A question I received: The history of Kabbalah shows that those who had great spiritual attainment had tragic fates. Where are the positive examples? And how can this attract people who already have enough misery in their lives?

My Answer: It’s true that when we take an outside look at the fates of Kabbalists, we find that they were persecuted, condemned, afflicted with sickness and so on, no less than other people. So where in all this do we see the Creator’s help!?

The fact is that a Kabbalist is very much connected with the entire world and receives suffering for everyone. However, he then raises the suffering he feels up to the Creator, and also receives the reward for everyone. Thus, when he feels the suffering, he also sees its perspective, the future salvation – the same as how a person who works very hard rejoices ahead of time, knowing that he will receive a great reward for his toil. But we, who are watching from the outside, only see his suffering and his efforts, whereas in reality he feels the Creator’s presence and grace in everything.

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A question I received: I study Kabbalah through the Internet, the TV and books. My entire worldview has changed – I now view everything differently and understand creation much better. I feel that I am on the right path. Nevertheless, I find it difficult to overcome the quality of anger. I realize how harmful it is, and that it’s making me suffer. How can I overcome my anger?

My Answer: A person shouldn’t change anything about himself, and if he tries, he will only do more harm. Everything in you is given from above, by the Light and by your Upper state. You differ from this Upper state in just one way: by “your attitude to what’s outside” (to nature, society, or the Creator). Instead of bestowal and love, our attitude fell to reception and hatred.

The only thing we have to accomplish in this life, and the reason life was given to us, is to return to that original attitude toward everything outside of us. As I return to that state (of bestowal and love to my surroundings), I begin to feel that I am one whole with them, and the quality (bestowal and love) that binds us together is called “the Creator.” It initially created us and intentionally “dropped” us into the opposite quality, so we could evaluate all the perfection of the state it created us in, and aspire to it on our own. And to the degree you aspire toward it, you will reveal it within you.

Related Posts:
* Turning Anger into Progress
* How to Use Anger

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A question I received in response to the post Women as Leaders of Nations: Concerning women as leaders of nations… Since it doesn’t correspond to the spiritual system, and since “there’s only one truth and only one path to it (the same path through which we descended from the World of Infinity),” does this mean that a woman did not come down from the World of Infinity and cannot ascend there, and therefore she does not have any reasons to study Kabbalah?

My Answer: Your conclusion is unclear. A woman has a root in the thought of creation because she represents the created desire. A man, on the other hand, represents the Creator’s attributes and realizes correction based on the woman’s desire. Both must be partners in spiritual correction, each in their own role.

A question I received: I feel a bit of a paradox here. Men and women operate on different frequencies and don’t understand one another very well. Also, a man needs a woman’s desire in order to attain the goal. If the Upper Force is the only thing that can bring people to “mutual understanding,” how should the male part ask to perceive the female desire?

My Answer: Desires are transferred “through the air,” they “linger in the air,” so to speak. People have no need to communicate in order to perceive each other’s desires.

A question I received: If God created Adam, why did He need to create a woman after Adam’s separation?

My Answer: It is precisely the female part of man, of nature, which creates the desire to bring everything to correction.

A question I received (from a woman): Can a woman ask that a man would finally feel the desire for correction to its fullest extent?

My Answer: This is the only thing that will force men to ask for correction, both for the man and for you.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: Man, Woman and the Snake Between Them

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A question I received: Please explain why questions about history are inappropriate? Studying something without knowing its basic principles, such as its history, is rather difficult, if not outright impossible.

My Answer: Rabash taught me to be concerned not with history, but with actual practical attainment. Why scatter about with external phenomena and images of people when you can be attaining? Beginners, however, and those without a point in the heart (i.e. a desire for spirituality) are attracted to history. The same applies to the study of Kabbalah: someone with a point in the heart doesn’t study it, but attracts the Upper Light, whereas someone without a point in the heart studies it like a science and knows the printed material much better than someone who has actually attained this material. See Baal HaSulam’s commentary on the Jerusalem Kabbalists. [Read more →]

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A question I received: Why is it that during the period of concealment, you feel as though you’re in a dark room, receiving punches from every direction? It’s as if the Creator is waiting for you to fall into frenzy, or apathy… And all this happens in spite of all the work you’re doing in dissemination and the group. Is this, as the Russian proverb says, “Love her like your soul, punch her like a punching bag” (meaning, “those we hurt the most are often those we love the most”)?

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct, “I love her like my soul, so I punch her like a punching bag,” because your egoism has to be punched out of you, or you punched out of your egoism, so that you’ll want to part with it no matter what. The unpleasant states are precisely the states that push us out of the common egoistic swamp, to the Creator.

“The Creator spares no blows for those He loves” – this is widely explained in Kabbalah, and no Kabbalist hides the fact that “the true path to the rose is through the thorns” (through the thorns to the stars), and not through buying a fifty dollar red string or through meditating in order to relax.

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A question I received: In response to a question you were asked in the post “Evolution of Man – We Were All Monkeys in the Past,” you wrote that “Everything is initiated by the Reshimo – the informational gene – and not by the evolution of blind nature, as Darwin thought.” Can you specify what you mean by “blind nature,” and how it relates to Nature/the Creator?

