Every day the mass media brings us more news and information about the worldwide socio-political crisis, the threatening global climate changes, and scientific discoveries. All of this is determined by humanity’s general movement toward its final state – similarity to the Creator by the principle “through the thorns to the stars,” or in other words, “forced to happiness.”

Wouldn’t it be nice to go through these stages smoothly and pleasantly? Yet human stupidity and stubbornness lead us like Pharaoh in the Torah – from blow to blow. When a Kabbalist observes this, he suffers for everyone and with everyone. The only consolation is seeing that every blow nevertheless brings us closer to the goal – even though the medicine is right under our noses!

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A question I received: How do you remain true to the principle “love thy neighbor as thyself” when there’s a war going on and you have to fire a gun at your neighbor, who became your enemy for some reason and now wants to kill you?

My Answer: There are precise laws of behavior for this situation and they are described in the Torah. When the law states that you have to kill someone in a specific situation, then you have to do this, and you don’t have the right to avoid doing it. The reverse is also true.

There are states when the death of a person’s body is his correction. The principle “love thy neighbor as thyself” has to be understood in regard to the relationship between the souls, rather than the bodies.

[In the above photo: I am walking next to soldiers of the Chilean junta. By the way, “junta” means “group” – and it’s what our Chilean friends call themselves.]

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A question I received: I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who creates Kabbalah Internet resources! I found Kabbalah on the Internet two years ago, and my life has made a 180 degree turnaround. I finally found my inner world, and all of the questions that haven’t given me a moment of rest since the day I was born have stopped bothering me. I started to understand the essence of things and the reasons behind the things that happen to me. Currently I work on disseminating video lectures and lessons on the Internet.

There is a question that has been bothering me for many years. What is the meaning of the Biblical verse, “A day for each year”? Does this have anything to do with corporeal time?

My Answer: This has absolutely no relation to corporeal time. When a person advances down the path of the Light’s influence on him, then he shortens his path, and this is like “A day for each year” (a day instead of a year). However, this isn’t a corporeal ratio.

There is only one way to ascend to a higher spiritual degree – through desire and love. (All of the Torah speaks only about this – one’s ascent up 125 degrees toward adhesion with the Creator.) However, when it comes to the first degree, one ascends to it from one’s absolutely egoistic properties (the degree called “our world” or “this world”). After the first degree, you no longer have to change yourself completely in order to ascend, but must only keep developing greater altruistic properties within you.

This is why the ascent to the first degree is the most difficult and takes the most time (although the higher you rise, the more difficult it gets; but experience and knowledge help you do this – see Baal HaSulam’s example about ascending up the Creator’s mountain). One’s development either happens through the path of suffering, or through the path of Light, which descends during Kabbalah study. So the verse “A day for each year” expresses the difference in the time it takes to attain the goal (the first degree) through suffering (without using Kabbalah) or through Light (using Kabbalah).

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Two questions I received on how Kabbalah answers the question of life’s meaning:

Question: Why should Kabbalah be studied only by those who have lost their way in life, in their interests and goals? Why shouldn’t people who are successful and talented study it too? It sounds like you’re saying that not all people are equal when it comes to their aspiration to get rid of egoism.

My Answer: Kabbalah only answers the question about the meaning of life, which may be expressed by any of the following questions: “What is the purpose and meaning of life? What’s the purpose of so much this suffering? Who needs it, who receives pleasure from it? Who receives, and who can I give to?” Only people who persistently ask these questions need Kabbalah, because they won’t find the answers to them anywhere else!

Question: One of the forefathers of Kabbalah asked the question, “What’s the meaning of my life?” After this he had such a great epiphany that he was able to write down the method for having this epiphany, which he named Kabbalah. I think it’s highly unrealistic to say that he was the only one who asked this question – there must have been at least a few other individuals of the Homo sapien species who also asked this question before him.

My Answer: To ask the question “What’s the meaning of my life?” is still not enough to reveal the Upper World, its system of operation, and program of governance. One also needs to receive a special desire (a soul) and a mission (its realization). This is not given to a person according to his initial purpose only, but also depends on his efforts. You should try to have an “epiphany” like this happen to you as well!

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A question I received: I first heard about The Book of Zohar from a Christian preacher, Billye Brim. This book helped me better understand myself and my relationship with the Creator. At the time I didn’t feel that it contradicted my faith as a Christian, but after listening to your lectures, I understood that you don’t recognize the existence of G-d as an individual. For you G-d is Nature or the Laws of Nature. But then who do we pray to when we pray for correction? I know that when I sincerely ask G-d for something and believe that He hears me, that He is always good to me, and that I will receive what I asked for – then He always gives it me.

I started studying in your on-line courses a week ago, and a month prior to that I began taking courses about stock market operations. Who should I ask for help in my studies? How do I formulate my prayer? I am studying “for myself,” so how can I change this to “for the Creator”? And why would He even care about my education? If I get sick, how should I ask Him for healing? My body will be in pain, but why would the Creator care about my body if He only cares about the soul? I’ve reached a dead end, and I beg you to help me!

