Questions I received on the prophets, the future of humanity, and the Bnei Baruch community:

Question: I’m wondering whether I understand this correctly: None of the prophets ever spoke about what was happening in their time nor about the forthcoming destruction of the Temple, but only about our times – the spiritual ascent and elimination of egoism that will take place?

My Answer: Yes. See the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin, page 99 А.

Question: I am worried: will humanity be able to change and understand what matters most, or will it be held back by the war between Russia and Georgia and the world will drown in madness and chaos?

My Answer: I hope that our dissemination efforts will bring the world to a peaceful correction, without preliminary fighting.

Question: I heard that there was a time when Bnei Baruch was looking for an opportunity for Kabbalists to live together. However, even though your students live near the Bnei Baruch center, they still don’t live together. Why is that? Do you lack finances, an appropriate place, or this is necessary to strengthen the desire?

My Answer: We wanted to create a model of the future society within a close-knit environment, until we discovered that it’s necessary to come out into the greater world and enlighten the whole of humanity, instead of isolating ourselves.

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A question I received: I have a question about the sages of the past. I have heard you mention that they used to sleep on the ground and restrict themselves in many ways. I was wondering why this was so, because we learn that only the Light can change us and also that Kabbalah forbids things such as starving ourselves, running away to a monastery, and so on. The way they behaved in the past seems just like Eastern teachings.

My Answer: It’s because the development of egoism (which determines all human development) is a process, and back then egoism was developed only on a small level. To attain correction, it was sufficient to limit oneself physically and study the Torah, as Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot“: “Eat bread with salt, drink little water, sleep on the ground, and labor in the Torah. If so you do, happy you will be; happy in this world and happy in the world to come.” This shows that no one revoked the correction by the Upper Light, because initially it is written: “I created egoism and I created the Torah for its correction, because its Light returns one to Me.”

However, later, during the destruction of the Temple (about 2,000 years ago), there was a sudden jump in the development of egoism, and people fell into egoism (the Temple was destroyed). Kabbalists then performed a special correction in the system of the Upper Worlds that govern us, so that instead of using restrictions, we would also use the Upper Light (Ohr Makif).

Hence, when a person with great egoism fasts (limits himself), then he usually begins to take pride in his actions and moves away from the goal even more. He thinks that by increasing the limitations and the details of observance, he will become more righteous. This is why Kabbalists completely canceled the outer, physical conditions, actions and limitations, and by so doing they moved away from religion even more. This was done because a person can get confused and think that physical actions amount to correction.

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Two questions I received on efforts and desires:

Question: When your desire is “turned on” from above, then you make efforts, but they don’t count as yours. On the other hand, when you don’t have a desire, you understand that you don’t have it. But if you then attempt to make efforts, then they also aren’t perceived as yours, but like they’re being “switched on” from above. How can I distinguish between my efforts and help from above? What is the difference?

My Answer: Stop trying to sort this out, as it will only confuse you. What’s important is to constantly:

1. Feel the importance of the goal,
2. Feel your own weakness,
3. Be convinced that the true desire will receive immediate help.

See Baal HaSulam’s article: “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before“(Achor Ve Kedem Tzartani).

Question: I’m sick and tired of waiting to cross the Machsom. I don’t want anything anymore, I hate everything, and nobody can help me.

My Answer: This is exactly the state from which you can ascend to the Machsom, with the help of the study, the group and the Creator! Do you understand that the Machsom is the opportunity to connect with others like yourself in order to reveal the quality of unity? Is anyone preventing you from doing this? If yes, then why aren’t you asking for help to be able to love your friends? What are you waiting for? And what is it that you hate so much?

The concealment (Tzimtzum) was done only on the Light of Hochma (reception), but not on the Light of Chassadim (bestowal, love). So if this is exactly what you want, then you will reveal it. The concealment (Tzimtzum) is inside you, and no one is concealing anything from you! What you have to do is go from reception to bestowal inside yourself, and then you’ll discover the quality of bestowal, the spiritual quality, inside you. It’s not supposed to come to you from “somewhere out there,” and you’re not supposed to ascend somewhere to cross the Machsom. Rather, the passage of the Machsom is a change of qualities inside you!

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A question I received: In one of your lessons you said, “To be kind means to give people spiritual food.” What is spiritual food?

My Answer: Spiritual food is the Light, that which corrects one’s soul and fills it. It’s because the only things in existence are the Light and the soul. The Light influences the soul, correcting or filling it according to the soul’s desire. If the soul is healthy, then the body will be healthy as well, but not vise versa – see the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” item 19:

“But this agony is felt only by the shell of our body, created only to be perished and buried. And that teaches us that the will to receive for oneself is created only to be eradicated, abolished from the world and turned into a will to bestow. And the pains we suffer are but discoveries of its nothingness and the harm in it.