My Answer: “Blind nature” refers to the opinion of Darwinian theory, whose adherents believe that nature lacks a purpose, a goal, and a program of development. They think that at every given moment, nature simply chooses the best of all possible alternatives for development. These scientists, however, say nothing about how such a phenomenon is possible without knowing the end result, and one is left with having to believe in religion!

However, Kabbalah considers nature to be the Creator. Kabbalah, which is the science of the Upper World, and not religion (as many think), provides the following answer: Nature knows the final form, which has existed since the very beginning, and which has a predetermined path leading to it. Everything that takes place is necessary only for man to develop the perception of his own developmental process, and to consciously and willingly assume the perfect, final form.

A question I received: You said that 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, there was a single nation, and people separated from one another due to an egoism outburst. As a result they dispersed and populated the entire globe. However, it’s known that 5,000 years ago there were already civilizations existing in India and Egypt.

My Answer: We’re talking about the ancient Mesopotamian civilization, the source of the modern developed civilization. You can read about how the nations dispersed in the Bible and “Antiquities of the Jews” by Josephus Flavius.

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A question I received: Kabbalah says that we are governed by the Upper Force. In this case, how should I relate to raising my children? How can I raise them when they and I are controlled from above? Children aren’t something inanimate, like a traffic light or a computer, so how should I raise them?

My Answer: In one way or another, children live in a society or environment from which they receive all “the good and the bad.” Nature has given you the responsibility to raise them, to determine what will fill them during their initial ten to fifteen years of their life. In other words, you are “molding” them, and you also determine what educational institutions they attend and who their teachers and friends are.

A question I received: How soon will a Kabbalistic elementary school be established? I am afraid of sending my children to a regular school or day care.

My Answer: We already have such schools, to some extent. And you can try creating them in other places as well.

A question I received: Is it possible to visit your center in Israel with children?

My Answer: Yes. You need to coordinate your visit with our reception by calling 1-700-509-209.

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Other than exhibiting manuscripts of source texts, there cannot be such a thing as a Kabbalah museum, because authentic Kabbalah has nothing to display. However, an advertisement I received is trying to state otherwise: “A museum devoted exclusively to Kabbalah, the mystical aspect of Judaism, is to open its doors in Jerusalem, Israel, on the 25th of June.

The Jerusalem Kabbalah Museum – one of the first of its kind – will display artefacts such as amulets, garments and historical manuscripts.

The museum will display a timeline of the Kabbalah from its inception through modern day.

The museum will have a strong educational aspect to it and will provide personal Kabbalah training for those interested, as well as offering tours of Israel focusing on sites of Kabbalistic interest.

Exhibitions will include detailed descriptions of most prominent Kabbalists, rabbis and scholars of the Kabbalah, their works and accomplishments.”

My Comment: There is a Kabbalah museum in the archive at the Bnei Baruch center, which contains manuscripts by Baal HaSulam and other Kabbalists. Authentic Kabbalah is not “artefacts, garments and amulets.” It is exclusively handwritten and printed materials, which deliver the thoughts of Kabbalists to its readers.

Spirituality doesn’t incarnate into corporeality, and hence nothing in our world – besides manuscripts – has Kabbalistic content. Similarly, there is nothing sacred, or in other words, spiritual (“spiritual” meaning the property of bestowal), in clothing, amulets, and other “exhibits.” A Kabbalistic museum cannot exist, because there is nothing to “exhibit” – spirituality cannot be displayed. It would be more accurate to title this museum “Mysticism in Judaism.”

Related Material:
The Top 10 Myths About Kabbalah

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A question I received: In the beginning of the article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” where Baal HaSulam refers to the science of Kabbalah by the word “religion,” why does he write that “the second generation has almost completely slipped from under our hands”?

My Answer: In my opinion, he means that with the opportunity to return to the Land of Israel, we also have the opportunity for common spiritual correction and ascent. Moreover, the fact that we’re not realizing such correction means that the exile from spirituality has ended, all the souls have intermixed, but we are late with our correction. This is making the two new generations, which have arrived since the full end of the exile (late 19th century – early 20th century), ask the question about the meaning of life, which remains unanswered.

People are leaving religion, which supported them during the period of exile, because they aren’t receiving answers to their new questions. Only Kabbalah can provide such answers, because it provides answers on the essence of life, governance, the essence of the Creator, and the reasons and purposes of our lives. That such questions remain unanswered spawns more and more crises in all areas of life, which then becomes a general crisis concerning the negative influence we have on our environment. How do we fix this state of affairs? There is only one way to fix it, and that is by changing human nature. This is what the method of Kabbalah is for, as it is the method that guides such a change.

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A question I received: Religious people, especially those who became religious, say that they feel an enormous force, the joy of life, and lights that do them miracles. How can they feel all that if the Light only comes through the study of Kabbalah and related activities?

My Answer: We constantly develop from one generation to the next, each person at a different rate. Some people – the secular – are content with simply living domesticated, earthly lives. Others need more, a connection with something higher, and a hope of reward – these being the religious.

There are also those who need nothing more than to attain the Upper One, called Kabbalists. Kabbalists are people who attain the Creator, as written, “Know your Creator in order to work with Him” (Da Hashem Elokeycha Ve Avdeu). In our times, egoism is outgrowing the regular, earthly boundaries, and both secular and religious people are starting to feel empty. This feeling of emptiness will bring people from all walks of life – secular, religious and whatever else one wants to call oneself – to Kabbalah, the science of fulfillment (by the Light of the Creator).

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