Question: How does a Kabbalistic prayer differ from a religious one?

Answer: Kabbalah fundamentally differs from all other methods and from everything there is in our world. In short, Kabbalah is one thing, and everything else another.

What is the difference then? It is in the fact that Kabbalah is based on changing a person himself rather than something outside of him, his surroundings; neither is it built on asking some “dear God” to start treating me better or to change other people’s attitude toward me. I do not ask Him to change my state of health or fate, nothing of the sort. I ask Him to transform my egoism, only that!

The entire method of Kabbalah is arranged so that a person can transform himself. On the other hand, all other methods and religions are founded on the idea that the Creator should change His attitude to a person: I ask Him to be more merciful and kind to me while I bribe Him.

Kabbalah doesn’t allow anything of the sort. In connection to the Creator, I am like man that changes in the face of the Absolute. And this Absolute is unchangeable. If the Creator is a primordial cause, the beginning of all, and if He is absolutely good, absolute, eternal, and perfect, then He cannot change. Only that which is imperfect can change. He cannot change.

Therefore, all changes occur solely in man. In other words, depending on my strengths, internal states, and properties, I feel more or less comfortable. But it is just me because I can change. The Creator never changes; He is a constant, omnipotent force of Nature.

Accordingly, all the prayers Kabbalah describes constitute man’s plea to be transformed. Who does one address these to, a wall? If the Creator is constant, eternal, and complete, then He doesn’t react to you in any way.

However, when you appeal to Him, you become different and receive a different response because you increase your sensitivity while doing so. You are still present in the same constant field regarded as the “Creator,” in the same constant force. Yet you are praying while wishing to change, and as a result, this field affects you with greater intensity. This is what we call a “prayer.”

The word “to pray” in Hebrew (Lehitpalel) means self-imposed judgment. “To pray” means to judge, evaluate, and rebuke oneself. It isn’t an appeal to someone, in order to be shown mercy or favored. No, it is self re-evaluation. This is what a prayer is.

Hence, although religions use the same word, in Kabbalah it has an opposite meaning, much like everything else.
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From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”

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Kabbalah tells us how to change our lives and ascend to a different level of existence. It’s not simply like discovering a new form of life on another planet, but it’s revealing an additional world! Our world will open up like a veil and behind it we will see a different world.

We didn’t know that the picture we see is just a screen upon which different sources of Light project a three-dimensional picture. But suddenly the invisible seam in the middle of the screen will start coming apart and we will see the forces that form this picture for us and cause it to move.

When people first saw an approaching train in a movie, they got scared and jumped out of their seats. They did not believe that this was possible. Similarly, we don’t understand that we are living inside a movie. Today there are laser shows that play pictures depicted in the air with a laser beam, where a laser is a kind of light. Likewise, the Light shows us a picture we see of ourselves and everyone else, which seems completely real to us. We feel and sense our existence because we are made of the same imaginary matter. That is why the picture of our world is very relative. In fact, it does not exist and the science of Kabbalah brings us to the realization of it.

Nature, Elokim, is gradually teaching us that we cannot control this picture. It’s as if the Creator tells us, “The movie I have put you in is getting worse and worse. Why? It’s in order to obligate you to reveal the forces standing behind the movie and to control them independently. So take control over this movie instead of me and play it yourself!” By starting to participate in playing this movie, we start to understand, feel, and attain the Creator.

From the program “Weekly Torah Portion” on 12/16/10

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The wisdom of Kabbalah is particularly the science that explains to us how to change ourselves. Then, accordingly, our world turns into a different, upper world in which various changes begin to take place.

Kabbalah tells me that I am situated against the Light, but I don’t feel it. Instead, like in an x-ray picture, I see my own qualities in front of me. In other words, if I see people, stars, or the whole world; all of these are my qualities against the Light.

How do I begin to change at least something in me? I want to make sure that this picture truly is a result of my inner world and that it is not coincidental. So, I begin this game. I change myself in some regard, and the picture around me also changes. I change a little more, and again the surrounding world changes slightly. It truly is an interesting game!

In the article “The Creator’s Concealment And Revelation,” Baal HaSulam writes that to a person who has a particular perception of reality it seems at first that some people are successful, others are miserable, and others are ill. However, after he changes himself, he sees that the same people are completely different. Those who seemed stupid, suddenly become smart, poor people become rich, and successful people suddenly lose everything.

In order to change your qualities and control reality through this, we are given a teacher, books, and a group in the present reality. If we use them to reveal the Light or Creator, the qualities of bestowal and love, we rouse the Light that exists outside of us, and this Light influences our desire, changes it until it becomes equal to Him, the Creator.

