Two questions I received on conversion to Judaism:

Question: Why would you say that Rabbi Akiva was not Jewish? How carried away can you get? He was 100% Jewish! I guess tomorrow Rav Ashlag will also be called non-Jewish!

My Answer: First of all, this doesn’t matter at all in relation to the Torah. We are all Babylonians by origin. The Jews started calling themselves differently because they differed from other people in that they based their lives on the law, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is what is now required from the whole of humanity, including the Jews, who have fallen from the level of following this rule.

I heard my teacher explain Rabbi Akiva’s origin. You can also go to Google.com, type in the words “Akiva proselyte” and read what it says. Please verify your knowledge. And you shouldn’t get so offended: it’s an honor to be a proselyte! After all, it’s an indication that a person went through correction. I wish for all of us to become proselytes as defined in the Torah! The Torah repeatedly states, “Love a proselyte.”

Question: Upon reading the text, “The Last Generation,” I came once again upon the reference to Jews and Gentiles. I am the latter in the physical sense and have at times felt exclusion from Kabbalah because of this fact. But I have read with much interest other texts where the dynamic has been clearly explained in the spiritual realm: the term “Jew” pertaining to an individual with the point in the heart. However, I still seem to feel that there are two definitions in various texts, some referring to the physical and others referring to the non-physical. Any clarity would be greatly appreciated on what is the correct way to view these two terms.

My Answer: There is no such nationality or people as “Jews”! It’s because this “nation” emerged from Abraham’s students, according to their spiritual quality. Kabbalah explains that there are 70 spiritual roots of the nations of the world, but there is no separate spiritual root for the nation of Isra-El! And that’s because anyone who aspires to the Creator can become Israel. Here is what we have today:

• A genetic Jew must study and disseminate Kabbalah (see item 70 of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”).
• A spiritual Jew (Isra-El) is any person who aspires to reveal the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Israel Is All the People Who Aspire Toward the Creator
Laitman.com Post: Being “Chosen” Means Having the Responsibility to Spiritually Serve the World
Kabbalah for Beginners: “Rabbi Akiva”
Shamati #72: “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Love for the Creator & Love for the Created Beings”

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Two questions I received on development through Kabbalah:

Question: It says in a book by Rav Kook that there are two kinds of redemption: redemption that comes in due time (בעיתה - Beito), and redemption that comes in response to a person’s plea (אחישנה - Ahishena). Either way, redemption will come eventually. According to Kabbalah, we have to change from within, and then we’ll attain happiness. And by spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah, we will make everyone happy because they will receive the same Light. But then it would seem that Kabbalah contradicts the notion of the existence of time for correction.

Answer: You’ve mixed it all up! Kabbalah was given to us so that instead of progressing “in due time,” we will speed up time (progress through אחישנה - Ahishena). This means that we can develop without waiting for the suffering to come (without בעיתה- Beito).

Question: What do you mean by the point in the heart? Also, do you mean that fate - or circumstances in our life that might be difficult - push us to this point so we will discover our purpose?

Answer: Suffering and emptiness lead a person to the question about their meaning, cause and purpose. Gradually a person starts feeling that he needs to understand the cause of all that’s happening, and this feeling is a subconscious desire to reveal the Creator. A person then discovers the source of this knowledge (the books, group, and teacher), and reaches the goal.

The point in the heart is the desire to reveal the Creator, and Kabbalah is the method or means to reveal Him. The point in the heart is your soul’s initial desire, and your soul then begins to develop from this point. The point in the heart is similar to a seed: when it’s placed in the environment that’s right for its development (the group, books, and teacher), it begins to develop into a vessel of the soul - a desire in which a person begins to sense the Upper Force, the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Freedom of Will Lies in Acceleration
Laitman.com Post: The Path of Light Versus the Path of Suffering
Interview with the Future: “The Acceleration of the Reshimot”
The Path of Kabbalah: “The Awakening of the Point in the Heart”

 

 Lesson on Shamati #14: "What is the Greatness of the Creator" [45:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Kabbalah Revealed, Episode 4: "The Force of Development and the Meaning of Suffering" [25:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Three questions I received on the future of the world:

Question: You mentioned that the governing of the world must change to that of love your friend as yourself, one man with one heart. Why don’t you and your group start with a working model of such a system to serve as a beacon and inspiration for the rest? It would be easier to start on a smaller scale rather than a big one.

