A question I received: Please explain the meaning of the expression “Faith, hope and love” and their order in one’s spiritual work.

My Answer: First, a person must attain faith – the perception of the Creator. This perception gives him hope and confidence about his present and future, since the revelation of the Creator makes a person merge with Him like an embryo in a mother. Then, after experiencing all of the Creator’s actions and learning of their absolute goodness, a person starts to feel love for the Creator.

As you can see, everything comes from attainment, or learning things yourself. Kabbalah is the most practical science of all: it is studied inside and through oneself.

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Two questions I received on a woman’s ability to love others as herself:

Question: You wrote in a previous blog post that women cannot love one another because of their nature. I would like to know what is a woman’s nature? If it is the quality of deficiency, then please explain what kind of a deficiency this is, and what is the spiritual meaning of this concept? How is it expressed? And do women also advance through the 125 levels of correction?

My Answer: Every woman represents a desire, and every man represents the fulfillment of this desire. Hence, it’s impossible for women to be friends with anyone, and they can only love what belongs to them. Yet precisely this quality makes them the carriers of the desire that the men have to correct and fulfill.

Besides this, every man and every woman have their own inner “man” and “woman,” not only according to the chromosomes but also according to spiritual properties. Women provide men with the aspiration toward the Creator, pushing them to attain the goal of creation – and together they attain it.

Question: Can I apply the concept of “love thy neighbor” in relation to my wife?

My Answer: You should treat your wife according to the rules of society, and you should work together with your friends – the people with whom you must reach the mutual guarantee (Arvut) – to realize the law of the single soul, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

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Two questions I received on the arts:

Question: I know that the arts are a manifestation of the ego. But being a person who dabbles in poetry and music, I can’t help but ask: What is the spiritual root of poetry? Can I (a person who hasn’t developed a spiritual Kli nor crossed the Machsom) write poetry and songs about Kabbalah and the Creator? After all, I don’t receive the Light into my soul yet. Should I try it anyway?

My Answer: Actually, the root of the arts is power and ambition. It doesn’t matter over whom – it may even be yourself. Follow the example of the great Kabbalist King David: the Psalms he wrote are still recited today by the entire world. Do as he did!

Question: Kabbalah fights egoism. But at the same time you reject philosophy, history, and the arts. Why?

My Answer: I do not reject anything. I only want to arrange everything according to its level of importance. Since Kabbalah speaks about man’s correction, connection and union with the Creator, eternal existence, and how to replace suffering with pleasure, hence it is incomparably more important than anything else in our lives. After all, what else can compare to Kabbalah when its purpose – and its capability – is to deliver man to a happy existence in this world, and to add an eternal and perfect existence on top of that?

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Two questions I received on resolving the financial crisis:

Question: What do you think of the US Market which seems to be on the rebound? Is it over? People who I meet are not very pessimistic and very hopeful that we have passed the bottom and all will return to normal soon.

My Answer: Things will improve if the government, the banks, and the people will act to create a greater connection with one another, as Baal HaSulam writes in the articles “The Peace,” “Peace in the World,” and “The Future Generation.”

Question: We think that it is necessary to exchange opinions about the systematic crisis on the international level among all social groups: government, enterprises, churches, science, culture, and social organizations. The initiative must come from the Kabbalists and go to organizations similar to them in their spirit, and the UN must assume the responsibility to organize this kind of forum.

Obviously, this will not produce immediate results, but what’s important is that the elite of the world will hear the ideas of Kabbalah. Fresh ideas and a growing need will do their job. Do you think it is possible to implement this?

My Answer: This is what we are striving to. I am waiting for your suggestions.

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I had a conversation about the global crisis with Amir Hen, a famous Israeli attorney of economics, business and finance.

Summary: What is the right way to create contracts between people, organizations and governments if they are to take into account the global manifestations of nature: that everything is interconnected and interdependent, everyone is conditionally or specifically equal, and the planet belongs to everyone?

The transition to the conditions of the last generation cannot be forced or artificial. It is impossible for anyone to understand how to behave under these new conditions of the global interconnection of all people unless one learns this law – the law of life and sustenance of a single system of human society.

Just as a person cannot exist in our world without knowing its laws on the still, vegetative and animate levels – knowing what’s useful and what’s harmful, and how to utilize different objects and phenomena – in exactly the same way, a person cannot exist in our times without knowing the law of the “global (unified) mankind” on the “human” level, which is being revealed today.

Moreover, this law and all of its manifestations are studied only in Kabbalah. By observing this law in a greater measure (through building a greater connection between the souls), we will ascend the 125 degrees of the ladder leading to the Creator’s Palace.

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Questions I received on the development of spirituality in a person:

Question: How do I receive the point in the heart?

Answer: When the first spiritual Reshimo surfaces in you.

Questions: Who taught Kabbalah to the first man (Adam), since he didn’t have books?

Answer: He revealed it on his own just like Abraham. He is called “the first man” because a person who attains similarity to the Creator is called “man” – Adam, which comes from the word “similar.” He was the first man at that time; everyone else were animals.

Question: Can a newborn baby be a Kabbalist?

Answer: No. One needs to earn a Masach.

Question: Can a newborn be on any spiritual level?

Answer: Yes, if the society as a whole is.

Question: Can a baby be born above the Machsom, with full understanding of everything?

Answer: No, but he can achieve this very fast during childhood with the help of upbringing, as before the destruction of the Temple.

Question: What is it to annul oneself before others?

Answer: It’s when the desire of another person is more important to you than your own desire.

Question: Do I need to share my attention with the group rather than give all of it to my wife and kids?

Answer: Only inside of you.

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Three questions I received on ups and downs along the path:

Question: For many years I felt that I was an egoist. Then I came to Kabbalah and understood why I felt that way. Now I study and participate in dissemination, but I started to feel even emptier. On the other hand, there is hope.

My Answer: The feeling of emptiness comes from the influence of the Light, which shows you that you are empty and that you can only fill this emptiness with the Light. For this to happen, you must desire it – and this desire can only be received from the environment.

Question: Lately I don’t feel like I’m a bad person anymore. Of course I’m still an egoist, but I no longer feel bad about it. On the contrary, I feel uplifted, I am more focused during the lessons and I do more dissemination than before. How can I tell whether I’m still on the right path?

My Answer: If you always focus on being united with the group, if you understand that by uniting you will receive the desire that will evoke the Light of correction – then you will reveal the Creator.

Question: I ask the Creator to correct me, since it’s not in my power to correct my own state. On the other hand, I’m ashamed of this request because it means that I’m dissatisfied with the state I’m in – a state given to me by the Creator in order for me to develop. How should I understand this contradiction?

My Answer: In each and every state, the Creator is waiting for you to move closer to Him.

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There are three kinds of opponents of Kabbalah:
1. Those who say that there is no need for the concealed part of the Torah.
2. Those who say that Kabbalah is so great that it’s forbidden to study it.
3. Those who say that it’s a terrible thing to make a mistake in such exalted matters.
Rabbi Moshe Cordevero (the ‘Ramak’) “Da Et Elokey Avicha,” 118-132.

If a person from Israel lowers the importance of Kabbalah, he lowers the righteous of the nations of the world lower than the sinners, and thereby causes Israel to be scorned even to the point of annihilation. The entire fall of Israel happened because people have left Kabbalah.
Baal HaSulam. “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” item 69.

Woe to the people who make the Light of the Messiah vanish from the world, so as never to return. They make the Torah dry, without the moist of mind and knowledge, for they confine themselves to the practical observance of commandments and do not wish to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. Alas, they cause by their deeds the poverty, the ruin and the robbery, the looting, the killings and destruction in the world.
Baal HaSulam. “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” item 70.

Those who only study the Babylonian Talmud are like the blind gnawing at the wall.
Rav Chaim Vital. “Introduction to the Book Etz Haim,” part 1, 9-10.

The nations of the world say to Israel: “How is your Torah different from our teachings, since yours is also nothing but tales?” They will be punished for degrading the Torah this way. And their Torah causes exile and suffering in the world. But… our sages are pleased with what they have, and they assert that there is no other Torah but the simple Torah. Clearly there is no place for them in the world to come.
Rav Chaim Vital. “Introduction to the Book Etz Haim ,” part 1, 11-12.

