A question I received: Did you ever have an experience when young students would express a nice attitude to you in order to please you, but later they would begin perceiving everything that happens to them as your manipulation?

My Answer: You’re right. We are under the constant influence of external factors, but we have no awareness of it. Gradually, during the process of study (which I guide), a student begins to realize how he is being controlled from above (by the Creator), and how he can become freed from such control, have his own say, freely choosing and deciding how to act. Those who don’t study Kabbalah, however, remain controlled in every way.

We are like children in our spiritual development. The difference is that with a child, Nature (the Creator) evokes the aspiration to imitate adults. However, in one’s spiritual development, the person himself needs to develop the desire to become an adult, i.e. become similar to the Creator.

He can receive this aspiration only through upbringing and direction (call it “manipulation” if you will) from the teacher and the group. The student and the group are practically always directed by the teacher. Otherwise, how could they understand how and what they should develop to on their own?

The spiritual world, after all, is hidden from them until they acquire, under the teacher’s direction, the qualities similar to that world. Then, to the degree they are similar to the Upper World, they will feel it and be able to continue progressing on their own. As a result of being guided, the students become independent! This is the difference between spiritual (Kabbalistic) development and any other kind of development.

You have to read Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom” and then everything will become clear. [Read more →]

Filed under: Education - No Comments →

A question I received: Last week, on Israeli journalist Yoav Itzhak’s website, the NFC reported that there is new information about the testimony of businessman Morris (Moshe) Talansky, who supposedly lent money to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Talansky said that a person who has a $50,000 Rolex will not ask to borrow $5,000. He also added that Olmert has “claimed ownership of a pen” worth $15,000, which was supposed to be sold in order for the proceeds to be donated to charity. Talansky asked one of the investigators: “Have you seen Olmert’s ties? What about his cigars? Or his pen collection?” Tomorrow, the transcripts of Morris Talansky’s interrogation will be submitted to court. What is your opinion of all this, as a Kabbalist?

My Answer: It’s nothing special. The only people who aren’t thieves are those who:
1. Do not have a desire (their egoism hasn’t yet developed, and they’re like children who are only interested in a limited range of things),
2. Are ideologically minded (for example, revolutionaries, terrorists, those who are consumed by an idea that suppresses their desire for wealth, i.e. people who place fame or power over wealth, and don’t use those ideas as a means to attain all of these together),
3. Are Kabbalists, that is, those who have acquired a Masach (screen) – the force and knowledge of how to use their enormous egoism correctly.

Related Material:
Article: Correct Use of the Ego
Lesson: The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose [56:53]
Lesson: The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose [56:53]
Lesson: The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose (Transcript)

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: I take my hat off to you Professor! You’re the most out-of-the-ordinary individual. A while ago, I already understood that it’s impossible to predict your answers, but never did I expect to hear Kabbalistic rap… Professor, I admit that you are an unsurpassable genius. Can you reveal your secret to your eternal youth and lively spirits? How do you manage to do it?

My Answer: It’s very simple Watson! The fact is that Kabbalah deals with, or one who studies Kabbalah deals with, the soul. And this is the only organ we have that doesn’t age or die. The more you engage in it, the younger you become. And this happens to such an extent that you even start feeling a little uneasy: you look and act like a kid while everyone around you is so important, full of Torah, solid individuals who are carrying the weight of the commandments… You, however, remain as a child, as it is written, “It’s better to be a smart and weak boy than an old and powerful king” (Tov Yeled Mizken ve Hacham mi Melech Zaken uKsil). It means that the love and bestowal born in a person from his entrance to spirituality are still weak, but they’re better than the old, powerful egoism that kills itself.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: Cracking the Happiness Code
Booklet: Spirit and Body
Booklet: The Structure of the Soul

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

Three questions I received relating to the Torah and inner work:

Question: Can you explain the meaning of the story about Cain and Abel? I suppose that it speaks about the struggle between the will to bestow and the will to receive. Could you please explain this in more detail, especially the meaning of the Creator’s reaction?

My Answer: Cain and Abel are two forces within a person. One of the forces is egoism, and the other is the Creator’s property, bestowal, which descends into a person, and which the person develops from its initial manifestation, called “the point in the heart.” The entire story in the Torah talks about people conquering, killing, and competing with one another – everything in our lives until we take the control into our own hands and start progressing toward the goal on our own – by restraining the egoistic force, using it constructively, and dominating it with the Creator’s force in us.

Question: I tried translating this chapter into the Kabbalistic language, and got stuck on the verse: “My soul will despise you.” How do I translate the world “my soul” in this context?

My Answer: A person’s soul falls into egoism, which is opposite to the property of Bina of the World of Atzilut, the property of absolute bestowal, and hence the soul becomes repelled from Bina, the Creator.

Question: Could a desire for correction after the revelation of evil be called an act of bestowal?

My Answer: Not yet, but it leads to it.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: Kabbalah Explains the Bible
Article: Finding the Creator Within
Article: Exodus – From Physical to Spiritual
Lesson on the Article “From My Flesh I Shall See God”
Lesson on the Article “From My Flesh I Shall See God”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

Two questions I received on astrology’s connection to Kabbalah, and whether there is life on other planets:

Question: I have been engaged in astrology for twenty years now, and since 1998 I have also been studying Kabbalistic psychology, which is based on the law: “Something born at a given moment receives the properties of that moment.” Why don’t you give lessons on this topic?

