Four questions I received on children and Kabbalah:

Question: My children are six, five, and four years old, and they all love Kabbalistic graphs and charts. I draw these graphs for them on А4 printer paper with colored markers, and explain to them what it means in simple words, relying on material from the books Kabbalah Revealed and Kabbalah for Beginners. Maybe we could create a colorful children’s book with charts and graphs that includes simple explanations? Maybe we can even create a coloring book where children will have to use different color crayons to draw the Kli, the Light, the screen, and so on?

My Answer: I warmly welcome these ideas, and can’t wait to see the books!

Question: Do all Bnei Baruch children really have a point in the heart?

My Answer: No, not all of them.

Question: Then should they be studying the wisdom of Kabbalah?

My Answer: Yes, because it will help them avoid the long path of suffering.

Question: Are all the problems and misunderstandings that I have with my children caused by the fact that I only see the opposite side of their souls? What I mean is that their souls have “passed” through me, and now I see their AHP, but not their GE?

My Answer: You are only connected with your children on the animate level, and not on the spiritual level.

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A question I received: I have been taking part in the lessons offered by Bnei Baruch. It seems to me that I’m a worse person than when I started studying. What am I doing wrong? I believe that I understand the importance of the group, but I don’t feel love for the group per say. Instead I feel this deep and ever widening divide. I’m judgmental and cynical, in my personal life I’m depressed, angry and irritable, and there is no logical rationale for it, but nonetheless I feel all of these emotions strongly. It’s like my mind or one part of me is on one track yet the feeling part of me (which drives me) is on another track headed in the opposite direction, coupled with a love/hate relationship with Kabbalah and the studies. Add to this the fact that I’m confused…

In the lessons we are made to understand that the material we study refers solely to spiritual states, but what is the goal ‘practically’ speaking? What kind of person am I supposed to be?

My Answer: All of us experience states like this, when we assess whether the spiritual growth offered by Kabbalah is correct or even necessary. Right now all of humanity is entering a period of reassessing its values, and this is why it is experiencing a crisis in all areas of life – education, politics, society, family, science, ecology, nature, and so on.

In addition, we are assessing our corporeal existence and the need to add spirituality to it (the revelation of the Upper World and the Creator) in our uncorrected egoistic desires (heart) and thoughts (mind). Your egoism will still go through many “disappointments” on the path of spiritual development, because egoism does not feel any fulfillment on this path, but just the opposite. To develop spiritually, one must eradicate one’s egoism. That is to say, one should not eradicate one’s desires and thoughts, but only their use “for one’s own sake,” changing it to “for the sake of others.”

So how can one advance away from egoism without having egoism’s support on the spiritual path? Egoism is against spirituality, and this is why egoism, our nature, is described as “Help against you,” because eventually it annuls itself. This happens because when you egoistically study Kabbalah in a group, attempting to create a connection with each other, then you attract the Upper Light, which corrects egoism. So the disappointments and descents are just egoism’s perception of the lack of egoistic fulfillment. Your future fulfillment will not come from reception, but from bestowal, from fulfilling others. It will come from the feeling of love and the realization that everyone is connected into one whole.

Hence, the only thing that will bring you to the goal – the eternal goal of creation, is persistent study, participation in the group, and dissemination, in spite of your egoism – “As an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.” All the Shamati articles speak about this, so always keep reading them. And remember – this path can only be surmounted by those who walk it!

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A question I received: Can you say more about the meaning of man being created in the image of his Creator? Kabbalah says that image means imprint, as in an impression taken by a mold to make a mask or as in a signet ring, where the Upper Force is the ring design and mankind is the wax imprint which is opposite in form (or essence) to the Creator. It is much more common in my society to be taught that we are made in the image of God, like that is a good thing, as in the saying “he is the spitting image of his father.” The whole of Kabbalah seems to me to stand on this definition of the word “image,” so I believe it is very necessary to explain the definition of the Hebrew word for “image” in terms that come from the source texts, including Genesis.

My Answer: The Light (pleasure) imprinted itself in the desire, thereby creating a matching desire that wants to be filled by It. Then the Light revealed its “bestowing” essence to this “desire to be filled,” thus showing the desire Its opposite nature. This compelled the desire to become equivalent to the Light – to become “bestowing.”

We are the ones going through this process, whether involuntarily or voluntarily. We go through it involuntary until a desire to do it voluntarily awakens in us. We then involuntarily come to Kabbalah – the method of becoming similar to the Creator voluntarily.

When one begins to implement the equivalence to the Creator voluntarily, one then takes control of himself and his world. Everyone will attain this, whether by suffering or by understanding that it’s necessary, and then by realization and love.

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A question I received: The first revelation of evil (egoism) and the perception of the property of the Creator which follows it are very powerful. When you experience this for the first time you start running after your Beloved nonstop. But as time goes by and you put the needed amount of efforts into it (and maybe even more), this quality gradually disappears. You start to relax and to doubt that it ever happened.

How do you reveal the evil of the following degree? How do you avoid becoming relaxed? How do you follow the Creator’s desire and keep advancing? If one was brought into this world and “awakened,” then this couldn’t have happened in vain. One can’t continue living like before. So how do you “climb” out of this world again? I would really like to receive an answer to my question, even though you have said many times that one attains the real answer in his soul.

