The spiritual world is a real sensation, not just a theory or fantasy. It is a reality that one feels even more strongly than the regular life we are all used to. However, this spiritual reality is currently concealed from us. We have to start revealing it by making personal efforts, and we will then begin to feel all sorts of spiritual forces, events, and occurrences. Moreover, we will feel and understand them even more than the material world. But the only way to do this is through studying Kabbalah in a group of like-minded people.

Then you will see that the group, the studies, this entire world, and the spiritual system all unite into one whole inside your perception. To the degree you make efforts, you will reveal that the spiritual system you are starting to feel is far more powerful and determines more things than the material world that you perceive. This is how one advances, until one comes to see that the spiritual system is completely in charge of the material one. Then, the material world becomes secondary, like an imprint of the spiritual world.

In order to accomplish all of this, you have to study and work in the group. Today you have a regular, mundane perception of reality, and you must now reveal the picture of the general system. It has to be “projected” inside you like a photograph becomes projected from a negative. And then, this picture has to be depicted more and more clearly within you.

The way to do this is by working with the original, authentic Kabbalah sources and by studying in the group. The spiritual sensation is then added to your current perception and sensation of the world. Of course, your sensation of this world will change and expand as well, but it won’t disappear. Spirituality then joins corporeality, so it never takes place “somewhere up there, beyond the clouds.” A person remains inside his current life, inside the same perception of reality, but he supplements it. This new supplement gradually becomes the most important thing to him in life, because it becomes revealed as something that determines and governs everything.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Three questions I received from beginning students:

Question: We are located at the center of the Philippine archipelago, and there are no recognized Kabbalists here. Can we learn Kabbalah from you? Do we need a real person to activate the 10 Sefirot of our bodies? Who is our initiator if there are no representatives here from the Kabbalah center?

My Answer: If you connect to our studies, the group, unification and dissemination through the Internet, this will provide you with everything you need to advance spiritually.

Question: I have always searched for the meaning of my life, but I could never find a good enough teaching to fill the gap and to complete the missing pieces of the puzzle, until I met you and your wonderful teaching. I would just like to express my gratitude to the Creator and to you for bringing the Light to this world and for sharing it with the blind, like myself.

My Answer: Hold on to this admiration: it will give you strength to advance toward the Creator. And good luck!

Question: What should I do if I feel that I am a Kabbalah prodigy at 20 years old? Should I just keep learning or am I allowed to teach from my own analogies of what I know so far?

My Answer: Your knowledge is a delusion. You have to let the Kabbalistic texts go through you, and when you do, you will soon see how mistaken you were.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Correction Happens Only Through The Light One Receives During The Study Of Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: A Net Of Connection That Binds All Hearts
Laitman.com Post: Studying Together Brings The Greatest Benefit

Filed under: Q&A - No Comments →

A question I received: Could we say that the great Kabbalists, who created a connection between the Creator and the created being and wrote books for us, created the method called a Torah?

My Answer: These great Kabbalists wrote books for us. However, they  are not actually books,  but rather a revelation of the connection between us and the Creator. The Kabbalists gave us an opportunity to grab onto this connection through letters and words, which are written down on sheets of paper; in this manner we can take part in this connection.

After all, what is a book and what are the words written in it? We don’t know what it is. Like infants, we touch something. And Kabbalists arranged it so that when we come into contact with a book, wishing to be connected to them through it, we use the force that they created through the connection between them.

It is true that they created the Torah through this. After all, the Torah is actually given to us to correct egoism precisely through these Kabbalists and the special souls who prepared for us this opportunity: their connection. If it weren’t for their actions, we would not be able to achieve our correction on our own, which is the connection between us.  Without the actions of the Kabbalists, we would not be able to rouse the reforming Light.

A simple physical law is in action: if you have the quality of bestowal, Light shines on you; if you do not have the quality of bestowal, Light does not shine on you.

