A question I received: I was an alcoholic and drug addict for 20 years. A year ago I went through rehabilitation and have stayed off drugs and alcohol thanks to a “12 step” program – a program of spiritual growth. Recently I started studying Kabbalah and became confused – should I continue the “12 step” program or devote myself completely to Kabbalah? Or should I combine both paths? Maybe some Kabbalah students are anonymous alcoholics and drug addicts, but I haven’t been able to find them yet. Can they share their experience with me?

My Answer: Kabbalah is spreading throughout the world. Obviously, the people who begin studying it come from all walks of life. I recommend and ask you to support each other.

A question I received: Suppose that a person is above the Machsom and he already attains and feels the connection with the Creator. As he continues working on his correction, he still decides to experiment with LSD in order to compare the different states. Will he not feel the Upper World then? I’d like you to give this question the attention it deserves, because modern science doesn’t consider LSD an ordinary drug, but an extremely powerful psycho-stimulant.

My Answer: As soon as a person takes drugs, he detaches from the perception of the real world and enters a realm of “wandering,” illusory images.

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Power is the fundamental property of egoism. When we lose it, we feel as if we’ve lost ourselves. Even our perception of the things around us is based on the sensation of power: Our senses perceive everything by evaluating their influence on different objects, things, and forces – by weighing, “who is stronger?”

When one becomes aware of his constant aspiration to rule over his environment (and again – without this aspiration, one cannot perceive the environment), then this realization leads one to recognize the evil within himself. He then feels the need to revoke his all-inclusive lust to rule over everything, and to replace it with the opposite quality – “Anava” (being absent).

Inside this aspiration or quality, one discovers the Creator. The Creator hides from us inside this property in order to give us the opportunity to attain (without His obvious influence) the same height, omnipotence, independence, greatness, and humbleness of love as He has.

One then discovers that he acquires power over everything precisely by yielding to others, because he then becomes incorporated into the general Light. This correlation – “the Creator and the creation” – can be described as calm, omnipotent, and uniform white Light that fills everything, and inside it there are small, black, egoistic balls that are anxiously jumping because they aspire to realize their foolish pride, conceit, and power.

It is written: “In the place where you attain the Creator’s greatness, you attain His humbleness (Anava).” Hence, power comes through the property of love and bestowal.

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A song performed by the Bnei Baruch band (with translation into English, Russian, French and Italian):

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE9UMt9o9GE]

The central Bnei Baruch group in Israel has several musical bands – this one is one of them. The band’s leader, songwriter and singer is Moti Mor – a famous Israeli lyricist and songwriter, musician and performer. The band performs many of our songs, and of course, all of the songs are about the purpose of our lives.

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Kabbalah Music

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A question I received: I’m able to intrigue many people with a “trick” that lets them be in the present, after they discover that they are always thinking and feeling the past or the future. The moment they’re “enlightened” by this realization, should I talk to them about Kabbalah? If yes, then what’s the best thing to let them read? They usually have preconceived notions, so it’s better to give them something easy to start with. For example, maybe I can let them read something by the American mystic and spiritual teacher Gurdjieff?

My Answer: The first time you talk them, don’t talk about Kabbalah but rather show them what is the reason for the crisis – both the personal and general one, and explain that the correction lies in unification, attainment of the quality of bestowal. Show them that this is the only freedom of will we have, and we are like robots in every other regard. Moreover, the attainment of this quality has to be evident in one’s perception and mind.

However, we can’t change our egoistic nature, but only an external force – the force of bestowal – can make this change in us. Explain how one can attract this force, that there’s a method for it, and so on.

Mystics and philosophers such as Gurdjieff, Madame Blavatsky, Solovyov and many others were true seekers of a connection with the Upper Force, but they didn’t have the right Teacher and the authentic method. Hence, their compositions only express their attempts to use human qualities and reason to figure out something that’s impossible to attain with our qualities. This can only be done with help from above, through the Upper Light.

Kabbalah draws the Light of Correction (Ohr Makif) by combining the necessary “ingredients”:

1. The person
2. The group
3. The text that talks about one’s corrected state
4. The Teacher who guides the way

This is why Kabbalah is the only method of attainment that allows one to enter or clearly perceive the Upper World.

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Question: You say that the Creator is the quality and act of giving or bestowing. However, if we are able to attain this quality, to attain the Creator, doesn’t this make us greater than Him? We are able to incorporate both egoism and its opposite, but the Creator is only a part of this antinomy. So how can He be superior to us? Maybe we just can’t categorize Him as superior but only as Different?

My Answer: One reveals the Creator’s status only after he attains the Creator’s quality. Then he is able to see where his qualities really stand in relation to the Creator, and what the purpose of creation is. Until this happens, all our words are empty because we don’t know what stands behind them.

This is why Kabbalah hates philosophy and considers it empty talk about things that philosophers don’t attain. Philosophy is opposite to Kabbalah – see the article “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy.” Kabbalah prefers to deal with actual attainment and it talks only from the level of attainment. This is the meaning of the verse, “The judge knows no more than what his eyes see,” and, “If we don’t see something, we don’t talk about it.”

Question: Is the main intention behind the Mitzva of Yirat Hashem (fearing God) the perception of God? Thank you, Rabbi Jose.

My Answer: Absolutely, since the perception of the Creator is what enables man to rise above his egoistic nature and to use it (the Aviut) in the opposite way – as bestowal and love, according to how the Creator reveals this to him.

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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.

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A question I received: I understand that the period of correction begins when we cross the Machsom, but there is something that leaves me restless and I do not understood well: Once the Machsom is crossed, the things that happen to us in this world continue happening, but the form of seeing them is one of having enough intelligence to understand what happens to us and to use that to enlarge the vessel and to fill it. Now, based on the above-mentioned, my question is: Is faith above reason necessary to cross the Machsom, or will this be given when one has the complete Masach? And can a person tell whether he has the Neshama?

My Answer: Faith above reason is what we attain after the Machsom. Before it we’re just trying to understand what is faith and to attain it. Before the Machsom , we try to attain faith above reason (the revelation of the Creator, a perception of Him, of the quality of bestowal and love inside us – above our entire egoism). We desire to rise above all the obstacles to the oneness of the Creator and His good governance!

But the fulfillment of this desire takes place after the Machsom, when it is filled by the Light of bestowal on the level of Nefesh, then Ruach, and so on, until we fully attain the quality of faith above reason – the quality of Bina.

And after this, there is another degree – not ascent above egoism, but usage of egoism, or the correction of egoism to bestowal – when we receive into our desire for the sake of bestowal.

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Questions I received on feeling weak, doubtful and unsure along the spiritual path

Question: I just don’t understand: Why does a person have to fight himself in order to enter this fictional “other” state? And why does he even need this?

My Answer: You’re right: If you don’t have a point in the heart, then go on living without any worries. After all, a person only realizes the desires that awaken in him. If a person’s point in the heart has awakened, then he is driven by the desire to reveal, understand, and feel the Creator; and he has to attain this.

Question: I have been trying to understand how is it even possible to change one’s nature, because more and more, I keep discovering just how egoistic all my thoughts and desires are, and they are only becoming more egoistic. So why should I be destroying myself with this useless work instead of living a normal life?

My Answer: You’re absolutely right: A person cannot change his own nature! Nevertheless, if he persistently strives towards the goal, then his perseverance will help him, and the Creator will give him the strength to reveal Him (see the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” item 133, where it talks about people climbing the mountain). Only the force of the Creator’s revelation can pull a person out of this world – out of the perception “inside oneself.” And then one reveals an eternal and perfect world. But again, only the Light, which created the creation, is able to change it and lift it to Its level.

Question: As a person gets older, he grows weaker and needs more strength. But where will he get it if he never gets a response from the Creator?

My Answer: The entire path up until the revelation of the Creator, the Machsom, consists of ever increasing disappointments. It’s written that coming out of Egypt happens by sending plagues to Pharaoh, our egoism. These plagues become more and more painful, making us feel more disillusioned about our ability to attain the goal, to come out of egoism and enter the perception of the Upper Force, the Creator. These plagues reveal our nature – egoism, the Pharaoh, and just how much he is ruling us inside. Read the section in the Torah where the Creator keeps repeating to man (Moses): “Go to the Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart.” This means that the Creator keeps increasing our egoism on purpose, so we’d reveal how absolutely evil it is for us and desire to run away from it!

Question: Sometimes it seems like I don’t have enough time left in this life to attain the goal, the revelation of the Creator.

My Answer: In this case, just like on the entire path, there is only one “Kabbalistic” principle to use : “Knock that tempter’s teeth out” (the tempter that throws you off the path), and keep being stubborn, advancing by “faith above reason,” in spite of your common (regular, animalistic) sense. And look for the Creator’s help inside all this, in order to be able to follow these two principles.

Question: Maybe it’s better to live a “pleasant lie,” like the people who buy what Berg sells – psychological support and imagined but sweet confidence that tomorrow will be OK, that everything will be fine, and that everything can be changed for the better. This has a psychological affect on you, gives you strength, and helps you survive. And you get the positive results up front!

My Answer: Who can object to these centuries proven methods! If I could, I’d buy red strings and holy water myself. But no one is even inviting to Kabbalah those people who can comfort themselves with these methods, and who can convince themselves that they work. But while they shut their eyes to the illness and take painkillers, the illness keeps spreading.

And there are others who can no longer be helped by these painkillers; they understand that this is a lie. These people keep searching, because a person cannot remain unfulfilled, and this state of futility and emptiness is worse than death, because their spiritual desire already demands to be fulfilled. And so they keep searching. And it’s for these people, who can no longer find anything that can fulfill them in this world, that Kabbalah provides the answer: Fulfillment comes from the Upper Light, to the degree you are similar to it!

Question: It still seems absolutely impossible and unfeasible that every person and all the people together will be able to desire to come out of egoism voluntarily, instead of being pushed by plagues that are worse than death itself, when even death seems like a salvation from the suffering.

My Answer: The Creator says that it is simple and easy to come out of the corporeal nature and enter the Upper Nature, provided that one diligently carries out the Creator’s conditions, or the precise, strict laws of nature. No one has the strength and the desire to ascend above this world, above one’s nature. But you can receive these desires from the correct environment (the worldwide Bnei Baruch group), by studying Kabbalah according to the authentic sources – the books of Baal HaSulam. And then the Light will lift you, and there are thousands of examples to prove this. The choice is yours!

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A question I received: This question has been posted on the forums of Kabbalah Education Center, yet the answer I received was somewhat not satisfying. I felt that the matter had been just passed over as any general situation, and not read with Love.

(What follows is a long, detailed description of drug induced “trips” experienced by a 21 year old psychology student from Mexico, who has been taking LSD for a long period of time. He describes how this gives him the opportunity to perceive the Upper Force, the higher reality, and his connection with Kabbalah. At one point he reaches the feeling that his mission in life is to comprehend the connection between spirituality and LSD.)

My Answer: There is no connection between drug induced experiences and the attainment of the Upper World, the Creator. You are completely disconnected from spiritual sensations and are controlled by your perceptions of chemical reactions. I recommend that you stop searching for ways to justify your behavior, leave drugs behind and begin correcting your soul. Good luck!

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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.

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