A question I received: Why did so many Kabbalists burn their manuscripts?

My Answer: To Kabbalists, it is sometimes enough for the revelation of the concealed to be written down or said out loud. It may even be enough for a Kabbalist to just think something, since he corrects creation with his thoughts and desires.

This is why they don’t feel bad about burning their texts after writing them. Kabbalists only keep their manuscripts if the generation is able to use them correctly. This is the reason why many Kabbalists, including Baal HaSulam, burned their books and manuscripts. And there were great Kabbalists, like Baal Shem Tov, who didn’t even write down a single word their whole lives.

In addition, a Kabbalist immediately sees the consequence of his correction in the souls. This is very different from how people in our material world do something “good” for their neighbor, and it later turns into evil. If a person doesn’t correct what he is supposed to on his own and we do it for him, it is as though we rob him. And we also go against the Creator.

If a person’s life is not going right, then this is purposefully done by the Creator in order to force him to correct his attitude to the people around him. But instead of correcting the problems by fixing the connection between us, we try to make up for it through charity in the material world. As a result, the world just rolls downhill and reaches even graver states than before.

Therefore, Kabbalists perform truly great corrections through their spiritual work, while all other actions only cause the opposite effect. We have yet to reveal this.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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A regular person sees himself and this world, comprised of inanimate matter, vegetation, animals, and people. However, Kabbalists see a transparent reality. Through our world, they see the Upper World and the entire thickness of the desire, where the Thought of Creation becomes realized. They then describe what is happening there to us, revealing a certain part of it.

This is why we find it so difficult to grasp their language and the examples they use, which seem so removed from our lives, and to figure out what their hints are saying. We’d prefer to hear a clear, brief explanation.

However, the reason they write this way is because what we need isn’t clear instructions, but the Light of Correction that is concealed in their books. Therefore, we should just accept what they write with complete trust, and believe that this is precisely the best way for us to receive the Light of Correction. It’s true that if they wanted to, they could have summed up the meaning of the whole article in one sentence or a paragraph. But then it would lack the force of correction.

Therefore, while reading these articles, which are full of complicated quotes and long-winded discourse (as it seems to us), we should focus only on how the Light of Correction is affecting us at that moment.

It doesn’t matter whether I understand what I am reading or not, or whether I feel it or not. No matter what, I am anticipating the Light! The most important thing is for the “medicine” to work.
(From Part 1 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, on Rabash’s article, “A person is like a tree in a field”)

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A question I received: Why do Kabbalists write their books in such a way that we don’t understand anything?

My Answer: It’s not necessary for us to understand these books with our minds. They illustrate spiritual pictures, which you certainly don’t understand, like an animal that is left to admire a painting or a symphony orchestra concert, and it’s unhappy that someone is tearing it away from eating grass. Well, it’s the same with us: nothing more is required of you! If you understand your true state in respect to the spiritual state, and you desire the influence of the Light, then new feelings emerge inside you and an opportunity for a new perception arises. This is how you ascend from the “animate” degree to the “human” degree.

If we were studying a corporeal science, which is meant to be understood, then you would be right to resent the incomprehensibility of Kabbalistic texts. However, the science of Kabbalah does not enter a person through the mind. Rather, it develops a new perception inside you. You should simply desire for your studies to result in a sensation of what is described, rather than understanding. This is the meaning of the verse, “I have labored and found.”

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Even when a Kabbalist has already reached high spiritual degrees, it is still very beneficial for him to study books by other Kabbalists, because this enables him to see reality through other people’s qualities. After all, every person sees the world from his own point of view.

By learning how others perceive the spiritual reality, one begins to see it through each corrected soul, and thereby quickly joins the common soul. Picture it this way: at first I am a point inside a circle. As I correct myself, I build a connection with Infinity – a line from the center of the circle to the Light surrounding it. Then, by connecting to all the other souls, I broaden this line, like a sector, until it comes to include the whole circle. Now the whole area of the circle is my corrected desire. Therefore, I can only correct myself completely by uniting with the other souls.

However, this is still not enough, because my personal circle is flat. But there are more circles like mine – other corrected souls. When all these circles unite, they form a sphere with one common center. This means that I start seeing all the corrections of all the souls from their point of view.

Why is this? It is because the Creator looks at each soul from Above and activates it. And I have to reach the same level. Therefore, I have to “clothe” into every person and see his correction from his point of view – from within his soul.

Only then will I reach equivalence of form with the Upper Force. It is not enough for me to correct my own “flat surface.” I have to correct one surface after another, circle after circle, until they all unite into one sphere.

This is mandatory in order for us to reach similarity to the Creator. Each person has to unite with others in this way and to look at the world “through” them.

And after that, everyone has to unite all together, so all the individual spheres will be united into a “rounder,” more perfect dimension. At that point, all the individual differences between all the people will disappear completely. But this stage is already above the corrections we make…
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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Sometimes people ask me: why not something else, why Kabbalah of all things? But ask yourself: what is the matter of creation, what influences it, who is the giver and who is the receiver? And then show me any other method that is effective.

What else can there be? Can you create another physics in our world? No! Well, it’s the same with Kabbalah. This isn’t some theory that someone has invented. Kabbalists have learned the laws by which the desire to enjoy operates, and the force that influences it, the plus and the minus, one thing versus the other, and based on their observations, they created the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Granted that the only thing comprising creation is the Light and the desire, Kabbalah explains how the Lights and the desires interconnect with each other in every possible situation. This is why Kabbalah is a science.
(From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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A question I received: Do my behavior, actions and attitude to people influence my spiritual development?

My Answer: A person who studies Kabbalah has to behave in whatever way is generally accepted in his society. Don’t try to play games or do anything unnatural, and do not tell your coworkers that you study Kabbalah. If you participate in dissemination, do so in social circles external to your own. The reason for all of this is so others won’t influence you negatively later on.

All the corrections that you can possibly make are not done by you, but by the Surrounding Light that returns one to the Source. This Light influences and mends the only thing that is broken – the soul. By correcting the soul, the Light restores all of its parts.

When looking at Kabbalists who perceive the Upper World, the Upper Dimension, or the Creator, you wouldn’t notice anything special about them, externally. Or vice-versa: how would you try to find a Kabbalist according to his behavior? There are plenty of people who volunteer in hospitals and protect the environment and wildlife – but you won’t find one Kabbalist among them! You also won’t find Kabbalists among those who meditate on mountaintops or practice all sorts of Eastern techniques.

You can only correct that which is broken, and the only thing that is broken is your soul. Your soul is incorporated in all the other souls, and therefore, by incorporating yourself into them correctly, you will be able to correct everything. Anything we do in this world, aside from the things that are necessary for existence, brings no benefit to us and only causes us harm. Therefore, you should only concern yourself with the correction of your soul.

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We were born into a world that came with certain conditions and was already arranged a certain way. That is how we know it. We have never felt anything else and we have gotten so used to this world (in which everything is so natural for us) that we don’t imagine that it is subjective, and could be completely different.

Our imagination and fantasies do not go beyond the boundaries of what we have gotten used to in this world. That is why it is difficult for us to understand what the Kabbalists say about another reality, which is revealed to a person if he attains a new level of perception.

Today, we are awakening to a new reality, and as the entire world reveals this new reality, this perception will cause people to change. As the new reality is born within us, the science of Kabbalah talks specifically about how we can develop the inner feeling of this new reality within ourselves and avoid the suffering that we will experience should we choose to come to this involuntarily.

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A question I received: Could we say that the great Kabbalists, who created a connection between the Creator and the created being and wrote books for us, created the method called a Torah?

My Answer: These great Kabbalists wrote books for us. However, they  are not actually books,  but rather a revelation of the connection between us and the Creator. The Kabbalists gave us an opportunity to grab onto this connection through letters and words, which are written down on sheets of paper; in this manner we can take part in this connection.

After all, what is a book and what are the words written in it? We don’t know what it is. Like infants, we touch something. And Kabbalists arranged it so that when we come into contact with a book, wishing to be connected to them through it, we use the force that they created through the connection between them.

It is true that they created the Torah through this. After all, the Torah is actually given to us to correct egoism precisely through these Kabbalists and the special souls who prepared for us this opportunity: their connection. If it weren’t for their actions, we would not be able to achieve our correction on our own, which is the connection between us.  Without the actions of the Kabbalists, we would not be able to rouse the reforming Light.

A simple physical law is in action: if you have the quality of bestowal, Light shines on you; if you do not have the quality of bestowal, Light does not shine on you.

Therefore, it is necessary to understand that without the revelation of the science of Kabbalah in the books, and without studying it, a person will not be able to rouse the reforming Light. He can try to fix his relationships with other people, wishing to build his wonderful world, but he will not receive the force of Light, the force of correction. One needs to be connected to a system that uses authentic books, a group, an understanding, and a connection according to the recommendations of Kabbalists. Otherwise, it is impossible to reach correction.

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There is only one creation – the desire to fill oneself with the Creator – divided into billions of partial souls. With their corrected souls, Kabbalists of the past developed a system, by which we can receive the correcting Light. In order to receive it, we must:

• Attempt to rise above our egoism through unity with others; and
• Strive to receive the correcting Light through studying their books.

In the midst of seven billion souls there exist special souls, which create a connection among them; these are the souls of Kabbalists.  By existing within the overall system of souls, as if raisins in cereal, they create a connection among themselves, which allows for Light to flow between them.

By desiring to bond ourselves to these higher souls and by reading what they wrote, we aspire to become like them. As a result, their Light also influences us and without the desire for the bonding, the Light cannot be revealed in us. A simple physical law operates here: without the connection, you cannot receive.

But since this system already has such souls that have united with each other, anyone who desires to unite with them and possesses the external means to do so, meaning the books and the connection with a group,  are also utilizing that same Light, which exists between the special souls and which can also shine for others.

This is exactly how adults take care of children. In advance, they develop all the necessary conditions for them to operate in this world. The little one aspires toward the grown-ups and wants to join them, to learn from them; this is how he grows.

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A question I received: I want to know why the Kabbalists wear “Jewish hats.” People around me believe that Kabbalists are “ordinary Jews” and follow the Judaism that says to serve God their whole life until they die and go to heaven, because they wear those hats and speak of the Torah. I try to tell them that I’m sure that’s not “the kind of Jews” that Kabbalists are.

What is the difference between “ordinary religious Jews” and “Kabbalist Jews,” and why do you call yourselves Jews if you know that that is going to confuse the whole world into believing that you are religious, though you are not?

My Answer: You’re right: Kabbalah has no relation to religion or to Judaism, and this is obvious from the way the religious Jews react to it. However, if there’s a Kabbalist who doesn’t come from Judaism, no one will take him seriously because Kabbalah was kept inside Judaism for millennia, despite the fact that ordinary believers did not know about it and did not study it. It was passed down through the generations from teacher to student, known to a few individuals in every generation.

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