Two questions I received on the correction of egoism:

Question: My egoism is not very developed. I do not aspire to become rich or to build my career. I have no ambition and I work all sorts of jobs for minimum wage. However, I do have an aspiration to get out of this cycle. In order to study Kabbalah, do I have to develop my egoism more or can I study Kabbalah without this?

My Answer: The only thing you should focus on is correcting the egoism that you have. You will then see that you are bursting with egoism! That’s because one’s entire ascent toward the Creator is based upon the growth and correction of egoism.

Question: During the last day of the 2009 International Kabbalah Congress, I decided to set an alarm on my phone that would remind me to spend one minute everyday thinking about the fact that all the people on earth are one Kli. Aside from this, I really want to join a group, but my egoism holds me back. Should I force myself to go to a group, or wait for this to happen naturally, for the Light to push me to go to a group?

My Answer: If a person is sick and is just sitting there, waiting for a desire “to come to him” to take the bitter medicine, a shot or an operation, then is he doing the right thing?

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Choosing The Right Environment Is Our Only Choice
Laitman.com Post: The Creator Is Attained Through Unity With Others

Filed under: Egoism - No Comments →

A question I received: Why does the sensation of the Upper Light evoke both immense pleasure and terrible suffering?

My Answer: This depends only on your qualities and on whether they’re directed toward the goal. If the Light shines inside a Kli that’s prepared and corrected, then you feel It as goodness. And if It shines into an unprepared, uncorrected Kli, then you feel suffering. However, if your direction is towards the goal, this alters your sensation of the Light to joy, because you anticipate the struggle and the achievement of the goal.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Path of Light Versus the Path of Suffering
Laitman.com Post: In Kabbalah, Pleasure and Desire Are Defined Relative to the Light
The Path of Kabbalah: Chapter 2.10 – “The Sensation of the Light”
The Path of Kabbalah: Chapter 3.5 – “The Four Phases in the Evolution of the Vessel”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

In the News (from finance.blogspot): Reginald Smith of the Mathematics Institute of the Bouchet-Franklin in Rochester has mapped the spread of the financial crisis, showing that “The losses in certain markets follow a cascade or epidemic flow like model.”

My Comment: It could not be otherwise, because all phenomena, including our own actions, are part of Nature. And we are a part of it, even through we try to detach from it. Therefore, all phenomena are similar, but they occur at different egoistic levels, whether the still, vegetative, animate or human. This is further evidence that Nature is one and integral, and everything in it is interconnected and similar. Furthermore, it shows that there is just one reason for all the evil in the world: our breach of balance with Nature, which is a breach of the cooperation between all of Nature’s parts.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Is There Anything We Can Do About the Crisis?

Filed under: Crisis - No Comments →

News Report (From NewScientist): “Artificial Molecule Evolves in a Lab” A new molecule that performs the essential function of life – self-replication – could shed light on the origin of all living things. If that wasn’t enough, the laboratory-born ribonucleic acid (RNA) strand evolves in a test tube to double itself ever more swiftly. Gerald Joyce, a biochemist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California hopes to imbue his team’s molecule with all the fundamental properties of life: self-replication, evolution, and function. Joyce’s team created its own molecule from scratch…

My Comment: Creation is an act of “something emerging from nothing.” However, it is not when we take ready made ingredients, tinker with them, and end up with some “concoction.” After all, if that was considered creation, then we would also be able to say that the act of conception is the same as an act of creation as well.

Of course, scientists understand that they are only using matter, and its laws and qualities. Still, I hope my comment will help people avoid the pitfall of thinking that we can create in a similar way as the Creator, whose act of creation was to create “Something from nothing” (esh Mi Ain).

Kabbalah reveals the beginning of creation to man: the Light created a desire from nothing, from non-existence, so this desire would desire Him and receive pleasure from being fulfilled by Him. All of creation consists only of these two: the Light and the Desire. The Light is the Creator, and the Desire is the creation. All the changes occur only in the desire, which changes from being opposite to the Light, to being similar to the Light. All the worlds and everything inhabiting them, including us, are parts of this desire.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Light Is Everything That’s Received In the Kli
Laitman.com Post: The Only Point of Freedom Is Your Reaction to the Creator
“Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Items 1-5
“Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Items 6-12

Filed under: Science - No Comments →

The International Academy of Kabbalah invites you to the International Kabbalah Congress that will be held in Israel on February 2-4, 2009. Information and registration can be found on the Congress blog.

