Questions I received on relationships:

Question: What does a man look for in a woman?

My Answer: “Consolation” (fulfillment), as it says in the Torah (Beresheet 3:23): “Because she comes from me.”

Question: Should she be pretty and quiet, or should she just be herself?

My Answer: She should have everything necessary to complete “Adam.”

Question: In one of your articles you recommend your regular students to dedicate fifteen minutes a day to their wives. Is this so, and if yes, then what is the reason for it?

My Answer: Kabbalah obligates people to dedicate a specific amount of time and attention to their spouses. People today are busier than ever before, and hence we’ve set a rule in the group that besides taking care of the home and children, spouses have to sit down together and calmly talk for at least fifteen minutes a day.

What about you, are you able to speak with your husband calmly and on a daily basis? Does this ever happen?

Question: I got divorced two months ago. In a TV show you said that you are against divorce. I did everything to prevent it, but I’ve read some books and I know that Kabbalah says that sometimes people get married and have children, but their union is not “meant to be.” People get divorced and then find their proper match, someone who’s meant for them. Is this true?

My Answer: Kabbalah does not forbid divorce, especially in cases when one’s married life prevents one from attaining the purpose of one’s life in this world - the goal of creation. However, in other cases, it’s usually best to avoid getting a divorce.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Woman = Desire
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Article:  “Coming Together - The Real Meaning”
Article: “Eve - Just the Tool in the Creator’s Hands”

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Three questions I received on ritual observance and Kabbalah:

Question: To my regret, I was raised in a family that observed the Jewish traditions, and I even studied in a Yeshiva. Now I am completely secular, do not observe the traditions, and feel perfectly satisfied with this. However, I feel pressure from my environment to observe the commandments at the corporeal level. Can you offer me some advice on how to deal with this and how to avoid fighting with my wife (I am married with four children)?

My Answer: If a person was raised with the traditions and believes in reward and punishment for them, then it is very difficult to quit observing the traditions. Your wife believes that by observing the earthy commandments you earn the world to come for her and her children, and that you will receive a reward and the Creator’s benevolence. This makes her feel like her life has meaning and gives her the energy to live. Don’t take this away from her! When in front of her, observe what she asks for.

Question: I have been born and raised as an Orthodox Jew. I want to study Kabbalah, but I don’t want to follow the 613 Mitzvot. It feels really burdensome having to follow so many Mitzvot. At the same time the idea of studying Kabbalah is wholly interesting to me as well as the various concepts that you espouse on your great blog. How should I think about this matter?

My Answer: Without changing anything about you or your lifestyle, study Kabbalah, alongside the rest of the earthly Torah. We do not accept Orthodox Jews or even Kipot Srugot (knitted yarmulkes) into our core group, but virtual study is your right.

Question: I came to orthodox religion and left it after I failed to find the Creator there and realized that it was the wrong path. My question is: are there such things as a supreme judge and judgment, and reward and punishment, the way the orthodox believe?

My Answer: What exists is:

1. The Creator, the Law of Nature;
2. The creature; and
3. The connection between them.

The goal of creation is to attain adhesion with the Creator. The means to attain it is by correcting the creature from “for one’s own sake” to “for the sake of Creator.” Then the Creator becomes revealed within the creature. This is what Kabbalah talks about, and this is what exists.

Related Material:
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Baal HaSulam Article: “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
The Secret Meaning of the Bible

 

 Video: Rabash - Which Torah & Mitzvot Purify the Heart? [14:17m]: Play Now | Download

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Two questions I received on inner work:

Question: As parts of one soul, we all depend on each other whether we’re aware of it or not. But every person contains the whole world. What is the measure of the dependency between us? Should we increase it or should we see ourselves as individuals and only unite our points in the heart?

My Answer: We should only unite our points in the heart, because all our other desires are for corporeal things. By uniting our aspirations for spirituality, we create the vessel in which the Light, the Creator becomes revealed.

