Question: Why does the Creator allow some people to commit brutal crimes?

Answer: The science of Kabbalah illuminates the questions of perception of reality, free will, and human nature, showing that a person who lives in this world does not possess freedom of choice. Therefore, he doesn’t commit any conscious acts.

A person can attain the freedom of choice only in a Kabbalistic group, which is a group of people connected in order to attain the spiritual goal. In this case a person receives or earns some degree of acting freely. However, those who have not reached spiritual attainment and have not reconciled two opposite forces, action and intention, do not act at all!

They arrive at the end of this life as if they have never lived. In other words, they haven’t lived as “humans.” It is their biological body that lived, just like any other type of animal. It is a life dictated by instinctive nature only. A person can only rise above it by way of “faith above reason,” when he desires to attain a different nature.

The unity of these two natures, Upper and lower, is regarded as the human in him. Only a person who achieves this can be said to have performed independent actions that are worth punishing or rewarding. In other words, only a Kabbalist can be judged for his own actions. An ordinary person cannot be judged since he acts in accordance with Nature’s orders. He follows one route and does nothing using his own free will.

Nevertheless, in our world punishing measures are necessary. However, we don’t administer them at will but under orders from Above, although it happens through the government legislature, courts, and law enforcement devices. All of this exists in order to hasten our development!

This is the Upper Governance over all people, who are like puppets, with the purpose of bringing them closer to the point of freedom of choice.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/10, “What Are the Two Actions During the Time of Descent?”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Studying Yourself From The Side
Laitman.com Post: There Is Nothing New Under The Sun
Laitman.com Post: Life Beyond Time

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will - No Comments →

At some point we come to realize that our entire life can be divided into two periods according to how the Upper Governance, the Creator, treats us. The first “half” is our childhood, when nature (everyone around us) protects us in every way, and the second “half” is when this protection ends. I become an adult and nature starts pressuring, demanding, and loading me with responsibilities.

It is difficult to understand why things are this way as well as why a human being is born absolutely helpless, falling into the arms of his mother and father and becoming a burden on society. And why in the second part of his life, as soon as he becomes self-sufficient, he has to work hard and worry about how to protect others and provide a happy childhood for them just like it was provided for him.

This is a reflection of a spiritual law where the lower part (AHP) of the Upper Partzuf descends to the upper part (Galgalta Eynaim) of the lower one in order to push him forward. This happens because our qualities and the Creator’s qualities must penetrate one another, and this occurs in the reverse form, by way of the breaking, known as “Adam HaRishon’s original sin.” With the help of the original Evil (the snake), we acquire a special hollow area within ourselves, the place for the future soul. It is the place where we will find ourselves merged with the Creator and attain His height, having known good and evil.

This is the path we will have to walk. For now we still don’t possess this point of independence and we are governed with the help of “angels” from Above (Upper Forces). In other words, everything we have comes from Him. The Light acts first in everything and we are just derivatives of it.

How, then, do we make the creature primary and the revelation of the Creator, the construction of the Creator within the creature, secondary? If I existed in this world without any support and there weren’t any Kabbalists before me, where would I gain an opportunity for free will, this profound point?

The Creator can give me everything else, but this freedom mustn’t come from my will to receive pleasure because even though this desire is completely opposite to Light, it is still fully governed by the Light, only in the reverse form. The Light acts, and my will to receive jumps to the opposite side, like on a swing. So where does my independence come from, without which all creation would have no purpose?

We receive it precisely from the primordial Evil. We have nowhere else to get it from.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Serpent Is The Angel of Help
Laitman.com Post: Upbringing In The Spiritual World
Laitman.com Post: From Illusory Freedom To The Truth

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Torah - 1 Comment →

Baal HaSulam’s article “Preface to Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 7: Now you can understand their words about the verse, “I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time.” The Sanhedrin (98) interpreted, “Not rewarded – in its time; rewarded – I will hasten it.”

Thus, there are two ways to attain the above-mentioned goal. Through their own attention is called a “Path of Repentance.” If they are awarded that, then “I will hasten it” will be applied to them. This means that there is no set time for it, but when they are awarded, the correction ends, of course.

If they are not awarded the attention, there is another way, called “Path of Suffering.” As the Sanhedrin said (97), “I place upon them a king such as Haman, and they will repent against their will,” meaning in its time, for in that there is a set time.

There are two paths before us that lead to the same goal, and we are at their intersection. At every given moment we should feel that we are at the crossroads that determines our freedom of will, and the choice here is very simple: to take the path of the Light or the path of suffering.

A third path does not exist. We must advance by one of these two paths and decide at every given moment what our next step will be. Your foot is already up in the air, and now you have to choose where to land it: on the path of Light or on the path of suffering.

The moment will pass, and you will once again have to make a choice. Your foot has been lifted from Above to force you to make a step, and it is up to you where to place it, on which of the two paths. In accordance with our choice, you will receive the strength and the means to advance since you have to keep moving ahead, one way or the other.

If you advance by the path of “Beito” (natural development, in due time), the forces of nature are pushing you onward against our egoism since you wish to advance led by your ego. Hence, you are impacted by the forces that oppose your egoism, trying to keep you in bestowal. But on the path of “Ahishena” (hastening time), you start to consciously convince yourself through the environment that being in bestowal is worthwhile. Thereby you draw the Surrounding Light, and it returns you to goodness.

On the path of “Beito,” you receive blows and learn through them. Sooner or later it will result in your request or prayer for correction and advancement like you would have by the path of “Ahishena.” Conversely, if you initially take the path of the Light, you will save time on the first segment of the path, where you would have otherwise wasted time through your lack of desire to listen and exert your own effort.

There is no time to think about where to land our foot! Everything depends on the preparation of the spiritual environment.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/4/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Two Paths Laying Before Us
Laitman.com Post: A Long Path To Unity
Laitman.com Post: Conscious Acceleration Toward Life’s Purpose

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will - No Comments →

Question: What is freedom and freedom from what? How do we achieve it if both the corporeal and the spiritual worlds are defined by rigid laws?

Answer: The only freedom that exists is freedom from our egoism. I want the Upper Light to descend, take me over, and replace my egoism. I perceive the power of egoism or altruism over me as necessary: It is either one or the other.

There are only two types of nature: the nature of the lower one (reception) and the nature of the Upper One (bestowal). Both are preset, and function in accordance with invariable laws. The only free action we are able to take is to rise from one nature (egoistic) to the other (altruistic). In other words, we can break free from the power of the laws of egoism (reception) and transcend to the “jurisdiction” of bestowal.

We will not be able to evaluate even our own initial nature until we acquire the second, altruistic nature. We are currently locked within a single dimension, and for as long as we remain in it, we cannot comprehend it.

Look how often we err! For thousands of years, we developed within our egoistic nature, and we still do not know it. This is because we are locked inside it, but in order to understand it, we need to have something opposite to compare it with.

If we possessed an opposite nature (that of bestowal), we would be able to compare it with our egoism and thereby comprehend what reception and bestowal mean. However, in our world, there is nothing but receiving. Whatever we do, we do it solely for our own sake and benefit. This is why we cannot understand our own actions and how this world operates.

You see that humankind continues making mistakes, and doesn’t know what further direction to take. And now that we have reached the peak of egoism, our complete inability to understand this world is obvious. This fact pushes us to the realization that none of us has a choice but to transcend our egoistic nature.

Moreover, in order to simply live well within the boundaries of our egoism, we need to step out of it and study it from above. It is impossible to learn about an object while remaining within its bounds. We have to be above it in order to be able to study it. Only if we rise above ourselves can we learn who we are and what the right way to live is, at least in this world. This is what today’s global crisis is pushing us toward.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/25/10, Shamati #99

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Recognizing The Greatness Of The Opportunity
Laitman. com Post: How Do We Our Point Of Freedom?
The Path of Kabbalah: “Freedom of Choice-To Operate Above Nature”

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

We are completely under the authority of nature. We are controlled in all of our actions, those of the body as well as those of the soul. Yet, Kabbalists say that we have freedom of choice. There would have been no point to create this whole creation if the Upper Force unambiguously determined everything that happens to us beforehand.

However, the freedom of will exists only above our present life, only there, in a higher dimension where we wish to rise above our egoistic nature, in the quality of bestowal. Only on that ascent from one degree to another will we able to choose whether to ascend by receiving blows from nature. If we do not use our freedom of will, do not exert our own effort, do not strive to develop ourselves on our own in the same direction, or see a desired goal in this, nature will push us. But if we search for the forces to help us execute this ascent, this is where we find our freedom of will.

Kabbalists explain that freedom of choice exists only in building a correct environment. Moreover, I don’t just choose the environment; I advance under its influence. I can choose my environment and by that hasten my advancement as well as change the nature of this ascent.

Instead of dashing to and fro under the blows of fate like a beaten animal, I can rise by a wonderful path, according to my own desire, full of feelings, understanding, and by my own strength, as befits a human being. I can do this if I examine the goal, wish to near it, and understand that in order to hasten my development I need to draw more Light than I receive through the natural path. This means is given to me; it is called the Torah, the Upper Light; it pulls me out and returns me to the source.

It is written in regard to this work that if we leave it even for one day, if we don’t realize our freedom of choice, then we halt our development for two days, and are not permitted to advance independently. We begin to be influenced by the natural Upper forces.

After all, it is not enough to only lose to the extent of our not exerting effort; we don’t learn much from this. To teach us to stay on the wonderful path, we receive a “punishment” for straying that is slightly greater than what we did so that the next time an even greater obstacle emerges on the path, we would beware not to stumble on it. The spiritual law states, “If you leave Me for a day, I will leave you for two.”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/10, Shamati #108

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Recognizing The Greatness Of The Opportunity
Laitman.com Post: How Do We Find Our Point Of Freedom?
Kabbalah Moments: "The Choice"
5 Minutes Of Light: "Build Yourself A Shorter & Sweeter Path In Life"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will - No Comments →

A question I received: If the Creator is a closed system of nature with firm unchanging laws and man exists inside this system, then how can he change anything in it?

My Answer: This is an incorrect assumption. Man does not change anything in this system. Heaven forbid we were able to change the Upper system of nature! We would end up corrupting it just as we do our own lives. Therefore, we are given a very limited part of the total reality. This narrow scope is merely a black point known as our corporeal world, and look at what we’ve done with it! So how do you intend to govern the Upper system? We should be grateful that we’re not permitted to change it.

However, to the degree that we become similar to the Creator, we will exit our narrow, black enclave and become full-fledged participants in the Upper World. If we acquire the strength to follow the same laws and actions as the Creator, He then will hand the power over to us. There won’t be any division of power between us for His purpose is our adhesion with Him, meaning our complete equivalence to Him.

From the TV Program “Kabbalah for Beginners: The Creator” 7/5/10

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Entry Point Into Spirituality
Laitman.com Post: Our Entire Work Is To Reveal The System Of The Universe
5 Minutes Of Light: "What Is The Creator?"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will - 1 Comment →

A question I received: It sounds strange to me that we are unable to change anything and that only the Upper Light can do it. Who else can I rely on except myself?

My Answer: You have a few years behind you and should know that it is hard to arrange life as you wish to or change anything in it. Life flows in accordance with its own laws and doesn’t “listen” to us. There is a force that controls our lives and transports us from one phase to another.

If we could only watch life unfold like a movie and see it from beginning to the very end. A regular person cannot do this, but there are people who possess special faculties and “see the movie.” In general, it is possible.

