A question I received: What do you expect from the development of the Internet and other means of communication? I see how much you depend on them and their development.

My Answer: The Internet connection lets humanity progress inconceivably faster. However, I think that in the future the means of communication will rise to yet a different level, because our interconnectedness has to be even more evident. Very soon there will be new possibilities of unification, which will erase the sensation of distance between us altogether. Time and space will cease being obstacles between us.

This is necessary for egoism to develop and for us to recognize that it is evil. This is how Nature has arranged things, and this will soon become revealed to us. Interdependence and communications enable us to go through many experiences by connecting with others who feel them, without actually going through them ourselves. By becoming included in one another, we accelerate every person’s development and maturation. We are seeing with our very eyes how civilizations that were isolated from the whole world for millennia – Japan and China, are merging with the whole world within a mere decade. (From the lesson on the article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” on 21/07/2008.)

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News Story (translated from www.ynet.co.il): Leaders of the industrial G8 countries have gathered in Japan to discuss global warming. These rich and developed countries disagree about many things, and no one wants to be the first to yield and lose. The leaders smiled for the photographers and then went their separate ways. They won’t save the world this time around either. It’s the same story all over again: the leaders gather for a discussion, and nothing comes out of it. By now, even the journalists are laughing at this. What has to happen for them to actually sit down and talk, and for something to change?

My Answer: The leaders are powerless to change anything. It cannot be done by their mental, moral, or physical power, because the world is governed from above, and our entire history shows us that we can only make things worse. Since we don’t follow the laws of nature, instead of feeling comfortable, we feel nature’s negative reaction, expressed as undesirable phenomena on all levels of nature: the still level (tsunamis, global warming, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes), the vegetative level (droughts, lack of water, harvest failure), the animate level (extinction of species, disturbed balance, spread of disease), and the human level (war, depression, drugs, suicide, fear).

The correction of the world depends on the correction of man, on his balance with nature. And to achieve this balance, we have to know the forces that govern us. Nature has arranged everything this way in order to elevate us (whether coercively or consciously, willingly) to the level of the governing forces – the Creator. And we can become corrected only by desiring to become similar to the Upper World, to the governing forces of Nature, the Creator.

Kabbalah explains the structure and laws of the Upper World, and this is why it’s necessary for us today – it is our only salvation. As for all the world’s leaders – they are no more than puppets in the hands of the Creator.

Related Material:
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In our world, pain is the organism’s reaction to a problem in it. It’s the organism’s way of telling us that something is wrong with our body. For example, pain warns us of danger and makes us pull our hand away from fire. Pain compels us to move, to come closer to something/someone, or to get away from them, to change our qualities, to adopt new opinions, to realize the reason for the pain, to draw conclusions, and to progress to new states of being.

In fact, pain is the only force that is able to affect our egoism: pain when we feel bad, or when others feel bad, or when others feel good. Pain pushes us from behind and forces us to develop. The pain of feeling empty pushes us ahead, toward fulfillment. Pain is everywhere! All our sensations come from clashes, contact, pressure – or in other words, from pain. We feel pleasure only when it’s preceded by the painful sensation of an unfulfilled desire, suffering, or expectation.

However, when we come out of egoism and rise above the Machsom, we begin to realize that instead of living our lives based on lack or absence, we can live based on total fulfillment and fullness. Instead of basing everything on pain, we can take perfection as our starting point. Instead of doing the things we do because we need to, we can do them out of love, without needing anything.

This is a completely different kind of existence, a different attitude to the world, to people, to yourself, and of course – to the Creator. And when we attain it, the Creator immediately becomes revealed to us, because then we become perfect, just like Him.

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Questions I received on making life choices, understanding Baal HaSulam’s Letters, and preparing for the future

Question: I have a problem on my hands: I’ve been studying Kabbalah for two years and now I’m supposed to go to the army for a year. I can get out of it by paying money (without violating the law!), which will also take about a year of work. If I go to the army, then I won’t be able to watch lessons or disseminate Kabbalah, but if I work for a year, then I’ll have time to disseminate and go to lessons. What’s better?

My Answer: If you will be working as you’re supposed to, studying Kabbalah, and working on inner correction and dissemination, then you will be more useful to the world as a Kabbalah student. So if it’s legal, choose this route.

Question: In reference to Baal HaSulam’s Letters (Igrot) that are included in the kabbalah.info Library section, to whom was Rav Ashlag addressing them?

My Answer: To you! Even though these letters contain some personal answers and comments, mainly they talk about things that are experienced by every person who’s going toward the Creator.

Question: You have disseminated Kabbalah to thousands of people, and I’m one of them. (Thank you. I’m an example of the benefit that comes from dissemination work, which unfortunately I don’t do yet.) I’d like to know: Are you preparing someone to be your successor, to continue the lineage of the wisdom? Or is there no need for a leader in the new era of Kabbalah’s revelation?

My Answer: The leader will be the group that is now learning to resolve the management issues. They are growing right beside me – and you are one of them. Every person who learns the wisdom of Kabbalah at least to some degree, will have to serve others, in order to help them learn and actualize the degrees of man’s transformation until the level of the Creator. This work of attaining equivalence to the Creator has already begun, and the leaders of the new spiritual upbringing of the common worldwide civilization will be determined from above.

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I had a conversation that was recorded titled “Between the Lines,” about words and letters. I spoke with:

Dr. Maxim Sokolov – an otolaryngologist specializing in voice and speech,

Shlomi Buhana – a doctorate student at Bar Ilan University,

Ben-Tzion Gertz – a writer and the host of the program.

Language or speech is what separates humans from animals. Our throat is a special organ where all the forces of the body and soul come together. The five parts of the lungs supply air through the vocal chords into the five parts of the mouth, and the latter divides all sounds into five groups. A letter’s sound corresponds to its outline, numerical value (Gematria), and the section of the brain that sends out commands to the vocal apparatus. And all this happens according to the five parts of creation and the four-letter name of the Creator. In short, there is still a lot more to talk about!

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The Secret of the Letters, Lesson 2: The Shape of the Letters
The Secret of the Letters, Lesson 3: Whoever Changes His Name Changes His Luck
The Secret of the Letters, Lesson 4: To Build the World with Letters

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Questions I received on possible dangers of disseminating Kabbalah

Question: Is there a danger that widespread Kabbalah dissemination will lead to another catastrophe for Israel, because Israel will be the source of Kabbalistic knowledge?

My Answer: No catastrophe was ever caused by Kabbalistic knowledge, but just the other way around: the catastrophes were caused by a lack of Kabbalistic knowledge – including the last one, the Holocaust. They took place because people didn’t want to introduce the study of Kabbalah when it was already time to reveal it, when the period of darkness and exile (from spirituality) ended. Kabbalists prohibited the study of Kabbalah only during the period of the exile.

Question: Are you sure that the time for revealing Kabbalah has really come?

My Answer: The only thing that I’m sure of is that great Kabbalists like Baal HaSulam, Rav Kook, and others know the design of the world better than all the “blind” non-Kabbalists who try to object to them. The great Kabbalists know the Creator’s desire, and I am just a small student of theirs, carrying out their decree.

Besides, you should know that our words don’t change anything, and the world will keep following its path regardless. All of Kabbalah’s opponents will disappear, and real Kabbalists and their students will remain. The only reason for struggling against Kabbalah’s enemies is in order to attain correction faster and with less bloodshed.

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Two questions I received on how a Kabbalist feels the changes in this world and the Upper World

Question: Can a Kabbalist feel the improvement or worsening of his relationships with the Upper World?

My Answer: He feels it constantly.

Question: In a previous post, you wrote, “Your personal predestination is to bring the whole world to this state, because you are the only one who can do it.” This sentence, I suppose, implies that if there is an increasing number of people sincerely trying to ascend spiritually, then the whole of humanity will make certain improvement. Can you, as a Kabbalist, feel the change, and if so, is there any change currently – given the growing number of people becoming aware of the necessity to improve?

My Answer: Certainly, it is felt directly, and it gives me the desire to disseminate Kabbalah – to give every person who desires to reveal the Creator (i.e., the meaning of his existence) the opportunity to encounter Kabbalah in his life – the method to develop spiritually and to reveal the Creator.