Question: How does the system of mutual guarantee of the World Kli become expressed in practice, at times when one is not involved in the group work (study, dissemination, congresses, and so on), but is occupied with the necessities (work, family, and so on)?

My Answer: If a person takes proper care of his spiritual advancement in his spare time, then he provides himself with support that will sustain him on the right track during the rest of the time as well. Our world formed as a result of the descent of the Upper Forces, and it completely corresponds to the thought of creation and its purpose, provided that we use it correctly. That is, if we connect the thought with the goal, or in other words, implement the goal, going from the thought to the goal.

We have been given all the conditions - the body and its short life, including all the conditions of existence such as family and the efforts we have to make to sustain the life of the body, as well as all the disturbances and developmental forces. All of this only seems corporeal to us, but in reality this is how spiritual forces present themselves to us at their minimal level. We only have to “blend” into this picture correctly and complete the “empty space” in it with our free actions. At the end of the day everything comes down to uniting our aspirations to the Creator - to bestowal or love for one’s neighbor. We try doing this and then see that we can’t. We then ask for help, and the Creator corrects us!

Related Material:
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 On the Demand of Arvut: Play Now | Download

 

 On the Demand of Arvut: Play Now | Download

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Today is the anniversary of my Teacher’s passing (Yahrtzeit). Rabash was a great Kabbalist, the last in the lineage of the passage of the Knowledge of the Creator, from Adam until our times. This lineage ended with Rabash, Rav Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (1906 - 1991).

We, “Bnei Baruch” (“The Sons of Baruch”), are named after him, and we reveal this knowledge (the method of the souls’ correction) to our generation, the first generation of correction. We are bringing this knowledge to the point of practical use: private and common correction, and are creating a structure for the Kabbalistic society of the future.

Here is a song called “Teacher,” composed by my student from Russia, Igor Irtishky, with lyrics by Dina Baiter.

 

 Teacher [03:52m]: Play Now | Download

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The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Seventh Commandment” (abridged)

223. The Seventh Commandment is to perform circumcision (of desires that cannot be corrected) on the eighth day, and thus remove the impurity (of egoism) of the foreskin (Malchut), for Malchut (the desire that cannot be corrected within the 6000 years, in the process of correction) constitutes the eighth degree of all the degrees, beginning with Bina (Bina, Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, Malchut). And the soul that soars from her (that ascends from Malchut Ohr Hozer ) must appear before her on the eighth day; hence, she constitutes the eighth degree.

224. It then becomes clear that the type (level) of this soul is Haya. That is, belonging to that holy degree of Haya (Malchut), and not to any other degree. And this is implied by, LET THE WATERS SWARM, as is explained in the book of Hanoch, the waters of the holy seed merge in the properties of the soul of Haya. And it is the property of the letter Yod (the level of Haya), marked on the sacred flesh, more than any other mark that exists in the world. (The level of Haya is the animate level; hence it is written, “Let the waters swarm” – Bina will be filled with parts of Malchut, which will thereby correct themselves by ascending and connecting Malchut to Bina).

225. The verse, LET BIRDS SOAR OVER THE EARTH, refers to Eliyahu (the prophet), who flies across the whole world in four flights (Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey) in order to be present in the place where the Holy Covenant (union of Malchut and Bina) is made. And a chair (the place of union between Malchut and Bina) must be prepared for him, and it must be said out loud (this must be revealed by means of correction), THIS IS THE CHAIR OF ELIYAHU. For if this is not done, he will not appear in that place (for want of an opportunity to reveal himself).

226. And the Creator created great Leviathans (Malchut in its completely corrected state). They were two: (called) Orla and Preia, male (Masach and Ohr Hozer) and female (desire, Aviut) forces. And (He also created) all living creatures (of the level of Haya). This is the mark (revelation) of the Holy Covenant (between the Creator and Malchut), the soul of the holy Light of Haya (Ohr Hozer of the level of Haya), as it is written, “LET THE WATERS (of Bina, and Malchut that connected to her) SWARM,” i.e. the Supernal Waters (the forces of Bina) that descend to this Covenant (with Malchut).

227. The reason why Israel (the correcting part) below (in Malchut) is marked in the holy form (love and bestowal), similar to its form Above (in Bina), is to separate the pure part (Malchut that becomes corrected by uniting with Bina) from the impure (one that cannot be corrected until Gmar Tikkun), to distinguish between the holiness of Israel (that which can be corrected, what remains after circumcision) and the other nations (which cannot be corrected until the end of correction, which are cut off) that originate from the other (egoistic) side. And just as Israel (parts of Malchut that can be corrected) was marked, so were the animals and birds (levels of Malchut) to determine which of them belong to Israel (which need to be corrected), and which belong to the nations of the world (which are to be corrected later). (Israel = Isra-El = straight to the Creator – meaning the parts of Malchut that can be corrected. This bears no relation to nationality, but only to one’s desire, one’s point in the heart. This happened for the first time in Babylon, when a group of people with point in the heart - the desire for correction, separated from the rest of the Babylonians).

Related Material:
“Introduction to the Book of Zohar.” Items 13-18

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Questions I received on faith above reason, belief in oneself, and the purpose of suffering:

Question: Sometimes this world looks so wonderful, but in spite of it I try to hold on to the point in the heart. Is this the meaning of advancing with “faith above reason?”

My Answer: “Faith above reason” means “bestowal above reception.” It’s when you prefer to be inside the quality of bestowal in spite of the egoism that weighs you down, regardless of all its pleasures. Your entire reward lies only in remaining in this state, because it pleases the Creator, even though no one knows anything about what you are doing, and no one will find out.

Question: Why don’t I believe in myself? I am stuck in this.

My Answer: That’s good - rely on us!

Question: I don’t understand why the Creator is giving me so much suffering in the corporeal world. How can I unite with Him in this state?

My Answer: He wants you to come close to Him precisely from this state, and hence He gives you an aspiration toward Him. See the article “There Is None Else Besides Him.”

Question: How do we overcome despair, blows of fate, and hopelessness that haunt us on the path to the spiritual world?

My Answer: By receiving support from the group in study, dissemination, and revelation of the fact that the Creator is one - that “There is none else besides Him,” that He is Good and does only good.

Question: Two months ago I studied Kabbalah a lot, but now I am in a descent. Over the last month I started feeling a need for respect and honor. Before I do anything, I prepare ahead of time to acquire respect and honor. What should I do?

My Answer: You are advancing wonderfully: it’s taken you just two months to start seeing your true nature! Be grateful for the realization of evil and start trying to correct it. You will soon learn that this is impossible to do, and then you will ask the Creator to help you do this!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Faith Above Reason Is Bestowal Above Reception
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: Chapter 1 - “Perceiving the Creator (Faith Above Reason)”
Laitman.com Post: Be Happy about the Descents!

 

 Film: The Purpose of Suffering and the Way to Avoid It [0:51m]: Play Now | Download

 

 Kabbalah Revealed - Episode 8: There Is None Else Beside Him - Part 1 [24:57m]: Play Now | Download

 

 Kabbalah Revealed Episode 9 - There Is None Else Beside Him Part 2 [25:01m]: Play Now | Download

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Questions I received on Maaser:

Question: What should I do if I want to pay Maaser (a 10th of my salary), but my wife is against it because she doesn’t study Kabbalah?

My Answer: If she did study Kabbalah, then she wouldn’t be against it. She would pay it herself and would even force you to do the same. So decide for yourself, and keep in mind that there is no spiritual advancement without separating the 10%.

Question: Whose money supports the Kabbalah Academy?

My Answer: Only the Maaser that’s collected from the Bnei Baruch members – and no external donations!

Question: I was wondering, if I get the Maaser back from taxes at the end of the year (because I described it as charity or donations) will it count spiritually? Because at the end, I didn’t give anything at all because I get it back!

