The Origin Of Dreams

Question: What are dreams? There are many myths and fairy tales around dreams and this phenomenon has concerned humanity throughout its history. The ancient Romans and Greeks tried to decipher dreams. But until now, this phenomenon remains a mystery.

A person spends one-third of his life sleeping and has dreams during all this time, but does not remember most of them. In this way, our brain processes and organizes all the information received during the day.

But there are dreams that seem to convey a special message, to reveal the future. Where do dreams come from?

Answer: Even the Torah talks about dreams: the dream of Jacob and the dreams of Pharaoh and his ministers. Sleep is a natural phenomenon, but sometimes we perceive dreams as something not serious, like fantasies.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that during sleep, the brain summarizes all the information received during the day and that is what we perceive as dreams. This data and some fluids that rise in the brain without any connection to real matter, take special forms, and as a result, we see unusual images of people, animals, and strange events.

All this is due to the fact that sleep, as opposed to reality, has no material basis. This is why everything happens as if in the air and without regard to our specific desires. In addition, a dream can reveal those desires that we would like to realize, but are not able to, fears that torment us and from which we cannot escape, all kinds of fantasies, and pleasant and unpleasant experiences that we have been through.

Among them, there are those that we would rather forget. Perhaps, in real life we managed this, but they still live in us subconsciously. Therefore, while we sleep and break away from the real world and the environment that does not affect us, all these fears and feelings awaken in us and come to life in a dream.

Dreams can tell a lot about a person, such as his inner state, desires, thoughts, all sorts of plans, fears, and obstacles. When he is under hypnosis, it is possible to study and learn a lot information. In this state, a person loses control over himself and opens himself to the study.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/11/15

“Health To All Their Flesh….”

Question: They say that there are unique powers in the letters of theTorah. One of the powers that are connected with the letters is the power of healing. How do they heal?

From what I understand, all of these letters, together, form the lines of a code that manages me (and every person) at every moment and determine everything that happens to me, but in this code there are intervals. If I am sufficiently developed and wise, then will I be able to write these intervals myself and then change the course of the process?

Answer: In the Torah, it is written, “For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:22). These letters, themselves, are forces, but this is not talking about letters that you write on paper. With every letter that you perceive, you are changed. You must change according to each letter to allow these letters to be embedded into you.

Our entire problem is that we are in an egoistic state, always wanting to receive for ourselves. This is the opposite of the material into which the Torah can embed itself. It can be embedded only in material that is entirely bestowal and love, which is the opposite of our ego.

Every letter is a symbol, a form or a manner through which I provide the best to others. Both the form of the letters and their combinations indicate how we can take the material, the desire to receive, and make from it a desire to bestow. We work with the desire to receive in the form of a desire to bestow, and then the letters are created from the desire to receive.

It is said that you had a formless heap of the desire to receive like a mountain of sand, and now, by adding water and cement to this sand, you make a solid mass out of this mountain, and from that, you already can make the form of the letters.

However, what does every letter symbolize? In this form, your formerly egoistic desire now wants to bestow to others, to give something to them, to help in some way, to arrange something, and it is the same thing even for the Creator, for the general program, so that it will be realized and will be good for everyone. This is what you make out of your natural substance.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/21/14

On A Wave Of Calm

Question: At the time of the Exodus from Egypt the Creator hardened the heart of Pharaoh and sent Moses to him. Is it possible to compare this to today with the relentless military actions of the past few months? How can one explain this process to the public?

Answer: An introduction is needed here first to explain the principle of “There is none else beside Him.” Everything is sent and caused from above; everything comes to us from the upper force. It is from “There is none else beside Him” and the “good that does good.”

So why is that so bad for us?

The problem is that we, the people of Israel, are responsible for the world. And all evil happens because all the good and the pleasure that comes from above are not received correctly in our Kelim. We don’t prepare the Kelim, the desires of all of humanity, such that they will be in equivalence of form with what is sent and reaches us from above.

The Light comes from above in precise amounts as if some kind of “clock” is ticking and secreting the Light according to a precise algorithm, a little more and a little more, every moment more and more for three thousand years until the completion of correction. And we human beings, gathered from all the ends of the earth, are responsible for it in order to accept it specifically as goodness and pleasure, as great abundance that is meant to fill us on every level, at every moment, with heavenly delight.

And in the next minute, the “hardness of the heart” comes again and we must again go to Pharaoh. In this way, time after time, we must correct the hardness of heart and receive the abundance in it.

