Baal HaSulam begins the fundamental Kabbalistic text, the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” with the following words:

1. At the outset of my words, I find a great need to break an iron wall that has been separating us from the wisdom of Kabbalah…

2. Indeed, if we set our hearts to answer but one very famous question, I am certain that all the questions and doubts about the study of Kabbalah will vanish from the horizon. This indignant question is a question that the whole world asks, namely, “What is the meaning of my life?” These numbered years of our life that cost us so heavily and the numerous pains and torments that we suffer for them, to complete them to the fullest, who is it that enjoys them? Or, even more precisely, to whom do I give delight?

It is indeed true that historians have grown weary contemplating it and particularly in our generation. No one even wishes to consider it. Yet the question stands as bitterly and as vehemently as ever. Sometimes it meets us uninvitingly, pecks at our mind and humiliates us to the ground before we find the famous ploy to flow mindlessly in the currents of life as yesterday…

In order to help you answer this question, Kabbalah is now being revealed to you! By answering it, you will become human; while it is still a mystery – you’re still not!

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A question I received: Why doesn’t capitalism work in Russia like it does in the West?

My Answer: You are mistaken because Russia hasn’t experienced capitalism yet. However, today this is no longer necessary, if we do as Baal HaSulam wrote: provide people with an understanding of the world we now live in – a world that’s global and interconnected. In this new world, the competition changes from “who will receive the most?” to the spiritual competition “who will give the most in order to merit a greater connection with the Creator?” However, when it comes to technology and service, it’s still best to “learn what is good in the West,” as Vladimir Mayakovsky put it.

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On November 24, 2008, there is a new “Kabbalah” TV channel on Israeli television, an addition to Kabbalah TV content.

All the programs are broadcast directly from the television studio at the Bnei Baruch Education and Research Institute.

The broadcast happens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on channel 66 of the “YES” television company.

Viewers of all ages can choose from a broad selection of programs that shed light on the events of our lives through the wisdom of Kabbalah.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjBDVwbNBEY]

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News Report (from SafeHaven): Professor Antal E. Fekete of the Gold Standard University Live (also Professor Emeritus, Memorial University of Newfoundland) writes the following in the article “The way to resolve the credit crisis: Recapitalize the banks with gold”: …paper assets are subject to annihilation (e.g., when the bank is consolidated with its counterparts holding the liability side of that asset). Suppose we consolidate the balance sheets of the global banking system. Then all assets will be wiped out with the sole exception of gold. But since the global banking system as it is presently constituted has no gold assets, under any consolidation the banks will be denuded of assets while note and deposit liabilities to the public remain. This is why the regime of irredeemable currency is susceptible to collapse that could be violent, taking place with lightening speed. It can also be seen that trying to save banks from collapsing through consolidation, mergers, takeovers, and shotgun marriages is pouring oil on the fire: it accelerates the meltdown of bank capital, rather than retarding it.

My Comment: The salvation lies in universal and equal unity, in creating a single civilization where every person gives and receives according to the law of a confined system – for the system’s common good. If the banks will unite with this purpose, it will save them from the destruction of the entire banking system.

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A question I received: Can you explain the phrase “falling in order to rise” and how it is expressed in action? When a person who’s been studying Kabbalah for a year suddenly falls so deep into the animate level that he does things he never did before Kabbalah, is this falling in order to rise? Is this the correct process of revelation? How is this useful?

My Answer: This is explained by all the books on one’s inner work:

• First, a person’s egoism increases,
• Then he recognizes that the egoism is evil,
• He then desires to break away from it,
• But then he realizes that it is impossible,
• He then recognizes that only the Creator can do this to him if he will ask,
• Then he makes lengthy efforts to appeal to the Creator,
• And finally, the Light corrects him, revealing the sensation of the spiritual world – the quality of bestowal and love.

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1. The Light is the Creator. The Light is always the source of everything! In the beginning the Light created the creation, and hence creation is completely subject to the Light. If the Light were to disappear, then the creature would cease to exist. Every movement and change that takes place in the creation happens only under the influence of the Light.

Creation is lifeless and motionless when the Light influences it with the smallest possible force. If the Light shines stronger, then to this degree the creation undergoes a qualitative change, transforming from “still” to “vegetative,” where it starts to sense and perceive. And so on.

2. The Light is the Actor. The Light is always the source of everything! This is why it is written: “There is none else beside Him” and “The Creator is your shade.” You must “find” the Creator in every circumstance and definition, since He is the one who made this state happen.

