Out of all known creatures, man is the most complete. Yet it is he, who asks himself the eternal question that keeps facing him in every generation: what is the purpose of creation?
Scientists have been trying to find the reason for man’s existence for centuries, yet failed to find the answer. The question grows more and more acute with each passing generation, because the pains do not decrease and the struggle for survival continues. Hence, it is quite possible that the answer is not within our reach, and science simply cannot answer it.
But it is not just about the question - why do things exist, but also about the question: what am I living for? The evolutionary processes of nature and living organisms astonish us with their inconceivable contradictions. For example: a cub matures in a matter of weeks or a few months, while a human infant needs many years to grow. Only at the end of the process do you see that it is he who is the Lord of Creation. However, during the transition phases, man is much weaker than any other animal.
It is amazing to see the contradiction between the maturation of man and that of any other animal. If we did not know the final outcome, we would reach the opposite conclusion – that it is the cub that will become the Lord of Creation and the human will lead a bitter life and die. Hence, we do not understand the meaning of reality or the logic in the process of evolution.
We perceive the world through our five senses. What we perceive by sight, sound, smell, taste and touch then unite to form the image of the world around us. Therefore, if we had other senses we would feel the world differently. It is common knowledge that dogs ‘see’ the world through their sense of smell, and to the bees the world appears divided into billions of cells.
Thus, we perceive only a small portion of all that exists around us, and in a very limited range. Is it possible to feel everything around us? Can it be that this is where the secret to the purpose of our existence lies?
If this is so, then we need another sense, a sixth sense, a sensor to what we cannot feel with the other five senses. How can we acquire that sense? Why are we not given that sense at birth?
There is a simple answer to that: man must develop it himself. Man is very different in his development to all other creatures. He acquires, or develops everything by himself, with a human, moral effort.
It is precisely that sense that differentiates man from the beast. Out of all living creatures, man is the only one who has the ability to develop and discover in himself that hidden sense and develop it.
Man evolves gradually, from generation to generation. He evolves technologically, scientifically, culturally, but not ethically. At a certain point in evolution, humanity must feel the need for spiritual development, or else it will not endure. After that, humanity should feel an inner need to discover that extra, hidden sense. The method that was given to mankind for the discovery of that sense is called “Kabbalah.”
The evolution of humanity is like the evolution of the individual: It evolves through infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. During this process, it utilizes every means at its disposal. Then, when man discovers that extra sense within him, he begins to feel a wider world around him, to see the meaning of life, the reason for the pain, the purpose of existence and a lot more. Those feelings enable him to control the world, to uproot the source of pain and head toward the goal, attain it and grasp the meaning of life.
In order to research itself and the surroundings, humanity has developed various sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology etc. They are called Natural Sciences, and they are based on man’s five senses. In order to help himself with studying nature, man built instruments to extend the range of his senses. Gradually, from generation to generation man gained experience and reached a better understanding of the problem of survival in this world. But among all sciences, there is one that develops us quite differently; it is called the science of Kabbalah.
Beyond the corporeal world that we research, there is another world, concealed. Though we cannot see it, we do feel its existence. But why do we assume its existence if we cannot feel it? It is because we see that there are specific laws, which are a part of a broader reality. We understand that such general, more rational laws, which describe our lives and our existence comprehensively, simply must exist. There is something that eludes us, slips our awareness.
Hence, there is something around us we cannot grasp. But how can we come to grasp it if we don’t have the appropriate senses? Can we create them, or acquire them, in order to feel a more complete and real creation?
It is quite possible that this creation does exist around us in all its layers, but we divide it to the apprehended part we call “our world,” or “this world,” and the as yet unfelt layer. If we had other senses, although it’s hard for us to see it, we would probably also feel the world differently, perhaps with a broader and deeper vision. But such senses don’t exist and so we suffer. We don’t know how to behave with one another and with our surroundings; we don’t see our past and future lives.
When dealing with a scientific study of the world, we come to a stage where our knowledge is exhausted and we’re left helpless. Though there are many ways to enhance our ability to predict the future, beyond the boundaries of our regular senses, they in fact add very little. We are capable of attaining very limited abilities to predict, but we never achieve clear knowledge of the future and complete attainment. This can be achieved only when we are acting in full cooperation with the world around us.
Man is a highly developed creature. But the more humanity develops, the more individuals feel helpless and lost. We see that the development of science and research into the world around us have failed to give us the results we were hoping for. Hence we must face the fact that the solution to the problem is found in our senses themselves.
There is a very accurate method that develops an additional sense called the “sixth sense”, a “screen” or a “returning light”, that gives us the ability to see and feel that part of reality we can’t perceive with our normal senses.
We receive our five senses at birth, but we ourselves must develop the sixth sense.
An individual is suddenly ‘summoned’ from above; he feels compelled to experience a more comprehensive reality and thus the need to develop the sixth sense is born. This is a gradual process. Humanity is constantly evolving, its desires, as well as those of the individual change continuously. At first, they aim at physical pleasures, on an animal level, the enjoyment of food, sex and family ties. Then, they desire satisfaction on a human level, seeking wealth, power, respect and knowledge. Only after all those desires are realized, there appears the wish to attain the sublime reality, to attain an essence beyond the senses.
The first prompting to sense a reality beyond ourselves is called the “fetus” of the sixth sense. From this stage on, the development of the sixth sense will depend on the individual himself. That sense cannot be developed in isolation, but we are able to use a special system that has been given to humanity. It is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah.”
In each generation there are people who receive a prompting from above and feel the need to develop this sixth sense. Then, somehow, these people find the books and the teachers who can help them develop. These teachers are called “Kabbalists,” from the word Kabbalah (receiving), because they receive that knowledge and convey it to us. They convey their impressions of their experiences and method so that we too can attain their degree of spiritually. They speak of the way an individual acquires the desire to attain the actual reality, after he has already realized his desires for wealth, power, respect and knowledge.
In the end, we must all come to a situation, if not in this life, then in the next, we must attain the situation where one lives simultaneously in all levels of reality. We must feel this not only through our five senses, as we all do, but through the new sense as well. This will ensure our inner peace and complete tranquility.
The development of that inner ‘vessel’, called the “sixth sense,” is formed by the order of “cause and effect,” or by the pyramid principle, on which the whole of mankind is built. The sixth sense is awakened in a certain type of person, one who is at the top of the pyramid.
The people whose sense developed first were called Hebrews, from the Hebrew word Ever (over), to go over the barrier, the outermost circle in our world. The Patriarch Abraham was the first to cross over from the limited sensation of this world to the sensation of the upper world. The descendants of Abraham are the top of the pyramid in which the sixth sense will develop. But this is only the beginning of humanity’s development. The prophets say that in the future all mankind will have to attain that level of development, meaning the sensation of the whole of reality, a bonding with the upper forces and full comprehension of the cycle of life. Everyone will have to attain an existence beyond the concepts of life and death as we know them and will then exist at all levels of reality.
All past Kabbalists have pointed to our time as the turning point, when millions of people would begin to adapt themselves to the spiritual realm and would develop a sixth sense. All previous generations were a preparation for this turning point. Those generations went through a process called “the decline of the souls. In that process, the soul descends from its uppermost state in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) and goes lower and lower, through many worlds, down to our own. Then, once in our world, the soul continues to descend through the generations, through the ruin of the first and second temples, and the four exiles. In our generation, the long exile has ended. From now on there is only an ascent of souls.
All the Kabbalists before our time were people who prepared the system of the ascent for us. We, in our generation, are the group of souls that was joined together to become the first in the line of the collective group of souls to rise with our vessels, to actually elevate in our emotions.
If you study the texts of the Ari and the books of Baal HaSulam, you will find that they say everything very simply. That is the reason why, in our time, the Kabbalah is beginning to be more open and more widely publicized. Even so, only a handful of us understand what Kabbalah is about, why it is called a science, why it was concealed and why it comes to people in such a unique way. However, the attraction to spirituality already exists and every one can feel it, though Kabbalists had already spoken about it many generations ago.
When a person develops a clear need to understand the upper reality, he must start developing the “point in the heart.” He has to start building the sixth sense, using the system of Kabbalah. The process takes several years. The sense grows slowly and evolves; the individual begins to feel the outer world, the world of the causes. He is then given a precise vision of the reasons for events in our world, because he can already see the origin of the reasons and the conclusion of all acts, all forces, all our desires and thoughts.
We can see all that not with our five senses, but only with the sixth sense. The “self” of man, that which belongs to his essence, is felt only in the sixth sense. From the moment that sense develops, the individual begins to feel what we call the “soul.”
One is rewarded in two ways: first, he begins to see how thoughts and desires pass from him to others; he understands how he receives thoughts from others or is influenced by them. He begins to see how the world works, and how everything relates to the surrounding nature and returns back to him. The concept of time vanishes altogether and the person sees everything at once, past, present and future - the real meaning of the word “time.”
The second reward is that not only does the individual see everything, but he also starts to acquire a correct understanding of what is happening around him. He acquires the ability to influence providence and so can influence the world from the outside. Thus it is possible not only to predict the future, but also to create the future.
These forces appear in man to the extent that he goes beyond his own nature and begins to think in terms of the upper world.
All these things are real, and all of us, without exception, can attain them. The collective law of creation makes it necessary for each of us to advance to that state. However, humanity is walking toward this reality unconsciously, against its will. A person who begins to advance willingly toward the goal and who wishes to attain actual reality and the spiritual life, such a person no longer feels worldly pains and pressures, but immediately sees that nature and the universe are filled with good, not evil.
Reality consists of two elements: Creator and creature. We feel this in our senses in various ways, but it is unchanging in and of itself. The creature at which feels the Creator, and the sensation of the Creator is what we call the “world,” and “creation.” The creature can sometimes sense that the Creator is being partially or fully revealed to him; at other times He is altogether concealed. The creature may even lack awareness of the Creator altogether. The extent of awareness of the Creator depends solely on the creature himself, because the Creator, like the sun, never stops shining.
The Creator has the attributes of bestowal and benevolence.
When the creature acquires Creator-like attributes, this state is called Equivalence of Form with the Creator. The individual then senses the Creator as fully revealed. He senses the Creator in the exact amount that his attributes resemble those of the Creator. When the attributes of a person are incompatible with those of the Creator, he feels the Creator is concealed. When these attributes oppose those of the Creator’s, the individual feels the Creator does not even exist.
The creature feels the Creator as pleasure, as wisdom and peace and wholeness. Therefore, the intensity of those sensations depends on the intensity of the sensation of the Creator. The Creator formed a creature who wants to feel him, or, in other words, the light of the Creator created a “vessel,” which we call “the desire to receive,” or egoism. The Creator is perceived by the creature as pleasure in all its manifestations. Pleasure means the sensation of the Creator, or the light of the Creator, which are actually one and the same.
A creature is a desire to delight in the Creator. The closer I feel to the Creator, the more I enjoy. The further he is from me, the less I enjoy, until my sensations are turned to pain. Man himself determines the extent to which he feels close to the Creator. He does that by changing his attributes. The closer our attributes become to those of the Creator, to the Creator’s attribute of benevolence, the closer we become to Him. This is when we feel at our best. Thus, in fact, an individual changes his own destiny and becomes a partner in the leadership of the world. The “world” is the sum total of all the conditions that define the measure of man’s equivalence with the Creator, this is called the measure of his adhesion with the Creator. This measure of attachment is determined by us. It is we who set the conditions for equivalence through our own will, through our intent, our prayers, which comes from our desire. This process of directing our desires is called raising MAN. This is the one factor by which the creature can influence his relationship with the Creator, influence what he will receive from above, from the Creator.
When a person is born into this world, the sense that is intended for perceiving the Creator is covered with a ‘screen’, which completely hides the Creator. Because of this we cannot feel the presence of the Creator. What one does feel is called the “world,” what one does not feel is virtually non-existent. The Creator is not concealed from me, but I, with my senses, do not feel Him. Perhaps I even conceal Him, because what I feel is not Him, but the screens that conceal Him. I can, however, influence my relationship with Him, breaking through these screens.
When the first Jewish farmers began to populate the Negev desert in the south of Israel, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (author of the Sulam commentary on the Zohar) was asked, wherever will they get water? He answered that the water would come through the prayer of the settlers. He was then told that they were secular, and even opposed to religion, how then would they pray? To that he replied: “That is of no importance, any man’s desire for life is sensed by the Creator, who is the source of all life, and therefore, the Creator will grant them their wish, even if they are unaware of it.” This means that in any event, man’s desire rises up to the Creator and always has an effect, even though man may not know of the existence of the Creator or feel Him - and even if he denies Him, doesn’t understand His actions, or fails to justify Him altogether.
The Creator creates the desire; which is a given constant. It rises from below, from within us and surfaces in various intensities. The aim, however, is to change the desire from a corrupted wish to receive “for the self alone” to a corrected desire, called “for the sake of the Creator.” Even an ordinary person, one who is not a Kabbalist, can raise MAN through his thoughts, desires and aims, because there is always a desire in his mind, to receive from the Creator, though he may not recognize His existence. If the desire is crucial to this person he will act, even if it is to harm another person, which is called the “evil eye.”
Man is not free to choose his parents or his personality. If he is born a Jew, then according to the word “Jew,” he must attain unification, adhesion with the Creator. The Jew doesn’t have a choice. He must perform his task and has nowhere to run from this obligation, like Jonah who wanted to escape the mission the Creator had assigned him to do. Everyone in Israel must perform the mission that was given to him, or her.
This mission can be achieved by thought, aim and will. We are all obligated to fulfill it, regardless of our social or financial status, or whether orthodox or secular. Every one must know that destiny can be changed only by inner acts, which means by our desires.
We must turn to the upper force and approach Him. The very nearness is enough. The Creator wants that approach first from the people of Israel, and then from the rest of mankind. It is our fault that the whole of humanity is still unable to bond with the Creator. We are doubly guilty here as not only do we, the Jews, not make progress, but by failing to do so, we prevent the progress of the rest of mankind.
The Creator’s light, which draws us all towards Him, is, to the creatures, the one and only law of creation. This force of gravity first affects us, and then the rest of the nations. The force awakens us, through pain, in order to make us approach Him. When man fails to want the Creator by himself, he is pushed to it by pain.
We will be at ease only if we avoid this force before it acts on us, by drawing ourselves toward the Creator of our own accord. This is the progress in the “Path of Light,” as opposed to progress in the “Path of Pain.”
When we, the Jews, do what we must, the entire world will support and follow us. Everyone will see the benefit we bring to mankind, and will want to help us however they can. Our goal and our actions determine the advancement of mankind toward the Creator. And then our enemies will disappear as well. There are groups that already believe that it is we who must live on this land of Israel and build the third Temple. The prophets also said that the nations would help us build it.
Our situation depends solely on how we relate to the upper force that pulls us towards it. It is not a question of politics, and attempts to please our enemies will not do us any good either. Our situation depends not on our willingness to practice the regular Mitzvot (precepts), because the Creator wants the heart, not a mechanical act. We must attain the spiritual degrees of the precepts, meaning to keep the law of creation in the spirit. It is impossible to keep a spiritual law as though it were a mechanical law, because the meaning of keeping a spiritual law is equivalence with it, to be inside it, identical with it.
If your desire for the Creator is stronger than the force with which He pulls you to Him, then you are in spirituality and posses your own spiritual aim (a screen), your own spiritual power. That means that there is a screen over your egoism, and your attraction for the Creator is through your desire to give to Him, which is now stronger than your egoism, which pushes you backwards.
In order to remain in spirituality a person must strain to act against his own nature every second. There is no such concept in spirituality as a rest or pause or doing nothing. One must constantly strive to increase one’s efforts, a need that stems from the need to give, to bestow.
If, however, a person’s desire does not grow, he falls into the hands of the Sitra Achra (Aramaic: Other Side), the system of the dark forces, impurity. It is here, and only here, that we have freedom of choice, and that is given to us from above. The moment a person can no longer make an effort, his freedom is denied and the attitude toward him from above immediately becomes utterly negative. The Creator becomes concealed and the individual begins to feel his environment – nature, society and his enemies - are placing obstacles in his way. But nature and society and his enemies are only costumes of the Creator. The more one deviates from his desire to focus himself on the center and the more his deviation grows, the law that brings the whole of creation to the center (the Creator) acts on him more forcefully.
Because mankind continues to evolve, the collective law of nature, which aspires to centralize everything, demands a greater effort and deeper awareness from those who are more developed. If an individual does not promptly make this effort, he will instantly pay a penalty, having to make greater efforts and greater pains, and then more effort and more pain and so on.
In the beginning of the 20th century, humanity thought good times had come, and man would be able to enjoy his discoveries. But at the close of the century, we saw how much torment humanity had experienced. In the 21st century there will not be a single person who will be able to say that he is happy in any way.
People will continue living their lives, but the pain will be so great that it will be impossible to escape suffering, even if people try and escape into different kinds of pleasure. Man will exist despite himself, but he will literally want to die. However, he will not be able to stop living.
The Americans have already written on their Dollar: ‘In God We Trust’; the Arabs on their swords – ‘Allah is Great’; America is praying to have Dollars, the Arabs are praying to control the world with the help of Allah. Everyone exploits the Creator for his or her own purposes, but our mission is to set an opposite example: to change the direction of the desire, the ‘aim’, from ‘for me’ to ‘for the Creator’.
The nation must realize that through its power of will, directed at the upper force, it can change its destiny.
For example, when a Katiusha rocket falls, we have to understand that it is the Creator who sends it, trying to get us to focus on him.
And that, in fact, is our work against the fear for our lives. The very instant we fall under the influence of pain, or pleasure, we must keep in mind that it comes from the Creator.
The settlers in the Negev desert asked for rain and got it, although they were not crying for the Creator. If they had turned to him consciously, of their own choice, they would have got a whole river running in the middle of the desert. But the time of mercy is now over, we have grown too much, and the law that brings us back to the goal, demands of us to turn to the Creator consciously and purposefully.
And here begins the process of “Not for Her Name” ( lo lishma), the process for myself. Man begins in a situation where he tells himself: “I want to live, therefore I must turn to the upper force.” Then the law that brings back to the goal of creation demands of man to know whom he is turning his plea to: “I want to live therefore I must turn to the upper force, but I have to know how to turn to him.” Hence the necessity for Kabbalah, and the light in it, which reforms, and brings him back to his root and gives him the desire for “For Her Name” ( lishma), the desire to give to the Creator.
People will not have to change anything in their lives. The only thing the Creator wants is contact with his creatures that is just a little better then the one he had with the settlers in the Negev, he wants a conscious bond aimed at him alone.
The next phase is the attainment of a bilateral contact: “I not only expect something of you, but I want to see you in everything that happens to me; I know that you are the one hiding in the picture of the world before me. I am not hiding from you, I want to be good to you, so that you will be good to me.”
It takes nothing more than for the people to want to be in that kind of contact with the Creator, because the aims of the people ‘for the Creator’ will join those who are at the top of the pyramid, the Kabbalists. Today, every one must know about this work. We have already come to such a development, that each person will discover for himself how the Creator dresses in him.
The evolution of mankind on an egoistic basis ‘for myself alone’ caused the creation of a deep gap between the moral level of humanity and the technological level it reached. That is exactly what Plato and Aristotle feared when they prohibited the study of sciences to those of unworthy moral standards.
There is not a shadow of a doubt that there is a connection between the moral degree of a person, meaning his intentions, and his scientific ability. Without the aim to discover the Creator, for the attainment of the purpose of creation, the scientific studies do not attain the laws of nature and the laws of society in their actual form, but only a certain aspect of the laws of reality are revealed, and how they work in our narrow world. After all, we study reality with egoistic vessels of ‘reception for ourselves’; therefore, we perceive only certain connections out of all the details of our surrounding reality.
Each law acts in all the realms of creation, in this world and in the spiritual world. But we can see its full range of operation only if we too are in a realm that encircles the whole of creation. For that we must be with compatible attributes to the realm we want to encircle. Those are altruistic attributes of giving, the attributes of the degrees of the upper worlds.
Man does not change nature and the attributes of nature with his own attributes. The attributes of nature never change and there is also no change in the inter-connections between the forces of nature. But nature shows a different aspect according to the attributes of the researcher. Nature shows a different aspect, not a different law. This is how it works: we understand only what we perceive and feel through our five senses. Hence, our feeling is forever personal and private. But because all people have one nature we perceive nature the same way.
Changing - that is the one action we can do. Nature remains unchanged, but because man changes himself, he feels nature’s laws as operating differently on him. Man changes the way he is exposed to the laws of nature. That is why it says, “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3, 6).
It is indeed surprising that man can change things around him, when in fact nothing really changes but him. He feels as though nature changes because of the change in him.
Nature is the law of gravity, the laws of chemistry and physics etc. These laws do not change with man’s attributes. What does change is not how they work, but how man perceives them. Man feels the change in the sensations that he perceives. That is why he thinks that the change happens outside of him, because that is how he is built – to regard himself as the unchanging center of creation.
There is only one state that is complete perfection, and by changing his attributes, man approaches that state and feels it more and more clearly. Thus, the only processes that actually take place in creation are processes of inner change in man’s attributes. And it is within that change that man feels as though providence is changing toward him.
Therefore, we must know how to change our inner attributes so that we can change the laws of nature in our favor. When we learn how to do that, we will be certain of the result, of our tomorrow. But the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us that that change depends on our refusal to use our egoism.
As science progresses, scientists are beginning to find that man can influence the phenomenon of nature. They found that the result of a scientific experiment depends on the personal attributes of the researcher. They argue that the results of especially ‘delicate’ experiments are influenced by the attributes of the researching scientist. Of course, there are also experiments on a ‘coarser’ level, where the researcher is of no importance; meaning if he is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, the result will be the same. But there is a finer level in nature, above substance, where the result is affected by the personal attributes of the researcher.
We will soon see that it is not enough to equip scientists with even the most sophisticated instruments, but there will be a real need for scientists who were ‘taught’ to influence nature the right way, because we influence nature by simply being in it. The only question is what is the right kind of influence we should activate on it. Therefore, it might be that in the next stage of evolution, science will no longer need mechanical, electronic or optic instruments, or devices that enlarge or miniaturize objects, but man himself will be the instrument that will research nature and will know how to influence the world correctly, to bring about the most desirable results.
The science concerned with the linkagebetween our influence on nature and the outcome that we get back from it is the science of Kabbalah. It teaches man how his actions in reality, how his influence on it brings about this or that result. Like any other science, Kabbalah also uses exact terms and a completely scientific language.
In a scientific research, we want to receive from nature around us the necessary information for our survival, and all the other things that we need. In the near future, it will be enough to activate one’s attributes in order to attain all that, instead of all the devices and the mechanisms we invented, which are but devices ‘in our image’.
Kabbalah explains what are the attributes one must acquire in order to research reality correctly, and helps him acquire the needed attributes, called “spiritual attributes,” with which he can influence the world. Kabbalah exposes one to the entire reality and explains its laws; it teaches him how he can influence the system of creation positively and get the best result in return. The method of man’s bestowal upon the surroundings is called the “aim.”
Kabbalah is a science that practices the conduct of reality, meaning with the question, how can the world be ‘turned’ to the best? The further humanity evolves without fitting in to the conduct of reality, the further the world is submerging into a state of suffering and uncertainty. Therefore, in our current situation, Kabbalah is becoming a practical must.
So far, no one has scientifically experimented with the possibility to control fate, except Kabbalists. The reason for that is that for the purpose of influencing the conduct of reality, we have to learn the science of Kabbalah, which deals with the purpose of creation and the system to approach it. Those topics are the essence of the wisdom of Kabbalah. The acts by which man influences the system of conduct is called “aims,” and those are acquired only through the method of the Kabbalah.
The wisdom of Kabbalah is the discovery of the laws and the collective mechanism of reality, to a person living in our world. It is called “The revelation of the Creator to his creatures.” That discovery gives us the ability to approach the useful and stay away from the harmful, and to know the reason for the good and the bad.
The purpose of the study and its implementation is to attain the best possible results for man. The goal is simple: to attain happiness and peace both in the body and outside it, to attain eternity and wholeness. And isn’t that what everyone is searching for?
The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us to manage the collective mechanism of creation in which our universe is but a tiny particle. Just as scientists study the phenomena and the laws of this world perceived by us and are apparent to all, so the Kabbalist-scientists research the reality that is not perceived by our five senses and its laws.
We badly need this research because we are the only active part in the whole of creation. In the ordinary means at our disposal we can only expose a tiny fraction of the surrounding reality, whereas the science of Kabbalah gives us the possibility to study the entire reality, the entire system of creation and operate it.
Kabbalah reveals the whole surrounding creation, the collective thought of creation and the inter-relationships between the various parts of creation. It teaches us of man’s evolution in this world and renders him the opportunity to know the whole world and its supreme providence. It reveals to man what our appearance is outside the body, when we die and how we come back to a new body. It reveals what exists outside our lives during our reincarnations.
As a result of the study of Kabbalah, man learns how the mechanism of the management of creation works. Because of that, he learns how to behave correctly in every situation in life and can affect the mechanism that determines his fate.
The very fact that we think and search for the way to push the whole world for the better, is by itself a great correction. Baal HaSulam once said about those settlers in the Negev desert, that even if they didn’t believe that there is a Creator, their desire for rain was enough to bring them rain. That is because every desire is a prayer to the Creator, even if one is unwilling to recognize the existence of the Creator.
Humanity has always sought to know the future, but no one has found an accurate method to predict it. But what is man really looking for? Cures to make him feel good. He seeks out all those sorcerers, magicians, and so-called ‘Kabbalists’, but humanity has so far failed to find the cure for its pains throughout its tormented history.
But man can help himself! He must only learn to manage his own life. For that he must first acquire the knowledge and the ability to influence nature. There is a good reason why it takes a person twenty to thirty years to grow, and during that time he is placed under the care of nature and society. Only after his maturation, does nature become harsh with him (see the article The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose).
In fact, in order for man to assume the management of the world instead of the Creator, he must acquire a ‘spiritual screen’, and then the Creator will hand over to him the management of creation and himself according to the strength of his screen. A person with a screen controls his own destiny. Such a person acquires a force that is above his own life, above himself. He can do by himself anything that the upper degree demands of him. The ability to follow the directions of the upper degree instead of his own mind is the one possibility for man to attain genuine freedom, control in his life and a freedom of choice. Man acquires the ability to receive powers from an upper degree and this way rise to the upper degree by himself.
It is only possible to justify and understand the benefit in this natural law, (meaning in the Creator), at the end of the way, but not while on the way. Before we reach the end of the way, we cannot justify such punishments as death and an incarnation into a new body. Only from a higher degree than our own (meaning from the one managing us) is it possible to justify what nature does with us.
Every time a person is exposed to the influence of a higher degree, he must accept its reason in order to justify it. The ability to act against one’s own mind and accept the reason of the upper one is called “Faith Above Reason.”
In order to justify the things that happen to us, we must always look at ourselves from a higher degree than the one we’re in. Only then can we see that the process of decision-making doesn’t take our body into consideration, but works only to elevate the soul, and the calculation seeks the shortest possible route to the goal.
So then, what does depend on us? Only the choice to accept and realize this decision. We choose between the path of light (Kabbalah) and the path of pain, depending on how we relate to our evolution, whether it is within reason or above reason. Only Kabbalists can actively intervene in the upper management, and yet, anyone who wishes to do well and give outside of himself triggers a positive response in the upper world. Therefore, if the whole nation aspires to keep the collective law of creation, it will find it in the words “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” It will discover that this law is no more and no less than the “law of love.” But for this to happen, man must break beyond his emotions and thoughts, which are all based on our basic-corporeal nature.
The structure of creation is a lot simpler than we think: everything happens within one’s soul that feels within it the Creator, it’s ‘I’ and the connection between them.
The soul is the only creation that was ever created, and it is the only thing that exists besides the Creator. That soul doesn’t feel anything outside of it, only what is inside it. It is called “ Adam” or “ Adam Harishon” (the First Man), and it is divided into many parts. Each part is an organ of the body of the first man. The soul is in fact, the very same will to receive delight and pleasure. Its parts are unique desires for reception of pleasure and they are called “souls.”
In each soul there are the 613 desires of the collective soul before it sinned (a sin means receiving pleasure for one’s own delight) and broke to pieces. It was divided into 600,000 separate parts, individual souls, each consisting of 613 parts – desires. Those desires fell 125 degrees down from their original status, called the “root of the soul.” The last degree they fell to is called “this world” and it is the lowest spiritual degree of the soul. From that low state man must correct his soul on his own, until it returns to its highest state, to the root of the soul. It must rise through the 125 degrees by a gradual correction of the 613 desires.
The sin is misunderstood by us, as is the case with all the terms that take on a physical meaning in our world. Although it says that the Torah spoke in the language of people, it really speaks of a different matter altogether, not about the issues between people. That is why there are such misconceptions in the interpretation of the term “sin.”
The sin of the first man designates a spiritual drop from a spiritual height to the lowest possible degree, so that man will be able to start rising to the Creator of his own accord, consciously and out of his own free choice.
If man had remained in the state of sensation of the Creator in the upper world, where he was created, he would have no way of acting independently and would be under the control of the light like a robot, like a person under the shadow of a great personality. He would have no freedom of choice and would be completely subject to the influence of the great one. Hence, only when the Creator detaches himself completely from man, hiding behind every veil, behind all the concealments that separate our world from the spiritual one, does man have a real freedom of choice.
That fall from the spiritual world is called “the sin of Adam,” although we now see how compulsory it was.
The structure of creation has 613 laws. Each law is a system of correction of one of the soul’s 613 desires. Some of these laws belong to the management of creation in general, and some belong to the individual system of providence of each and every creature. But without exception, they all operate within the soul, because besides the Creator, the soul is the entire system of creation and reality.
The more one learns about these laws and begins to spiritually execute them, in their corrected form, the closer he comes to the degree of the Creator. Meaning, there is a ladder of 613 rungs that stands between our degree and the degree of the Creator. To climb a rung means to acquire a screen and yet another of the 613 desires of the soul.
After the sin, the vessel (the desire of the first man) kept breaking ever deeper, in order to be freed from the screen in the secondary desires as well, where it is difficult to tell anything apart. That is why the Torah speaks of the sin of Cain who killed Abel, and that is in fact, the next sin, the next breakdown in the vessels of the first man. In order to complete the correction of the soul it is necessary to bring the souls deeper and deeper down to the degree of our world.
In order for this creation to begin to rise to the degree of the Creator independently, it must be completely detached from him. In order to detach, it must drop to the degree of man, below the degree of Cain and Abel, below the degree of the generation of the flood, the tower of Babylon, Sodom, all the way down to the degree of our corporeal world.
We are at the very bottom of the ladder. When the soul descends to the degree of our world and is clothed in a body, it is completely detached from the Creator, it has no sensation of him whatsoever, and then it thinks it is completely free. If we begin to rise from this situation, we will really be correcting everything. That is why the uniform soul of the first man had to be broken, to bring the souls down to the degree of this world.
Kabbalah explains that in the end of days, the light of the Creator will become apparent not just to one people, but also to the whole of mankind. And then all the people will see and appreciate their attributes for what they really are. That will bring about the correct situation both in our earthly lives and in spirituality. Every one will behave correctly; will be freed of concern for him alone and will unite in one common aim to equalize with the Creator. The necessary condition for this is to come to a situation where each person will have only one desire, to discover the Creator. Only then will the Creator actually be revealed. One can attain it only on condition that man discovers the Creator with his own strength.
The collective discovery of the Creator will only occur in the end of days, but we are not far from it. There is, however, an individual revelation of the Creator as well. It happens when man discovers the Creator for himself, through a great indefatigable effort in the special method of the Kabbalah. And until the collective revelation of the Creator, he rises in the spirit by himself and lives in the future state of mankind.
But even when he rises to the degree of the sensation of the Creator, he still helps others attain the sensation of the Creator for themselves. Hence the importance of the circulation of the wisdom of Kabbalah for everyone, so that people will know that there is such a thing, to learn Kabbalah and discover the Creator for themselves. By living in both worlds they will attain the degree of perfection and eternity – the endless delight.
We don’t have to wait for the end of time in order to attain that situation, because our situation is already the lowest possible spiritual degree.
We can rush the good times and bring them sooner, not by making dreadful mistakes and horrible torments, but by the attainment of power, a supreme power through the wisdom of Kabbalah. We must act so that the whole of mankind wakes up and understands how a better life can be attained. The revelation of the light is the force that can correct the whole world.
The wisdom of Kabbalah has nothing to do with religion, it is above it, and was created for the whole of mankind. Because of that it is worthwhile to spread the wisdom of Kabbalah throughout the world, until the words – “for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jeremiah 31, 33) come true. And that can be attained only through the wisdom of Kabbalah.
The entire plan of human development is imprinted in man. It is the engine that pushes us forward and forces us to evolve. We have already succeeded in comprehending the fact that the entire knowledge of the biological body can be obtained in our genes. But the plan for our spiritual development is also embedded in special genes, much deeper than our biological genes. They are our ‘spiritual genes’.
From the moment a person comes into this world, this plan becomes operative and begins to act on him and control his life. It dictates his attributes, his character, his fate and his every movement. But it also allows him the freedom to choose in many of the situations.
This plan exists not only in man, but also in everything that exists in the universe and it dictates the very process called “life.” Unlike other parts of nature, that program is not inflexible in man, but evolves during his life. The program is a series of consecutive data commands. Each commandment is called a “ Reshimo”; from the Hebrew word Roshem (imprint). There is a chain of Reshimot (pl. for Reshimo) in each of us, from the moment we are born to the moment of our death, but it contains not only our current life cycle, but also all the incarnations of our soul.
If we read the data in this chain of Reshimot we will be able to go through all the stages of the development of the universe, as in a movie, from the earliest situations of the creation of the universe, the sun and the stars, through the dinosaur era and on to the farthest future. The collective law of the universe loses nothing but only changes from state to state.
If this chain of Reshimot is our whole plan of operation, from the beginning of our life, to its end, and if there is nothing that we can change, but only follow the written instructions, it would be interesting to know what has been in store for us there, both as a whole and as individuals. It would be better to research the Reshimot in the following manner: see what is the purpose that nature sets for itself, what is this collective law that the Reshimot are supposed to bring us to, and then ask can we study those Reshimot and then perhaps make changes, rebuild and perhaps improve things to suit our flavor?