Here are the songs of the 2009 Congress (in English, Hebrew and Russian):

Filed under: Conventions - No Comments →

Three questions I received on explaining Kabbalah:

Question: We disseminate Kabbalah to people who have a point in the heart. But what do we have to teach to the rest of the world?

My Answer: Everyone must know about Kabbalah. However, every person is free to choose it for himself, to whatever degree he needs it, from 0% to 100%. Everything is in motion, and the question about the meaning of life is rapidly starting to surface in people. This is a question that only Kabbalah can answer.

Question: The language used in Kabbalah is confusing. Why don’t we simplify it? If your objective is dissemination, then in my opinion, the presentation style should be modified and simplified.

My Answer: You are correct, and I hope I will be able to do this. Baal HaSulam writes that we have to write new books, presenting Kabbalah in a simpler and more accessible manner. You should study and try doing this yourself!

Question: Can you please give us a dictionary defining the terms used in Kabbalah classes, like Klipot, Kli, vessel, Lishma, Parsa, Machsom, Ohr, Yechida, Gadlut, Beria, Adam HaRishon, Tzimtzum, Ohr Makif, and etc.? For people who are not familiar with Aramaic or Hebrew, this is difficult to understand.

My Answer: There are already several dictionaries like this, which include the terms’ translation, interpretation, commentary, and so on. (See the links in the Related Material section below.) I think that knowing and repeatedly going over the terminology is a foundation for success when it comes to understanding the system and the structure of the worlds. This is a sure means of attuning oneself to the sensation of spiritual forces.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How Do You Explain Kabbalah to Others?
Kabbalah on Education
Kabbalah for the Student Appendix A: Kabbalah Glossary
A Short Dictionary of Kabbalistic Terms
Kabbalistic Dictionary

Filed under: Education - No Comments →

Questions I received on physical observance and Kabbalah:

Question: I study over the Internet, and I am a secular person, but I am not clear on what to do about the commandments (such as Kashrut, Tefillin, Tzitzit, Kippah, prayers, and so on). Even after listening to your lessons on religion, I’m still not clear on this: is the path of personal correction enough or do I have to start observing the commandments in addition?

My Answer: Kabbalah encourages every person to remain the way he is. Only the Upper Light can correct a person; therefore one does not have to do anything else other than study (which includes the group, Maaser, books, dissemination, and for a man, it’s preferable to be married). All the corrections inside you will be done by the Upper Light (Ohr Makif).

Question: Should one observe the commandments or only study? And how do people get to the point of completely nullifying their egoism and attaining love?

My Answer: Live just like you did before, and study Kabbalah. The Light will guide you as to how you should change.

Question: Should a married woman who studies Kabbalah observe the corporeal commandments? If yes, then which commandments should she observe? And what is the spiritual root of a family’s ritual purity?

My Answer: The purpose of all the corporeal commandments is to preserve the boundaries of one’s existence, but not to correct one’s soul. We at Bnei Baruch observe them as a cultural heritage or tradition. Kabbalah does not obligate anyone to perform any physical actions.

Question: Aren’t the commandments that were commanded to us advice that we received on how to build the proper vessels suitable for our spiritual root? Then, once we acquire experience in building the proper intention, we will come closer to creating a vessel for the Light that will fill it?

My Answer: Certainly, you are correct. All 613 commandments are the correction of the 613 desires of the soul by means of 613 Lights that shine and correct them during the study of Kabbalah.

Question: If one is living in such a circumstance of being in a community where the outward observance of Mitzvot and Halakah are a norm, then isn’t one required to live in accordance to this social decor? One may remain inwardly “secular,” or constantly questioning the validity of their own intentions and desiring to know (not believe in) Ribono Shel Olam (the Creator), correct? May we be inwardly connected to the World Kli, studying with Ari Online, being part of the group, and yet outwardly walk in clothing of Orthodoxy?

My Answer: Of course, and this is what the Torah demands of you: while following the external rituals, to add their inner, true observance. Or in other words: to add the true Torah to the simple Torah. Kabbalah is referred to as Torat Emet – the true Torah, and also as Pnimiut HaTorah – the inner Torah.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Difference Between Spritual Correction and Ritual Observance
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Teaches Love and Bestowal, and Nothing Else
Laitman.com Post: Everyone’s Place Is in Union With the Creator, and You Don’t Have to Follow Religious Observances to Get There
Free online Kabbalah course

Filed under: Religion - No Comments →

Questions I received on egoism and its correction:

Question: Almost every day we read news reports from different countries about parents killing their children, children killing parents, wives killing their husbands and husbands – their wives, grandchildren – their grandparents and so on. What is this? Is this one of the expressions of the global crisis?

