A question I received: It says in the book Shamati, Article #16: “The rooster said to the bat: ‘I await the light for the light is mine; but you, what need have you for light?’” My question is: How does a person go from the state of being a bat to the state of being a rooster in this lifetime?

My Answer: Those who use Kabbalah (Torah) to attain the property of love and bestowal will see the Light of life in this property. On the other hand, those who use Kabbalah (Torah) for their own sake (to get rich, satisfy their pride, attain honor and confidence, to feel like they’re better than others, to justify their existence, and so on) are in the state of darkness; yet they are convinced that they are in the Light of the Creator. They are like bats that mistake the darkness for the light, and hence they are content to remain in exile from spirituality, to perform mere physical rituals – and they don’t feel like they need anything more.

Look at what Baal Hasulam writes in the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” about the words of the prophet Amos, “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! Wherefore would ye have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light!” “There is a parable about a rooster and a bat that were awaiting the light. The rooster said to the bat: ‘I await the light for the light is mine; but you, what need have you for light?’ (The Talmud. Sanhedrin 98:2)” This means that without the Light (which descends only when one studies Kabbalah), one doesn’t even understand that he is in darkness, because he only perceives our world.

If a person doesn’t aspire higher, above our world, but is satisfied with mechanical observance of rituals, historical and philosophical investigations, theology, holy water, amulets, and meditation (as we can see, this covers the whole gamut, from the naïve to the erudite), in other words, if one doesn’t have a “point in the heart,” then nothing will help him. It’s because his desire is still on the level of our world, and people always act exclusively according to the desires that surface in them.

Hence, Kabbalah is intended only for those who are searching for a genuine answer to the question, “What is the meaning of life?” And this answer lies in attaining the Source of one’s existence. This is how one reveals the meaning of what is happening as well as its final outcome.

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A question I received: I was an alcoholic and drug addict for 20 years. A year ago I went through rehabilitation and have stayed off drugs and alcohol thanks to a “12 step” program – a program of spiritual growth. Recently I started studying Kabbalah and became confused – should I continue the “12 step” program or devote myself completely to Kabbalah? Or should I combine both paths? Maybe some Kabbalah students are anonymous alcoholics and drug addicts, but I haven’t been able to find them yet. Can they share their experience with me?

My Answer: Kabbalah is spreading throughout the world. Obviously, the people who begin studying it come from all walks of life. I recommend and ask you to support each other.

A question I received: Suppose that a person is above the Machsom and he already attains and feels the connection with the Creator. As he continues working on his correction, he still decides to experiment with LSD in order to compare the different states. Will he not feel the Upper World then? I’d like you to give this question the attention it deserves, because modern science doesn’t consider LSD an ordinary drug, but an extremely powerful psycho-stimulant.

My Answer: As soon as a person takes drugs, he detaches from the perception of the real world and enters a realm of “wandering,” illusory images.

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A question I received: Do we have a memory (Reshimo) of freedom? I think we have to have it, because otherwise how do you explain the fact that we are always searching for freedom? So, assuming that we have this Reshimo, then the Light also fills us, but we just don’t feel or remember it. And one’s aspiration for spirituality is also determined by the Reshimot, isn’t it? This yearning for spirituality and freedom can’t just appear in us out of nowhere, and this means that we have Reshimot of something that once filled us. So my conclusion is that the entire problem is with us – how to awaken our Reshimot , how to wake up from the dream?

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct – our task is not even to awaken or revive the Reshimot, but to realize the Reshimot that have already surfaced in us. And the way to do this is by drawing the Upper Light (Ohr Makif) upon the Reshimot. However, this work has to be done constantly, and it can only be done in a group, by receiving the following things from it:

1. The importance of the goal.
2. The realization that it’s impossible to attain the goal with your own desire, but only with the group’s desire.
3. The help of the Upper Light, Ohr Makif.

This means that the Reshimot are awakened by the desire that we receive from our environment! And the awakened Reshimot in turn awaken the Light (Ohr Makif) that corresponds to them. This Light then corrects them, gives them the screen, and fills this screen with Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi).

So the Soul = Reshimo + screen + Ohr Pnimi.

Related Material:
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Chapter 4 from the book Interview with the Future: The Acceleration of the Reshimot

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A question I received: What do you think about disseminating Kabbalah to the masses through Christianity and Islam? Applying the method of Kabbalah to the study of the Gospel yields tremendous results. You begin to understand that you’re not reading fairytales about magic tricks, but about attempts to change something in the spiritual world, and you want to explain this to everyone who doesn’t yet know or understand it. I think that you should explain this to your Christian students, especially since the Old Testament is a major part of the Bible. Once they understand this, once they feel the bliss of true attainment without having to be detached from their culture and religion, then perhaps they will take it even further.

My Answer: Religion is not connected to Kabbalah in any way, but is actually opposite to it. Religion was given to humanity to be a framework for life in the time of darkness, before the revelation of Kabbalah. And this is why religion is dying out in our times, although this process is lengthy and it’s possible that there will still be religious wars in the future.

We do not approach religious Jews, and we disseminate Kabbalah only among the secular public. There’s nothing new about showing religious people that the Torah contains a deeper meaning. However, they’re not interested in this, because it knocks out the foundation of their faith – the egoistic principle of our world, “Do certain actions and you’ll receive a reward.”

Kabbalah, on the other hand, contradicts egoism, and tells you that you won’t receive anything for your actions (you won’t receive anything into your egoism, that is). Your entire reward lies in being corrected by the Upper Light, in loving your neighbor as yourself.

This is something you can only say to people who have already gone through all the egoistic desires and have a “point in the heart” – the desire for the Creator or the meaning of life. People who are still satisfied by faith do not have a “point in the heart” yet, and therefore we cannot talk to them for now. Kabbalah reveals the law of spiritual development to a person, but this development can only happen when it’s free and non-coercive – and that’s another aspect that’s fundamentally opposite to religion.

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A question I received: I searched the Internet for criticism of you – I just couldn’t hold myself back because I’m constantly having doubts and so I search for criticism to check whether I’m on the right path or not. I found that many people accuse you of not telling your students to observe the commandments. This is clear – you’ve answered this question a hundred times.

What’s strange is that many people also accuse you of the opposite – of forcing your students in Bnei Baruch to observe the commandments. I found stories about you kicking people out of the group because they talked on the phone on Saturday, and other such things. (I also noticed that you don’t write on the blog on Saturdays). Is it true that your students in Bnei Baruch have to observe the commandments? If yes, then why do you tell other people that they don’t have to observe them if it’s not their custom? And if it’s false, then did people just make these things up out of nowhere?

My Answer: Anyone who finds out about me will either love me or hate me. People who have a point in the heart are happy to find out about Kabbalah, and they see me as a Rav (meaning “great” in Hebrew). And if they don’t have a point in the heart, then they don’t understand me.

I teach authentic Kabbalah, and I received my knowledge of it through personal study with Rabash. No one else received this knowledge. It’s a known fact that I was Rabash’s unique student. I teach based on my personal attainment of the Upper World and the Creator. My opponents can accuse me of anything they want to, but they can’t say that I don’t understand the subject. In this regard, I haven’t found anyone equal to me so far. Let them listen to my lessons and they’ll be convinced of this.

Usually everything comes down to the question “Is Laitman for or against the commandments?” But this has nothing to do with Kabbalah! (See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.”) Laitman is “for” all the cultural traditions of his people, and he believes that it’s better to follow them. However, no one can be forced to do them. Laitman also believes that every person in the world can observe the traditions of his people if he wants to. Baal HaSulam writes that a person can keep his religion while studying Kabbalah and uniting with the Creator, because religions are no more than frameworks for corporeal, national traditions, and they bear no relation to the Creator and to spirituality, the Upper World. Religion borrowed these notions from Kabbalah.

The entire Torah and Kabbalah come down to observing the condition, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This is the general, all-enveloping and main Commandment of the Torah – the law of the universe, because it’s the Creator’s property. Kabbalah evokes the Upper Light of correction on a person, which endows him with the property of “love thy neighbor.” Religion, on the other hand, does not do this, and therefore instead of correcting man (which is what the Creator demands), it tells him to study and observe corporeal rituals and limitations.

In the Bnei Baruch center, where 300 men study with me on a regular basis, we abide by the traditional statute of the Kabbalists – observance of the main commandments (such as wearing a skullcap, keeping the Sabbath, observing Kashrut, getting married under a Huppah, and so on). We don’t allow alcoholism or drugs (not even if someone wants to “smoke a joint” in private on occasion). We require daily lesson attendance, participation in the group’s unification, dissemination responsibilities, and so on. And I have never concealed any of this – for example, I always wear a skullcap.

The entire problem of my critics is that they are still underdeveloped, that is to say, their point in the heart hasn’t surfaced yet. They’ll understand when they grow up. It’s impossible to understand spirituality through reason, but only through a desire that’s mature and ready. My critics don’t criticize the actual content, the things Kabbalah actually talks about, but rather they pick on everything “around” it, all the external aspects, the things they can grab hold of in order to snatch something for their egoism – like Klipa. This is their food, because they don’t have anything of their own to nourish them – they are empty. I understand their nature, and I’m willing to tolerate them and forgive them. Time goes by, and it favors the revelation of authentic Kabbalah. Eventually everything will come together in peace and correction.

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A question I received: Hello to all the spiritual “sharks,“ to the people creating a revolution in love! I have a question about the great Kabbalists who have stopped reincarnating. Why did they agree to end their reincarnations? It’s such a shame! Instead of coming back here and helping us, helping Rav Laitman give lessons, disseminate, and correct the world, they are sitting up in nirvana, in the World of Infinity, connected to the Source of the soul of Adam HaRishon, at a time when we need them the most! If I were granted the final correction, I wouldn’t just agree to stop reincarnating and passively wait for the other parts of my soul to be corrected through suffering. I wouldn’t agree to “play with the Leviathan.” So why did they agree to it? Where is their conscience?

My Answer: I completely understand your egoistic anger about not receiving help from above, but I can’t share it with you! When a person ascends and matures spiritually, he gains a new understanding of the causes of what’s happening, the purpose of the world and the method of its correction. He reveals the integral picture of the universe and clearly sees all the causes, phenomena and effects. And when he reveals all this, he becomes “righteous” – that is, he justifies the Creator.

Continue studying and evoking the Upper Light, and then your “eyes” (your soul’s vision) will open and you will attain the same state as the great Kabbalists – you will become like them. According to nature’s plan, we must all reach the state where we understand and justify all of the Creator’s actions. So nirvana and games with the Leviathan are ahead of us! It’s written, “The purpose of creation is to please the creatures.”

Related Material:
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Lesson on the article: “What Is the Degree One Should Reach In Order Not to Reincarnate Again?”

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Questions I received on how to disseminate Kabbalah:

Question: I went through a period when I had problems with my career, business, money, and so on. Still I did not stop working on my spiritual development and focused on it even more intensely. I wanted to share Kabbalah with others and to get them excited about it. However, since people knew what was happening in my daily reality, they would just smile at me or quickly cut off the conversation. I think that I discredited Kabbalah by doing this. Is there a “constitution” that one should follow when disseminating Kabbalah?

My Answer: The correct dissemination has to be:

1. General – impersonal, inconspicuous, non-coercive. It’s when you give a newspaper, book, or information about our website or television to a stranger without making him feel obligated in any way.

2. Personal – only when a person clearly asks you for it, or if he shows clear signs that it’s necessary for him (such as depression, questions about the meaning of life and so on, but provided that these are really his own questions and not the results of your hints).

Any other kind of dissemination is harmful for others and for you. If a person asks about the meaning of life and this question is genuine (that is to say – it demands to be answered through the attainment of the Source of life, the Creator), then he will find Kabbalah with his “sixth sense,” regardless of where he lives, what language he speaks, and by what form of media or means it will reach him. By disseminating (publishing Kabbalistic material in different languages and making it free or as cheap as possible) we want to accelerate and ease the process of contact between Kabbalah and those who need it.

Question: I want to study something that I will be able to use to disseminate Kabbalah. What will be the best thing to learn, so I won’t waste time? Every person has unique qualities that he needs to capitalize on and direct to the goal. How can I find out what my unique qualities are?

My Answer: You should try your hand in all forms of dissemination: transcribing text, editing, translating, writing articles for print or Internet, making brief article summaries, working with photos, editing and creating video material, creating and editing radio programs, simultaneous translation, editing and creating computer programs, and so on – the list is endless!

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Noah, the well-known character from the Torah, represents a stage in one’s spiritual development. It’s when a person realizes that his egoism is evil, and that he cannot save himself from it because it is his entire nature. He then understands that only the Upper Force, which is outside him, can change him. This is why he builds the Ark – or in other words, in response to his appeals, the Upper Light creates the property of Bina (bestowal) in him, and he then remains inside it so that his egoistic desires and properties will no longer rule over him. When he enters the Ark, he ascends above egoism and enters the realm of bestowal, isolating himself from his egoism, his nature.

Today every one of us and the entire world as a whole are beginning to feel that we are in a threatening state – the state of Noah before the Flood. We are being threatened by the inner (individual) and outer (worldwide) Flood (egoism), which we have brought upon ourselves and cannot overcome on our own. Our only salvation is to hide in the Ark, that is – for every person and for everyone together to acquire the property of bestowal, to ascend above our egoism. Then everything will reach harmony – just like all the species of creatures that were in the Ark, and we will make the transition to renewed life.

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Questions I received on what happens after death:

Question: My name is Daniel and I am fifteen years old. Recently I had a conversation with my uncle about the wisdom of Kabbalah. He said that people who study the wisdom of Kabbalah live forever, but this doesn’t seem logical to me. I would like to know what happens to the soul after death.

My Answer: It’s true: a person who has attained the life of his soul perceives his existence as eternal. But you probably think that eternal existence is impossible because you are connecting it to your body. Of course we can’t exist forever in the body, because this kind of existence is imperfect (egoistic). It was created to be brief (opposite to the Creator), and its only purpose is for us to correct it, to make it similar to the Creator. And the corrected state is eternal. Moreover, our temporary state is actually an illusion, given to us only to realize its evil, like a bad dream, so we would get an impression of it and separate from it!

Question: I really enjoy listening to your lessons and studying with you. You have revealed a beautiful world to me. Suppose that someone has crossed the Machsom, but then died before completing his entire correction. The next time this person is born, will he immediately perceive the spiritual world?

My Answer: No, but he will quickly go through all the preliminary stages and reach the state he attained before, and then he’ll go on from there. One must keep returning to our world until he attains the full correction, because a desire can only be corrected “from outside,” that is to say, while one is in this world, which is external in relation to spirituality.

Related Material:
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A question I received: In Tel Aviv, Yaffo, in the district Neve-Tzedek, there is a synagogue called “Marot HaSulam” (מראות הסולם), although unfortunately, it is in ruins. Can you please explain its name? Is it related to Baal HaSulam’s Perush HaSulam (The Ladder Commentary on the Book of Zohar)? I know that some commentaries on The Book of Zohar were written in this synagogue. The synagogue was founded in 1910, and Baal HaSulam wrote his Perush HaSulam in 1940. Did he write it in this synagogue?

My Answer: Baal HaSulam was forced to move from Jerusalem to Yaffo to get away from his opponents. He lived there and attended this synagogue. Then he moved to Tel Aviv, to a neighborhood near Rothchild Street.

Just like my teacher Rabash, Baal HaSulam’s oldest son, I was never interested in history, but only in ascending from our world to the Upper World. People who are attracted to history and what happens to the body are not attracted higher – to spirituality. Personally, I don’t feel any interest in this place. However, it would be nice to turn it into a museum about Baal HaSulam, into a place that explains Kabbalah to people!

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