A question I received: Four years ago I had a tremendous thirst for science and knowledge. I saw so much meaning in these things that I devoted my life to them and became a Doctorate student majoring in environmental law. But since I found out about Kabbalah in 2006, my values gradually changed from material to spiritual. The 2008 Congress in Israel played a major part in this. I see great spiritual meaning in Kabbalah and it has become my true goal. But what should I do with my corporeal science? I’m no longer interested in it because now I know that I can bring harmony to the surrounding world only by changing myself.

I have a problem now: I am unable to complete my dissertation on the environment the way I’d like to – by integrating Kabbalistic elements, because legal scholars consider that environmental problems can only be solved by developing legal regulations and programs, such as reducing carbon emissions, and so on. But I can already see that these means will be ineffective and pointless. I feel that instead of working on my science I want to work on translating Kabbalah texts and do something real like write for the mass media and disseminate in other ways.

So my question is: Should I continue writing my dissertation “the proper way” just to get a PhD, or should I drop out of the doctorate program?

My Answer: I also wrote my dissertation on the topic “Kabbalah as a Method of Irrational Attainment,” even though I personally find Kabbalah to be the most rational science of all. I had to write something that I personally disagreed with because otherwise I would never have defended my dissertation. But after I received my PhD, I gained an ability to speak on a different level – as a Doctor of Philosophy. When I appear at international forums and interviews, the fact that I have a PhD changes something in people’s consciousness. This is why I think that you have to complete your dissertation.

You cannot write “against science” while you aren’t a scientist yet. First you must become a scientist (get a PhD), and then you will be able to legitimately speak “against science” and offer your view of the problem and its solution. Do this step by step. Good luck to you, and I would be happy to work with you on your topic!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah and the Earthly Sciences
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Article: “Kabbalah as a Modern Science”
Book: Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life

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Questions I received on family, relationships and Kabbalah:

Question: Can your wife who studies Kabbalah be your friend? Can you attain the Creator with her? If not, then what does “Man, Woman and Divinity between them” mean?

My Answer: She can! The real meaning of the phrase “Man, Woman and Divinity between them” is that the soul’s desires (the woman), together with the screen and the Reflected Light (the man), form a Kli (vessel). This is the condition for uniting with the Upper Light. The Light, the Creator, becomes revealed in their connection, called Zivug.

However, the same thing can be true in our world: when the husband studies, he automatically provides spiritual support to his corporeal wife, even if she doesn’t study on her own. And if she desires it, then he is obligated to study with her. Then they will advance together. Rabash used to speak about this to his students, advising them to read his articles to their wives.

Question: Can man a learn to be truly faithful to his wife through self correction and attainment of spirituality?

My Answer: This is not Kabbalah’s objective. Nevertheless, a person changes as he gradually goes through the corrections.

Question: I’ve been single for three years. When I try to date someone, the relationship ends because I am excessively focused on the world of Kabbalah. What is the Creator trying to tell me?

My Answer: Finding a partner means finding someone similar to you – someone who is also focused on spiritual life and the spiritual goal. Please contact our dating department.

Question: You say that a man must be married to study Kabbalah effectively. What about someone who can’t create a family due to being born with a disability?

My Answer: If your disability prevents you from running a normal household with a woman, then this condition doesn’t apply to you. However, I find it practically impossible to imagine a case where it’s impossible to create a family.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: On the Men and Women Inside Us
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Laitman.com Post: If He Loves You, He Won’t Come Between You and Kabbalah

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Two questions I received on why things become more confusing when you study more, and how to tell that you are on the right track:

Question: When I started watching lessons on youtube and beginners lessons at the Ari Online Learning Center, everything was so clear and simple and made sense. But now that I am much more engaged and I started reading a lot of articles and the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” everything became much harder and more confusing, to the degree that sometimes I think of posting a question but I can’t even express it in words! Does this mean that I am not on the right track?

My Answer: Many articles will tell you that these states are precisely the states leading to revelation. It’s because we don’t reveal spirituality through knowledge, but through equivalence of form. As long as my qualities are different from the qualities of the thing I want to attain, I imagine it in my mind, speculatively, and I understand it more or less.

But as soon as I start approaching it through equivalence of form, then I can no longer build “mental” pictures because my feelings override them. Hence I am confused, don’t understand anything, feel dumb, and in general I don’t know “where, who, or why?”

All you have to do is continue, and suddenly the fog will clear away and a new picture and understanding will emerge. This will be once again followed by fog, and then clarity – and so on, many times over!

Question: As a student who did not attain anything yet, how can I know if I am on the right track or not?

My Answer: Precisely by the states I described above – constant confusion and clarifications in your mind, and sensations of ease and heaviness in your heart.

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Lesson on Baal HaSulam’s Article: “Exile and Redemption”

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Dear friends!

Bnei Baruch is hosting an international Internet campaign in conjunction with the FLIX website. The campaign is called “Shana Tova” (Happy New Year), and it’s dedicated to the Israeli New Year, which will begin on September 29, 2008. The campaign is a competition of the best video wishing people a Happy New Year.

Every time someone views a video clip on the FLIX website, they will see an ad of our website – “Kabbalah L’Am.”

Click here to watch an explanatory video on how you can easily help disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah by participating in this campaign.

So far 345 video clips have been posted and watched by 121,571 people! Here are just a few to sample – by watching them, you will be helping to disseminate Kabbalah (please wait for the video clips to finish playing):

• Taxi – by the evening group
• Shana Tova… Scared? – by the young group
• Shana Tova from Eliezer and the Carrot – by the Haifa Group
• Shana Tova from Noah – by the Eilat Group
• A New Reincarnation, a New Year – by the Ashdod Group
• A Moment Before “Closing Shop” – by the virtual group

Related Material:
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During the Odessa Congress we filmed a very special video clip for the “Shana Tova!” (Happy New Year) competition. It took a crowd of about one thousand people, most of whom do not speak Hebrew, about a minute to learn and sing the Hebrew New Year’s song. The lyrics mean: “You’ll see, you’ll see, how good things will be, in the new year!” Watch this video to see how it all happened:

Anyone participating in this contest is participating in our common work!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: “Shana Tova!” or “Happy New Year!”

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Questions I received on memories of past lives and the resurrection of the dead:

Question: How much time does it take for a soul to reincarnate into a new body – days, months, or years?

My Answer: There is no time, and therefore it can happen at any moment.

Question: How do you explain it when a person has memories of a past life?

My Answer: These aren’t memories of a past life, but fantasies of this life.

Question: Why do we need cemeteries if everything stays in our memory, and especially since our soul reincarnates into a new body?

My Answer: When one of the soul’s 613 desires “dies,” it is “buried” – one stops using it. Then, as one continues the correction process, this desire is “resurrected from the dead” – in order to be corrected. This is how all the desires undergo death, burial, and resurrection, in order to reach the full correction.

Question: There are first and second restrictions, as well as the “resurrection of the dead.” When a person chooses the path of Kabbalah, starts studying the material and implementing it, then when does the “resurrection of the dead” take place?

My Answer: A person goes through these states one after the other: first the double concealment of spirituality, then single concealment, then single revelation, double revelation, resurrection of the dead, and the full correction.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: To Be Or Not to Be?

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Questions I received on egoism and its negative consequences:

Question: Sometimes you give simple interpretations of the source texts. For example, in one of the daily Kabbalah lessons you talked about the verse from the prophets, “One’s enemies are his family.” I have experienced this through the division of my family. My question is: when is it acceptable to interpret a text literally and when isn’t it?

My Answer: As time goes on, egoism develops and hence more hatred becomes revealed everywhere and in everything. As a result we are revealing that everyone hates everyone. Soon we will also reach the situation described in this verse.

Every verse has to be correct on every level. However, whether it has already been revealed in our world or not is a matter of time.

Question: Could the expansion of egoism lead to megalomania or delusions of grandeur, like when a tyrant sees himself so powerful that he may claim to be G-d, or to another mental condition known as “G-d complex,” which is a psychological state of mind where a person believes that he has supernatural powers or G-d-like abilities?

My Answer: Under the influence of Ohr Makif, the ego grows in parallel with its own negation or correction. Without correction, a person only has a minimal level of egoism (this is what is revealed in him), but as soon as he starts correcting himself, new layers of egoism appear (are revealed).

Question: How does Kabbalah explain the increase in the worldwide suicide rate?

My Answer: The emptiness of one’s desire forces one to kill the desire. People will do anything to avoid feeling empty. Things will only get worse, especially among the youth!

Question: Religious canons view suicide as the greatest sin. How does Kabbalah view it?

My Answer: Suicide is one’s reaction to the impossibility of finding fulfillment in our world, because a person senses life only in the fulfillment of his desire! Only Kabbalah can attract the Light of fulfillment, and hence it is the only means able to prevent suicide.