Therefore, it is necessary to understand that without the revelation of the science of Kabbalah in the books, and without studying it, a person will not be able to rouse the reforming Light. He can try to fix his relationships with other people, wishing to build his wonderful world, but he will not receive the force of Light, the force of correction. One needs to be connected to a system that uses authentic books, a group, an understanding, and a connection according to the recommendations of Kabbalists. Otherwise, it is impossible to reach correction.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How To Read The Torah
Laitman.com Post: Shamati-The Most Valuable Book In The World
Laitman.com Post: The System Of Souls Allows The Flow Of Light Between Them
Interview With the Future: “From the Authentic Sources-The Torah and the Language of the Branches”
Shamati #66: “About Matan Torah”- Lesson

Filed under: Torah - No Comments →

Two questions I received on virtual connections:

Question: I am living in Malaysia (a part of South East Asia) and here there is no physical group I can connect to. The only means for connection is through the virtual group, which is what I am doing now. But it is difficult to participate virtually due to time differences. How can I change my environment to influence me towards the goal?

My Answer: It’s enough to be virtually connected with us and to attend a Congress when you have the opportunity, such as the one that will be held in Philadelphia on May 15-17, 2009.

Question: Lately I have been finding people who think like me in different social sites on the Internet. Can I consider them a group? My problem is that the nearest Kabbalah center is 70 km away from me.

My Answer: Of course. If you connect with them because you are advancing together toward a common goal – similarity to the Creator, then you would be a group even if you had no Internet connection. The technological connections in our world were developed only in order to correct the inner connections between people, which happen “from soul to soul.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Regardless of the Internet, The Real Connection Happens “Soul to Soul”
Laitman.com Post: Now You Can Share Perceptions Through the Internet

Filed under: Internet - 1 Comment →

In the News (from VOA News): “Researchers Investigate Biology of Social Conformity” According to researcher Vasily Klucharev of Erasmus University in the Netherlands, the study shows when people hold an opinion differing from others in a group, their brains produce an error signal, making people think they made a mistake.

My Comment: Kabbalah explains that a person is always under the influence of the environment and unwillingly perceives others’ opinion as his own (see the article “The Freedom”). We cannot avoid being slaves of our environment. Our freedom lies in finding an environment that will give us the correct opinion – one that’s directed at the goal of creation.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: If Society Wills It, You Will Worship a Horse
Laitman.com Post: How Can We Stop Being Slaves of the Advertisement Industry?

Filed under: Society - No Comments →

In the News (from Higher Education Center): New research examines how group processes alter the impact of alcohol on a judgment task requiring vigilance. Alcohol significantly impaired the performance of individuals, but not groups. Group members make fewer errors than individuals in the alcohol condition… The evidence highlights that group process can compensate for the cognitively impairing effects of alcohol on individuals.

My Comment: It turns out that “splitting it three ways” is not just a way to save money, but also necessary for spiritual unification!

In the News (from RT): As the economic crisis bites, Russians have started to prioritize spending, saving money on food and daily necessities. According to a survey by the Nielsen research company, about 95 percent of Russians have noted an increase in prices this year. 73 percent declared that they have begun saving on groceries and products of daily consumption while 10 percent said they no longer buy sweets and cakes and 8 percent said the have excluded meat and vodka from their shopping basket.

My Comment: If people correct themselves, then the world will be filled with abundance. Right now, even though there is more than enough of everything in the world, our corrupted connections create the crisis, and hence we are unable to exchange the products of our work correctly.

Filed under: Crisis - No Comments →

In the News (from The Associated Press): “Group of 6 arrested in western Ariz. fires includes 4 firemen” Four firefighters and two others have been arrested on suspicion of igniting between 15 and 20 fires in western Arizona to make money by fighting the very blazes they lit, officials said Tuesday.

My Comment: Egoism forces people to harm others in any way possible for the sake of their own benefit. The same can be said of doctors and others who manufacture food fillers, useless and harmful drugs, and so on. Our society is built so as to use people in every way possible. Instead of, “Everything for the people, everything for their benefit,” what we have is, “Everything for the sake of one’s profit, everything to harm people” (and this harms both those who do it and to whom they do it).

