Adultery In Spirituality

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 20:10: And a man who commits adultery with [another] man’s wife, committing adultery with the wife of his fellow the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. All desires exist in a person and are divided into male and female parts. The first nine Sefirot are the male part. The tenth Sefira Malchut is the female part.

To commit adultery with a married woman means using a corrected desire that is not yours. If your tenth Sefira is not corrected, it isn’t your woman since it still belongs to the other nine Sefirot. You cannot use it correctly in order to bestow and will not succeed in doing so.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/23/14

Cameos Are A Lie!

Question: It is said that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet contain a special power and that is why people who are versed in Kabbalahsign cameos (amulets), which protect a person and help him.

To date, there is a whole industry for the production of a variety of cameos for all occasions. And the only secret of these cameos is that Hebrew letters—in a certain order, in special formulas, in a certain form—are written on them. There is a whole technique for making cameos.

What is the special power in the Hebrew alphabet? What do you need to know to connect these letters correctly so that they really have the power?

Can you teach me to sign a cameo?

Answer: No. Cameos are a lie! How can I give you my cameo?! You must know the letters to form them inside yourself from the two forces of reception and bestowal existing in you.

You must first find out where these forces are in you, distinguish between them, make them in a special combination to get this or that letter, i.e., a special property. After all, each letter is a property. This is explained in the article “The Letters By Rabbi Amnon Saba” in The Introduction to The Book of Zohar.

Once you know the letters and know how to make them within yourself, you start to understand the program that runs through you like a reel of film. You start to see where you are, where in this program, how you are working on where you are.

You “read” it; you become a member recognizing this program, reading it, and beginning to process it.

And suddenly you discover an empty spot in it; you stop and want to insert yourself into this program: “What letter should I add? In what form?” And then you write.

This means that you add your desire, mind, feelings, your personality, to what the Creatorwrote to you, exactly in the place that He left empty so you would become His partner.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/21/14

Kings And Jokers

Question: In my environment, it is customary to tell jokes in order to create a relaxed atmosphere. But what should I do if by nature I don’t like jokes?

Answer: Jokes promote mutual incorporation with each other. Only they must be clever jokes, full of subtle humor.

For example, in the court of every king  there was a joker. He was even allowed to do whatever he pleased, even to mock the king. Anyone else would have had his head cut off for doing so, but not the joker. Although the kings were very serious, determined men, they still kept a joker by their side. Why did they need a joker?

The point is that people who were crowned to be kings were above everyone else around them. So who could influence them? In those days, it was actually the joker who could raise the king’s spirits and thus help him deal with many problems.

If something unpleasant happened or there were certain troubles, the joker would begin to entertain the king and the king would relax and begin to think differently about what was going on. These are very deep and important points.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/21/14

Anticipating The Remedy For An Illness

Question: Is it true that a person is open to a negative influence more than a positive influence? How much easier is it to go into a panic and worry than to be relaxed?

Answer: They simply haven’t taught us to oppose panic because the evil inclination, the ego, is what always motivates us: a thirst for control, respect and fame, envy, and so forth.

But if we turn these characteristics in a positive direction, they will influence us to the same degree as the negative, and even more.

In every situation we make some kind of calculation. I remember that when my son was a student, he was given the opportunity to travel in Europe. And I let him. He wasn’t home for two months. Certainly I was worried. This was more than twenty years ago; there weren’t any cell phones then.

Much later he traveled to the Far East, to even more dangerous places, to South America. How could I not let him? I put myself in his place. How could he have otherwise discovered life at such a young age? I had to let him, even though it worried me.

Question: But I am sure that there are other people who allow the same thing for their children and cannot sleep from worry.

Answer: This is called painful sensitivity. It is very difficult to overcome it alone. It is absolutely possible to program yourself for other behavior. For example, put yourself under the influence of the environment.

Question: Come, let’s imagine some kind of state of panic. Last night my daughter was delayed somewhere. I called a friend of hers, after that I called the police, hospitals, and didn’t get any answer. I didn’t know where to run. I called my wife and only got annoyed because she received this information in an absolutely relaxed manner. I panicked. So Influence me somehow so that I will stop being in a panic.

Answer: It is necessary to leave this state completely and consider it in a completely neutral way, without touching the problem point. Turn on some music, put some cake and coffee on the table. From this moment on we behave as if nothing happened, as if we are simply sitting in a coffee house and talking about daily life.

