A question I received: According to the Ari, the people of Israel were exiled to different countries in order to collect the “sparks” of the nations of the world into one large force, directed toward the Creator. Could it be that the Eastern meditations and teachings, used by many Israelis to come closer to spirituality, are these sparks, and therefore these teachings are necessary for us to develop?

My Answer: It is written that once Abraham revealed Kabbalah, he started teaching it to others who were interested in the opportunity to attain the purpose of life – the revelation of the Creator, adhesion with Him. These people became his students. However, there were others who still hadn’t revealed this desire, the question about the meaning of life – see item 2 of the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.” He gave these people another teaching as preparation.

Those who followed him – his students, are called his sons. Those who weren’t yet able to follow him, but listened to him, are called the sons of his concubines or slaves. It is written in Midrash Raba that he taught them religions and sent them to the East.

However, today we are only starting to rethink religions and beliefs. People must realize and feel that religions and beliefs were given to us temporarily, to last through the period of the Creator’s concealment in order to then be replaced with His revelation. When He is revealed, the only thing that will remain of them are folk customs and traditions. Meanwhile, all the nations of the world will unite under one Creator, and He will be revealed to them.

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A question I received: What happens to a person who converts to Judaism? Does a Jewish soul really incarnate into a gentile if his intentions are sincere and he is fully aware of what he is doing?

My Answer:
1. You must differentiate between our earthly traditions and the spiritual actions. A person can do the physical actions on his own, but not the spiritual actions. No physical actions can correct the soul, or even any earthly, physical qualities of a person. The only thing that can correct a person is the Light that descends during the study of Kabbalah, when one learns about the corrected states and how to come closer to them. It is called “the Light of the Torah,” about which the Creator said: “I created egoism and the Torah for its correction, because the Light in the Torah returns egoism to the corrected state.”

2. The soul is a “part of the Creator in man” (Helek Eloka Mi Maal), or in other words, it is the quality of bestowal (love for one’s neighbor) that a person acquires, because this is the only quality that the Creator has (“Good and Does Good”). When one acquires this quality, one become Isra-El, which translates as “Directed toward the Creator.” Everyone else are gentiles (nations), meaning egoists, regardless of their physical origins and whether they were born Jewish or not.

We all came from Ancient Babylon and we must all attain correction. In the past this was achieved by a small part of the Babylonians, the group headed by Abraham, and they were called Isra-El – those who are directed toward the Creator. Today, everyone must do this.

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A question I received: I’m a social worker and I often work with drug addicts. I discovered that giving people basic knowledge of Kabbalah can cure them. I think that Bnei Baruch should contact drug rehabilitation centers with a specific proposal, and this could create points of Light in people who want to quit drugs and enable them to connect to the real source of fulfillment. What is your opinion?

My Answer: Unfortunately we don’t have that much manpower, but if you find people who are willing to work in this area, we will be happy to teach them the correct approach to drug addicts. We have had cases like this. In fact, many past drug addicts have long crossed the Machsom. Let’s work together to help drug addicts – we’re waiting for volunteers!

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Three questions I received on tither (Maaser):

Question: You wrote on your blog that one should pay Maaser from his net income. However, in one of your lessons you said that Maaser is paid from the total income before tax deductions. My question is: is it paid from the income before tax deductions or from the net income after tax deductions?

My Answer: The rule states that the Maaser is 10% of one’s gross income. Otherwise, the tenth part from your taxes does not get corrected! However, beginners get a “discount” in order to get used to the Maaser and to make the calculation easier for them.

Question: My question regards the giving of Maaser. I understand the spiritual meaning of tithing 10% of your income to disseminating Kabbalah. What is unclear to me is the method in which a person must give Maaser. For example, a person earns $400 a week working at their job (which comes down to $10 per hour). Considering how time equals money, if a person volunteers 4 hours of their time disseminating, they have given $40 worth of time. Is this a valid form of giving Maaser?

My Answer: It is written that a person has to separate a tithe (10%) from all of his income.

Question: I am retired. My husband, who is not “on the path,” still works and we live on the money he earns. I participate in dissemination whereas his main interest is football. We don’t spend money on entertainment, other than going on vacation once a year. How should I calculate the Maaser?

My Answer: It is 10% of your pension. For example, you can make an arrangement with the Bnei Baruch dissemination center to buy our newspapers or books, and then hand them out or distribute them to libraries.

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Filed under: Maaser, Q&A - 5 Comments →

A question I received: When does the Surrounding Light influence me – only during the lesson or also during dissemination? (Considering that while I’m doing it I aspire to attain the Upper One through the unification with the group.)