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A question I received: I searched your name in Google and found an article about two people who studied Kabbalah at “Beit Kabbalah L’Am” and then dropped out of the classes. They said that it looks good at the beginning – free classes and free everything, but later you’re forced to pay 20% of your income – 10% for Maaser and 10% for books. They also said that you brainwash people, and that you told the husband to leave his wife and to get another one – someone you will introduce him to. What do you say to this?

My Answer: I say that there are many scoundrels in the world, and out of the 2,000,000 students studying with me, two of them happened to be this way. He’s Catholic and she’s Jewish. They lived in India and did drugs and all kinds of mysticisms for many years. He tried to find himself with us, but didn’t succeed because she was against it. And they aren’t married, by the way. When I saw her, I told him straight out, “Leave her or leave Kabbalah.”

Everything else they wrote about us are lies. Kabbalah’s enemies managed to find this couple, who agreed to talk about us this way. This story is already seven or eight years old.

So far our Kabbalah Academy is spreading and growing, and this is what matters. The entire world opposes Kabbalah, so you shouldn’t be surprised at how many opponents we have. I completely understand this and I don’t take their hatred personally. I see the hand of the Creator in it, according to the principle: “Go to the Pharaoh because I have hardened his heart.”

If I paid attention to the opponents personally, then I wouldn’t accomplish anything in my life. I understand the game that the evil forces are playing with me, and I don’t leave any room for them in my heart and mind – and without it, they die.

Life goes on and it’s in our favor! There are still many wars ahead of us, but all these wars aren’t against us – they are wars of man against himself, his nature.

The only things coming from outside that I pay attention to are comments about how I disseminate (but not about the meaning of the dissemination), in order to learn how to create a better external appearance for our material, to make it more suitable for people’s preferences and habits, so that its external form will attract people instead of pushing them away. And I’m trying to simplify the inner content as much as possible.

There’s no doubt that Kabbalah is repulsive to man’s nature and it will still scare many people away, and many will be intimidated by it. This is a battle of the ages – the battle between the Creator and Amalek, but its victorious finish can already be seen.

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A question I received: It says in the Torah, chapter Beresheet, that the Creator said to the woman: “הרבה ארבה עצבונך” (your grief will be very great). Is there a connection between this verse and the fact that women are two times more likely to be depressed than men?

My Answer: Absolutely. A man has many sources of pleasure in our world, and moreover, these pleasures don’t depend on other people (for example, hunting, fishing, sex, soccer, and so on). But a woman was programmed by the Creator to desire and need a man’s attention, and to have one man that will belong to her only. And this is the source of her misery.

It says in the Torah, chapter Beresheet, 3:16, “And the Creator told the woman, ‘I will greatly increase your grief during pregnancy, you will give birth in grief, and your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’”

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Questions I received on the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah

Question: In your post The Connection Between Spirituality and Corporeality, you wrote: “Our world is governed entirely from above. And every day we are becoming more and more convinced of this, because no matter how we try to change things, nothing goes according to plan.” With this in mind, how should we think of the daily efforts we make in dissemination? By disseminating, are we actually correcting others instead of ourselves?

My Answer: No. By disseminating, you correct your “self.” It seems like it’s outside of you, in others, but in fact it’s your spiritual body. So by bestowing and loving others, you’re really bestowing and loving yourself! It’s because this attitude to others allows you to acquire their desires and their Light.

Question: What results of our dissemination can we see today, in the world at large?

My Answer:
– A growing number of students
– An improvement in the quality of the students
– Progress in people’s understanding that the world has reached a dead-end
– People’s increased willingness to understand what Kabbalah is talking about
– The fact that we aren’t advancing by means of war, but by the realization of evil, brought about by merciful pressure from above.

Question: If our thoughts are way more powerful than any physical action, is it possible to do dissemination by thought alone? Is a physical action (i.e., working on a blog about Kabbalah) in this world really necessary?

My Answer: Kabbalists make corrections in the system of Adam (the common soul) by increasing the emission of Light on the uncorrected souls, and this is why many people feel an aspiration toward the Upper World. But this isn’t enough. Once you receive the aspiration and question about life’s purpose, you then find the answer to this question – the right books, teacher, and group. You can realize yourself spiritually only in this environment, by acting toward others the same way Kabbalists do, who perceive the Creator’s desire.

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