My Answer: Due to the current time and circumstances, we cannot close ourselves off but must devote all our energy to disseminating Kabbalah in the world, as it is the means of preventing the world from falling into the Third World War.

Question: What do you mean when you say that we are now entering Biblical times?

My Answer: I meant that we have to start observing the Biblical principle, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Question: In reference to your post, Unity for the Right Purpose Can Stabilize the Banking System, I hope you are not speaking of a new world order, one government, one bank, one currency, and everyone being monitored with chips implanted in their bodies.

My Answer: All of humanity is an integral (global) organism. Hence, everyone must submit to one law of total interaction on all levels of our activity. This means, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “The Last Generation,” that eventually there will be one spiritual government, which will regulate all the activities of the world’s inhabitants.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Baal HaSulam Describes the Conditions of Life in a Globalized World
Laitman.com Post: The Possibilities of Our Development - War or a Peaceful Transition
From Chaos to Harmony: “The Evolution of the Correction Method”
Article: “Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Building the Future Society”

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Two questions I received on feeling repulsed by unity:

Question: All of this hugging and singing at the Congresses and friends’ assemblies seem ridiculous and artificial. It’s simpler for me to study over the Internet and to work on dissemination than participate in such actions of unification.

My Answer: You are absolutely correct – these actions look childish, awkward, artificial and fake. But this is exactly what we have to do. All the participants understand that they are playing - playing against their own egoism. By performing these actions and making efforts, they draw the Upper Light that corrects them. Our game is like the game of a child, and it’s the most serious thing you can do because this is precisely how a person grows! The difference is that a child is forced to play by Nature, in order to develop, whereas we must be the ones to force ourselves to play. This is our freedom of choice: in choosing the spiritual development.

Question: I’ve been listening to your lessons for a long time, and every time you say that we are one soul and all human beings are involuntarily connected with each other, I get very irritated and disturbed hearing this again and again. Why it is so difficult to accept and understand this?

My Answer: Because it subconsciously humiliates, obligates and limits your egoism.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Game Is a Serious Affair
Laitman.com Post: How Do We Connect Our Points in the Heart?
Laitman.com Post: Invitation to the 2009 International Kabbalah Congress!

 

 Who Are All the People Around Me? [1:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Two questions I received on finding the truth:

Question: I have a friend who started studying Kabbalah with Bnei Baruch but left because you are a liar (at least that’s what he says). Personally I think he’s accusing of this because sometimes you say contradictory things. However, later I realize that I misunderstood you or that you were just explaining something very succinctly. Yet your opinion is still unclear on many things.

Sometimes you say one thing, and then you contradict yourself, and I can understand how my friend - who is interested in Kabbalah and understands that there is much truth in it - finds it difficult to study with you. I don’t even know what to tell him. I will be glad to hear your answer.

My Answer: I won’t try to defend myself. Listen to the explanations by my teacher, Rabash (all the recordings of his lessons are available online), and check: how do you understand him? Don’t listen to me, but read the original articles by Baal HaSulam (which is what we study), and instead of my explanations, try to understand them on your own.

A person should choose a teacher that suits his personality, goal, and so on, as it is written, “Let a person study where his heart feels joy.” Why is it possible for different places of study to exist? It’s because as long as a person’s desire for the Upper Goal hasn’t formed inside him, he feels drawn to this goal in different ways: by withdrawing from the world, through religions, “spiritual” practices, diets, omens, and so on. We cannot interfere with this, because one has to go through the search for the truth on his own.

So it’s possible that your friend is still at this stage of searching. For example, some people who come to study with me are just “passing by” and they later turn to religion.

I explain things to the extent of my knowledge, attainment, and ability to express what I feel and realize (in the heart and mind). Your accusations are sincere, and they should emerge in a student as he studies Kabbalah, because everything is built through combining two things that are incompatible: egoism and the Creator. Perhaps you still have to sort things out, and possibly look for a different place of study. But one way or another, the truth will become revealed.

Question: How do we make “sure” that the Kabbalah teachings we receive are truly Kabbalah? Since it’s a very high level of knowledge, how can the clueless make sure he is receiving true Kabbalah, and not “mysticism”? How can someone who does not know Kabbalah filter the teachings to make sure he is on the right path?

My Answer: Don’t believe anyone! Regardless of what anyone might say, he could be a liar. And the more eloquent and persuasive he is, the greater liar (or actor) he could be.

It’s also possible that a good, honest person is speaking from the bottom of his heart, but he is simply mistaken. So who can you believe? No one! Everything was arranged this way in our world on purpose, to enable a person to shape himself by searching for the truth. One does it precisely through doubts, without any foundation, belief, or hope placed in someone else. It’s like he hangs over a cliff, not knowing how to take the next step.

You are the only one who can find the truth. But if you believe what someone else says, then you won’t be realizing yourself and will remain a puppet. Hence, the lack of confidence and the total disorientation will force your egoism to turn to the Creator. This is how He entices us to Him!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Doubts Are Generated By New Degrees Being Revealed Inside You
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Article “The Need for Learning Kabbalah”
Free online Kabbalah course

 

 Rabash: The Last Great Kabbalist [3:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Three questions I received on explaining Kabbalah:

Question: We disseminate Kabbalah to people who have a point in the heart. But what do we have to teach to the rest of the world?

My Answer: Everyone must know about Kabbalah. However, every person is free to choose it for himself, to whatever degree he needs it, from 0% to 100%. Everything is in motion, and the question about the meaning of life is rapidly starting to surface in people. This is a question that only Kabbalah can answer.

Question: The language used in Kabbalah is confusing. Why don’t we simplify it? If your objective is dissemination, then in my opinion, the presentation style should be modified and simplified.

My Answer: You are correct, and I hope I will be able to do this. Baal HaSulam writes that we have to write new books, presenting Kabbalah in a simpler and more accessible manner. You should study and try doing this yourself!

Question: Can you please give us a dictionary defining the terms used in Kabbalah classes, like Klipot, Kli, vessel, Lishma, Parsa, Machsom, Ohr, Yechida, Gadlut, Beria, Adam HaRishon, Tzimtzum, Ohr Makif, and etc.? For people who are not familiar with Aramaic or Hebrew, this is difficult to understand.

My Answer: There are already several dictionaries like this, which include the terms’ translation, interpretation, commentary, and so on. (See the links in the Related Material section below.) I think that knowing and repeatedly going over the terminology is a foundation for success when it comes to understanding the system and the structure of the worlds. This is a sure means of attuning oneself to the sensation of spiritual forces.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How Do You Explain Kabbalah to Others?
Kabbalah on Education
Kabbalah for the Student Appendix A: Kabbalah Glossary
A Short Dictionary of Kabbalistic Terms
Kabbalistic Dictionary

 

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 Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot, Item 155 [53:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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A question I received: What is the connection between the mind and the heart? Should a person keep them in balance with each other? And how is it possible to increase or decrease one of them? In one of the lessons you said that a person whose mind isn’t developed can go crazy. Can you explain this in more detail?

My Answer: The basis for everything, the only creation - is desire. Hence, the desire is primary in us. But in order to attain what we desire, the mind develops alongside the desire, corresponding to it. Hence, no matter how much we may resist this fact, the mind is a servant of the desire; it develops only in order to service the desire.

Therefore we will never be able to make our minds objective, independent of our desires. However, we can change our desires under the influence of the environment (see the article “The Freedom”), and according to the new desires we will also force our minds to change. If we understand this, then under the influence of the right environment (an environment that leads us to the goal of creation), we can always develop both our desires and our mind harmoniously.

If a person has great desires but his mind isn’t developed enough to actualize them, he may lose the ability to control himself sensibly.

Related Material:
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The Path of Kabbalah: Chapter 2.2 - “Persistence”
Article: “The Influence of the Environment on a Person”

 

 The Human׳s Environment [3:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Three questions I received on spiritual attainment throughout different life cycles:

Question: If one’s soul has already ascended to a certain degree in the previous life cycle, how does one ascend in the current life cycle?

My Answer: In the new life cycle, the person quickly attains his previous spiritual level and then continues to ascend higher. It’s because the soul has no age, and the body’s death does not affect it at all.