Indeed, when all human beings agree to abolish and eradicate their will to receive for themselves, and have no other desire but to bestow upon their friends, all worries and jeopardy in the world will cease to exist. And we will all be assured of a healthy and complete life, since for each and every one of us there will be a whole world ready to satisfy his every need.

Indeed, when everyone has only the will to receive for himself, from here originate the pains, the wars and slaughter which we cannot escape. They weaken our bodies with all sorts of sores and maladies and you find that all the agonies in our world are but manifestations that are offered to our eyes, so as to push us to annul the evil shell of the body and take on the complete form of the will to bestow. And it is as we’ve said, that the Path of Pain in itself can bring us to the desired form.”

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The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Vision of Rabbi Chiya” (abridged)

49. Rabbi Chiya prostrated himself on the ground and wept: “Dust, how hard and heartless you are, how many you have consumed, even the great one, Rabbi Shimon, the Light of the entire world, is also consumed by you, and yet you govern the world?” But then he collected himself at once and said: “Do not be proud, dust, for the pillars of the world will not be betrayed to you, and Rabbi Shimon will not be consumed by you!”

At first, Rabbi Chiya thought that Rabbi Shimon himself was also consumed by dust, i.e., did not achieve complete correction, for the upper gates are closed for all. Yet, if Rabbi Shimon revives the worlds through his soul, how can it possibly be that he has not reached perfection? Therefore, he concludes that Rabbi Shimon was not consumed by the dust, that he did achieve complete correction. The thing that Rabbi Chiya could not understand, however, is how any individual soul could achieve the end of correction prior to (without) the complete correction of all the others. This, Rabbi Chiya could not explain to himself.

50. Rabbi Chiya fasted for forty days so that he might see Rabbi Shimon, but was told he still was not worthy of seeing him. He wept and fasted for another forty days. He was then shown a vision (not his degree, but a higher one): Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Elazar were discussing him, the words of Rabbi Chiya.

51. In that same vision, Rabbi Chiya saw how Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Elazar mounted great celestial wings and soared to the Assembly of Heaven. Afterwards, they both returned to their place and shone brighter than ever before, brighter than the light of the sun. The term Supernal Assembly (of corrected souls) refers to the Assembly of the Creator Himself, while the Heavenly Assembly refers to the Assembly of Matat. The wings are angels (spiritual forces, similar to robots or draft animals in our world), whose task is to help the souls ascend from one spiritual degree to another.

52. Further Rabbi Chiya saw that Rabbi Shimon said: “Let Rabbi Chiya enter and see how much the Creator renews the faces of the righteous in the world to come. Happy is he who comes here without shame. Happy is he who stands in the other world against all obstacles. And Rabbi Chiya saw himself entering, and Rabbi Elazar and all the others stood up before him. And he, Rabbi Chiya, was ashamed; he entered, bending, and sat at the feet of Rabbi Shimon. Rabbi Shimon opened the way for the Light and said: “Happy is he who enters here without shame.” And all that were present there felt no shame. Only Rabbi Chiya was ashamed. This is because they had the strength to withstand the power of the dust, and Rabbi Chiya did not. They were all perfect, whereas Rabbi Chiya had a flaw – the desire to attain. And this is what he was ashamed of.

53. A voice sounded: “Lower your eyes, do not raise your head.” Rabbi Chiya lowered his eyes and saw Light that shone from afar. The voice returned and said: “The Supernal Ones, concealed and enclosed, who have eyes that watch over the entire world, look and see: the lower ones are sleeping, and the Light of their eyes is concealed in their pupils. Wake them!”

After he followed the instruction to lower his eyes and not raise his head (not to receive the Light, but only to bestow), he heard (the Light of Hassadim) the appeal, in which he attained everything. The voice divides all souls into two groups: the first is a group of Supernal Ones who merited their eyes to be opened to behold the entire world, and the second group of souls have the Light of their eyes concealed. This is why the voice called upon the souls of the first group to behold, i.e., to use the reception of the Upper Light, to draw the Upper Light together with the second group.

54. Who among you turns darkness into Light (love towards one’s friend) and savors bitter (bestowal) as sweet even before he came here, that is, while still living in the other (egoistic) world? Who among you hopes and waits each day for the Light (of correction) that shines when He distances (from him in a sensation of a descent)? For he who does not wait for this each day while living in this world, has no place in the Upper World.

55. In his vision, Rabbi Chiya saw many of his friends, some are elevated by the wings, while others are lowered. And above them all, he saw the wings of the approaching Matat. This way the two groups help one another. Rabbi Chiya saw also that due to the aspiration of both groups, Matat descended from the Heavenly Assembly to the assembly of Rabbi Shimon and swore an oath.

56. The angel Matat swore that he heard from behind the curtain how each day the Creator remembers and grieves over Malchut, cast into the dust. And when He remembers her, He strikes 390 firmaments, and they all tremble with terrible fear before Him. And the Creator sheds tears for the Shechina – Malchut that has fallen to the dust. And those tears simmer like fire, and fall into the Great Sea. And by the power of these tears, the Ruler of the Sea, called Rachav, is revived, blesses the Creator, and vows to swallow up everything, from the first days of creation, and to absorb all within himself, when all the nations gather against Israel, the sea ruler will rise back to life and swallow up all the primeval waters, for Malchut will receive the lacking correction, for each day the Creator cares for her until she, His only creation, reaches her final correction – the waters will dry, and Israel will walk through dry land. And here Rabbi Chiya’s delusion was revealed to him: he understood that nothing disappears in the dust, but, on the contrary, each day Malchut undergoes corrections, just as Matat swore.

57. Through all this, he heard a voice: “Clear this place, clear this place! The Mashiach (Messiah), the King-Redeemer is coming to the assembly of Rabbi Shimon,” for all the righteous gathered there ascend from this assembly to the Assembly of Heaven. And the Mashiach visits all these assemblies and seals the Torah that stems from the mouths of the righteous.

As a result of the revelation of the end of correction, concealed in the oath of Matat, all of the righteous present at Rabbi Shimon’s Assembly attained Upper Degrees and reached the levels of “heads of assemblies” and merited ascending to the Assembly of Heaven and revealing the Mashiach.

And now all the members merited becoming the heads of the Assemblies, wherefrom they merited an ascent to the Heavenly Assembly. Moreover, thanks to their corrections, they merited the Mashiach himself coming to all these assemblies to be adorned with their deeds in the Torah. And now all the members have merited reaching the level of the assemblies’ heads.

58. The members stood up. Rabbi Shimon stood up too, and his Light rose to the firmament. The Mashiach said unto him: “Happy are you, Rabbi, for your Torah has risen in 370 beams of Light, and each beam divides into 613 beams (properties) that ascend and bathe in the rivers of the holy Apharsemon. And the Creator confirms and signs the Torah of your assembly.”

59. “I have come here not to confirm the Torah of your assembly, but only because the ‘owner of wings’ is on his way here. For I know that he shall not enter any other assembly, but only yours.” Meanwhile, Rabbi Shimon told him of the oath taken by the “owner of wings.” Right then the Mashiach trembled in awe – and the Heavens shook, and the Great Sea boiled, and the Leviathan stirred, and the entire world threatened to overturn – and left.

60. Rabbi Chiya trembled in awe when the Mashiach left, and his eyes were filled with tears. For the Mashiach left Rabbi Shimon’s Assembly weeping from the great desire for the final correction. And Rabbi Chiya was also anguished from the fervent desire to reach the end of correction. Rabbi Chiya cried and said: “Happy is the lot of the righteous in the other world, and happy is the lot of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who has merited all of this.”

“The Vision of Rabbi Chiya” – full commentary

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A question I received: I feel drawn to Kabbalah study. I feel great changes. I feel like I am hearing answers that speak to me for the first time in my life. I want to learn, grow and change.

I was unobservant for many years and then returned to observance, mostly to try and make my life make sense and because of guilt. My father is a Rabbi and is a wonderful, pious, accepting man. I thought that I was doing something for my father by returning, and this is how my actions were also perceived by my orthodox family.

I only found Kabbalah because I returned to observance and went into a Chabad house. From there my interests were peaked and I found you online.

I feel conflicted now when I learn from you about the difference between religion and Kabbalah. I understand what you are saying and want to continue to learn, but I feel like if I move toward you, I am being selfish and disloyal to my father. So to move toward Kabbalah might be a selfish act for me considering my circumstance. Is this just part of my work?

My Answer: The difference between religion and Kabbalah is man’s correction. The study of Kabbalah (when it’s done correctly and by the correct source texts) evokes the Upper Light, which corrects one’s egoism according to the rule, “I have created egoism and I have created the Torah for its correction, because the Light that’s in it returns one to the Source.”

We develop to the degree that the broken, egoistic desires are revealed us. When one’s desire for correction becomes revealed, one then begins to sense that our world and everything in it – even faith – are false and empty. However, people who don’t realize this yet are satisfied with faith – whether faith in themselves, the world, or God.

Only you can tell which desires are being revealed in you. At the end of our development all of us will feel the need to unite with the Creator. In our time, people’s desires for Him are beginning to surface. This is why Kabbalah – the method of revealing the Creator, is becoming more and more popular and necessary. Even religions are beginning to “dress” in it and to say that Kabbalah is part of them. This also benefits Kabbalah, because it will accelerate people’s realization that the Creator cannot be attained anywhere besides Kabbalah!

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Two questions I received on how to tell whether Kabbalah is the right method:

Question: My question has two parts:

1. Besides Kabbalah there are many methods of revealing the Creator. I can agree that they don’t explain the structure of the Upper Worlds or the rules of governance, but why would a person who is united with the Creator need this anyway? And if the goal of creation is adhesion with Him, then why does Kabbalah deny all other methods of attaining this? Besides, someone studying Kabbalah is not guaranteed to attain the goal of creation – it doesn’t have the “guarantees” that other sciences provide.

2. Physically you look a lot like Osho (or Osho looks like you). Both of you interest me and have my respect. Forgetting the terminology for a minute, you bring Light to the people through the power of logic (physics), and Osho did it through the beauty of poetry (lyrics), but your content is the same. How can I know whether you have really tested your path? Without this verification, Kabbalah is no different than any other religion and requires blind faith.

My Answer: The answer is inside you. A question is the sensation of an empty desire, and its fulfillment is the proof.

Question: In a previous blog entry, you wrote: “The problem with amulets, spells, and mysticism is that they distract us, and we start being late with correcting ourselves. This causes an accumulation of evil that’s expressed as suffering.” But what if it’s too late by the time a person understands this?

My Answer: Nature treats us according to our similarity to it, and to the extent we realize how similar or dissimilar we are to it. It’s the same as how in this world, our judgment of someone who made a wrong action changes depending on whether the action was intentional or not. Suffering that comes from unintended dissimilarity to nature forces us to discover this dissimilarity, and hence it is a correcting signal of an “illness.”

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The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Avraham” (abridged)

45. Rabbi Yosi said: “I heard from the great source of Light, i.e., from Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, that BARAH is a concealed word (the system of Light’s concealment), and the key to it locked it up and did not unlock it. And that is why there was no possibility for the world to exist, and nothingness enveloped all.

46. So when did this key unlock those gates, and everything became ready for the existence and evolution of the generations? When Avraham appeared, as he is the property of Hesed (mercy), of which it is written: “These are the generations of Heaven and earth Be-Hibar’am (with which He built).” However, one should pronounce the word not as Be-Hibar’am, but as Be-Avraham (in Hebrew, these two words have the same letters, which are positioned in a slightly different order). Then, all that was concealed in the word BARAH was revealed as letters, and there appears the Pillar of Procreation, Sefira Yesod, upon which the world’s existence is based, for the word BARAH consists of the same letters as the word AVAR – passed (the property of mercy, the Light of Hassadim, creates an opportunity for the Light of Hochma to be revealed in it).

Question: “When It (the Light of Hassadim) is revealed, can one act and produce generations? (Can one correct desires and fill them with the Light of life, Hochma?)” This question includes three questions:

1. When will It be revealed? It will be revealed when the Masach descends from Bina to Malchut, and the 49 gates of the Light of Hochma are revealed.
2. When can It be used? It can be used when Ohr Hochma clothes in Ohr Hassadim, so that It could be suitable for reception and used by the lower ones.
3. What does it mean to produce or multiply generations? It means to beget ZON of the World of Atzilut and develop souls in the Worlds of BYA.

47. When Yesod of ZA joins the word BARAH (Malchut), there occurs a division of the Creator’s name and greatness, MI and ELEH. Also, the sacred name MA comes from BARAH (Malchut). The concealed ELEH (Yesod) attains the properties of Yesod of Bina, the letter Hey, while ELEH attains the properties of the letter Yod (Hochma).

48. When the letters Hey and Yod wished to complement one another, the letter Mem emerged from them, the symbol of Bina, and the word ELO–HIM = ELE + Hey + Yod + Mem was formed by the union of all properties. The word AVAR + Hey + Mem = Avraham originated from ELEH. One might say that the Creator took the properties (words) ELEH and MI, joined them and formed the property (word) ELOKIM, whereas the properties (words) MA and AVAR formed the property (word) Avraham, where the word MI designates the fifty gates of Bina, and the word MA refers to its filling (Gematria, numerical value). For HaVaYaH with the filling of the letter Aleph forms the Gematria of MA – 45. Both this world and the world to come exist in these two letters, Yod and Hey. Hence, the world to come was created with MI, and this world with MA.

It is therefore written in the Torah: “These are the created (Be-Hibar’am) generations of Heaven and earth,” where the letters Be-Hibar’am make up the word “Avraham,” for there was no perfection (the property of bestowal, Hassadim) until the letters formed this word. Therefore, the Creator’s name HaVaYaH is first mentioned in the Torah only after the name Avraham: Ohr Hassadim in MA and Ohr Hochma in MI complemented one another, and Malchut received the Light of Hochma in the Light of Hassadim – the Creator revealed Himself.

“Avraham” – full commentary

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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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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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