Today, you as though see a movie that I already saw yesterday. For you, the movie hasn’t started yet, for me it is already over and I know everything about it. If we saw this movie, we would understand that our development was completely predetermined. Nowadays, physicists, geneticists, and other scientists write a lot about a human being acting like a machine; it has been proven scientifically.

Our life is a sequence of frames in a movie, and all we do is transition from one frame to another. There is nothing we can do about it! This explains the existence of people who are able to predict the future. They don’t lie to us; they simply see the movie a little bit ahead of us. This faculty is developed in animals considerably more than in people since technologies have dulled our senses.

Currently, I’m at a certain “frame” of this film: My past is behind me, my future is ahead of me. The question is how can I influence my development? What is my freedom of choice? How can I really change something? I’m interested only in this for I prefer not to know about something that I’m unable to change. Tell me what does depend on me!

Kabbalists maintain that I can only attract the Upper Light called the Surrounding Light, which can Reform. I’ll live through the movie anyway, there is no chance I can avoid it. The beginning and the end of the movie are set, and it’s not in my power to change them. However, I can choose to live through that movie with pleasure and delight.

If I am already somewhere in the middle of it and see and understand the ultimate benevolent goal, I begin to anticipate its kindness already. It pleases me already and gives me fulfillment which might be even greater than what I will get later upon achieving the goal since at this point it is not limited by any boundaries! The pleasure I look forward to always seems bigger than its actual realization. So, it follows that I can attract goodness into my life right now and continue to advance in the rays of the Light.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/10, Shamati #38

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Transparent Reality
The Path of Kabbalah: “Freedom of Choice – To Operate Above Nature”
Kabbalah Moments: “What’s Demanded Of Me”
Kabbalah Moments: “Surrounding Light”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Perception - No Comments →

A question I received: Wherein lies my freedom? I always choose what’s best for me anyway. And if I don’t want to, suffering will force me back to the path of Light, correct?

My Answer: We exist below the dividing line called the Machsom; this is the border separating us from the spiritual world. This corporeal world is located beneath it, and above it, there is the spiritual world. Here, in our world, we live like animals, meaning that we are motivated by our instincts one hundred percent. Biologists, physiologists, geneticists, and physicians confirm this, concluding that a human being is totally programmed and controlled by internal and external systems.

So where does the desire come from? Does it come from emptiness accidentally? It only seems to us that life is governed by the rule of chance because we don’t see the source of and the reason for what happens in life.

Yet, we discover that nature is a closed system. The more we explore it, the more we become convinced that nature is global, and that we are its integral part. Nothing can escape the power of this common law called “nature.” In its Gematria (a numerical value of a word), the word “nature” is equivalent to the word “Creator.” Nature is the law, and by exploring it, we see that all laws are interconnected, precise, and invariable, which leaves us no freedom of choice.

If we look at the complete picture of nature, its whole sphere, we will see that it is governed by a singular law. We constantly make mistakes because we think we are above nature. So instead of studying its laws and following them, we keep trying to reform nature to fit our desires. Hence, our life is a strand of failures. The human ego is the only defect in the entire reality, and it is the cause of corruption to everything else.

However, along with our world, there awakens within us a tiny desire for spirituality called the point in the heart. If we follow this point and go beyond the parameters of this world, we enter the world governed by the Upper laws. All laws, in this and the Upper Worlds, are called the Creator or nature.

In other words, we are governed by the laws, as Above, so below. However, by ascending from one type of laws to the other, we perform the act of free will. We are not free to be above nature’s laws, but we choose in what nature we wish to exist, meaning that we can switch from the path of suffering to the path of Light. We are not free to refuse, yet we do have a choice to agree and see life as good or disagree and suffer.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/10, Shamati #38

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Global System Of The Future Society
The Path of Kabbalah: "To Receive—Discover the Force of Giving"
Moments From The Daily Kabbalah Lesson: "Unleashed"
Kabbalah Moments: "Being Free"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will - No Comments →

The purpose of Kabbalah is specifically to help us attract the Light that Reforms and feel the world as good. We only need to become similar to the Light.

I and other people around me currently exist in a certain frame of the motion picture called life. When I draw the Light upon myself, I transform this picture into a good one, filling it with light, goodness, confidence, and eternity. Accordingly, I develop in a pleasant way.

One can certainly say that wanting to change our fate for the better is an even greater form of egoism than that of an ordinary life. And that is correct: we aspire for a good life since the purpose of creation was to delight the created beings. Yet, the means to achieve this is to rise above our egoism.

Therefore, our first and foremost task is to clarify how Kabbalah defines our freedom of will. Let it explain what depends on us in particular. Everything else we can investigate out of curiosity as a nice addition, but it is essential to clarify what we can really influence to change. Otherwise, when we look back on our lives, we see that we were unable to change a thing. Did we make our life that way, or did someone else?

We don’t do anything but draw that Light that Reforms everything. All the actions performed by a person are not in his control whatsoever. The only power one has is how he will see them, from what angle: egoistically or for the sake of bestowal. This alters the entire picture for a person.

This is the only freedom we have! There is a force in the world which is waiting for us to desire its influence in order to change our nature, our qualities. It is in our power to draw it and make it change us. Then we’ll see the whole world as good; at that moment the world will change. Everything will turn upside down!

Right here and now we will see the spiritual world instead of this material one. As if through a transparent reality, we will see the spiritual world through all these manifestations of desire, all these people, and everything that surrounds us. We then will understand what is really going on and why everything is spinning around us this way. We will be able to justify this state and recognize it as good. We will see the connection of all that is happening right now with a sublime and beautiful purpose.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/10, Shamati #38

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: This World Is Just A Starting Point
Shamati #20: "Lishma (For Her Name)”- Lesson
Kabbalah Moments: "Living In A Movie"
Kabbalah Moments: "Only The Light Reforms"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Perception - No Comments →

Do you remember the story about the good magician? It says that stones, flowers, and animals were unable to give the Creator a sufficient desire for the fulfillment that He wanted to bestow upon them, or to return His love and bestowal. Only man can understand Him, feel Him, and be like Him. That is why the two are able to attain unity with one another.

We have to attain the same kind of unity among us, just as this man (who incorporates everyone within) did with the Creator. We have to understand that unity is the best thing that can possibly be, and it is the reason why the Creator broke us into parts – in order for us to unite among ourselves. He tells us: "If you can become such great, beloved friends that you unite as one man with one heart, then you will be able to understand and feel Me, and join Me!"

Clearly, this requires tremendous work. The Torah talks about how the angels (meaning the forces of nature) did not understand the Creator’s plan before creation developed to the final, fourth phase. Understanding comes only at this final, human level, as it is written, "This field has been sown for me." This means that everything is done for man’s sake, but it is impossible to understand the final goal until the desire develops to this level. That is the meaning of the verse, "Do not show a fool a job half done."

Angels are forces inside us which are still underdeveloped and don’t understand the Creator’s plan or the need for this development. Two points – the beginning and the end of creation – are already set in advance and they determine everything that will happen on the path between them. If we unite these two points, the initial point and the final point, then we will immediately reveal the Creator’s entire program from beginning to end. It will be clear, along with all its details. Then we will only have to implement it in practice, but we won’t have any questions or doubts about what is happening.

Nevertheless, there is just one small addition that occurs inside this program: It is called our freedom of will! This is the necessary effort that comes from man himself, where man has to understand and desire of his own accord to become part of the Creator’s higher program.

So let’s agree with the program, just like the angels listened to the Creator’s explanation and agreed with it.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/10, Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot UMasbirot

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How Do We Find Our Point Of Freedom?
Article: "The Creating Mind"
Kabbalah Moments: "What’s The Goal"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will - 1 Comment →