A comment I received: I’ve been reading your work for a long time now, and I see many parallels with Gnosticism. I’m surprised at how you combine this with such a materialistic teaching as Judaism, and how theodicy appears in Kabbalah, since obviously the material world is extremely evil, and its Creator cannot be evil. The only possible hope can be the enemy of whoever created this material world.

My Response: In our world, the Creator manifests as opposite Himself, because instead of perceiving Him, we perceive through our egoism and thus see the negative. In order to begin perceiving spirituality the way it really is, we have to create qualities within us that are similar to it, and which won’t distort its perception.

This is precisely what Kabbalah does to everyone studying it. Kabbalah creates new, spiritual qualities in a person, after which a person, using those qualities, feels the Upper hidden realm that others don’t feel.

I simply disregard everything except Kabbalah, and don’t compare it with anything else. This allows me to avoid getting confused and to attain. I have discarded all the philosophies which I once knew or studied. I prefer to attain rather than to be smart and get lost in thought, and I advise you to do the same. It helps.

Go through Baal HaSulam’s articles – practically all of them, right down the list (ed. all the links under the heading “Kabbalah Source Materials” are Baal HaSulam’s articles, except for Talmud Eser Sefirot, which is a book).

You should first study these articles, and then, if you still feel an inclination toward doing a comparative analysis of Kabbalah and something else, you can go for it. Good luck!

Related Material:
Myths About Kabbalah
Chapter 7 from the Book The Kabbalah Experience: Beliefs, Mysticism and the Supernatural

Filed under: Spirituality - 2 Comments →

A question I received: In one of the lessons you said that in the full correction, only souls, not bodies, are taken into account, and it could be that out of the seven billion people living in the world, only seven of them will attain the full correction! How is this supposed to mean that the Creator is good and does good, if He lets people reach total correction at the price of total annihilation! And I’m supposed to feel good and justify the death of those close to me!? Is this what you call “good and does good”!? And at the same time, you also express sadness that your teacher, Rabash, has passed away; I see how you talk about Rabash with your eyes closed, and I am in awe from how much you love him.

My Answer: There is a law by which the program of creation’s correction becomes realized (the Reshimot from the fall of the separated spiritual souls, from the descent of the worlds). When we willingly incorporate ourselves into this law, it feels absolutely comfortable, but to the degree we don’t conform to the realization of the plan of creation’s correction, we feel suffering, to the point of the destruction of bodies. It is impossible to destroy the souls, but by decreasing the number of bodies, the souls unite together (many small souls unite into a few large souls), not through our efforts, but through suffering (the destruction of bodies). The Creator desires goodness – to bring us to similarity to Him. Read Baal HaSulam’s article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” which explains that our development is purposeful, and the Creator does not consider intermediate states, but only the final state! And I don’t grieve for Rabash, I’m always with him! It’s not something that happened in the past, but now, and I am grateful to the Creator for such a teacher and intermediary between me and the Creator.

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

Three questions I received on requesting from the Creator

Question: Does one pray to G-d or to the Creator? You have said that it’s written that the Creator hears no prayer other than to be able to bestow, because He is the quality of bestowal and this is the only thing you can ask of Him. And what about the “kibbutsnikim” in the Negev?

My Answer: Back then the desires of the “kibbutsnikim” and the Creator were the same. But in general, the Creator hears everything and everyone, but He reacts only to that which leads to the goal, to Him, to adhesion with Him. And He definitely hears and reacts to one’s requests for correction, for equivalence with Him. The Creator is a system of forces surrounding us. The Creator (Elokim) = Nature (HaTeva). We need to understand that He does not change His goal and action – at every single moment, everything is directed at reacting to our actions, in order to influence each and every person in such a way that they will be directed precisely toward the goal. This is how the Creator – this system of forces – reacts to our desires, thoughts, and actions. This is why Kabbalah says that He does not change. In other words, He does not change His influence on us, which directs us precisely to the goal.

Question: About the “kibbutsnikim” who asked for rain: How is it possible that they received something just by asking for it? I’ve asked for things a thousand times, and the most I received was a reason to regret the fact that I asked.

My Answer: Their requests did not contradict the Creator’s plans to have people settle in these lands. They were (egoistically) united with each other as one whole. They asked for the necessity and gave it everything they had. And it worked temporarily. But when they lost the desire to be united, they became opposite to the system of governing forces, and the Upper Forces evoked their disintegration.

Question: As I understand, a prayer is a person’s deepest and most real desire. So why is there is a custom to pray at certain times rather than when one feels like it? After all, one receives a response only to a real prayer. And what does prayer give a person, in principle?

My Answer: Religion does not deal with correcting the soul – changing one’s intention from “for the sake of oneself” to “for the sake of others and the Creator” in all of one’s actions, but rather it only trains one to make physical actions – the commandments of our world. Therefore, in religion to pray is to read at specific times something that was written for you by other people (by the sages of the Great Assembly, 2,000 years ago). One does not receive a response to such actions, and we see that religious people do not become corrected, but vice versa – as time goes by, their moral descent is becoming more and more apparent. However, such mechanical actions hold people within certain boundaries, and as such, during the period of the Creator’s concealment (from 0 until the 20th century), the religions had the role of providing life’s boundaries. This was established by Kabbalists, to last until our time, when “the point in the heart” surfaces in people and they begin the path of individual spiritual development.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: A Prayer
Article: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion
Chapter 7.1 from the Book The Path of Kabbalah: Prayer
Baal HaSulam Article: There Is None Else Beside Him

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

A question I received: What would you say to a person who knows the answer to the question “Why do I live?”

My Answer: The question “Why do I live?” always and constantly leads a person from action to thought, and from thought to the next action. In general, a person always lives for something, he always wants something in the next moment.

For most people, the question about the meaning of life exists only within the span of our world. As such, most people work to achieve all sorts of goals in our world, goals such as food, sex, family, wealth, power, honor, fame, and knowledge. Most people find meaning to their lives in such goals.

However, after the person has achieved all that, and within each and every person, the question about the meaning of life common to all needs to arise, rather than how to fulfill ourselves during the seventy years of the body’s existence. This question also has many answers from many different “spiritual” methods and religions, but these will all gradually become irrelevant because of their inadequacy. Kabbalah is all that will remain, and the answer it provides is the following: “The meaning of life is to attain our root, the source from where we came – to attain the Creator. Our greatest aspiration – our innermost part that becomes revealed after everything else – is for the Creator, because that is where we came from.” Read Baal HaSulam’s definition in “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.”

Therefore, to answer your question, if there’s a person who knows the answer to the question “Why do I live?” I would ask him “Did you discover it by attaining the Creator, by becoming like Him?”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

Two questions I received on “love thy neighbor”

Question: When you discussed the article “The Revelation of Godliness,” you explained that there is no rule of “love thy neighbor” in religions. You have given examples of religious wars and caste among Hindus. How am I to understand the wars against the “seven nations” and Amalek through the prism of love for one’s neighbor?

My Answer: These are internal wars that take place within the person, wars against one’s egoism. They aren’t wars where people are killed physically! Kabbalah only engages in correcting human egoism.

Question: I get the impression that there is purification through complete destruction (for example, idol worshiping cities), and that this is present even in the Torah. I am trying to understand how such actions can be properly carried out in accordance with “love for one’s neighbor.” It seems to me that even if these actions are sincerely performed out of love for one’s neighbor, they will still bring the following generations to wrong conclusions, and cruelty and destruction will result.

My Answer: Once again, these questions support the following conclusions: the Torah does not discuss externality; it only discusses the person’s inner correction. It is impossible to change or correct anything in egoism with physical actions. We only need to correct our egoistic nature. This is why the Torah only speaks about our inner correction.

Baal HaSulam writes with sorrow about the fact that Kabbalah books and The Zohar are full of “descriptions of our world,” and how this confuses people studying Kabbalah. For this reason, it is of utmost importance to free Kabbalah from that style, so that it would become clear to each and everyone studying Kabbalah that it only discusses spirituality. Spirituality does not clothe into materiality, and it has no connection to it whatsoever; it is only a force outside of matter. The entirety of Kabbalah needs to be rewritten in this style, so that nobody will be confused, and everybody will perceive its methodology correctly. This is what we still have to do!

Filed under: Spirituality - 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 →

Questions I received on a scientific experiment that aims to reproduce the formation of creation: This week I saw an interview with a scientist specializing in quantum physics who talked about a project that he and seventy other scientists from around the world are planning. Next month, they want to reproduce the entire formation of creation with the aim of finding some missing photon. For this purpose they have constructed a 27km long tunnel between Switzerland and France, as well as various tools. The interesting thing was that at the end of the interview, this scientist said that they will succeed only if God so wishes, and if He doesn’t, then they won’t! My questions in relation to this are as follows:

Question: Will this affect the world, climate, pollution, and so on?

My Answer: No. Only our thoughts and desires have an effect on these.

Question: How can a scientist rely on God?

My Answer: Who else should a scientist rely on at a time when science is already showing itself to be the science of its own end?

Question: What do you think they’ll discover?

My Answer: Even if they were to discover the “missing photon,” they would discover thousands more questions behind it, and this would continue forever, because the second part to the world is the upper part, and it’s hidden from them. Moreover, the barrier separating them from it is a spiritual barrier, and this is why it cannot be penetrated with a physical accelerator. One needs spiritual preparation in order to do this, to ascend over one’s egoism with the property of bestowal and love for one’s neighbor. The scientists want to attain the forces controlling our world, and they’ll continue the way they are until they come to understand and feel, as a result of their experiments, that they need to change themselves – the observer.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: When Will Scientists Trying to Control Nature Realize that Nature Is Controlling Them?
Laitman.com Post: How to Make Nature Change
Laitman.com Post: Can Identifying the Chemical Pathways and Brain Structures that Generate Religious Experiences Lead Us to Spirituality?
Article: The Sixth Sense
Article: Exploring the Boundary Between Science and Spirituality

Filed under: Science - No Comments →

Two questions I received on Kabbalah and religion:

Question: I converted to Judaism five years ago, after an entire lifetime of studying and searching. Over the past several years I have been very devoted to Torah and its pardes. Now I have a dangerous question as a consequence of your lessons. When Bore Olam says: “my thoughts are not your thoughts,” and a sage says that the Torah is Bore Olam’s wisdom (that is His thoughts), does it mean that those Jews who observed Judaism over the last several thousand years understood everything incorrectly, and in reality, my search brought me to the wrong place?

My Answer: Without a doubt, you’re not in a perfect situation, and your place, just like everyone else’s place, is in the union with the Creator. If you search for this place, you’ll find Him.

Question: Were such great Kabbalists as Rav Baruch Ashlag, Moshe Cordovero, and others religious? And why do you wear a skullcap?

My Answer: It is not a question of faith. When Kabbalah refers to faith, it speaks of the perception of the Creator, the property of Bina, bestowal, which becomes revealed in us through the study of Kabbalah. I respect religious observances because they are my people’s cultural traditions. I understand that by observing them, I am not correcting my soul in any way, and that I observe only the framework within which my people lived over the entire course of history. Religious observances are not required in the study of Kabbalah.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: You Can’t Step into the Same River Twice
Laitman.com Post: What Is Religion?
Laitman.com Post: A Kabbalah Museum – Can There Be Such a Thing?
Article: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion
Lesson: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion [01:51:45]
Lesson: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion [01:51:45]
Lesson: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion (Transcript)

Filed under: Spirituality - 4 Comments →

A question I received: I have a very important question! Fifteen years ago, I became religious and joined a religious school because the point of my soul awakened in my heart! I wanted Eternity, but did not know how. I found the studies at the religious seminary to be shallow, and anything that reached deeper required me to “break” my personality, making me sad and remorseful (for having a boyfriend). I cried, had conversations with “G-d,” felt hopeless, fearful, envious, and nullified my desires!

I tried to wipe out my personality, and suffered in order to become righteous! But it was all foolish! Little by little I understood that I was doing idolatry, yet I told myself that this was impossible – after all, it was the Torah! And all the rabbis said, “The Torah, the commandments!” For years I knew that this wasn’t it, and I was struggling, yet wasn’t able to explain it! I was studying at a very prestigious religious school in Jerusalem, with the best rabbis, yet I intuitively understood that they were lacking something! I felt depressed, alone, and couldn’t find myself. I argued with them, saying that they were engaging in questions of minor importance! A week ago, I was lucky to turn on the Kabbalah channel, and I said, “This is what I need! This is what I’ve been looking for!” That was after I saw just one TV show.