It turns out that if I desire to change something, I only need to change myself.
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From the Introductory Lecture Series, “Perception of Reality” 11/23/10

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Chanukah is the celebration of Light. A person celebrates it upon exiting the material world.

His life is very short and filled with worries, chores, and fear of the unknown. Man doesn’t know what he is living for and what will happen to him in the next instant. In truth, the whole world is being overtaken by terror, drug abuse, divorce, and depression.

But here, as the wisdom of Kabbalah explains, we receive an opportunity to come out to the Light, the sensation of eternity and completeness, the most exalted harmony. Having risen above the corporeal world, we begin to experience the spiritual world and suddenly discover a new reality.

It is as if you were driving a car on a highway when you suddenly ran out of gas and found yourself on the edge of an abyss. One more second and it will pull you in. But…nothing happens. Suddenly, this abyss dissolves and you continue your journey on a straight, smooth, wide road: From this grey, dull life you transition directly into the world of joy and illumination.

When this beautiful additional world is revealed to a person and he immediately starts living in it, he experiences the most exalted moment! He sees that he has received an enormous gift, and this is what Chanukah symbolizes. The name comes from the Hebrew word “Chanaya,” a stop on the path to complete correction, as well as from Hebrew “Chanukat Bait.”

Chanukah is celebrated as a historical event on three accounts:

1. The Maccabean Revolt, when few troops revolted against the regular army and won;
2. Illumination of the Temple, which in Hebrew means “Chanukat HaBait,” hence, the name “Chanukah” for the celebration;
3. The miracle of the Menorah burning for eight days on a single day’s oil.

In spirituality, “Illumination of the Temple” means that a person rises above his egoism to the property of Bina, the Temple, which is the place where the Creator is revealed.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Hanukkah” 12/1/10

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It is impossible to imagine how we would live if we saw ourselves as mere animals. However, humanity has religion (faith) which helps it to curb its egoism somewhat. All these belief systems are based on one idea: the existence of life after death.

But the wisdom of Kabbalah thinks otherwise. It states that there is a state called “death,” in which we exist presently, and there is a different state called “life.”

If so, then it follows that I exist in this world only once, and nothing remains after I die? But what can come back? What do you have that can be brought back? The body dies and loses the force that forced it to move, like an engine that worked before and suddenly stopped. Where did this force go? Do you think that it returned somewhere Above, to “its original place?” No, the molecules just stopped working. Was there anything spiritual in them?

How is it that we suddenly have such fantasies? Yet, the whole world lives with this belief. At least, there is some consolation that there will be something after death as well.

Then, why do Kabbalistic books state that if we don’t correct ourselves during this lifetime, we will return to this world again and continue to reincarnate this way? This is really so; we just need to figure out what this means.

In Kabbalah, faith is attainment. It means seeing and feeling the spiritual world, as it is written: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” I “sample” Him with all my senses in such a way that I feel Him in “all fibers of by body.” This isn’t faith; it is the most real sensation that can possibly be.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, “Body and Soul”

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Every person in this world has to reveal the Creator in his or her sensations and have no doubts that he feels and understands Him. Attainment is the deepest and ultimate level of our perception.

All my organs of perception – the feelings, mind or intellect, and heart – have to be filled with absolute spiritual revelation. All doubts, contradictions, past questions, and clarifications get dissolved, and I arrive at the complete, final fulfillment and ultimate understanding. The entire desire to enjoy created by the Creator has evolved and has been filled completely.

If a person has no need for such revelation, he can continue living an ordinary life. I wish him luck from the depth of my heart. However, if he is not satisfied with such a life, if he wants to know what he is living for, what the meaning of his life is, then he must reveal the root, the source of life, and for this, he needs the wisdom of Kabbalah. If he cannot find answers to these questions in religion, “spiritual” methods, various hobbies, or drugs, he remains empty and needs to reveal the meaning of life.

There are many phenomena in nature, the revelation of which requires additional devices: telescopes or microscopes. However, there is something that I’m unable to discover because nature is much more complex than I.

It’s not because it acts within a wider range, where certain locators could be of use. Nature is full of phenomena that I cannot even envision since I’m built according to three axes; this is how my brain is structured.

However, a point awakens in me and insists that all of my current knowledge is not enough. I see that conventional science does not satisfy me. This point is from another dimension.

In it, there are no three coordinate axes, time, motion, or place; it’s something completely different. It’s not just a space with a few additional axes, compressed or expanded. Rather, it is a totally different reality completely unconnected to the one that exists here.

And if I can investigate this upper reality, am I not a scientist? Of course, I am, and a true one!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/10, “Body and Soul”

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Today, we have reached the limit of our egoistic development concluding our thousand year old history, and this is why humankind is experiencing crisis in all areas of life. We do not see where to go further and what else there is to do; hence, the world is falling into depression and drug abuse.

And this is where the wisdom of Kabbalah comes in. It was awaiting to be revealed precisely at the end of the 20th century, as described in The Book of Zohar and other Kabbalistic texts. This is taking place namely today when everybody understands or begins to feel that they have come to a dead end since our egoism has no direction to grow in.

If egoism continued to develop, we would be running after it without a thought as we have done during all of the previous lifetimes, all our history, each new time trying to attain something, win, improve for the sake of home, family, children, career, and so on. Each generation is like a row of soldiers moving from life to life, from incarnation to incarnation.

Over the course of these life cycles, we did not get tired of running after our ego because our desire was pushing us to do so. It doesn’t matter that it was worthless and we had done it all before and many times. We kept running and did what the ego wanted us to do.

But due to the fact that this egoistic desire has reached its final, highest level, we have started to feel that the road has ended. People don’t even want to bear children any more since they are losing hope that the next generation will live better than the present one.

This is where the wisdom of Kabbalah comes in and says: You can join the good! This is the good future for all humanity. But this good is not in our egoistic ideas and the dimension of this world at all. Here, there cannot be anything good any more.

If everybody wants to receive something into their egoism, they will never be filled. The moment a person starts getting filled, his pleasure disappears. Pleasure and fulfillment are opposite to each other, and fulfillment subdues the desire. And if I don’t feel lack any longer, I don’t feel pleasure from receiving and have to look for a new one.

Thus, all my life passes by in pointless search. But for those who feel that they must find something above this material life, Kabbalists tell us how to join the good.

In truth, I already feel that this world has exhausted itself and I need to find something above it in order to understand “what for?” and “why?” Where is the source of life, and what is its purpose? What was before it and what will follow? I want to know what is beyond, outside of these borders that lock me in this world.

I must know the reason of all that is taking place and see around this world: How each thing begins and ends, how everything is interconnected? Without it, I don’t feel well. This is the way our soul, which is beginning to unfold now is built.

And this is the reason why Kabbalah, the method of finding the soul, has arrived. After all, everything we have experienced thus far was being perceived in the animate body with its five sensory organs. We used to fill the body with tastes the body was enjoying or we suffered pain in the same body.

We have finished with this world; we have filled ourselves with it and felt disappointment. Now we have to go on! Ego keeps growing, but in another dimension: above the body. This is called the evolution of the soul, an inner part that will develop in you, and thanks to which you will attain the Upper reality.

And this doesn’t cancel your current world; it will continue to exist. But you will also attain what is above it, meaning all of the forces that descend from Above and govern our world. You will understand everything that takes place here, below, since you will ascend to the higher roots and uncover the relationship between the root and the branches.
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From Lesson 1, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

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Question: I am a Muslim who has been studying Kabbalah for several months. Is it possible to observe the laws of my religion and correct my soul at the same time?

Answer: Kabbalah was born before Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Torah speaks of Abraham “bestowing gifts” to the sons of his concubines and sending them East, thus laying the foundation for Eastern teachings. Everything stems from one source.

The collective desire is divided into many parts, and each part has its own individual path of correction. Certain parts can commence with correction immediately. They constitute the group that Abraham had taken out of Babylon. The other parts have scattered around the world, with each part developing individually in accordance with its unique set of qualities.

Their means of advancement are the various religions, faiths, and cultures. A person can easily remain in his faith and follow the spiritual path at the same time. Baal HaSulam writes about this in his Writings of The Last Generation:

“The religious formation of all the nations should first and foremost obligate its members to bestow upon their fellow man the concept of another person’s life coming before one’s own, a formation of ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’… But otherwise, each nation may pursue its own religion and traditions, and one must not interfere with the other.”

That is, we must not meddle in the affairs of other nations and cultures. Let them have these things; people need them. This whole “territory” has nothing to do with the spiritual world. As a person advances, it turns into a cultural platform for him, a set of traditions, and does not get in the way.

If I want to rise above my nature so as to unite with everybody, even the relationships between religions appear to me in a new light. As a Muslim, I suddenly understand that I can advance toward the goal alongside a Christian, and, truly, what can stop us?

Everyone is used to their own home cooking, and nobody is taking that away from you. As Baal HaSulam writes, everyone can remain in their religion, and nobody has the right to meddle in your affairs precisely because this has nothing to do with the spiritual path. Ultimately, in our world, religions constitute culture, tradition that corresponds from the beginning to the nature of the various parts of Malchut and conforms to the root of the soul.

Recently, we read the weekly Bible chapter about the Creator bidding Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac, but at the very last moment commanding that a baby goat, not Isaac, be sacrificed. In Hebrew, the word “sacrifice” is Kurban, from the word Karov (to draw closer). Here, the right line (Abraham) sacrifices its ego, Kurban, the left line (Isaac), thus drawing closer to the Creator (Karov).

