Entries in the 'Question' Category

We Can Fly Over The Plagues Of Egypt


Questions I received on spirituality during the crisis:

Question: I’ve been studying Kabbalah for several years. It was very easy for me to say that everything that happens, no matter how bad, is only meant to shows us where we strayed off the path – until something bad happened to me. With the possibility of being fired looming over me, my thoughts immediately strayed from the study and I’m having difficulty perceiving the lessons correctly. How do I keep moving in the right direction when all my thoughts are about how to pay rent and feed my children? And on a larger scale, can’t the crisis push many people away from Kabbalah? I mean, who cares about spirituality when your belly is empty?

My Answer: Evidently we have to continue building our path toward the Creator precisely out of these states and doubts. You will feel the rest for yourself from your states, and you’ll feel it even stronger than before.

Question: The Torah states that the Egyptian plagues passed over the houses of the Jews. Does this mean that now, in the time of imminent blows, people who study Kabbalah will feel these blows (plagues) in their corporeal life to a lesser degree?

My Answer: There’s no doubt that every person in the world who studies Kabbalah and aspires to draw nearer to the Creator, evokes the positive influences of Nature (the Creator). He is then drawn closer by these positive influences, instead of the negative corrective forces that push others from behind.

Question: You speak of the ten Egyptian plagues. What are the rest of the plagues that Kabbalah predicts will happen next?

My Answer: I hope to see a world that will “fly over” these plagues with the help of Kabbalah, by aspiring to acquire the quality of love and bestowal to others.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Passing Through the Crisis to the Promised Land
Laitman.com Post: The Current Crisis Is “The First Plague of Egypt”

What’s The Surest Bet to Save Your Money In Time Of Crisis?


News Report (from The Economist): Figures from Morningstar, an investment-research firm, show that an American who put $100 a month for the past ten years into the average equity fund would have accumulated just $10,932 — $1,068 less than he invested. Hiding money “under the mattress” was actually a more profitable tactic.

It is hard to get individuals to defer gratification: retirement seems a long way off for someone in their 20s or 30s. So, faced with the returns from past thrift, the temptation for many will be to opt out of the system altogether. Already, the American Association of Retired People estimates that 37% of workers lack a pension plan.

My Comment: Without us noticing it, we are being taught to “live in the moment,” to consume what is necessary and not think about tomorrow. It’s like the manna in the desert: collect only as much as you need, since the rest will disappear anyway! And when we’ll get used to thinking about the necessities, our hearts and minds will be free to focus on the Upper Goal.

News Report (translated from utro.ru): The crisis of distrust is causing people all over the world to lose trust in banks. Citizens no longer feel safe keeping their savings in the bank, and prefer to invest them in real estate, gold and jewels. Some even sew their money into pillows or hide it away in safes. In Europe for example, sales of safes have increased 25% in the last two months.

My Comment: This demonstrates just how much we don’t trust anyone and what kind of future we are getting ready for.

Question: The financial crisis that we are witnessing so clearly right now is only a part of the global crisis. This raises a question: If everything in a person and in the world has to reach equivalence with the Upper Force ( the Creator), or in other words, everything must reach the quality of “bestowal,” then how will this work with money?

Money is now the material equivalent of the quality of “reception.” Will it also have to turn into an equivalent of “bestowal” for us to attain balance?

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct. Money will not disappear, but will be an equivalent of one’s work. In Hebrew, money is called Kesef, and a screen is called Masach. They both originate from the same root, the word Kisuf – to cover. Masach covers the desire, changing it from “receiving” to “bestowing.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Present Crisis Is a Crisis of People’s Trust in the Egoistic System of Relationships
Laitman.com Post: People Are Trying to Close Their Eyes to the Crisis
Laitman.com Post: In Search of the “Bottom” for the Financial Markets

One Day – A Song About The Financial Crisis


The newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth” (Latest News) published an article about Arcadi Duchin’s new song:

The Buoth Appendix, 12.08.08, by reporter Raz Shechnik: “The Buot Appendix proudly presents: none other than Arcadi Duchin became the first artist to take the wise step of bringing the financial crisis to the recording studio. Recently Duchin wrote a song about the financial crisis. The lyrics were written by Amit Shalev, and the music – by Duchin himself.

It turns out that Duhin was not surprised by the financial crisis. He followed a forecast made by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, which came true.

“This song expressed the current state of affairs,” stated Duchin, “But it was written a year ago based on talks with Michael Laitman, with whom I study Kabbalah. He is not a mystic. He does not engage in card readings or Voodoo, but he saw the crisis from the place where this ancient science views humanity. It turns out that he was right, back then he told us about today’s financial situation.”

So what is the song about?

