News Report (from The Telegraph): Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren did their best but according to a leading Egyptologist, they came nowhere near to an accurate portrayal of ancient queen Cleopatra.

Using images from ancient artifacts including a ring dating from Cleopatra’s reign 2,000 years ago, Cambridge University’s Sally Ann Ashton has pieced together an entirely different image that shows her as a mixed race beauty. …the monarch came to power at the tender age of 18… Cleopatra was a temptress who ruined two generals of Rome – Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

My Comment: I think the men will agree with me when I say that this is a perfect example of our subjective perception of reality. Reshimot (informational genes) constantly change inside us and they determine our desires. This, along with the influence of the society’s Reshimot, determines our likes and dislikes. As a result, even this will seem like a “Cleopatra.”

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News Report: (translated from pravda.com): Excerpts from the article “The Crisis of Desires,” by the Ukranian Deputy Minister of Finance and presidential legal advisor, N. Poludenny: The desire and its satisfaction (pleasure) are the basis of man’s energetic-informational nature. We are woven of desires. Our crises will multiply, evolve and intensify until we realize that we must change our perception of the world. First and foremost this means altering the vector of our desires and acquiring the perception of unity between all people in the global system of our world.

Today everyone is talking about restoring trust – trust in the financial system, in the government, and in each other. People presume that this is a matter of an individual’s psychology or the psychology of the masses. In reality, however, trust is a spiritual category, whose root lies in a global spiritual state called “faith.” Confidence and loyalty are derivatives of this state.

These states are impossible as long as people realize their desires with a “minus” sign. And on the contrary, when a person changes the vector of his desire from “receiving for his own sake” to “giving for others’ sake,” he automatically enters the state of confidence, restoring others’ trust in him, and acquiring faith (at the very least, faith in his own abilities).

My Comment: Bravo! Let’s hope that everyone else will soon recognize the reason for the crisis as well! And when they do, people will begin searching for the means (the strength and the method) to correct our nature – and they will reveal Kabbalah.

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Filed under: Crisis - 2 Comments →

News Report (from Universe Today): Billions of years in the future, when our sun bloats up into a red giant, it will expand to consume the Earth’s orbit. But wait, you say, the Earth travels the Earth’s orbit… what’s going to happen to our beloved planet? Will it be gobbled up like poor Mercury and Venus?

My Comment: When I was in school, we were taught that our Universe was eternal and infinite. Then they discovered the Big Bang and started teaching us something else: that the Universe was created from a micro-dose of matter 15 billion years ago. But will the Universe end someday? This is a question science still doesn’t have an answer to. However, everything that has a beginning also has an end.

Kabbalah says that everything exists only for man and inside man, or more exactly, inside his sensations. In order to come out of our perception of the world and enter a new perception, we have been given time to correct our qualities (sensations): 6000 years from the birth of Adam, the first man to discover a different, Upper World. We all have to “migrate” there in the remaining 230 years we have left until reaching the 6000 year mark. Kabbalah explains how to do this quickly, consciously, and easily. Even if we’re stubborn and refuse to budge, nature will still banish us from this world and force us to “migrate.”

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Two questions I received on finding the truth:

Question: I have a friend who started studying Kabbalah with Bnei Baruch but left because you are a liar (at least that’s what he says). Personally I think he’s accusing of this because sometimes you say contradictory things. However, later I realize that I misunderstood you or that you were just explaining something very succinctly. Yet your opinion is still unclear on many things.

Sometimes you say one thing, and then you contradict yourself, and I can understand how my friend – who is interested in Kabbalah and understands that there is much truth in it – finds it difficult to study with you. I don’t even know what to tell him. I will be glad to hear your answer.

My Answer: I won’t try to defend myself. Listen to the explanations by my teacher, Rabash (all the recordings of his lessons are available online), and check: how do you understand him? Don’t listen to me, but read the original articles by Baal HaSulam (which is what we study), and instead of my explanations, try to understand them on your own.

A person should choose a teacher that suits his personality, goal, and so on, as it is written, “Let a person study where his heart feels joy.” Why is it possible for different places of study to exist? It’s because as long as a person’s desire for the Upper Goal hasn’t formed inside him, he feels drawn to this goal in different ways: by withdrawing from the world, through religions, “spiritual” practices, diets, omens, and so on. We cannot interfere with this, because one has to go through the search for the truth on his own.

So it’s possible that your friend is still at this stage of searching. For example, some people who come to study with me are just “passing by” and they later turn to religion.

I explain things to the extent of my knowledge, attainment, and ability to express what I feel and realize (in the heart and mind). Your accusations are sincere, and they should emerge in a student as he studies Kabbalah, because everything is built through combining two things that are incompatible: egoism and the Creator. Perhaps you still have to sort things out, and possibly look for a different place of study. But one way or another, the truth will become revealed.

Question: How do we make “sure” that the Kabbalah teachings we receive are truly Kabbalah? Since it’s a very high level of knowledge, how can the clueless make sure he is receiving true Kabbalah, and not “mysticism”? How can someone who does not know Kabbalah filter the teachings to make sure he is on the right path?

My Answer: Don’t believe anyone! Regardless of what anyone might say, he could be a liar. And the more eloquent and persuasive he is, the greater liar (or actor) he could be.

It’s also possible that a good, honest person is speaking from the bottom of his heart, but he is simply mistaken. So who can you believe? No one! Everything was arranged this way in our world on purpose, to enable a person to shape himself by searching for the truth. One does it precisely through doubts, without any foundation, belief, or hope placed in someone else. It’s like he hangs over a cliff, not knowing how to take the next step.

You are the only one who can find the truth. But if you believe what someone else says, then you won’t be realizing yourself and will remain a puppet. Hence, the lack of confidence and the total disorientation will force your egoism to turn to the Creator. This is how He entices us to Him!

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Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

News Report (from BBC News): The report from [the UK’s] government advisor Sir Jim Rose … calls for children to learn more about well-being, happiness and healthy living. … Sir Jim proposes a greater emphasis on life skills, including making lessons about emotional well-being and social skills a compulsory part of the curriculum.

My Comment: Not one modern education system works to create a human being out of a child. Parents and teachers don’t even understand that it’s necessary to work this way with a growing person. If a child were abandoned in the woods, he would remain an animal. Likewise, if we simply stuff him with knowledge, he becomes a miserable robot.

Upbringing means teaching a child the method to become a human being. In Hebrew, a human being is Adam, originating from the word Domeh – similar to the Creator. It is written that Adam was created in the Creator’s image and likeness, and then he sinned and fell, acquiring egoism and becoming opposite to the Creator. Now man must find the path of correction on his own and attain his initial similarity to the Creator – the quality of bestowal and love, the only quality of the Creator.

A question I received: My question is about the need for a regular education. We study with our son at home because we are completely dissatisfied with the approach of the schools. But maybe it would be better for our son not to study at all and to develop spontaneously? And later, when he reaches high school age, he can decide what academic field he wants to go into?

My Answer: It’s necessary to give a child information about our world and whatever basics he needs in order to learn the profession he will later choose. The Torah states, “One who doesn’t teach his son a trade turns him into a bandit or thief.” And in addition, it’s necessary to work with him on his inner development, to shape him into a human being.

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News Report (from Federal Highway Administration): “Nearly 10 Billion Fewer Miles Driven in May 2008 than May 2007” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters said that Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) in May 2008 than in May 2007, according to the Federal Highway Administration data. … This continues a seven-month trend that amounts to 40.5 billion fewer miles traveled between November 2007 and May 2008 than the same period a year before, she said.

My Comment: This will not only put an end to a completely excessive production, but will also help clean up the atmosphere. This is one example of nature using alternative methods to force man to become an ecologically integral part of it.

News Report (from The Wall Street Journal): “An Ode to Oil” by Roger Howard: While there are, of course, circumstances in which oil can exacerbate tensions and be a source of conflict, it can also act as a peacemaker and source of stability. … Leonid Fedun, a top official at Lukoil, Russia’s No. 2 oil producer, admitted … that “the period of intense oil production [growth] is over.” Without foreign money and expertise to extract offshore oil and prolong the lifespan of existing wells, Russian production will fall dramatically.

My Comment: And that’s how we get operation “forcing peace” – through oil! The Russian economy is based on oil production, and from now on it will be dependent on foreign investments and technologies. This will force Russia to make peace with other nations.

News Report (from The Economist): According to Google’s annual list of popular search terms, even in these times of economic crisis, people are most concerned with working out what love is.

My Comment: This shows the truth of the verse, “Love and hunger rule the world.” The forces of nature (Reshimot and the Light) acting within us will force us, in accordance with nature’s plan, to ascend from the animate love and hunger to the spiritual ones: hunger for unification, and fulfillment by the common Light of love.

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A question I received: Why does the Torah justify Jacob when he lies to Esau? Esau comes to Jacob with open arms, yet Jacob turns away from him and tries to buy himself off with gifts.

My Answer: The Torah speaks about a person’s correction, whereby he becomes similar to the Creator. Jacob represents the intention of bestowal and Esau represents the will to receive, our egoism. Esau doesn’t understand that he always remains empty because his intention is “for the sake of himself,” and that only by changing it to the intention of “for others” will he instantly be filled by the Upper, eternal fulfillment – the Light. This is something egoism doesn’t understand, and that’s why a person must trick his egoism. He has to entice the ego to work on spiritual development by telling it that it will avoid suffering and to be filled by spiritual fulfillment and revelation.

This way, one’s egoism helps one to study Kabbalah, because it expects fulfillment from it. It studies Lo Lishma – for the sake of oneself. However, in the process of studying, connecting with friends, and thereby receiving the Light of Correction, the person ceases valuing the intention “for himself” and instead starts valuing the intention “to bestow” – for the sake of others, for the sake of the Creator.

This happens by virtue of the Light’s influence. And when one’s intention changes, he can begin to use his egoism (Esau) in order to receive for the sake of bestowal. This is how one attains eternal, perfect fulfillment. This maneuver is similar to the way we trick or entice a child to study, and eventually he comes to understand that it was done for his own good. This is how the Creator plays with each and every one of us.

