A question I received: Is there a way of stopping the thoughts that constantly keep coming to us? Can we learn to control our thoughts?

My Answer: Of course! We often think about things that we don’t want to think about. We often attempt to restrain our thoughts, change them, and replace them with other thoughts. When we can’t do this, we feel weak and stupid, as if we’ve lost control over ourselves.

In reality our thoughts do not come to us “out of nowhere.” At first a desire arises in us, even if we don’t feel it. After this, a thought emerges from the desire. The desire brings about the thought. Hence we only think about the things we want: How can we acquire, hold on to, and develop the things we desire; or how can we put more distance between us and the things we don’t desire.

A thought cannot change a desire. It can only change the size of a desire, increasing or decreasing it. Similarly, we also can’t replace one thought with another.

Hence, we can only control our thoughts by controlling our desires. So the question really is: How can I change my desires? The answer is: through the environment – the group, the books, and the teacher!

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A question I received: Strange things have been happening around me over the last several years. The people I really looked up to before are now hitting rock bottom in life, or doing things that go beyond any accepted social norms. I used to be very driven, but now I’ve lost all desire to prove anything to others.

I have this feeling that all the people whom I used to know well and looked up to, are not who they were. I am rude to my relatives, and constantly feel ashamed of it because I love them. I feel annoyed at the elderly, repulsed by people’s faces, and I hate my own body.

I’ve been studying Kabbalah for seven years and watch the lessons every day. It is very burdensome for me to attend Congresses and group meals, but watching the lessons over the Internet is a delight. I feel like I really want to avoid seeing people in person. Is this normal?

My Answer: Everyone has their own speed and stages of development. If you study systematically and work on dissemination during your free time, then you can be sure that every state will pass. You will work through it, and then the new stage will come. They will keep alternating like this all the way until the full correction.

However, the rate at which they alternate depends on your efforts, and this constitutes your only influence on your entire path to the Creator. If your development is happening at a natural speed, then you experience pressure (suffering), which forces you to change. However, if you stay ahead of nature’s (the Creator’s) pressure by aspiring on your own, then you won’t experience suffering, but on the contrary, will feel joy and inspiration. The choice is yours!

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News Report (translated from CNews.ru): A group of Oxford based researchers has submitted a paper to Physical Review Letters (one of the world’s most prestigious physics journals) seeking to explain the observed dynamics of the Universe. It proposes that we are inside a special, unique location in the Universe where matter’s density is abnormally low and is atypical for the Universe as a whole. This theory, called Geocentrism, supposes that we are located in the center of the Universe.

The alternative point of view is the Copernican principle, which postulates that the Universe is uniform and does not have a special place for the Earth or the Solar System. This is the principle that the current scientific theories are based upon. However, it is unable to explain the modern scientific conception of the world.

My Comment: According to the science of Kabbalah (part 16 of the Talmud Eser Sefirot), our world is the last degree of the lowest spiritual world, the World of Assiya. It is located in the center of all the worlds, and in the center of our world lies the Solar System, and in its center lies the planet Earth. At the Earth’s center lies Israel, at its center – Jerusalem, at its center – Mount Moriah, then the Temple, and finally – the Holy of Holies (a room with special relics). All of this reflects the influence and proportions of the spiritual forces.

Modern science is nearing its end, the ceiling of its qualitative development. It’s already discovering a barrier that it cannot cross, and hence it is adjusting its theories to match what Kabbalah has been saying for millennia. In Part 1 of “The Tree of Life,” Kabbalist the Ari writes that our world of matter is inside all the spheres of the spiritual force field:

And when upon His simple will,
Came the desire to create the world and emanate the emanations,
To bring to light the perfection of His deeds, His names, His appellations,
Which was the cause of the creation of the worlds,
He then restricted Himself, in the middle,
Precisely in the center,
He restricted the Light.
And the Light drew far off to the sides around that middle point.
And there remained an empty space, a vacuum
Circling the middle point.
And the restriction had been uniform
Around the empty point,
So that the space
Was evenly circled around it.
There, after the restriction,
Having formed a vacuum and a space
Precisely in the middle of the endless light,
A place was formed,
Where the emanated and the created might reside.

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I’ve received many questions from parents who wish to see their children develop properly, and whose children suffer from the results of the education they receive in school.