Ultimately, the troubles and plagues come and don’t pass over the characteristic of “Israel” in us but over the egoistic characteristics of “Egypt” and “Pharaoh.” What is called the “Sitra Achra” (other side) swallows them again. And that is how it must be, and later it will “vomit” out the abundance that it swallows, which is called, “He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again” (Job 20:15).

So we are responsible for the world. Nobody has freedom of choice except for us. We are the ones who left Babylon, who fled from there and were molded as a people who became connected among us and connected with the Creator. We transformed ourselves into a transitional link between the Creator and the entire world. This means that we need to become the “light” for the whole world and give it the method of correction so that at every moment what comes from above will be revealed truly as a paradise on earth.

But we are not doing this. And so we look at everything that is happening and we must understand that, in fact, it is all kindness; the Creator is still frightening us from a distance and playing with us. Thousands of missiles fall on the land of Israel with minimal consequences.

The problem is that this doesn’t wake people up; instead it relaxes them. Look at what a blow we can take. So come, let’s feel the blow as if it didn’t happen, and on the other hand, understand that the Creator is protecting us so that we will approach Him in a good ways, so that we will have the strength for it.

But the people are indifferent. So what else is there? What must the Creator do?

And so we, the people who understand this and have freedom of choice, must go out to the people and bring this message to the people with all our might. The message is that we must change, that through the connection between us we will bring about the connection of the whole world.

That is specifically what we are prepared to bestow to it. It is because we want everyone to be connected with each other well, the far and the near, including our enemies. So ourconnection is required for this, and we will see that it will pass to everyone.

Unity and the connection begin from the center of the group and will extend to more and more external circles. And then we will see how everything relaxes, as if a wave of calm passes over the world. And everyone will look at the people of Israel and will finally understand that they are prepared to bring goodness and pleasure.

“Previously the evil stemmed from them and so we hated them. But now they live with love. So let’s go and help them with this! Come, let’s carry them on our shoulders and bring them to the goal. If they have such an intention, then we are with them.”

This is what must happen, and we are the key for this.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/22/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Such An Unexpected Person

Today, we begin to realize more and more that all of creation is one system and that there is nothing coincidental about it. Everything works according to a general plan that is not known to us. We don’t know who invented it and who manages it, but at least it is clear that everything works according to some upper plan.

Therefore, we can predict what will happen in one place or in several places according to what happens in a certain place. Eventually, we begin to examine the entire system as one whole.

This leads us to the question of why we can be so successful on the level of the still nature, but, at the same time, cannot predict anything when it comes to the human level. We can launch a spaceship to explore another planet and make sure that it lands there, takes pictures, and sends them back to us, or even sends it to some more distant stars.

This means that we know how to calculate its movement in relation to the stars, and this indicates that we know the laws of nature at least to the depth of the physical level.

These laws of the mutual connection do indeed exist and it isn’t by chance that everything in the universe revolves, but this is only on the level of the still nature, while on the vegetative and the animate levels of nature on this planet, we encounter problems. As long as we remain on the level of the still nature, we can predict outcomes, the influence of still nature on plants and animals, and the influence of animals on the vegetative and still nature.

However, when it comes to man, everything is much more complicated. We don’t understand how he is incorporated in the general system. As long as we study only plants, we can predict what will happen during the year, in two years’ time, in five years or even in fifty years according to the seasons and the climate. We also can predict to some extent what will happen in the animate world.

However, when we speak about man, we cannot even say what will happen to him tomorrow. The more complicated the object of our study is—the still, vegetative, animate, and the speaking nature—the more such unexpected forces and factors influence it, and we cannot predict its fate.

It is because the most important thing for us is to predict the future. Currently, we exist somehow, but it is interesting to know what will happen the next moment or in another thousand years.

We do understand the connection between the still and vegetative nature to some extent, such as the effect of sunlight on how a plant grows until it withers. Even here, we may be surprised and encounter phenomena that we don’t understand. Suddenly certain species of plants disappear for reasons that we don’t understand.

However, we have no idea at all as to how man affects the whole system of nature. The main thing is that every human being is an individual, a special personality. There is no such thing in the vegetative world where the entire field withers together. This is because we don’t pay attention to one plant but look at the field as one whole. Plants are indeed all connected to one another that way.

Every human being has his own, unique destiny that is different from others. We see that even newborn babies are very different. One is perfectly healthy and the other is very clever. Each one is an individual.

However, we cannot say that about animals. Interestingly, even people’s physical bodies, which belong to the animate level, are very different from one another. The human level radiates on them and gives them a special individuality so that each body receives its own unique psychological and physiological attributes.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/1/15

All Of The Planets Sustain Life On Earth

Question: Stars, success, fate, astrology, a map of our lives, all of this awakens a strong curiosity in people, but it remains covered in the darkness of ignorance. So each one is free to imagine anything he wants about this area, and there are a multitude of astrological currents. But first of all, I would like to know, does a connection really exist between the arrangement of the stars and the fate of a person?

Answer: It is absolutely clear that if we live in an integral world that emerged from the singularity of the Big Bang 14 billion years ago, from then up until this moment, it has expanded according to absolutely strict and clear laws of which we have discovered only a minute fraction. But in what we have discovered, we see iron-clad laws and inseparable connections between all parts of nature.

Our solar system was created under particularly favorable conditions that made the appearance of life possible. It is not by chance that the Earth was created as the third planet from the sun, under unique conditions that provide it with the two planets before it, Mercury and Venus, and all the planets that come after it, starting from Mars and beyond to the other plants.

It is interesting that together with Earth, all of the planets that orbit the sun have their own function in relation to it. They absorb and swallow waves of radioactive rays from the sun and don’t allow them reach the Earth.

By changes in location, the planets balance all this great system. It seems to us that the Earth rotates in empty space, but actually all of the planets are linked by rigid connections.

For example, not long ago it was discovered that Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, plays a gigantic role in our lives. If it were not for its immense mass that attracts, like a magnet, all the fragments that are flying around, then millions of times more meteors would have fallen on the Earth. In this manner it is our defensive shield.

Some of the planets shield us from harmful radiation, others work as absorbers that swallow sharp fluctuations and provide for stable conditions on Earth by which life can exist. Other  planets attract cosmic objects to themselves that threaten to fall on the Earth.

All of this works as a single system that we still don’t fully understand. The wisdom of Kabbalah shows how much all things are connected and depend upon each other. From that moment when the universe emerged from a single point until today, everything is managed within it by means of a single, general force that holds together the natures of the still, vegetative, and animate levels and all of humanity.

So without a doubt, there exists a connection between our fate and what is happening in the heavens if we are in a single system. The only question is can we discern and discover it?

Are we ready to come to such conclusions on the basis of thousands of years of observation and records that have been transmitted from generation to generation? In such a case, we explore this connection in a practical manner. Or, we don’t rely on experimental data but learn the main laws. Based on these laws, we will understand what will happen.

There are two ways to investigate nature: either experimentally or by attaining its laws. By attaining the laws without experimental data, we are able think about the future and predict what will happen.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/01/15

How To Interfere With The Code Of Life

Question: Is it possible that I interfere with the upper governance’s code that descends to me in the form of a letter? In any other system, writing codes define the way the material the system is made of “behaves” and outlines what processes will take place.

Answer: The code includes everything. At the same time, there are certain gaps left for us deliberately in order for us to contribute our reaction. In other words, we don’t move blindly as robots without having any freedom of will, solely following the immutable laws and forces that govern us.

We accept the program that works within us and that leaves a certain space for our independence.

The program needs us to learn the letters and enter them correctly in the empty spaces that are specifically left open for us at the time the program was keyed into a typewriter or computer.

We are supposed to place the letters in the empty places in such a way that we work in unison with the author of the text, thus helping the program advance nicely in accordance with His and our desires.

Question: So, is it right that the letters can be split into two separate parts:

1.   The letters that are printed within us and that define what will happen to us, and

2.   The letters that we add on our own when we attain the wisdom hidden within them and begin actively participating in the process, i.e., when we write the letters ourselves.

Does it mean that I learn how to control things that define my reality?

Answer: Yes, it is true. What do those empty spaces in the text (the program) mean? You are given a power from above, the will to receive, and the power of bestowal. When they are combined together, the gaps in the text are filled.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/21/14

War With Pharaoh

The Midrash “BeShalach”: Why didn’t the Jews continue their journey? Why did they camp in Pithom even though this decision involved additional risk for them? The answer lies in the fact that they were stuck because there was a sea in front of them; nor could they run to the desert, since wild beasts were waiting for them there.

But the people of Egypt did not agree with the Pharaoh’s plan: Recent losses were still too fresh in their memory. Therefore, Pharaoh used every means of persuasion and various tricks to force the Egyptians to agree. “Know! he told them. Even though according to the royal tradition in order to protect myself I should be riding in the rear of my army, in this battle I’ll be at the head!”

“Why are you going to behave so unusually?” they asked the Pharaoh. “Because this war is not against the Jews, said the Pharaoh. It is against their very G-d! So I’ll be at the head of the battle!”

This extract is about a very serious degree of detachment in those who are engaged in the Torah religiously, but study it for their own sake, i.e., for the sake of the Pharaoh.

The Pharaoh is not against the Creator since both of them help identify each other. This explains why the Pharaoh says: “Blessed is the Creator! I am a sinner…” There are many interesting developmental stages that oppose this state, but the major thing for Pharaoh is preventing a human being from engaging in altruistic actions and detaching from selfish fulfillment.

Regular egoistic inducements that are originally built in us do not count since they are given to us by nature. They are not considered “Egypt.” Only the actions that one does for one’s own sake and that are mentioned in the Torah, in the Pentateuch, are considered to be of importance.

This explains why, when exiting Egypt (rising from one’s egoistic intention), actions are annulled and Egyptians die as a result of the ten Egyptian plagues. The desires and people who follow the instructions of the Torah for their own sake remain under the power of the Pharaoh because they aspire to this kind of power. They are seriously engaged in the Torah and all earthly commandments for the sake of their own fulfillment and hold on to them very strongly. They are the ones who stay in Egypt and chase those who really want to run away from it.

The Pharaoh says: “I’ll be at the head of my army,” i.e., this is the moment when their oppositeness manifests itself: either for one’s own sake (Lo Lishma) or for the sake of the Creator (Lishma). “For one’s own sake” means for Pharaoh, “for the sake of the Creator” signifies those who exit from Egypt. At this point, a struggle between them begins.

Usually, Pharaoh follows his army. It means that all egoistic actions “feed and nourish him.” When his confrontation with the Creator starts, he heads the army since the most important thing at this time is ideology: whether you do it for your own sake or you do it being completely detached from yourself, i.e., for the sake of the Creator. That’s why the Pharaoh considers it a sacred war that is directed “against their very G-d!”

Right after that, Egypt starts withering since Pharaoh nourishes himself from the source other than Egyptians, from those who aspire to being with the Creator but so far are not there yet. This is why anti-Semitism emerges; however, this kind of “fuel” is absolutely essential.

Pharaoh gets stronger with the help of the desires that “are afraid of the Creator but work for the Pharaoh,” i.e., that follow everything that is commanded, however, they are doing so for their own sake. When they tend to change the intention and start working for the sake of the Creator, Pharaoh immediately feels that this might be his end and starts a war with their G-d.

At this point, our egoism faces a huge problem: What if the Creator wins? The mere fact that there are people who exited Egypt and then returned irritates Pharaoh since our egoism is afraid that the intention for the sake of bestowal might win. Egoism doesn’t have any other way but to reveal itself and try to survive, otherwise Pharaoh stops being the Pharaoh. It won’t be an intention for “one’s own sake” any longer.

Comment: They return and frustrate the Pharaoh.

Answer: They don’t return to Egypt, though! It’s a different level even though they have already reached the cities of Pithom and Ramses that were built for Pharaoh. At some point, they worked “for his sake”; however, now they return to the same level, but with an intention “for the sake of the Creator.” This is why the Pharaoh (our egoism) is not able to accept the fact that people return liberated and attack the Pharaoh’s “jurisdiction,” i.e., their own egoism.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/23/14

A World Of Two Forces

Question: How is the spiritual world connected with our lives? Is it relevant to us?

Answer: The spiritual world is connected with us because it manages us. It is found on a higher level, which Einstein and other physicists wanted to penetrate but couldn’t because this is impossible. Only Kabbalists can attain it.

From this higher, spiritual world, a force that manages us acts and influences us and we obey its management. In the spiritual world there are only two forces, the force of reception and the force of bestowal, which connect in various ways. The force of reception is the desire to attract everything to itself and swallow it. The force of bestowal is the desire to give outwardly.

In our world these two forces produce all phenomena on all the various levels because they are at work within matter and the desire to receive, which is the desire to receive pleasure.

By acting within matter, within the desire to receive, these two forces create all kinds of new characteristics and feelings within matter. It follows that this matter, under the influence of these two forces, receives a new form and begins either to be similar to them or opposed to them. All kinds of changes happen with this matter.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/21/14

The Soul’s Designer

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 20:13: And a man who lies with a male as one would with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon themselves. 

A person kills himself while using the desire, the male part incorrectly, when the one who bestows becomes the one who receives.

This refers to a desire that can be used in order to bestow but is used in order to receive. We don’t simply create the wrong contact between the male and female parts of the desire, but actually lower its level.

With regard to that it is said, “They shall surely be put to death.” Such contacts put themselves to death.

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 20:14: And a man who takes a woman and her mother it is evil counsel. They shall burn him and them in fire, and there shall be no evil counsel in your midst. It is about a short circuit, a wrong connection between the upper and the lower levels. This is impossible.

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 20:15: And a man who lies with an animal, shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. The animate level of the desire isn’t ready to be used in order to bestow. The desire descends by one level and begins to grow again from the level of the vegetative to the animate level and then to the level of the speaking.

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 20:16: And a woman who comes close to any animal so that it will mate with her, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon themselves. The Torah speaks only about how a person can sort out the desires inside him, compare them correctly and create the right network by using them.

There are, for example, many neurons in our brain, which have to connect into synapses (connections) upon which everything depends. If these connections are correct, a person is normal, but if the contact between the neurons is wrong and there are, for example, 500,000 neurons instead of a million, a child is born underdeveloped.

Therefore, the Torah tells us how to create the exact form of the right system inside us, since it was given to us when it is totally ruined. But when you put it together, you begin to realize its inner principle which is impossible to attain any other way. You are like a small child who begins to grow wise by playing with different toys as he understands how they are made. Here too, we are given the right instructions so that we will understand the design of the Creator. It is only by this kind of work that we get to know and attain Him.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/23/14

An Odd Fish

Question: How can I develop a new perception that allows me to exit the aquarium of this world?

Answer: First I have to investigate how I live. I have a desire to exit this aquarium, but all my senses operate inside it.

I aspire to break free, but it is only an inner demand that makes me feel clammed up. So what’s next? How can I get out of the aquarium and feel the external world?

I want to leave my fish body inside the aquarium and escape like some bodiless spirit so that my soul will break free of this fish, of the water, of the aquarium, and will begin to live on the outside! This is the desire I feel! This desire stems from the same soul that wishes to exit my body.

And in this case I need a guide that will tell me what to do if I am such a crazy fish. Perhaps there is something wrong with me or perhaps I have already developed to the next level.

This yearning seems abnormal since 99% of the people live peacefully in the aquarium and feel fine, while I suddenly feel that living in a locked aquarium is worse than death and that I have to get out of it. I have to discover the external reality, to know the upper force, to know the world that is beyond the walls of the aquarium that has become a prison for me.

Then I begin to look for a way to perform this revolution inside me and I find the wisdom of Kabbalah. The wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t teach the beginner what is external to him because at first there is no one to teach. At first I have nothing but the desire to come out of the body of the fish. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches me how to get out.

When I find myself outside the aquarium, I will begin to develop in the new world. The main thing is to get out! The aquarium remains and so does the fish inside it with its physical body and all its senses in the water, but the special desire that has awoken in that fish, which is called the point in the heart, comes out of the aquarium and a new sense develops from it, a new spiritual body.

I don’t identify myself with that fish anymore and it becomes meaningless for me. It lives and I am ready to provide it with everything it needs as long as it leaves me alone. In fact, that fish doesn’t require more than it needs in order to exist: food, sex, family, money, respect, and knowledge. I can provide it with all that as long as it doesn’t interfere with my developing a new sense.

This new body also has five types of sensations: “sight, hearing, taste, smell,” and “touch,” but they have different names: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. Through them I receive five types of impressions that depict the picture of the upper spiritual world in me. This world is called spiritual (Ruhani) since I first develop in it on the still level and then on the level of the vegetative (Ruach – spirit), which is the first level that depends on me.

Thus, I begin to develop outside the aquarium. The fish remains in the aquarium and it can live and die in it. It is still connected to some extent to my new part that lives outside the aquarium, called a soul, but the main point is that I have already freed my point in the heart, which very much wanted to break out.

I have taken it out of my corporeal desires that were absolutely egoistic and have begun to develop externally to them. Now I begin to feel the reality outside the aquarium, which no one else in the world feels and doesn’t even imagine exists.

There are people who think about what there was before they were born or what they will be after their death. Before we are born our matter exists in a different form and after death it will be transformed again, but our birth, our life, or our death have nothing to do with the spiritual world because they are expressed in the matter of the egoistic desire to receive. On the other hand, the matter of the upper world is a desire to bestow.
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From KabTV’s “The Meeting of Worlds” 5/12/14

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