What Is The Torah?

Question: What is the Torah?

Answer: The Torah is the upper light that descends upon a person in the amount to which he aspires to bestow and love his neighbor.

Question: Then what is the book of the Torah?

Answer: The book is written in a special language describing the spiritual steps that a person has to go through in order to correct himself to become similar to the world.
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From the Kabbalah lesson in Russian, 3/18/18

BIEN: “Basic Income Should Benefit Mothers First“

The largest portal Basic Income Earth Network published my new article “Basic Income Should Benefit Mothers First“:

There is no controversy about the benefits of breast milk, but its politicization is giving us food for thought. The New York Times claimed that the US government unsuccessfully threatened to retaliate against nations backing breastfeeding to favor the $70 billion-dollar infant formula industry, an accusation fervently denied by the current administration. Beyond the sensational headlines, the key factor is that such an important health-related topic for mothers and children has been put back on the table. It is also time to open the discussion about practical measures to encourage breastfeeding to benefit society.

Breast milk is rich in nutrients and includes antibodies to fight off viruses and bacteria protecting the baby from infections and allergies. It boosts the immune system, reduces infant mortality, and helps for a quicker recovery from common childhood illnesses. A Harvard study in 2016 estimated that 3,340 premature deaths a year among both mothers and babies could be prevented in the US alone given adequate breastfeeding. It also lowers a mother’s risk of breast and ovarian cancer, and osteoporosis.

Besides the physical benefits and what laboratory experiments show, breastfeeding is one of the best ways of bonding with a baby. It releases oxytocin, which is the hormone responsible for other loving behaviors that make us feel good about a person.

Extended breastfeeding for the first two years of life allows for the child’s proper development, and women express more maternal sensitivity well past the infant and toddler years, according to a study by the American Psychological Association. Beyond such findings, there is also a natural inner connection between the mother and the child that allows for positive biological and internal development, which starts inside the womb.

The Need to Support Stay-at-Home Mothers

Considering the vital role mothers play in each individual’s development from the earliest of ages, it stands to reason that stay-at-home mothers should be given all the support possible to raise the next generation. They need to be entitled to receive financial assistance that will let them perform their remarkable duties without worrying about how to make ends meet, giving them a sense of freedom and control of their lives.

In today’s world, however, this is not the case. The bulk of the burden falls on the mother, who is usually expected to prioritize her career over her family, juggling tasks and becoming increasingly exhausted and unsatisfied. With the massive rise in cost of living, mothers in most societies struggle to manage a balanced life, considering work as an economic necessity rather than liberation and personal progress and fulfillment. Mothers get caught in an ever-tightening entanglement of commitments at work and home with very little restitution at any level. In extreme cases, there have been situations where work-stressed mothers abandoned their children while they rushed to work, e.g., a hospital CEO forgetting her child in a hot car where the child died, or a McDonald’s employee leaving her child alone in a public park while she worked her entire 9-hour work day.

Moreover, childcare can be extremely expensive and many women usually work just to cover its costs, challenging the whole purpose of going to the workplace. The so-called advancement of women’s rights to choose is in practice an oxymoron. At the end of the day, women who decide to fulfill a traditional role as stay-at-home mothers do not receive enough recognition, value, and economic support from society, as if raising a new generation were not the most important enterprise of all.

The same way science has been unable to create an artificial uterus that brings an embryo to life, a mother’s role of nurturing and educating the child is irreplaceable. We cannot pretend to be wiser than nature. If we really want to empower and foster women’s self-determination, society should create conditions for a comfortable motherhood.

Why UBI Should Prioritize Mothers

This is precisely where UBI can enter to encourage mothers who wish to raise their children full-time. UBI should benefit women first and foremost, particularly mothers who based on their own personal preference choose to leave the workplace in order to raise their children. Basic income should be provided for mothers without preconditions: not as welfare or charity, but as a remuneration for a crucial job in society.

Prioritizing UBI for mothers would be a win-win situation: it not only would help mothers, it would directly boost support for the entire next generation of society that mothers are now raising. Many personal and social problems, such as depression, anxiety and mental illness later in life, can be traced back to phenomena such as childhood neglect, stress, and traumas. Therefore, UBI would let mothers live with reduced economic stress, freeing them up to focus on caring, bonding with, and raising their children.

Likewise, as I’ve mentioned before, basic income for mothers would allow their participation in pro-social, connection-enriching activities, such as groups for pregnant women, parenting and home economics, among others, to enhance their motherly abilities with a supportive social climate. Naturally, such engagement in society would also positively influence their children.

