A question I received: I was an alcoholic and drug addict for 20 years. A year ago I went through rehabilitation and have stayed off drugs and alcohol thanks to a “12 step” program – a program of spiritual growth. Recently I started studying Kabbalah and became confused – should I continue the “12 step” program or devote myself completely to Kabbalah? Or should I combine both paths? Maybe some Kabbalah students are anonymous alcoholics and drug addicts, but I haven’t been able to find them yet. Can they share their experience with me?

My Answer: Kabbalah is spreading throughout the world. Obviously, the people who begin studying it come from all walks of life. I recommend and ask you to support each other.

A question I received: Suppose that a person is above the Machsom and he already attains and feels the connection with the Creator. As he continues working on his correction, he still decides to experiment with LSD in order to compare the different states. Will he not feel the Upper World then? I’d like you to give this question the attention it deserves, because modern science doesn’t consider LSD an ordinary drug, but an extremely powerful psycho-stimulant.

My Answer: As soon as a person takes drugs, he detaches from the perception of the real world and enters a realm of “wandering,” illusory images.

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A question I received: I searched the Internet for criticism of you – I just couldn’t hold myself back because I’m constantly having doubts and so I search for criticism to check whether I’m on the right path or not. I found that many people accuse you of not telling your students to observe the commandments. This is clear – you’ve answered this question a hundred times.

What’s strange is that many people also accuse you of the opposite – of forcing your students in Bnei Baruch to observe the commandments. I found stories about you kicking people out of the group because they talked on the phone on Saturday, and other such things. (I also noticed that you don’t write on the blog on Saturdays). Is it true that your students in Bnei Baruch have to observe the commandments? If yes, then why do you tell other people that they don’t have to observe them if it’s not their custom? And if it’s false, then did people just make these things up out of nowhere?

My Answer: Anyone who finds out about me will either love me or hate me. People who have a point in the heart are happy to find out about Kabbalah, and they see me as a Rav (meaning “great” in Hebrew). And if they don’t have a point in the heart, then they don’t understand me.

I teach authentic Kabbalah, and I received my knowledge of it through personal study with Rabash. No one else received this knowledge. It’s a known fact that I was Rabash’s unique student. I teach based on my personal attainment of the Upper World and the Creator. My opponents can accuse me of anything they want to, but they can’t say that I don’t understand the subject. In this regard, I haven’t found anyone equal to me so far. Let them listen to my lessons and they’ll be convinced of this.

Usually everything comes down to the question “Is Laitman for or against the commandments?” But this has nothing to do with Kabbalah! (See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.”) Laitman is “for” all the cultural traditions of his people, and he believes that it’s better to follow them. However, no one can be forced to do them. Laitman also believes that every person in the world can observe the traditions of his people if he wants to. Baal HaSulam writes that a person can keep his religion while studying Kabbalah and uniting with the Creator, because religions are no more than frameworks for corporeal, national traditions, and they bear no relation to the Creator and to spirituality, the Upper World. Religion borrowed these notions from Kabbalah.

The entire Torah and Kabbalah come down to observing the condition, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This is the general, all-enveloping and main Commandment of the Torah – the law of the universe, because it’s the Creator’s property. Kabbalah evokes the Upper Light of correction on a person, which endows him with the property of “love thy neighbor.” Religion, on the other hand, does not do this, and therefore instead of correcting man (which is what the Creator demands), it tells him to study and observe corporeal rituals and limitations.

In the Bnei Baruch center, where 300 men study with me on a regular basis, we abide by the traditional statute of the Kabbalists – observance of the main commandments (such as wearing a skullcap, keeping the Sabbath, observing Kashrut, getting married under a Huppah, and so on). We don’t allow alcoholism or drugs (not even if someone wants to “smoke a joint” in private on occasion). We require daily lesson attendance, participation in the group’s unification, dissemination responsibilities, and so on. And I have never concealed any of this – for example, I always wear a skullcap.

The entire problem of my critics is that they are still underdeveloped, that is to say, their point in the heart hasn’t surfaced yet. They’ll understand when they grow up. It’s impossible to understand spirituality through reason, but only through a desire that’s mature and ready. My critics don’t criticize the actual content, the things Kabbalah actually talks about, but rather they pick on everything “around” it, all the external aspects, the things they can grab hold of in order to snatch something for their egoism – like Klipa. This is their food, because they don’t have anything of their own to nourish them – they are empty. I understand their nature, and I’m willing to tolerate them and forgive them. Time goes by, and it favors the revelation of authentic Kabbalah. Eventually everything will come together in peace and correction.

Related Material:
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Laitman.com Post: What Is Religion?
Baal HaSulam article: The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose

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Two questions I received on how the International Kabbalah Academy is funded and how to explain this to others:

Question: I’d like to know whose money supports the existence of the International Kabbalah Academy?

My Answer: It’s supported only by the Maaser (“one-tenth”) contributed by the students. We do not receive help from any fund.

Every person who wishes to develop spiritually, to participate in the system of the common soul’s (Adam’s) correction, must allocate 10% of his income to the correction of the world. This rule comes from the structure of the soul: We can correct the first nine Sefirot on our own, but we have to hand over the tenth Sefira, Malchut, for correction to the Temple. But as long as there is no Temple, we give it to the dissemination of the method of correction around the world.

If a person doesn’t do this, then he won’t be able to attain his private correction. It’s because his point in the heart is only the initial desire, but the rest of the desire (which enables him to unite with the other souls, to create a common vessel for receiving the Light, for revealing the Creator) can only be received from others. This is why it is written, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This is the main principle of the Torah, or in other words, of receiving the Light.

This is also a way to tell whether you are simply satisfying your curiosity or seriously desiring to participate in your private correction and the general correction of the world. You can even spend your own contribution, provided that you coordinate it with our common dissemination center.

No one pays our center. It is supported by additional contributions made by the students, besides the 10% that goes to dissemination. I hope you will understand this and use it as an example!

Question: I’m married, and I’d like to know what I can say to my family when they ask me why I pay Maaser? I understand why I do it, and I feel great responsibility and the importance of dissemination and of the goal. I don’t intend to stop deducting this part of my salary.

However, if I try explaining this to them using words from the spiritual world, saying that it’s the tenth part of the soul, Malchut, then they simply won’t understand me. On the other hand, if I don’t try to explain it to them at all, they will think I’m crazy for paying Maaser. What explanation can I give them (even a temporary one), so they won’t think that Maaser is pointless?

My Answer: Tell them that you are putting it aside for “the world to come,” for them and for you, and that you’re all definitely going to get there. Calculate how much you’re spending, even without realizing “what” you are spending it on.

But in general, no one is obligating you. See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Peace.” There he explains that the Creator is like a salesman in a store, and He gives everyone whatever they take from this world, and writes it down in His notebook. And afterwards He systematically collects the payment from you, whether you realize it or not.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Peace (Baal HaSulam)
Laitman.com Post: The Cycle of Descents and Ascents, and the Correction of the Maaser (Advanced)
Laitman.com Post: The Solution – Excerpts from the Writings of the Last Generation by Baal HaSulam
About Maaser

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Two questions I received from women about the purpose of preparation in one’s inner work, and the need to pay Maaser:

Question: I always try to be in the state of “preparation” – to hold the intention, connect to my husband who also studies Kabbalah, disseminate, and study. Still, sometimes I experience descents and lose all of my connection with the Creator. Later I come out of them and try to increase my preparation even more, as much as I can. But after that there are more descents, and then I again increase my preparation and aspiration, and this is followed by more descents.

I understand that there will always be descents and ascents, and that they are necessary. However, if I lose my connection with the Creator, doesn’t this mean that I don’t spend enough time preparing? Or am I wrong about the purpose of the preparation? Isn’t it intended to help you get out of a descent faster? Or is it intended to prevent the descents, to have less of them?

My Answer: If you prepare correctly, then whenever you experience some state, and then this state finishes passing over you (it finishes manifesting fully, through all ten Sefirot or all four stages), then if you prepared well beforehand, you’ll immediately begin perceiving the end of this state as a descent. And then you’ll immediately want to ascend from it, and you’ll begin intensively attracting the external forces of the group. The group will give you:

1) The importance of the goal;
2) The sensation of your own weakness;
3) The necessary aspiration to ask for correction from above.

As a result of all this, you will produce a request (a MAN), and then the Light of correction (Ohr Makif, MAD) will descend during the general group study. And then you’ll ascend – that is, you’ll perceive and value the property of love and bestowal as if it’s the highest possible thing.

And that’s how a new cycle begins.

Question: When women participate in the group together with men, do they also have to pay the Maaser?

