Questions I received on how work combines with Kabbalah:

Question: Many people who study Kabbalah have a job that is not in harmony with the laws of nature, and on the global scale this type of work is leading the world to a global crisis. I am talking about any kind of work, from being a miner to an astronaut, which is meant to satisfy human egoism.

Kabbalah tells us to exist in harmony with nature and to take only as much as we need from it. But coal, oil, the cosmos, vehicles, and thousands of other areas we work in all disrupt the harmony of nature and the correct relationships.

What should the people working these jobs do if they also want to study Kabbalah? How can you study Kabbalah when you understand that what you do to make a living harms the system? Should we all change our jobs, and if yes,  what kind of a new job should we find?

My Answer: If your job doesn’t hurt anyone directly, then you can keep working there. Eventually, your circumstances will be changed from above according to your advancement into spirituality and the degree of your connection with the worldwide group.

Question: Can a person’s daily, professional activity help him to advance toward the Creator? How can a person change his profession (especially in midlife) so it will become an additional, efficient instrument for advancement (in addition to the books, the group, and the teacher)? Or would you say that a person’s job doesn’t matter, and one’s movement toward the Creator is independent from one’s day to day work?

My Answer: If your profession is not intended to hurt people (such as theft, and so on), then it doesn’t matter where you work. A person is judged according to what he does in his free time – the time he has left over from work and other responsibilities. He is judged by how efficiently he uses this time for his spiritual improvement.

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Two questions I received on Kabbalistic texts:

Question: On your website you published a quote about the Segula (special quality) of studying The Book of Zohar, and that studying The Book of Zohar is necessary in our times in order to defend and save ourselves from all evil.

You took this quote from the “Introduction to the Tree of Life” by Rav Yaakov Tzemah, but I wasn’t able to find there one of the parts you quoted, that the revelation of this wisdom will happen during the time of the worst generations, so we would have protection to hold onto in our hearts.

My Answer: Read Baal HaSulam, I was quoting him.

Question: Why do the books of Baal HaSulam and books of Rabash say so little about the process people go through beneath the Machsom? If I am wrong, then please direct me to the appropriate materials.

My Answer: Everything besides Talmud Eser Sefirot and Pticha is written for people who are beneath the Machsom! Talmud Eser Sefirot and Pticha are also for them, in order to study and thereby draw the Light of correction.

Related Material:
Purchase the book: The Zohar
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Two questions I received on Rabbi Akiva and Kabbalists who weren’t Jewish:

Question: Why did the great Kabbalist Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef, who saw the future, support the uprising of Bar Kokhba (Shimon Bar Koziv) and proclaimed him the Messiah? We know from history that this uprising led to the most deplorable results: it was crushed and Rabbi Akiva was sentenced to a horrible execution! How could a Kabbalist of his stature not have known how this uprising was going to end on the corporeal level and that he would be executed? And how could he have been mistaken about who the Messiah is?

My Answer: A Kabbalist only sees what is revealed to him from above. Complete revelation will take place only at the end of correction.

Question: Were there any great Kabbalists who weren’t Jewish?

My Answer: Yes. One example is our Great Teacher Rabbi Akiva, from whom we received all the commentaries on the Torah.

Related Material:
Kabbalah for Beginners: Chapter 2 – “Timeless Teachers of Kabbalah – Rabbi Akiva”

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The Hebrew book The Two Great Lights is titled after the Biblical verse: “And God created the two great lights.” The book talks about the two great Kabbalists of the 20th century – Rav Kook and Baal HaSulam, who both desired to disseminate Kabbalah among the masses at the beginning of the last century.

They foresaw World War II as well as our global crisis. They understood that humanity is entering the final phase of development, when it is necessary for its survival to educate every person in the spirit of “love thy neighbor as thy self.” This book reveals their prophetic vision of our time and their advice on changing the world.

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A question I received: The great Kabbalist Baal HaSulam calls upon people to not violate the laws of nature, as if laws of nature are like traffic rules where a person can cross the street in the wrong place or drive onto an oncoming lane. For example, humanity has been violating the law of gravity since the times of the Wright brothers. Nonetheless, this law is still in effect; we simply go around it. And so what?

Is it possible to make a list of nature’s laws, or are they known only to Kabbalists?

My Answer: Every time man violates the laws of nature, his actions evoke a negative influence upon him, to the point of death. The law of behavior in the global community did not manifest as a law of nature until our times, but it is now starting to manifest because we are now entering the final phase of our development, the level of “human,” whereas before we were going through lower levels called still, vegetative, and animate.

The laws of nature are stricter than traffic laws because nature has no pity and demands the “exact payment.” We cannot go around the laws of nature, but we can study them and learn to use them correctly. Globalization obliges us to unite in order to match the governing forces of nature. If we will do this, then we will be using the laws of nature to our advantage. But if we won’t act as a global community, then we’ll crash like the poorly constructed original airplanes, until we learn how to use the laws of nature correctly!

Related Material:
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A question I received: What is ”The New Society” written by Rav Ashlag? This is almost word for word the Communist Manifesto:

1. The acceptance of the religion of “love thy neighbor as thyself” (meaning the religion is “love thy neighbor as thyself”!).
2. A just distribution of the profits, so that each works according to his skills and receives according to his needs.
3. Private property exists, but its owner must not profit from it more than he really needs.
4. Property owners will be under public supervision, or under self-trusteeship, or through bookkeeping.
5. The unemployed will receive their needs equally with the employed.
6. Profits will be utilized for building public assets.

Question: Why does Kabbalah preach Communism when it has been proven that it does not work?

My Answer:
1. “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is the general law of nature, since nature is a single organism.
2. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” is the law by which any interconnected system operates.
3. The owner benefits from realizing himself for the sake of the society because he receives respect and dignity.
4. He remains under the supervision of society until he rises to a degree above his egoism in every respect.
5. Those who are unemployed for reasons that are not in their control will receive the same as everyone else.
6. All the profits, except those necessary for every person to live, are collective and will be used for the benefit of the entire system.

The difference between this and the Soviet structure is that every person receives the Upper Reward for the common unity – adhesion with the Creator, an eternal and perfect existence! This is the reason why people will observe the commandment of “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” with everything it implies.

However, humanity will come to these conditions gradually and willingly, not by force. That’s because the revelation of the concealed world gives people the strength and the desire to exist in it!

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News Report (translated from Kursor.co.il): “Obama Will Soon Disappoint His Electorate.” People are putting great hopes on Barack Obama. He isn’t just a political leader, but the hope of the entire generation, a man who will bring prosperity to all, and first of all, redemption from the financial crisis.

My Comment:
The reasons why Obama was “elected”: In recent years, the world sees the United States as an international cop and overbearing teacher. It is fighting a war in Iraq, keeping prisoners in the jails of Guantanamo without trials or charges, and its arrogance sets it against regions such as Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Moreover, it is once again starting a cold war with Russia. In other words, the United States has earned an extremely unfavorable image. They are even accused of all the disasters happening in the world.

This unattractive picture has been augmented by the current global financial crisis, for which everyone blames the United States because it is the international center of the entire global economy and finance. The worse people all over the world will feel during this developing crisis, the more hatred and blame will be put on the United States. The world opinion is that the Anglo-Saxon white Protestant America has been ruling the whole world and arrogantly setting the standards for everyone, for too many years.

In order to relieve all of these negative attitudes and to alter their unfavorable image, Americans decided to bring the African-American Obama to the post of President. This neutralizes the hatred of the United States’ black and Hispanic population, brings about greater understanding and connection between the United States and the Latin American countries, as well as Asia, Africa, and even Europe. It also removes grounds for Russia to accuse the United States, since with a black president, there are many things you can’t blame America for anymore. The operation was accomplished professionally and just in time. However, apart from diverting accusations, anger, and the international community’s negative attitude to the United States, will it bring positive results?

The Solution: According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the global crisis is just starting and will keep growing. It will last until humanity brings itself to full equivalence with Nature (the Creator). Kabbalah explains how to do this.

Disappointment: Today, however, it is very unlikely that Obama’s advisers are ready to hear what Kabbalah has to say. Apparently, the world must suffer several more blows – like the Pharaoh in Egypt – in order to hear the truth. Hence all those who hope for positive changes have failed expectations ahead of them! The Creator gave this world a new leader – Obama, but he can only become that leader by starting a global reconstruction of people’s perception of the world.

The situation in the world can only be improved by studying the essence of the global world and educating all of humanity about a new attitude to the world – the world as one whole. If we create a system of global education about the global world, then the whole world will immediately feel that it is congruent to Nature (the Creator), and everyone’s hopes will come true!

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There are three kinds of opponents of Kabbalah:
1. Those who say that there is no need for the concealed part of the Torah.
2. Those who say that Kabbalah is so great that it’s forbidden to study it.
3. Those who say that it’s a terrible thing to make a mistake in such exalted matters.
Rabbi Moshe Cordevero (the ‘Ramak’) “Da Et Elokey Avicha,” 118-132.

If a person from Israel lowers the importance of Kabbalah, he lowers the righteous of the nations of the world lower than the sinners, and thereby causes Israel to be scorned even to the point of annihilation. The entire fall of Israel happened because people have left Kabbalah.
Baal HaSulam. “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” item 69.

Woe to the people who make the Light of the Messiah vanish from the world, so as never to return. They make the Torah dry, without the moist of mind and knowledge, for they confine themselves to the practical observance of commandments and do not wish to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. Alas, they cause by their deeds the poverty, the ruin and the robbery, the looting, the killings and destruction in the world.
Baal HaSulam. “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” item 70.

Those who only study the Babylonian Talmud are like the blind gnawing at the wall.
Rav Chaim Vital. “Introduction to the Book Etz Haim,” part 1, 9-10.

The nations of the world say to Israel: “How is your Torah different from our teachings, since yours is also nothing but tales?” They will be punished for degrading the Torah this way. And their Torah causes exile and suffering in the world. But… our sages are pleased with what they have, and they assert that there is no other Torah but the simple Torah. Clearly there is no place for them in the world to come.
Rav Chaim Vital. “Introduction to the Book Etz Haim ,” part 1, 11-12.

Moses Maimonides (the Rambam): He who has not attained similarity to the Creator is not called a man, but is only an animal in the form of a human. However, he can do harm, which animals cannot, since the mind given to him to attain the Creator is used to harm others, and this makes him lower than an animal.
Rav Shim’on Lavi. “Katem Paz.”

This is an answer to all the “wise” people who oppose the study of Kabbalah: let those that study Kabbalah make mistakes and ask for the true path when they discover their mistakes. This is why their efforts are credited and rewarded by the Creator. And those who humiliate those who study Kabbalah will be condemned by the Creator.
Rav Shim’on Lavi. “Katem Paz.”

The wreath of the Torah is Kabbalah, which everyone rejects. But you, stretch out your hand and take it, since those who have never tried it, have never tasted the Light of the Torah and live in darkness. Great is the sin of those who use different excuses to avoid studying Kabbalah. And it is not the fault of the masses, but of their leaders, who neglect the study of Kabbalah and take pride in studying only the revealed Torah and in not needing anything but the simple understanding of the Torah.
Rabbi Pincus Eliyahu of Vilna Sefer HaBrit, part 2, article 12, chapter 5.

There are many ignorant people who refuse to study Kabbalah, but if they would listen to me, evil and misfortune would stop coming to our world, because man depends only on his efforts in studying Kabbalah.
Safrin, Yitzhak Yehudah Yehiel Notzer Hesed al Pirkei Avot, chapter 4, study 20.

Alas, these people, who make the Torah dry and do not wish to study the wisdom of Kabbalah; they cause by their deeds the poverty, the ruin and the robbery, the looting, the killings and destruction in the world.
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) Tikunei Zohar, chapter 30.

Rashbi referred to those who study the simple Torah as “sleeping” because they don’t open their eyes to see the Creator’s love for them, as though they scorn it and do not know the path to perfection and adhesion with the Creator.
Rabbi Moshe ‘Haim Luzzatto (Ram’hal). “Shaarei Ramhal,” “Introduction to the Article Vikuah,” page 97.

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Questions I received on the difference between religion and Kabbalah:

Question: Is studying Torah and keeping the Mitzvot the same thing as being religious?

My Answer: Yes.

Question: I don’t like the word religious if it means dogmatic, static, closed, etc.

My Answer: But the purpose of religion is to preserve, to statically observe. This is exactly the pleasure one feels from being religious!

Question: But the way that I have been studying Torah and practicing Mitzvot (commandments) with Chassidut and Kabbalah seems to be something powerful and important.

My Answer: There are no commandments in Kabbalah, other than equivalence with the Creator through “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Question: The Torah has a revealed component and a hidden component, and they operate together. Therefore doesn’t the continued studying Torah and practicing of Mitzvot (by Jewish people and those who feel drawn to it) operate as a platform or foundation for studying Kabbalah?

My Answer: No.

Question: Doesn’t the traditional practice safeguard the hidden Kabbalistic knowledge that has yet to be revealed?

My Answer: No.

Question: Or, are you saying that all of the old Torah ways need to be discarded like a shell and only the science of Kabbalah should be remain?

My Answer: Yes.

Question: I would like to clarify my question by saying that I have found the Kabbalah instruction on your websites to be wonderfully powerful, enriching and necessary. I see my feelings (conflicted, confused and invigorated) as part of my correction process and I ask these questions respectfully and in the spirit of growth and acceptance.

My Answer: Thank you!

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Article: “The Difference Between the Science of Kabbalah and Religion”

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I see that the main reason for the failure to correct man’s nature is people’s neglect of the Creator’s Light, both in their hearts and minds. All the people turn only to the observance of simpleminded actions, as though it were possible to carry out the commandments only with the body, without the soul.
Rav Kook, Letters, Vol. 1, pages 160-161

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