Feeling The Book Of Zohar

Question: Does everyone feel The Book of Zohar in the same way?

Answer: Basically, yes. When we speak about our feelings in this world, there are differences of opinion and misunderstandings. And when we speak about spiritual attainments, there aren’t any problems because the references are absolutely accurate and there is a common terminology.

Question: How can I develop my sensitivity by using The Book of Zohar?

Answer: Sensitivity to The Book of Zohar emerges only to the extent that one reads it. You should begin to read it. The main part is in the first volume. You should go over it several times and you will see how the book suddenly begins to operate in you; this happens quite quickly.

Good luck to us all that we can properly put ourselves under the upper illumination called The Zohar.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/5/17

A Different Kabbalah

Question: I can understand some of the grievances that religious people have against you, but why are you also criticised by scholars who study Kabbalah in universities?

Answer: Scholars who study Kabbalah sit in universities and nobody has any issue with them, whereas with us Bnei Baruch, everybody attacks us and everyone is unhappy with us. So the issue is not that we are studying Kabbalah, but precisely how much this type of study of Kabbalah is not tolerated by religion and religious and secular people.

University scholars write about each other, of what each one thinks about Kabbalah. This came from ancient Greeks who studied Kabbalah from the prophets, but they understood it on a purely superficial level and this is how they began to write about it. Then, following generations wrote about the previous generations of philosophers and what they believed.

In other words, academic Kabbalah does not pursue the goal of attaining the Creator and the upper world and of making Kabbalists of their students, it merely aims to study previous university researchers.

Perhaps such people also come to us with a desire to study Kabbalah on the surface like in universities, and so they leave dissatisfied with us, for allegedly, we are studying the “wrong thing.” Likewise, scientists who study us in universities do not understand us and internally resent us for being different, not like them.

They cannot comprehend that our Kabbalah is DIFFERENT from theirs: We have attainment of the upper world from Kabbalists who perceive it in practice, while what they have is studying the opinions of their predecessors who have not attained the higher world.
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Write On The Tablet Of Your Heart

Question: In the past, it was unacceptable and even forbidden to write down the explanations of teachers who taught Torah; why don’t we behave that way today?

Answer: They didn’t record the words of the teacher in the past but learned orally, not because it was difficult to record on wooden tablets, for example, but because the students heard and attained the upper world while processing the profundity of the words of the teacher.

Now the situation is different; we hear and record to know mechanically, not through living attainment. When a student follows his teacher like a lower Partzuf following an upper Partzuf through adhesion with it, a living picture of the upper world is revealed to the student. Therefore, the student receives his attainment “mouth to mouth” from the higher level, meaning through sharing a Masach (Screen) with the teacher.

This is called “writing on the tablet of your heart” on the corrected desires. And today people learn dead letters and words because there is no Light in them; there is no characteristic of bestowal, only external knowledge. This is called exile from the upper world.

So, after the fall from the level of spiritual attainment happened two thousand years ago, they began to record the words of the sages of the Torah so that when we would leave the exile in the future, we would ascend to love and bestowal and could revitalize their texts through the upper Light.
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“And A Wolf Shall Live With A Lamb”

Question: The prophet Isaiah writes (11:6), “And a wolf shall live with a lamb, and a leopard shall lie with a kid; and a calf and a lion cub and a fatling [shall lie] together, and a small child shall lead them”. Could you please describe how this will look before the moment when the world will rise to the next level of development?

Answer: In order to create such a society, we must do all possible actions understanding that we won’t succeed by ourselves if we don’t constantly take the reforming upper Light, the Creator, as a partner.

This is how we must interact with each other and with the Creator, thinking only about the welfare of society and constantly being in increasing connection with each other and with the Creator. This is the process in which the last generation will exist.

Question: How do I approach the state when I lack the Creator, and I must attract Him?

Answer: I understand where I can start from, from my uncorrected qualities that I must convert into the opposite ones. However, I can’t do it myself. I can only want this.

Therefore, all my work is in the request, in the prayer that I really want the upper Light to perform such an operation on me so it constantly works on me and changes my thoughts, desires, and attitude toward others. I agree to change. For this I need to relax completely internally and wish that He will do this to me.

Question: What is the difference between our current state and the state the last generation will be in?

Answer: The difference is in the greatness of the goal, the greatness of the Creator, and the greatness of the process that we can enter.

The change in the connection between people changes everything in a person qualitatively and quantitatively.

