Two questions I received on the worldwide dissemination of Kabbalah:

Question: At a recent lesson, you said that it’s important to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah to the nations of the world, to people who live in America, Russia, and Europe. Is it also important to disseminate Kabbalah to Muslims, both distant and near?

My Answer: Of course it is, and in addition, there are many points of contact for doing so. The problem is that there is a wave of aggressive Islam sweeping over the world today, but nevertheless we have students from Arabic countries. Obviously we don’t reveal their identities, besides our friends from Turkey. We have a practical website in Arabic, and there are lessons translated to Arabic. Several people in the central Bnei Baruch group are fluent in Arabic and they disseminate Kabbalah in Arabic, as well as in Persian.

Question: Do you think that now is the most appropriate time to disseminate Kabbalah newspapers in China?

My Answer: I think that we should put disseminating in China on hold for now. For the time being, I have a book being published there.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: Echoes of the Future
Kabbalah Today Article: The Freedom to Know – an Interview with Michael Laitman
Kabbalah Today Article: Time to Act
Lesson: Baal HaSulam’s Article “Time to Act” [56:07]
Lesson: Baal HaSulam’s Article “Time to Act” [56:07]

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A question I received: Why are there still so many conflicts between representatives of different ethnic and religious groups? Sometimes even the official religious communities support these aggressive views and actions. What is it about people that makes them want to practice superiority over other nations and ethnic groups, and to do all this in the name of the Almighty?

My Answer: Religions were created after Kabbalah became concealed, by people who fell into egoism. These people took Kabbalistic ideals and passed them off as their own. They couldn’t, however, abide by these ideals, and as such, they could only instruct others to uphold them by threatening them with punishment in the world to come.

Because of how egoism provokes mutual hatred in people, all religions mutually hate one another, but they conceal their hatred, and on the surface, summon the world to peace and love. However, they’ve never had an aspiration for peace and love, and if it were in their power to do so, we would still be destroying each other in religious wars, following their call to make them stronger, like we’ve done in the past.

Related Posts:
The Solution – Excerpts from the Writings of the Last Generation by Baal HaSulam
The Cracks in the Floor of Supposition, and the Firm Base of Attainment
What Is Religion?
Religions are Expressions of Culture, Not Absolute Higher Knowledge
More Muslims than Catholics
The Solution to the Clash of Civilizations

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Other than exhibiting manuscripts of source texts, there cannot be such a thing as a Kabbalah museum, because authentic Kabbalah has nothing to display. However, an advertisement I received is trying to state otherwise: “A museum devoted exclusively to Kabbalah, the mystical aspect of Judaism, is to open its doors in Jerusalem, Israel, on the 25th of June.

The Jerusalem Kabbalah Museum – one of the first of its kind – will display artefacts such as amulets, garments and historical manuscripts.

The museum will display a timeline of the Kabbalah from its inception through modern day.

The museum will have a strong educational aspect to it and will provide personal Kabbalah training for those interested, as well as offering tours of Israel focusing on sites of Kabbalistic interest.

Exhibitions will include detailed descriptions of most prominent Kabbalists, rabbis and scholars of the Kabbalah, their works and accomplishments.”

My Comment: There is a Kabbalah museum in the archive at the Bnei Baruch center, which contains manuscripts by Baal HaSulam and other Kabbalists. Authentic Kabbalah is not “artefacts, garments and amulets.” It is exclusively handwritten and printed materials, which deliver the thoughts of Kabbalists to its readers.

Spirituality doesn’t incarnate into corporeality, and hence nothing in our world – besides manuscripts – has Kabbalistic content. Similarly, there is nothing sacred, or in other words, spiritual (“spiritual” meaning the property of bestowal), in clothing, amulets, and other “exhibits.” A Kabbalistic museum cannot exist, because there is nothing to “exhibit” – spirituality cannot be displayed. It would be more accurate to title this museum “Mysticism in Judaism.”

Related Material:
The Top 10 Myths About Kabbalah

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A question I received: In the beginning of the article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” where Baal HaSulam refers to the science of Kabbalah by the word “religion,” why does he write that “the second generation has almost completely slipped from under our hands”?

My Answer: In my opinion, he means that with the opportunity to return to the Land of Israel, we also have the opportunity for common spiritual correction and ascent. Moreover, the fact that we’re not realizing such correction means that the exile from spirituality has ended, all the souls have intermixed, but we are late with our correction. This is making the two new generations, which have arrived since the full end of the exile (late 19th century – early 20th century), ask the question about the meaning of life, which remains unanswered.

People are leaving religion, which supported them during the period of exile, because they aren’t receiving answers to their new questions. Only Kabbalah can provide such answers, because it provides answers on the essence of life, governance, the essence of the Creator, and the reasons and purposes of our lives. That such questions remain unanswered spawns more and more crises in all areas of life, which then becomes a general crisis concerning the negative influence we have on our environment. How do we fix this state of affairs? There is only one way to fix it, and that is by changing human nature. This is what the method of Kabbalah is for, as it is the method that guides such a change.

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A question I received: The information you present to the world is fascinating. Everyone in my family is Orthodox Christian, and I’ve read the Bible and the New Testament since childhood. My question is: Where is Jesus Christ in your science? This worries me most of all, and is the only thing about your method that raises a concern.

My Answer: He’s absent, because I only base my teaching on the three main Kabbalists: Rashbi (The Book of Zohar), the Ari, and Baal HaSulam (view his available works in English). Just like any other science, Kabbalah bears no relation to any religion. It is the physics of forces that are perceived and examined through our sixth sense – the corrected desire.

In contrast, religion speaks about carrying out certain actions and rituals in our world, rather than correcting one’s egoism by means of the Upper Light. However, all religions want this action attributed to them.

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News Story: Einstein’s Words of Godlessness May Silence Arguments

“‘SCIENCE without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.’ Albert Einstein’s aphorism has been the source of endless debate between believers and non-believers wanting to claim the greatest scientist of the 20th century as their own.

A little-known letter written by him may help to settle the argument – or at least provoke further controversy.

Due to be auctioned in London tomorrow after more than fifty years in a private collection, it leaves no doubt that he was no supporter of religious beliefs, which he regarded as ‘childish superstitions.’

Einstein wrote it on January 3, 1954, to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, who had sent him a copy of his book Choose Life: The Biblical Call To Revolt.

The letter, in German, went on public sale a year later and has remained in private hands ever since. In it he says: ‘The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.’

Einstein, who was Jewish and who declined an offer to be Israel’s second president, also rejected the idea that the Jews are God’s favoured people.

‘For me the Jewish religion, like all others, is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.'” Read more…

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A comment I received to my post “Religions are Expressions of Culture, Not Absolute Higher Knowledge”: All the religions that exist in our world are not real. They are nothing more than cultural traditions. Baal HaSulam writes about genuine religion in his article, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.” There he answers three questions: “What is the essence of religion? Is religion’s purpose attained in this world or in the world to come? Is religion intended for the good of the Creator or the good of the creatures?” Further on he explains what genuine religion is, and it’s clear that by the word “religion,” he means Kabbalah. What should this religion lead to? It should lead to man’s correction. And how will this correction be realized? It’ll be realized through the Light that returns us to the source, called “Torah.”

My Response:
But still, a question remains:
What religion is common to all?
What’s your opinion?

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A question I received: Why are people afraid to fall under the influence of a certain environment, such as a sect? One way or another, they’re influenced by their surroundings, and even though their surroundings are broad, they still aren’t free. Maybe it’s because the influence of a broad environment – the whole world – isn’t felt so much, creating an illusion of freedom?

I think that this is the main obstacle in disseminating Kabbalah, i.e. the demand for a person to create a proper environment for himself. People today don’t even want to start a family because they’re afraid of being dependent on their spouses and children. They feel a basic fear towards it. But maybe this will change as they experience more and more suffering?

