Two questions I received on who can study Kabbalah:

Question: In your blog entry Get a Job you say, “Actually, Kabbalah obligates a person to get a job, get married and only then study Kabbalah.” What does “study Kabbalah” mean? Don’t children study it in many groups? So I’m wondering what “study Kabbalah” means. I think that “study Kabbalah” means the more in depth study, the full study, not the study of human interaction and coexistence with one another that the kids are involved in.

My Answer: Kabbalists write that in our time there are no bans on studying Kabbalah, and it can be studied at any age. The children will grow up, get married, and start working with the knowledge in depth. The world is made in such way that a person must “establish himself according to nature” (get married, work, and so on), and only then can he begin discerning his differences from the Creator and correcting them.

Question: I have never asked myself what I am living for, but I want to study Kabbalah. Can I do it?

My Answer: Rav Kook and other Kabbalists write that there are no restrictions on studying Kabbalah. Even if you don’t have questions, you can study in a group according to the principle, “You’ll work up an appetite once you start eating.” You will acquire the group’s aspiration for the search of the meaning of life. The environment influences the individual, and hence you will also begin to feel your point in the heart and will include your desire into the common ascent!

Related Material:
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Kabbalah for Beginners: Chapter 6 – “How To Study Kabbalah”
Kabbalah Today Article: “Avraham Isaac HaCohen Kook (1865-1935)”

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Questions I received on distracting thoughts, the desires of others, the right focus, and how to ask questions:

Question: What do Kabbalists do with distracting thoughts and the constant chatter that goes on in the brain?

My Answer: Get more involved in studying and writing articles. And it’s best to do this with others. It is written: “Regardless of how much the Serpent stings you, study the Torah.”

Question: We’re supposed to attach others’ desires to us, but which desires? When we make actions of bestowal, we are actually fulfilling the egoistic desires of others, so we’re in fact developing their egoism.

My Answer: “Others” are your friends in the group who understand your actions and also behave this way toward you. In order to reveal the Creator, it is necessary to create a common desire for Him. That is to say, in order to reveal the property of love and bestowal, it’s necessary to combine the desires of every person together into a common desire.

The sensation of the common desire for bestowal and love is the Creator’s manifestation in us! It brings the feeling of perfection, eternity, and harmony. However, when you are with others who don’t have a point in the heart, you have to behave just like they do.

Question: If the Creator became distanced and concealed from us in order to correct us, then in the process of returning to Him, should we be thinking and aspiring for attainment and revelation, or for correction?

My Answer: These are the same, since one acquires the property of love and bestowal.

Question: At one of your lessons you said that you want to teach us to ask questions correctly. Sometimes you tell your students that they’re “smart alecs.” So what does it mean to ask a question during the lesson? What should the question be?

My Answer: A question has to be exactly on the lesson’s topic, in order to help all the friends understand the topic better. It shouldn’t be something that interests only the person asking it.

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A question I received: I have been studying Kabbalah for a long time and I really enjoy it. I am also writing a book that examines Kabbalah from different perspectives. I have a million questions for you, but will start with just one: would it be good to restore royal government in Russia?

My Answer: I have been receiving many letters from my students in the entire Caucasus region because of the recent events happening there. Even though I don’t usually get involved in politics or think in corporeal terms, as if something is actually happening here, nevertheless I will talk about this in regular language in order to show how the Upper Forces reflect in our actions.

The Russian people are smart, sensitive, and even special in heart and mind, but they aren’t able to govern themselves (as the Russian saying goes: “The master will come and decide what to do”). They weren’t able to do it over the course of their entire history. The only period when Russia prospered was when it was governed by the tsars – from Peter the Great until the last tsar.

Most of these tsars weren’t Russian, but came from the West, and they directed Russia toward the Western path of development. During that time almost all of Russia’s ministers, as well as Russian culture, were “Western.” And this didn’t impede Russia’s development, but rather facilitated the development of Russian culture, literature, and industry – the foundation of Russia, which was created in the nineteenth century. In essence, Russia was built by Europe, but instead of being suppressed by Western influence, Russian culture, Orthodoxy, and science developed beautifully!