It is important to nurture the correct perception of reality in children from an early age. This brings out a completely different attitude toward the world in them; they begin to perceive the concealed connections between everything that happens around them, to interpret events accurately, to find the causes of what is happening and to answer questions regarding behavior on their own.

This is obvious in the group of children that I work with. But how can this become an asset of every family? Ideally, in the proper environment, it’s possible to develop spiritual vision in children from an early age, and to bring about spiritual growth alongside the physical growth. Rav Kook (who lived between 1865–1935 and was the chief Rabbi of Israel) wrote that if he could, he would study Kabbalah with six year old children.

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Questions I received on the virtual society of the future:

Question: Which technical means (Internet, TV, radio, and so on) can be used to create the virtual society of the future? Does the necessary technical support exist today? What other things are necessary that haven’t yet manifested in our world?

My Answer: We are starting to really focus on this now, and it is becoming our highest priority project – to create a virtual meeting space for all those who aspire to unite, who strive toward the Creator. As soon as this common aspiration will acquire the needed goal-oriented force, it will begin radiating with similarity to the Creator. He will then become revealed to everyone within this unity.

Your advancement upwards depends on the efforts you make to disseminate Kabbalah outwards – to add more souls to the correction. Hence I recommend not missing the opportunity to participate in the development of the virtual Kabbalistic community.

You can send your ideas to [email protected]

Question: Since the internet is developing so fast, is there any point in hosting distance classes for beginners? Maybe we should have fewer classes like this?

My Answer: I think that soon this will come to an end on its own. However, as long as there are people who desire this, we should continue doing it. You should continue developing only the virtual education, communication, and even congresses.

Question: Your blog is already a virtual group for those who “enter” it. However, don’t real groups have a very big influence on the world Kli, while the influence of an internet participant is much smaller? Yet the combined influence of a large number of virtual participants is much bigger than the influence of real groups?

My Answer: Everything adds up to a combined effort until it will reach the necessary size, and then – inside this common mass – everyone together will start to feel the Upper Presence.

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A question I received: It’s written that the villain Bilam was a great prophet, like Moses. I understand that this is describing the desires that become revealed in a person, and Light cannot be revealed in uncorrected desires. But why is the most uncorrected desire, Bilam, not only able to reveal the Light, but even the level of a prophet? How could Bilam reach the level of prophecy while being in such an uncorrected state?

My Answer: It is written that Pharaoh knows the Creator, and that the villain Lavan embodies the complete Upper Light. Similar things are written about many other “evil” characters. The Torah talks about the spiritual roots of characters in our world, rather than their earthly manifestations. When you look at the root of their souls from the spiritual level, then you define who they are, even though in our world these characters play their roles unknowingly.

Pharaoh is equal and opposite to the Creator. This is similar to how there are four pure worlds of ABYA (worlds of the good forces of bestowal), and opposite them there are four impure worlds of ABYA (worlds of evil forces of reception). These two systems are opposite, parallel, and equal to each other in order to sustain the conditions of freedom of will for the souls.

The souls are equally influenced by both, and their choice lies in choosing the right environment in order to receive additional forces so as to prefer the right side – the good, bestowing side. It is written that at every moment one should see oneself as half-sinner and half-righteous, and the only way to tip the balance is by being impressed by the group. This is why it is so important for us to create the most complete virtual influence of the Bnei Baruch group on everyone who desires it.

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Questions I received on relationships:

Question: What does a man look for in a woman?

My Answer: “Consolation” (fulfillment), as it says in the Torah (Beresheet 3:23): “Because she comes from me.”

Question: Should she be pretty and quiet, or should she just be herself?

My Answer: She should have everything necessary to complete “Adam.”

Question: In one of your articles you recommend your regular students to dedicate fifteen minutes a day to their wives. Is this so, and if yes, then what is the reason for it?

My Answer: Kabbalah obligates people to dedicate a specific amount of time and attention to their spouses. People today are busier than ever before, and hence we’ve set a rule in the group that besides taking care of the home and children, spouses have to sit down together and calmly talk for at least fifteen minutes a day.

What about you, are you able to speak with your husband calmly and on a daily basis? Does this ever happen?

Question: I got divorced two months ago. In a TV show you said that you are against divorce. I did everything to prevent it, but I’ve read some books and I know that Kabbalah says that sometimes people get married and have children, but their union is not “meant to be.” People get divorced and then find their proper match, someone who’s meant for them. Is this true?

My Answer: Kabbalah does not forbid divorce, especially in cases when one’s married life prevents one from attaining the purpose of one’s life in this world – the goal of creation. However, in other cases, it’s usually best to avoid getting a divorce.

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Three questions I received on ritual observance and Kabbalah:

Question: To my regret, I was raised in a family that observed the Jewish traditions, and I even studied in a Yeshiva. Now I am completely secular, do not observe the traditions, and feel perfectly satisfied with this. However, I feel pressure from my environment to observe the commandments at the corporeal level. Can you offer me some advice on how to deal with this and how to avoid fighting with my wife (I am married with four children)?

My Answer: If a person was raised with the traditions and believes in reward and punishment for them, then it is very difficult to quit observing the traditions. Your wife believes that by observing the earthy commandments you earn the world to come for her and her children, and that you will receive a reward and the Creator’s benevolence. This makes her feel like her life has meaning and gives her the energy to live. Don’t take this away from her! When in front of her, observe what she asks for.

Question: I have been born and raised as an Orthodox Jew. I want to study Kabbalah, but I don’t want to follow the 613 Mitzvot. It feels really burdensome having to follow so many Mitzvot. At the same time the idea of studying Kabbalah is wholly interesting to me as well as the various concepts that you espouse on your great blog. How should I think about this matter?

My Answer: Without changing anything about you or your lifestyle, study Kabbalah, alongside the rest of the earthly Torah. We do not accept Orthodox Jews or even Kipot Srugot (knitted yarmulkes) into our core group, but virtual study is your right.

Question: I came to orthodox religion and left it after I failed to find the Creator there and realized that it was the wrong path. My question is: are there such things as a supreme judge and judgment, and reward and punishment, the way the orthodox believe?

My Answer: What exists is:

1. The Creator, the Law of Nature;
2. The creature; and
3. The connection between them.

The goal of creation is to attain adhesion with the Creator. The means to attain it is by correcting the creature from “for one’s own sake” to “for the sake of Creator.” Then the Creator becomes revealed within the creature. This is what Kabbalah talks about, and this is what exists.

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Dear friends! On November 14th – 16th, the St. Louis group will be hosting a Congress to continue our exciting journey together and reveal new levels of unity!

We invite the World Kli to join us, and we extend a special invitation to our new friends in the Bnei Baruch Learning Center to come experience your first taste of the vital work that is being done.

• Click here to see photos of the congress site
• If you have any questions, write to this address

Filed under: Notices - No Comments →

Two questions I received on inner work:

Question: As parts of one soul, we all depend on each other whether we’re aware of it or not. But every person contains the whole world. What is the measure of the dependency between us? Should we increase it or should we see ourselves as individuals and only unite our points in the heart?

My Answer: We should only unite our points in the heart, because all our other desires are for corporeal things. By uniting our aspirations for spirituality, we create the vessel in which the Light, the Creator becomes revealed.

Question: How does the system of mutual guarantee of the World Kli become expressed in practice, at times when one is not involved in the group work (study, dissemination, congresses, and so on), but is occupied with the necessities (work, family, and so on)?

My Answer: If a person takes proper care of his spiritual advancement in his spare time, then he provides himself with support that will sustain him on the right track during the rest of the time as well. Our world formed as a result of the descent of the Upper Forces, and it completely corresponds to the thought of creation and its purpose, provided that we use it correctly. That is, if we connect the thought with the goal, or in other words, implement the goal, going from the thought to the goal.

We have been given all the conditions – the body and its short life, including all the conditions of existence such as family and the efforts we have to make to sustain the life of the body, as well as all the disturbances and developmental forces. All of this only seems corporeal to us, but in reality this is how spiritual forces present themselves to us at their minimal level. We only have to “blend” into this picture correctly and complete the “empty space” in it with our free actions. At the end of the day everything comes down to uniting our aspirations to the Creator – to bestowal or love for one’s neighbor. We try doing this and then see that we can’t. We then ask for help, and the Creator corrects us!

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