Two questions I received on one’s inner spiritual development:

Question: Who forms the spiritual qualities in me? Do I do it myself or does the Creator do it for me?

My Answer: On the spiritual path, a person continuously reveals new layers of reality, and gradually a single system emerges before him. It is a great mechanism that controls every atom and molecule in all of creation. This mechanism also controls how they are interconnected and what changes take place within them.

We don’t know what we will reveal as a consequence of our spiritual search, but our task is to get to know the Creator through the examples of His actions.

Question: Is it possible to combine two points of view: “There is none else besides the Creator” and “There is none else besides me?”

My Answer: We can’t manage to combine these contradictions in our language, our feelings or our minds.

When you feel that you’ve ascended a bit higher than the level of this world and when your preconceptions of time and space vanish, a completely new perception will form in your mind. However, even in spiritual perception, we are limited by the descriptions of the Worlds of BYA.

A person is capable of rising even higher, but he is unable to describe what is revealed there since there are no letters, words, or sounds with which to describe it.  This is because our whole perception is built on contrasts, for example, light versus dark and good versus evil. Above the Worlds of BYA, however, good and evil blend together into one. But this is something we cannot describe.

Therefore, there is an answer to your question, but it is impossible to express it. So, how can you find out the answer? Ascend, and it will be revealed to you. It is written, “Only your eyes will see, but not the eyes of another.”

(From the lesson on “Introduction to the Book ‘The Mouth of a Sage,’” 11.06.2009)

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A question I received: Can you please explain the question “What is the meaning of life?”

My Answer: The question “What is the meaning of my life?” can be answered on the level of our world by “With what am I filling myself?” Or on the level of the spiritual world, the question is addressed by asking, “Whom am I pleasing?”  “What should I do with my life?”  “Where should I go?”

I have to unravel the mystery of the “meaning of life.” These related questions deal with the source of life:  “What do we live for?”  “Why do we live?” “What is the secret of life?”  “How and why did life appear?”  However, questioning “the meaning of life” isn’t necessarily a question about the origins of life, it’s more of an inquiry about why this all happened and where it is leading me. The question “What is the meaning of life?” deals with all the unanswered questions of my entire life.

Humanity is now asking this question. However, how profound or purposeful is the question that is actually being asked? For example, if a person has a mishap in his life or feels even the slightest dissatisfaction, he may ask, “What is the meaning of my life?”

The answer is revealed only after that question has been examined and toiled upon by hard labor and exertion and which is precisely directed toward the goal.

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A question I received: Please show me practically, using examples from history, how do Reshimot change?

My Answer: The periodical change of our attitude to life is dictated by the changing “genes” in us (Reshimot, which comes from the word Roshem - “recording” in Hebrew). The stages of egoism’s changes are recorded inside each of us from the beginning, when the common soul divided into many souls.

Reshimot are revealed in us in an increasing, consecutive order: 0-1-2-3-4. Therefore, at the beginning stages of their realization in us, the Reshimot brought forth a small egoism in us; and in those lives we were “naïve” – slaves and masters. Then, as more advanced Reshimot surfaced in us, when we were born in the next epochs, we desired to be freer, to be workers, such as vassals or serfs. Women were married off without their permission, and this was considered “correct.” They loved their husbands because their small egoism did not get in the way. This was the accepted norm.

And after that, as more advanced Reshimot were expressed in us, we desired to be “free” workers for hire, employers but not masters. We desired freedom and equality (including for women), and so on.

Reshimot elicit desires in us, and the desires provoke the mind to achieve what we desire. Today we can see nations in whom different Reshimot were expressed in the same epoch, and therefore we don’t live in one cultural zone, but in different cultures and formations. However, globalization is bringing about a quick realization of Reshimot in every person and in everyone together.

In regard to choice:

• marriage (voluntary – through love, or forced – stealing the bride, paying a ransom, marrying by the father’s order, and so on),

• power (coercive – although later accepted and loved, like in Russia until today; by election; or inherited),

• place of residence (being attached to the place, having a residence permit, a passport system, free movement),

• and according to other signs, one can tell which Reshimot were realized in a nation or a civilization.

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A question I received: What is the song we sing after every Yeshivat Haverim (Friends’ Assembly), called “Hineh Ma Tov”? It is very deep and very special. What is it about, and what is its Kabbalistic meaning and history?

My Answer: When Yosef’s brothers, who hated him, sold him to Egypt, he became the Pharaoh’s deputy. When the brothers came there to buy food, they did not recognize Yosef and he sent the Egyptians to pursue them, thus forcing them to repent for what they did to him. When this happened, he revealed himself to them, and together, in joy and love, they had a meal where they sang this song. The words are, “Hineh Ma Tov Ve Ma Naim, Shevet Achim Gam Yahad” – “How wonderful and pleasant it is to sit together as brothers.”

And it’s the same with us: at first we hate each other, but then we grow closer and become brothers!

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A question I received: Baal HaSulam says that our entire freedom lies only in choosing our environment. But if we were to choose our environment now, wouldn’t our choice be based on what we received from our previous environment?

My Answer: We choose a new environment under the influence of a new spiritual Reshimo: suddenly a desire for something “beyond this world” arises in us, and then we are somehow brought into contact with a new environment – Bnei Baruch. This is where your new path begins. And it’s the same for everyone. This is why we (Bnei Baruch) exist.

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In the News (from Science): American microbiologists have created a synthetic microbial system, wherein altruistic microbes that produced a resource beneficial to the public, at a cost to themselves, nonetheless benefited the most in the end, despite losing the competition to egoistic bacteria in each separate population. The affluence of the altruists is attributed to the statistical effect known as “Simpson’s Paradox.”

My Answer: This is taking place on an animate, egoistic level. This is not the altruism that’s above egoism, but rather one that helps egoism to continue existing in conflicting situations.

The altruism that Kabbalah speaks of, and the one we must attain, is above egoism and it utilizes egoism as a basis. This is only possible under the influence of the Upper Light, and only when one consciously uses one’s egoism, instead of the natural egoism of the animate body.

A Kabbalist’s body works by the same egoistic principle as the body of any animal! The confusion stems from the fact that all the books of the Torah, including Kabbalah, use the word “body” to allude to the body of the soul – or in other words, one’s desires. After all, the desire is the only thing that was created; it is the entire matter of creation.

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A question I received: Here’s a familiar scenario: a person wants to smoke, so he smokes, but suffers from knowing that smoking is bad for him. Or, take an employer who has to pay his employees: if he pays them little – he suffers, and if he pays them a lot – he also suffers. And it’s the same with everything: “To get married – not to get married, to die – not to die,” but no matter what you do, you will be sorry about it later. These are my thoughts. How do you explain them?

My Answer: My advice to you is: Stop thinking about yourself! Let the world go where it’s going without your worries. Don’t think about the world, meaning, don’t think about yourself or the world. Clean yourself out completely.

And now, think about something higher than you or beyond you. Aspire to the Upper World, and hold only this in your field of vision.

However, this doesn’t mean that you should shut yourself off from the world. Make bodily or physical actions in the world to whatever degree it is necessary for you and for others.

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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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In the News (translated from Lenta.ru): A hotline offering emergency psychological help for people affected by the global financial crisis is now operating in Moscow. People can receive free consultation from a certified psychiatrist over the phone. The phone calls will be answered by specialists from the national center of social and forensic psychiatry.

My Comment: In addition, there should be a “hotline” that will disseminate the global (anti-crisis) education for the whole world. Instead of just offering people consolation, it will explain that this problem is shared by all humanity, and that the transition from disconnection to unity is embedded in the foundation of Nature. We must go through it, either under Nature’s pressure (via the path of suffering) or consciously (by using Kabbalah). Moreover, we have to come out of the problem together. Then it will be easy, because it will happen in harmony with Nature’s movement, rather than by isolating ourselves and being opposed to each other.

You can start doing this on your own, without waiting for it to happen: just by thinking about everyone and about our common connection, while studying our materials (available free of charge online), you will not only feel more relaxed, but also cause an improvement in the world, as this will bring us closer to balance with Nature. As a result, it will improve people’s health and well-being.

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Three questions I received on the spiritual desire:

Question: First of all, thanks for a great Congress at Blackpool which I thoroughly enjoyed. Which prayers should we be saying as potential Kabbalists? I have watched the children’s lesson on prayer but cannot find the answer. Is there a particular prayer book we should use?

My Answer: A prayer is the heart’s desire. One should do all that one can to make his heart desire the goal of creation – the revelation of the Creator.

Question: Why does the Creator want us to need Him?

My Answer: Because He is the quality of “bestowal and love” within us. And this quality creates a sensation – within us – of an eternal and perfect life.

Question: You say that a person needs to feel a “deficiency.” What kind of deficiency are you talking about: spiritual or corporeal?

My Answer: This means that you must reveal that you don’t love others, and reveal it in such a way that it will suppress your self-love. It is as though you ascend on top of the mountain of your egoism through love for others, and to this degree, the Creator will be revealed to you, or rather, in you.

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