3. I Control the Light! When you strive to change something in you, you must evoke the Light upon you, and It will change you. The Light can influence me and my Reshimot, and it will change me only in a way that brings me closer to the goal of creation. In other words, the only thing that I can ever do in my life is accelerate my spiritual development. Or, through my lack of desire to evoke the Light’s influence upon me, I can evoke the Light’s absence, and then I will experience all kinds of suffering – because the Light is life.

However, if my desires come from the Light, then I cannot exert a return influence on the Light with my desires. I must receive a desire for the goal from a source other than the Light, and then I will be able to influence the Light with this desire and evoke an additional influence of the Light on me, accelerating my path. This is why I am given the correct environment (the group), which is the only opportunity for me to evoke acceleration toward the goal.

4. The Woman’s Role. The group isn’t influenced physically, but through one’s desire. Hence, a woman who participates in the group’s work (by studying virtually and disseminating Kabbalah) and desires to receive the correct influence from the group, receives it and uses it to involuntarily turn to the Creator (the Light). With the exception of physically participating in communication with the friends and studying virtually, she does everything else just like a man and goes through the same states.

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Preface to the Science of Kabbalah (“Pticha”). Items 6 – 9, summary:

6. The five phases of the desire’s development from the Creator to its completed form comprise all of creation. Subsequently the desire is divided into different parts, but each part also consists of all these parts (according to the principle of a holographic image).

The Worlds of Adam Kadmon and Atzilut are still not separated from the Creator through their qualities. Hence, when the soul ascends to these worlds from our world, it merges with the Creator.

7. In the World of Beria, just as in phase 2, the desire to bestow is manifested. Therefore, when the soul is there, it feels independent from the Creator. Nevertheless, this does not make it separate it from the Creator, because it desires to bestow just as He does.

8. In the World of Yetzira, just as in phase 3, the desire to receive is manifested. However, this desire is still insufficient to separate the soul from the Creator.

9. In the World of Assiya phase 4 is manifested – the fully developed desire, called “the body.” It is completely separated from the Creator and feels absolutely independent. The Light inside it is called Nefesh – still, because the desire has no movement of its own.

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Three questions I received on work in the group:

Question: You say: “Don’t connect through your bodies, but through the ‘points in the heart’ – you must feel that they are together.” How do we do this?

My Answer: The point in the heart is a Reshimo (reminiscence) from a past spiritual state. However, now it desires the Creator, spiritual fulfillment, egoistically. With the help of the group, you should try to connect these aspirations for the Creator, even if they are egoistic. Together with the group, you suppress all your other aspirations for this world. You exalt the Creator and belittle this world.

As a result, everyone starts to feel that it’s vitally import to reveal Him, and this will bring you to the goal. See Baal HaSulam’s Letter from p. 70, “I am Sick With Love.” It’s an egoistic aspiration, just like a man yearns to be united with the woman he loves! Nothing more is required of us, because the actual correction of our egoistic nature to equivalence with the Creator is done by the Upper Light (Ohr Makif) – see item 155 of “The Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.” It created us and only It can correct us! However, It’s waiting for our desire and readiness for this to happen.

Question: What is the difference between nullifying oneself before the Bnei Baruch group and nullifying oneself before other groups that have similar ideas of equality?

My Answer: The difference is the groups’ goal and the method of attaining it.

Question: What should we do when we meet the friends, but there’s no connection between the points in the heart and the meeting turns into a painful and boring pretense? Is this still considered an attempt at the mutual guarantee, unity, and overcoming the ego, or is it better not to even go to these meetings at all?

My Answer: It won’t happen by itself, you have to make efforts and work on it. We’re working against our ego, after all; this isn’t exactly “love at first sight.”

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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!

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Two questions I received about Kabbalah study:

Question: Should I think about a question and about whether I should really ask it, before asking it for everyone to hear? My question can influence different people differently, both positively and negatively. Of course, the definitive point to any question is your answer, but still, can you explain this?

My Answer: You should try to answer your own questions. Even if your understanding is incorrect or you can’t find the answer, nonetheless your studies and the group will lead you forward. The attainment of the Upper Level does not depend on how much you know, but on how much you are influenced by the Upper Light.

Question: Is it possible for someone who’s been studying Kabbalah for five years not to have a point in the heart? Or does everyone studying Kabbalah have it?

My Answer: If a person studies because he desires to find the answer to the question about the meaning and purpose of life, then this question comes from the desire to attain the Creator – “the point in the heart.”

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