My Answer: Yes. Every person who advances must give a tenth of his net profit to Kabbalah’s dissemination around the world – to the world’s correction. This is not a tradition, but a necessity in order to correct a tenth of your egoistic desire, Malchut. The other parts become corrected by your efforts in the study, the group, and dissemination. You can’t just “buy them off” the way you do to correct this “still” part of your desires.

Isn’t that a shame? It would be so easy to just pay someone, and then suddenly to find yourself in the spiritual world! However, since our act of giving 10% for the correction of the world is part of correction, our egoism objects to it in every way possible, and this is why every person receives enormous disturbances when it comes to giving away the Maaser. Yet every person normally has no problem gambling away or spending 10% of his earnings in any other way, on things he doesn’t really need at all or on entertainment. However, without participating in the common correction this way, one cannot undergo any private correction either! We usually recommend using this money to buy Kabbalistic materials and disseminating them yourself – in other words, putting your own 10% to the right use.

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A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development #2 [1:35:23m]

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Every summer we disseminate our newspapers “New Humanity,” “The New World,” and “Kabbalah Today” all along the Black Sea coast, to the eleven million vacationers and local residents who are there. With each passing year, more and more vacationers recognize us and greet us with a smile. Many of them even begin studying with us and become our friends.

This happy couple, whom we’ve never met before, took our newspaper and said: “Maybe they’ll post a picture of us on Laitman’s blog – cool!” And I’m indeed happy to post it. Enjoy your vacation!

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Help Share Kabbalah

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Noah, the well-known character from the Torah, represents a stage in one’s spiritual development. It’s when a person realizes that his egoism is evil, and that he cannot save himself from it because it is his entire nature. He then understands that only the Upper Force, which is outside him, can change him. This is why he builds the Ark – or in other words, in response to his appeals, the Upper Light creates the property of Bina (bestowal) in him, and he then remains inside it so that his egoistic desires and properties will no longer rule over him. When he enters the Ark, he ascends above egoism and enters the realm of bestowal, isolating himself from his egoism, his nature.

Today every one of us and the entire world as a whole are beginning to feel that we are in a threatening state – the state of Noah before the Flood. We are being threatened by the inner (individual) and outer (worldwide) Flood (egoism), which we have brought upon ourselves and cannot overcome on our own. Our only salvation is to hide in the Ark, that is – for every person and for everyone together to acquire the property of bestowal, to ascend above our egoism. Then everything will reach harmony – just like all the species of creatures that were in the Ark, and we will make the transition to renewed life.

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A question I received: In Tel Aviv, Yaffo, in the district Neve-Tzedek, there is a synagogue called “Marot HaSulam” (מראות הסולם), although unfortunately, it is in ruins. Can you please explain its name? Is it related to Baal HaSulam’s Perush HaSulam (The Ladder Commentary on the Book of Zohar)? I know that some commentaries on The Book of Zohar were written in this synagogue. The synagogue was founded in 1910, and Baal HaSulam wrote his Perush HaSulam in 1940. Did he write it in this synagogue?

My Answer: Baal HaSulam was forced to move from Jerusalem to Yaffo to get away from his opponents. He lived there and attended this synagogue. Then he moved to Tel Aviv, to a neighborhood near Rothchild Street.

Just like my teacher Rabash, Baal HaSulam’s oldest son, I was never interested in history, but only in ascending from our world to the Upper World. People who are attracted to history and what happens to the body are not attracted higher – to spirituality. Personally, I don’t feel any interest in this place. However, it would be nice to turn it into a museum about Baal HaSulam, into a place that explains Kabbalah to people!

Related Material:
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About Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam)

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Questions I received on movement, celebrities, the Masons, and pop music that uses prayers for lyrics:

Question: Dear Rav, I envy everything that moves. What can I do about it?

My Answer: Also move! (Meaning spiritual movement!)

Question: Why do you have conversations with celebrities, with people who are famous, instead of ordinary people? Do you really need the publicity? Do these talks with celebrities flatter your ego?

My Answer: Famous people meet different people thousands more times than ordinary people do. After my conversations with them they gain an understanding of the great value that Kabbalah has for every person and for the whole world, and they begin disseminating Kabbalah on a broad scale, or rather – they bring the Kabbalistic idea to the world. Experience proves this!

