Two questions I received on women’s spiritual advancement:

Question: Dear Rav, when you talk about distinguishing between Factory and Group, then as a woman working in dissemination, does my intention change? Should I think of the two as different entities?

My Answer: For you as a woman, it doesn’t matter at all what is happening inside the group. You advance to the extent that you contribute to the common advancement, regardless of how correctly the men in the group realize the opportunities for unification given to them. You advance independently of the men’s state.

Question: I have been divorced for over 10 years now and raising two wonderful boys (ages 22 and 24). I am now steering them to study Kabbalah. I do not feel and have not felt the need to be with a man in years, and I am quite content. I am not willing to settle just because I have to be with a man. What I enjoy is being a mother, and my greatest joy is to see my sons actively participating in their own spiritual development through Kabbalah. Am I doing it right?

My Answer: A woman does not have to get married in order to become corrected. By participating in the common work of dissemination and studying with us at the lessons, you have everything you need for spiritual growth. Good luck!

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Questions I received on how to get through the difficult times on the path:

Question: You live and work, raise your children, and study Kabbalah for a hobby. Everything is good. You even think that you’re successfully managing your life in both worlds – this world and the spiritual world. But suddenly you lose your job, your house, and your savings, and in addition someone in your family gets very sick. And for some reason, along with this world, your “spiritual world” falls apart too. Does this mean that everything you attained in spirituality was only a higher form of egoism, a desire for knowledge?

My Answer: This only means one thing: your conditions for advancement have changed, and now you are being offered new conditions for advancement. Why? Because this is how the common desire (the common soul) develops, and you are one of its parts (a particular soul). If you don’t want to advance under the new conditions, then you will leave the path of individual development, and from then on you will be led down the general path of suffering, “forced to happiness.”

Question: “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!” (Amos, 5:18) Initially the Light blinds all of our senses and seems like total darkness. However, this darkness is useful for one who aspires toward spirituality, since it shuts off all egoistic aspirations, and one’s egoism loses all interest in spirituality. And only one who keeps on stubbornly moving toward the Goal, “harnessed” together with Rav and the Creator, receives support, assistance and instruction. He then surmounts this part of the path, “the darkness of the night.”

I must admit that I am still a denizen of this world – the world of darkness, and I need the Light in order to acquire “sight,” the ability to see in the world of Light. My question is: What else can a student of yours add to all that he is already doing to attain this?

My Answer: Only more efforts to unite all aspirations toward one goal. It’s because the Creator, the quality of love and bestowal, is revealed only in the unified desire to be together in one desire, to reveal the property of love and bestowal between the souls.

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Questions I received on various discernments one makes along the spiritual path:

Question: Baal HaSulsam says, “Make yourself a Rav and buy yourself a friend.” What is the difference between “making” and “buying?” And how do you make and buy someone?

My Answer: “To make” means to exalt someone (to see them as great), and “to buy” means to invest in someone. For more on this, see Baal HaSulam’s article “A Speech in Celebration of the Conclusion of The Zohar.”

Question: What should I do with all the different feelings of sadness and depression that I experience? Most of these feelings are related to thoughts that it will still take me a very long time to correct myself, and to correct the world in general.

My Answer: Become more incorporated into the world Kli, and read quotes of Kabbalists about the importance of what we are doing. Let other readers give you advice about what to read from their experience.

You’re worried that it will take a long time? But you have your entire life, which was given to you just for this!

Question: I have been studying Kabbalah for a long time, but I still don’t quite understand – what is a Reshimo?

My Answer: It is information about the future spiritual degree, which demands to be realized.

Question: Why does every person receive a unique situation in life in order to advance?

My Answer: It’s because every person has unique initial properties and a unique final state. Nevertheless, the method of correction is the same for everyone.

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We have just published a new edition of the collected works of Rabash (in Hebrew). The three volume set of books includes materials that have never before been published. The books can be purchased here.

This three volume set of books contains all the materials of Rabash. In addition, we are currently preparing the collected works of Baal HaSulam for publication as well.

We only study the works of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. This is why I recommend for everyone to have these books.

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Questions I received on feeling empty, connecting with the virtual group, dealing with contradictions, and not wanting to study:

Question: Why is it that the more you disseminate and make efforts, the emptier you feel?

My Answer: The feeling of emptiness emerges when one does not realize the importance of dissemination as an act that’s favored by the Creator. By disseminating, you bring the world closer to Him. However, one’s constantly growing egoism does not feel the importance of this action. Egoism constantly grows, especially in those who study Kabbalah, in order to give them the opportunity to overcome it and to thereby rise to the level of the Creator.

You should compensate for the feeling of emptiness quickly by receiving the greatness of the goal and the Creator by connecting with books and friends. The Shamati articles explain this in great detail.

Question: How can you advance spiritually without being in physical contact with a group?

My Answer: If you keep virtual contact with the world group, then you are guaranteed to receive an impression and connection that are just as powerful. In addition, you can physically participate in the Congresses, as well as visit and train at our Israel center.

Question: How should one deal with the contradictions in Kabbalah? One day things are explained one way, and the next day – the opposite way!

My Answer: When you gain the right understanding, then all these “contradictions” will actually complement each other and connect into one whole. The contradictions lead to understanding, because they are an indication of your imperfection.

Question: There are days when I really want to study Kabbalah, and there are also days when I don’t want to think about Kabbalah at all, and instead I want to do the corporeal things that attract me. Does this indicate that I don’t have the point in the heart yet?

My Answer: During these days you receive an opportunity to advance independently, through your own efforts, rather than through the desire that you receive from above.

Related Material:
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A question I received: Today I read your blog entry where you say that Rav Berg is a failed Kabbalist. Did you really have to say this? It would be so wonderful if all the people who disseminate Kabbalah would stop judging one another. Your comment made me very angry and confused. Every person insists that he is the only one and the greatest one. Until this happened I thought that you were not a part of this game, that you know how to control yourself and don’t give in to the temptation of judging others.