Hence, Russia’s present separation from Europe is suicide for it! Russia should imitate the European parliament and government to the letter, with the help of experienced European specialists, the way it did during Tsarist Russia. It cannot manage on its own, since it lacks the experience of the West, whose history and development go back thousands of years. By showcasing its exclusivity, Russia goes against the Upper Force. Hence, this country will once again develop unsuccessfully.

Incidentally, the Jews in Israel have the opposite problem: they are striving to be like the West, but according to their Upper Goal they must strive to create a spiritual society and become an example for the entire world. This is why the Upper Force is against them.

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A question I received: In one of your lessons you said, “To be kind means to give people spiritual food.” What is spiritual food?

My Answer: Spiritual food is the Light, that which corrects one’s soul and fills it. It’s because the only things in existence are the Light and the soul. The Light influences the soul, correcting or filling it according to the soul’s desire. If the soul is healthy, then the body will be healthy as well, but not vise versa – see the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” item 19:

“But this agony is felt only by the shell of our body, created only to be perished and buried. And that teaches us that the will to receive for oneself is created only to be eradicated, abolished from the world and turned into a will to bestow. And the pains we suffer are but discoveries of its nothingness and the harm in it.

Indeed, when all human beings agree to abolish and eradicate their will to receive for themselves, and have no other desire but to bestow upon their friends, all worries and jeopardy in the world will cease to exist. And we will all be assured of a healthy and complete life, since for each and every one of us there will be a whole world ready to satisfy his every need.

Indeed, when everyone has only the will to receive for himself, from here originate the pains, the wars and slaughter which we cannot escape. They weaken our bodies with all sorts of sores and maladies and you find that all the agonies in our world are but manifestations that are offered to our eyes, so as to push us to annul the evil shell of the body and take on the complete form of the will to bestow. And it is as we’ve said, that the Path of Pain in itself can bring us to the desired form.”

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A question I received: I feel drawn to Kabbalah study. I feel great changes. I feel like I am hearing answers that speak to me for the first time in my life. I want to learn, grow and change.

I was unobservant for many years and then returned to observance, mostly to try and make my life make sense and because of guilt. My father is a Rabbi and is a wonderful, pious, accepting man. I thought that I was doing something for my father by returning, and this is how my actions were also perceived by my orthodox family.

I only found Kabbalah because I returned to observance and went into a Chabad house. From there my interests were peaked and I found you online.

I feel conflicted now when I learn from you about the difference between religion and Kabbalah. I understand what you are saying and want to continue to learn, but I feel like if I move toward you, I am being selfish and disloyal to my father. So to move toward Kabbalah might be a selfish act for me considering my circumstance. Is this just part of my work?

My Answer: The difference between religion and Kabbalah is man’s correction. The study of Kabbalah (when it’s done correctly and by the correct source texts) evokes the Upper Light, which corrects one’s egoism according to the rule, “I have created egoism and I have created the Torah for its correction, because the Light that’s in it returns one to the Source.”

We develop to the degree that the broken, egoistic desires are revealed us. When one’s desire for correction becomes revealed, one then begins to sense that our world and everything in it – even faith – are false and empty. However, people who don’t realize this yet are satisfied with faith – whether faith in themselves, the world, or God.

Only you can tell which desires are being revealed in you. At the end of our development all of us will feel the need to unite with the Creator. In our time, people’s desires for Him are beginning to surface. This is why Kabbalah – the method of revealing the Creator, is becoming more and more popular and necessary. Even religions are beginning to “dress” in it and to say that Kabbalah is part of them. This also benefits Kabbalah, because it will accelerate people’s realization that the Creator cannot be attained anywhere besides Kabbalah!