The most important thing is the relationships between us. Changing, they are projected onto the rest of nature, and we suddenly see that wolves don’t attack lambs anymore and everything starts to take a completely different meaning.

We begin to feel that we have seen our life in our previous qualities and now we see it in the new altruistic qualities that absolutely change the entire reality.

Therefore, all our objects and feelings change. They undergo such a serious process of correction that I stop perceiving this world in the form that I see it now and begin to see the interaction of its objects with each other.

Matter, as such, is presented to me in the egoistic form. However, when it appears before me in the altruistic form, it begins to disappear and only its forces and intentions remain.

Therefore, instead of inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, I see forces of interaction; I see myself and all others as thought and desire. And all these thoughts and desires are not just gradually connecting more and more, but they merge into one single whole desire that is called Adam that is filled with the upper Light, the upper force, the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 5/22/17

“The Lord Will Strike You…”

Torah, Deuteronomy 28:27:The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with hemorrhoids, with oozing sores, and with dry lesions, from which you will be unable to be cured.

This means that at all levels the desire will be turned inside out and all your intentions that you could direct to bestowal, love, and connection with the Creator will turn into egoistic qualities that will humiliate and subdue you.
On the material level, all of this appears on the skin because skin is Malchut, the outermost layer.

Torah, Deuteronomy 28:28: The Lord will strike you with insanity, with blindness, and with bewilderment.

Insanity is damage on the level of the head (Mocha).

Blindness means that you see and feel nothing; that is, you cannot choose correctly and make decisions.

Bewilderment is an inability to analyze what is happening to you. You lose yourself completely, like a person who has gone mad and doesn’t know where he is and who he is. However, even this state is often absent in a madman.

In other words, a person who wanted to ascend to a higher degree was unable to take this height and shattered into pieces. However, he had to master it because it was up to him.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/7/16

New Life #869 – Abraham’s Method Of Correction

New Life #869 – Abraham’s Method Of Correction
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

What does idolatry symbolize in a person’s internality? How did Abraham reveal the upper force and what is the method of correction that requires the connection with others?
From KabTV’s “New Life #869 – Abraham’s Method Of Correction,” 6/20/17

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If You Do Not Ascend To A Spiritual Degree….

Torah, Deuteronomy 28:32: Your sons and daughters will be given over to another people, and your eyes will see [this] and long for them all day long, but you will be powerless.

The Torah lists the losses that are expected at different levels if you do not ascend to one or another spiritual degree.

You could connect with your friends and with your people and make a common Kli (vessel) in which the Creator would be revealed. Instead, new opposite qualities are revealed to you and you lose everything that you had.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/7/16

Creation Is Desire

Question: What is creation according to Kabbalah?

Answer: Creation is a desire to receive, which can be found in different forms: in insects, in people, in space, in angels, in everything

There are desires on the levels of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, and the levels of intention are determined accordingly.

Question: What is the difference between intention and desire?

Answer: The desire is awakened in us by the upper Light, and the intention is the manner in which we use our desire.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/19/17

Jews Against Israel

Question from Facebook: Today we see the active participation of Jews in the movement against Israel. Why is this happening?

Answer: Because Jews are the greatest opponents of their historical mission. They destroy their historical process, which should be directed toward “love your neighbor as yourself” and showing the whole world how to lead humanity to unity, including love for each other, support, and integration of all into one single society.

The people of Israel must do all of this. This is a method concealed in the people of Israeland is called the science of Kabbalah.

But we see that if we want to explain to the world what Kabbalah it is the Jews who attack us first. It has always been like that: Kabbalists were persecuted, imprisoned, and denounced. We are experiencing the same thing today. This only emphasizes how correct our mission is.

But now it’s time to understand that this is exactly what the salvation of the Jewish people and all of humanity is.

Therefore, it is possible to eradicate anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel only if we eradicate hatred toward Jews. And the Jews’ hatred of the existence of Israel itself as a state shows how much we are in a terrible state of internal destruction, how far we are from our historical mission, from what we have to do in this world.

Let’s hope that gradually the time will come and we will be able to convince the Jews. And life itself will teach them what is most important—the unity between us. This is what the world needs. It does not need anything else; it is full of abundance. The only thing that is missing is a good relationship between people. And the methodology of good relations is precisely in Kabbalah, within the Jewish people.

If we undertake this, we will naturally be very useful to the world and will become “the Light to the nations of the world.”
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 5/11/17

Work Hours In The Future Society

Baal HaSulam, The Writings of the Last Generation: For the work of one hour of type one, type two works two hours, type three four hours, and type four six hours. Each person is trusted with finding one’s appropriate type of work that suits one’s strength.

Comment: Baal HaSulam divides the working hours into four types: for the weak, for the average, for the strong, and for the quick-witted. Each one decides for himself which type suits him. He is valued according to the program he is associated with.

Answer: All this is quite relative. The matter is not in the hours, but in the potential, in the belonging, etc. Everything depends on the person’s individual characteristics given to him by the Creator, by nature. And the hours of work depend on a person.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/12/17

New Life 868 – The Correction Of The Perception Of Reality

New Life 868 – The Correction Of The Perception Of Reality
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

The intention to give changes us and reveals to us the upper source of filling, an infinite force. The wisdom of Kabbalah engages in changing man’s perception, in changing his internality.
From KabTV’s “New Life 868 – The Correction Of The Perception Of Reality,” 6/20/17

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What Is Spiritual Attainment?

Question: What is spiritual attainment?

Answer: Spiritual attainment is reaching a level higher than the egoistic level where all the forces and mutual connections are attained in a totally different state, in a different interdependence between us, in the attribute of bestowal, adhesion, connection, inspiration, and flow, which we don’t understand at the moment.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/12/17

The Last Generation: Eternity Has No Boundaries

Comment: Baal HaSulam writes that the last generation is a society that will live by the law of love your neighbor as yourself and that the main pleasure of the members of this society will be in being in adhesion with the Creator.

Answer: Ordinarily, the term “last” means final, but here, it is the opposite it is about the highest, the eternal.

Having achieved such a state, the society of the last generation will continue to perfect it because this movement is constant—eternity has no boundaries.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation,” 6/19/17

Elevating My Soul

Question: What awakens the yearning within me to attain and acquire knowledge that is hidden from me, the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: The soul yearns for its root. I want to know where my soul comes from and where it is heading. The body is born, develops, and dies. And there is a certain accompanying instance, what is called the soul, and it is eternal. I would like to know what is happening to it.

Why do I exist in this world? It is so that with the help of my perishable body, I will elevate my soul, even a little, to the next level.

Unfortunately, in our world, this opportunity is given to individuals. Rather, more correctly, everyone has such an opportunity, but they don’t feel it and it passes by. Therefore, we should pay attention to the opportunity to elevate our soul and maybe even reveal the Creator in it. This is a person’s special merit  and special attainment. Then, his life is truly lived for a good reason.

Let’s try to do this. Live—we are so and so we live life; die—we, in this form, will die, but we need to try to achieve elevating our soul to the next level.
[210218]From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/12/17

How To Convey Ideas Upward?

Question: Why in the Internet age is it so hard to convey the ideas of the wisdom of Kabbalah from below to the elites. They seem not to hear us; perhaps because the well-fed does not understand the hungry? Their pride does not allow them to see and understand the true meaning of life. The meaning of life is among people and for people, not in the upper circles that are detached from real life.

We have been sending distress signals for many years to save humanity, offering unique methods to educate the younger generation, but all our efforts do not sink in and change the awareness of the bureaucrats who engage only in making sure that their seats are stable. Who can help us promote this information and how?

Answer: Universal egoism brings people to complete mutual neglect in order to discover the need for it and to correct it. When this becomes clear to everyone, people will discover the wisdom of Kabbalah and will begin to use it.
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New Life #867 – The Correction Of Man

New Life #867 – The Correction Of Man
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

What is the corruption embedded in man’s nature? Why should we recognize the evil in us and how will the correction of man affect the whole world?
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From KabTV’s “New Life #867 – The Correction Of Man,” 6/13/17

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How Can We Enjoy Forever?

Question: What is eternal pleasure? How can we enjoy forever?

Answer: Eternal pleasure is a state in which you can constantly renew your desires though your connection with others. This is how you constantly renew the filling in these desires and feel eternal pleasure.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/12/17

What Is a Desire?

Question: Why do we sometimes refer to desire as matter and another time as a force? Can matter be a force? Or does force clothe into matter?

Answer: Often times we refer to desire as matter because there is nothing other than desire. But the desire is inherent in the force (as much as it desires); that is why we also refer to it as a force.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/19/17

The Purpose Of Creation And The Development Of Desire

Question: What are the Creator’s attributes?

Answer: The Creator is the attribute of absolute goodness, absolute love. The thought of creation is the creation of a created being that can become equal to the Creator, to ascend to His level.

If we had the Creator’s attributes from the start, we would have existed in Him, not feeling that we exist. We have to feel our difference from the Creator in order to simultaneously feel both ourselves and our resemblance to the Creator: what are we and what is the Creator, and all this distance between us is like a sense of distance and contradiction, similarity and equality.

This is the reason that the whole system of creation, which operates on us in order to bring us to the level on which we resemble it, was created by the Creator.

The first thing the Creator created was a desire to receive.

The desire descended from the Creator according to five phases of descent until it reached the level of our world in which the desire develops and evolves and everything in the world is built: the universe, the earth, other planets, and us.

Now we begin to ascend back to the Creator. Eventually we will attain the state in which we become similar to Him and ascend to the His level. This happens in accordance to our ascent though the levels of five worlds or 125 levels.

Question: How have we discovered that our mission actually comes down to the ascent?

Answer: Being in the lowest state, we begin to feel a certain inclination to ascend upward. This inclination is called the point of the heart; it pulls us forward.

From that moment, from the moment the created being begins to feel a desire to ascend, he is considered a human being, Adam, according to his goal because he yearns for the upper point called Adam, which means to resemble the Creator (Domeh).

Thus, the thought of the creation includes five worlds, the descent of the created being downward, the creation of the soul, and finally its correction.

Question: It seems that our evolution should come to an end at a certain point?

Answer: Our evolution will come to an end and it will be quite soon. It is a constantly accelerating process. This is the reason that first space was developed and then the earth and then man. We develop in such a turbulent manner that each day is very different from the next.

The Creator created a desire to receive that develops, descends, and becomes increasingly more egoistic.

Then, when the soul is created, the desire acquires an intention. First, at the lowest point, it is an egoistic intention for my own sake.

Then the desire begins to ascend and it changes the intention to an altruistic one. The desire always changes according to the intention since in itself it is indifferent, it is just matter, all of the matter in nature.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/2/17

How Does The Upper Light Work?

Question: What sensations are triggered in us by the influence of the upper Light?

Answer: The influence of the upper Light raises in us the importance of the quality of bestowal, connection with others, and connection with the Creator (which, in principle, are the same thing); that is, we exchange our nature for the upper nature built on the principle “outside of me,” so that I stop being isolated within myself and come out of myself.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 4/2/2017

New Life #866 – The Correction Of The World

New Life #866 – The Correction Of The World
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

Why are there different views regarding the essence of the correction of the world?What is the role of mankind in the correction of the world, and what is Kabbalah’s approach to this subject?

The wisdom of Kabbalah describes the foundation of the world, the depth of nature, because first we must know what is corrupt in order to correct it. The correction of the world means the correction of man’s nature.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #866 – The Correction Of The World,” 6/13/17

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“Therefore, You Will Serve Your Enemies…”

Torah, Deuteronomy 28:48: Therefore, you will serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, [when you are] in famine, thirst, destitution, and lacking everything, and he will place an iron yoke upon your neck, until he has destroyed you.

Question: It is unclear why I should serve my enemy “in famine, thirst, destitution, and lacking everything” and not rebel against him.

Answer: This is because you have no power against your enemy, egoism. You are like a rabbit that is moving into the jaws of a boa constrictor, and you are unable to do anything. Egoism defeats you and at the same time shows your insignificance. You are powerless against it because it has control over you, and it demonstrates this.

Moreover, you feel that all this comes from the Creator.

Question: Do I also curse the Creator?

Answer: Naturally. By the way, the Creator does not care about a person’s attitude toward Him. The most important thing is to have some kind of relationship. Even if you curse Him, you are more preferable to Him than one who does not feel and does not address Him.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/19/16

New Life #865 – The “Superpowers” Of The Israelis

New Life #865 – The Israelis’ “Superpowers” 
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Why do the people of Israel need to bring the world to correction, why is the human ego against this task, and what is the power of connection that we possess?

In the movie Wonder Woman, an Israeli actress plays the role of a superhero who saves the world, but in reality, the power of evil dominates us. The role of the people of Israel is to transform the world into a Garden of Eden, paradise, to bring love instead of hatred, connection instead of separation.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #865 – The “Superpowers” Of The Israelis,” 6/8/17

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How Can We Learn Spiritual Laws?

Question: What is the spiritual meaning of the law, “The general and particular are equal”? What can I learn from this general law?

Answer: The general and particular are equal means that if I learn about the particular, from this I can learn about the general. If I attain something in common, then to the same degree I can penetrate into each one of its parts.

There is a single law: mutual cooperation between the Light and the desire when they resemble each other. This can be discovered both in the totality of creation and in each one of its tiniest particles.

For example, in our world, a geologist can separate a small fragment from a mountain and accordingly discover and know much about the entire mountain.

Question: Does this mean that it is nevertheless possible to explain spiritual laws according to examples from our world, in particular from the law the general and particular are equal?

Answer: This is an inductive law that makes it possible to explain our world too. But this does not speak about a purely rational explanation. For a person to acquire spiritual characteristics within him, he must feel them.

After all, he feels our world and examines it from that. Therefore, he must feel the upper world and learn it from his feelings; otherwise, his arguments will be unfounded.

I cannot take a book of Kabbalah, read it, and then convince everyone that this is the truth. And what is next? How does one use what is spoken about in it? Where is all of this found? First of all, it is up to me to attain the spiritual characteristics and powers. They must be inside of me and then I will be able to apply what is written in a book.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/12/17

Control Of Population Growth

In the News (Independent): “The United Nations and World Health Organisation have issued a call for drugs to be decriminalised.

“Buried in a joint release on ending healthcare discrimination, the organisations called for the ‘reviewing and repealing punitive laws that have been proven to have negative health outcomes’ by member states.

“Among a number of measures, this included ‘drug use or possession of drugs for personal use’.

“While the WHO has previously called for drugs to be decriminalised in the context of HIV reduction, the UN has limited its calls to health- and evidence-based solutions to drug abuse.

“Last year, nations meeting at the UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs maintained a criminal approach to narcotics, despite strong concerns from a number of countries.

“But last month, on the International Day Against Drug Abuse, UN Secretary General António Guterres called for tackling the problem through ‘prevention and treatment,’ adhering to human rights.

“He said: ‘Despite the risks and challenges inherent in tackling this global problem, I hope and believe we are on the right path, and that together we can implement a coordinated, balanced and comprehensive approach that leads to sustainable solutions.’”

Question: It seems that soon we will be walking around quiet, calm, and relaxed; did the United Nations, the organization for maintaining international peace and security, finally come to realize that the fight against narcotics is pointless?

Answer: No. They came to realize something else—that with the help of narcotics they can create “stability” in the world; mow down millions of unnecessary people, and calm the rest. Why do seven and a half billion people living on this earth, who are suffering, continue to reproduce? What is the point in this?

Question: That’s what the United Nations thinks?

Answer: Of course! And it receives instructions from “higher-up controlling organizations,” those who say, “We don’t need seven and a half billion.”

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a hundred years ago, it was only two billion. It was as though the world was empty. Suddenly: seven and a half. And they’re starving, fighting, and crushing each other—for what?

For the elite, who stand at the top, there is nothing left to do: money lost its value. Give everyone minimal basic income? What would be the point? So people can just exist, dirtying the atmosphere? Each person damages the ecology of the earth.

Question: Then I will ask you as a Kabbalist: is it necessary to get rid of many people?

Answer: It doesn’t matter. Everything depends on whether you are leading them to an improved condition or not.

It is necessary to implement a comprehensive correct education system for people. It is necessary to teach them how in the right kind of connection between them they can reach a life where no one disturbs one another.

On the contrary: each, in connection with others, will make a necessary correction of his egoism and will then become a huge asset to all humanity; because that which each of us has to do in our individual correction of egoism, no one else can do for us.

Comment: Then it turns out that any size population can exist. And the opposite will be true, the more, the better!

Answer: Even two hundred billion!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/6/17

How Not To Be A Toy In The Hands Of Fate

Question: Can Kabbalah help me to change and control my fate?

Answer: It can! In every day life, we see that a child lacks the strength to change his fate, but an adult, a strong intelligent person, has greater ability to control his life. It turns out that the more intelligent we become, the more we understand reality, the more we can control our fate.

Therefore, the science of Kabbalah, by expanding the organs of human perception and enabling an individual to see all the forces, all the invisible triggers through which nature influences him, gives an individual the opportunity to make more correct decisions in his life.

Question: I feel that I have no choice, that my fate is already predetermined. Can the science of Kabbalah help me change this destiny?

Answer: Indeed, an average person has almost no choice in his life. But Kabbalah gives him the opportunity to understand life in such a way that he can change his fate, the entire flow of life and its result.

Most importantly, he begins to understand what he is living for! The whole perspective of life open in front of his eyes and he feels himself as an adult, responsible for his destiny, someone who can take pleasure from life and not just be a toy in the hands of blind fate.
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From the Conversation “Answers to the Questions of Beginners,” 7/24/17