A question I received: There are many lies, but only one truth. Our entire world is a crooked mirror, and everything is not what they taught us in school. I learned this from the introductory lectures on the Concept of National Security by K.P. Petrov, leader of Russia’s political “Unity” party. Later I came across Kab.tv and started watching your lessons. What was remarkable is that after Petrov’s lectures, I found all your answers to be obvious. Could Petrov’s concept be a stepping stone on the way to Kabbalah?

What Petrov does is use very simple language to get ordinary people interested in reevaluating their preconceived notions, in going from the concept of “divide and conquer” to “unite and flourish.”

Could you comment on whether Petrov’s concept is useful or harmful, since this movement is gaining popularity and could be an alternative to the present regime?

My Answer: I am not familiar with Petrov or his concept. I don’t explore any other concepts besides Kabbalah. I know that the next regime will be either:

• Nazism in all the developed countries, and then the path of great suffering will nevertheless bring people to the second path;
• Or we will directly go to global unity of the entire world – above egoism, by means of the Upper Light that’s drawn through Kabbalah.

All other concepts will vanish before they even have time to develop.

I don’t believe in anything, including Kabbalah. I know the Upper World and its laws, and therefore I am not interested in any human concepts. There are laws of nature, and they govern our development regardless of any concepts we invent.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Nazism – The Future of Humankind?
Laitman.com Post: Why Don’t Kabbalists Enter the Political Arena?
Article: “Influence of the Creator”
Article:  “Peace in the World”

Filed under: World - No Comments →

Three questions I received on suffering:

Question: It is said that there is no punishment in spirituality. Yet there is the curse of egoism which we fell into from spirituality. Does that mean that women only suffer in this corporeality as a result of our egoism?

My Answer: Yes, just like men!

Question: Will suffering disappear after we become fully corrected?

My Answer: Of course, because suffering is the sensation of empty desires.

Question: Kabbalah says that a person could choose either the path of Kabbalah or the path of suffering. But people who study Kabbalah still suffer, don’t they?

My Answer: An egoist feels one kind of suffering – bitter suffering, because he doesn’t get what he wants. But those who study Kabbalah feel the suffering of love – sweet suffering, because they yearn for their beloved.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Why Do We Feel Suffering?
Laitman.com Post: What Is the Purpose of Women’s Suffering?
Laitman.com Post: A Question Is the Sensation of an Empty Desire
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: Chapter 34 – “Suffering Sent As Absolute Kindness”

Filed under: Suffering - No Comments →

A question I received: You said that religion did us a service by showing us how to coexist with each other, and that human egoism became tolerable thanks to religion. Now let’s imagine that religion never existed. Egoism would have torn human society apart, and because of the great suffering we would have reached our logical conclusion much faster – study of Kabbalah and attainment of the goal of creation. Doesn’t this mean that religion is not just harmful, but very much so?

My Answer: The role of religion in man’s (the soul’s) development will become clear only after we attain the Governing Force. In the meantime we have to learn from reality: This is how our world develops, first going through the primitive beliefs, then faith in religions, then faith in science, and finally – the science of Kabbalah. This is when you gain the possibility of opening up your eyes with the help of a new quality and seeing the universe for what it really is.

Kabbalists compare the state before this to sleeping or being unconscious. So while you still don’t have the ability to perceive the true world – while you’re asleep, you should just accept what you feel, and keep advancing. Then the Light of Kabbalah study will “awaken” you.

I accept everything taking place in the world as things that are given to me for my development. I form an opinion about everything that happens only from this perspective. In our time religion must transform and give way to Kabbalah. It should only lay a claim to the cultural content of people’s lives, without any claim to the soul, the world to come and so on, since it doesn’t really know anything about these things. Its task is to give psychological support to weak people, like a psychologist or therapist, but no more than that. Then religion will be able to get out of the crisis it’s in, stop using threats and force to influence people, and earn people’s respect.

The relationships between man and God are explained in Kabbalah by revealing the Creator to man. I consider myself religious because this is the “religion” I follow, rather than the distorted and mechanical one that demands submissive and pointless observance (Musar).

When Baal HaSulam says religion, he means only Kabbalah, while referring to all the rest as culture, tradition, or ethics (Musar). Here’s an excerpt from the article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose“:

“Many are mistaken and compare our holy Torah to ethics (Musar). But that has come to them because they have never tasted religion in their lives. I call upon them: ‘Taste and see (receive the Upper Light into your soul and reveal) that the Lord is good.’

It is true that both ethics and religion aim at one thing – to raise man above the filth of the narrow self-love and bring him to the heights of love of others. But still they are as remote one from the other as the distance between the Thought of the Creator from the thought of people. For religion extends from the Thoughts of the Creator, and ethics comes from thoughts of flesh and blood and from the experiences of their lives.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: “And God Created Man In His Own Image”
Chapter from Book “The Path of Kabbalah”: Uprooting Prejudice
Baal HaSulam Article: Exile and Redemption
Shamati #66: The Giving of the Torah

Filed under: Religion - No Comments →

A news report (translated from cursorinfo.co.il): On Wednesday, September 10th, on the border of Switzerland and France, scientists will hold the largest physics experiment in history. They will circulate a proton beam with an energy of 450 Gigavolts through the entire length of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC – the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator), which has a 27 Kilometer long acceleration tunnel.

The objective of the experiment is to recreate the conditions of less than a millionth of a second after the Big Bang. But what are the possible outcomes of colliding protons at such high energy? It’s possible that a steady black hole will emerge, and the world will be annihilated inside it.

So, ladies and gentlemen, the end of the world is scheduled to take place on September 10th!

My Comment: Could it be that even scientists are now joining the ranks of everyone else who is predicting the end of the world? The end of the world (of this world) will happen only after the full correction of all the souls. The date depends on us, our correction:

1. We can accelerate it by attracting the Light of Correction (Ohr Makif), and then it will happen prior to 6,000 years (today we are in the year 5,768).
2. Or we can do it through the path of suffering, but no later than September 2,240 – 6,000 years after the first time that a man, Adam, revealed the Creator.

Our world (the universe) is under the full and absolute governance of a higher world, the World of Atzilut, which is programmed to bring about the general correction of all the souls of all the people who exist in our world. Our world is but a result of the Upper Governance.

We can influence the World of Atzilut only with our desire (MAN) to ascend to it with our corrected souls (desires of bestowal and love). Each and every one of us has access to the means of controlling our destiny – Kabbalah.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Why Do We Like the Idea of the End of the World?
Laitman.com Post: Is a Gigantic Underground Particle Accelerator a Cause for Worry?
Laitman.com Post: Will God Want to Repeat the Act of Creation?

Filed under: Science - No Comments →

Questions I received on the loss of desire and other disturbances:

Question: I’ve been studying Kabbalah for over a year, and lately I’ve been faced with a problem. My desires for different pleasures of this world are gradually disappearing, and the only desires left are the minimal desires needed for bodily survival. Is this regression? Can I somehow develop desires for fulfillment? I feel like I am turning into an amoeba. Even though I don’t limit myself in any way, I don’t see any point in making “unnecessary movements.” Where did my egoism go? If it fell asleep, then how can I wake it back up?

My Answer: You’re discovering that it’s pointless to fulfill your egoism, and because you’ve made this revelation, you have lost the energy (Homer Delek) to aspire for material things. This happens to many people in our world, resulting in a feeling of emptiness and depression – the most widespread disease in the world. However, spirituality also disappears and ceases to attract you.

Both of these feelings are evoked in you by the Creator on purpose, in order to create a place for freedom of will, a place for you to make your own efforts above your nature. It’s because all the things that you can do on your own are actually done by the Creator. But if you reveal the emptiness of this world and become indifferent to this world, and in addition you also reveal a special emptiness of the spiritual world, and the spiritual world also ceases attracting you, then you should participate in the group and the study correctly, in order to evoke the importance of the spiritual goal – “the revelation of the Creator (love for your neighbor).”

This desire draws the Upper Light (Ohr Makif), which will bring you the perception of spirituality – the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love. So you should receive the importance of spirituality from your friends!

Question: Dear Rav, after my study visit to Bnei Baruch I really felt that my soul, for the first time, felt that it was at home. It was a power that was stronger than my body. It caused many conflicts when I tried to balance my time between the desire of my soul and doing my bodily things. Now that I am back I feel like I have no desire for anything. This happens to me after each congress and each time I have a very strong contact with Bnei Baruch. Why does this happen and how can I pass these states?

My Answer: This is natural, because we at Bnei Baruch have a very intense spiritual atmosphere, and you are being imbued by it. After returning home from your visit to us, you have to heighten your spiritual life so it will take place on the same level that you felt while being with us.

Question: I encountered many problems while doing dissemination actions. For example, I fell down, my eyes and teeth became infected, and so on. Public opinion says that the obstacles are telling me that I shouldn’t be doing this, that I have to change my outlook, and so on. But I believe differently – that I have to make efforts in order to reinforce my intention for reaching the goal. Please explain, how should I interpret the disturbances?

My Answer: If your body is physically and psychologically healthy, then you have to overcome the disturbances without paying attention to your body. However, if the disturbances need medical treatment, then you should immediately go to the doctor, while continuing your studies and dissemination.

Comment: In a previous blog post I wrote that Kabbalah is more important than family – that if a man’s wife is against Kabbalah and it’s impossible to compromise or persuade her, then it’s permissible to get a divorce for the sake of your soul. I received a few perplexed responses – “How can this be?” People don’t understand that life is meaningless if it’s not used to attain the goal that has been set before every person. The sky, the earth, and every one of us were created for attaining this goal, and not for creating a marriage on the animate level and becoming a slave of your partner’s egoism.

So the conclusion to be made from this is: In all life situations, your behavior should be determined only by the spiritual goal!

Related Material:
Latiman.com Post: The Method of Attaining Happiness
Laitman.com Post: Corporeality Has No Effect on Spirituality
Laitman.com Post: The Only Thing That Can Justify Getting a Divorce
Shamati Article#4: “What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling Before the Creator in the Work?”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

Two questions I received on suffering:

Question: Why do our five senses feel our lack of similarity to spirituality as suffering?

My Answer: It’s because our senses are desires for fulfillment. They were fulfilled in the World of Infinity and were later emptied due to the breaking – the common soul’s separation into a multitude of separate parts or souls. Each soul has recollections (Reshimot) of the past fulfillment, and these Reshimot are now awakening and demanding fulfillment.

What you call suffering is this emptiness you are feeling. When you change your attitude to the sensation of suffering, then you will experience it as fulfillment and happiness. Our attitude or intention can change everything.

The actual state we’re in is static and constant; the only thing that changes is our attitude to it. It determines whether we feel ourselves as being in this world – in the concealment of the Creator, or in His revelation – on the degrees of the five worlds, or in the World of Infinity.

Question: What should I do if my only appeal to the Creator is: “Give me strength not to hate you,” and if despite my work in the group, dissemination, and lessons, the only thing I feel is that my situation at home is getting much worse, my economic circumstances are constantly deteriorating (and I can’t even find a job), and so on. I suddenly started feeling completely estranged from the Creator. Is it normal for Kabbalah to bring material devastation?

My Answer: Rabash told me how difficult it was for him to find work, and how many times he had to change jobs, which included being a shoemaker, a concrete worker, a scribe and a servant.

You must have the same attitude to this as everyone else, but at the same time, regularly (according to a set schedule) continue engaging in that for which you are living in this world – the correction of your soul. Be a little more humble – think that everything comes from the Creator, and the only thing you desire is to feel that this is so.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Perserverance Is the Key to Success
Laitman.com Post: Redemption Will Come At the Hands of the Creator
Laitman.com Post: Practical Advice by Rabash
Chapter from Interview with the Future: “The Spiritual Gene and the Reshimot (Reminiscence)”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: I have been studying Kabbalah for a long time and I really enjoy it. I am also writing a book that examines Kabbalah from different perspectives. I have a million questions for you, but will start with just one: would it be good to restore royal government in Russia?

My Answer: I have been receiving many letters from my students in the entire Caucasus region because of the recent events happening there. Even though I don’t usually get involved in politics or think in corporeal terms, as if something is actually happening here, nevertheless I will talk about this in regular language in order to show how the Upper Forces reflect in our actions.

The Russian people are smart, sensitive, and even special in heart and mind, but they aren’t able to govern themselves (as the Russian saying goes: “The master will come and decide what to do”). They weren’t able to do it over the course of their entire history. The only period when Russia prospered was when it was governed by the tsars – from Peter the Great until the last tsar.

Most of these tsars weren’t Russian, but came from the West, and they directed Russia toward the Western path of development. During that time almost all of Russia’s ministers, as well as Russian culture, were “Western.” And this didn’t impede Russia’s development, but rather facilitated the development of Russian culture, literature, and industry – the foundation of Russia, which was created in the nineteenth century. In essence, Russia was built by Europe, but instead of being suppressed by Western influence, Russian culture, Orthodoxy, and science developed beautifully!

Hence, Russia’s present separation from Europe is suicide for it! Russia should imitate the European parliament and government to the letter, with the help of experienced European specialists, the way it did during Tsarist Russia. It cannot manage on its own, since it lacks the experience of the West, whose history and development go back thousands of years. By showcasing its exclusivity, Russia goes against the Upper Force. Hence, this country will once again develop unsuccessfully.