My Answer: I said this so people would differentiate Kabbalah – the study of the primary sources and the works of Baal HaSulam, from the business of selling red strings, interpreting dreams, fortunetelling, meditation, and holy water, which is what Berg’s enterprise does. I hope that what I said will shorten people’s path to the truth – to the authentic Kabbalistic sources.

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A question I received: Dear Rav., When I turned thirty, I stopped feeling anything. My life became gray, worthless, and empty. I thought that this is what old age feels like and just accepted it. The years went by, and then one day I “accidentally” saw a program where you spoke about Kabbalah. It touched me, so I went to your website and spent three years studying materials there on my own. But a year ago I was so “shaken up” that I couldn’t remain alone anymore, so I started looking for other people who were interested in Kabbalah. And the ball started rolling! In the past year we formed a group, rented a study hall, went to a congress, and held a book fair that brought more people to Kabbalah. Now when men and women come to our center for the Sunday lesson, I feel responsible for making sure that everything goes smoothly. And all of this is happening after just one year!

Time seems to have gone by incredibly fast. More things happened during this one year than in my entire lifetime. My states change so fast that I don’t have the time to think about what is happening. My question is: Am I going through my reincarnations faster, or am I feeling this reincarnation more strongly, or am I making up for lost time, for the things I needed to do but didn’t?

My Answer: There is no “fast” path, there is no speed limit, and there are no speeding tickets. However, you must always check:

1. What is your goal? Is it to attain absolute bestowal by connecting into one whole with your friends, through the mutual guarantee?

2. Is this the goal you’re racing to attain? You have to gradually attain the property of bestowal, the opposite of your present state.

3. Where do you get the strength to advance? If you get it from yourself, then you are being pushed by your natural egoism – and it’s not pushing you toward the goal. However, if you are receiving your energy from the group, then you are advancing toward the right goal.

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A question I received: I have a question about the moral norms of people who study Kabbalah. You have explained that there is no time or space in spirituality, and our actions in the physical realm are insignificant. What matters is only our mental connection with one another and our thoughts about the Creator. Are you saying that a person who studies Kabbalah in a group can do anything he wants to in the corporeal world, without observing any moral norms, but turn into a wonderful friend as soon as he shows up to the lesson?

My Answer: We are dealing with people who are in the process of development and correction. Their egoism is developing quickly, and only later this is followed by slow and gradual correction. I have been observing this for thirty years already. How many years does a child have to spend getting his diapers dirty and getting help from others until he grows up? In other words, we have to remain patient for many years while the Upper Light does its work, and then the person becomes different! What else can you do, if “man is evil from birth?” It is forbidden to force him to conceal his evil. This will stop his correction, since he won’t be aware of his own evil.

In addition, when one studies Kabbalah one’s evil grows until reaching a state when one cannot tolerate it anymore. This is a wonderful moment because then one is ready to ask the Creator to help him get rid of the evil.

Observing moral norms looks good on the outside, but it is harmful if it prevents one from seeing his flaws. The only solution is to give people the method of correction and the environment for actualizing this method.

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A question I received: In reference to your blog entry, Interview With Canadian Television, I am not surprised that people’s egoism is growing primarily in Israel and Canada. I see this egoism every day, and regrettably only 0.01% of the people actually ask themselves about it. Looking at this from a purely human position, it’s a pitiful state. Does Kabbalah explain why this is happening, and why don’t the world’s religions deal with this question?

My Answer: Egoism has to keep growing until people will realize that it is evil. So let it grow faster! It grows fastest in people who start studying Kabbalah. Their growth of egoism accelerates and reaches its maximum quickly, and then they see that it is evil and they have to get rid of it.

This is why Kabbalah welcomes the growth of egoism, while religions and all the “spiritual” methods strive to suppress it, since they don’t have the method to correct it. However, one way or another, egoism has to grow to the maximum, and therefore all the methods will prove to be incompetent. We’ll be left with egoism at its peak and Kabbalah as the method of correcting it and using it correctly, that is – filling it with the Creator!

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A question I received: How does one pray in Kabbalah? I pray every night, yet I find myself asking whether this is the correct way to pray. It seems so egoistic to pray only for my own desires and requests. Does Kabbalah have “instructions” on how to pray, or a general, single prayer that a person can say? Perhaps every person should pray individually, according to how he feels, or is it better to just stop praying altogether?

My Answer: A prayer is a desire that comes from the bottom of one’s heart – the desire to become similar to the Creator, to bestow and selflessly love. This is the only desire that the Creator perceives as a prayer – the desire to be similar to Him, or to attain adhesion with Him. Hence, He doesn’t feel all the egoistic prayers people say, and the entire history of mankind shows this.

This is how the system of Atzilut (the system of the Creator’s connection with the creation or soul) is built: AVI (Aba ve Ima) feel a MAN coming from Malchut (the soul), and react to it by giving Malchut the Light of correction or the Light of fulfillment, depending on what Malchut asks for.

One cannot reach such a request, or the true prayer, alone. This can only be done through a group, by trying to unite with it into one whole, as requested by AVI, and as it was before the breaking of the soul. In addition, it can only be done through studying authentic Kabbalistic books – the original books of Baal HaSulam, because then one is influenced by a special Upper Force called the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif). (See item 155 in the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.”)

Precisely this Light creates the true prayer in a person, which immediately receives an answer from the Creator in that He reveals Himself to the person. This revelation of the Creator is called the evidence (Edut) of the fact that a person will never sin again, that is, that he will never act egoistically under the influence of this revelation. This is why the Upper World becomes revealed to him.

Related Material:
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