In the past, before the destruction of the Temple, children were born into a society that perceived the Upper World and the Creator, and based its life on the spiritual laws. Children perceived the relationship of “love thy neighbor as thyself” as an obvious fact of life. They always saw the adults setting this example and aspiring to attain greater connection with the Creator, whom they clearly perceived. Children understood that they were born into this world and exist in it temporarily only in order to create a connection with Him.

In the Bnei Baruch group, our children (and grandchildren) participate in Kabbalah lessons prepared especially for them. Their relationships are built under the guidance of teachers according to the principle of the Torah – bestowal and love of friends. They completely understand that they, and all people in general, are interconnected. The lessons take place on Sundays and during the whole day on Saturday. On Saturday, boys come with their fathers to the morning lesson and then stay for the whole day. We have a special course for them. Every few months I also give a lesson (a test) to all the children.

It’s a great pleasure to see and hear them, their questions and answers, and to observe these growing people forming a completely new outlook on the world. We don’t realize what it means to receive the true picture of the world during the childhood years, to understand the world’s origin, meaning, and purpose. This picture permeates a child’s consciousness and remains in him as his nature. By watching their daily behavior when they are together or apart, when they are at our center our outside of it, in daycare centers or schools, we can see that they behave differently, and have a special, refined inner quality – spirituality. Their similarity to the Upper Force guarantees them success and safety in our world.

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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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Questions I received on distracting thoughts, the desires of others, the right focus, and how to ask questions:

Question: What do Kabbalists do with distracting thoughts and the constant chatter that goes on in the brain?

My Answer: Get more involved in studying and writing articles. And it’s best to do this with others. It is written: “Regardless of how much the Serpent stings you, study the Torah.”

Question: We’re supposed to attach others’ desires to us, but which desires? When we make actions of bestowal, we are actually fulfilling the egoistic desires of others, so we’re in fact developing their egoism.

My Answer: “Others” are your friends in the group who understand your actions and also behave this way toward you. In order to reveal the Creator, it is necessary to create a common desire for Him. That is to say, in order to reveal the property of love and bestowal, it’s necessary to combine the desires of every person together into a common desire.

The sensation of the common desire for bestowal and love is the Creator’s manifestation in us! It brings the feeling of perfection, eternity, and harmony. However, when you are with others who don’t have a point in the heart, you have to behave just like they do.

Question: If the Creator became distanced and concealed from us in order to correct us, then in the process of returning to Him, should we be thinking and aspiring for attainment and revelation, or for correction?

My Answer: These are the same, since one acquires the property of love and bestowal.

Question: At one of your lessons you said that you want to teach us to ask questions correctly. Sometimes you tell your students that they’re “smart alecs.” So what does it mean to ask a question during the lesson? What should the question be?

My Answer: A question has to be exactly on the lesson’s topic, in order to help all the friends understand the topic better. It shouldn’t be something that interests only the person asking it.

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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

Related Material:
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A question I received: How do you remain true to the principle “love thy neighbor as thyself” when there’s a war going on and you have to fire a gun at your neighbor, who became your enemy for some reason and now wants to kill you?

My Answer: There are precise laws of behavior for this situation and they are described in the Torah. When the law states that you have to kill someone in a specific situation, then you have to do this, and you don’t have the right to avoid doing it. The reverse is also true.

There are states when the death of a person’s body is his correction. The principle “love thy neighbor as thyself” has to be understood in regard to the relationship between the souls, rather than the bodies.

[In the above photo: I am walking next to soldiers of the Chilean junta. By the way, “junta” means “group” – and it’s what our Chilean friends call themselves.]

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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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Questions I received on pity, being judgmental, dreams, and the love of fairy tales:

Question: Why do we feel pity for puppies, kittens, elderly people, the crippled, and so on? What is pity?

My Answer: Always start at the beginning, from the initial premise – we are egoists. Therefore, our pity is egoistic. It’s one’s sensation of suffering, or the fear of suffering.

Question: I often get into the situation where the minute I’m judgmental of someone and say “I would never do what they did,” things suddenly take a turn so that I end up doing exactly what I thought I’d never do. When I’m judgmental of others, I end up in the same situation as them.

My Answer: It is written: “Don’t judge others until you are in their place.” You are being shown who you really are. You should learn about yourself from others, since you only notice all the negative things in them because you also have the same properties.

Question: Dear Rav, what happens to the thoughts, desires, and especially the will during the hours when the physical body rests?

My Answer: They are uploaded into the system in one’s brain that sorts them, and then into one’s memory. At this time one may experience them in the form of dreams, which are removed from reality and therefore the situations in them are fantastical.

Question: Are there people who meet and stay together forever? Does one have to realize something very important to deserve such happiness?

My Answer: We are becoming more and more egoistic. In our time people are realizing their inability to love and be faithful. This is happening so we will realize that it’s necessary to correct egoism, and then we will deserve happiness. Two people with a well developed egoism can meet and stay together forever only in our dreams.

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I had a meeting that was recorded with Avi Blizovsky, the editor of Israel’s popular-science website Erudite.

Avi is a well known popular science writer. Like many scientists I speak to, for the first half an hour or so he had a hard time envisioning the possibility that the world can be perceived somehow other than through the five senses. This perception is much too habitual and obvious to all, even scientists.

But as we kept talking, he began to understand what kind of science Kabbalah is – one that perceives the world in a different manner, not “within oneself” – egoistically, but “outside of oneself” – altruistically.

He is an avid follower of Darwin and a lover of all sciences. Since we in Bnei Baruch believe that Kabbalah dissemination is the only method of correcting the world, we have to continue having such meetings and patiently explaining to people that Kabbalah is a science about perceiving reality without the limitations of one’s animate body and the five senses.

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Two questions I received on the soul:

Question: After everything that has been said, I still don’t understand – does the soul exist? You said that we don’t have a soul and that we need to develop the point in the heart, which will evolve into a soul. On the other hand, you said that the soul incarnates into a body. So do we have a soul or not? Are we the soul? If not, then what are we?

My Answer: We are the animate level of the will to be filled by pleasure, or the will to receive pleasure. Inside this will to receive arises the will to bestow pleasure, or in other words – the will to be filled with the property of bestowal. This desire is called “the point in the heart.” As its name indicates, the point in the heart is small and does not have room in which it can feel fulfillment from bestowal. It is clothed by the “heart” – desires of the animate (bodily) and social levels, desires for the pleasures of our world.

If we develop this point through the influence of the Upper Light (which descends during Kabbalah study by the authentic sources, especially when studying in the group) until the smallest necessary size – the first ten Sefirot, then inside these Sefirot we will discover the property of bestowal, Ohr Hozer, and pleasure from bestowal, Ohr Hassadim.

Hence, the soul is the property of bestowal, according to the definition: “The soul is a part of the Creator from above.” It is the degree of one’s similarity to the Creator. But as long as we haven’t acquired the smallest property of bestowal, we remain animals.

Question: My husband is Jewish and I am not, and he tries to practice his belief. But from him and many rabbis I have been told that we cannot belong together because my soul is not pure. I tend to disagree – I have a soul and I think I am here to repair and prepare my soul for the Upper World.

My Answer: Tell him that neither of you have a soul. However, you already have the rudiment of the soul coming through – the point in the heart, but he still doesn’t have anything. And even if the point in the heart will also emerge in him, it will be much worse than yours because his point once fell from the spiritual level into the egoistic level, which makes it impure (Klipa), whereas yours is better in comparison to his because it has never been in the spiritual world and hence it did not fall from it. It is written, “When Israel falls (from the spiritual level of love and bestowal, which happened during the fall of the Temple), it is worse than everyone (its egoism is worse than the egoism of all the nations of the world), and when it rises (becomes corrected), it becomes higher than everyone.”

In addition, your husband is obligated to correct himself quickly, and then to help you and the entire world to correction (this is the meaning of Ohr Le Goim – being a Light onto the nations). See “The Preface to the Book of Zohar,” items 70 and 71. Hence, before he is corrected, you are better than him. And after the correction, everyone is equal.

My Comment: Religion believes that a person does not have to correct himself through the commandments, but just observe them. It says that one does not have to change from being an egoist to loving his neighbor.

The reason for this is that religion does not have the instrument of correction, the Upper Light, the Light of the Torah. It is written: “I created egoism and I created the Torah for its correction” – and only Kabbalah engages in this. This is why religion does not urge people to observe the main condition of the Torah – “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” but instead tells everyone to egoistically follow as many prescriptions as possible.

The deception of it is that there is actually no reward for following them! The only possible reward one can have is to come closer to the Creator – to attain adhesion (Dvekut) with Him. And this is only possible through similarity to Him, and cannot be attained through any action other than Kabbalah study!

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A question I received: A few months ago I started studying Kabbalah with the Ari Online classes for beginners. I am proud to say I have already watched twenty two lessons! I’m now beginning to understand that I need a group and a teacher in order to gain a better perception of the study material (I already have the books). The problem is that my wife is opposed to my studies, and our relationship is very uneasy at the moment, although I am doing everything I can to save our marriage. I have registered for the Congress that will be held in the United Kingdom from the 7th to the 9th of November, but my wife is absolutely against me going. She believes that family bonds are much more important than my studies, or my “hobby,” as she likes to call it. What should I do? How can I explain to her that I need to study Kabbalah and attend the Congress?

My Answer: If she sees that you love her, but you also have something else that’s important to you in this life, then she has to come to terms with it and accept it with love. If she doesn’t, then what kind of a friend and companion is she, if she egoistically wants to dominate over your entire life? It is written, “A man can sacrifice everything in this world, except his soul,” because one’s soul belongs to the Creator, and he is obligated to return it to Him (to grow close and adhere to Him through equivalence of form). This is the only case when a man would be justified in getting a divorce – if staying married will mean that he has to live in this world in vain.

Test yourself and the Creator, for He is one, and everything comes from Him. If you are serious about the path you have chosen (and I emphatically stress this point) and are willing to leave your wife for it, and if you have explained it to her and she still doesn’t concede, then she’s not the right life partner for you.

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