A question I received: I have heard you say several times that the Creator is all-powerful. However, the following considerations lead me to the conclusion that this is not so:

• The Creator has a “will to bestow.” Why should someone who’s all-powerful have this desire? He should be above any need, since He is almighty and should be able to control or eliminate this desire.

• Why do creatures have to suffer first in order to receive an even greater desire to attain the Creator? Using His all-powerfulness, He could have arranged this desire for Him, without making it so difficult to achieve.

• The Creator could have created us as simple, unthinking vessels, who would receive as much Light as necessary. There would be no need to go through the various spiritual worlds in order to give us more pleasure.

• Why did the Creator create “our world”? Was it so we wouldn’t feel shame when He gives us Light? He should not have to create a difficult world in order to manipulate us. If He was truly all-powerful, He would create us without the feeling of shame, or He would be able to control this feeling in order for us not to suffer. In addition, I don’t believe that I will experience a feeling of shame if the Creator gives me something.

My Answer: You have serious questions, and they are all addressed in the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” in the very beginning of the text.

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In the News (translated from IsraelInfo): The Israeli unemployment office registered the highest unemployment rate in the history of the state.

In the News (translated from Zman.com): In 2008, the number of divorces in Israel reached a new record!

Comment: The country really has a lot to be proud of! And that’s considering that it’s responsible for helping all of humanity come out of the crisis and attain positive records (see ” items 66-71 in “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”).

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A question I received: I don’t know if Kabbalah views Obama as the coming Messiah, but I believe that the world looking to this man as the Messiah is a major mistake. His preacher for 20 years hates whites. He is friends with Farrakhan who openly hates the Jews. I don’t know if you believe in the Anti-Christ, but Christian belief teaches that this may be the man who leads the world to destruction.

My only question is: is it possible to avoid being part of the destruction that is heading our way? I read The Book of Zohar and have developed a screen. I have a Sabbath meal with my family, I constantly try to do Mitzvahs and, being born Catholic, I follow the Catholic religion to a point. I am very fearful as to what is in store for humanity and I want to avoid it. Any suggestions?

My Answer: The way you practice religious observance is your own business. As for your fears, if you are thinking about love for people, and about how to connect their feelings similar to how they are connected by Nature, through a global, integral connection, then you have nothing to fear or to worry about.

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Two questions I received about studying Kabbalah:

Question: After four months of intense study and reading The Book of Zohar for eighteen hours a day, I felt a sensation of pleasure that’s beyond this world. I was overcome by the revelation of something new. This lasted for thirty seconds and then disappeared, since I was unable to stand this feeling. Then I stopped studying because it was unbearably difficult. My body became heavy and I couldn’t function. Later I got back to studying, but I started having horrible fears. So I stopped again. Please tell me, what am I doing wrong?

My Answer: Everything. You should eat well, rest, exercise, and work. And only once you have done all of these, when you have free time, you may then study Kabbalah. And you should only study in our beginners’ course.

Question: The Creator brings a person to Kabbalah, but this person is still resisting it. He doesn’t connect to the group and is still trying to find egoistic pleasure. Does this person cause more suffering in the world than a regular person, who doesn’t know anything about Kabbalah?

My Answer: No! It’s because he advances down the path leading to the goal, and the system (the Creator) perceives this person’s temporary stops and changes in direction as discoveries of his uncorrected qualities (egoism), in order to then eliminate them.

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Baal HaSulam Article: “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”, Item 40

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In the News (from Mail Online): “Police ‘ran away’ from jeering Gaza demonstrators” Video footage posted on a website shows police officers running away from chanting demonstrators who took part in a violent protest in London against Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip… protesters chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Greatest).

My Comment: Why don’t the citizens question the demonstrators’ right to act this way? Something isn’t right in the United Kingdom!

The Book of Zohar says that at the end of days (at the end of the world’s correction), the sons of Ishmael (Abraham’s son from whom the Arabs originated) will try to take over the world (economically – through oil, and physically – by force) in order to assert their religion, Islam, in the whole world. And they won’t spare even their own lives to achieve this goal because they believe that they will go to heaven for it. It is written, “His hand is on everything in the world, but everyone’s hands are also on him.”

In the News (translated from Infox): The crisis is forcing the British to cross the line of the law. Crime has risen significantly in the country. People who are in despair are more likely to engage in robbery or theft.

My Comment: It’s like those scary Hollywood movies about the future where lonely, hungry thieves roam the streets of deserted cities… until the suffering will force people to change and the world will be revived.

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A question I received: What should my attitude be towards the Holocaust? Also, being that the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” says that all of the nations could become Nazi regimes if Israel doesn’t fulfill its duty, and also given that everything in this world is pre-determined, how am I to feel anything but fear and hatred towards the Creator?

My Answer: See Baal HaSulam’s article “Matan Torah (The Revelation of Godliness)”: Kabbalah (the authentic Torah, Torah Emet,) was given to us in order to correct the egoistic desire “to fulfill only yourself” into the altruistic desire “to fulfill others.” Since the entire system of souls is built as a pyramid, similar to our physical body, the correction isn’t done by all the souls at the same time, but happens in a specific order. This order depends on the souls’ desire to break free from “pursuing things in order to receive.”

This concealed desire to reveal the Creator is called “the point in the heart.” The heart is all of a person’s desires, and the point in the heart is the desire for the Creator. This is how parts of the souls unite together and – within their unity – reveal the Creator. This is referred to as the “Reception of the Torah” (revelation of the Light, the Creator).

Also, see Baal HaSulam’s article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: Receiving the method of correction (Torah or Kabbalah) is only the initial stage in the general correction of all the souls. Hence, the corrected part must fall into the common egoism, intermix with the uncorrected part – the rest of humanity, so together they can become corrected.

In addition, see Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to the Book of Zohar (item70)“: When egoism becomes revealed as evil in the world as a whole, this is the beginning of the period of the revelation of Kabbalah, the method of the entire world’s correction. But because this method is still in the possession of the group of people who have used it – the people of Israel, they must master it and pass it on to all the nations of the world. The destiny of the people of Israel and of the entire world depends only on this. When the method is not passed on in time, then all kinds of problems appear in the world – aggression, wars, extermination, and so on, including the Holocaust.

You cannot justify the Creator because the degree of the righteous (one who justifies the Creator) is still far above you. Therefore, I can understand what you are feeling, though I do not feel the same way.

Related News Story (from Associated Press): Israel’s chief rabbinate severed ties yesterday with the Vatican to protest a papal decision to reinstate a bishop who publicly denied that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

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A question I received: I am non Jewish, and I have been studying Kabbalah for several years. I am considering the path of conversion. However, I am trying to find information on the concept of Chasid Omot Olam. All I know is that this is a non Jewish person who lives his life according to the precepts and the cause of spreading Kabbalah. Is this correct? How can I find more information on this concept?

My Answer: There’s no need to convert. You have to correct yourself to “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and today this is required of all people. Nationalities and religions will vanish, and our world will disappear from our perception. The only thing that will remain is the one common soul, united with the Creator in the state of the World of Infinity, just as it was at the beginning of creation. Read the section about the three states in Baal HaSulam’s article, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar.”

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Questions I received on smoking, evil, hell, and great desires:

Question: Does smoking interfere with spiritual development and the study of Kabbalah?

My Answer: No.

Question: Is the existence of Kabbalah related to the existence of evil?

My Answer: Kabbalah was given to us in order to transform evil to goodness.

Question: How can you explain it when a person desires to absorb everything that exists and constantly strives to feel the Creator?

My Answer: He is aspiring to the goal of creation!

Question: Is there a belief in Kabbalah that one who blasphemes God can go to hell after death?

My Answer: Hell is shame that “burns you up.” Everyone has to go through it in order to reach Heaven – the feeling of similarity to the Creator.

Related Material:
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News Report (from WebWire): “A Crowded World: Researchers use computer scenarios to study crowd behavior in time and space” The scientists at the School of Geographical Sciences at Arizona State University have created a model of crowd behavior. Their results were as follows:

1. There is rapid exchange of nonverbal information in crowds

2. The actions of a single individual can shape the dynamics of an entire crowd

3. Individuals who would never ordinarily engage in anti-social behavior such as looting might do so anyway when associated with a riotous crowd; and, conversely, anti-social individuals may see their bad behavior checked by other members of a well-behaved crowd.

My Comment: The science of Kabbalah has been explaining the same laws of individual and social behavior for thousands of years. It explains these and many other laws, how to use them to benefit the individual without infringing on his freedom and while enabling him to develop harmoniously, and how to use these laws for the benefit of society in a way that avoids conflicts between the individual and the society. It explains how the two can come to an ideal coexistence, where individual gain is equal to social gain. This is possible if the importance of the individual is equal to the importance of society as a whole, by observing the law, “The general and the particular are equal.” This observance is possible when everyone is equal and interdependent, and every person strives only to fulfill the desire of the single whole, seeing this as his mission and receiving absolute fulfillment from it.

This is the state we exist in from the very beginning. It is called the “World of Infinity.” We must desire to ascend (morally) from our present state, called “this world,” to the level of the “World of Infinity.” This desire will draw onto us the Light (feeling) of bestowal and love, which fills us in the “World of Infinity” – and this Light will then correct us, giving us the quality of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This isn’t inconceivable. Even scientists now prove that an individual’s qualities can change instantly under the society’s influence. Therefore, everything depends on our decision to create the right influence over each and every one of us. Therein lies our freedom of will.

Related Material:
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Baal HaSulam: “Introduction to the Book of Zohar, Item 68”

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News Report (from The New York Times): “Project Created to Restore Ancient Babylon” A master plan is being developed for the restoration of the Mesopotamian site of the ancient city of Babylon, in present-day Iraq. The “Future of Babylon” project, financed by a $700,000 grant from the State Department, will map the city’s archeological sites, develop conservation plans and pursue possibilities for tourism and education.

My Comment: This is a landmark event because our global civilization is a replay of ancient Babylon. In the past, Babylon was a place with the same conditions as we have today – those of a “small village” and “the Butterfly Effect.” In other words, people’s egoism grew by leaps and bounds, and they stopped “understanding one another.” This is how we got the expression that “they began to speak different languages.” Yet, at the same time, people revealed that they were completely interdependent.

That’s when one of their priests, named Avram, began to examine the crisis and revealed its cause: it was happening because Nature (or the Creator) was pushing people towards unification. As a result of his research, he attained correction – the revelation of the quality of bestowal and love within him. He also realized what kind of connections are necessary in a closed system in order for it to survive and function correctly. He changed his name to Abraham, where the additional letter ה (Hey or “h”) designates the addition of the Upper Force (bestowal and love) to him. Thereafter, he wrote a book called The Book of Creation.

Abraham taught what he had learned, and thereby formed a group of students. He called them Israel (Isra – El = straight to the Creator), and together they went to what would become the land of Israel. As for the Babylonians who remained behind, they got rid of the crisis by breaking the connections between one another and dispersing all over the planet.

Today, just like Abraham’s science, Kabbalah,  predicted, from the end of the 20th century on, we have once again entered the state of “a small village” and “the Butterfly Effect.” However, this time we have done so on the global scale, so there’s no place to run in order to destroy our globalization. Hence, there are two paths before us:

1. Suffering, due to the discord in our civilization’s system, or
2. We can use Kabbalah as the method of correction.

Either way, we are obliged to correct ourselves so as to reach the level of observing the conditions of existence in a closed system, where every person will have to live by the rule of, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Related Material:
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Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Letters by Rabbi Amnon Saba”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Building the Future Society”

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