Instead of treating mothers as second-class citizens, they should be recognized as “society’s CEOs”—the ruling force in creation, the only ones capable of giving birth to and nurturing a whole new generation. Keep in mind that the world is our roof, humanity is our home, and women are the pillar of this structure. Motherhood plays a critical role in giving birth to a new humanity. Therefore, taking a step forward in promoting UBI as critical support for mothers is a decision of utmost importance for a more promising future to all.
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Transferring The Knowledge By Word Of Mouth

Question: Do we consider our lessons to be acquiring knowledge by word of mouth?

Answer: No. To convey something by word of mouth is the highest degree, a spiritual action called a “kiss” (Neshikin), when two people obtain a common screen.

It has no connection to the physical human body, to our lips or kisses; it is only described using these terms because there are no words in spirituality—we use all the words from our world.

If we achieve this conjugation, when both our screens connect and work precisely in unison at the level of the highest part of our common Partzuf, our common soul (HBD), then we are in a relationship “in a mutual kiss.”

This is an interconnection between two people: a student and a teacher, two students and two teachers, between anyone, at the highest level of their attainment (HBD).
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From the Kabbalah lesson in Russian 3/11/18

Everything Is Relative To The Observer

Question: What does it mean to rise to the level of the governance of our world? Does Kabbalah rule our world? What is it about?

Answer: Kabbalah does not rule our world.

The fact is that everything we perceive is what we call our world. This is my world. I do not know what the world really is and what it consists of. I only know what I feel and perceive. This is a very important point with which we have to start talking about a person and about where he is.

We have to understand that our world is one that we build within. Therefore, this concept cannot be objective. Everything is relative to the observer. For example, today one might comprehend some things a certain way, and tomorrow interpret them differently. There are, of course, general laws, rules, and methods, but in the end, we are only speaking of a person’s individual comprehension.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/11/18

According To The Highest Plan

Rabash, The Social Writings, “Concerning Love of Friends”: What is the reason I chose specifically these friends, and why have the friends chosen me?

On one hand, we came together accidentally because we were looking for the meaning of life, the possibility of understanding existence, and we are guided by our common goal.

On the other hand, everything happens from above. As we later understand, it was the higher plan that led us to come together. It unites and brings us closer to each other despite the fact that we are egoists, especially those who come to study Kabbalah. These are people who have never really been drawn to each other or to others, everyone felt themselves as individuals.

Therefore, when they come together, they have a special job: to show love to each other, to organize meals and various activities together, and so on. Generally, this is not for them because such behavior is contrary to their nature. But they have to do this in order to become closer to each other.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 1/18/18

Two Steps Up

The path “from love for the created beings to the love for the Creator” is a very subtle concept. Everyone will agree with loving the Creator, even a completely secular person who thinks about it just in case the upper force does exist, it is better to be on good terms with it. That is why everyone is ready to love the Creator and this is accepted by people in all traditions. A person is even ready to observe some religious rituals because love for the Creator is a non-obligatory abstract notion.

On the other hand, love for the created beings requires a lot because it clearly manifests itself in this world and is visible to everyone, and a person must prove that he really loves the created beings. This is not easy. There is no objection to love the Creator, but no one supports love for created beings. Therefore, it is written that “Israel is a small people,” that is, those who strive to love the Creator through love for the created beings.

Many fall on this path because love for the created beings does not arise in us naturally. Although a person understands that the science of Kabbalah promises him the revelation of the eternal and complete spiritual world, nevertheless, “a thousand enter the room and one comes out to teach.” People start studying and after a few years give up on spiritual revelation, without understanding what is actually being discussed.

There are two completely opposite approaches. One is to take a spiritual message and bring it down to earth, into our world, with reference to our behavior. This is religion. The other one is to elevate this spiritual message upward, rising with it to the Creator. This requires changing our properties, acquiring the property of bestowal, which cannot be achieved except through special exercises to correct the relationship between us with the help of the reforming Light.

Such work is contrary to our desire to enjoy and is possible only with mutual support. If such special people with burning points in the heart who want to attain the revelation of the Creator, adhesion with Him, and the purpose of creation, get together, then they are obliged to build relationships that will be influenced by the upper Light, which will correct them from egoistic to altruistic, for the sake of mutual bestowal. The upper Light will then be revealed within them, which is called “the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.”

From this it is clear that there are two completely opposite approaches about which it is written: “The view of the landlords is opposite to the view of the Torah.”

“The view of the Torah” is the use of the reforming Light called “the Torah,” which builds spiritual commandments in us, inverting every egoistic desire into bestowal.

“The view of the landlords” is the opinion of those who want to remain in their desire to enjoy, and therefore, try to invert the spiritual message for their own benefit so that there is an excuse to remain in egoism, without changing their desire. In this case, the intention remains egoistic. We observe this phenomenon throughout history.

From the moment the people of Israel received the Torah until today, these two approaches to the Torah have existed in the people. The world is about to face great suffering that will compel the people of Israel to understand and fulfill their mission, that is, to bring the revelation of the Creator to the whole of humanity, which means to reach the end of correction.

Meanwhile, however, love for the created beings repels people. They neither desire, comprehend nor want to hear about it. However, this is an obligatory stage—one on which the love for the Creator is being built. We will have to overcome both of these steps and we must prepare ourselves for the maximum possible connection. Although it is still egoistic and incomplete, our pain of being unable to do more attracts to us the Ohr Hozer(returning Light), which works on us.

The Creator will finish the work for us. We need only to raise a prayer to Him, MAN, to express our desire and pain, and the upper Light will complete our correction. Everything is achieved only by our efforts to unite, which lead to prayer, to the disclosure of the correct deficiency according to which the Creator completes the work for us: the upper Light comes and performs the action.¹
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/18, Lesson on the Topic: “From Love for the Created Beings to The Love for the Creator”

Turning Hatred Into Love

Question: How are the levels of knowledge of the soul different and how are they measured?

Answer: They are levels of the revelation of the Creator.

The fact is that we reveal the Creator only to the extent of our similarity to Him, like any physical law. We are given a very simple property—a property of bestowal and love, emanation. We must discover this within ourselves.

To the extent that we can generate it, we will attain it according to the law of equivalence of form. As much as we can be similar to it from the inside, it will manifest itself from the outside.

The quality of bestowal and love fills everything, but we currently have absolutely no perception of it because we are opposite to it. As soon as we resemble it, we will begin to perceive it and reveal the upper world in which we will exist in this quality.

Question: Will I then see everybody around me as loving?

Answer: Yes. I will see everyone that way because by correcting my qualities from hatred to love, I correct all the enemies, turning them into loving ones. I will then see nothing bad outside and the enemies will suddenly become friends.

About this, it is written that the one who turns hatred into love is a hero among heroes.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/4/18

The Times of Israel: “Tisha B’Av 2018: A Day of Reckoning in Israeli Society”

The Times of Israel published my new article “Tisha B’Av 2018: A Day of Reckoning in Israeli Society”

Let’s conduct a social exercise and see our reality through two worldviews.

One shows us the alienated world we know, with social division, cruelty and discrimination that leaves no choice besides taking to the streets. On the other hand — and here is the exercise — let’s aspire to see a different reality where we are all one family, linked by threads of love, and equally respecting the will of all members of society.

From day to day, the need for this new reality becomes clearer than ever before, the need to feel connection above the daily sense of separation. This is not about fake smiles and niceties. It’s about a whole new spiritual space of human relations — living in conjunction with the binding force of nature that ties all of us together into a single fabric of humanity.

The sense of equality that will emerge is a new perspective we haven’t seen before. We will discover how there can be room for everyone. The sense of a higher force of connection between us will provide us with the importance of preserving our differences, and the recognition that our conflicts and differences enable us to see the harmony and wholeness that lies in nature.

But in order for such a dream-reality to take shape, we have to make room within us. We have to shape a new perception of reality, opposite to the narrow, egoistic one that rules us. It takes practice and we have to play with it like children. We have to envision ourselves living in a warm and loving family, in the embrace of a loving society. We have to awaken latent feelings of connection between us, which will illuminate the dark spaces between us.

Then, nature will work its magic: the game we play will change our perception of what’s realistic. It’s not that reality itself will change before our eyes, but our perception of reality certainly will.

On Tisha B’Av, the day that symbolizes our unfounded hatred to each other, there is no shortage of attempts to elevate the value of social unity. But whether it’s through discussion circles in city squares, on social networks, or in protest tents, the discourse doesn’t rise above the limited, earthly level.

Surely, today we are not afraid of social disagreements and no longer try to blur them. We are well aware that the secular people will never agree with the religious, and those on the right will remain in dispute with those on the left.

However, acknowledging the differences between us is not enough to take us to a new space.

We lack the genuine urgency to break through the barrier of our worldly perception. The ego holds us captive, chains us to a dividing worldview in which we can never rebuild our society. At the moment, it seems like the need for change will only come with intensifying troubles, wars, struggles and protests.

But there is another way. Shorter, faster and more pleasant to all of us. It is through consciously playing, through practice, through education.

For two thousand years the Kabbalists have been pointing to unity as a solution to all our troubles. They warn us in every way they can that if we don’t connect to our common spiritual root, the events of life will teach us to do so in a very difficult and long-winding path.

Therefore, we must begin relating to the better future we want for ourselves and our children, to the positive relationship between all of us. We are not required to let go of our opinion or give in to others. We are only required to play with a new worldview, where above our differences, we are connected as one family.

The brotherly love that we will gradually build will be called “the third Temple.”

The Spiritual Root Of Tisha B’Av

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 7/22/18

Our world is governed by two forces, a positive force and a negative force. We, humans, are in between these two forces. The spiritual root of the negative force is referred to as the 9th of Av (Tisha B’Av).

JPost: “We Mourn The Ruin Of The Temple, But We Extol Its Cause”

The Jerusalem Post published my new article: “We Mourn The Ruin Of The Temple, But We Extol Its Cause”

Each year come Tisha B’Av, we mourn the ruin of the Temple due to our baseless hatred. And yet, each year we make our mutual hatred more entrenched. So what good are our tears?

A Bad Day for the Jews

The Talmud (Masechet Taanit) tells us: “Five things happened to our fathers on the 17th of Tammuz, and five on the 9th of Av [the days marking the beginning and end of The Three Weeks (Bein Hametzarim)]. On the 17th of Tammuz the First Tablets broke, the everlasting fire quenched, the city wall was breached, Apostomus burned the Torah, and placed an idol in the Temple. On the 9th of Av our fathers were banned from entering the land, the First, and Second Temples were ruined, Beitar was conquered, and [on the same day a year later] the city was razed.”

The horror-filled history of the 9th of Av does not end with the ruin of the Temple. Throughout history, this day of the year has been fraught with calamity. The 1290 expulsion of the Jews from England and the notorious 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain both happened on the 9th of Av. Closer to our time, on the 9th of Av, 1942, the Nazis began a mass deportation of 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp.

Since the birth of our nation, the 9th of Av has been a bad day for the Jews.

Why Specifically That Day?

The Hebrew calendar reflects more than our history. On a deeper level, it reflects a process of transformation from self-centered beings—whose hearts are evil from their youth, as the Torah narrates (Genesis 8:21)—into a connected, mutually responsible nation, whose members are united “as one man with one heart.” On this cycle, the 9th of Av marks a crisis point, when we turn our backs on unity and condone self-centeredness.

The ruin of the Second Temple is certainly the most traumatic event that happened on the 9th of Av. However, it is not the catastrophe itself that we should mourn, but rather our loss of love for one another, which induced it.

Between Love and Hate

On the cycle of our development, we begin as pure egoists. We want nothing but what is good for us, without any concern for others. “Sin crouches at the door,” the Torah tells us, and so we all behave.

However, if our life’s purpose were to settle for being the species at the top of the food-chain, we would not seek immortality, superiority, renown, and other uniquely human ambitions. We would not need to invent everything we have created over the centuries; spears and arrows would suffice. Humans constantly aspire for perfection and eternity. We want to know what created the world, how it operates, and why. In a word, humanity wants to be like the Creator of the world—its owner. While this may not be true for you and me personally, without these basic drives we would not develop science, critical thinking, athletic competitions, or pursue all of the engagements that pertain to our human existence, beyond our physical survival.

The human ego is different from that of animals. It is the driving force behind our development. And while nature balances the self-interest of animals, balancing human self-absorption requires our own conscious effort.

Abraham, the man of mercy, was the first to find a method for containing human egoism. He and his descendants developed it until a nation based on mercy and unity was formed. But at the foot of Mt Sinai, the mountain of Sina‘a [hatred], we succumbed to our egos and instead of receiving the Torah, the power of connection, we turned toward the idol of the ego—the golden calf. Thus, the Tablets broke.

Yet, our nation emerged from that crisis. We vowed to be “as one man with one heart,” thereby received the Torah, and were given the task to be “a light unto nations” by spreading the power of unity.

In the battle between love and hate, the method that the ancient Hebrews developed was intended to lead the world to the ultimate victory of love over hate. This method very simply states that if we balance our egoism with love of others, we allow each person to realize his or her full potential, while using that realization for the common good. In this way, we “cover” our egos with love, or as King Solomon put it (Proverbs, 10:12): “Hate stirs strife, and love covers all crimes.” By doing so, we tap into the power of connection that created the world, and now sustains it. This is the inner meaning of receiving the Torah.

The Final Frontier

Each year come Tisha B’Av [9th of Av], we mourn the ruin of the Temple due to our baseless hatred. And yet, each year we become more entrenched in our mutual hatred. So what good are our tears?

What is the point of crying over our past ruin if at the same time we are preparing our own destruction due to the exact same reason that demolished us before? Have we really learned nothing from our past? How many more ruins due to mutual loathing do we need to experience before we finally wise up?

The looming extermination of the Jewish people will dwarf anything we have ever experienced, including the ruin of the Second Temple, and including even the Holocaust, which, incidentally, extinguished the vast majority of my own family.

We are on the last leg of the journey, the final frontier in the battle between love and hate. The hatred that is appearing now will be the most intense ever, and it will turn its wrath against the Jews. We cannot mitigate it whatsoever, but we can, and must, cover it with love, as we had done before.

This is our vocation as Jews. It is the realization of our mission to be “a light unto nations.” As I have said numerous times before, on the internet and in the pages of The New York Times, we must cover our hatred with care for one another, and thereby set an example of unity for the world. We can do this willingly and pleasantly, or we will be forced into it by the fury of the world. One way or the other, we will do it.

So this Tisha B’Av, let us think more about our future and our role, and less about our past. Let us focus on building the time to come, and make the ruin of the past the cornerstone of our safe and happy future.

The Count Down Has Begun

Every day that the Temple is not restored, it is as if it were destroyed again. After all, since the time of the Ari onward, we already have a duty to correct the shattering. Therefore, since that moment, we can start counting down the many years of our delay regarding correction that have already passed. Also, every day in which no correction is made is added to the shattering. More and more egoistic desires are being revealed, which should already have been corrected, and we should have been connected above them. However, we are not yet doing this, and therefore, we are strengthening the burdening of the heart.¹
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/18, Lesson on the Topic: “The Period of ‘Between the Straits’”
1 Minute 1:40

We Can Grasp The Creator With 10 Pairs Of Hands

A person cannot ask for himself. The correct request to the Creator, in which a person remains in similarity and in connection with Him, is a request for a friend. As a result of the shattering, all people deliberately appear to be strangers to us so that we can build the quality of bestowal. It is as if the Creator could be retained only if He is taken hold of by ten pairs of hands at the same time.

If I awaken ten friends, then together, in ten pairs of hands, we will be able to grasp the Creator, like a baby that clings to his mother and does not let go. According to the extent of our unity, we can connect with the Creator. This makes it clear how our work should be.

Of course, a person can pray and ask, thinking that he speaks with the Creator. But the real work, and not the one that is perceived in our egoism, can only be in the common Klicreated with the help of twenty hands. Only in this way can we cling to the Creator and adhere to Him.¹

To build Jerusalem means to build fear in oneself that if help does not come from above, I will never achieve bestowal through created beings to the Creator. This is called “Jerusalem”—a complete fear (Ira’a Shlema)²
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/18, Writings of Rabash, Vol. 2, Article 39: “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy’ In the Work” (1990)

Between A Person And The Upper Force

Group = 10 + Humanity

The group is between a person and the upper force. A person has no chance of working with the upper force, to receive or give to it, bypassing the group. Even if it seems that ten years ago he was alone, he still belonged to the group, only it was hidden from him. When he now sits in a random group—it is an emergence of various opportunities to establish a connection with the Creator.

The group is always there. It is called Adam (human). The group is the entire system: a ten and the whole of humanity. Therefore, if a person wants to request from the Creator by himself, bypassing the group, he is mistaken. Nothing serious will come out of it, just like a beginner. If a person really wants to establish a connection with the Creator, he has to join the group and reveal the Creator in it.

We will never be able to feel any area above the group, for the Creator is within it. A group is a permanent structure, but it is hidden, and the Creator is also a permanent element, and He is hidden. The group allegedly has a physical manifestation, as if we see friends. But the moment the real group—the spiritual realm, spiritual quality, and the upper force—reveals itself to us, the Creator will also be revealed within it. One cannot exist without the other.¹
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/18, Lesson on the Topic: “From Helplessness to Crying Out to the Creator
1 Minute 4:30

Everything Only Through Prayer

One can achieve everything only through prayer. This is how one needs to react to everything that happens: if there is none else besides the Creator, then I need to ask only Him and demand from Him. This is the only correct reaction.