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Filed under: Torah - 1 Comment →

I participated in a conversation for the TV Series “The Butterfly Effect.”

Speaking with me was Ram Shmueli, Brigadier-General in reserve, previously head of the Intelligence Squadron and commander of an Air Force base. Chairman of a public committee overseeing the Ministry of Education.

As chairman of a public committee overseeing the Ministry of Education, Ram understands the problems of educating the growing and adult generations on the local and global scales. But all the ministries of education are powerless to do anything. We’re helpless when it comes to what we hold most dear – our children. We are unable to shape them well, and we instead leave this task to the egoism that’s raging inside them. We just let their egoism force them to collide with one another, make them its miserable prisoners, without a moment of rest.

And all of this is happening because we did not receive the proper education either. We weren’t brought up to be “human beings”; we didn’t receive an explanation of our make up, desires, and qualities, of what governs us, where our freedom of choice lies, what are the laws governing an individual and the society, and what the laws of our development are. In fact, we don’t know anything about ourselves or what’s around us. This is why our life looks the way it does – it’s taking place in the dark.

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Questions I received on the recognition of evil and the study of Kabbalah:

Question: What are we supposed to do after we go through the recognition of evil?

My Answer: If you have recognized the evil within you, then you will hate it so much that you’ll direct all your energy to eradicating it out of you. This is what you have to do. However, if you still haven’t reached the recognition that egoism is evil, if you’re still able to keep on living with it, then you’ll come to me asking me what to do…

Question: What should I do if along with my great desire for spirituality, I’m afraid to lose the few good things that I still have in this life?

My Answer: If you still think that there’s something good about the present state, then you still haven’t reached the recognition of evil.

Question: I understand that we all must unite in a common aspiration for the Creator. But how does one avoid becoming a zombie?

My Answer: You should study the materials and instructions written by Kabbalists. Follow them, evoke the influence of the Upper Light upon you – and It will change you in whatever way is necessary.

The Light acts by revealing and concealing Itself. This is how It develops a person, making him free. As a result, It makes him Human – comprised of the entire created desire and all its filling. The Light is called the Light of Hochma – the Light of Wisdom.

Zombies are all the people without free will – those who are in this world, before entering the Upper World. That’s because they have only one, egoistic nature of reception. For more on this, see Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom.”

Question: Is it possible for a person to be restricted from above so he is prevented from studying the Science of Kabbalah because it still isn’t his time to reach the full correction, regardless of his efforts and desire to study?

My Answer: There are no restrictions from above for anyone! You mistakenly see the obstacles intended to develop your desire, as being restrictions. Concealment, partial concealment, and the Creator’s “flirtation” with a person all serve to develop his aspiration to the goal.

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Questions I received on physical observance and Kabbalah:

Question: I study over the Internet, and I am a secular person, but I am not clear on what to do about the commandments (such as Kashrut, Tefillin, Tzitzit, Kippah, prayers, and so on). Even after listening to your lessons on religion, I’m still not clear on this: is the path of personal correction enough or do I have to start observing the commandments in addition?

My Answer: Kabbalah encourages every person to remain the way he is. Only the Upper Light can correct a person; therefore one does not have to do anything else other than study (which includes the group, Maaser, books, dissemination, and for a man, it’s preferable to be married). All the corrections inside you will be done by the Upper Light (Ohr Makif).

Question: Should one observe the commandments or only study? And how do people get to the point of completely nullifying their egoism and attaining love?

My Answer: Live just like you did before, and study Kabbalah. The Light will guide you as to how you should change.

Question: Should a married woman who studies Kabbalah observe the corporeal commandments? If yes, then which commandments should she observe? And what is the spiritual root of a family’s ritual purity?

My Answer: The purpose of all the corporeal commandments is to preserve the boundaries of one’s existence, but not to correct one’s soul. We at Bnei Baruch observe them as a cultural heritage or tradition. Kabbalah does not obligate anyone to perform any physical actions.

Question: Aren’t the commandments that were commanded to us advice that we received on how to build the proper vessels suitable for our spiritual root? Then, once we acquire experience in building the proper intention, we will come closer to creating a vessel for the Light that will fill it?

My Answer: Certainly, you are correct. All 613 commandments are the correction of the 613 desires of the soul by means of 613 Lights that shine and correct them during the study of Kabbalah.

Question: If one is living in such a circumstance of being in a community where the outward observance of Mitzvot and Halakah are a norm, then isn’t one required to live in accordance to this social decor? One may remain inwardly “secular,” or constantly questioning the validity of their own intentions and desiring to know (not believe in) Ribono Shel Olam (the Creator), correct? May we be inwardly connected to the World Kli, studying with Ari Online, being part of the group, and yet outwardly walk in clothing of Orthodoxy?

My Answer: Of course, and this is what the Torah demands of you: while following the external rituals, to add their inner, true observance. Or in other words: to add the true Torah to the simple Torah. Kabbalah is referred to as Torat Emet – the true Torah, and also as Pnimiut HaTorah – the inner Torah.

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