And so gradually we move to the subject of fears and worries on condition that in the beginning we talk about our positive attitude in similar situations. In other words, the remedy must anticipate the illness. After that it is necessary to talk about how good it is to be confident and calm. We try to relax ourselves, for example, we imagine ourselves on the beach.

And after this we begin to think about how to remain in this state of calm in our ordinary life. After all, children have their own lives. And what will be when in another five or six years your daughter goes into the army? Will she become more mature and smarter or will I stop being concerned about her? I must understand that all of my concerns don’t bring any benefit.

Question: And what if I see that someone relates to the given situation disparagingly?

Answer: This is not important because “Whoever condemns does so through his own flaws” (Kiddushin 70a). If I will begin to compare his irresponsibility with my inclination towards exaggerated concern, I will be left with nothing. And even if someone doesn’t know how to act nicely, in any case, I am included in his state.

Question: But I don’t want to plunge to the other extreme….

Answer: Don’t worry. Before you reach a balance, it will be necessary for this to “throw” you in the opposite direction. Ultimately everything will return to normal.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/21/12

How Do We Deal With Anxiety And Worries?

Question: Let’s imagine that ten people from all walks of life are with us in the studio. They are men and women who want to deal with their anxieties and worries. How is it possible to help them to find a point of balance and not to be insensitive like a stone, but also not to inflate all kinds of small things to extremes?

Answer: It is important to consider every person as a small individual system that must be in balance with the general system within which that individual exists.

As far as it seems, each one of the ten members of the group feels a need to change his life. First of all, this group of people must imagine a wonderful future. Play at having an orderly and relaxed life in which everything around you radiates hope, confidence, and warmth. If everyone is under the influence of his small environment, then according to this, everyone will begin to relate to life differently.

Question: How can I be impressed by the environment?

Answer: Within it I must feel myself as being someone small among the great, just as a child feels with his parents. First of all, I must respect this environment, thinking of it as important and great, and learning from it.

Secondly, I must feel myself as great and influential towards these people. I begin to play at being calm and confident even if in life I am far from being like that. In any case I am part of a game and I say, “Friends, everything is okay. Let’s look at the situation from the other side.”

Together with this, we shouldn’t say that such behavior is not serious. We simply neutralize our reactions that are based upon external factors that someone deliberately inflates because he wants to sell us something or just attract our attention. If everyone present here will maintain the rules of the game, then suddenly everyone will feel that wherever he is, people are attracted to him like a magnet because he radiates confidence about tomorrow.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/21/12

The Torah Is A Program And A Guide

A Book as a Means for Discovery

Question: Where does the Torah come from? Some think that it was emanated from above to Moses.

Answer: This is not even an idea, but its complete absence. 

Comment: Others suppose that Moses wrote the Torah himself.

Answer: First of all, Moses didn’t write it himself. There were people, his students, who wrote the Torah throughout the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. There is nothing here that goes beyond the limits of the ordinary world that we know, that is, except for one addition: the discovery of the upper force that surrounds and envelops this world and manages all of nature.

When we say that the Torah was given, that it was transmitted to the people of Israel, this is talking about attainment. There was no hand that transmitted something from above. The upper force is specifically a force, not a heavenly printing house that tossed scrolls to Moses. Is it possible to imagine something like that?

No, the Torah was written in the usual way. You cannot touch the upper force, just like the other forces in our world, with your hands,  and it is not grasped through a parchment or paper delivery. People attained it. Under its influence, they became aware of its mission, its purpose, and, over time, they became the people of the Book.

In this case, the Book is a discovery, a primary source through whose help we discover its author: Who He is, why He wrote, what He wants from us, and do we identify with Him or not?  If I am living in this world without seeing and knowing anything else, then for me, this book, this Torah, is something that was given to us as a higher, primary source through which we can attain the upper force. We have no connection with that except through the Torah.

Guidance for all Generations

It is necessary to understand that the Torah is not parchment scrolls or printed pages. Rather, as it is said, it is a program that must be implemented through the children of Israel, and it is implemented by them from generation to generation.

Accordingly, in every generation, if a person discovers this book for himself, that is, if he connects with it and is included in it in that he wants to discover the Creator through it, he sees that it is not just a historical story, but a history that is actually happening now. This is because, spiritually, the Torah is not limited by time. Through this history, a person can become aware of the upper force, and then the book becomes a source of revelation for him. Its true meaning is in this.