“As I see it, the song explains that the whole problem of money comes from man’s egoistic nature. In other words, most people in the world suffer and only a few enjoy life. This concept is not so much communistic as spiritual. Kabbalah states that no one will be truly happy until everyone is happy.”

Lyrics of the song “One Day”

The Crisis Will Erase The War Of The Sexes

laitman_2008-11_wife-olga_100Two questions I received on the relationships between men and women:

Question: There is still the unresolved question regarding the behavior between men and women, all the conflicts between them as a model for all types of conflicts in any relationships: if this conflict is not resolved, there will be no resolution in all other relations.

In the modern world women are seeking to get equal with men – not in doing the same work, but getting the same acceptance as men who play their childish global games while women keep on doing all housekeeping, and we know that without this nothing will work in the world.

What is the aimed behavior of the future system here? And what does Mrs. Laitman think about Mr. Laitman in regard to this subject? One can see Mrs. Obama, Mrs. Clinton, but no one sees Mrs. Laitman!

My Answer: The war between the sexes is invented. The crisis will erase it and bring everyone back to their natural roles. And when we assume our natural roles, we will feel comfortable in life.

When I was studying with Rabash, Mrs. Laitman devoted much of her physical and emotional energy to taking care of my Teacher’s family, and she has always helped me in my path. And she continues to support me today!

However, “Kol Kvoda Bat Melech Pnima” (a woman’s greatness lies in her modesty) – she doesn’t want to advertise herself or be famous. She has no desire to entertain the public. She has children and grandchildren and is completely content with that!

Question: In one of your talks about men and women you said: “If we want to have a good, happy and successful family with good children, let’s correct our internality, which will then spread to the externality as well.” So, while we are still not corrected, why should we get married and give birth to children who will be miserable?

My Answer: So that you will have what to correct! According to tradition, a plate and a glass are broken during the engagement and wedding ceremonies, which alludes to the fact that we begin our path broken and uncorrected, and we must correct ourselves together in marriage (Zivug). Hence, a husband and wife unite so that the Creator will be revealed between them (Ish Ve Isha Ve Shechina Beynechem).

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Woman = Desire
Laitman.com Post: Man, Woman and Divinity Between Them
Between Men and Women
A Step Towards Kabbalah, Men and Women
Talk: Do Not Repeat the Mistakes! Recollections of Feiga Ashlag, the Widow of the Late Rav Baruch Ashlag

Passing Through The Crisis To The Promised Land

How Do You Avoid Becoming Relaxed On the Path?A question I received: Earlier today I read your blog to my mother, who lives in the Ukraine. She agreed with everything. Her only question was, “So tell me, what should I do now?” And all I could tell her in response was: “Study.” At a time when every day for her is a  struggle to feed her family, all I can offer her is to start studying?

My Answer: Only the dissemination of Kabbalah among the masses will give them the opportunity to realize the need for change:

  • To receive only what is necessary for one’s survival (like the manna in the desert),
  • Everything one produces in excess of one’s necessities should be given over to the society,
  • It is necessary to institute a global education system that will teach people about the laws of nature in a globally interconnected world. Then everyone will understand how we should live,
  • We must attain the condition of a global mutual guarantee (joint responsibility, like during the reception of the Torah), when every person understands that everyone depends on everyone,
  • We must then gradually go from “love for others” to “love for the Creator.” That’s because when the above conditions are met, we begin to reveal the Creator – the general Upper Force of Nature, according to the law of equivalence of form.

By fulfilling these conditions, or even being willing to learn about them, we will draw the positive forces of Nature upon us. Since the crisis is but a result of our opposition to Nature, we will pass through the crisis and reach a life of prosperity, “the promised land.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Is There Anything We Can Do About the Crisis?
Laitman.com Post: Coping Strategies In Time of Crisis: Therapy, Antidepressants, and Even Fortunetellers

Ask the Kabbalist – Now Broadcast Live On Television

Does money have a spiritual meaning? Why does love end up hurting us? Should we be “buddies” with our kids? How do you cope with anger? Do we have to love bad people? What will the world be like in 10,000 years? Does the soul have memory? Why did my business go bankrupt? What does the soul feel when it’s not in the body? How can we teach a child to be “a human being”?

Every Thursday at 7:30PM Israel time, our television channel airs a live broadcast of the show “Ask the Kabbalist.”

It’s more than just questions and answers, because people aren’t asking questions out of mere curiosity, but to know more about the things they hold most dear, to understand the things that are most important to them. Every question holds within a small part of the world, and when I answer it, I must show that part its place in the context of our entire life. This way, gradually, using your own examples, you begin to see the general picture – the one great whole.

I invite everyone to ask questions at 1-700-509-209 or at www.kab.tv/eng.

The Kabbalistic Definition Of Zion And “The Mixed Multitude”

Why Are There So Many Different Words In the Torah?Two questions I received on Zionism and “the Mixed Multitude”:

Question: What is Zionism? What does this have to do with Kabbalah and Bnei Baruch?

My Answer: “Kabbalah is the method of revealing the Creator to man in this world” (Baal HaSulam, article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”). Zionism is a social movement in favor of returning to Zion (Israel). The Kabbalistic definition is as follows: the Land of Israel is also called “Zion,” from the word Yetzia – “exit” in Hebrew. Any person who exits the limits of our egoistic world and enters the Upper, Altruistic World, enters “Zion.” Mi Tzion Tize Tora (the Torah will come from Zion), means that when a person exits his egoistic state, he comes to the Light.

Question: During the last two lessons, you mentioned “the Mixed Multitude.” Who is this?

My Answer: “The Mixed Multitude” (Erev Rav) are the opponents of Kabbalah who prevent people from coming out of spiritual exile and revealing the Creator. And even after a person aspires toward bestowal and love, Erev Rav prevents him from advancing by any means possible. They came in Moses’s way when he was trying to lead the people out of Egypt (the spiritual exile) toward the revelation of the Creator. They also placed all kinds of obstacles in his way during the 40-year passage through the desert.

Today they also spread all kinds of rumors. They can no longer speak against Kabbalah, because this is no longer possible, but against the people who disseminate it, including our organization. It is written that they are Irei Hashem Ovdei Paroh – those who fear the Creator, but desire to remain inside their egoism.

The Gaon of Vilna (Agra) wrote in The Light of the Zohar, 3: 28 “Adam Ve Ishto”: “In the future Moses will reveal everything to us, unlike the way it is now hidden in the Torah in the form of stories intended for Erev Rav, who do not study the inner meaning.”

Related Material:
Kabbalists Write about the Wisdom of Kabbalah
Chapter from Book The Kabbalah Experience: “Spiritual Work”
Shamati #33: “The Lots on Yom Kippurim and with Haman”
Shamati #54: “The Purpose of the Work”
Baal HaSulam Article:” A Speech in Celebration of the Conclusion of The Zohar”

Where Is The Boundary Between This World And The Spiritual World?


Questions I received from women on connecting spirituality with this world:

Question: I’ve been studying Kabbalah with Bnei Baruch for two years, and at the same time I earned a degree in Economics. However, I don’t feel any desire to advance in the material life. My family is worried about my apathy. Is it possible to balance work in finance with spiritual growth? Also, how can I influence my family, who think that a woman has to act the way society expects her to?

My Answer: Your actions mustn’t harm your family, and everyone should feel that you are part of the family. You can study Kabbalah only if everything is normal in your regular life, and to the extent your free time allows for it.

Question: My daughter is so engrossed in Kabbalah that the rest of the world means nothing to her anymore. She puts Kabbalah before everything and doesn’t want to do anything else. She’s not interested in going to a university or working, and claims that she has the right to live however she wants to and doesn’t have to follow the social norms. I feel like we’re losing our daughter and the society is losing a citizen. She used to be a very successful student and this is the result. What should I do?

My Answer: Anyone you ask will confirm that I encourage people to get a profession, to create a family and so on, because the only way a person can correct his or her self and reach the Upper World is from a “normal” position in this world. Either your daughter doesn’t understand this or her profession isn’t practical; one that won’t allow her to make a living.

Question: Please help me understand the connection between spirituality and corporeality. On one hand, the material world is the world of effects, and on the other hand, it has nothing in common with the spiritual world. Where is the boundary that marks the end of spirituality and the beginning of corporeality, which isn’t connected to spirituality at all?

My Answer: The boundary lies in the gap between the two worlds, because they’re both felt within a person. One is felt in the intention “for the sake of oneself,” and the second – in the intention “for the sake of the Creator.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Get A Job
Laitman.com Post: Family, Children, Work and Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: Corporeality Has No Effect On Spirituality

Kabbalah’s Solution To The Financial Crisis Differs From The Common Sense Solution

I participated in two conversations for the TV Series “The Butterfly Effect.” One was on the social economy, and the second – on the global solution to the economic crisis.

Speaking with me was Shlomo Maoz, the chief economist at Excellence Nessuah Investment House.

Shlomo Maoz is a famous international economist, who predicted a number of trends in the global economy, and whose forecasts and advice are valued in the financial market. In this case he again expressed the most correct solution from the perspective of common (egoistic) sense! However, Kabbalah’s point of view is different.

His advice on how to overcome the financial crisis is the following:
1. We have to return to “life at home,” work less, restrict the high-tech industry and the Internet, spend more time with our families and maintain a small community. The Internet is the source of the crisis because it has connected the whole civilization on earth into a “small village” (see my comment #1 below).