My Answer: You have to give everything you get back to the group’s fund, as the government Maaser.

Question: I am an Ari-Online student and I also watch morning lessons on kab.tv (the beginner’s part). My question is short. How it is possible that we, Bnei Baruch, have different criteria about the same thing ? I am talking about Maaser.

I was watching the morning lesson on 08-12-2008 where you explain that Maaser is 10% of the income before taxes. After that I opened the Maaser webpage and read this:
“Maaser is 10% of one’s net income, after tax deduction“! I do not understand this discrepancy.

My Answer: The Maaser must be paid from the total income – you can find explanations of this on the Internet by doing a Google search of “tithe.” However, in our times, in order to avoid confusing our friends, to simplify their calculations and payment, we say that they can pay from the net income. I understand that this is confusing, but you shouldn’t get so upset about it. We take the responsibility for whatever you underpay because of our instructions.

Related Material:
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Will Bnei Baruch Turn Into a Commerical Enterprise or Political Movement?

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A question I received: This New Year what would you wish to the people who rule the world - the presidents?

My Answer: I still remember the times when one person who believed that he knew how to fix Russia and even the entire world, climbed atop an armored car and spoke such nonsense that it still makes people feel sick to this day. But they went ahead and performed their experiment - and attained the usual horrific results. Such experiments still take place in every country of the world to varying degrees, and they always prove inadequate, whether it’s done in Russia or America, the Third Rome or the Third World.

All the world’s rulers are like little boys who pretend to be grown ups. They don’t realize that they live inside nature and are parts of it. They don’t know the laws of the world they live in, and instead invent their own laws. Within this “lawful” world they build their own small “play world,” complete with made up relationships and laws. Obviously, these do not correspond to the natural laws of society.

Notwithstanding, everything in nature has its own place and law. Animals follow the laws of nature blindly and instinctively, and hence they don’t make mistakes. Man, on the other hand, was created free in order to complete himself, and to reveal - within this realm of freedom -  the laws of nature, the Creator. By doing so, man becomes equal to Nature or the Creator.

However, instead of doing this, man is performing experiments on himself! Until the times of Ancient Babylon, man developed on the animate level and his behavior wasn’t so different from nature. But as soon as his egoism began “acting up,” he decided to build a “tower up to the sky” and people started “speaking different tongues” - stopped understanding one another. As soon as this occurred, man was offered the chance to learn about the purpose of his creation – to attain the level of the Creator, as well as the means to attain this goal - the method of Kabbalah.

Just as Kabbalah predicted 4,500 years ago, we are now finding ourselves in the Global Babylon once again. We have to grow up and learn the laws of nature, instead of inventing our own, artificial laws. After all, there are laws of nature for every kind of behavior - including private and social, and ignorance of these laws evokes Nature’s negative reaction, which we perceive as suffering.

One way or another, Nature will compel us to become similar to it. And if we are opposed to this, it will bring us there by force. Hence, today we - each and every one of us - are more than ever in need of revealing and understanding what Kabbalah says.

My wish for the world’s rulers, and for all the people in the world, is to study the laws of nature and of society that Kabbalah explains. Kabbalah speaks only about this, explaining how everything develops - gradually, logically and lawfully.

Our dissemination of Kabbalah around the world is expanding, and is tipping the whole world over with its force, quality, and connection with the Upper Light. Hence I truly wish everyone “SHANA TOVA” (a happy New Year) – and I am optimistic that this will indeed be so!

Related Material:
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Laitman.com Post: Spiritual Labor Pains and the Future of Kabbalah

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Two questions I received on the New Year:

Question: Lately there has been a lot of talk about the year 2012, as a time of change of the cosmic consciousness. Are there grounds for this in Kabbalah?

My Answer: I think that the change of consciousness will happen before that. No year is “special.” All the changes - whether for the worse or for the better – depend only on us. In addition, the New Year that we celebrate here in Israel isn’t a calendar holiday, but a celebration of the first time that egoism was recognized as evil and the first time its correction had begun. This happened in man 5,768 years ago. The New Year is the beginning of correction, and today we are continuing it on a global scale!

This is why we consider the first spiritual birth a holiday, and this is why Adam is called the first man - the word Adam comes from the word Dommeh, similar to the Creator. This is what each one of us is waiting for.

Question: Lately the the mass media is writing about the development of a plan spanning from now until the year 2020. Can we plan ahead for such an extended period of time, today, when everything is so interconnected and changes so fast?

My Answer: Unfortunately, extended plans are usually composed to satisfy specific egoistic goals that benefit someone today, and that’s where it all ends, while the extended plans become forgotten. The distant goal serves as a justification and cover-up for immediate fraud.

Just like it happened in the times of terror regimes and wars, people will once again be forced to suffer and even die in the name of a national idea. If a goal entails casualties, then it’s a false goal! I think that everything will happen differently. Globalization and global interdependence will compel us to act together!

Related Material:
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Kabbalah Today Article: The Spiritual Rosh Hashanah
Baal HaSulam Article: “Building the Future Society”

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The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Fifth Commandment” (abridged)

215. The fifth Commandment. It is written: “LET THE WATERS SWARM WITH SWARMS OF LIVING CREATURES.” This verse contains three Commandments. The first is to study the Torah (as it is written, “I have created egoism and the Torah for its correction,” which is achieved only through the study of Kabbalah, which attracts Ohr Makif – the Surrounding Light), the second is to procreate and multiply (spiritually; that is to say, to develop the point in the heart to its full capacity – the soul), and the third is to remove the foreskin on the eighth day (to make the corrections under the condition of complete bestowal, cutting off from oneself the work in desires that are impossible to correct – “Lev haEven” – the heart of stone, Zivug in Sefira Yesod, and not Malchut). And it is necessary to study the Torah on all the days, at all times, in order to correct one’s soul and spirit (to search within oneself for the Creator and for a dialogue with Him every minute of one’s life).

216. Because man labors in the study of the Torah, he corrects the other holy soul, as it is written, SWARMS OF LIVING CREATURES, referring to the life-giving holy soul, Malchut. For when man does not study the Torah (the method of correction), he lacks the holy (loving and bestowing) soul and the (quality of) holiness that descends from Above (from the Creator). Yet, when he does study the Torah, he merits its Light (correction and fulfillment), just like the holy angels (he merits full equivalence to the Creator, just like the angels; the only difference is that they are mechanical creatures, whereas man attains equivalence consciously, with his desire and efforts).

217. It is written, “Angels of the Creator (people who have attained the level of the Creator Himself, and who are hence called ‘angels’) shall bless Him.” This refers to those who study the Torah (correct themselves), as they are called His angels on earth (those who have corrected their desire, while in and of themselves the angels are qualities of Bina, the Creator, bestowal). It is also written, “BIRDS SOARING OVER THE EARTH.” This refers to this world. However, in the world to come, as it is said, the Creator will make them (those who correct themselves) wings like those of an eagle so they may soar (with their corrected desires of love and bestowal) over the whole world (over their whole egoism).

218. It is written in this regard: LET BIRDS SOAR OVER THE EARTH, for the Torah, called “THE WATERS” (the quality of Bina, love and bestowal) will SWARM WITH SWARMS OF LIVING CREATURES (will be filled with the corrected souls of people) from its place of life (the desires that feel themselves, their lack of correction), called Malchut (all the created desires), and all will descend down below (the intentions “for one’s own sake” will disappear and only the pure intentions – “for the sake of others” – will remain). This is what King David referred to when he said, “THE CREATOR CREATED IN ME A PURE HEART” to study The Torah (correct oneself), and “A HOLY SPIRIT (of love and bestowal) WAS RENEWED WITHIN ME (what was contained in the Thought of Creation now became my conscious aspiration, to fulfill myself).”

Related Material:
Article - “Introduction to the Book of Zohar. Items 1-5″

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