We hear that Muslims celebrate the holiday of Kurban to honor Ibrahim who had sacrificed a goat instead of Ishmael on Allah’s bidding. Allah is derived from the word Alla (Elyon or the Upper One).
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride)”

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The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to correct the desire that represents the entire matter of creation to a degree that we start sensing the Force that permeates the universe: the Creator (the Light). There is nothing except this Force and desire.

Revelation happens in accordance with the law of equivalence of form: Desire feels the power of the Light to the extent of its correspondence to it. Full revelation of the Light is the program and the purpose of creation. It means that we have to correct ourselves to a degree of complete equivalence with the property of the Light: bestowal.

For that purpose the whole system of worlds was created; it helps us to change our desire and make it similar to the Light. This world is where the first steps are made; later, we rise into the Worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, and Beria. Nine lower Sefirot of Malchut of the World of Atzilut is where the broken souls “dwell.”

Keter, the upper Sefira of Malchut, is above the Parsa, in World of Atzilut, where bestowal is in effect. The property of reception acts below the Parsa.

Malchut receives the forces from Zeir Anpin. For us, Zeir Anpin is the Upper One, the giver; we receive everything from him. In its turn, Zeir Anpin is connected with the higher Partzuf of the World of Atzilut, Abba ve Ima (AVI), a part of which is Yeshsut. Below, there is the Partzuf of Arich Anpin (AA), which receives the Light from Infinity (Ein Sof) and passes it down the chain to Malchut.

The major issue for us is how we (the broken souls that live in the Worlds of BYA) rise to Malchut de Atzilut. By including ourselves in it, we begin to take part in the process of correction. The World of Atzilut corrects broken desires that bear egoistic intentions.

The desire to receive is unchangeable; it is matter which cannot be altered. But desire can be used in two different ways: It can either be filled from the inside by receiving, or it can be utilized for bestowal. In the second case, the desire will receive for the sake of bestowal. It is possible only as an outcome of love and union with others.

The Book of Zohar helps us mostly at the first stage of our rising to the World of Atzilut. The sequence of actions is as follows:

1.      We raise our request to get corrected (MAN).
2.      The answer (MAD) returns back to us in the form of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that empowers us.
3.      We rise upward to Malchut de Atzilut.
4.      Malchut delivers our request to Zeir Anpin.
5.      Zeir Anpin gives Malchut powers and corrects the souls.

Thus, all we do is work with the Light. Our work is intended to attain union among us in order to correct our desire by applying intention to bestow to it. This becomes possible only as a result of the Light’s influence.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “Hakdama, Laila de Kale (The Night of the Bride)”

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When we turn to the works of Kabbalists, we can either study the science or the Torah (the method of correction). “Science” implies regular sciences such as physics, chemistry, history, geography, and so on. This is what academics think of Kabbalah. According to them, The Zohar was written in Spain in the Middle Ages, and not 2,000 years ago in Israel.

Scientists are trying to draw knowledge and information from Kabbalistic sources. They discuss the style, analyze texts, and try to draw a correlation between the text and historic events.

This rational approach has nothing to do with “studying the Torah.” This is because the Torah is a method of correcting our nature and becoming similar to the Creator in our properties. The Creator becomes revealed within us to the extent of this similarity.

The purpose of all the “holy” books is to reveal the Creator to man. However, primary sources like the Five Books of Moses, Talmud, and Mishnah are narrated with an earthly, material language; they describe the Upper World through corporeal images. It is difficult for us to see spiritual actions in these narrations.

But the language of Kabbalistic books helps to avoid deviating from the direction towards correction and similarity to the Creator. This is because it speaks of correcting yourself through unity in order to reveal the Creator.

This is why the language of Kabbalah is most appropriate for the attainment of the goal for which the Torah has been given. It is written: “I created the evil inclination and the Torah because the Light in it reforms.” For us, the Torah is a method of correction; it is not a science, but the Light that Reforms.

It is written that one must bless the Torah before studying it, otherwise he will receive a curse instead of a blessing. This means that one needs to concentrate on correction. “To bless the Torah” means to thank the Creator for giving you the opportunity to correct yourself with the help of the Light that is hidden in it.

The Zohar describes our correcting the connection, that which was broken between us. This is why we must strive towards unity when studying it and wait for the Light, the force that corrects our connection. Only then, to the extent of our unity and the mutual guarantee, the Creator will become revealed between us.

So let us “bless the Torah”: Think about the creation of the collective Kli as we turn to The Zohar.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/10, The Zohar, “Introduction to The Zohar“

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