My Answer: It’s the expression of the last stage of egoism at its initial stage. The prophets wrote that there will come a time when “compassionate women will boil and eat their own children” (Eikha 4:10). This is what will happen unless we heed the prophets’ warning and go through these times in a different way, in the Light of Kabbalah that corrects egoism.

Question: One way or another, the Creator compels us to develop through suffering. So a person doesn’t develop according to his free will, but out of necessity. But isn’t the Creator’s plan to create someone equal to Him, a partner? What kind of equality is this?

My Answer: The entire period of free will and independent development is still ahead of you. However, you can only be brought to it through suffering. Otherwise your egoism will push you to everything but spiritual development. Throughout all previous times, we developed only through the development of our egoism, but now we have been given the opportunity to develop under the influence of the Light. So now you have freedom – freedom of how to develop.

Question: “I want to be good to You in order for You to be good to me” – this is a quote from your book in Russian, To Be a Chosen Nation, p. 324. Isn’t this an egoistic intention? Or is it the corrected egoism?

My Answer: It is the corrected egoism. However, it isn’t always possible to understand the intention, because the words can only convey one’s desires. In other words: “I ask You to correct me and I will do anything for it.” And “good” means the quality of bestowal and love.

Question: Today every one of us egoistically feels like an individual. What will every one of us feel after the correction? Will each of us feel that the Common Kli is him?

Answer: Definitely, because this is how we were created: as parts of one whole. Instead of perceiving ourselves, we need to perceive the whole organism. The perception inside oneself is our world, whereas the perception outside oneself is the Upper World.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Black Hole
Laitman.com Post: What Awaits Humankind: Extinction or Prosperity?
Chapter from Book Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life: “Building the Spiritual Kli (Vessel/Tool)”
Shamati #3: “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Freedom”

Filed under: Egoism - 1 Comment →

Two questions I received on our connections with other souls:

Question: You say that before the destruction of the Temple, the entire nation of Israel, millions of people, all had spiritual attainment for centuries. What was their contribution to our civilization? What role did those millions of people have? After all, we only use texts produced by a handful of individuals from that nation. Did those millions leave nothing behind except for their gene pool?

My Answer: They left us their spiritual gene pool – their corrections in the common soul. Moreover, they continue taking part in the world’s correction together with us, now. It’s because the spiritual world is an entity that exists constantly, where nothing ever fades or disappears.

Question: The souls are corrected via the correction of egoistic desires and return to their source – the one Soul. Through our correction we build our Kelim, and after our physical death we retain the sensation of the spiritual world in these Kelim. How are our Kelim connected to the souls that have undergone their corrections through us?

My Answer: The soul is the quality of bestowal that a person can acquire only while being in a corporeal body in this world. All that he feels through the soul before the body’s death is what he’ll feel after. Through this quality of bestowal, a person feels connected with the other souls – with those who have undergone corrections through him, as well as those through whom he, too, had undergone corrections.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Formula of the Soul
Laitman.com Post: A Kabbalist Feels the Same Pleasure As the Creator
Laitman.com Post: The Technique of Entering the Upper World
Chapter from Book Interview with the Future: “The Spiritual Gene and the Reshimot (Reminiscence)”
Lesson on The Introduction to the Book From the Mouth of a Wise Man
Lesson on Baal HaSulam Article: “Finding the Creator Within”

Filed under: History - No Comments →

A question I received: “A cell in the eye is more important than billions of cells in a finger. That is how much more important one organ is than another. The difference between the souls is the same: from the moment they came out of the general soul, the souls are completely unequal to each other. And we exist in this world the same way – there is no equality between us. However, in the process of self-correction, each one of us completes himself to attain the height of the Creator” (This is a quote from the Academic Course in Russian – Kabbalistic Anthropology, Lesson 3 – “The Spiritual Construction of Adam HaRishon“).

Does this mean that if my soul’s root is that of a simple worker, then I’ll always remain second-class? If the Creator made me this way, then is this forever, or for a long time?

My Answer: Every person who completes himself to reach the level of Creator, becomes absolutely equal to Him! You should go over the topic: “The opposite connection of the desire and the fulfillment” (Erech Hafuch Orot VeKelim). When one who originated from the lowest place acquires a screen and Reflected Light, he is elevated to Keter – the Creator, just like one who originated from a higher place. The difference lies in the work, and the reward depends on the effort. So it’s useless to just sit there and suffer – you have to work!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: It Takes Time, Effort and Experience to Reveal the Upper World
Laitman.com Post: Effort in Kabbalah (Advanced)
Shamati #5: “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →