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Questions I received about distinguishing Kabbalah from religion and belief

Question: I have heard you say that a secular Jew can remain secular and still reach spirituality through Kabbalah.

My Answer: Do you really believe that the entire world and all the nations must become Orthodox Jews?

Question: How do you reconcile this with the Gemara Baba Kama 50, which says that anyone who says that G-d will overlook his sins, his life will be forfeited.

My Answer: Anyone who says that he can avoid correcting all of his egoism, he will not merit the upper life, and will remain spiritually dead.

Question: For example, it is understood that wicked people undergo punishments such as purgatory.

My Answer: Wicked people are egoists, and purgatory is liberation from egoism by the force of the Light. I don’t even understand how you can study the Talmud without understanding Kabbalah. What do you imagine a purgatory to be - fiery ovens and scorching rods?

Question: Furthermore, it has been said in the on line classes that dying is stepping out of one body into another body in order to continue the process of correction. We know, however, that people can be reincarnated into rocks and such for thousands of years, due to their sins. Again, how can we reconcile these contradictory ideas? Would it not make sense that G-d demands both corporeal observance as well as the study of the spiritual?

My Answer: Your logic is based on egoism, which is opposite to the property of the Creator and the Upper World. Believing that people can reincarnate into rocks is idol worship. A rock is the lowest form of egoism, Lev HaEven.

You have to study; otherwise you will remain a self-assured know-it-all, as it is written, “What should we do with children who have grown old?” (Ma Laasot Im Yeladim She Izkinu?). However, time will take care of whatever the mind doesn’t do. So have patience, and eventually egoism will force you to search instead of blindly believing.

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 Revelation in Kabbalah Versus Belief in Religion [03:27m]: Play Now | Download

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A question I received: I have been watching your lessons over the Internet for about six months now. My brother, who is in the process of becoming religious, has also been studying your books a little, but in addition he studies the Mishnah by Rabbi Nachman, and a Jewish interpretation of yoga taught at Ohr Aganuz once a week. We have interesting and deep conversations, but it’s difficult for me to accept some things he says which aren’t related to what you teach. Would you advise me to be more open to the teachings of Likutei Mocharan, Breslov pamphlets, and the materials studied at Ohr Aganuz? And what advice can I give to my brother?

My Answer: My advice to you is: Don’t study at Ohr Aganuz, don’t teach your brother, and don’t talk to him about your studies, as if you don’t study Kabbalah at all. The two of you are on absolutely opposite paths – he’s on the path of Chassidut, and you’re on the path of Kabbalah. Don’t get in each other’s way.

You should let him mature on his own. Soon he will feel that yoga doesn’t supplement the attainment of the Creator, and that the only thing worth studying are the works of Baal HaSulam (provided they are interpreted correctly, according to my lessons).

What’s important isn’t the books you study, but how you study them. All the great sages wrote from their spiritual attainment. They all lived in the attainment of the Upper World, the Creator, and wrote only about this. So you’re both reading holy books. But they are holy because they speak of holiness - the property of bestowal and love that’s beyond one’s self. The purpose of studying these books is to reveal these properties within you, or in other words, to reveal the Creator.

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A question I received: I understand that corporeal acts have nothing to do with spirituality, but until a screen is acquired our acts are of the ego and take place in the corporeal world. If I desire a milkshake although I just ate and have no nutritional need for one, then do I resist this desire altogether and deny myself this treat? Do I have the milkshake because it is just a corporeal act and does not matter anyway? Or do I drink the milkshake and pretend that I am receiving for the sake of the Creator? I am seeking guidance on how to deal with the desires of the ego that come up in the corporeal world. Do we pretend? Do we fake it until we make it?

My Answer: Religion and upbringing teach you to pretend, but Kabbalah only tells you to do one thing: attract the Upper Light by studying authentic Kabbalistic sources. After all, the Light created you, along with your desires and thoughts (your mind and heart), and hence only It can correct you. In order for your life to have results, the most important thing is to constantly be concerned with just one thing - the importance of the goal, and don’t bother trying to figure out how to handle thoughts that are remote from the goal. Then everything else will turn into temporary means that help you. So drink your milkshake and study Kabbalah!