My Answer: It influences you during the study, dissemination, and other group actions, depending on your intention to connect with everyone in order to reveal the Creator – the quality of bestowal and love. The Surrounding Light is the Light that will fill you on a higher level.

The fact is that you already exist in all of your future states. However, you don’t perceive it. You must attain these states yourself. By aspiring to them, you draw the influence of your future state upon you and it changes you, making you similar to it. Everything depends only on your desire, your aspiration to that future state.

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A question I received: In the last lesson on the article “The Revelation of Godliness (Matan Torah)” you explained that in reality the other religions do not contain the rule “love your neighbor.” You gave an example of wars that are fought over issues such as the right way to pray and the Caste system in Hinduism, and that these are all signs that religion do not follow the rule “love your neighbor.”

So how are we to understand the “wars against the seven nations” and the war with Amalek? I am trying to understand how these actions can be implemented while keeping the rule “love your neighbor.” I think that even if they are performed while keeping this rule, the future generations will make wrong conclusions about them and as a result, commit cruelty and destruction.

My Answer: Correction takes place precisely through wars and clashes between egoism and the Light. Take King David for example, whose Psalms are valued by the entire world because they are the highest manifestation of love to the Creator. He spent forty years fighting wars, and moreover, he was the aggressor. This is known as the “Conquest of David” (Kibush David), spanning from Egypt to Babylon, including Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and other territories that have Upper Spiritual roots (other territories don’t have such roots). Another example is Joshua, who conquered the Land of Israel and exiled seven nations from it. Moreover, it was the Creator’s prohibition to let them stay in that land. All of this is described in the Torah, and it happens in congruence with the correction of egoism and its replacement with “bestowal.”

In order to correctly picture the arrangement of people in our world, one must imagine the forces that govern them. If the actions happen according to the Creator’s directive, like the wars fought by Joshua and David in Biblical times, then it is equivalent to the correction of egoism (see Rashbi’s commentary on Beresheet). On the other hand, if the actions are based on man’s decision, then they are egoistic! Since those times, Israel has not fought any wars where it was the aggressor.

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Baal HaSulam begins the fundamental Kabbalistic text, the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” with the following words:

1. At the outset of my words, I find a great need to break an iron wall that has been separating us from the wisdom of Kabbalah…

2. Indeed, if we set our hearts to answer but one very famous question, I am certain that all the questions and doubts about the study of Kabbalah will vanish from the horizon. This indignant question is a question that the whole world asks, namely, “What is the meaning of my life?” These numbered years of our life that cost us so heavily and the numerous pains and torments that we suffer for them, to complete them to the fullest, who is it that enjoys them? Or, even more precisely, to whom do I give delight?

It is indeed true that historians have grown weary contemplating it and particularly in our generation. No one even wishes to consider it. Yet the question stands as bitterly and as vehemently as ever. Sometimes it meets us uninvitingly, pecks at our mind and humiliates us to the ground before we find the famous ploy to flow mindlessly in the currents of life as yesterday…

In order to help you answer this question, Kabbalah is now being revealed to you! By answering it, you will become human; while it is still a mystery – you’re still not!

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Two questions I received on the role of this world in the soul’s correction:

Question: I read that when a person dies who hasn’t developed the sixth sense (a soul), which enables him to perceive the Upper World, he returns for another incarnation. Then why do we mourn someone who dies? From the moment I began thinking this way, I don’t see any point in life. Things happen all around me but I feel that they’re not important to me.

My Answer: This is wonderful, because it means that you nearing the recognition that the entire meaning of life lies only in attaining the Upper Goal – the Creator, and that there is no other meaning to life on the earthy level! The higher meaning to the earthy life is to attain the Creator while living in this world!

Question: Is it possible to correct the soul in between two reincarnations, when the soul is not in the body?

My Answer: No. Correction can only occur while you are in this world.

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A question I received: Why doesn’t capitalism work in Russia like it does in the West?

My Answer: You are mistaken because Russia hasn’t experienced capitalism yet. However, today this is no longer necessary, if we do as Baal HaSulam wrote: provide people with an understanding of the world we now live in – a world that’s global and interconnected. In this new world, the competition changes from “who will receive the most?” to the spiritual competition “who will give the most in order to merit a greater connection with the Creator?” However, when it comes to technology and service, it’s still best to “learn what is good in the West,” as Vladimir Mayakovsky put it.

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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.

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