My Answer: Because there is no connection between astrology and Kabbalah, even though many try to pass Kabbalah off as being part of astrology. The Torah strictly states: “Don’t do magic and fortunetelling,” because they distract a person from correction, pointing him to false paths and ways to “get around” the Upper Governance.

The only way we can influence our destiny is by influencing the Upper Light, and we influence the Upper Light to the degree that we aspire to become similar to It, by aspiring toward love and bestowal. If this is our true aspiration, the Upper Light descends upon us, corrects us, and changes our state. The Supernal, with the exception of the person, is in a state of absolute rest, and only our positive changes can change our destiny. This is why fortunetelling is forbidden.

Predictions can partially come true, if a person does not do anything to become corrected, because then, such a person is under the influence of nature’s negative reactions to his behavior (i.e. his lack of independent correction) on the path of Beito (lit. in due time), and this path can be predicted. However, when we intervene with the Upper Governance by correcting ourselves, then there is no way to predict the future, since it changes depending on us, along the path of Achishena (lit. “I will hasten it”). The harm done by fortunetelling is twofold:
1. the predictions are incorrect, and
2. they distract people from correction.

As such, there is a corresponding reaction from above: correction, or twice the suffering!

Question: Is there human or animal life on other planets? If not, then how and based on what does Kabbalah explain this?

My Answer: Everything stated in Kabbalah is based on received data. Read some materials on the attainment of reality. If we don’t attain something, we don’t know it. So far, in none of our earthly or spiritual sensations senses (the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of attainment) have we attained anything rational, existing either in our world or the spiritual world, besides ourselves. (As for angels, they are particular forces of the soul and the Creator).

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today‘s Kabbalah User Manual
Kabbalah Today Article: What Is (and Is Not) Kabbalah?
10 Myths About Kabbalah
Chapter 7 from the Book The Kabbalah Experience: Beliefs, Mysticism and the Supernatural

Filed under: Spirituality - 2 Comments →

News Story: The day after shutting down Maxim magazine in Israel, the SBC media group signed an agreement to issue the magazine Kabbalah L’Am, which focuses on questions of Kabbalah for nonreligious readers

(Translation of the article)

Lior Livrovsky, 28.05.08 18:48: It was originally published as a newspaper by the Kabbalistic center of Rav Laitman and the Bnei Baruch Association. The newspaper’s editors will also be the editors of the magazine, which will be published mutually with the Bnei Baruch organization.

Today, the SBC media group announced that after two trial issues, published in the last two months, they have finally signed an agreement with the association Kabbalah L’Am to publish an almanac under the same title, dedicated to questions of Kabbalah and intended for non-religious readers.

This news came the day after the announcement that the Hebrew version of Maxim magazine for men will be closed down, which was first published on Ice News and shut down just eight issues later. [Read more →]

Filed under: Israel - No Comments →

A question I received: Why are there still so many conflicts between representatives of different ethnic and religious groups? Sometimes even the official religious communities support these aggressive views and actions. What is it about people that makes them want to practice superiority over other nations and ethnic groups, and to do all this in the name of the Almighty?

My Answer: Religions were created after Kabbalah became concealed, by people who fell into egoism. These people took Kabbalistic ideals and passed them off as their own. They couldn’t, however, abide by these ideals, and as such, they could only instruct others to uphold them by threatening them with punishment in the world to come.

Because of how egoism provokes mutual hatred in people, all religions mutually hate one another, but they conceal their hatred, and on the surface, summon the world to peace and love. However, they’ve never had an aspiration for peace and love, and if it were in their power to do so, we would still be destroying each other in religious wars, following their call to make them stronger, like we’ve done in the past.

Related Posts:
The Solution – Excerpts from the Writings of the Last Generation by Baal HaSulam
The Cracks in the Floor of Supposition, and the Firm Base of Attainment
What Is Religion?
Religions are Expressions of Culture, Not Absolute Higher Knowledge
More Muslims than Catholics
The Solution to the Clash of Civilizations

Filed under: World - No Comments →

On April 22, 2008 a rather negative review of the book Meeting Kabbalah, published in Hebrew by the Bnei Baruch organization, appeared in Israel’s most elite newspaper, Ha’aretz. Meeting Kabbalah is a collection of my talks with Israeli writers, actors, musicians, singers and social activists.

When we asked the newspaper’s editorial staff about the negative review, its reviewer, Tomer Persiko, responded with five questions, in which he disagreed with our statements. Here they are:
1. You assert that all methods besides Kabbalah are based on lowering a person. Have you tried all these methods? If not, then what are you basing your statements on?
2. You insist that Kabbalah has existed since the times of Abraham, but modern researchers say that it was founded in the thirteenth century and their works confirm this. Do you have proof of your opinion?
3. You insist that The Book of Zohar was written by Rashbi in the second century CE, while modern researchers say that it was written by a group of Kabbalists under the guidance of Rabbi Moshe de Leon in the thirteenth century, and they produce proof of their assertions. Do you have proof of your assertions?
4. You assert that Kabbalah is a science, but in what sense is it a science if it is based on metaphysical assumptions (for example, the existence of the Sefirot), whose existence cannot be proven?
5. You insist that “the only way a person can reach a connection with the Creator is through a group,” meaning – a Kabbalistic group under your leadership. But you are not willing to accept homosexuals into your group, and advise them to reach a connection with the Creator on their own. How can you respond to this contradiction?

How would you respond to these five questions?

Filed under: Israel - 5 Comments →

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.

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

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 →]

Filed under: Science - No Comments →