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A question I received: Is pride a form of egoism? I am reminded of the situation where a man who is very hungry turns down the meal prepared by the giver because of shame. The giver, aware of the shame, asks, “Why are you acting so proud and refusing to eat? Humble yourself and eat!”

My Answer: In this situation the giver is an even bigger egoist and has more pride than the receiver. Therefore, the receiver can accept the food without being ashamed, since he will enable the giver to enjoy his power over the receiver’s unwilling desire.

The situation is different in Kabbalah. When a person desires to escape his egoism, he feels how different he is from the Creator and is ashamed of it. Otherwise the Creator won’t be revealed to him. However, in our world both the giver and the receiver are on the level of our world, inside their compulsory egoism. This is why one of them advises (helps) the other to compensate his shame in some way and be fulfilled.

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Two questions I received on how to tell whether Kabbalah is the right method:

Question: My question has two parts:

1. Besides Kabbalah there are many methods of revealing the Creator. I can agree that they don’t explain the structure of the Upper Worlds or the rules of governance, but why would a person who is united with the Creator need this anyway? And if the goal of creation is adhesion with Him, then why does Kabbalah deny all other methods of attaining this? Besides, someone studying Kabbalah is not guaranteed to attain the goal of creation – it doesn’t have the “guarantees” that other sciences provide.

2. Physically you look a lot like Osho (or Osho looks like you). Both of you interest me and have my respect. Forgetting the terminology for a minute, you bring Light to the people through the power of logic (physics), and Osho did it through the beauty of poetry (lyrics), but your content is the same. How can I know whether you have really tested your path? Without this verification, Kabbalah is no different than any other religion and requires blind faith.

My Answer: The answer is inside you. A question is the sensation of an empty desire, and its fulfillment is the proof.

Question: In a previous blog entry, you wrote: “The problem with amulets, spells, and mysticism is that they distract us, and we start being late with correcting ourselves. This causes an accumulation of evil that’s expressed as suffering.” But what if it’s too late by the time a person understands this?

My Answer: Nature treats us according to our similarity to it, and to the extent we realize how similar or dissimilar we are to it. It’s the same as how in this world, our judgment of someone who made a wrong action changes depending on whether the action was intentional or not. Suffering that comes from unintended dissimilarity to nature forces us to discover this dissimilarity, and hence it is a correcting signal of an “illness.”

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A question I received: How do you remain true to the principle “love thy neighbor as thyself” when there’s a war going on and you have to fire a gun at your neighbor, who became your enemy for some reason and now wants to kill you?

My Answer: There are precise laws of behavior for this situation and they are described in the Torah. When the law states that you have to kill someone in a specific situation, then you have to do this, and you don’t have the right to avoid doing it. The reverse is also true.

There are states when the death of a person’s body is his correction. The principle “love thy neighbor as thyself” has to be understood in regard to the relationship between the souls, rather than the bodies.

[In the above photo: I am walking next to soldiers of the Chilean junta. By the way, “junta” means “group” – and it’s what our Chilean friends call themselves.]

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The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Avraham” (abridged)

45. Rabbi Yosi said: “I heard from the great source of Light, i.e., from Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, that BARAH is a concealed word (the system of Light’s concealment), and the key to it locked it up and did not unlock it. And that is why there was no possibility for the world to exist, and nothingness enveloped all.

46. So when did this key unlock those gates, and everything became ready for the existence and evolution of the generations? When Avraham appeared, as he is the property of Hesed (mercy), of which it is written: “These are the generations of Heaven and earth Be-Hibar’am (with which He built).” However, one should pronounce the word not as Be-Hibar’am, but as Be-Avraham (in Hebrew, these two words have the same letters, which are positioned in a slightly different order). Then, all that was concealed in the word BARAH was revealed as letters, and there appears the Pillar of Procreation, Sefira Yesod, upon which the world’s existence is based, for the word BARAH consists of the same letters as the word AVAR – passed (the property of mercy, the Light of Hassadim, creates an opportunity for the Light of Hochma to be revealed in it).

