Three questions I received on the notions of nationality and Israel

Question: If a person is physically born a Jew, does it mean that he will always reincarnate as a Jew?

My Answer: Yes, because his soul came from Babylon and took the path of correction, then ascended to the level of complete personal correction during the times of the Temple, and then fell from that level to the state of all the souls in this world, in order to spend 2,000 years together with them (and even worse off than them), while being in exile from spiritual life. Precisely this soul must ascend and help everyone else do the same – help all the souls attain the full correction.

Question: If the answer is yes, then is it because the nation of Israel was chosen to carry the plan of the Creator, and this would mean that all the other people will also continue being born with the same nationalities that they started with?

My Answer: Yes. However, we don’t know about the other ten tribes, where they are and who they are today. It’s possible that today they are several billion people – those who were on the spiritual level and fell from it during the times of the First Temple. We learn about this fall and its correction from the breaking of two Partzufim, DACHGAT and NHY, in the World of Nekudim, their common fall and then their common correction. See parts 6 and 7 of Talmud Eser Sefirot.

Question: What if a person converts to Judaism and works very hard trying to attain the Creator? Does he also become a part of the nation of Israel (physically and spiritually)?

My Answer: There is no such nation. These people are ancient Babylonians who began correcting themselves back then. The others, who continued developing egoistically, went on to develop from the 70 forces of Zeir Anpin of the World of Atzilut, and this is why they are called “nations” – and each one has its own form of egoism.

The former are called “Hebrews,” which comes from the word Ever, meaning “across” (across the Machsom), “Jids” – because they await the correction or the Mashiach, and Yehudi (Jew), which comes from the word Yehud, meaning union (with the Creator). This is what set them apart from their brothers, the other Babylonians. So one doesn’t just “convert to Judaism,” the way we see it in our world, but rather spiritual Judaism is when one corrects oneself to the level of the Creator, one attains the Creator through studying Kabbalah. Just like in ancient times, those who are the “nation of Israel” today are those who separated from the other Babylonians by starting to correct their egoism.

You should see the world as that same Babylonian civilization, a part of which temporarily corrected itself, and today everyone must become corrected and become like the Creator. There is no such thing as corporeal Judaism, just like there are no religions, faiths, and so on. All of these things are incorrectly, egoistically understood Kabbalah. Where did people even get such notions, even if they’re mistaken? They came up with them either because their soul hinted at them from within, or from the fall of Kabbalah to the egoistic level. Who were the ancient nations? They were pagans or believers like Romans and Greeks. Everything else came from the spiritual fall, in order to accelerate the development of the Babylonians and bring them to the necessity to become equal to the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What Is the Spiritual Root of the Holocaust?
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Is for the Whole World
Laitman.com Post: Israel Isn’t What You Think It Is
Kabbalah Today Article: Havoc in Modern-Day Babylon
Kabbalah Today Article: Happy New Year
Chapter 18 from the eBook The Open Book: Introduction to the Zohar, Who Is to Blame?

Filed under: Israel - 2 Comments →

Two questions I received about sharing Kabbalah with others

Question: In response to a question, you said “Don’t talk about Kabbalah to anyone except the people you study with.” But then how should we push people to Kabbalah? I feel that if I don’t remind certain people about this topic or give them hints, then they’ll never even find out that such a thing exists, at least not in this reincarnation.

My Answer: You can give them a “hint” but no more than that, and don’t push. You should be especially careful with the people you have constant contact with. It’s better if others will talk to them about Kabbalah. Keep your relationships with them regular, on the level of this world.

Question: Can a student without spiritual attainment rely on his direct intellectual understanding of Baal HaSulam’s works? I’ve been listening to the Bnei Baruch lessons and reading Talmud Eser Sefirot almost every day for over a year now. Every time I feel that I understand something I read, I have a strong desire to share it with other students. Can I write about the things I understand and give it to others to read? Or can I only give it to people who have spiritual attainment?

My Answer: You can, but don’t overload others. Do it only for making contacts. After all, by doing so you won’t be studying the main material, the Kabbalist’s thoughts, but your own thoughts.

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: In an interview you gave about men and women, you said that a woman’s soul has male components and a man’s soul has female components. Considering this and the law of “love thy neighbor as thyself,” how can you say that a woman will consent to her partner – a man – having many other women, and that she will be happy with this situation? This is illogical. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman, but I feel that I can easily put myself into a man’s shoes, and I know that if I were a man, I wouldn’t have other partners just like I don’t have them now, being a woman, because this would harm the soul of another person.

My Answer: Male and female properties are incorporated in each other from the beginning, back in the root of creation. This incorporation exists because the property “to receive” cannot exist without including the property “to bestow” – the desire (Kli) cannot exist without the Light (pleasure), which creates and nourishes it, and determines its existence. On the other hand, even though the property of bestowal and Light seems to exist before the creation of desire, in any case, this is just our hypothetical way of describing it, because there is no pleasure without desire, no Light without a vessel. The abstract form only appears after the form embodied in matter manifests, and we can then visualize the form as existing without matter.

In ancient civilizations, polygamy was a normal occurrence, and acquiring a woman for money, through a contract with her father, was always popular, and this took place among ancient Jews as well. The Talmud says that a woman is acquired for money or through coitus. She is acquired, purchased. As you see, it doesn’t speak anywhere about love! Polygamy is manifested at the basis of the nature of the human society. You aren’t being objective about this because you’re a prisoner of the European culture you’re living in.

Related Material:
Chapter 8 from the eBook Interview with the Future: The Freedom to Choose
Chapter 10 from the eBook Interview with the Future: The Right Environment

Filed under: Women - 1 Comment →

A comment I received: I’ve been reading your work for a long time now, and I see many parallels with Gnosticism. I’m surprised at how you combine this with such a materialistic teaching as Judaism, and how theodicy appears in Kabbalah, since obviously the material world is extremely evil, and its Creator cannot be evil. The only possible hope can be the enemy of whoever created this material world.

My Response: In our world, the Creator manifests as opposite Himself, because instead of perceiving Him, we perceive through our egoism and thus see the negative. In order to begin perceiving spirituality the way it really is, we have to create qualities within us that are similar to it, and which won’t distort its perception.

This is precisely what Kabbalah does to everyone studying it. Kabbalah creates new, spiritual qualities in a person, after which a person, using those qualities, feels the Upper hidden realm that others don’t feel.

I simply disregard everything except Kabbalah, and don’t compare it with anything else. This allows me to avoid getting confused and to attain. I have discarded all the philosophies which I once knew or studied. I prefer to attain rather than to be smart and get lost in thought, and I advise you to do the same. It helps.

Go through Baal HaSulam’s articles – practically all of them, right down the list (ed. all the links under the heading “Kabbalah Source Materials” are Baal HaSulam’s articles, except for Talmud Eser Sefirot, which is a book).

You should first study these articles, and then, if you still feel an inclination toward doing a comparative analysis of Kabbalah and something else, you can go for it. Good luck!

Related Material:
Myths About Kabbalah
Chapter 7 from the Book The Kabbalah Experience: Beliefs, Mysticism and the Supernatural

Filed under: Spirituality - 2 Comments →

Questions I received on descents in the spiritual path

Question: “There isn’t a righteous man who hasn’t sinned.” What happens between the levels, when one is in a descent and everything one had attained – the Light and the Creator – falls into the Klipot? How can one live with this difficult feeling?

My Answer: As Baal HaSulam writes in the book Pri Hacham (Letters), one needs to be happy about a descent, because it is the revelation of your uncorrected properties.
And if the evil is being revealed in you, this means that you already have the strength, the understanding, and the ability to correct such properties and rise above them to the next degree. Therefore, there’s no reason to feel down even during the greatest descent! The greatest punishment is for you to become disconnected from the Creator in your thoughts and sensations.

Question: On the spiritual path, how can I overcome the state when I feel lack of energy? You know what your purpose in the world is, and you try to connect what’s happening to the Creator, but you still don’t have energy to do anything, you can’t cope with the corporeal world and you simply can’t do anything at all, like you’re trying to disappear and not feel anything…

My Answer: There are many states like this and they are very diverse. It’s in our power to accelerate the speed at which we go through them, but it is impossible to cancel them, and you shouldn’t ever think that they are unnecessary. They are all inside you and have to manifest, and you must justify their manifestation and rise above them. How? You should realize that everything you perceive comes from the Creator, because “there is none else besides Him.” And everything is done for your own good, because “The Creator is good and does good.” The best way to practically, correctly and quickly incorporate this within you is to participate in the group and disseminate.

Question: I have different problems, and I don’t know whether they are psychological or a consequence of studying Kabbalah. What would you advise me to do?

My Answer: If people have psychological problems (mental illnesses), then usually they aren’t allowed to study Kabbalah, or they may study under a doctor’s supervision and a special attitude from us. But if you are mentally healthy, then the only thing that can help you is to increase your studies. It’s because every ascent is preceded by a descent, and you shouldn’t miss the descent, but ascend through it, with an effort, elevating the greatness of the goal and the certainty that the Light of studying will elevate you.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Problems in the Beginning
Laitman.com Post: It’s Impossible for a Kabbalist to be Dull and Somber
Laitman.com Post: Why Does a Person Get Beaten?
Shamati Article #1: There Is None Else Beside Him
Shamati Article #50: Two States
Shamati Article #196: A Grip for the Externals
eBook: Shamati (I Heard)
Purchase the Book: Shamati (I Heard)

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

A notice I received: The Disclosure Project is a nonprofit research project working to fully disclose the facts about UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and classified advanced energy and propulsion systems. We have over 450 government, military, and intelligence community witnesses testifying to their direct, personal, first hand experience with UFOs, ETs, ET technology, and the cover-up that keeps this information secret.

My Comment: This is all very appealing and alluring because of its secrecy, but in our times we have more practical problems to think about. Leave these UFOs and things for the romantic youth, who don’t even exist anymore. Hmmm… so the only ones you have left are the aged romantics.

Kabbalah is the method of entering the higher dimension, where we all need to relocate. The ship that can get us there is our intention to go “away from ourselves.” The time allotted for us to relocate to the higher dimension is quickly decreasing. So instead of your project, let’s start putting my project into action!

Your project is only talking about disclosing a conspiracy that is concealing something unearthly, but which is similar to us in some way. Moreover, who knows what problems such a disclosure would bring us, and more generally speaking, whether such a revelation actually holds to it anything more than satisfying our curiosity. However, I’m offering something that will fly us all, together, away from this world! Moreover, we have all the technology we need, it’s just waiting for us to use it. So buckle up and get ready to take off!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: 8 Questions on Life, Meaning, Evolution, UFOs, the Global Crisis, Ecological Disasters and Humanity’s Future
Myths About Kabbalah
Chapter 7 from the Book The Kabbalah Experience: Beliefs, Mysticism and the Supernatural

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: Dear Rav Laitman, could you please explain how does Kabbalah treat marriage and differences in perception between husband and wife? Kabbalah has already explained a great deal to me. Does Kabbalah treat a relationship between husband and wife as a sacred one or is it up to one`s desire to decide whether to follow the path? Thank you for helping us to understand what was considered “a secret.”

My Answer: “Sacred” is the quality of bestowal, which we acquire under the influence of the Light of Correction (Ohr Makif), when we correctly study Kabbalah (the books of Baal HaSulam). There is no other sacredness! It’s written: “There is no coercion in spirituality.” In corporeality, coercion originates from egoism. But it cannot exist in the spiritual world and in spiritual actions.

Every person has his own path and his own time to come to the Creator, and therefore you don’t have the right to force anyone to do this, including your husband and children. You can only tell them about it without pressuring them, “by the way,” gently, without threatening them, and evoking love for this topic in them. And no matter what the result, you should continue with your family life just like before.

Uniting with everyone who aspires toward the Creator will give you the strength and the desire to attain Him. You should view your relatives as bodies that are related to you, and as souls that are foreign to you.

Related Material:
Part 6, Ch. 4 from the eBook Interview with the Future: What Should One Go Through in Order to Attain Spirituality?
Shamati Article #145: What Is Will Give Wisdom Specifically to the Wise
Chapter 4.4 from the Book The Path of Kabbalah: Questions and Answers
eBook: The Path of Kabbalah – Revealing the Hidden Wisdom
Purchase the Book: The Path of Kabbalah – Revealing the Hidden Wisdom

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

Three questions I received on study, work and dissemination

Question: Does it matter how much time I spend studying – two hours or half an hour? Will I attract more Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) if I study for two hours?

My Answer: It’s sufficient to study between one to three hours a day. The most important thing is your intention while studying. Read the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” Items 10-20, which discusses this. You should divide your time so that half of it is used for studying and half for disseminating Kabbalah in the world. And it’s best to do both of these in a group – either physical or virtual.