My Answer: You have described everything correctly and vividly. Previously you were not advancing by your own efforts, but by the desire that you received from above – the point in the heart. However, now in order to develop this point into the ten Sefirot and to perceive the Upper Light or the Upper World in the ten Sefirot, you have to make your own efforts. Now you will have to go through the exhausting period of accumulating efforts and perceptions, and of self analysis. The only things that can help are:

1. Patience
2. Exaltation of the goal
3. The realization of your inability to change on your own
4. Confidence in the Light of Correction.

All of these can only be received from the right environment (see Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom”).

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Questions I received on how to get through the difficult times on the path:

Question: You live and work, raise your children, and study Kabbalah for a hobby. Everything is good. You even think that you’re successfully managing your life in both worlds – this world and the spiritual world. But suddenly you lose your job, your house, and your savings, and in addition someone in your family gets very sick. And for some reason, along with this world, your “spiritual world” falls apart too. Does this mean that everything you attained in spirituality was only a higher form of egoism, a desire for knowledge?

My Answer: This only means one thing: your conditions for advancement have changed, and now you are being offered new conditions for advancement. Why? Because this is how the common desire (the common soul) develops, and you are one of its parts (a particular soul). If you don’t want to advance under the new conditions, then you will leave the path of individual development, and from then on you will be led down the general path of suffering, “forced to happiness.”

Question: “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! Wherefore would ye have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light!” (Amos, 5:18) Initially the Light blinds all of our senses and seems like total darkness. However, this darkness is useful for one who aspires toward spirituality, since it shuts off all egoistic aspirations, and one’s egoism loses all interest in spirituality. And only one who keeps on stubbornly moving toward the Goal, “harnessed” together with Rav and the Creator, receives support, assistance and instruction. He then surmounts this part of the path, “the darkness of the night.”

I must admit that I am still a denizen of this world – the world of darkness, and I need the Light in order to acquire “sight,” the ability to see in the world of Light. My question is: What else can a student of yours add to all that he is already doing to attain this?

My Answer: Only more efforts to unite all aspirations toward one goal. It’s because the Creator, the quality of love and bestowal, is revealed only in the unified desire to be together in one desire, to reveal the property of love and bestowal between the souls.

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Two questions I received on women, love and egoism:

Question: In one of your talks you mentioned that women know how to love or have this ability and men don’t. If we all egoistic, then what kind of love can women give?

My Answer: Egoistic love. A woman can take care of the people whom she egoistically loves or respects.

Question: Dear Rav, I have been studying Kabbalah for some time. I realize fully that I am totally egocentric and hope that the Creator will help me with this. But I also seem to note more than ever the egocentrism of other people in my every day life and I really don’t like it. What can I do to overcome judgment and be at least polite to them if not compassionate, which I find very hard to do?

My Answer: What you are seeing in others is your own reflection, according to the rule “Everyone who condemns others, condemns himself.” However, if you loved them, then you would love their egoism as well – just like you would a baby of yours.

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Two questions I received on how to act in the group and outside of it:

Question: It’s great that everyone annuls themselves before the goal. But should one do it according to how the majority acts? Do some people know what is best for the group more than others?

My Answer: The proper way to act when you are alone and when you are in the group follows from the laws of nature. It’s because we are all part of nature and there are laws governing all our desires, thoughts, and actions. We have to know these laws and follow them, and then we will feel absolutely comfortable – we will feel that our existence is eternal and perfect, just like Nature or the Creator.

Question: Is it correct to annul myself before my friends who aren’t studying Kabbalah and have nothing to do with it?

My Answer: You should definitely not act Kabbalistically toward anyone outside of the group. When you are outside of the group, you have to act just like everyone else! It is written, “Love your neighbor as yourself!” This means that you shouldn’t just love anyone, but only your neighbor according to your aspirations and your goal.

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A question I received: You said that men are polygamous by nature and are always looking for new sensations. In the past every man had several wives, and he would buy a new wife whenever he wanted one. There was no love involved in this, and sometimes men and women did not even know each other before being married. This is also the reason why men today cheat, get divorced, and find new wives.

On the other hand, you speak about spiritual marriage – man, woman, and the Shechina between them. How is it possible to attain the presence of the Creator between a man and a woman in the spiritual marriage if the modern man always needs new experiences with different women (today this is called cheating).

This is very painful and difficult to accept. Please help us, women, understand men’s behavior. Why is it so difficult for us to accept the fact that men are always attracted to other women? Do men do this because of some anomaly? Or is it just natural for them to constantly need new women, and it’s us, women, who are so uncorrected that we simply cannot understand their needs?

My Answer: This is the curse of egoism, which we fell into from the spiritual level. God said to the woman: “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” So my advice to you is: Don’t look for truth, justice, loyalty, and love in marital relationships. They aren’t there from the beginning, and they can’t be there – the Torah warns you of this. Quit trying to resolve the mess in the physical world, and instead aspire toward correction. As a result of it, your relationships will be corrected as well.