Question: Is it possible to reach the next spiritual level in the current life cycle, without dying first?

My Answer: Anyone whose point in the heart has been revealed can attain his full correction within one life cycle, without leaving it and returning for another life cycle.

Question: How do the people who never knew or studied Kabbalah attain the Upper Spirit? What is the outcome of their life when they leave our world? Do they attain the Light unconsciously, and to what degree?

My Answer: To attain the Upper Spirit means to attain the Upper Light. This is possible only by means of a screen – an anti-egoistic quality that emerges in us under the influence of the Upper Correcting Light (Ohr Makif). This Light descends on us only during the study of authentic Kabbalistic sources.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What Will Happen to the World if I Die?
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Free online Kabbalah course

 

 Reincarnation [4:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 The Screen [25:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Questions I received on the meaning of Kabbalistic words and the point in the heart:

Question: What is the meaning of the expression, “There are many thoughts in a person’s heart, but the Creator will save us from all of them”?

My Answer: Only the Upper Light can fill all our desires and thoughts by giving them the correct properties and forms.

Question: Does the point in the heart depend on the number of life cycles one has gone through? I just don’t understand why it is still dormant in many people.

My Answer: The point in the heart awakens when a person grows disillusioned in trying to fulfill all his earthy desires. It is for this purpose that he goes through a history of lives for many millennia!

Question: I have been studying Kabbalah for the past two years or so. There are two things that seem to confuse me and that could be because I keep on associating the meaning of “pleasure” and “desire” with our world. It would be greatly appreciated if you could expand on these two words for me or direct me to the place I can find the information.

My Answer: Pleasure is the sensation of a fulfilled desire - any desire. Desire is an aspiration to fulfill oneself with something one desires, with pleasure. However, in Kabbalah the desire is a desire for the Light, and the pleasure is pleasure from the Light.

Question: Is it possible to convey the essence of your lessons through sign language?

My Answer: Yes, if someone will understand it, for example, deaf people.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Preface to the Science of Kabbalah. Items 13-16
Laitman.com Post: A Kabbalist Feels the Same Pleasure As the Creator
Chapter from Book The Path of Kabbalah: “The Awakening of the Point in the Heart”
Chapter from Booklet The Secret Meaning of the Bible: “The Language of Kabbalah”

 

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 Soul, Screen and Delight [01:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Questions I received on finding the right spiritual path:

Question: In my search for spirituality I found many methods of spiritual development, including different forms of Kabbalah, yet I still haven’t found a remedy for my soul. Does it even exist?

My Answer: Only you can find your own path, without any influence from others, without “help” from outside, and without looking at what others are doing. And the same goes for every person.

Kabbalah is intended only for those who ask about the meaning of life. Hence, only those who ask this question, and who delve into the heart of it, find that authentic Kabbalah is for them. The rest are satisfied with false methods, psychology, religion, or mysticism, all of which may be presented under the name “Kabbalah.”

Question: Say a Hindu sage reduces his ego to zero point. Would he not then sense the spiritual world? Does he attain the screen? Or does one experience the illusion of evolution from the very beginning all over again?

My Answer: A screen can only appear over a desire that is above our world, but all the religions and other methods actually decrease the egoism of our world. So how can a screen appear over the leftovers of a suppressed egoism?

Question: Does Kabbalah talk about the non-dualistic? Meaning, that there is no person, ego, world, etc. Just consciousness. What prevents us from seeing that consciousness is the concept of “I” which takes credit for everything that happens in the world when in reality the “I” has no real choice whatsoever. Choice and events just happen.

My Answer: In Kabbalah, everything is researched and verified experimentally. The only proof for something is one’s perception of it, rather than any kind of fabrication. Kabbalah does not negate or assert anything; it is a practical expansion of our perception.

You should philosophize less and focus more on what you have personally experienced. You can only validate something through facts, without connecting them to any theories. Work according to the principle, “I will recognize You from Your actions to me.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Using the Sixth Sense, One Perceives Like the Creator
Kabbalah Today Article: The One Link Google Can’t Reach
Book: “Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life: Because your life has meaning”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

 

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 "Kabbalah Revealed" Episode 6: The Screen [25:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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