My Answer: You’re right. Besides the society that Kabbalah urges one to create (whether a civilization or just a group of Kabbalists for now), all other societies (civilizations, religions, communities) are sects, because they impose their views on people and manipulate them. We know that that’s how the mass media and the government operate.

Take religious people as an example: Instead of providing their children with knowledge and the opportunity to choose their own path, religious people deliberately don’t educate them and impose upon them a special dress style, in order to keep them dependent on their environment.

Even though the environment rules over the person, he doesn’t feel subjugated because others encourage conformity to society, and this fulfills his ego. But today we see that egoism is outgrowing the social framework, because it’s getting ready to turn to the Creator. Therefore, people are acting against their environment (their families, clans, or religions). It takes time, but people will soon discover that a person isn’t free in any society or even within himself, and that freedom can only be found within a group that seeks to attain similarity with the Creator.

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A question I received: Lately people in Israel are talking about combining traditions with children’s education. They want to bring the traditions and elements of Judaism into the general curriculum, but as the national culture, rather than religion.

Even secular parents, who weren’t taught to honor traditions as children, want their children to adopt these traditions, hoping that this will give them a different perspective on life and the world and prevent problems like drugs, alcoholism, depression and other diseases of our time. They hope that this will keep their children away from harm and make their lives safer.

My Answer: Kabbalah says that traditions can have a positive influence on people, as long as they are perceived as the nation’s cultural heritage and as long as they are kept for strengthening the family unit. However, in every other respect, people should live according to what Nature demands of them, according to its program of evolution.

According to Nature (or the plan of creation), man must understand Nature, discover how it is connected into a single, integral and perfect system, and consciously integrate himself into it as an integral, intelligent element.

In order to make us want to understand Nature and consciously integrate with it, Nature shows us our lack of harmony with it. We perceive such imbalance as all kinds of suffering, like wars, problems and distress. Gradually, we start realizing that all these problems are global and interconnected, and that they are all symptoms of one problem.

We then start understanding that maybe we’re the ones with the problem. This is what Nature is pushing us to understand, and not to uphold traditions. However, if traditions and other boundaries help us become corrected and fulfill Nature’s global plan, then of course, we should have them as well.

Concerning the plan you describe, of what the teachers and parents are hoping to do, I’m certain that it won’t work, because children have no such desire. Subconsciously, their desire is already directed at discovering the purpose of creation – the existence of the Creator. Our children are a completely different generation: They aren’t simply enormous egoists. Their desire for spirituality, called “the point in the heart,” is already being revealed. This desire is the embryo of the soul, and it is demanding its development. Previous generations did not have such giant egoism within their points in the heart.

Egoism has been evolving over thousands of years, demanding fulfillment from this world the whole time. However, today it isn’t the egoism that demands fulfillment, but the point in the heart, and this is why children no longer desire our world, but something else… something that’s still unclear. By acting the way we do, we imprison them; but to us, it seems like this is what’s best for them. Our generation does not have the time nor the place for these experiments. We need to immediately figure out what is going on, and then we will understand how we should raise our children!

Related Material:
* ARTICLE: Raising the Next Generation of Children
* ARTICLE: Education

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Question for ML: Do you really think that eventually people will regard Kabbalah as a science and seriously consider the possibility of moving from an egoistic society to social equality?

My Answer: Do you remember The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry, when the astronomer announced his wonderful discovery at the International Convention of Astronomers? No one believed him, and only because he was dressed in Turkish clothes. (If Kabbalah wasn’t being mistakenly associated with mysticism, religion, and especially Judaism, then perhaps people would hear what it has to say.) A year later, the astronomer announced the same discovery once again, only that this time he was dressed in the latest fashion, and everyone agreed with him!

Oh, these grownups are so weird!

Myths About Kabbalah

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