A question I received: I have been studying with you for four years already, and I disseminate Kabbalah on the Internet. But there is one question that has been bothering me for a while. Many of the sites that I connect to don’t want to hear anything about Kabbalah, and they say awful things about me and about you. They don’t understand what crisis we are talking about. After reading these comments about us, I feel empty and lose the desire to disseminate. What should I do?

My Answer: You are lucky to be living in a generation when it is permitted to disseminate Kabbalah. Imagine how the great Kabbalists of the past felt! You should read about them: how they were beaten (physically and otherwise) by their own kind.

You have to understand the level of your opponents’ development and patiently wait for them to mature. (“Ma Laasot Im Yeladim She Hizkinu – What can we do with children who have grown old but stayed children?”) However, in our time the crisis will hit everyone, and it will force everyone to wise up and to accept Kabbalah as the means of salvation. They simply don’t know what Kabbalah is, because they have been scared off and deceived. Give them time to suffer and figure things out.

As for where to get emotional strength, read what Kabbalists write about the need to disseminate Kabbalah. Personally, I tell myself that I am obligated to follow their instructions, and this frees me from thoughts such as, “Is this really necessary?” – even if the only things I receive in return are hardships… The Goal obliges a person! For centuries, Kabbalists dreamed of the opportunity to disseminate, and we have been given this opportunity. Must we even ask for anything in return?

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News Report (translated from chaskor.ru): The concept of ecovillages has gained popularity because people are hoping to escape the trap of civilization that has cornered them. Only yesterday such communities seemed extremist and sectarian, but today they’re regarded as a way to survive the global crisis, which is turning into global chaos. In addition, it’s easier to survive a crisis in a commune.

My Comment: Separating from the global civilization to save one’s own neck will bring any commune to a terrible crisis – one that’s greater than in the rest of the world. It’s because a commune will isolate itself from everyone in order to survive on its own, and this goes against unification, globalization, and Nature’s plan to unite everyone. These aren’t eco-villages, they’re EGO-villages!

News Report (from World Net Daily): …the U.S. is moving closer to a Nazi-style totalitarianism, warns a former German member of the Hitler Youth in a new book. “Every day brings this nation closer to a Nazi-style totalitarian abyss,” writes Hilmar von Campe…

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, if we’re not moving toward global integration, then we’re moving toward mutual isolation and the emergence of Nazi regimes in the developed countries.

News Report (from National Post): More singles are turning to the Internet as a cheap, convenient way to find love during trying economic times. A poll by Opinion Research Corp. found that 57% of Americans said the credit crunch made them worry about their love lives… similar surveys in Australia and Britain came up with the same results.

My Comment: Suffering and fear are showing us just how fragile we are and how much we need the support of the environment. We were created as social creatures and we have to create a friendly and supportive society around us. And if we don’t want to, nature will force us to. Then we’ll want it and therefore build such a society!

Related Material:
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News Report (from ABC News): …a bailout drama is playing out inside the closed-down Republic Windows & Doors factory in Chicago, where more than 200 angry workers have hunkered down after they were abruptly fired … without final pay or benefits. The union workers believe they are victims of a bungled bailout and that Bank of America, which received $25 billion in the federal rescue package, stands between them and their paychecks.

My Comment: The tensions that have erupted in Greece show us that the world is balancing on the brink of an explosion. People’s discontent is ready to erupt at the slightest cause, and it’s always easy to find an instigator of tension, even war. It is necessary for us to stop and think about the fact that it is impossible to curb our egoism using the conventional measures. The explosion may happen anywhere and at any moment.

News Report (translated from utro.ru): The financial crisis has brought about a recession in tourism and dining, transportation and financial services industries. However, communication via mobile connections is the last thing people are willing to cut back on.

My Comment: The crisis will affect all aspects of our lives, forcing us to wise up. It will force us to search for an inner communication – “soul to soul.”

News Report (translated from utro.ru): The legal sector of Russia’s alcohol market faces a catastrophic shortage of raw materials. By the beginning of next year, two thirds of all the alcohol factories in the country may have to cease operation.

My Comment: This is a serious threat to the nation’s health. In fact, it may bring it to the brink of extinction.

Conclusion: The crisis will influence us and people will feel it in every aspect of their lives. It will be felt differently in different parts of the world, but no one will be able to escape. In the end it will force us to create good connections with each other. We can do this now or after a period of exacerbation and wars. If mankind will accept that the things taking place are the Creator’s request for us to correct ourselves and ascend, then the crisis will turn into a joyful revelation of a perfect world.

Related Material:
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News Report (from The Associated Press): German Sterligov, a onetime boy wonder of Russia’s young market economy and one of Russia’s first multimillionaires, claims to have a solution to his country’s economic turmoil. He and former business associates, he said, have set up an “anti-crisis commodity transactions center” for commodity bartering. “It is an electronic substitute for money, not linked with the dollar, euro or ruble,” he explained. Sterligov predicted that agriculture and land ownership will soon become the new oil for the oligarchs. “A lot of them are looking at the land and cows now,” he said. “Metals are no longer valuable. It’s sheep, cows, oats, grain, olive oil, honey that’s turned into gold.”

My Comment: Well, what else is one to do when a bank turns out to be the least reliable place to keep your money or mediate your payments? But there’s no going back. Humanity will not be able to go back to a barter system or even to bills and notes. This would only be possible in very limited locations and amounts. The program of creation will force us to forgo all the tricks and realize that the only available path is to correct our ego!

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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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Our center was visited by a film crew from Channel 2, Israel’s most popular television channel, which attracts millions of viewers each week. The film crew was headed by Roni Kuban – journalist, director, and script writer.

The crew spent five days working at our center. Their objective was to understand what is happening here. They came to us with this proposition, and we agreed because we are open to everyone. Of course, there’s a chance that they won’t understand anything and will write and show us “as usual.” It is impossible for us to influence the content of their program. However, we could not turn down the opportunity to tell people about Kabbalah on the most popular program of the most popular TV channel.

Next Tuesday we will see what they “cooked up.” They’re nice guys, but the nature of their job requires them to get “the juicy scoop,” to deliver something scandalous. Besides, it’s not always easy to understand what Kabbalah has to say. Personally, I place my hopes on the viewers to be able to read between the lines, and because they feel the crisis that is happening, they will understand that Kabbalah offers the solution. This is being done for them!

Below you can watch or listen to two of my conversations with Roni Kuban (in Hebrew):

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News Report (from the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center): Public opinion experts report that Russians have lost their optimism about the future. The turning point in their mood occurred in August-September. Before then, the optimistic contingent was on a steady increase, while the pessimists decreased in number. However, with the arrival of autumn, the trend took a 180 degree turn.

My Comment: And this is happening before the real crisis has even begun. The layoffs are only starting, and people still have savings and the inertia of the past. The real crisis will begin in January-February of 2009.

On the whole, people do not understand that they are already living in a different world – one that’s global, and whose laws they don’t know. These are the laws of the spiritual world that we aren’t following, which is why we are experiencing our discrepancy with them as a crisis. None of the previous methods to outlive or out wait (while stocking up on salt, matches and soap) will help us.

But perhaps we will suddenly wise up, and just by desiring to learn about the law of globalization (“Love thy neighbor as thyself”), we will cast all the evil away from us and draw closer to goodness.

News Report (from supportproject.eu): A recent study in six EU-countries found that problems such as depression, anxiety, phobias or alcohol dependence affected 11.5 % of their population. More people in the EU (almost 60,000 per year) die from suicide than traffic accidents.

My Comment: This is happening because a desire that’s above our world is surfacing in people. This desire is for something beyond the the corporeal things (food, sex, and family) as well as the social things (money, power, and knowledge). When a person has generally gone through these desires, a new desire emerges in him – a desire to receive the Light into the common desire of Adam. However, the only way to receive the Light into this desire is by restoring one’s unification with others, according to the rule, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Before we appeared in this world, we were united together and filled with the Upper Light. Then, our unification was disrupted (broken), and each us was left inside his individual desire and perception, wherein we perceive only a small luminescence called “our world.” When we reconnect with each another, we once again begin to perceive the common Light – the Upper World.

Related Material:
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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.

Related Material:
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Free online Kabbalah course

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CONNECTING TO GOODNESS
The International Academy of Kabbalah invites you
To the international Kabbalah Congress
Which will take place in Israel on February 2 – 4, 2009

The eighth international Kabbalah Congress opens its doors to 6,000 students from 52 countries. This year’s Congress will be devoted to revealing a new, globalized world. It will be dedicated to unity, which will elevate this small “global village” above the flood of crises and into the spiritual world – unity with Nature or the Upper force.

All information and registration for the Congress is available at the Congress Blog.

Filed under: Conventions - 2 Comments →

Two questions I received on religious observance:

Question: Weren’t the great Kabbalists such as Rav Ashlag , Moses Cordovero, and others religious? And why do you wear a Kippah (skullcap)!?

My Answer: You must distinguish between religion and a nation’s tradition or culture. When Baal HaSulam uses the word “religion,” he means only Kabbalah, which is for everyone. On the other hand, when he wants to speak about what we usually call “religion” in our world, he says “tradition” or “ethics (Musar).” See the article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.”

Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that even after the full correction of the world, when everything will be revealed to all and there will be no place for faith (because “Everyone will know Me, from the smallest to the greatest”), the traditions will still remain as people’s culture. This is why I, who already live in this future, still respect the traditions of my nation, such as its holidays and other customs. This is also why I wear a Kippah (skullcap) and observe the rituals.

After the general correction of all souls in their earthly, bodily form, the souls will unite together into a one true soul of Adam on the level of the World of Infinity. At the same time the part of the souls that gives them a feeling of this world will also be corrected, and hence the perception of matter will also disappear. We will then continue to exist only in the form of the single soul of “Adam.”

Question: Why are there spiritual actions that we need to observe on the earthly level (such as Maaser, study, dissemination, and the group), as well as actions that we don’t have to observe physically (such as laying on the Tefillin)?

My Answer: Because actions such as Maaser, study, dissemination, and the group are real, whereas the others are still irrational for now, on your level, because you don’t yet have a screen to observe them. Regarding the actions that have a consequence in our world and the Upper World, each action is realized on its level and higher. The traditions should be observed by those to whom they belong by birth. This is one’s culture. Those from the nations of the world (non-Jews) who want to advance spiritually, don’t have to observe the corporeal traditions designated to Jews.

When you will gradually acquire a screen and start working with it, this is called observance of 613 commandments (correction of your intentions over 613 desires of the soul from “for yourself” to “for the Creator”) through 613 corrections (Tariag Eitin) and 613 fulfillments (Tariag Pkudin). You will start observing them yourself, as it is written, “A person’s soul teaches him.”

Related Material:
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Shamati #77: “One Learns from One’s Soul”

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