I got lucky! And this is just the beginning! I pity many rabbis! I got burned, not warmed, by their Torah! Maybe it’s because my father was a righteous man that I merited not to believe their nonsense, their empty words! I’m sorry for saying so, but in my opinion they are all the same – just lecturers!

Finally, here is my question. After being so suppressed, that I can’t even describe it, do I have a chance to be spiritually revived to the state I was born into? By my nature, I was connected to society, and I understood what “Israel” is, but religion spoiled this eternity for me! I apologize for such a long question and the efforts you’re making for me! In the past I thought, “It’s fine to break your character.” That’s what I was taught, and I simply wiped myself out, I fasted and was even happy to suffer spiritually. Later, I began crying because everything was passing me by!

Do I have a chance? If yes, what is it? It’s very important to me! Will I ever regain the strength I once had? I used to feel love for the people, love for deliverance, love for modesty, love for eternity, love for society! And suddenly all of this turned into anger, fear, failure, religious egoism, collecting commandments, and religious idolatry.

My Answer: Everything you studied, and everything that happened to you, was supposed to happen exactly the way it did, and will be of use to you. You shouldn’t accuse anybody, because until this moment in your life, everything took place according to the Creator’s will. From this moment onward, you should continue behaving as usual, but supplement your life with Kabbalah study. Start with the book Shamati (ed. see below), and then continue with the articles of Baal HaSulam. Or it could be better for you to listen and watch our lessons (ed. see below) instead of reading by yourself. Try it. You should only look forward – never backward!

The Book Shamati (I Heard):
Free PDF Download
Read at Kabbalah Library
Purchase Print Version

Lessons by Michael Laitman:
Daily Kabbalah Lessons given by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD are broadcast live on Kabbalah TV: 3:20am until 6:00am Israel (GMT+2) time, Sunday to Friday, [Time Zone Converter], and are archived on the Kabbalah Media Archive.

Related Posts:
Laitman.com Post: Stop Thinking about the Past!
Laitman.com Post: Onwards and Upwards

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: When a person becomes religious, doesn’t he do this because his point in the heart (desire for spirituality) has awakened? Or, does he do it because something happened in his life that made him seriously think about life? If we assess the situation, we see that these thoughts cause a great change in people’s lives. Let’s say that these changes aren’t spiritual, as described in Kabbalah, but nevertheless, what – if not inner awakening – can make a person who was born into a certain world, completely change his life around, and adopt a lifestyle that isn’t easy at all?

My Answer: Surely a person constantly questions his goals, and the surfacing of all kinds of desires in him prompts changes in his life. However, all these desires and occurrences surface at the level of our world, and as such, are unrelated to spirituality. It could also be that this person starts worrying about the world to come, about what will happen to him after he dies, and thus starts noticing everything in the world as being illusive and transient, and that he’ll be left with nothing at the end of it… In either case, he is pursuing security, and religion offers him a reward for his efforts.

However, when a person couldn’t care less about his security or finding a place to relax, or about being rewarded in this world or the world to come; when he wants only one thing – to discover the truth – he then discovers the wisdom of Kabbalah. Such a person has sought after all desires and revealed their emptiness. He neglects them because they are based on compromising with his consciousness, “sweeping things under the table” so to speak, and they make him ignore the painful inner questions. The desire to discover the truth makes him incapable of lying to himself, and ready for anything as long as it leads to the truth. The point in the heart is speaking within such a person, and not his earthly desires, his heart.

Related Material:
Article: The Alternative of Our Life
Shamati Article #28: I Shall Not Die But Live
Lesson: Shamati Article #28 – I Shall Not Die But Live
Lesson: Shamati Article #28 – I Shall Not Die But Live
Lesson: Shamati Article #28 – I Shall Not Die But Live (Transcript)

Filed under: Spirituality - 3 Comments →