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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Baal HaSulam Article: “The Revelation of Godliness (Matan Torah)”

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A question I received: You once explained that anti-Semitism comes from the subconscious feeling that the nations of the world have towards Israel, since Israel isn’t fulfilling its function and is hence preventing the world from being happy. Is this similar to the way many secular people from the nation of Israel hate the Orthodox, since they don’t do what they are meant to do?

My Answer: The secular Jews of Israel hate the Orthodox because:

• The Orthodox Jews evade army service, while everyone else is required to serve;
• Religion intervenes in politics in order to gain government resources and privileges;
• The Orthodox blatantly express their proud and arrogant attitude toward the secular Jews, because they feel like they are doing God’s will and are special, and hence everyone should be grateful to them for their lifestyle.

This phenomenon is typical only in Israel, where it emerged as a result of the religious, political and social pressure. It is certainly inflicting great harm to the religion, although the religion itself bears no relation to this phenomenon. Never in our history did the masses experience a religious dictate, because we never held national authority but were governed by other nations.

In countries where religion is entirely separate from the government, there is no possibility for religion to be imposed on its citizens as it is in Israel. Hence, in those countries, the relationship between the secular and religious Jews is amiable, or at least not hostile.

Based on the above, we can see that this phenomenon differs from anti-Semitism at the root.

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Questions I received on the role of Israel in the world and how Europe compares to the United States:

Question: You speak a lot of how Israel has to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah to the ‘nations of the world’ but currently is not doing this. My question is: What happens if Israel does not do this sooner rather than later – does my spiritual development as a gentile become sacrificed? What happens if the point in the heart arises in others before it does in Jews?

My Answer: Then the nations of the world will use force and pressure to make the Jews reveal Kabbalah to them.

Question: How can it be that the economy of the nation of Israel is prospering unlike the rest of the world, considering that the people living there are responsible for the horrible crisis that the world is in?

My Answer: In our time the blows aren’t measured by hunger or money, but by inner problems and the sensation of emptiness – an unfulfilled Kli! The developed and wealthy countries top the charts when it comes to depression, drugs, and suicide.

Question: My question is about the European Union. Why hasn’t Europe succeeded in unifying as well as the United States? Is Europe more egoistic than the US?

My Answer: The problem of creating something new is that you first have to the destroy the old. We can abandon the old state and create a new one only when we recognize that the current state is so evil that it becomes impossible for us to remain in it. Europe hasn’t reached this realization yet. As for America, it was created out of nothing and by combined efforts, since people didn’t have any other choice.

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Article – “Why Kabbalah? Why Now?”

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News Report (translated from mignews.com): “Recently a report was published by Dr. Richard Cravatts of Boston University, who analyzed the results of a survey on the world’s most hated countries. The survey, which was administered on college campuses around the globe, revealed that Israel is the most hated country in the world. No one was surprised by this, but Dr. Cravatts decided to take a closer look at the causes behind this phenomenon.

He reached the following conclusions: 60 years after the establishment of the Jewish State, its right to exist continues to be questioned. Jews are accused of stealing the Palestinian lands, and of brutal and unlawful occupation. Israel is considered the greatest threat to world peace.”

Why does the world view Israel this way? Why do the Palestinians have the right to personal identity, but Israel does not?

My Answer: This is happening because as long as Israel remains in its present non-spiritual form, it really does bring harm onto everyone, and the world subconsciously feels this. Baal HaSulam writes in item 71 of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” that if Israel does not fulfill its calling in our times, then it makes the nations of the world feel that it is unnecessary and harmful to the world. Israel must give the method of correction to the world, or else the world will enter the ultimate crisis.

We received an opportunity to establish the State of Israel in order to assemble the nation according to the Biblical rule – “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and in so doing to provide the world with an example of the new society. However, instead we are showing the world the opposite of what it subconsciously expects from us.

If we do not change soon, then we will cease our existence as a “state” and a “nation.” I put them in quotes because neither actually exist right now. However, there is an opportunity to create them, provided that we let the wisdom of Kabbalah show us how to do it, as this was the conduct of our nation before it was destroyed.

Related Material:
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Baal HaSulam Article: “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 71
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The Corrected Society
Accepting the law, “Love your friend as yourself,” word for word.
Just division of the profits so each will work according to ability and will receive according to need.
Public opinion should be based on “Love your friend as yourself,” so one who receives more than one’s needs will be considered a killer.

Transformation
The will to receive, imprinted in every creature, is in disparity of form from the Creator. Hence, one’s soul is separated from Him, since disparity of form separates in spirituality. It is therefore clear that what the Creator wants of us is equivalence of form, at which time we will cling to Him once more, as prior to our creation.

This is why Kabbalists said that one must cleave to the attributes of the Creator – “as He is merciful, so you are merciful” – so all our actions will be only to bestow upon our fellow person to the best of our ability. This is how we achieve the goal of cleaving to the Creator, equalizing with Him.

What one must do for oneself, in the necessary measure for the sustenance of oneself and one’s family, is not considered disparity of form, since “necessity is neither praised nor condemned.”
All these conditions will arise in the days of the Messiah. And when they accept this lesson we will be awarded complete redemption. [Read more →]

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A question I received: Why do you reveal all of this secret knowledge to gentiles?

My Answer: I suggest that you familiarize yourself with the original sources: Baal HaSulam’s articles “Messiah’s Horn” and “The Arvut.”

A mutual guarantee (Arvut) among a single nation is capable of initiating the correction of the whole world. Likewise, all nations are incapable of carrying out this correction simultaneously. It is as the sages said: The Creator offered the Torah to all nations (through Abraham in ancient Babylon), but they declined the offer, because the magnitude of their egoism, their self-love, made it impossible for them to accept it.

Thus, Abraham created a group of Babylonians (people with desires for spirituality) who were ready and willing to renounce their egoism, and this group became known as the nation of Israel. The only difference between the Babylonians in this group and other Babylonians of that era was that Abraham’s group accepted upon themselves the method of rising above their egoism. Moreover, Abraham, who was a Babylonian priest, became the first Kabbalist. Therefore, by accepting upon themselves the required guarantee (Arvut), the nation of Israel was obligated to be the chosen people among all other nations.

In any case, the correction of the whole world will take place when all nations unite in their aspiration toward the Creator, and the Creator will reveal Himself to all nations. It is as it is written: “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Creator, and all of the nations will flock to Him.” As such, the nation of Israel holds the responsibility for leading humanity to love for thy neighbor, and ultimately, to the goal of creation, which is to merge with the Creator.

My Current Mood: energetic

Related Material:
* ARTICLE: Who Is to Blame? – Selected pieces from a discussion on Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”

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Report: Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism and hatred toward Jews, supported by a number of governments, have become a growing tendency worldwide over the past decade, says a report on Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism, prepared by the Office of the Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism and presented to the U.S. Congress.

My Response: As a matter of fact, this is how it should be, because the UN represents all nations of the world, which, according to Kabbalah, consists of Israel and other nations.

Baal HaSulam. Introduction to the Book of Zohar, item 66:
Everything divides into two parts: internality and externality:
Humanity: Israel and the nations of the world.
Israel: the workers of the Creator and those who don’t work for the Creator.
The workers of the Creator: Kabbalists, and those who merely carry out the actions of the Torah.
The nations of the world: the righteous and the destroyers.
Everyone from Israel: the “point in the heart” and the “heart.”
If a person from Israel elevates his externality above his internality, he causes the nations of the world to overcome Israel.
If a person from Israel elevates his internality above his externality, he causes the nations of the world to recognize the value of Israel.

Therefore, in this situation, everything depends entirely on the Jews. If they begin to fulfill their mission toward the world, which is to disclose the method of spiritual and corporeal attainment, then the world will value and love the Jews. Otherwise, the more the world suffers, the worse it will act toward them.

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Question: Michael! As far as I understand, God’s decree to come to know yourselves only applies to the people of Israel? Here’s the quote: “This means that every man from the nation of Israel is guaranteed to ultimately acquire all the wonderful attainments with which the Creator intended to please every creature in the Thought of Creation.” Why then are you preaching Kabbalah around the world? Am I missing something?

Answer: After the exile from the spiritual level (which happened in the beginning of our era), when Kabbalists attained the Light and mixed with the nations of the world over a period of two thousand years, the sparks of that Light, which was present only in the souls of Kabbalists, have also spread into the souls of the nations of the world, as it is said: “Israel has gone into exile so as to unite with the souls of the nations of the world.” This mixing takes place through existence on the egoistic level, which is common for all nations, and not through mixed marriage as some may think.

Today, this mixing of egoism and the sparks has been completed, and all that’s left for us to do is correct the egoism of every person who has a spark of Light, and ascend to the level of the Creator. This happens gradually, in those who already ask themselves the question about the meaning of life. These are the ones called “Israel,” which stems from the words “Yashar” – straight, and “El” – the Creator, that is, “Straight to the Creator,” according to their aspiration. Obviously this no longer has anything to do with nationality.

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