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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Kabbalah for Children – Latest Articles

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Two questions I received on suffering:

Question: Why do our five senses feel our lack of similarity to spirituality as suffering?

My Answer: It’s because our senses are desires for fulfillment. They were fulfilled in the World of Infinity and were later emptied due to the breaking – the common soul’s separation into a multitude of separate parts or souls. Each soul has recollections (Reshimot) of the past fulfillment, and these Reshimot are now awakening and demanding fulfillment.

What you call suffering is this emptiness you are feeling. When you change your attitude to the sensation of suffering, then you will experience it as fulfillment and happiness. Our attitude or intention can change everything.

The actual state we’re in is static and constant; the only thing that changes is our attitude to it. It determines whether we feel ourselves as being in this world – in the concealment of the Creator, or in His revelation – on the degrees of the five worlds, or in the World of Infinity.

Question: What should I do if my only appeal to the Creator is: “Give me strength not to hate you,” and if despite my work in the group, dissemination, and lessons, the only thing I feel is that my situation at home is getting much worse, my economic circumstances are constantly deteriorating (and I can’t even find a job), and so on. I suddenly started feeling completely estranged from the Creator. Is it normal for Kabbalah to bring material devastation?

My Answer: Rabash told me how difficult it was for him to find work, and how many times he had to change jobs, which included being a shoemaker, a concrete worker, a scribe and a servant.

You must have the same attitude to this as everyone else, but at the same time, regularly (according to a set schedule) continue engaging in that for which you are living in this world – the correction of your soul. Be a little more humble – think that everything comes from the Creator, and the only thing you desire is to feel that this is so.

Related Material:
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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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The World Kli News, 08-24-08
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSgwbe9XkZE]

The World Kli News, 08-31-08
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-Uxty25ZpE]

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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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Two questions I received on who can study Kabbalah:

Question: In your blog entry Get a Job you say, “Actually, Kabbalah obligates a person to get a job, get married and only then study Kabbalah.” What does “study Kabbalah” mean? Don’t children study it in many groups? So I’m wondering what “study Kabbalah” means. I think that “study Kabbalah” means the more in depth study, the full study, not the study of human interaction and coexistence with one another that the kids are involved in.

My Answer: Kabbalists write that in our time there are no bans on studying Kabbalah, and it can be studied at any age. The children will grow up, get married, and start working with the knowledge in depth. The world is made in such way that a person must “establish himself according to nature” (get married, work, and so on), and only then can he begin discerning his differences from the Creator and correcting them.

Question: I have never asked myself what I am living for, but I want to study Kabbalah. Can I do it?

My Answer: Rav Kook and other Kabbalists write that there are no restrictions on studying Kabbalah. Even if you don’t have questions, you can study in a group according to the principle, “You’ll work up an appetite once you start eating.” You will acquire the group’s aspiration for the search of the meaning of life. The environment influences the individual, and hence you will also begin to feel your point in the heart and will include your desire into the common ascent!

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Kabbalah Today Article: “Avraham Isaac HaCohen Kook (1865-1935)”

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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.

Related Material:
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A question I received: I have been studying Kabbalah for a long time and I really enjoy it. I am also writing a book that examines Kabbalah from different perspectives. I have a million questions for you, but will start with just one: would it be good to restore royal government in Russia?

My Answer: I have been receiving many letters from my students in the entire Caucasus region because of the recent events happening there. Even though I don’t usually get involved in politics or think in corporeal terms, as if something is actually happening here, nevertheless I will talk about this in regular language in order to show how the Upper Forces reflect in our actions.

The Russian people are smart, sensitive, and even special in heart and mind, but they aren’t able to govern themselves (as the Russian saying goes: “The master will come and decide what to do”). They weren’t able to do it over the course of their entire history. The only period when Russia prospered was when it was governed by the tsars – from Peter the Great until the last tsar.

Most of these tsars weren’t Russian, but came from the West, and they directed Russia toward the Western path of development. During that time almost all of Russia’s ministers, as well as Russian culture, were “Western.” And this didn’t impede Russia’s development, but rather facilitated the development of Russian culture, literature, and industry – the foundation of Russia, which was created in the nineteenth century. In essence, Russia was built by Europe, but instead of being suppressed by Western influence, Russian culture, Orthodoxy, and science developed beautifully!

Hence, Russia’s present separation from Europe is suicide for it! Russia should imitate the European parliament and government to the letter, with the help of experienced European specialists, the way it did during Tsarist Russia. It cannot manage on its own, since it lacks the experience of the West, whose history and development go back thousands of years. By showcasing its exclusivity, Russia goes against the Upper Force. Hence, this country will once again develop unsuccessfully.

Incidentally, the Jews in Israel have the opposite problem: they are striving to be like the West, but according to their Upper Goal they must strive to create a spiritual society and become an example for the entire world. This is why the Upper Force is against them.

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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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