A question I received: Can you explain the phrase “falling in order to rise” and how it is expressed in action? When a person who’s been studying Kabbalah for a year suddenly falls so deep into the animate level that he does things he never did before Kabbalah, is this falling in order to rise? Is this the correct process of revelation? How is this useful?

My Answer: This is explained by all the books on one’s inner work:

• First, a person’s egoism increases,
• Then he recognizes that the egoism is evil,
• He then desires to break away from it,
• But then he realizes that it is impossible,
• He then recognizes that only the Creator can do this to him if he will ask,
• Then he makes lengthy efforts to appeal to the Creator,
• And finally, the Light corrects him, revealing the sensation of the spiritual world – the quality of bestowal and love.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Consequences of Egoism’s Growth!
Laitman.com Post: Be Happy About Egoisms Growth
Interview with the Future: “The Exodus from Egypt – From Corporeality to Sprituality”
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: “Eradicating Egoism” [36:12]

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: I still don’t understand why the Jews concealed Kabbalah until now.

My Answer: I understand you: if Kabbalah is only meant for man’s correction, is a science, and doesn’t manipulate the world in any way, then why was it concealed for 5769 years, since the time it was first revealed by Adam? Is there a prohibition on correcting egoism?

The fact is that throughout all human history, there was only one time when Kabbalah was open to all. That was in Ancient Babylon, which was a “small village” where every person influenced everyone else. When society is in this state, being a single system, it necessitates people to follow the law of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This is what the Babylonian priest Abraham urged his countrymen to do.

However, only a few people listened to him, those in whom “the point in the heart” was revealed. They followed him and received a name according to their aspiration: Israel, which means Isra (straight) + El (Creator). The rest chose not to unite, not to correct their egoism, nor to acquire the quality of love and bestowal, but to separate from one another. Hence they removed the effect of a single system, of a “small village,” from the society, and scattered all over the world.

Meanwhile, Abraham’s group evolved and grew until the time when, 2000 years ago, an enormous egoism was suddenly expressed in it. That’s when they (Israel, the Jews) fell from the level of “Love thy neighbor as thyself” to the level of unfounded hatred for each other. As a result, they lost the perception of the single system, and therefore their perception of mutual love, the Creator, disappeared as well: the Creator “concealed Himself” from them.

Today, once again, the world has reached a state of a single system, “a small village,” just like in Ancient Babylon. In this state, where all the people are completely interconnected, in order to exist (for us to survive) we have to observe the condition: “every person is responsible for everyone.” And this can only be done under the condition of mutual love. How can we attain this quality and survive? This is what Kabbalah explains. And this is why Kabbalah is being revealed again today – because there is a need for it.

It is because we have revealed precisely the global, systematic egoism that has to be corrected, rather than the individual egoism. As long as this egoism wasn’t yet revealed, Kabbalah – the science about its correction – was also concealed. But today it is revealed to everyone, because everyone will have to correct their attitude to others! This is a law of nature. Because the global egoism has been revealed, there is no prohibition on its correction, and this is why there is no prohibition on Kabbalah. So go ahead and study about what we should be like in a new world.

(On the photograph above, I’m standing on the background of the Tower of Babel. You have to feel that all of it belongs to you!)

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Egoistic Desires Are Those Not Aimed at Bestowal and Love for Others
Laitman.com Post: The Consequences of Egoism’s Growth
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Is for Everyone
Kabbalah Today Article: Havoc in Modern-Day Babylon
Interview With the Future: Part 5 “Spiritual Exile”

Filed under: Egoism - No Comments →

News Report (from Gold-Eagle): “Some Straight Talk On the Stock Market” …lots of bankruptcies in inefficient businesses are going to occur over the next year. … Businesses that do not or are unable to cut costs will simply go out of businesses. …there can be a huge wave of bankruptcies next year – especially when it comes to small businesses. The downturn is already wiping out people who don’t cut expenses.

News Report: (from SCORE.org): “Small Business Effects on the Economy” The estimated 25.8 million small businesses in the United States have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade, employ 50.6 percent of the country’s private sector workforce, represent 97 percent of all the exporters of goods, represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.

My Comment: The Creator will “get” everyone and will force all of us to understand what He wants from us! And what He wants is for us to desire to become like Him. All we need to do is just desire it, and He will make all the changes to us!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Financial Crisis Is Helping Us to Understand Our Reality
Laitman.com Post: Specific, Practical Measures to Combat the Crisis

Filed under: Crisis - No Comments →

1. The Light is the Creator. The Light is always the source of everything! In the beginning the Light created the creation, and hence creation is completely subject to the Light. If the Light were to disappear, then the creature would cease to exist. Every movement and change that takes place in the creation happens only under the influence of the Light.

Creation is lifeless and motionless when the Light influences it with the smallest possible force. If the Light shines stronger, then to this degree the creation undergoes a qualitative change, transforming from “still” to “vegetative,” where it starts to sense and perceive. And so on.

2. The Light is the Actor. The Light is always the source of everything! This is why it is written: “There is none else beside Him” and “The Creator is your shade.” You must “find” the Creator in every circumstance and definition, since He is the one who made this state happen.

3. I Control the Light! When you strive to change something in you, you must evoke the Light upon you, and It will change you. The Light can influence me and my Reshimot, and it will change me only in a way that brings me closer to the goal of creation. In other words, the only thing that I can ever do in my life is accelerate my spiritual development. Or, through my lack of desire to evoke the Light’s influence upon me, I can evoke the Light’s absence, and then I will experience all kinds of suffering – because the Light is life.

However, if my desires come from the Light, then I cannot exert a return influence on the Light with my desires. I must receive a desire for the goal from a source other than the Light, and then I will be able to influence the Light with this desire and evoke an additional influence of the Light on me, accelerating my path. This is why I am given the correct environment (the group), which is the only opportunity for me to evoke acceleration toward the goal.

4. The Woman’s Role. The group isn’t influenced physically, but through one’s desire. Hence, a woman who participates in the group’s work (by studying virtually and disseminating Kabbalah) and desires to receive the correct influence from the group, receives it and uses it to involuntarily turn to the Creator (the Light). With the exception of physically participating in communication with the friends and studying virtually, she does everything else just like a man and goes through the same states.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Overcome Yourself by Raising the Importance of the Goal
Laitman.com Post: A True Desire Is Always Answered by the Light
Laitman.com Post: Woman = Desire
Shamati #1: “There is None Else Beside Him”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Lord Is Thy Shade”

Filed under: Spirituality - 2 Comments →

Below are excerpts from the “Declaration of the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy.” My comments appear in italics:

From item 1. …cooperation… to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the world’s financial systems.
Cooperation is possible only when it is absolute, like in one family.

From item 2. …reform to help to ensure that a global crisis, such as this one, does not happen again.
It’s unclear what kind of reform they are thinking of, because they still haven’t pinpointed the real cause of the crisis – egoism.

From item 2. …market principles… and effectively regulated financial markets…
Forced regulation will only push the system deeper into crisis (as it happened under the Soviet regime). This measure is incomplete.

From item 5. …actions… to stimulate our economies, provide liquidity, strengthen the… financial institutions … unfreeze credit markets
This does not correct the mistakes – it doesn’t even attempt to correct the mistakes, since this kind of stimulation only further develops the causes that led to the crisis.

From items 6 and 7. …Economic momentum is slowing substantially in major economies… Many emerging market economies … are still experiencing good growth … a broader policy response is needed … to restore growth … and support emerging market economies and developing countries.
Sounds great, but who thinks of others!?

From item 7, bullet point 1. …stabilize the financial system…
Or in other words – keep pumping it with money, which will lead to inflation.

From item 7, bullet point 3. …Use fiscal measures to stimulate domestic demand…
But whatever benefits the people, hurts the state.

From items 7 and 8. Ensure that the IMF, World Bank and other MDBs have sufficient resources to continue playing their role in overcoming the crisis …strengthen financial markets and regulatory regimes… Regulation is first and foremost the responsibility of national regulators…
It’s a refusal to create a common financial regulator! They aren’t discussing the creation of a single financial institution, common financial instruments, market transparency, and a change in the management of IMF.

From items 8 and 12. …support market discipline … commitment to free market principles…
Stated simply – they’ve gone bankrupt!

From item 13. …within the next 12 months, we will refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade…
In other words, they won’t limit the outflow of capital. (in the month of October, $50 billion were taken out of Russia alone!)

From item 11. …we will meet again by April 30, 2009…

Additional Comment: Obviously, I’m not a banker, and these are my impressions. Regrettably, the declaration that was agreed on, lacks understanding of the true cause of the crisis, and hence it lacks the correct solution to it. Nevertheless, it reveals an underlying feeling of not understanding what is going on, of being interdependent, and of needing to search for the answers together. This feeling will continue to grow as the problems will keep increasing. The world really lacks knowledge of how global and integral it is, and of the law of absolute interaction!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Another Unfortunate Meeting of the G-20
Laitman.com Post: What Can We Expect from the G-20 Summit in Washington?
Laitman.com Post: The Financial Crisis Is Helping Us to Understand Our Reality

Filed under: Crisis - 1 Comment →

Questions I received on women’s spirituality:

Question: Does the word “man” used in Kabbalistic books also apply to women? For example, “if a man feels a Reshimo, then he’s worthy of attaining spirituality, of feeling the Upper World, and comprehending the reality” (this is a quote from the book Kabbalah for the Student, Introduction to Pticha).

My Answer: Without a doubt, all people – both men and women – must attain adhesion with the Creator. The only difference is that men must perform more corrections than women, according to the structure of their souls.

Question: I heard that you don’t approve of women studying at night. Is this true?

My Answer: Anyone can study whenever it’s convenient for him or her. However, since it’s necessary for the men to unite, the best and most effective time for them to study is together with us.

Question: A man’s egoism and difficulties are revealed in relation to the group. How, and in relation to whom, does a woman’s egoism become revealed?

My Answer: Her ego is revealed in relation to a man, or the men’s part of the group, in the sense that the men are the source of a woman’s spiritual advancement. By making efforts to advance spiritually, a woman realizes that she can only do so through the men’s part of the common group.

Question: You say that spirituality has no connection to our bodies. Then why is it important for us to dress modestly when we come to the Kabbalah center? Shouldn’t the men overcome their ego and stop looking at women as sexual objects, but as their equals in correcting the world?

My Answer: You have to help the men disseminate Kabbalah to the world, instead of showcasing yourself to them. This is why you’re permitted to come to the center! Do you want to be a person who’s of benefit to the world, or a “woman”? When you have to do work together with the men, it’s important that there be no difference among the participants.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Women Need to Work On Correction Just Like Men
Laitman.com Post: Women’s Spirituality is Finally Being Revealed
Laitman.com Post: Men, Women and Spritual Roots
“A Talk About the Spiritual Advancement of Women”

Filed under: Women - No Comments →

News Report (from Private Sector Development Blog): Martin Wolf, a columnist for the Financial Times and former chief economist of the World Bank stated: “Among the most important tasks ahead is to create a system of global finance that allows a more balanced world economy, with excess savings being turned into either high-return investment or consumption by the world’s poor.”

News Report (from UK in the USA): Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, believes that the world financial crisis can become the accelerator for the creation of a new kind of society, unique in its aspirations, and he encourages the leaders of the world to lay the foundation for the new global order, internationalism, and the rejection of protectionism.

My Comment: This way, we will gradually reach the awareness of our global system, and from there – the understanding of the quality of the Creator: love and bestowal. Life (Nature or the Creator) will force us to make this decision and implement it.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What Can We Expect from the G-20 Summit in Washington?
Laitman.com Post: Specific, Practical Measures to Combat the Crisis

Filed under: Crisis - 2 Comments →

News Report: Scientists at the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford have begun research that aims to find a scientific answer to the question: Why would anyone believe in God? The £1.9 million project is made possible by a fund from the John Templeton Foundation.

The researchers’ objective isn’t to find out whether God exists. They want to find out whether belief in a higher power is a natural phenomenon inherent to human mentality, a product of upbringing, or of social evolution.

My Comment: According to the science of Kabbalah, everything was created by the Light and contains information about It, since everything originated from It. (See Part 1, Ohr Pnimi, of Talmud Eser Sefirot.) However, the general desire that was created consists of four levels of development: still, vegetative, animate, and human; and only the desire of the “human” level is able to develop to a point where it feels a need to perceive the Creator. Hence, this desire is natural.

This created desire to feel the Creator – to feel its Root, to know “Where did I come from?” – also has four levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human. Each of these levels can be satisfied by revealing the Creator to the degree of the desire:

• Simple acceptance of His existence;
• Connection with Him through actions;
• Complete personal devotion to serving Him;
• The need to reveal the Creator;
• The need to completely attain the entire universe and hence to reveal the Creator in His entirety.

Additional information will be disclosed upon receiving our part of the grant! (That’s a joke.)

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Scientific Theories Cannot Prove that God Exists
Laitman.com Post: Black Cats and Psychics
Laitman.com Post: Will God Want to Repeat the Act of Creation?

Filed under: Science - 1 Comment →

Two questions I received on spiritual perceptions:

Question: On one hand you say that there is no connection between the soul and the corporeal body, that these are two parallel worlds. On the other hand you says that there’s no such thing as this world and that world, that everything is united, and our current reality is the lowest part of the spiritual world which is revealed in our sensations for the time being. Does this mean that the corporeal body is also the soul or spirit?

My Answer: Of course, this world is what we perceive in our smallest desire. The rest of our desires are concealed from us, and become revealed to the degree that we progress toward spirituality. What becomes revealed in them is called “the Upper World.”

At the same time, all of one’s desires remain. This is why a Kabbalist retains the sensation of our world, but this sensation is also complemented by the sensation of another world – the Upper World. And at the end of all the corrections, all the worlds “fold up” into one – the World of Infinity.

Question: While listening to your lessons I have this thought that the Upper World is concerned only with our reaction to everything that happens to us, and what it (the Upper World) sends us. Is this correct?

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct, and how to correctly react to the Creator’s influence is exactly what we study. It is a process of attaining Him and achieving equivalence with Him.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Reality Is Imaginary
Laitman.com Post: Perception of the World
Laitman.com Post: How Will We Know That the Revelation of the Upper World Is Not an Illusion?

Filed under: Perception - No Comments →

I once asked Rabash: “What does a Kabbalist feel when he parts with his body? After all, he already feels the soul through the point in the heart that he developed. He feels a different world through the quality of bestowal.” Rabash answered: “It’s similar to how you take off your shirt at night and throw it into the laundry, and then put on a new shirt in the morning. This is how a Kabbalist parts with his animate body and the sensations he feels through it, and continues to perceive through his soul.”

Filed under: Perception - No Comments →