My Answer: First you should study Baal HaSulam’s articles “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” and others. You will have to be patient, because it will take you time to figure this out. You have to go through an initial period of confusion and misunderstanding, and it may even take you many months for the material to enter your memory, settle there, be grasped by you and connect correctly with your corporeal perception.

Once this happens, you will be able to understand the things that happen to you and to the world so well that you will be able to answer your own questions. The only way to accelerate this process of understanding reality is by adopting a “mechanical” attitude to the world: work, study, family, Kabbalah lessons, and rest. Don’t pay attention to your feelings and the confusion, but only let a lot of Baal HaSulam’s material pass through you, like through a meat grinder. Later this material will settle inside you and start working. This is a period that cannot be skipped.

It’s possible that you won’t be able to go back to religion. Everything is simpler there – all you have to do is observe rituals and not ask any questions, and then you’ll receive a reward in this world and the world to come. However, you will probably stop believing in this – the lie will become all too obvious!

So if you want to reveal the Truth, my advice to you is to live just like you did before, with the addition of Kabbalah studies. And then the Light of Correction, Ohr Makif, will dispel the darkness you’re in.

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Three questions I received on dealing with fears and doubts on the path to revealing the Upper World:

Question: I have been drawn to Kabbalah for the last two years. My problem is that although I read the books you recommend and try to study, I seem to get no understanding. I worry that the Creator hasn’t opened my point in the heart. Also, when I feel as though something real might be taking place in me, some external influence takes my attention from my studies. Does this mean that this isn’t my time for drawing nearer to the Creator?

My Answer: No. You just need to:

1. Accumulate inside you the desire for the correct goal.
2. Realize that you cannot correct yourself – only the Light can correct you in accordance with the goal.

This is the only way to reveal the Upper World. It takes time and a certain amount of effort and experience. Concerning the efforts, it is written that you have to be “As an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load,” and “Know that it’s not up to you to complete this work, but you are also not free to leave it.”

If you accept these conditions for changing your nature, then you will attain the goal. You will reveal the Upper World inside the property of bestowal, and then you’ll discover that our entire world is but a small, insignificant dimension.

Question: Is crossing the Machsom the most difficult part in the spiritual ascent? Once you cross over, is the process accelerated?

My Answer: Yes, it is accelerated by many times, and this happens clearly in your perception and awareness.

Question: Rav, I’ve read that as one studies Kabbalah, he is shown his egoistic side and that as the Creator wants someone to advance, His blows against him are harder and harder.

In the past few months, my “luck” (for lack of a better term) has gotten much worse. What is the Creator telling me? That I am not putting enough effort into Kabbalah? I feel beaten down. My only consolation is that maybe, just maybe, this is the precursor to the Creator correcting my egoism. But what if I’m wrong? I think we are all here studying Kabbalah because of the promise of the reward, but am I doing something wrong to be on such a path of pain while trying to reach the goal of correction?

My Answer: You must read the Shamati articles immediately. Precisely your current state will help you understand what the Creator wants from you.

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I had a meeting that was recorded with Avi Blizovsky, the editor of Israel’s popular-science website Erudite.

Avi is a well known popular science writer. Like many scientists I speak to, for the first half an hour or so he had a hard time envisioning the possibility that the world can be perceived somehow other than through the five senses. This perception is much too habitual and obvious to all, even scientists.

But as we kept talking, he began to understand what kind of science Kabbalah is – one that perceives the world in a different manner, not “within oneself” – egoistically, but “outside of oneself” – altruistically.

He is an avid follower of Darwin and a lover of all sciences. Since we in Bnei Baruch believe that Kabbalah dissemination is the only method of correcting the world, we have to continue having such meetings and patiently explaining to people that Kabbalah is a science about perceiving reality without the limitations of one’s animate body and the five senses.

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Two questions I received on the soul:

Question: After everything that has been said, I still don’t understand – does the soul exist? You said that we don’t have a soul and that we need to develop the point in the heart, which will evolve into a soul. On the other hand, you said that the soul incarnates into a body. So do we have a soul or not? Are we the soul? If not, then what are we?

My Answer: We are the animate level of the will to be filled by pleasure, or the will to receive pleasure. Inside this will to receive arises the will to bestow pleasure, or in other words – the will to be filled with the property of bestowal. This desire is called “the point in the heart.” As its name indicates, the point in the heart is small and does not have room in which it can feel fulfillment from bestowal. It is clothed by the “heart” – desires of the animate (bodily) and social levels, desires for the pleasures of our world.

If we develop this point through the influence of the Upper Light (which descends during Kabbalah study by the authentic sources, especially when studying in the group) until the smallest necessary size – the first ten Sefirot, then inside these Sefirot we will discover the property of bestowal, Ohr Hozer, and pleasure from bestowal, Ohr Hassadim.

Hence, the soul is the property of bestowal, according to the definition: “The soul is a part of the Creator from above.” It is the degree of one’s similarity to the Creator. But as long as we haven’t acquired the smallest property of bestowal, we remain animals.

Question: My husband is Jewish and I am not, and he tries to practice his belief. But from him and many rabbis I have been told that we cannot belong together because my soul is not pure. I tend to disagree – I have a soul and I think I am here to repair and prepare my soul for the Upper World.

My Answer: Tell him that neither of you have a soul. However, you already have the rudiment of the soul coming through – the point in the heart, but he still doesn’t have anything. And even if the point in the heart will also emerge in him, it will be much worse than yours because his point once fell from the spiritual level into the egoistic level, which makes it impure (Klipa), whereas yours is better in comparison to his because it has never been in the spiritual world and hence it did not fall from it. It is written, “When Israel falls (from the spiritual level of love and bestowal, which happened during the fall of the Temple), it is worse than everyone (its egoism is worse than the egoism of all the nations of the world), and when it rises (becomes corrected), it becomes higher than everyone.”

In addition, your husband is obligated to correct himself quickly, and then to help you and the entire world to correction (this is the meaning of Ohr Le Goim – being a Light onto the nations). See “The Preface to the Book of Zohar,” items 70 and 71. Hence, before he is corrected, you are better than him. And after the correction, everyone is equal.

My Comment: Religion believes that a person does not have to correct himself through the commandments, but just observe them. It says that one does not have to change from being an egoist to loving his neighbor.

The reason for this is that religion does not have the instrument of correction, the Upper Light, the Light of the Torah. It is written: “I created egoism and I created the Torah for its correction” – and only Kabbalah engages in this. This is why religion does not urge people to observe the main condition of the Torah – “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” but instead tells everyone to egoistically follow as many prescriptions as possible.

The deception of it is that there is actually no reward for following them! The only possible reward one can have is to come closer to the Creator – to attain adhesion (Dvekut) with Him. And this is only possible through similarity to Him, and cannot be attained through any action other than Kabbalah study!

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A question I received: Why is “the end of the world” such a popular topic today?

My Answer: You’re right. Instead of attaining immortality, people are building the Arctic Doomsday Seed Vault on Spitsbergen to store seeds of all the plant species, so they could restore the planet’s vegetation after a global war or a natural catastrophe. They are also thinking of storing a sperm bank in outer space, and other such ideas. However, people aren’t doing this because of the romantic notion of the end of the world, but out of the sensation of hopelessness. This sensation is alluring and tempting in a way, and this is why the idea of the end of the world is so popular in movies, books, and computer games.

So the answer to your question is that our egoism attracts us to death, lures us toward a catastrophe, and enjoys watching the tired old world disappear, according to the verse, “Revel and enjoy, since tomorrow we’ll die!” (Nuchal ve Nishte Ki Macharo Namut.) Since “tomorrow” is becoming more and more menacing, we are feeling more and more indifferent and indolent to “today.”

According to Kabbalah, if one isn’t on the path of correction yet, then this is actually the next best attitude to have toward the future, because one reveals hopelessness, the fact that there is no solution in our world, and thoughts that aren’t typical of an ordinary person living on the animate level. Later these thoughts and feelings will develop, because egoism will keep growing and it will demand fulfillment – a solution to these problems.

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A question I received: A few months ago I started studying Kabbalah with the Ari Online classes for beginners. I am proud to say I have already watched twenty two lessons! I’m now beginning to understand that I need a group and a teacher in order to gain a better perception of the study material (I already have the books). The problem is that my wife is opposed to my studies, and our relationship is very uneasy at the moment, although I am doing everything I can to save our marriage. I have registered for the Congress that will be held in the United Kingdom from the 7th to the 9th of November, but my wife is absolutely against me going. She believes that family bonds are much more important than my studies, or my “hobby,” as she likes to call it. What should I do? How can I explain to her that I need to study Kabbalah and attend the Congress?

My Answer: If she sees that you love her, but you also have something else that’s important to you in this life, then she has to come to terms with it and accept it with love. If she doesn’t, then what kind of a friend and companion is she, if she egoistically wants to dominate over your entire life? It is written, “A man can sacrifice everything in this world, except his soul,” because one’s soul belongs to the Creator, and he is obligated to return it to Him (to grow close and adhere to Him through equivalence of form). This is the only case when a man would be justified in getting a divorce – if staying married will mean that he has to live in this world in vain.

Test yourself and the Creator, for He is one, and everything comes from Him. If you are serious about the path you have chosen (and I emphatically stress this point) and are willing to leave your wife for it, and if you have explained it to her and she still doesn’t concede, then she’s not the right life partner for you.

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