Thousands of years ago people discovered it for the first time, and since then this book has been with us in the form of the written Torah. Through that initial discovery and its written description, by maintaining the conditions that were transmitted together with the book, every generation can draw upon its message: What must one be in order to discover what is written in it?

A Book that Changes Us

Question: How would you characterize the Torah? In general, what kind of book is this?

Answer: Throughout the years of studying in school, we study particular books until we become mature, knowledgeable, and developed to a certain degree.

It is the same thing with the Torah. I must pass through all of those forms that its study creates within me. The preparation for learning and the learning itself, meaning, the correct use of the Torah, leads to this. I am constantly changing, developing, and passing through the stages described in it.

At the end of the way I attain my final individual correction. I become completely like that force that is showing me this entire “movie” of creation.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/04/15

Hope Heals

Abraham gave a clear boundary between truth, nature, and the human intellect that examines it, the possibility to advance to the level of Adam (Man), differentiating the man from the beast, and on the other hand, all kinds of mysticism and beliefs. This is not even a religion in which everything is organized meticulously or some kind of dark superstition.

There is the wisdom of Kabbalah that was discovered by Abraham that gives a person knowledge about the Creator, and there is religion in which there are also precise laws that keep a person in a rigid framework.

Religion is a social framework that fundamentally ties a person and doesn’t let him behave according to the arbitrariness of his heart. This is some kind of additional pressure through the promise of reward or punishment in this world and in the next world, heaven or hell.

But between these two basic currents—the wisdom of Kabbalah (the science of the upper force) and religion—there is a kind of gray area. It was created because people were no longer satisfied with the simple religious frameworks so they tried to clarify and discover something about themselves: What is my destiny, what happen to me, how can you succeed in life and stay out of trouble?

Practical questions arose. They didn’t ask about the next world, about which religion assures us, but about our daily lives. Success today was important to them, and for this they sought some means, blessings and amulets that could protect them and their children, simple symbols that give a person confidence and hope for the future.

And in truth, these hopes for a better situation that appear in a person when he buys an amulet, ties a red string on his wrist, or wears some symbolic jewelry give him strength as a very good psychological support. People are ready to pay dearly to feel protected, calm, confident, and happy.

And this really heals. It is known how inner confidence helps a person by awakening hidden reserves in the body that are ready to support and heal him. So it is impossible just to dismiss these methods and say that they don’t work. They do work, but specifically in the rational realm, without any mysticism, even though they are derived from an irrational source.

So between the wisdom of Kabbalah and religion there exists such an intermediate gray area. For example, in England, before entering a new apartment, a person invites a special service that purifies it of all the “bad spirits.” There is a place for all of these superstitions and it is necessary to take them seriously because they give people confidence.

In this world there are very few people who yearn to discover the Creator and for whom the wisdom of Kabbalah is important. There are a lot of people who belong to religion in some form. But in every person it is possible to find some connection with this middle gray area, each one believes in some signs and symbols that support and strengthen him in life.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/1/15

Spies Are Thoughts And Desires

Question: The oral Torah says that Pharaoh sends his spies to theIsraeli people. What is the meant by “spies”?

Answer: Spies refers to all the thoughts and desires that awaken in a person during his spiritual work that remind him of his previous life: the daily joys, the worries about his self-benefit, and his participation in different activities in the corporeal world. The daily routine suddenly becomes desirable and seems sweet, attractive, warm and safe.

Question: It says that the Israeli people managed to resist the pressure of the spies, killed some of them and sent the others back. What is the internal meaning of the dead spies?

Answer: We should kill all the egoistic intentions, desires, and thoughts that appear inside us, which means to cut off the connection with them and throw them out of my head, and then they die. The more you think about something, the more you are nourished by the energy of that object and the more it holds on to you.

What is more, you don’t even need to hate it, since by that you also nourish it by delighting in the hatred. When two people hate one another, for example, they feel an inner elation, a feeling of struggle, a feeling of life. But when you cut off your hatred towards someone, you cease to feel it, and thus you block it.

Therefore, when you accurately focus yourself on the goal, you kill all your corporeal desires and thoughts that constantly accompany you and try to lead you off the spiritual path.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/23/14