2. More women should be appointed to management positions because women make business less egoistic, more sensible and flexible, and less arrogant.

This advice clearly echoes the history of Ancient Babylon:
4500 years ago, the ancient Babylonian civilization – which included all of humanity within a closed area – began to experience a global crisis of a “small village”:

  • People discovered that everyone depends on everyone.
  • Every person’s egoism was exposed to the maximum (allegorically speaking, they wanted to rise up to the heavens).
  • Everyone’s hatred for everyone was revealed; people stopped understanding each other (allegorically speaking, their languages became confused).

Then two propositions emerged:
Abraham proposed for everyone to unite “as one family,” which is what Nature compelled them to do. This union could be achieved by using the science of Kabbalah that he revealed.

Others, led by Nimrod, were against this, and since the other path was egoistically clear to everyone, the majority of the people accepted it. Hence they scattered all over the earth, destroying the connections of a “small village” among each other and annulling the globalization.

This is what Shlomo Maoz proposes we do today. The proposition is correct and addresses the problem. However, in our time it cannot be the solution. It is similar to other “solutions,” such as how to break our relationships by means of another world war, or to discontinue our communication artificially. However, there is no going back because today our egoism embraces the entire civilization on earth.

The science of Kabbalah says that we cannot go our separate ways peacefully a second time. Instead, mankind will all but destroy itself by engaging in the Third and Fourth nuclear World Wars. Then only a few people will remain on the Earth, and they will nevertheless correct themselves (our souls) and will attain the goal of  creation – similarity to Nature (the Creator).

In the past, only a few people heeded Abraham’s advice. They later became known as Israel, which means “straight to the Creator.” Today, just like Kabbalah had predicted for thousand years, we find ourselves in the same situation. However, the solution isn’t to disconnect, as this will bring about Nazism and cause us to annihilate each other. The solution lies in creating an even greater connection with each other!

Therefore:

  • Mankind must resolutely restrain all extremists and people who aim to disconnect us, even if it will have to resort to physical coercion.
  • For the sake of survival, every person has to be satisfied with the necessities (see my comment #2 below) and contribute all the excess of his labor to the well-being of the entire society.
  • All mass media and educational systems must provide a global education for mankind.

My Comment #1: Today humanity is experiencing a period that’s similar to the mid-life crisis of an individual. The inertia to move forward that started at birth is running out. Now we have to progress consciously, by our own efforts. We have to understand where we are moving and why: what is the goal? When a person doesn’t understand his goal at mid-life, he starts resorting to extremes: earning a bundle of money,  remarrying someone younger, and so on. His greatest fear is to remain alone with his own thoughts and the ultimate question: “What is this all for?”

This is why now, as strange as it may seem, society is somewhat happy to encounter the financial crisis, because it can hold it accountable for all the incomprehensible negative phenomena it has been facing over the recent years, such as the lack of a clear direction for further development, a dead end in international relations, and geopolitical changes. Now there is an understandable common problem that has to be combated. All the rest can be put aside for the time being.

My Comment #2: Let’s recall an example of the right attitude to the world as told by the Biblical story about the heavenly manna. The people were instructed to gather exactly as much as they needed to eat in one day. All the excess would spoil overnight, because it didn’t belong to them! So, the current crisis is teaching us to get rid of the excess. When the crisis deepens and spreads even more, people will start thinking that it’s useless to make such great efforts to gather something that will spoil anyway.

For more on this, see the newspaper “The Nation“, the book From Chaos to Harmony, and my lecture in Arosa.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Talks on Globalization and the Financial Crisis

The Rhythm Of Music Makes The World Go Round


Questions I received on music, false spiritual teachings, and euthanasia:

Question: What’s more important in a musical composition, wisdom or spirituality?

My Answer: Spirituality.

Question: Is listening to music a waste of time?

My Answer: Not if it helps you keep an intention aimed at the goal.

Question: I once heard the following expression: The rhythm of music makes the Earth go round!

My Answer: That’s poetic and romantic…

Question: According to nature, what percentage of humanity will consciously feel the question about the meaning of life so strong that they will be able to study Kabbalah?

My Answer: There’s no specific percentage – it will be anyone with a point in the heart.

Question: What do you think of false teachings that unconsciously use elements of teachings that were effective in the past?

My Answer: Nothing.

Question: I’m asking because it is these kind of teachings that are leading in the “spiritual market.” What’s their purpose?

My Answer: For us to learn from our mistakes.

Question: How do you view euthanasia?

My Answer: Problematically.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Music to Perceive with the Soul
Laitman.com Post: What Is Death? How Can We Not Fear Death?
Kabbalah Today Article: Singing the Worlds Beyond
Talk: About Kabbalistic Music
Talk: The Birth of the Soul
Chapter from Book A Guide To The Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: “Kabbalistic Music”
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