Two questions I received on why people sometimes stray from the right path and what to do when it happens to you

Question: Why do people sometimes drop out of the group? Do they leave on their own, or does the group somehow influence them to make them leave?

My Answer: One’s only freedom is to participate in the group. If one does this, then he advances toward the Creator, and if he doesn’t – then he leaves the group. However, it’s also possible that a person isn’t given the freedom to participate in the group, but rather, he simply exists in it. Our archive contains many talks on this topic. In the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” items 3 and 4, Baal HaSulam writes that the Creator brings a person to the group and teacher, and his freedom of will then lies in strengthening his connection with them. But if a person’s desire for the purpose of life isn’t ripe yet, then he leaves or “wanders away” from the group.

Question: Dear Rav, suppose that a student was in the group, he really advanced and understood the inner part of the study, and raised a MAN, but then he fell into the state, “His wisdom exceeded his actions.” Can he still regain the property of “faith above reason” and the skills needed for spiritual work, get back on the path, and cross the Machsom?

My Answer: Don’t despair – the path is available to everyone. This student should continue advancing from the state he is in, but he should advance toward the goal honestly, rather than through deceit. (You got it!?)

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Is Not for the Weak
Laitman.com Post: There Is No Coercion in Spirituality
Laitman.com Post: Be Happy about the Descents!
Laitman.com Post: Practical Advice by Rabash
Laitman.com Post: Questions from Pharaoh – Our Egoism (Advanced)
Laitman.com Post: Only the Upper Light’s Influence Can Give You the Importance of the Group
Society as a Condition for Attaining Spirituality

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

Below are some quotes by Albert Einstein that reveal some parallels between his conclusions and the principles explained in Kabbalah:

• Man’s real value is defined by the degree to which he has liberated himself from egoism and by the means he used to attain it.
• A person starts living only when he managed to surpass himself.
• One who wants to see immediate results from his work should become a shoemaker.
• A human being is part of a whole, called by us universe – a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a prison, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Nobody can fulfill this task to the end, but just the efforts to reach this goal are a part of liberation and a foundation for inner confidence.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Einstein on Religion
Laitman.com Post: Does G-d Play Dice with the Universe?

Filed under: Science - 4 Comments →

Two questions I received on women in Kabbalah

Question: Is it true that a woman only lives once and doesn’t reincarnate, and this is why she shouldn’t study Kabbalah?

My Answer: Women must study and correct themselves just like men, but according to the structure of the feminine soul. Women reincarnate just like men do, and incidentally, so does everything that exists, whether it’s on the still, vegetative, or animate level of nature. It’s because the desires of all species and levels must reach their final state – absolute similarity to the property of bestowal!

Question: I had recently started studying Kabbalah and the one thing that I have understood so far is that we are built of desire, and desire is the main theme of our existence. Moreover, I understood that we should not suppress our desires but correct them, so that they serve our Creator. However, what about sexual desires? I love my husband with all my heart and want to spend my life with him, but I can’t help how I feel towards other men. So, my question is – if I should not suppress these desires according to Kabbalah (as I have been doing so far), what approach can I take to channel my desire and make it benefit others and the Creator?

My Answer: You will be able to distribute your desires correctly only by increasing the importance of the goal (the attainment of the Creator), through participating in the common study, group, and dissemination. Your desires will then evoke Ohr Makif – the Upper Light, which will make all the necessary changes in you, bringing you to peace and harmony.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Men’s and Women’s Desires
Laitman.com Post: The Woman’s Correction
Laitman.com Post: Is Correction Possible without a Man?
Laitman.com Post: Woman = Desire
Laitman.com Post: Women’s Spiritual Progress
Laitman.com Post: Time to Shift Our Attention
Laitman.com Post: This Is How I Am
Laitman.com Post: Men and Women in Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: Women in Kabbalah

Filed under: Women - No Comments →

The Creator’s connection with creation is like playing tennis against the wall. The Upper Governance is unchanging: The Creator is Good and Does Good, and He treats all of us this way all of the time. The changes take place only in us, even though we think that they take place outside us. It says in the “Preface to the Book of Zohar,” item 34:

“We see a great world before us, and all its wondrous filling. But in fact, we do not see all that except in our own interior. In other words, there is a sort of a photographic machine in our hindbrain that portrays everything that appears to us, and nothing outside of us.

In our brain, there is a kind of polished mirror that inverts everything that is seen there, so that we see it outside our brain, in front of our face. Despite the fact that what we see outside us is not a real thing, we should still thank His providence for having made that polished mirror in our brain, enabling us to see and perceive everything outside us. This is because by that, He had given us the power to perceive everything with clear perception and knowledge, and measure everything from within and from without. Without it, we would lose most of our perception.

The same holds true with the Godly will for Godly perceptions. Even though the changes are all made in the interior of the souls, they nevertheless see it all in the Giver Himself, because only in this manner are they awarded all the perceptions and the pleasantness in the thought of creation. Even though we actually see every thing before our face, still, everyone reasonable knows with certainty that all that we see is only inside our own brain.

The same holds true for the souls. Though they see all the changes in the Giver, they still have no doubt that all these are only in their own interior, and not at all in the Giver.”

So essentially, you are playing with yourself and receiving feedback depending on your own obstacles and confusion. All of this is you.

All the changes happen inside man, who stands opposite absolute love and bestowal. He always sees, analyzes and feels only himself. Everything we feel is a realization of Reshimot in the Upper Light. All of man’s reality is essentially a tennis game against the wall. And we are always playing against this wall.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Light is Everything That’s Received in the Kli
Laitman.com Post: The Creator Is the Corrected You
Kabbalah Today Article: I Saw a Reversed World
Lessons on the “Preface to the Book of Zohar”

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

Four questions I received on supernatural phenomena

Question: Why do we always see the same side of the moon?

My Answer: Because this is how Malchut is positioned relative Zeir Anpin in the World of Atzilut. Forces descend to us from the World of Atzilut and this is how they manifest in the matter of our world. After all, everything taking place in our world is determined by the Upper Force, which originates from ZO”N of the World of Atzilut. A micro-dose of this force begot our entire universe, by breaking through to our material level from the Upper Level. It gradually became coarser and decreased its speed of operation, and hence produced energy and then matter. So matter exists only because of the Upper Energy present in it, or in other words – “by the word of G-d.” And it exists only in order to realize the “word of G-d” in matter – this is what man must do, since he combines both types of energy, the spiritual and the material. And after this will happen, the universe will cease its current existence, which is an egoistic co-existence (or opposition) of these energies. Incidentally, science now confirms that the universe isn’t infinite or eternal (although when I was in school, we learned that it is infinite and eternal).

Question: Does the notion of Satan exist in Kabbalah?

My Answer: Satan is one of the egoistic forces residing within a person. All forces exist only within the person, and they are all egoistic.

Question: As a Kabbalist, can you tell whether time travel is possible?

My Answer: It’s not possible in the physical sense. However, it is a normal phenomenon in the spiritual space, which is entirely above time, space and motion – as Einstein said, because it is higher than our light, and exists in the spiritual Light.

Question: Does Kabbalah agree that man has an aura?

My Answer: Yes. An aura is a field of energy that surrounds every creature, whether still, vegetative or animate. But it bears no relation to spirituality. Moreover, it’s impossible for a person who hasn’t attained the quality of bestowal by studying Kabbalah, to see spirituality, the quality of bestowal, but any person or camera can see and photograph the aura.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Does G-d Play Dice With the Universe?
Kabbalah Today Article: Creation, Evolution and Beyond

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

News Story (translated from 1tv.ru): “Lately there have been many publications in the mass media claiming that our planet is facing a catastrophe. The panic is caused by the announcement that a gigantic particle accelerator is about to be launched. Scientists refer to this construction, which is positioned one hundred meters into the ground, as the greatest achievement of human thought. They say that the accelerator will help us reveal many secrets of the universe. But this unique experiment also has many opponents, who believe that excessive inquiring into the secrets of matter and anti-matter will entail a global threat to humanity.”

My Answer: All our actions, as well as what comes before and after, are contained in the Creator’s plan from the beginning. They emerge there, appear in us as thoughts, and became transformed into actions, which we also carry out according to the Creator’s program. All of us are always in Him! Desires and thoughts descend to us from above, but we think they’re ours because their Source is concealed from us. “Our” desires and thoughts descend from above, from the Creator, even before we desire or think them, and this is what makes us desire and think the things we do.

Man has a limited perception of what’s happening, and that’s why he thinks that he produces his desires and thoughts on his own, and that he can change things in this world with his physical actions. But in truth, this can only be done from above, through the Creator, the Light, Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light). So I recommend calming down, since the scientists are like puppets and all their actions are dictated by the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Playing Hide ‘n’ Seek with the Creator
Laitman.com Post: Talmud Eser Sefirot – A Study Only for Attaining Revelation

Filed under: Science - 1 Comment →

A question I received: In the last two lessons you gave on the article “The Peace,” you mentioned that people who isolate themselves from society cause harm. So could it be that society is wrong to imprison murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and so on, and should imprison monks and hermits instead?

My Answer: According to the Torah, there should be special asylums and courts for people who cause harm. You can familiarize yourself with these laws – they are harmonious with human nature and the Upper Governance, which forces man to sin in the first place (to murder, steal, and so on), and also controls judges and all kinds of circumstances. However, it wants man to consciously enter this system that governs him through reward and punishment.

We see that forceful imprisonment only increases the number of criminals, and moreover, they perfect their craft while in prison. But as society becomes corrected as a whole, people will start using other methods of punishing and educating. A person who desires correction should not isolate himself from society.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: More Severe Punishments Won’t Make Things Better
Kabbalah Today, Questions & Answers: What Are Reward and Punishment?

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

A question I received: There is a long standing dispute in physics between Einstein and the quantum physicists: Is everything in nature predetermined (determinism) or not (indeterminism)? On one hand, the person performing the experiment affects its outcome; on the other hand, everything in nature is predetermined, as Einstein saw it in the macrocosm. Einstein used to say that “God doesn’t play dice with the universe,” but his friend, a follower of quantum mechanics, would object: “Don’t tell God what to do.” While Einstein perceived nature as God – a very Kabbalistic approach, quantum mechanics insists that the observed depends on the observer – also a very Kabbalistic approach. Einstein would have never agreed with an assumption that God plays dice with the universe, and he managed to construct the gravitation theory, based on determinism. However, he never did anything similar for the realm of the smallest electrons and protons, for electrical fields. He was looking for a universal, single theory of four forces, but didn’t find it, just like to this day the quantum physicists still haven’t attained this either. My question is: Which side does Kabbalah favor in this debate, or does it say that the path doesn’t matter under the condition that you are guided by the Upper Forces?

My Answer: There are two systems that govern us from above – the general and the particular, HaVaYaH and Elokim, and man must combine them inside him by raising his perception above time, space, and movement. Then the contradictions come together and supplement one another. But until then, it’s impossible to answer the question of whether the Creator can create a rock that He can’t lift. For more detail, see the next post (If I Don’t Do It for Myself, Who will Help Me?).

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Einstein on Religion
Kabbalah Today, Editor’s Note: Correcting the Optical Delusion

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: Islam also offers a method of attaining adhesion with the Creator – Sufism. And it’s also based on the same principle as Kabbalah – love thy neighbor. So if the main thing is to correct one’s egoism, to build a screen, then isn’t it possible for a person who’s following Islam to become corrected just like someone following Kabbalah?

My Answer: It’s your right to check and verify which method suits you best. However, you should know that everything comes from Kabbalah – for more on this, see the part of the Torah that talks about how Abraham taught “partial Kabbalah” to the children of his mistresses – meaning Kabbalah without the attainment of the Upper World, and then he sent them to the east. If you checked it for yourself, without believing anyone else and regardless of your ethnic background, and you found that Sufism suits you best, then stay in it – there is no coercion in spirituality.

All faiths and religions came from Kabbalah, from the search for the Creator, in order for man to go through a preliminary development, to prepare him to attain the Creator through studying Kabbalah. It’s written, “The peel (Klipa) protects the fruit” – it protects it from being destroyed until it ripens, and then the peel is removed and the fruit eaten. And this is what’s happening in our time!

Related Material:

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

A question I received: Kabbalah teaches us that this world is just an illusion we depict inside our five senses, which conceals the true reality and the reason why the Creator created us. Since our egoism is related to our body, which is matter clothed in form, and since egoism is evil, then would it be correct to conclude that matter is evil, and our goal is to see beyond it into the spiritual realm? Or even more than that – to transform matter into its spiritual form? The more I study Kabbalah, the more I feel that it’s making me reject what my five senses are telling me. But of course I’m still operating and functioning in this physical world. The force of the physical world is very powerful and seductive, but it’s our obligation to fight against it.

My Answer: You shouldn’t fight against anything, except your own laziness in carrying out the instructions of Kabbalists in order to draw the Upper Light onto yourself. It will correct you, and then you’ll see how the two worlds are included one inside the other, and how everything adds up. Nothing was created in vain, but only to be used correctly. It’s a common human mistake to think that you have to correct yourself. The Upper Light created the desire, and only the Upper Light can change it. Nothing depends on the person, except making the correct plea for the Light to influence him.

Therefore, we are robots in every regard, and our only free action is a MAN – the request for correction – and Kabbalah teaches us how to do this. The fact that a person is completely governed is concealed from him, so that he won’t be coerced into reaching a connection with the Creator, but will reach it voluntarily. However, if we were to see how we are governed, we would immediately and involuntarily turn to the Light, the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What is the Upper Light?
Kabbalah Today Extra: A Prayer

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →