The 15th issue of the Kabbalah Today publication is now available.

* View eVersion
* Download PDF Version
* Download Word Version

Editor’s Note
Shedding Spiritual Light on Modern Crises

Read Article >>>

Mankind’s Growing Hunger
The current food crisis has been declared a ‘silent tsunami’ in recent headlines. Kabbalah explains the root of the problem, and shows us how to avert this growing threat.
Read Article >>>

The Gatekeeper
Who is the guard standing at the entrance to the spiritual world who decides who shall enter and who shall not? A journey following Kafka, Baal Hasulam, two parables, and one gate.
Read Article >>>

Education, Relationships, Angels and the 72 Names of God
Kabbalist Michael Laitman answers questions on his weekly live TV show, “Ask the Kabbalist” and on his personal blog – www.laitman.com
Read Article >>>

Global Warming: So What?
With the abundant information available to the mass public today, everyone knows about global warming and climate change. But as it turns out, knowing and caring do not always go hand in hand.
Read Article >>>

From Racial Rifts to Spiritual Harmony
Why were we all created different? So far, this seems to have brought us nothing but schisms. Kabbalah explains how to put the pieces together.
Read Article >>>

The Story of Cogwheels
This is a story about all of us – about children and parents, about where we came from, how we got here, and how we will return Home – to a place called “The Single Soul.”
Read Article >>>

Opening Our Eyes
All of reality is a single, unchanging thought of bestowal and giving. Kabbalists refer to this thought by the name, “The Thought of Creation.”
Read Article >>>

Filed under: Notices - No Comments →

A question I received: Dear Rav Laitman, could you please explain how does Kabbalah treat marriage and differences in perception between husband and wife? Kabbalah has already explained a great deal to me. Does Kabbalah treat a relationship between husband and wife as a sacred one or is it up to one`s desire to decide whether to follow the path? Thank you for helping us to understand what was considered “a secret.”

My Answer: “Sacred” is the quality of bestowal, which we acquire under the influence of the Light of Correction (Ohr Makif), when we correctly study Kabbalah (the books of Baal HaSulam). There is no other sacredness! It’s written: “There is no coercion in spirituality.” In corporeality, coercion originates from egoism. But it cannot exist in the spiritual world and in spiritual actions.

Every person has his own path and his own time to come to the Creator, and therefore you don’t have the right to force anyone to do this, including your husband and children. You can only tell them about it without pressuring them, “by the way,” gently, without threatening them, and evoking love for this topic in them. And no matter what the result, you should continue with your family life just like before.

Uniting with everyone who aspires toward the Creator will give you the strength and the desire to attain Him. You should view your relatives as bodies that are related to you, and as souls that are foreign to you.

Related Material:
Part 6, Ch. 4 from the eBook Interview with the Future: What Should One Go Through in Order to Attain Spirituality?
Shamati Article #145: What Is Will Give Wisdom Specifically to the Wise
Chapter 4.4 from the Book The Path of Kabbalah: Questions and Answers
eBook: The Path of Kabbalah – Revealing the Hidden Wisdom
Purchase the Book: The Path of Kabbalah – Revealing the Hidden Wisdom

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: In your opinion, what will be general attitude towards fashion in a corrected world? Will people care about their appearance? Will we be wearing clothes for as long as we exist in bodies, or will we eventually stop wearing them?

My Answer: If it were up to me, I’d wear pajamas all the time. They’re so comfortable!

The chorus of a Russian song about fashion and relativity goes a little something like this:

I dressed myself according to the latest fashions,
You’d say: “That’s a different man altogether!”
But I’m always the same.
Everything’s relative!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Category: Perception

Filed under: Humor - No Comments →

A question I received: I’ve heard you say something like no civilizations of the past are seen in the “revealed.” Does it mean that everything scientists are now finding (in support of a theory of the earlier civilizations) appears in our senses as a reality that we ourselves are demanding? In other words, the external forces react to our demands by creating more new “decorations.”

My Answer: You’re absolutely right! As a result of the descent from spirituality, when the desire created by the Creator reached its lowest level, it perceived within itself what we feel as “me” and the world surrounding us (as external to “me”). The processes and the internal changes started being perceived as time, space and movement (again, external to “me”). This is how a person perceives that something had already existed before he appeared. But who actually sensed it? Without senses, nothing exists. Everything exists in our imagination, in our senses. Read the article “Preface to the Book of Zohar,” item 34.

Related Material:
eBook: Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life
Purchase the Print Version of the Book: Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life

Filed under: Perception - 2 Comments →

A question I received: You say that Kabbalah is a science. That’s fair. The two forces of nature, bestowal and receiving. All of nature is nothing but bestowal, and man is the only element in nature that disrupts the balance, he creates disbalance, and this is why we suffer.

Everything is fine until we get to this point. But finally, when we get to the point where we need to fix the balance, you say: Ohr Makif. Hmm… Some light comes out of nowhere and corrects me. And what confuses me the most is that this light comes from a book. Could you please explain or define what “light” is in a practical and clear manner? I thought that Kabbalah was a science about forces, nature, desires, etc. In my perception Upper Light is not a scientific term and directly refers to something esoteric. Maybe you could make this notion more reasonable and comprehensible? What is this force that corrects us? Is this the force of bestowal? Then why is it called Ohr Makif? How can this “light” able to help prevent suffering on our path of development? Is it in any way related to the corporeal light?

My Answer: If I were you with your love for sciences, I would study “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” (Pticha) or maybe I would even start studying Talmud Eser Sefirot! These texts explain several spiritual notions in a scientific language: 1. desire, 2. correction of intention from “for one’s own sake” to “for the sake of the Creator,” 3. fulfillment by the Light, pleasure, the Creator, to the extent of the corrected intention. There is nothing else in Kabbalah.

Ohr Makif is a force that influences us from a more corrected state, which we aspire toward. It responds to your aspiration in the following way: it pulls you to a higher, more altruistic state to the same extent you aspire for it. This is an interaction of two vectors of desires. The same mutual influence of forces also exists in our world, when a person aspires for any new thing. The difference is that when it comes to spiritual aspiration, this force that pulls you to a new state is referred to as Light, because it doesn’t just pull you through its influence upon you, but it also changes you, making you become like the new state, one that is spiritual and altruistic. The difference between this force of Light, and the force that pulls you toward a new state in our world is that, the force in our world doesn’t need to change you to pull you to something. Check it out for yourself to eliminate any doubts.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Physics of the Upper Light
Laitman.com Post: Will God Want to Repeat the Act of Creation?
Laitman.com Post: The Irrationality of Kabbalah

Filed under: Science - 2 Comments →

A question I received: Can you explain the following to me, because I am somewhat confused:
From, Baal HaSulam, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, “Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words“:
“34) What is Yashar (Direct)? (p.2, ch.1, Ohr Pnimi, p.5)
When the Ohr Elyon (Upper Light) descends to the Kelim that contain Aviut Dalet (the fourth level of thickness), namely a desire, for she extends it through her desire, it is considered that the Ohr (Light) comes Yashar (straight, direct) down. This means that the Light that descends in Yosher is absolutely proportional with the Aviut and the desire.

For example, when a heavy object falls to the ground, it falls in a completely Yashar (straight, direct) line. Moreover, it falls at great speed because of the earth’s gravitating force that pulls it down. However, when something light falls, and the gravitating force does not affect it, it floats about in midair until it slowly rests on the ground.

Here too, in the Kelim that do not have Aviut, such as Kelim de Igulim (the circular Kelim), it is considered that the Light permeates them by the power of the Sefirot of Yosher. It becomes round because there isn’t any Aviut there, meaning a desire that would draw it.

However, in the Kelim de Yosher (the straight/direct Kelim), where there is Aviut that draws the Light with great power, the Light comes down very fast and with accurate straightness, like a straight line.”

What is this example about a heavy item that is more affected by the force of gravity than a light item? Was Ashlag not aware that free-fall acceleration depends on the mass of the object, or I am not getting something?

My Answer: In spirituality, the Light is attracted within the Kli (vessel/tool/receptacle), since there is no empty space at all. Space equals desire. It is comprised of five stages, from stage 0 through 4, stages of the desire’s size. The difference between the stages is not only in the desire’s size, quantitative, but qualitative, in the perception, realization of the desire and the Light. This is why stages 0-1-2-3 “indirectly” attract the Light. In other words, the Kli doesn’t yet know “what it is” and “what it is for,” and this is why in desires 0-3 the Light is still perceived as a light item. However, the fourth stage perceives the Light as its desired pleasure: it perceives the source of the Light, and this is why it desires it directly, inside. This is why the Light descends “Ba Yosher” directly toward it.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Blog Post: Talmud Eser Sefirot and the Need to Define Spirituality Correctly
Kabbalah Blog Post: Baal HaSulam’s Intention for Writing Talmud Eser Sefirot
Kabbalah Blog Post: What Is Spirituality? What Is a Soul?

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

Two questions I received on our perception of reality

Question: If everything in our world is built from ten Sefirot, why are there such great differences and so many species and forms? And why is there a picture that emerges simultaneously at every moment, created out of so many objects?

My Answer: Every picture consists of ten Sefirot: from the force of the Creator (Keter), through our perceptions, to Malchut, which perceives and summarizes the results of the Creator’s influence. See materials on the attainment of reality.

Question: When one starts to follow the path of Kabbalah, what changes in the general framework of all the degrees of advancement toward the root: Does the chain of specific states one goes through in the material world change, or only one’s inner attitude to them?

My Answer: Everything changes, because a person and the whole universe are one whole.

Filed under: Perception - No Comments →

A question I received: It’s been around the news lately, that in Ethiopia, in the city of Aksum, archeologists have found the palace of Queen Sheba. Inside, the researchers found an altar and Judaism’s most valuable treasure – the Arc of the Covenant. According to legend, the Arc contained Moses’s stone tablets with the Ten Commandments, and it was brought to Ethiopia by Menelik – the son of Queen Sheba and King Solomon. The scientists believe that Menelik changed his faith and began worshiping Sirius, but he kept the Arc – a chest made of acacia and covered with gold plates. ITAR-TASS notes that there were evident traces of calf sacrifices around the Arc.” In your opinion, could this be true, or is it just another piece of gossip?

My Answer: I don’t know whether it’s true and I don’t care. With the fall of the Second Temple, when people fell from “love thy neighbor” to “unfounded hatred,” holiness left Israel, as well as all of the Temple’s paraphernalia, because it’s the people who make these objects holy, and not the objects themselves. Rather than striving for material objects, which don’t contain any spirituality, we should strive to obtain the property of bestowal and love for all people, since this is holiness and the property of the Creator. However, as it seems, we are willing to do everything but this!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Corporeality Has No Effect on Spirituality
Laitman.com Post: A Kabbalah Museum – Can There Be Such a Thing?
Laitman.com Post: Egyptian Pyramids and Spiritual Geography
Kabbalah Today Article: Inherit the Land
Baal HaSulam Article: The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Filed under: Science - 2 Comments →

News Story: DNA Explodes Greek Myth About Women

“Women in Ancient Greece were major power brokers in their own right, researchers have discovered, and often played key roles in running affairs of state. Until now it was thought they were treated little better than servants.

The discovery is part of an investigation by Manchester researchers into the founders of Mycenae, Europe’s first great city-state and capital of King Agamemnon’s domains.

‘It was thought that in those days women were rated as little more than chattels in Ancient Greece,’ said Professor Terry Brown, of the faculty of life sciences at Manchester University. ‘Our work now suggests that notion is wrong.'”

My Comment: Science never insists on anything, but only states whatever it considers to be fact at a given moment. The opinion of tomorrow will be opposite to the opinion of today. I hope that the same will soon happen to our perception of the cause of evil in the world and how to eliminate it. People are gradually starting to understand that it is not our actions that harm nature and evoke its negative reaction upon us, it is our egoistic thoughts.

Take, for example, Carbon Belch Day: Grassfire.org’s protest against taxation for financing the fight against carbon dioxide emissions and global warming, their protest against Al Gore’s “absurdity,” and against the feelings of guilt for ruining the climate.

In our world, we see only the consequences of the Upper Force’s influence; we do not see the connections between the forces, what takes place between them. Even when we observe the cause and consequences in our world, it only seems like they take place within the plane of our world. In reality, however, they come from their own cause, pass through the Upper World, and then return to our world, bringing about the consequences we see. Every event in our world is a consequence of the governing force that descends from above. If, instead of seeing part of the world’s picture, we were to see all of the forces – the causes and consequences – we would discover that it is not carbon dioxide emissions affecting the atmosphere (contrary to the “obvious” facts we see today), but that it is the Upper Forces that determine the atmosphere, and the main component of these forces is our desires and thoughts (heart and reason).

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: The Tip of the Iceberg
Article: Crisis and Resolution
Article: Michael Laitman’s Theory for Altruistic Evolution
Lecture: A United New Civilization
Lecture: A United New Civilization (Transcript)

Filed under: Science - No Comments →

Two questions I received on corporeality’s relationship to spirituality:

Question: You’ve said that if people don’t study Kabbalah, it will lead to material consequences such as murder, destruction, and corporeal suffering, and that by studying Kabbalah, we can prevent the suffering. You have also said that the spiritual and the corporeal aren’t connected. How do you explain this contradiction?

My Answer: Spiritual forces operate from above downwards. They create and determine everything in the corporeal world. However, it is impossible to have a reverse effect, from below upwards, and influence the Upper World with one’s corporeal, physical actions. One can, however, influence the Upper World with one’s desires, by becoming similar and balanced with the Upper World to the extent of one’s desire for it. As a consequence, a force descends upon you from the Upper World – a Light that corrects you, making you similar to the Upper World.

Question: Is there a connection between a person’s place of residence and his luck, health, and happiness? How can someone find out where he should live?

My Answer: It doesn’t matter where one lives. It only matters if you live in a physically or spiritually dangerous place, near physical or spiritual criminals, because they influence you negatively. See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom,” section “The Environment as a Factor.”

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →