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)

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A question I received: Can you explain the following to me, because I am somewhat confused:
From, Baal HaSulam, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, “Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words“:
“34) What is Yashar (Direct)? (p.2, ch.1, Ohr Pnimi, p.5)
When the Ohr Elyon (Upper Light) descends to the Kelim that contain Aviut Dalet (the fourth level of thickness), namely a desire, for she extends it through her desire, it is considered that the Ohr (Light) comes Yashar (straight, direct) down. This means that the Light that descends in Yosher is absolutely proportional with the Aviut and the desire.

For example, when a heavy object falls to the ground, it falls in a completely Yashar (straight, direct) line. Moreover, it falls at great speed because of the earth’s gravitating force that pulls it down. However, when something light falls, and the gravitating force does not affect it, it floats about in midair until it slowly rests on the ground.

Here too, in the Kelim that do not have Aviut, such as Kelim de Igulim (the circular Kelim), it is considered that the Light permeates them by the power of the Sefirot of Yosher. It becomes round because there isn’t any Aviut there, meaning a desire that would draw it.

However, in the Kelim de Yosher (the straight/direct Kelim), where there is Aviut that draws the Light with great power, the Light comes down very fast and with accurate straightness, like a straight line.”

What is this example about a heavy item that is more affected by the force of gravity than a light item? Was Ashlag not aware that free-fall acceleration depends on the mass of the object, or I am not getting something?

My Answer: In spirituality, the Light is attracted within the Kli (vessel/tool/receptacle), since there is no empty space at all. Space equals desire. It is comprised of five stages, from stage 0 through 4, stages of the desire’s size. The difference between the stages is not only in the desire’s size, quantitative, but qualitative, in the perception, realization of the desire and the Light. This is why stages 0-1-2-3 “indirectly” attract the Light. In other words, the Kli doesn’t yet know “what it is” and “what it is for,” and this is why in desires 0-3 the Light is still perceived as a light item. However, the fourth stage perceives the Light as its desired pleasure: it perceives the source of the Light, and this is why it desires it directly, inside. This is why the Light descends “Ba Yosher” directly toward it.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Blog Post: Talmud Eser Sefirot and the Need to Define Spirituality Correctly
Kabbalah Blog Post: Baal HaSulam’s Intention for Writing Talmud Eser Sefirot
Kabbalah Blog Post: What Is Spirituality? What Is a Soul?

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Two questions I received on directions other than Kabbalah

Question: Dear Rav Laitman, I’m simply in shock. I listen to your lectures and I’d really like to know: What right do you have to deny a person’s personal understanding of G-d, on the one hand, and on the other hand, what right do you have to assert that no other path is correct!? It’s clearly written that “A person studies where his heart leads him” – you are not the only one who teaches Kabbalah, so what are you trying to do – is this your way of ruling over the world!? My mother was righteous, and she always devoted herself to society, but she didn’t spend a day of her life studying Kabbalah. So what’s all this wisdom worth if, in the end, there are pure people without it? And if it’s not intended to make this world better, then is there really anything good about it!?

My Answer: I have the right to assert my opinion, and you have the right to do disagree with it. I have no complaints against you. Kabbalah has its assertions, and you have yours. As long as you haven’t discovered what Kabbalah is talking about, then what it asserts is nonexistent for you, and thus, you are absolutely correct to reject its assertions. However, when the necessity to reveal what Kabbalah is talking about comes to you, and when you’ll discover what it talks about, then you’ll change your opinion. There’s a time for everything.

Question: I can’t attain anything without a teacher, but where can I get him if I live in Baltimore? And why can’t I get answers, hints, and explanations from Blavatsky, Levi, Yung, Plato and Pythagoras?

My Answer: Go ahead and get answers from them, if you’re able to be satisfied by their teachings. A person should study wherever his heart feels drawn, and he should study that which fulfills his heart.

Related Material:
Chapter 6 from the Book The Kabbalah Experience: Soul
Lesson: Freedom of Will

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A question I received: In the book Shaarey Kedusha, section Shaar Dalet, Rav Chaim Vital explains how to meditate, once a person is ready for it in terms of his level of Torah study, observance of the commandments, and fear of the heavens. One enters a room where he can be alone, covers himself with a Tallit and sits with eyes closed. Then he sees how he leaves his body behind and ascends to the heavens. One who attains such a state takes a sentence or excerpt from the Mishnah and repeats it over and over again. What do you think about this?

My Answer: Not a word of it is speaking about our world. Rather, it is all written in the language of branches and points to the forces of the Upper World. Kabbalists only write their books in this way.

“…One enters a room (Heichal Malchut) where he can be alone (away from all the Klipot or disturbances), covers himself with a Tallit (see the level of Tallit in Zeir Anpin of the World of Atzilut, with Ohr Makif) and sits with eyes closed (he leaves his previous level). He then sees how he leaves his body (his AHP) behind and ascends to the heavens (to the AHP of the Elyon). One who attains this state takes a sentence or excerpt from the Mishnah and repeats it over and over again (and in this way ascends from one level to the next, over and over again).”

Related Material:
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Two questions I received on Kabbalah and religion:

Question: I converted to Judaism five years ago, after an entire lifetime of studying and searching. Over the past several years I have been very devoted to Torah and its pardes. Now I have a dangerous question as a consequence of your lessons. When Bore Olam says: “my thoughts are not your thoughts,” and a sage says that the Torah is Bore Olam’s wisdom (that is His thoughts), does it mean that those Jews who observed Judaism over the last several thousand years understood everything incorrectly, and in reality, my search brought me to the wrong place?

My Answer: Without a doubt, you’re not in a perfect situation, and your place, just like everyone else’s place, is in the union with the Creator. If you search for this place, you’ll find Him.

Question: Were such great Kabbalists as Rav Baruch Ashlag, Moshe Cordovero, and others religious? And why do you wear a skullcap?

My Answer: It is not a question of faith. When Kabbalah refers to faith, it speaks of the perception of the Creator, the property of Bina, bestowal, which becomes revealed in us through the study of Kabbalah. I respect religious observances because they are my people’s cultural traditions. I understand that by observing them, I am not correcting my soul in any way, and that I observe only the framework within which my people lived over the entire course of history. Religious observances are not required in the study of Kabbalah.

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Article: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion
Lesson: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion [01:51:45]
Lesson: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion [01:51:45]
Lesson: The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion (Transcript)

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Question: What are the 613 desires?

My Answer: They are desires not for pleasures in our world, but are egoistically directed toward the Creator, and for this reason they are called “impure,” “Pharaoh,” and so on. In order to discover these desires within oneself, one needs to study Kabbalah and do a great deal of work upon oneself. While these desires are being discovered, the shame that Adam had discovered also begins to be felt, and begins to become corrected. As such, only through the study of Kabbalah can a person come to spiritual work, and the attain the goal of creation.

A dialog with a user called Caligula (from my Russian blog):

Caligula’s Comment: “Spirituality is above time, motion, and space; that is to say, when these parameters change in our world, they never influence a person’s spiritual state!” – that’s a quote. In other words, no matter what we do, study, and aspire to – it is all in vain and unnecessary.

My Response: That’s wrong! We cannot influence the Upper Light directly, but we can evoke it indirectly, by making efforts in the group and proper study. Read the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” item 155.

Caligula: Yes, but there’s more to it… If we follow Rav Laitman’s assertion in this case, we can reach an absurd conclusion – I don’t know what this is about, but you are demonstrating such great confidence in understanding what I said that it’s worthy of envy.

I am not speaking about regular people, but about those who aspire toward the Creator and study Kabbalah. Actually, I’m not the one saying this, but the Ari in Shaar HaKedusha. There he lists certain age-specific levels in a person’s life. A child is when the vessels of the will to receive haven’t yet developed; age 13 is when a person is already governed by his Yetzer Ra; and age 21 is when a person gains the ability to spiritually ascend

My Response: This is all wrong! Specifically, see the Ari in Etz Chaim or part 12 of Talmud Eser Sefirot. Birth means spiritual birth, regardless of one’s age. All people, except Kabbalists, die physically without even having been born spiritually.

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Two questions I received on a woman’s relationship to a man in spiritual progress:

Question: I may be wrong, but I think that a woman can attain correction on her own, with the help of Rav’s instructions, books, and dissemination, without a man to attract the Light for her.

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct. If you do everything you should, then you will not need the men’s help. Even without knowing who you are, the common men’s world group will do all their work for you to the degree that you do your work, because on the spiritual path, we exchange desires.

Question: On the one hand, my desire is constantly growing and is becoming difficult to bear, and on the other hand, my ability to disseminate and study is limited due to various circumstances (if I am able to do it at all). I think that if I had a stronger sensation of my desire’s influences on my husband or the men’s group, then I would feel useful and blessed. Do you have advice or a solution to this?

My Answer: You should delve deeper into yourself, work through the new sensations you feel, define them, and demand less from others. Everything depends only on you. Besides you, everything is ready and prepared for your correction.

Related Material:
A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development, #1
A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development, #2

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A question I received: I have a very important question! Fifteen years ago, I became religious and joined a religious school because the point of my soul awakened in my heart! I wanted Eternity, but did not know how. I found the studies at the religious seminary to be shallow, and anything that reached deeper required me to “break” my personality, making me sad and remorseful (for having a boyfriend). I cried, had conversations with “G-d,” felt hopeless, fearful, envious, and nullified my desires!

I tried to wipe out my personality, and suffered in order to become righteous! But it was all foolish! Little by little I understood that I was doing idolatry, yet I told myself that this was impossible – after all, it was the Torah! And all the rabbis said, “The Torah, the commandments!” For years I knew that this wasn’t it, and I was struggling, yet wasn’t able to explain it! I was studying at a very prestigious religious school in Jerusalem, with the best rabbis, yet I intuitively understood that they were lacking something! I felt depressed, alone, and couldn’t find myself. I argued with them, saying that they were engaging in questions of minor importance! A week ago, I was lucky to turn on the Kabbalah channel, and I said, “This is what I need! This is what I’ve been looking for!” That was after I saw just one TV show.

I got lucky! And this is just the beginning! I pity many rabbis! I got burned, not warmed, by their Torah! Maybe it’s because my father was a righteous man that I merited not to believe their nonsense, their empty words! I’m sorry for saying so, but in my opinion they are all the same – just lecturers!

Finally, here is my question. After being so suppressed, that I can’t even describe it, do I have a chance to be spiritually revived to the state I was born into? By my nature, I was connected to society, and I understood what “Israel” is, but religion spoiled this eternity for me! I apologize for such a long question and the efforts you’re making for me! In the past I thought, “It’s fine to break your character.” That’s what I was taught, and I simply wiped myself out, I fasted and was even happy to suffer spiritually. Later, I began crying because everything was passing me by!

Do I have a chance? If yes, what is it? It’s very important to me! Will I ever regain the strength I once had? I used to feel love for the people, love for deliverance, love for modesty, love for eternity, love for society! And suddenly all of this turned into anger, fear, failure, religious egoism, collecting commandments, and religious idolatry.

My Answer: Everything you studied, and everything that happened to you, was supposed to happen exactly the way it did, and will be of use to you. You shouldn’t accuse anybody, because until this moment in your life, everything took place according to the Creator’s will. From this moment onward, you should continue behaving as usual, but supplement your life with Kabbalah study. Start with the book Shamati (ed. see below), and then continue with the articles of Baal HaSulam. Or it could be better for you to listen and watch our lessons (ed. see below) instead of reading by yourself. Try it. You should only look forward – never backward!

The Book Shamati (I Heard):
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Lessons by Michael Laitman:
Daily Kabbalah Lessons given by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD are broadcast live on Kabbalah TV: 3:20am until 6:00am Israel (GMT+2) time, Sunday to Friday, [Time Zone Converter], and are archived on the Kabbalah Media Archive.

Related Posts:
Laitman.com Post: Stop Thinking about the Past!
Laitman.com Post: Onwards and Upwards

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