Kabbalah Vs. Other Methods
Question: Why does Kabbalah have such a narrow perspective?
Answer: It is not a narrow perspective, but one that emerged after many searches and examinations, and profound familiarity with reality. It is a familiarity that focused on a very clear, purposeful and thorough path. Therefore, a person who studies Kabbalah sees that there is no other path.
Question: Why only one way?
Answer: It is pointless to take another way if there is only one way that renders a comprehensive solution. A Kabbalist is not limited. He is ready and willing to absorb other things as well, but the Kabbalah is a science that opens the entire reality for you and explains the whole universe, from a tiny grain of sand, through the atom, down to the entire vastness of the universe, in space and time.
The wisdom of Kabbalah can teach you biology, chemistry, physics, you name it. You can learn psychiatry through it, or learn why the universe is built the way it is, why there is a sun, moon and why everything happens the way it does. I cannot tell you right now, but you can ask me about anything in our world, and I can explain, because eventually they are all part of Kabbalah.
Question: But doesn’t everyone think his way is the only way?
Answer: This seemingly narrow perspective comes from the experiences that a person goes through. He realizes this method and sees that every step he makes that Kabbalists write about bears fruit. He sees how he evolves and how humanity and the entire reality behave. It is not a narrow perspective, quite the contrary; it is the widest possible perspective.
Question: Can’t someone else arrive at the same results?
Answer: If he attains a result where he becomes consciously above time, space and motion, exits this life into an eternal one, and if he can prove it to himself – in the end, that’s what matters.
Question: Then his answer would be positive?
Answer: I too asked my rabbi (Baruch Ashlag) this question when I came to him. I was already somewhat experienced in these matters, seen many ‘sages’ and many places. I even turned religious with famous figures that went on to become well-known rabbis.
I was only 34 when I told my rabbi: “I don’t have the time and I am fed up with things, so prove to me that this is the truth.” My rabbi replied: “Do what your soul tells you to do. Where you find your place that is the place for you. One learns only where one’s heart is.”
Question: Who was your teacher?
Answer: Rabbi Baruch Ashlag, my teacher, was the last of the dynasty of the great Kabbalists since the time of Abraham the Patriarch. It seems that after him, there will no longer be such Kabbalists, souls that came down from above, commanded by the Creator to descend to this world and perform corrections for the collective. He himself said it, and his father had written, that after him begins the reversed process: from the year 1995 begins a process of spiritual growth of souls from below upward. It appears we are part of that process.
Question: So in fact, a person can do whatever he wants, and still come to the same outcome, the end of correction?
Answer: No. A person who is still searching will prefer to do what he thinks will satisfy his soul. If his soul is busy with external clothing of money or control, he will turn to that and will not want to hear about anything else. If it is honor he’s after, he will want to become an important figure and nothing else. If it science he is after, he will not eat or drink, because his life would be meaningless without it. It is the same here: if one has already come here, if his soul has come to a state where this is all that he wants, and not any kind of yoga or meditations, then he is now ready. If not, let him go elsewhere for the time being.
Question: Isn’t there something about Judaism that arouses recoil in people?
Answer: Not necessarily. Gentiles, for one, have no troubles accepting it. Many of them, especially the spiritual ones among them, recognize the must of the Israeli nation having to do its unique duty. Our duty is to build the third temple, and this is what they expect us to do. This is indeed our duty, and because we are detaining it, they have complaints toward us.
Question: A person faces the most crucial questions of his life, he does not know which way to turn, afraid of making a mistake, yet does religion offer a safe route?
Answer: Religion sooths his fears. Kabbalah develops him. The left line keeps scaring us, but it is constantly growing in you.
Question: Is the left line controlled fear?
Answer: No, it is uncontrolled, because it fills you entirely in this degree. A person doesn’t know how long he will be left hanging in midair, literally in space, completely denied of limits.
If he can, he should cast off behind his back all previous knowledge and opinions, all the blocks in his head, and examine only the inner point in his heart. Not the one from childhood, which he sucked with his mother’s milk, with the approach and upbringing of his parents, but he should try and see what he thinks, is good for him from within his soul.
Question: Even if the choice is a mistake?
Answer: It will never be a mistake. Even if a person is not studying Kabbalah, he will know where he should be. People sit before me and say: “I will see.” And they gradually do. One goes back to acting, another becomes a factory worker, a third goes back to his family, and a fourth goes back to his former wife. They continue to live their ordinary lives, beginning to see that this is really what they are, and the rest is just confusion caused by the outside world. These people did not come to Kabbalah, and I have no complaints for them. This is really the best thing that a person should do, act only from within himself.
Question: Are you saying this person will not complete his correction?
Answer: He will come to it naturally. When I say that I want to show people what Kabbalah is, I turn to people who already ask the question, not to those who do not. I myself searched four or five years for the place where I could find the answer. But today, people can find it in books and tapes. It would have saved me four years of searching, and perhaps it will save time for others too. This is what I want, to accelerate the development. Many of those who come to us leave later on, but retain some contact. They sometimes come but do not stay, as it says, “A thousand go into a room, and one come out to teach.” There is no other answer.
There are fear and doubts and inner struggles in the hearts of who come and go. They do not know if they have chosen the right path. It happens all along the way and there is no progress without it. Our entire progress is done by finding the justification to take another step forward despite the inner debates.
Question: Do these doubts ever end?
Answer: Only at the end of correction. Until then, they are very heavy. If you examine The Book of Zohar, you will see that everything it speaks of until the end of correction, is man’s inner wars, the fiercest battles of all.
The spiritual path is presented as a story. But look at the history of the Jewish people, they received the Torah on Mt. Sinai, walked in the desert, committed the sin of the golden calf and other sins as well. They began to fight other peoples. The other peoples, who are our own egoistic desires, sent spies, the spies did not do their job correctly; man wants to enter but at the same time he does not. This process continued until the building of the first temple, the second temple, and finally the exile, and the end of the last exile, which is our current situation – when we are actually beginning to rise.
This means that this path is one of no rest until the end of correction. There is a left line, a right line, which the Creator had created one against the other. There cannot be one without the other; altruism is built on top of egoism. They must be of equal amount, and you must develop your egoism to the precise amount as your altruism. When you begin with Kabbalah, you begin with doubts, and they’re the ones that the make the road so tough.
Question: Are we to be afraid of the future the entire way?
Answer: One always begins with fear, because it motivates him in his current degree. But then he attains a different attitude to life. He obtains tools for giving and bestowal, and then he feels no fear. He completely detaches himself from all these things and lives completely outside of himself. When one begins to practice Kabbalah, one enters a world that is all good, a world of bestowal.
Question: So it takes a great deal of ripeness?
Answer: The ripeness comes with experience. Every time a person finds himself between two lines, he is afraid and in doubt. But when he corrects it, he rises to a higher degree and apparently rides the two forces.