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A question I received: Why did Rabash and Baal HaSulam insist on physically observing the Mitzvot, and moreover, they did so scrupulously, not omitting even the point of the letter Yod?

My Answer: It’s because they lived exclusively in a religious environment, and back then it wasn’t yet realistic or necessary to disseminate Kabbalah among the secular public and around the world in general. They had absolutely no contact or connections with secular people. Nevertheless, in the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” “Messiah’s Horn” and other texts, Baal HaSulam writes that it’s necessary to disseminate Kabbalah among all the nations of the world. Moreover, Baal HaSulam writes that a person can only begin studying Kabbalah after he becomes secular (even if he does it secretly, on the inside). As long as he is religious inside, religion binds him and he won’t be able to understand Kabbalah. It’s because these two worldviews are opposite to one another.

In the religious worldview, you believe something that you were told about God, and you blindly follow the instructions you learned from others. You fanatically limit yourself with your mind’s attempts to understand who you are, what you are living for, and where you are. The less you ask and the more you do - the holier you consider yourself to be. And forget about “love for thy neighbor” - you are above all those vile atheists, you are chosen by the Creator. You overflow with pride, and feel that everyone is indebted to you for your holy lifestyle.

On the path of Kabbalah, however, you don’t believe anyone else, and using your own efforts, heart and mind, you reveal Nature or the Creator for yourself. You pull yourself up towards Him, penetrate into His governance, and start to understand Him. And you do all this by correcting your egoism, according to the Torah’s appeal, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” You step out of yourself toward your neighbor, and thereby attain the Creator.

Moreover, Baal HaSulam writes that according to the instructions in The Book of Zohar, you have to disseminate Kabbalah to all the nations of the world! (See his articles “The Revelation of Godliness,” “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” and “The Peace.“)

On this path, the most important thing is you and your decision. So let the critics who favor religion attend to their own business - they need to, since it’s slipping out of their greedy and envious hands. It’s not that I’m against religion, but I am against the egoistic use of it!

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 The Difference Between Kabbalah and Religion [03:27m]: Play Now | Download

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A question I received: There is a long standing dispute in physics between Einstein and the quantum physicists: Is everything in nature predetermined (determinism) or not (indeterminism)? On one hand, the person performing the experiment affects its outcome; on the other hand, everything in nature is predetermined, as Einstein saw it in the macrocosm. Einstein used to say that “God doesn’t play dice with the universe,” but his friend, a follower of quantum mechanics, would object: “Don’t tell God what to do.” While Einstein perceived nature as God - a very Kabbalistic approach, quantum mechanics insists that the observed depends on the observer - also a very Kabbalistic approach. Einstein would have never agreed with an assumption that God plays dice with the universe, and he managed to construct the gravitation theory, based on determinism. However, he never did anything similar for the realm of the smallest electrons and protons, for electrical fields. He was looking for a universal, single theory of four forces, but didn’t find it, just like to this day the quantum physicists still haven’t attained this either. My question is: Which side does Kabbalah favor in this debate, or does it say that the path doesn’t matter under the condition that you are guided by the Upper Forces?

My Answer: There are two systems that govern us from above – the general and the particular, HaVaYaH and Elokim, and man must combine them inside him by raising his perception above time, space, and movement. Then the contradictions come together and supplement one another. But until then, it’s impossible to answer the question of whether the Creator can create a rock that He can’t lift. For more detail, see the next post (If I Don’t Do It for Myself, Who will Help Me?).

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A question I received: You are constantly making stabs at the Kabbalah Centre and for the life of me I can’t understand why. They have the lineage. Rav Berg learned through Ashlag and the lineage. Is it because you were connected, but not given the Kabbalah Centre? You then started your own center. I read your books, including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to kabbalah. It is a book without religion or spirituality, it is just science. I enjoyed it, but the Kabbalah Centre offers spirituality, holiday obsservance and they have lineage with Brandwein, Ashlag and the Ari. It just hurts me to see someone who is into Kabbalah, like yourself, putting down other people for the red string and their own beliefs. Isn’t that anti-Kabbalah?

My Answer: Personally, I consider Berg a failed Kabbalist. He just didn’t have a true teacher. Berg did not study Kabbalah with any true Kabbalist; you can ask Ashlag or Brandwein about it. No true Kabbalist could have taught him to sell Kabbalah for money. And I never wanted his center. I had a teacher - the last great Kabbalist, the eldest son of Baal HaSulam and his spiritual successor – Rav Baruch Ashlag. I was never connected to the Kabbalah Center. I was there once to give an introductory lecture and immediately understood that there is nothing to learn there. After I was studying with Rav Baruch Ashlag for a year, I offered teaching a class to Berg’s lecturers in the Kabbalah Center, in order to teach them at least something. As a result, they left his center and came to my teacher, and they became Kabbalists. That acquaintance and my visit to his center took place in 1980, but I opened my center only in 1995. Please tell me: what Kabbalistic sources are used for study in those “Kabbalah” centers? What works of the great Kabbalists do they study there? But after all, it’s only by studying them that a person receives the recognition of evil and its correction (Ohr Makif). And about me envying Berg: There was a time when I was giving lectures in LA and he offered me a teaching job in his center. I said I would do it, but on the condition that we study from the original sources. He laughed when I said this to him, and he told me “Who will pay you the kind of money for this that I’m now getting?” And he was right…

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Three questions I received on the notions of nationality and Israel

Question: If a person is physically born a Jew, does it mean that he will always reincarnate as a Jew?

My Answer: Yes, because his soul came from Babylon and took the path of correction, then ascended to the level of complete personal correction during the times of the Temple, and then fell from that level to the state of all the souls in this world, in order to spend 2,000 years together with them (and even worse off than them), while being in exile from spiritual life. Precisely this soul must ascend and help everyone else do the same – help all the souls attain the full correction.

Question: If the answer is yes, then is it because the nation of Israel was chosen to carry the plan of the Creator, and this would mean that all the other people will also continue being born with the same nationalities that they started with?

My Answer: Yes. However, we don’t know about the other ten tribes, where they are and who they are today. It’s possible that today they are several billion people - those who were on the spiritual level and fell from it during the times of the First Temple. We learn about this fall and its correction from the breaking of two Partzufim, DACHGAT and NHY, in the World of Nekudim, their common fall and then their common correction. See parts 6 and 7 of Talmud Eser Sefirot.

Question: What if a person converts to Judaism and works very hard trying to attain the Creator? Does he also become a part of the nation of Israel (physically and spiritually)?

My Answer: There is no such nation. These people are ancient Babylonians who began correcting themselves back then. The others, who continued developing egoistically, went on to develop from the 70 forces of Zeir Anpin of the World of Atzilut, and this is why they are called “nations” - and each one has its own form of egoism.

The former are called “Hebrews,” which comes from the word Ever, meaning “across” (across the Machsom), “Jids” - because they await the correction or the Mashiach, and Yehudi (Jew), which comes from the word Yehud, meaning union (with the Creator). This is what set them apart from their brothers, the other Babylonians. So one doesn’t just “convert to Judaism,” the way we see it in our world, but rather spiritual Judaism is when one corrects oneself to the level of the Creator, one attains the Creator through studying Kabbalah. Just like in ancient times, those who are the “nation of Israel” today are those who separated from the other Babylonians by starting to correct their egoism.

You should see the world as that same Babylonian civilization, a part of which temporarily corrected itself, and today everyone must become corrected and become like the Creator. There is no such thing as corporeal Judaism, just like there are no religions, faiths, and so on. All of these things are incorrectly, egoistically understood Kabbalah. Where did people even get such notions, even if they’re mistaken? They came up with them either because their soul hinted at them from within, or from the fall of Kabbalah to the egoistic level. Who were the ancient nations? They were pagans or believers like Romans and Greeks. Everything else came from the spiritual fall, in order to accelerate the development of the Babylonians and bring them to the necessity to become equal to the Creator.

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 The Role of the Nation of Israel [04:31m]: Play Now | Download

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A question I received: You insist that a person studying Kabbalah shouldn’t make any external changes in his regular life, and that he should be concerned just with the inner work. In addition, you speak exclusively to the secular audience. So why does everyone in Bnei Baruch in Israel, where all your lessons are broadcast from, wear skullcaps? After all, for a secular person this is a dramatic change in outer appearance.

