer: I hope that our dissemination efforts will bring the world to a peaceful correction, without preliminary fighting.

Question: I heard that there was a time when Bnei Baruch was looking for an opportunity for Kabbalists to live together. However, even though your students live near the Bnei Baruch center, they still don’t live together. Why is that? Do you lack finances, an appropriate place, or this is necessary to strengthen the desire?

My Answer: We wanted to create a model of the future society within a close-knit environment, until we discovered that it’s necessary to come out into the greater world and enlighten the whole of humanity, instead of isolating ourselves.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Egoism Is Destroying Itself
Laitman.com Post: Neither Side Is Right In the Georgian War
Kabbalah Today Article: “A Prophet In His Own Country”

Filed under: World - No Comments →

Every day the mass media brings us more news and information about the worldwide socio-political crisis, the threatening global climate changes, and scientific discoveries. All of this is determined by humanity’s general movement toward its final state – similarity to the Creator by the principle “through the thorns to the stars,” or in other words, “forced to happiness.”

Wouldn’t it be nice to go through these stages smoothly and pleasantly? Yet human stupidity and stubbornness lead us like Pharaoh in the Torah – from blow to blow. When a Kabbalist observes this, he suffers for everyone and with everyone. The only consolation is seeing that every blow nevertheless brings us closer to the goal – even though the medicine is right under our noses!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Why Is Ehud Olmert Resigning?
Laitman.com Post: All the World’s Pains are in One Country
Kabbalah Today Article: Mankind’s Growing Hunger
Kabbalah Today Article: Global Warming – So What?!
Kabbalah Today Article: The Untold Story of: a Consumer Nation

Filed under: News - No Comments →

A question I received: I have been taking part in the lessons offered by Bnei Baruch. It seems to me that I’m a worse person than when I started studying. What am I doing wrong? I believe that I understand the importance of the group, but I don’t feel love for the group per say. Instead I feel this deep and ever widening divide. I’m judgmental and cynical, in my personal life I’m depressed, angry and irritable, and there is no logical rationale for it, but nonetheless I feel all of these emotions strongly. It’s like my mind or one part of me is on one track yet the feeling part of me (which drives me) is on another track headed in the opposite direction, coupled with a love/hate relationship with Kabbalah and the studies. Add to this the fact that I’m confused…

In the lessons we are made to understand that the material we study refers solely to spiritual states, but what is the goal ‘practically’ speaking? What kind of person am I supposed to be?

My Answer: All of us experience states like this, when we assess whether the spiritual growth offered by Kabbalah is correct or even necessary. Right now all of humanity is entering a period of reassessing its values, and this is why it is experiencing a crisis in all areas of life – education, politics, society, family, science, ecology, nature, and so on.

In addition, we are assessing our corporeal existence and the need to add spirituality to it (the revelation of the Upper World and the Creator) in our uncorrected egoistic desires (heart) and thoughts (mind). Your egoism will still go through many “disappointments” on the path of spiritual development, because egoism does not feel any fulfillment on this path, but just the opposite. To develop spiritually, one must eradicate one’s egoism. That is to say, one should not eradicate one’s desires and thoughts, but only their use “for one’s own sake,” changing it to “for the sake of others.”

So how can one advance away from egoism without having egoism’s support on the spiritual path? Egoism is against spirituality, and this is why egoism, our nature, is described as “Help against you,” because eventually it annuls itself. This happens because when you egoistically study Kabbalah in a group, attempting to create a connection with each other, then you attract the Upper Light, which corrects egoism. So the disappointments and descents are just egoism’s perception of the lack of egoistic fulfillment. Your future fulfillment will not come from reception, but from bestowal, from fulfilling others. It will come from the feeling of love and the realization that everyone is connected into one whole.

Hence, the only thing that will bring you to the goal – the eternal goal of creation, is persistent study, participation in the group, and dissemination, in spite of your egoism – “As an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.” All the Shamati articles speak about this, so always keep reading them. And remember – this path can only be surmounted by those who walk it!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: When In Doubt, Disseminate
Kabbalah Today Article: “Quotes of Great Kabbalists”
Chapter from Book Basic Concepts in Kabbalah: “From the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Peace in the World”
Baal HaSulam Letter: “The Labor Is the Most Important”
Chapter from the Audio Book “Attaining the Worlds Beyond”: Eradicating Egoism

Filed under: Egoism - No Comments →

We have just published my first book in Arabic – a translation of the book From Chaos to Harmony.

There are many people among the Arabic population who are interested in spiritual ascent. This has ancient roots in the general Arabic culture. I have many students whose native language is Arabic, and therefore I am very glad that this book has been published. After all, Kabbalah was revealed to the world by our common forefather Abraham.

I hope that we will soon publish many more Kabbalistic books in Arabic with the help of my Arabic students. I look forward to working together!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah in a Cairo Daily Paper
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah for Everybody
Laitman.com Post: We’re All Children of the Creator
Kabbalah website in Arabic

Filed under: Notices - 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 →

News Report (translated from mignews.com): “Recently a report was published by Dr. Richard Cravatts of Boston University, who analyzed the results of a survey on the world’s most hated countries. The survey, which was administered on college campuses around the globe, revealed that Israel is the most hated country in the world. No one was surprised by this, but Dr. Cravatts decided to take a closer look at the causes behind this phenomenon.

He reached the following conclusions: 60 years after the establishment of the Jewish State, its right to exist continues to be questioned. Jews are accused of stealing the Palestinian lands, and of brutal and unlawful occupation. Israel is considered the greatest threat to world peace.”

Why does the world view Israel this way? Why do the Palestinians have the right to personal identity, but Israel does not?

My Answer: This is happening because as long as Israel remains in its present non-spiritual form, it really does bring harm onto everyone, and the world subconsciously feels this. Baal HaSulam writes in item 71 of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” that if Israel does not fulfill its calling in our times, then it makes the nations of the world feel that it is unnecessary and harmful to the world. Israel must give the method of correction to the world, or else the world will enter the ultimate crisis.

We received an opportunity to establish the State of Israel in order to assemble the nation according to the Biblical rule – “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and in so doing to provide the world with an example of the new society. However, instead we are showing the world the opposite of what it subconsciously expects from us.

If we do not change soon, then we will cease our existence as a “state” and a “nation.” I put them in quotes because neither actually exist right now. However, there is an opportunity to create them, provided that we let the wisdom of Kabbalah show us how to do it, as this was the conduct of our nation before it was destroyed.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The UN – a Stronghold of Anti-Semitism
Laitman.com Post: Building the Third Temple
Laitman.com Post: A Society of Life Surrounded by a Society of Death
Laitman.com Post: What Is the Spiritual Root of the Holocaust?
Baal HaSulam Article: “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 71
eBook: From Chaos to Harmony – The Solution to the Global Crisis According to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Filed under: Israel - 1 Comment →