Questions I received about the study of Gematria, characters from ancient texts, and the two forms of desire:

Question: Is the study of Gematria related to Kabbalah? What is the goal of this science? What do we have to learn from it?

My Answer: Gematria is a method for recording the relationships between spiritual properties and different souls. It is similar to modern methods of recording information. Letters represent properties descending from the ruling system of signals. If we depict the sequence of letters as words, then we do not read the actual words but rather the program, which runs our world.

What Gematria gives us is an example of how we should be. Our entire work is to come to be similar to the Creator. This similarity can be achieved only by copying His actions, just as a child learns from adults in this world.

Question: Kabbalah speaks of Adam, Eve and other characters from ancient texts. I would like to know who these people were.

My Answer: They are internal forces of the root of the soul: the giving male source and the receiving female one. In Kabbalah, these are the systems of Z”A and Malchut. For more information, read The Book of Zohar.

Question: Can we say that there are two forms of desire? The first one is the desire to please oneself and the second – to please others. The first is very limited, and the second is eternal and infinite.

My Answer: This is true!

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Two questions I received about happiness and Kabbalah as a science:

Question: As Kabbalists, should we always be happy?

My Answer: If a person feels miserable, he thereby curses the Creator. This has to do only with the feeling in one’s heart, and not the words that he utters. If a person is happy, he thereby blesses the Creator, without any words and without even addressing Him.

Question: You claim that Kabbalah is a science. Personally, I love science; it is one of my favorite subjects. I am also fascinated with the wisdom of Kabbalah. I know that there are requirements for a study to pass in order for it to be considered a science, and not a pseudoscience. One such requirement is that the study can be falsified (proven false). So, for honesty’s sake, is there any way for Kabbalah to be falsified?

My Answer: If Kabbalah is studied through the original sources such as The Book of Zohar, and teachers such as the ARI, Ramchal, Baal HaSulam or from a teacher who received his knowledge from a great Kabbalist of the previous generation, the rest depends only on the student.

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A question I received: I have just completed Kabbalah and Quantum Physics, and began reading The Book of Zohar with your commentary. Could you explain through some concrete example how one should change his qualities to those of bestowal in order to feel, even just for a split second, what the science of Kabbalah describes? I gathered from the books that it is not necessary to change the actions in our lives – we just need to change the intention.

No matter how much I try to find precise instructions about what to do, I cannot find any. Or do the instructions consist of memorizing everything that was told to us by Kabbalists in order to gather all of this knowledge into one whole, and only then to finally begin to feel and understand how the world is arranged and be able to penetrate through matter with his whole soul? Please tell me how you were able to rise above your ego.

My Answer: Perception occurs within a correctly attuned desire: towards connecting with everyone into one whole. This is because a breaking and separation occurred in this connection, and only this separation between us requires correction. Pursuing this goal is called the “intention” (Kavana).

This intention should accompany your studies of Kabbalah, your relationship with your fellows, and your actions in dissemination. Specifically the intention to reach unification, through Ohr Makif, rouses a correction of the desire, and, to the extent that it is corrected, you begin to feel in the desire, the intention (Ohr Hozer) that outlines of the Upper World.

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A question I received: I completed the ARI Online beginner and advanced classes, and for the past two years have been attending your online classes daily. I’ve studied Pticha, Shamati, and The Book of Zohar. Your wisdom is profound. But, lately, the only portion of the lesson that that I feel I can relate to is Talmud Eser Sefirot. The abstract seems more real to me than the discussions concerning present world conditions. Is this normal, or am I losing my way?

My Answer: It’s temporary. You will discover that Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator in our world and is realized by studying correction of oneself and of the whole world. To the extent one is corrected, one perceives the world as unified and transparent, for all of universal creation is perceived by us in a single desire that was created. It begins to appear as unified, and all of the worlds will appear as sensations in different layers of that single desire.

Subsequently, the study material, too, will begin to reveal one and the same thing, only in different languages. Finally, everything will come to be seen as one picture, static, whole and perfect.

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In the News (from Boston Review): In order to assess explicit prejudice toward Jews, we directly asked respondents “How much to blame were the Jews for the financial crisis?” Among non-Jewish respondents, a strikingly high 24.6 percent of Americans blamed “the Jews” a moderate amount or more, and 38.4 per cent attributed at least some level of blame to the group.

My Comment: They are right, but on the other hand, see Items 70-71 of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar.”

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Questions I received on various Kabbalistic concepts and definitions:

Question: Is the screen a tool that returns us to the state we were in before the knowledge of good and evil?

My Answer: It is the tool of recognition, attainment and ascent above the knowledge of good and evil, leading to equivalence of form with the Creator.

Question: What is the spiritual meaning of the Sabbath?

My Answer: It’s a symbol of the Full Correction.

Question: I was reading The Book of Zohar and in the section, The List of Abbreviations and Explanations, it states: “AA – Arich Anpin – the Partzuf of Hochma, the central, initial Partzuf in the World of Atzilut, from which all the other Partzufim originate.” Is this correct? As far as my very limited knowledge goes, Keter is central and the other Partzufim originate from it.

My Answer: Arich Anpin is Keter of the World of Atzilut, because Atik is concealed from the lower Partzufim.

Question: Could you please explain what is the “mouth to mouth” teaching technique? Is this form of study used today?

My Answer: This type of study happens through the common screen of a teacher and his student. The screen is located in the mouth (Peh) of the souls (Partzuf).

Question: What is the difference between desire and effort?

My Answer: Effort can be exerted only to the extent of the desire.

Question: If there is no desire, how does one create a demand for the effort?

My Answer: Under the influence of the environment.

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Questions I received on the spiritual meanings of Kabbalistic writings:

Question: Is there a translation of the 613 desires (commandments) of the Torah to the language of the ten Sefirot?

My Answer: As one example, see Baal HaSulam’s article, “Pkudin ve Eitin” at the end of the “Preface to the Book of Zohar” (not to be confused with the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”).

Question: The following is a quote from a poem by Baal HaSulam: “And then that special Tower of Oz will appear before you.” What does the Tower of Oz refer to?

My Answer: Oz is a force, referring to the complete revelation of the Creator.

Question: One of Baal HaSulam’s texts reads: “The Method of Influence Through the Names.” Could you explain what this means?

My Answer: Names refer to partial attainments of the Creator, which then combine together to form His one four-letter name, HaVaYaH.

Question: The Book of Creation speaks about the seven skies, each of which has seven moons, and the seventh sky has pure souls. And it also mentions “screens.” I would like to know more about this. What do the skies, the moons, and the screens actually mean?

My Answer: All of this refers only to the Sefirot, Parzufim, Olamot, Masachim, Reshimot, and other parts of the desire, which gradually become similar to the Creator. It’s because nothing exists except the Creator and the desire He created. The seven skies are the seven Sefirot of ZON. The seven moons are the Malchut in each Sefira. And so on. See the Ari‘s work.

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Two questions I received on how religions emerged from Kabbalah:

Question: Where is the proof that all the religions developed from Kabbalah? Are there any sources confirming this, other than Kabbalistic ones?

My Answer: This is a historical fact – read any of the books comprising the Torah, The Book of Zohar, and so on. Religions emerged 2000 years ago, as a consequence of the Jews’ descent from the level of Kabbalah – the level of bestowal and love. Their fall from that level led to the destruction of the Temple and the emergence of the Jewish religion, which came to replace knowledge, attainment, a perception of the Creator and a connection with Him.

Instead, in religion, people believe in something without actually perceiving the things they believe in. Because of this, other interpretations of the same religion later emerged – since no one sees anything clearly and people just presume things! This is how the other religions came about, although they describe themselves as new religions or new revelations.

However, before all of this began, the Jews perceived the One Governing Force of Nature – the Creator. This is what they described in all their holy books, such as the Mishna, the Talmud, The Book of Zohar, the Tanakh, and others.

Question: In one of your articles, you wrote that after the Jews were exiled from Israel, Christianity, brought there by Greeks and Romans, became dominant in the whole world. You also emphasized that they are not religions. If they are not religions, what are they?

My Answer: I don’t think you understood my article correctly. The three main religions – Judaism, Christinity, and Islam – are, in fact, religions. However, Christianity did not emerge from Romans or Greeks. It emerged in Israel, among the Jews, after the destruction of the Temple, and was later dispersed throughout the world.

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In the News (from WorldNetDaily): ”U.N. to make ban on criticizing Islam mandatory?” Muslim-dominated nations at the United Nations are once again pushing a religious “anti-defamation” plan that would bar worldwide, all criticism of their founder Muhammad and his teaching.

“The U.N. now wants to make that anti-blasphemy resolution, making it a crime to criticize religion, in particular, Islam,” reports CNN’s Lou Dobbs.

My Comment: It says in The Book of Zohar that during the times when Kabbalah – the method to revive the world – will be revealed, the Muslims will rise and desire to conquer the entire world.

Announcement: Our materials are now available in Arabic. You can also contact us at [email protected]

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Here is letter I received from Dr. Angelov from Boston, USA (a doctor and a member of Bnei Baruch), providing an answer to the following question:

Is it possible to eliminate the illnesses that afflict us?

In order to answer this question, let’s first clear up what an illness really is. There is a sequence of cause-and-effect, going from the illness’s source to its expressions or symptoms. What do I mean? Our thoughts, which are disharmonious with nature, affect the central nervous system, which in turn affects the peripheral nervous system, which leads to a dysfunction in the cells. As a result, the cells function in opposition to the laws of nature, and this leads to the illness known as cancer. We say that the cause is stress, but in fact, the cause is the lack of harmony in our lives.

As soon as we’ll understand the laws of nature and begin following them, there will be no more reason for illnesses to emerge. We will then live in peace and happiness, without any illnesses or doctors.

What is a doctor, anyway? In Latin, Doctor means “teacher.” So, a doctor is someone who should teach people how to live without illnesses! How different is this definition from our present, egoistic medical system!?

We can learn the main law of nature from our cells: a healthy cell receives just the bare necessities, whatever is required for its livelihood, and gives to other cells as much as it can, taking care of the entire organism. The opposite of this is cancer, because a cell begins to live at the expense of other cells, killing the entire organism and consequently, dying itself.

The same thing happens in our society: we try to rise above others and we consume more in order to accomplish this. However, every illness has a “period of concealment,” when the illness is not clearly apparent yet. And when the crisis hits, the symptoms are already manifested very clearly; the society already has the cancer!

We must think about this. I am a doctor, and I would like to replace useless treatment with education, in order for everyone to be healthy and happy. What do you think?

My Comment: Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar“:

As soon as egoism will disappear from the world, so will the causes of all the illnesses, as they are generated by it.

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