My Answer: As long as society hasn’t reached a complete understanding of what is Kabbalah and what is religion, we must be acceptable to the entire society. And the society, even a secular one, thinks that a Kabbalist has to look religious and wear a skullcap. In addition, this is a tradition, part of the Israeli nation’s culture, its custom, and this is why we observe it in Israel. Of course, it completely doesn’t matter what I wear around my animate body, but to people who are still uncorrected, such an external aspect also makes a difference.

 

 A Kabbalist, a Scientist and a Religious Person [05:24m]: Play Now | Download

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Three questions I received on requesting from the Creator

Question: Does one pray to G-d or to the Creator? You have said that it’s written that the Creator hears no prayer other than to be able to bestow, because He is the quality of bestowal and this is the only thing you can ask of Him. And what about the “kibbutsnikim” in the Negev?

My Answer: Back then the desires of the “kibbutsnikim” and the Creator were the same. But in general, the Creator hears everything and everyone, but He reacts only to that which leads to the goal, to Him, to adhesion with Him. And He definitely hears and reacts to one’s requests for correction, for equivalence with Him. The Creator is a system of forces surrounding us. The Creator (Elokim) = Nature (HaTeva). We need to understand that He does not change His goal and action - at every single moment, everything is directed at reacting to our actions, in order to influence each and every person in such a way that they will be directed precisely toward the goal. This is how the Creator - this system of forces - reacts to our desires, thoughts, and actions. This is why Kabbalah says that He does not change. In other words, He does not change His influence on us, which directs us precisely to the goal.

Question: About the “kibbutsnikim” who asked for rain: How is it possible that they received something just by asking for it? I’ve asked for things a thousand times, and the most I received was a reason to regret the fact that I asked.

My Answer: Their requests did not contradict the Creator’s plans to have people settle in these lands. They were (egoistically) united with each other as one whole. They asked for the necessity and gave it everything they had. And it worked temporarily. But when they lost the desire to be united, they became opposite to the system of governing forces, and the Upper Forces evoked their disintegration.

Question: As I understand, a prayer is a person’s deepest and most real desire. So why is there is a custom to pray at certain times rather than when one feels like it? After all, one receives a response only to a real prayer. And what does prayer give a person, in principle?

My Answer: Religion does not deal with correcting the soul - changing one’s intention from “for the sake of oneself” to “for the sake of others and the Creator” in all of one’s actions, but rather it only trains one to make physical actions - the commandments of our world. Therefore, in religion to pray is to read at specific times something that was written for you by other people (by the sages of the Great Assembly, 2,000 years ago). One does not receive a response to such actions, and we see that religious people do not become corrected, but vice versa - as time goes by, their moral descent is becoming more and more apparent. However, such mechanical actions hold people within certain boundaries, and as such, during the period of the Creator’s concealment (from 0 until the 20th century), the religions had the role of providing life’s boundaries. This was established by Kabbalists, to last until our time, when “the point in the heart” surfaces in people and they begin the path of individual spiritual development.

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 What Is Prayer in Kabbalah? [03:36m]: Play Now | Download

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A question I received: What would you say to a person who knows the answer to the question “Why do I live?”

My Answer: The question “Why do I live?” always and constantly leads a person from action to thought, and from thought to the next action. In general, a person always lives for something, he always wants something in the next moment.

For most people, the question about the meaning of life exists only within the span of our world. As such, most people work to achieve all sorts of goals in our world, goals such as food, sex, family, wealth, power, honor, fame, and knowledge. Most people find meaning to their lives in such goals.

However, after the person has achieved all that, and within each and every person, the question about the meaning of life common to all needs to arise, rather than how to fulfill ourselves during the seventy years of the body’s existence. This question also has many answers from many different “spiritual” methods and religions, but these will all gradually become irrelevant because of their inadequacy. Kabbalah is all that will remain, and the answer it provides is the following: “The meaning of life is to attain our root, the source from where we came – to attain the Creator. Our greatest aspiration - our innermost part that becomes revealed after everything else – is for the Creator, because that is where we came from.” Read Baal HaSulam’s definition in “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.”

Therefore, to answer your question, if there’s a person who knows the answer to the question “Why do I live?” I would ask him “Did you discover it by attaining the Creator, by becoming like Him?”

 

 What Is the Essence of Kabbalah? [04:32m]: Play Now | Download

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