Here’s a recent news report I saw on this (translated from Newsru.com): In China, a quarter of a million people annually end their lives in suicide. The US Army broke a 28-year record on the number of suicides among its personnel. In Japan, the number of annual deaths due to suicide is around 30 thousand. Russia takes first place in the number of suicides among kids, and is second in the world in the number of suicides overall.

Related Material:
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Kabbalah Today Article: “Kabbalah Chronicles”
Kabbalah Today Article: “What’s Happening to Our Youth?”
Kabbbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life: “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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A question I received: I hear a lot of talk in the mass media about large scale charity projects aiming to help terminally ill children. There are entire sites being created just to help one person who’s dying from a rare disease. I also see that there’s a big response to this from society. Meanwhile there are hundreds of people dying every day from hunger and AIDS in Africa, but this does not bother anyone at all. I’d say that this is one big imbalance.

Is there any way we can make the world understand that all the “charity” only slows down the general development and creates an illusion that we are acting altruistically?

My Answer: We can only explain the positive things that Kabbalah gives to the world and what it adds to people’s lives. However, we can’t criticize any actions people make, especially “charitable” actions, because then we will only evoke their hatred and greater misunderstanding. People will see for themselves that charity doesn’t really help and that temporary relief is misleading and only causes bigger problems later on.

Related Material:
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Three questions I received on sharing one’s personal attainments, staying connected with the Creator on every new level, and overcoming disgust of Kabbalah:

Question: Why is it harmful to share your personal attainments with others? And if so, what is meant by “attainment” in this case? Is the prohibition only on sharing one’s “communication” with the Creator, or are there other forbidden topics? Is it harmful for people to share their experience of going through different states, such as how they came out of descents, and their relationships with the environment? I feel that other people’s experience really helps me, and enables me to discover new perspectives on how to do inner work in Kabbalah.

My Answer: You cannot bring your personal relationship with the Creator outside of you. The Creator is envious! This can be compared to a situation where you love someone, or your intimate relationships, or how much money you have in the bank, and so on. There are things that you don’t want to share with everyone.

In Kabbalah, there are several reasons for the prohibition:

• One does not speak with anyone about the things he holds most dear;
• Any person can harm your spiritual path with his thoughts and desires, even unintentionally;
• Corrections are done through the intention, not through words.

Question: On every new level, what can help me stay connected with the Creator, and perform a correct analysis of my thoughts and desires, considering that everything starts from zero on every new level?

My Answer: The only thing that can help is a framework that you set ahead of time:

• systematic studies for 1-3 hours a day;
• dissemination for 1+ hours a day; and
• attending a gathering of friends once a week together with other people who are physically near you.

Question: Over the last week or two, I feel disgusted during the morning lessons. But I also feel an inner urge to persist in studying and coming to the morning lessons. This also happens in relation to the friends in the group. How should I deal with this situation?

My Answer: You should overcome yourself, but without breaking or forcing yourself – only by raising the importance of the goal, “The Attainment of the Creator.” You should see all the disturbances as a mountain that you have to climb in order to reach the goal, the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What Will Help Us Along the Way?
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Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

Questions I received on how to communicate with children and spouses:

Question: I think that people shouldn’t satisfy all of their children’s needs and desires. For example, I sent my children to expensive schools far away from home, but recently found out that they are using the opportunity to take drugs. Should I set an ultimatum for them – that I won’t support them financially unless they stop taking drugs? In the past I threatened one of my children this way, and I even stopped supporting him. But it didn’t help and only had the opposite effect, making us alienated from each other for a long time.

My Answer: You’ve reached you own understanding of the fact that you can’t teach anyone through force. This will only push them away. What should you do? Put them in the correct environment! There is no other solution.

Question: I’m in a situation where I can do something for my child, but I think that this action will harm him or prevent him from learning on his own, and in the long run it will only create greater difficulties for my child because one way or another he will have to learn on his own. However, my wife still insists on doing it. Is there anything I can do other than propose my point of view?

My Answer: Express your point of view calmly and objectively. Explain that there are laws of nature, and we all carry them out whether we like it or not. Don’t be frantic or angry when you explain this. Perhaps this will help, and if it doesn’t, then they will learn from the blows of fate, but already on a conscious level.

Actually, nothing enters a person’s consciousness without blows of fate. However, the blows can come in the form of our realization, without having to reach practical manifestation.

Everything depends on your wife – both the outer one and the inner one (your desires). I think that dealing with the inner wife is even more difficult than with the outer one.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: On the Men and Women Inside Us
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Kabbalah on Education
Lesson on Shamati #68: Man’s Connection to the Sefirot

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