Incidentally, the Jews in Israel have the opposite problem: they are striving to be like the West, but according to their Upper Goal they must strive to create a spiritual society and become an example for the entire world. This is why the Upper Force is against them.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Neither Side Is Right In the Georgian War
Laitman.com Post: Why Does Everyone Hate Israel?
Laitman.com Post: The Solution – Excerpts from the Writings of the Last Generation by Baal HaSulam

Filed under: Politics - No Comments →

Two questions I received on how to tell whether Kabbalah is the right method:

Question: My question has two parts:

1. Besides Kabbalah there are many methods of revealing the Creator. I can agree that they don’t explain the structure of the Upper Worlds or the rules of governance, but why would a person who is united with the Creator need this anyway? And if the goal of creation is adhesion with Him, then why does Kabbalah deny all other methods of attaining this? Besides, someone studying Kabbalah is not guaranteed to attain the goal of creation – it doesn’t have the “guarantees” that other sciences provide.

2. Physically you look a lot like Osho (or Osho looks like you). Both of you interest me and have my respect. Forgetting the terminology for a minute, you bring Light to the people through the power of logic (physics), and Osho did it through the beauty of poetry (lyrics), but your content is the same. How can I know whether you have really tested your path? Without this verification, Kabbalah is no different than any other religion and requires blind faith.

My Answer: The answer is inside you. A question is the sensation of an empty desire, and its fulfillment is the proof.

Question: In a previous blog entry, you wrote: “The problem with amulets, spells, and mysticism is that they distract us, and we start being late with correcting ourselves. This causes an accumulation of evil that’s expressed as suffering.” But what if it’s too late by the time a person understands this?

My Answer: Nature treats us according to our similarity to it, and to the extent we realize how similar or dissimilar we are to it. It’s the same as how in this world, our judgment of someone who made a wrong action changes depending on whether the action was intentional or not. Suffering that comes from unintended dissimilarity to nature forces us to discover this dissimilarity, and hence it is a correcting signal of an “illness.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How Will We Know That the Revelation of the Upper World Is Not an Illusion?
Laitman.com Post: If There Is a Question, It Will Receive an Answer
Kabbalah Today Article: “To Understand Means to Feel”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

Every day the mass media brings us more news and information about the worldwide socio-political crisis, the threatening global climate changes, and scientific discoveries. All of this is determined by humanity’s general movement toward its final state – similarity to the Creator by the principle “through the thorns to the stars,” or in other words, “forced to happiness.”

Wouldn’t it be nice to go through these stages smoothly and pleasantly? Yet human stupidity and stubbornness lead us like Pharaoh in the Torah – from blow to blow. When a Kabbalist observes this, he suffers for everyone and with everyone. The only consolation is seeing that every blow nevertheless brings us closer to the goal – even though the medicine is right under our noses!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Why Is Ehud Olmert Resigning?
Laitman.com Post: All the World’s Pains are in One Country
Kabbalah Today Article: Mankind’s Growing Hunger
Kabbalah Today Article: Global Warming – So What?!
Kabbalah Today Article: The Untold Story of: a Consumer Nation

Filed under: News - No Comments →

A question I received: I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who creates Kabbalah Internet resources! I found Kabbalah on the Internet two years ago, and my life has made a 180 degree turnaround. I finally found my inner world, and all of the questions that haven’t given me a moment of rest since the day I was born have stopped bothering me. I started to understand the essence of things and the reasons behind the things that happen to me. Currently I work on disseminating video lectures and lessons on the Internet.

There is a question that has been bothering me for many years. What is the meaning of the Biblical verse, “A day for each year”? Does this have anything to do with corporeal time?

My Answer: This has absolutely no relation to corporeal time. When a person advances down the path of the Light’s influence on him, then he shortens his path, and this is like “A day for each year” (a day instead of a year). However, this isn’t a corporeal ratio.

There is only one way to ascend to a higher spiritual degree – through desire and love. (All of the Torah speaks only about this – one’s ascent up 125 degrees toward adhesion with the Creator.) However, when it comes to the first degree, one ascends to it from one’s absolutely egoistic properties (the degree called “our world” or “this world”). After the first degree, you no longer have to change yourself completely in order to ascend, but must only keep developing greater altruistic properties within you.

This is why the ascent to the first degree is the most difficult and takes the most time (although the higher you rise, the more difficult it gets; but experience and knowledge help you do this – see Baal HaSulam’s example about ascending up the Creator’s mountain). One’s development either happens through the path of suffering, or through the path of Light, which descends during Kabbalah study. So the verse “A day for each year” expresses the difference in the time it takes to attain the goal (the first degree) through suffering (without using Kabbalah) or through Light (using Kabbalah).

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Conscious Acceleration Toward Life’s Purpose
Laitman.com Post: The Solution – Excerpts from the Writings of the Last Generation by Baal HaSulam
Basic Concepts in Kabbalah: Chapter 7, “From the Afterword to the Zohar”

Filed under: Torah - No Comments →