Moses Maimonides (the Rambam): He who has not attained similarity to the Creator is not called a man, but is only an animal in the form of a human. However, he can do harm, which animals cannot, since the mind given to him to attain the Creator is used to harm others, and this makes him lower than an animal.
Rav Shim’on Lavi. “Katem Paz.”

This is an answer to all the “wise” people who oppose the study of Kabbalah: let those that study Kabbalah make mistakes and ask for the true path when they discover their mistakes. This is why their efforts are credited and rewarded by the Creator. And those who humiliate those who study Kabbalah will be condemned by the Creator.
Rav Shim’on Lavi. “Katem Paz.”

The wreath of the Torah is Kabbalah, which everyone rejects. But you, stretch out your hand and take it, since those who have never tried it, have never tasted the Light of the Torah and live in darkness. Great is the sin of those who use different excuses to avoid studying Kabbalah. And it is not the fault of the masses, but of their leaders, who neglect the study of Kabbalah and take pride in studying only the revealed Torah and in not needing anything but the simple understanding of the Torah.
Rabbi Pincus Eliyahu of Vilna Sefer HaBrit, part 2, article 12, chapter 5.

There are many ignorant people who refuse to study Kabbalah, but if they would listen to me, evil and misfortune would stop coming to our world, because man depends only on his efforts in studying Kabbalah.
Safrin, Yitzhak Yehudah Yehiel Notzer Hesed al Pirkei Avot, chapter 4, study 20.

Alas, these people, who make the Torah dry and do not wish to study the wisdom of Kabbalah; they cause by their deeds the poverty, the ruin and the robbery, the looting, the killings and destruction in the world.
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) Tikunei Zohar, chapter 30.

Rashbi referred to those who study the simple Torah as “sleeping” because they don’t open their eyes to see the Creator’s love for them, as though they scorn it and do not know the path to perfection and adhesion with the Creator.
Rabbi Moshe ‘Haim Luzzatto (Ram’hal). “Shaarei Ramhal,” “Introduction to the Article Vikuah,” page 97.

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Two questions I received on the spiritual advancement of children:

Question: If there are still 232 years left until the full correction, then why do we call our children “the children of the last generation”?

My Answer: Because the “last generation” starts from our generation on – it’s the generation of egoism’s correction and ascension to the Creator.

Question: Do children and youth go through the same degrees on the spiritual path as adults? If a child expresses worry about evil, what’s the right way to deal with this?

My Answer: The soul is ageless, and this is why Kabbalah can be taught to anyone and at any age. One must go through all the states. This is determined by the emergence of the Reshimot (the chain of informational data about each state). It’s because the soul must go through the same states it went through during its descent from above downward, but now it must go through them in the reverse order, ascending from below upwards.

However, the rate of one’s advancement through every state depends on the environment (the group), and can be virtually instant. The best remedy for all the “problems” along the way is communication with friends and watching our materials.

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Three questions I received on the modern study method of Kabbalah:

Question: You wrote that the Mashiach Ben Yosef is the great Ari’s revelation of the modern method of correction, Kabbalah, in the 16th century. Can we make an analogy that the Mashiach Ben David is also a revelation – the one that was made by Baal HaSulam? Or will there be other revelations of the method that will be more complete and have a more powerful effect?

My Answer: In Article #102 of Shamati, Baal HaSulam writes the following about the Ari: “That is why the holy Ari, who was the Mashiach son of Yosef, was able to reveal so much wisdom, for he had the permission from ‘the revealed world.’”

As for the Mashiach Ben David, there are many mentions of him, but they all indicate something different and can only be understood through personal revelation, but I prefer to quote the primary source texts.

Question: What do you think about The Book of Bakhir?

My Answer: Baal HaSulam writes the following in the article “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”: Ever since the teachings of the Ari were revealed in the world, all Kabbalists abandoned all other books and study only The Book of Zohar and the books of the Ari.”

Question: You said that 1995 was the starting point of the current events. What happened in 1995 that you are referring to?

My Answer: I felt this because suddenly, the students that started coming to study with me were different: They were serious, diligent, and persistent in their pursuit of the goal. Today they still make up the core of the worldwide Bnei Baruch group. Of course, there were also inner changes that are concealed from the average onlooker – a clearer revelation of new spiritual forces in the world.

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