Question: After Kabbalah lessons, we are faced with life, work or school. What should I do when I am at school?

My Answer: Push aside all thoughts about Kabbalah and only do what you are supposed to. Later you will be able to combine the two correctly.

Question: Can I disseminate even if I still don’t understand what Kabbalah is talking about?

My Answer: The understanding will come to you gradually, precisely to the extent that you participate in dissemination. Look at the example of Joshua – he helped Moshe disseminate the knowledge, helped arrange things, but he didn’t study himself. By helping, he mastered the knowledge and became Moshe’s successor – the spiritual leader of the nation. Kabbalah isn’t passed down through diligence and intellectual understanding, but through one’s desire to be in this knowledge: desire = Kli! This is why it’s written about Kabbalah, “It’s not the smart one who understands (but the one who aspires).”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: My whole life is like putting out one fire after the next! Bad things just keep happening to me, and I feel like all I’m doing in my life is trying to live through them and keep surviving. Why is this happening to me? And what should I do with these situations? I want to point out that I’m not really interested in the question “What’s the meaning of my life?,” that I’m more interested in the question, “Why is this happening to me?”

My Answer: They are the same question. It’s as Baal HaSulam writes, in item 2 of the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot“: “What’s the meaning of this suffering?” and “Who needs it?” Studying Kabbalah will help you understand everything. Why precisely Kabbalah? It’s because Kabbalah is the only wisdom that explains the one source of everything in existence. At the moment, you are experiencing this source in its negative, but you can change the way it treats you.

Again, the Creator is the one and only source of everything happening to you, because He governs everything in existence. By studying Kabbalah, you can discover the reason why He treats you the way He does at every single moment. Your question about the meaning and source of suffering is a Kabbalistic one: it marks the beginning of one’s discernment of oneself as a human being, i.e. as one who begins their relationship with the Creator.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: A New Direction
What Is the Meaning of Life? – Rav Michael Laitman, PhD Talks about the Wisdom of Kabbalah
Article: Who Am I?
Lesson: Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot (12-10-2007)
Lesson: Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot (12-10-2007)

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

A question I received: You say that Kabbalah is a science. That’s fair. The two forces of nature, bestowal and receiving. All of nature is nothing but bestowal, and man is the only element in nature that disrupts the balance, he creates disbalance, and this is why we suffer.

Everything is fine until we get to this point. But finally, when we get to the point where we need to fix the balance, you say: Ohr Makif. Hmm… Some light comes out of nowhere and corrects me. And what confuses me the most is that this light comes from a book. Could you please explain or define what “light” is in a practical and clear manner? I thought that Kabbalah was a science about forces, nature, desires, etc. In my perception Upper Light is not a scientific term and directly refers to something esoteric. Maybe you could make this notion more reasonable and comprehensible? What is this force that corrects us? Is this the force of bestowal? Then why is it called Ohr Makif? How can this “light” able to help prevent suffering on our path of development? Is it in any way related to the corporeal light?

My Answer: If I were you with your love for sciences, I would study “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” (Pticha) or maybe I would even start studying Talmud Eser Sefirot! These texts explain several spiritual notions in a scientific language: 1. desire, 2. correction of intention from “for one’s own sake” to “for the sake of the Creator,” 3. fulfillment by the Light, pleasure, the Creator, to the extent of the corrected intention. There is nothing else in Kabbalah.

Ohr Makif is a force that influences us from a more corrected state, which we aspire toward. It responds to your aspiration in the following way: it pulls you to a higher, more altruistic state to the same extent you aspire for it. This is an interaction of two vectors of desires. The same mutual influence of forces also exists in our world, when a person aspires for any new thing. The difference is that when it comes to spiritual aspiration, this force that pulls you to a new state is referred to as Light, because it doesn’t just pull you through its influence upon you, but it also changes you, making you become like the new state, one that is spiritual and altruistic. The difference between this force of Light, and the force that pulls you toward a new state in our world is that, the force in our world doesn’t need to change you to pull you to something. Check it out for yourself to eliminate any doubts.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Physics of the Upper Light
Laitman.com Post: Will God Want to Repeat the Act of Creation?
Laitman.com Post: The Irrationality of Kabbalah

Filed under: Science - 2 Comments →