The reason I’m doing this is to accelerate man’s recognition of evil so he wouldn’t have to actually go through it in reality. As the Soviet satiric writer Zhvanetsky once said, “The difference between a clever person and a wise person is that a clever person gets out of a difficult situation with huge efforts, but a wise person never gets into that situation.” I want to be wise and I wish the same for everyone else.

Question: What is the connection between the Masons and Kabbalah, if there is any?

My Answer: There is no connection at all. Even my attempt a few years ago to give a lecture for the Masons in Jerusalem failed – they were scared. Secret brotherhoods of any type feel sick in the stomach at the thought of Kabbalah, because Kabbalah promotes wide dissemination to everyone, while the Masons aspire to maintain secrecy. However, there are no hidden forces there, but only traditions and a belief in their exclusivity.

I’m sure that the wave of world-wide change will soon overtake them, as well as all the other philosophies and religions. The only things that will remain will be man, the Creator and the connection between them, while the Masons’ protocols and religious faith “in something” will disappear.

Question: Recently we often hear the song “אנא בכוח,” with moving lyrics that go straight into the heart. Can you explain this text?

My Answer: Why does it move you so much if you don’t know the meaning of the text? Who taught you to think of this prayer in a special way? You wrote, “Recently we often hear” – but I’d like to ask you: who hears it, and where? I have never heard about it! I only know this prayer from the prayer book. In religion and in Kabbalah, no one treats it in a special way. This is just another “sensation” – someone just wants to stand out!

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Two questions I received on whether spiritual correction requires observance of physical rituals:

Question: You say that it’s possible to attain spiritual correction without physically observing the commandments of Judaism. Maybe you’re just saying this out of your concern for Kabbalah’s dissemination around the world? Or maybe what you really mean is that people can’t understand these commandments by simply reading them? If you can’t publish the answer on the blog, I would like to receive a private answer.

My Answer: The Creator created the will to receive pleasure with an intention “for one’s own sake,” and this is how we find ourselves in this world. We were created this way in order to correct our intention to “for the sake of the neighbor or the Creator,” on all of our 613 desires. This correction happens under the influence of the Upper Light, Ohr Makif, which descends during the study of Kabbalah.

This bears no relation to the observance of religious rituals. A person can attain correction and spiritual attainment without physically observing the commandments, or rather – the traditions. This is true for both Jews and the nations of the world. Moreover, every person can keep his religion, because religion is no more than a nation’s cultural framework. Kabbalah only teaches us about the intention “for the sake of the neighbor,” how to love and bestow to others – and nothing else.

Question: You’re all about spirituality and the love revolution. But what about connecting the root with the branch? After all, the still, vegetative, and animate levels are also levels of the will to receive. You always speak about the internality without any externality, and this confuses me. Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” that the internality should be preferred over the externality. But it looks like Bnei Baruch gives 100% of their attention to the internality, and 0% to the externality! This is difficult and confusing. Why not make a small change and pay a little more attention to the externality? Why not combine both parts? Dedicate 90% of your attention to the internality, and 10% to the externality. This will really help everyone! What do you think?

My Answer: We at Bnei Baruch actually do this – we follow the traditions. But do you really think that all the people in the world – who are now approaching correction – have to observe the physical commandments of Judaism, even if it isn’t their tradition? In the article “The Future Generation” Baal HaSulam writes that every person can keep his religion!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Religion and Kabbalah Are Opposite
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Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Egoism, Love, Perception, Q&A, Quora, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Dear friends!

The International Academy of Kabbalah invites everyone to a Kabbalah Congress that will take place in Odessa, Ukraine on September 11 – 14, 2008.

The theme of the congress is: Unity Through Dissemination
The purpose of the congress is:

1. To create a common virtual space for the worldwide Kabbalistic group
2. To discuss mutual projects
3. To develop new ways to learn and teach Kabbalah

The congress location is the picturesque suburbs of Odessa, at the Kuyalnik Resort.
The program will include lessons with Dr. Michael Laitman, seminars, meals, and a cultural program.
Arrival to the congress site will begin at 12:00 PM on Thursday, September 11.
The opening ceremony will be held at 12:00 PM on Friday, September 12.
The closing ceremony will be held at 12:00 PM on Sunday, September 14.
The rooms have double occupancy.
Cost of participation: $170.
Application deadline: August 10, 2008.

Click here to register
For additional information, write to this address

We are waiting for you!
Congress Organization Committee “Odessa 2008”

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