We, on the contrary, do a lot of unnecessary actions. In the end, they still lead us to the same conclusion that we need only turn to the Creator, but it is a much longer path. If we do not do that, and search for all sorts of tricks and other means, then there is no other way but to add more and more burden to the heart in all possible forms. This process will continue until a person screams: “Please save me!” The group then begins to pray and ask for him. This means that “the friends save him from confinement,” and he commits them to prayer.

We should understand in our hearts that everything can be resolved only by prayer. Everything happening to us comes from the Creator and we have to immediately turn back to Him. That is how we work all the time: “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” There is nothing in between. This is very difficult to do because egoism does not let us turn to the Creator. Egoism is our “help against Him,” given to us purposely so that we reveal that above all forms of separation, the Creator is the source of both correction and separation. There is none else besides Him.

By this we build an internal system, also called “There is none else besides Him,” connecting all the broken parts so as to establish connection with the Creator. To do this, we need not perform other secondary actions. All we need to do is collect and build the common system above ever-revealing separation and to relate everything—past, present, and future—to the Creator.¹
From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/18

Recognizing The Need For Your Correction

To be in mourning is to acknowledge the pain in your heart, which comes from recognizing the need for your own correction.It is impossible to correct anything prior to revealing the damage. We mourn not according to a date on the calendar, but according to the state that is preparing us for correction. That is why there is a date that reminds us of this. In reality, correction can be carried out on any date and it is not necessary to wait for the 17^th of Tammuz for this to occur.

Behind the history and geography of the material city of Jerusalem (the stone wall and the destroyed building), we must see what’s most important: spiritual understanding, our obligation to unite our desires, intentions, and thoughts. This will be the correction of the vessel of our collective soul shattered by the sin of the Tree of Knowledge.

This shattering was not done by man, but by the Creator, as our preparation. Now we must correct it; collect all the parts together so that within this vessel we can discover who and what our Creator is. By revealing Him, we attain His qualities and thoughts in our minds and hearts, achieving correction. Of course, the essence of the correction is for us to become exactly like the Creator and not to think about anything material.

Then we will reveal that everything in this world was an imaginary reality that really does not exist. We do all this only in order to correct the shattering. The Creator created a state opposite to Himself so that from it, we reveal Him.¹

The sin of the Tree of Knowledge was orchestrated by the Creator because, without it, it is impossible to achieve correction. The first man, Adam, was in bestowal as in an angel that had no revelation of the evil inclination. There was no creation yet, in other words, that which transcends the limits of divinity, bestowal. That is why an action was needed to bring the person out of it, which was exactly what was intentionally done from above.

Everything else is just the revelation of opportunities for correction, which creation was not ready for. The first shattering is the revelation of evil and and all other ruins and problems are the disclosure of our weakness and inability to correct the division. The ruin of the First and the Second Temples, the entire exile and suffering, was meant to be revealed so that we understand how exactly to correct our Kli, with what power, in what form. These events, however, were no longer pre-programmed from above. They were elicited by man’s weakness, and that is why they relate to the creation and not to the Creator.²

The ruin of the Temple is relevant to the whole of humanity, regardless of nationality or place of residence. We must correct it through our unity. The greater our degree of unity, the greater the shattering we will discover—the force of evil against the force of good—and then we will rise upon these levels as upon the rungs of a ladder.³

Bein HaMetzarim (“Between the straights”) is a person’s state, a period when he cannot bring his intentions to the Creator, especially through the group. There are many people in this world who want to connect to the upper force directly. The problem is that this type of appeal does not reach the Creator since it does not traverse the correct Kli.

“Between the straights” is a time when the connection between me, the group, and the Creator is shattered. Even in this state, however, we must cry out to the Creator because this is the revelation of evil, as it is written: “From the straits I called God” (Psalms 118:5). In other words, we discover that we are in a critical state and therefore we can now scream.⁴
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/18, Lesson on the Topic: “The Period of ‘Between the Straits’”

Love Of Others, Why Do We Need It?

Why do you need to go through love for the created beings in order to reach love for the Creator? Everyone agrees with loving the Creator because this is the upper force that created and controls everything. It is beneficial for us to love and befriend such a force for selfish reasons. As for the created beings, it is the other way around: we dislike them and think that they are unnecessary. Sometimes we even dream of having no one else left in the world. It is not only in dreams, but in regular life, everyone thinks only about himself and takes into account only his own benefit.

Love for the created beings is something completely artificial; why do we even need it? Even if we come up with all sorts of reasons why we should love each other and agree that we should be in mutual harmony with everyone in our mind, this will still remain to be only good intentions. In reality, this will never work because our nature will not let us love or even simply unite in a friendly way.

Why did the Creator make it so that we have to be opposite Him? If we want to reach perfection, rise to the level of the Creator who includes the entirety of creation inside Himself, we have to acquire His properties. That is, we have to consist of both properties, and therefore, the Creator originally created us in an opposite form so that above this oppositeness we would come to His likeness.

It follows that a person has to include two opposite qualities within: below—our corporeal trajectory with all kinds of obstacles (this world, our problems, desire to receive), and we have to try to be above it, fully confident in “There is none else besides Him,” the upper force, the upper world, bestowal. As a result of incorporating these two parts, we receive a third line in which the other two exist in harmony and balance. This is how we achieve adhesion with the Creator.

We achieve adhesion with the Creator while possessing two natures: one that is opposite the Creator, and one supporting Him. Thus, remaining a creation, we achieve similarity with the Creator. Also, the path to this goal is through love for the created beings, and only from there, to love for the Creator.

Above all obstacles that the Creator presents to us in this world, in our life, internal and external problems, we hold on to one principle: “There is none else besides Him,” we strengthen each other, and then start realizing the need to rise above our senses, as it is written: “They have eyes but see not, they have ears but hear not.” Above all that, we must determine that everything comes from the Creator and not so that we would correct the world, but only so that we would relate everything to the Creator. This is what our correction entails.

We do not address this world, we do not want to change anything about it: neither the nature of a person, nor the relations between everyone. The only thing that changes is our attitude, the recognition that everything comes from the Creator—this is what defines the correction. When we determine that, we realize the necessity of love for the created beings, starting from the friends and expanding this feeling for the entire world.¹
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/18, Lesson on the Topic: “From Love for the Created Beings to The Love for the Creator”

The Foundation Of The Family

Question: In the material world, people of the same mentality, soulmates, are more suitable to become a couple. What does being a soulmate mean? Do opposites attract in spirituality?

Answer: No. There is nothing good in being opposite. There is no need to think too much about this and try to build our life based on some novels.

It is desirable to be similar, especially in spirituality. Physically, of course, we are different. For example, male properties prevail in me and female properties prevail in my wife. There is nothing you can do and, frankly, you should not. However, the general direction in life is very important, otherwise we will not feel what is important to our partner.

If there are children in the family, it somehow fills our life. But, as it turns out, this is not enough any more in the modern world, and we no longer wish to marry and have children. Therefore, a real family is one with a common spiritual purpose.

Question: Does it mean, in your opinion, that people with different properties and mentality cannot live together?

Answer: No, our world will become more and more divided.

Question: What about spirituality?

Answer: If I feel that it is desirable for me to be close to this person in order to achieve a spiritual goal, then I will be with that person even if he or she is not very pleasant to me or I do not like some of his or her properties. We work on a spiritual level.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/25/18

The Only Path To Spiritual Attainment

Question: Baal HaSulam writes about the need to reveal the Creatorin all ways. Is he speaking about the many multitude of ways or many different ways in the only path toward similarity of form with the qualities of the Creator?

Answer: There are principles that are immutable on every level of attainment, and there are those that can change.

Let’s say, in physics, any equation studied in school acquires a completely different look in the university: integrals are added, differentials and so on. Why can’t we be satisfied with what we learned in school? It’s because in the university, a more generalized comprehension of those same laws takes place. The same thing happens in Kabbalah.

Question: Are there many forms of attainment on the spiritual path?

Answer: No. The spiritual path is characterized by an absolutely well-defined path of attainment: the expansion of personal sensitivity to all forms of spiritual qualities.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 3/11/18

Medium: “What Happens When We Die?”

The portal Medium published my new article “What Happens When We Die?“

Where do we go immediately after death? What happens to our mind, our spirit and our soul when we die? Do we fly up into an eternal heaven, or fall into an eternal hell? Do we reincarnate in this world as other people, or even animals, plants or rocks? Do we keep living the life we led over and over again? Do we simply disappear into nothingness?

Different teachings offer different answers to these questions. Science details how the body decomposes when we die. In general, the discussion around this topic falls into two main categories:

1. People who have had near-death experiences and lived to describe what they saw and felt;
2. Religious beliefs, philosophies and other theories offering concepts about the afterlife, reincarnation and consciousness.

This article is dedicated to investigating the question — “What happens when you die?” — from the perspective of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which offers a fundamentally different approach to the current discussion. We will look into Kabbalah’s take on:

• What is common to all near-death experiences and what we can learn from them?
• What is the soul? Do we have a soul, or do we get one when we die, or can we can attain one during our lifetime?
• What happens to our corporeal existence when we die?

What Can We Learn from Near-Death Experiences?

People who have survived clinical death have reported a range of feelings, such as a sleep-like nothingness, a peaceful floating sensation in the sky or in a tranquil scenery like a garden, a bright light or a tunnel heading toward a bright light, seeing and speaking with loved ones who had passed away, as well as out-of-body experiences where they could see what was happening in the room where they were pronounced clinically dead.

What do all these sensations have in common?

They are all sensations of freedom from the corporeal body. In near-death experiences, the corporeal body is no longer a disturbance. People feel as if they belong to something other than what they identified as their body. The mind continues working and processing corporeal information, albeit differently.

Near-death experiences express a boundary between our corporeal life and its death. It is a boundary where we end our contact with information we received through our body, mind and corporeal senses.

In such states, our desire diminishes, and its disappearance equates to the person’s disappearance. In other words, the feeling of life we experience in our individual desires (food, sex, family) and social desires (money, honor, control, knowledge) fully vanishes and we agree with its withdrawal, ceasing to receive, feel, live and enjoy.

The sensation of freedom from the corporeal body marks a shift to a new state. This new state, however, is still not death, neither is it spirituality nor eternity.

According to Kabbalah, it is purely psychological. Whatever we feel in such states is limited and miniscule compared to the sensations of eternity and wholeness, which Kabbalah states we can attain a lot more vividly while we’re still alive in this world.

How? It is by attaining our soul.

What Is the Soul? Does It Belong to Our Body? Does the Body’s Death Mark the Soul’s Birth, or Can We Attain Our Soul While We’re Alive?

According to Kabbalah, the soul is not something we enter after our body’s death. Instead, it is something we need to attain a clear perception and sensation of while we’re alive. If we don’t attain our soul while we’re alive, then it’s considered that we don’t have one.

The soul is a desire above our egoistic, corporeal desires. That is, above our desires for food, sex, family, money, honor, control and knowledge, there is a small desire that asks about the meaning and purpose behind everything we experience: the meaning of life. This desire is a small point, called “the point in the heart” in Kabbalah, which we have an opportunity to develop. The full development of this point is considered the attainment of the soul.

Attaining the soul is like feeling an additional life to our current one, a life that was hidden from us. When we attain contact with the soul, it becomes the center of our life. We reevaluate our current life and start relating to it on a completely different level. Death of the physical body then becomes like changing one’s shirt. In other words, when our physical body dies, we continue reincarnating in a new body until the full extent of the soul is attained, called in Kabbalah, “125 degrees of spiritual attainment.”

If we don’t attain spirituality, then all that remains is a Reshimo (a “reminiscence” or “record”). It is a spiritual informational gene, similar to DNA. This Reshimo clothes in new bodies until it surfaces in us as the question, “What is the meaning of life?” This question eventually urges us to seek its answer: to find a method and an environment for the soul’s development.

What Happens to Our Corporeal Existence When We Die?

When we die, we lose awareness of everything we sensed in our corporeal lives. However, does it mean that we lose it all? No. It is being passed on in the form of personality attributes. This explains why, in every new generation, children are better adapted to life than adults. For example, children are instinctively proficient with the latest technologies and gadgets, while the older generation finds them more complicated.

In each successive generation, the will to receive undergoes an upgrade. If the will to receive fails to bring a person to spiritual development, then it shifts to a new stage, to another opportunity. All the problems, pains and knowledge gradually accumulate from one generation to the next, toward the need for spiritual development.

That is what the wisdom of Kabbalah was made for. Through the wisdom of Kabbalah, we can gain access to the eternal and whole system of the soul, discover its inner power, and become its active part, revealing spirituality as a clear perception and sensation, and this is the purpose of our development.

Today marks a very significant moment in humanity’s development toward this purpose, one which Kabbalists described as the time when humanity en masse would start awakening with questions about its meaning and purpose, and when Kabbalah would be revealed and open to everyone to allow us to realize this opportunity in our lifetime and gain eternal life.