In the News (from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany): “Does persistent low fertility threaten the future of European populations?” Three stylized demographic facts are nowadays taken for granted by many Europeans: First, European birth rates are very low and further declining. Second, the currently low fertility will inevitably lead to rapid population aging and population decline in the future. Third, these trends are unsustainable in the long run… Perhaps no one summarized the fears of shrinking Europe more succinctly than Pope Benedict XVI: “…the problem of Europe, which it seems no longer wants to have children, penetrated my soul. To foreigners this Europe seems to be tired, indeed it seems to be wishing to take its leave of history” (Vatican 2006).

My Comment: Egoism doesn’t need anybody; it wants to feel special and unique. The same thing will happen in all the countries as their population’s egoism develops. But the emergence of the quality of bestowal and love in people will naturally make them desire to have children in order to continue their kind.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What Awaits Humankind: Extinction or Prosperity?
Laitman.com Post: We Were Created as Parts of One Whole
Laitman.com Post: A Spiritual Revolution Is Inevitable
Baal HaSulam Article: “Peace In the World”

Filed under: Egoism - No Comments →

In the News (from Financial Times): “The Group of Two that could change the world” American political analyst Zbigniew Brzezinski, advisor to Barack Obama during the presidential campaign and former national security adviser to President Carter, proposed that China and the US collectively work out all of the world’s problems.

My Comment: Unless it’s forced by external circumstances, any form of isolationism is opposite to the integral, global laws of nature that are being revealed in our time. Therefore, doing this will only bring about an even greater crisis.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Food Crisis Reminds Us of the Condition Set In the Torah: Unite or Perish
Laitman.com Post: What Will Happen If Countries Draw National Boundaries on the Internet?

Filed under: Crisis - No Comments →

News Report (from The New York Times): “Project Created to Restore Ancient Babylon” A master plan is being developed for the restoration of the Mesopotamian site of the ancient city of Babylon, in present-day Iraq. The “Future of Babylon” project, financed by a $700,000 grant from the State Department, will map the city’s archeological sites, develop conservation plans and pursue possibilities for tourism and education.

My Comment: This is a landmark event because our global civilization is a replay of ancient Babylon. In the past, Babylon was a place with the same conditions as we have today – those of a “small village” and “the Butterfly Effect.” In other words, people’s egoism grew by leaps and bounds, and they stopped “understanding one another.” This is how we got the expression that “they began to speak different languages.” Yet, at the same time, people revealed that they were completely interdependent.

That’s when one of their priests, named Avram, began to examine the crisis and revealed its cause: it was happening because Nature (or the Creator) was pushing people towards unification. As a result of his research, he attained correction – the revelation of the quality of bestowal and love within him. He also realized what kind of connections are necessary in a closed system in order for it to survive and function correctly. He changed his name to Abraham, where the additional letter ה (Hey or “h”) designates the addition of the Upper Force (bestowal and love) to him. Thereafter, he wrote a book called The Book of Creation.

Abraham taught what he had learned, and thereby formed a group of students. He called them Israel (Isra – El = straight to the Creator), and together they went to what would become the land of Israel. As for the Babylonians who remained behind, they got rid of the crisis by breaking the connections between one another and dispersing all over the planet.

Today, just like Abraham’s science, Kabbalah,  predicted, from the end of the 20th century on, we have once again entered the state of “a small village” and “the Butterfly Effect.” However, this time we have done so on the global scale, so there’s no place to run in order to destroy our globalization. Hence, there are two paths before us:

1. Suffering, due to the discord in our civilization’s system, or
2. We can use Kabbalah as the method of correction.

Either way, we are obliged to correct ourselves so as to reach the level of observing the conditions of existence in a closed system, where every person will have to live by the rule of, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Foundation of the Wisdom of Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Avraham”
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Letters by Rabbi Amnon Saba”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Building the Future Society”

Filed under: History - No Comments →

Today, I discussed the role of women and children at the upcoming Congress.

Read a transcript of the first part – “Children at the Congress”

Read a transcript of the second part – “Women at the Congress”

In addition, I had a conversation about how children all over the world should prepare for the Congress. Speaking with me was Gila Itsekson, coordinator of the children’s groups worldwide.

Read a transcript of the conversation

Filed under: Conventions - No Comments →