Two questions I received relating to free will:

Question: Do our actions in this world influence the Upper Worlds?

My Answer: Only one of them. It is called “free will,” and it lies in receiving the greatness of bestowal from one’s environment (from the teacher, books and friends), as well as the knowledge that freedom can be achieved only with the help of the Upper Light. No other action of ours, in any of the worlds, can be considered “free,” or in other words, as being an action that we do “on our own.”

Question: I have been studying for about a year and have read many of your books. At first, I was extremely inspired by the material I studied; it awakened many different thoughts and feelings in me. Now I am absolutely indifferent to my corporeal life, but I also don’t feel any inspiration from the material I study. What should I do?

My Answer: It’s good how you feel no inspiration from this world. However, in order to feel inspired from the spiritual world, you need to fight for it. You can get spiritually inspired from the teacher, books and friends who are aspiring to spirituality. You will never find this inspiration within yourself; only in the correct environment. Read the article “The Freedom,” as it discusses this. You can progress toward creation’s goal only to the degree that you acquire the greatness of this goal!

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: A Kabbalist, a Geneticist and the Meaning of Life
Kabbalah Today Article: The Freedom Blues
Article: Freedom of Will
Lesson: Freedom of Will
Lesson: Freedom of Will
Lesson: Freedom of Will (Transcript)

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Two questions I received on spiritual relationships in geographical locations:

Question: How did the pyramids in Egypt materialize, and why did it happen there of all places? How could they possibly have been built with such precision without powerful technologies? The First and Second Temples were destroyed, but the pyramids still stand.

My Answer: Nothing simply appears out of thin air, from “above,” materializing out of nothingness. People built the pyramids, and they still stand because they represent the universal egoism that is alive and growing stronger. The Temples, on the other hand, were destroyed because the necessary mass of people for perceiving both worlds and connecting them together is lacking. In the future, when egoism becomes corrected, the common soul will appear, together with its earthly symbol: the Third Temple. However, after humanity’s general correction, this world will start disappearing from our perception.

Question: On Israel’s Independence Day, I saw a program with you speaking about the spiritual independence of Israel. Among other topics, you spoke about the spiritual geography of the Land of Israel. But to my regret, I was surprised that you did not mention the southern part of Israel – the Negev Desert. After all, it is a part of the nation. Does this mean that the spiritual forces only influence the part of Israel that extends from Ramat HaGolan to the Dead Sea?

My Answer: Of course not. The Negev Desert has always been a part of Israel, but this place is influenced by the minimal spiritual forces, and hence this part is naturally inanimate. For more on this, see Part 16 of Talmud Eser Sefirot.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: Inherit the Land
Chapter 1.6 in the Book The Path of Kabbalah: Landmarks
Article: Structure of the Soul
Lesson: General Overview of Creation
Lesson: General Overview of Creation

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Two questions I received on astrology’s connection to Kabbalah, and whether there is life on other planets:

Question: I have been engaged in astrology for twenty years now, and since 1998 I have also been studying Kabbalistic psychology, which is based on the law: “Something born at a given moment receives the properties of that moment.” Why don’t you give lessons on this topic?

My Answer: Because there is no connection between astrology and Kabbalah, even though many try to pass Kabbalah off as being part of astrology. The Torah strictly states: “Don’t do magic and fortunetelling,” because they distract a person from correction, pointing him to false paths and ways to “get around” the Upper Governance.

The only way we can influence our destiny is by influencing the Upper Light, and we influence the Upper Light to the degree that we aspire to become similar to It, by aspiring toward love and bestowal. If this is our true aspiration, the Upper Light descends upon us, corrects us, and changes our state. The Supernal, with the exception of the person, is in a state of absolute rest, and only our positive changes can change our destiny. This is why fortunetelling is forbidden.

Predictions can partially come true, if a person does not do anything to become corrected, because then, such a person is under the influence of nature’s negative reactions to his behavior (i.e. his lack of independent correction) on the path of Beito (lit. in due time), and this path can be predicted. However, when we intervene with the Upper Governance by correcting ourselves, then there is no way to predict the future, since it changes depending on us, along the path of Achishena (lit. “I will hasten it”). The harm done by fortunetelling is twofold:
1. the predictions are incorrect, and
2. they distract people from correction.

As such, there is a corresponding reaction from above: correction, or twice the suffering!

Question: Is there human or animal life on other planets? If not, then how and based on what does Kabbalah explain this?

My Answer: Everything stated in Kabbalah is based on received data. Read some materials on the attainment of reality. If we don’t attain something, we don’t know it. So far, in none of our earthly or spiritual sensations senses (the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of attainment) have we attained anything rational, existing either in our world or the spiritual world, besides ourselves. (As for angels, they are particular forces of the soul and the Creator).

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today‘s Kabbalah User Manual
Kabbalah Today Article: What Is (and Is Not) Kabbalah?
10 Myths About Kabbalah
Chapter 7 from the Book The Kabbalah Experience: Beliefs, Mysticism and the Supernatural

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Two questions I received on our perception of the world:

Question: How can I understand this paradox: On the one hand, we are being treated as one integral system of Adam, but at the same time we feel like individuals? And what about the individual who is incorporated into all the general suffering and woes, which happen to the entire system? How can he go through this path pleasantly and safely? And who is to blame for the fact that this system is so opposite to the laws of bestowal?

My Answer: Everything is built perfectly and logically. What you perceive is not a lousy world, but your own imperfections, your own picture of the world. If you correct yourself, then everything will radiate harmony.

It is because the screen on which you see yourself and your surroundings is your qualities, and in order to change yourself to see the world as eternal and perfect, or in other words, to live in this kind of world you depict, is by acquiring eternal and perfect qualities. This is why Kabbalah has been given to us.

Question: Why was the world created precisely the way it is? Why is there nature, attitude, change in attitude, suffering, pleasure, the will to receive, the will to bestow, etc.? Who needs all this? Why can’t we just enjoy and so be it? What is there to do for someone who has no patience and who doesn’t even have a desire to exist (not in a body or without a body, but to simply not exist)?

My Answer: The soul was created in perfection, in the World of Infinity. It lacks only one thing: the perception of this perfection. The only way to achieve this perception is by comparing the opposites of darkness and light – the absence of perfection and its presence. Its presence is there, but its absence is missing. This is why our world was created; it is the place where we have to fully perceive the absence of perfection, and together with it, return to the world of infinite perfection. There we will feel true fulfillment through these opposites.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: I Saw a Reversed World
Article: Perfection and the World
Shamati Article #34: The Profit of a Land
Lesson: Shamati Article #34 – The Profit of a Land [53:59]
Lesson: Shamati Article #34 – The Profit of a Land [53:59]

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Two questions I received on work and career in relation to Kabbalah:

Question: Is the study of Kabbalah in any way related to choosing a job or profession in the material world?

My Answer: A person cannot pursue several goals. Therefore, if one’s purpose is to become corrected, similar to the Creator, then his every action in this world becomes supplementary. Thus, it’s best to choose a practical profession, one that will allow you to provide for your family while leaving you time to study Kabbalah.

Question: I have been studying with you through Kabbalah TV and ARI Online for almost two years now, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to come closer to the Creator that Kabbalah gives us. However, I’m disoriented by the need to succeed in this world. Can a person be wealthy, while having an intention for the sake of the Creator?

My Answer: If a person is intensively working on his spiritual development, he will eventually have to change his daily schedule as to unload himself of extra work, and give that work to other people. He will only do what’s necessary. In general, his thoughts will be focused on spirituality and how to help the entire world in this regard. But he must provide himself with everything necessary, so as not to demand it from society.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah and Your Career
Article: Relationships (Section: The Purpose of Creation)
Article: Relationships (Section: Upbringing)
Article: Relationships (Section: Family)

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A question I received: Why are there still so many conflicts between representatives of different ethnic and religious groups? Sometimes even the official religious communities support these aggressive views and actions. What is it about people that makes them want to practice superiority over other nations and ethnic groups, and to do all this in the name of the Almighty?

My Answer: Religions were created after Kabbalah became concealed, by people who fell into egoism. These people took Kabbalistic ideals and passed them off as their own. They couldn’t, however, abide by these ideals, and as such, they could only instruct others to uphold them by threatening them with punishment in the world to come.

Because of how egoism provokes mutual hatred in people, all religions mutually hate one another, but they conceal their hatred, and on the surface, summon the world to peace and love. However, they’ve never had an aspiration for peace and love, and if it were in their power to do so, we would still be destroying each other in religious wars, following their call to make them stronger, like we’ve done in the past.

Related Posts:
The Solution – Excerpts from the Writings of the Last Generation by Baal HaSulam
The Cracks in the Floor of Supposition, and the Firm Base of Attainment
What Is Religion?
Religions are Expressions of Culture, Not Absolute Higher Knowledge
More Muslims than Catholics
The Solution to the Clash of Civilizations

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A question I received: Can you say for certain that your students in Bnei Baruch differ from other people in any way?

My Answer: They’re no different from any other person in this world, except that within themselves, they feel the force that’s controlling them.

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News Story: Why Are Men Going Off Sex?

“Men are increasingly going off sex due to stress, depression and the inability to talk about their problems, experts have claimed.

A team at a relationship counselling service has reported a whopping 40 per cent increase in the number of lazy blokes, admitting that, despite being physically able to have sex, they don’t have any interest.

‘They tend to be men in their thirties, forties and fifties and married. It is a serious issue. It counts as a psychosexual dysfunction, rather than just a relationship problem, because these men haven’t simply gone off their partner but off sex altogether,’ a newspaper quoted Peter Bell of the organisation as saying.”

My Response: The feeling of emptiness, the lack of fulfillment from the Upper Source – even if only subconscious – leads to general depression and the suppression of all bodily desires. Lately this isn’t just a problem, but a universally acknowledged fact.

However, the study of Kabbalah brings about an outburst of all desires and growth of egoism, both on a widespread scale and individually. It is written, “since the destruction of the Temple, only those who work to become similar to the Creator have retained the true taste of copulation.” Mainly, this refers to spiritual copulation – Zivug de Haka’a with the Upper Light, but it also has results in our world. It is talking about people who are working on the intention to bestow…

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Something interesting that somebody sent me by e-mail:

The world is comprehended with the aid of science, which doesn’t explain anything, but only registers facts through experience. For instance, science doesn’t explain what the force of gravity is; it describes the phenomenon of gravity itself. The purpose of science – to supply, based on available data, the most precise prediction. It is mistaken to accept descriptions of methods for getting results as scientific explanations. Science – is what works.

The increase in fertility through the use of fertilizers is better than offerings to the god of fertility. However, if studies showed that offerings to the god of fertility are more effective than the use of fertilizers, such offerings would then be recognized by the scientific community as scientific, and would no longer be considered supernatural. The principle of science is that if “something” works, science studies it; and if “something” is unattainable – then there is nothing to talk about.

My Current Mood: high

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The world does not have a reality of its own – man’s uncorrected perception paints the world for him.

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