Question: “When It (the Light of Hassadim) is revealed, can one act and produce generations? (Can one correct desires and fill them with the Light of life, Hochma?)” This question includes three questions:

1. When will It be revealed? It will be revealed when the Masach descends from Bina to Malchut, and the 49 gates of the Light of Hochma are revealed.
2. When can It be used? It can be used when Ohr Hochma clothes in Ohr Hassadim, so that It could be suitable for reception and used by the lower ones.
3. What does it mean to produce or multiply generations? It means to beget ZON of the World of Atzilut and develop souls in the Worlds of BYA.

47. When Yesod of ZA joins the word BARAH (Malchut), there occurs a division of the Creator’s name and greatness, MI and ELEH. Also, the sacred name MA comes from BARAH (Malchut). The concealed ELEH (Yesod) attains the properties of Yesod of Bina, the letter Hey, while ELEH attains the properties of the letter Yod (Hochma).

48. When the letters Hey and Yod wished to complement one another, the letter Mem emerged from them, the symbol of Bina, and the word ELO–HIM = ELE + Hey + Yod + Mem was formed by the union of all properties. The word AVAR + Hey + Mem = Avraham originated from ELEH. One might say that the Creator took the properties (words) ELEH and MI, joined them and formed the property (word) ELOKIM, whereas the properties (words) MA and AVAR formed the property (word) Avraham, where the word MI designates the fifty gates of Bina, and the word MA refers to its filling (Gematria, numerical value). For HaVaYaH with the filling of the letter Aleph forms the Gematria of MA – 45. Both this world and the world to come exist in these two letters, Yod and Hey. Hence, the world to come was created with MI, and this world with MA.

It is therefore written in the Torah: “These are the created (Be-Hibar’am) generations of Heaven and earth,” where the letters Be-Hibar’am make up the word “Avraham,” for there was no perfection (the property of bestowal, Hassadim) until the letters formed this word. Therefore, the Creator’s name HaVaYaH is first mentioned in the Torah only after the name Avraham: Ohr Hassadim in MA and Ohr Hochma in MI complemented one another, and Malchut received the Light of Hochma in the Light of Hassadim – the Creator revealed Himself.

“Avraham” – full commentary

Related Material:
Unraveling the Zohar

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A question I received: I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who creates Kabbalah Internet resources! I found Kabbalah on the Internet two years ago, and my life has made a 180 degree turnaround. I finally found my inner world, and all of the questions that haven’t given me a moment of rest since the day I was born have stopped bothering me. I started to understand the essence of things and the reasons behind the things that happen to me. Currently I work on disseminating video lectures and lessons on the Internet.

There is a question that has been bothering me for many years. What is the meaning of the Biblical verse, “A day for each year”? Does this have anything to do with corporeal time?

My Answer: This has absolutely no relation to corporeal time. When a person advances down the path of the Light’s influence on him, then he shortens his path, and this is like “A day for each year” (a day instead of a year). However, this isn’t a corporeal ratio.

There is only one way to ascend to a higher spiritual degree – through desire and love. (All of the Torah speaks only about this – one’s ascent up 125 degrees toward adhesion with the Creator.) However, when it comes to the first degree, one ascends to it from one’s absolutely egoistic properties (the degree called “our world” or “this world”). After the first degree, you no longer have to change yourself completely in order to ascend, but must only keep developing greater altruistic properties within you.

This is why the ascent to the first degree is the most difficult and takes the most time (although the higher you rise, the more difficult it gets; but experience and knowledge help you do this – see Baal HaSulam’s example about ascending up the Creator’s mountain). One’s development either happens through the path of suffering, or through the path of Light, which descends during Kabbalah study. So the verse “A day for each year” expresses the difference in the time it takes to attain the goal (the first degree) through suffering (without using Kabbalah) or through Light (using Kabbalah).

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