You have to understand that egoistic nature cannot be changed, and everyone suffers from it until they rise above it. You should transfer your worries from the corporeal level to the level where you realize “Why did the Creator do this?” It is in order to push you toward correction!

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Filed under: Body and Soul, Crisis, Economy, Internet, Love, Q&A, Spiritual Work - 2 Comments →

News Report (translated from www.YNet.co.il): The philosophy department is being closed down! Representatives of the Department of Humanities at Tel Aviv University have announced that they are considering not opening the registration to the Department of Philosophy for the coming school year.

My Comment: We are living in a truly remarkable time! For thousands of years our lives were ruled by human speculation about the essence and meaning of life, and now we are finally reaching the correct conclusion, which coincides with the opinion of Kabbalah – that philosophy has only harmed us all along.

I understand how cruel my words may seem to those who don’t know about the opposition between Kabbalah and philosophy, but I still hope that the closing of the philosophy department at a local university will rouse some interest in you to read Baal HaSulam’s article “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy.” To me, an event such as the closing of the philosophy department is a sign from above!

Baal HaSulam. “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy” (selected excerpts)

Philosophy has gone through a great deal of trouble to prove that corporeality is the offspring of spirituality and that the soul begets the body – and this is their primary mistake. The meaning of the word “spirituality” has nothing to do with philosophy. How can they discuss something that they have never seen or felt?

Philosophy loves to pride itself in understanding all about His essence. Philosophy has generally worn a mantle that is not its own, for it has pilfered definitions from the wisdom of Kabbalah, and made delicacies with its human understanding. If it had not been for that, they would never have thought of fabricating such acumen.

We will still have to regard only the tangible reality. This erring of separating the operator from the operation comes from the Figurative Philosophy, which insisted on proving that the spiritual act influences the corporeal operation.

The opinion of Kabbalah in this matter is crystal clear, excluding any mixture of philosophy. That is because it is the opinion of the sages of Kabbalah that even the separated spiritual entities, which philosophy denies having any corporeality and displays them as purely conceptual substance, although they are indeed spiritual, more sublime and abstract, consist of a body and soul just like the physical human.

Their thoughts are not our thoughts, for the way of the sages of the Kabbalah is one of finding actual proof of attainment, making its revocation through intellectual pondering impossible.

Philosophy fabricated that the different individuals are not combined materials (Kabbalah believes that everything consists of two forces, the vessel and the Light).

The old philosophy presents three opinions as obstacles before my explanation:
1. Their decision that the power of the human intellect is the eternal soul, man’s essence.
2. Their conjecture that the body is an upshot of the soul.
3. Their saying that spiritual people are simple and not complex.

Not only is it the wrong place to argue with them about their fabricated conjectures, but also their time has already passed and their authority revoked. We should also thank the experts of materialistic psychology for that, having built its plinth on the ruin of the former, winning the public’s favor. Now everyone admits to the nullity of philosophy, for it is not built on concrete foundations.

The old doctrine became a stumbling rock and a deadly thorn to the sages of Kabbalah. Where they should have subdued before the sages of Kabbalah and taken upon themselves abstinence and prudence prior to admittance to even the slightest thing in spirituality, they received what they had wanted easily from the figurative philosophy. Without payment or a price they have watered them from their fountain of wisdom to satiation, and refrained from delving in the wisdom of Kabbalah. As a consequence, the wisdom has almost been forgotten from among Israel.

For that reason we are grateful to materialistic psychology for having beaten it a deadly blow.

Therefore, there was not a salvation for Israel as at the time when the materialistic psychology appeared and struck theological philosophy on its head a lethal blow.

Now, every person who seeks the Lord must bring Kabbalah back to its throne – and restore its past glory.

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Questions I received on how the physical commandments of Judaism relate to spiritual correction:

Question: You explained that the 613 commandments of Judaism are actually 613 desires. However, isn’t there a danger that people will then prefer spiritual development to observance of physical actions, and then they will fall into the other extreme? Previously people neglected the inner part of the Torah and performed only the physical actions, but now they will do the opposite – drop the outer observance and focus only on the inner meaning. What will happen then?

I used to observe the commandments and could not find the harmony in it. One day I came across www.kab.tv and it made me realize that my hunch was correct – that I was doing only the outer actions just like I was taught as a child. It is very difficult to observe the commandments without feeling the truth in them. Nevertheless, the holy Ari passionately observed all of the commandments relating to the Sabbath. Can you comment on the harmony between inner and outer observance of the commandments?

My Answer: Your personal search will bring you to the right answer. You have to find it on your own. Every person creates his own environment, comprised of physical actions and spiritual aspirations. It may range anywhere from observing the physical actions to the fullest, to not observing them at all. In any case, the most important thing is – “The entire correction is carried out only in thought” (HaKol be Mahshava Itbareru).

Question: In one of your books it says that before the fall of second Temple, our contact with the spiritual forces was more significant and closer because of the Temple and the services held there. To me, this indicates that the rituals in our world play a major role in attaining the spiritual world.

My Answer: This means that back then people performed the action of love and bestowal in all of its manifestations, in every way possible, both on the outside and the inside.

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