The answer to that question can be found only if we dive into this plan of Reshimot itself. When a person studies Kabbalah he learns about that program and about those Reshimot, but the contemporary man still has to make a certain effort in order to know his life-plan, to study the management system of the universe, so that he can utilize it for the best.
That plan is in the world of Atzilut, the control panel and the source of light to our world, which determines the expansion of the light, which brings life, confidence, health and peace to our world.
The soul is in its most perfect state in the world of Atzilut. It is filled with eternal light and peace – equal to the Creator and filled with him. From that situation it is ‘thrown’ to the lowest place called “this world.” On its way from the world of Atzilut to our world, the soul gradually loses its light and by the time it enters our world, it has lost all of it, and remains with nothing more than a reminiscence ( Reshimot) of its past situations. Those expansions are recorded in the Reshimot that afterwards form the degrees of the ascent back from our world to the world of Atzilut.
The Reshimot are comprised of two primary components:
Those two components help us rebuild the spiritual sense, with which we can overcome the partition that separates the corporeal world from the spiritual worlds. That sense is something that the Kabbalists create within themselves. It is called a “screen.” The acquisition of a screen allows a person to control his destiny and improve his environment.
During the descent of the soul from the upper world, where it is filled with light, to this world, where there is no light, it is like a ball rolling down a staircase and hits every step on its way down. That hit is the Reshimo that every person who studies Kabbalah learns to realize correctly, starting from the smallest Reshimo created at the lowest spiritual step, down to the final and highest degree. Even in the first degree that a person attains, he rises from a state of unconsciousness, to a state of higher awareness that awakens in him the desire for something sublime that can only be found outside his world.
Question: What are the superpowers that Jews have with regards to the management of the world; what is that special plan of leadership that is found in their ‘spiritual genes’?
Answer: The Jews will lead the world by their ascent to the upper world precisely by realizing the Reshimo that remains from the uppermost spiritual degrees. Any person, who realizes all his Reshimot, rises to the place in Atzilut where his soul used to be before it came down to our world.
In Kabbalah, the world of Atzilut is called Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel), and how a person reaches it is called Ivri (a Hebrew) to designate one who has gone over from the corporeal to the spiritual world. He becomes a part of the world of Atzilut, which is the ‘control panel’ of our world. That person becomes a part of the control panel and thus attains the ability to control the world, understand and determine the events in our world.
All that remains of the soul once the light leaves it is this chain of Reshimot. All the Reshimot are closed and folded in it like a point. That point is inside each and every one of us, and it is called the “point in the heart,” or “the fetus of the future soul.”
The Reshimot are the ones that define the future soul of man, its shape, its properties and the place it should return to in the world of Atzilut.
The difference between the situation of the soul in the world of Atzilut, before it descends to our world, and the situation after it rises from our world back to Atzilut, is that the ascent of the soul is a result of man’s effort and desire. The soul climbs the degrees of the worlds out of free choice, and by that it reacquires the full spiritual stature of the world of Atzilut. At the same time, man’s body continues to exist in this world, and thus man lives in both worlds simultaneously.
The wisdom of Kabbalah, by definition, is the method, which discovers and unravels the whole universe, the entire reality, while living in the corporeal body. During that revelation man gradually acquires the attributes of the Creator – the ability to bestow, to give. The more a person acquires these attributes, his soul becomes more and more Creator like, until it becomes identical to him, at which time a person rises to the degree of the Creator, becomes equal to him.
Therefore, in order to manage your own destiny, as well as that of the whole world, it is a must to be a “Jew,” a “Hebrew,” meaning go over to the that side of the barrier. Jews are not a people; they are a group of people who acquired the method, which teaches how to become Jews-Hebrews, and how to cross the barrier between this world and the upper-spiritual world.
Before Abraham the Patriarch received the method of the Kabbalah, the Torah, this group was an ordinary tribe of desert men like other clans that lived in Mesopotamia. Scientists also claim that our genes, including those of the Ashkenazi Jews (the ones that come from eastern Europe), resemble those of the original inhabitants of Mesopotamia.
The difference between the others and us is only in the mission that we were given, which was defined as a goal for the clan of Abraham, which had turned to the chosen people of the Creator. The mission that they were given is to teach ourselves and the rest of mankind, how to manage the world and contact the Creator. Anyone who takes upon himself this mission is called a Jew. But a concept of a Jewish nation doesn’t exist, because there were never such a people to begin with.
Question: Were there times when Jews attained a high spiritual level and spiritually controlled the world in a practical manner, or is it just regarding the future?
Answer: A significant amount of Jews were at a high spiritual level after the exodus from Egypt, during the conquest of the Land of Israel, and during all the time of the first and second temples. The Kabbalists of those times kept the old world in a much better situation than it would have been without their interference. But that was not yet the time for all mankind to rise to the degree of the Creator, and the Jews still hadn’t been given the duty to realize their historic destination toward other nations.
After the ruin of the second temple, the mission of the Jews was to go into exile and mingle with other nations and go through the history of the gradual evolution from the Reshimot of the beastly level i.e. the exclusive desire for mundane pleasures, to the Reshimot of the degree of man i.e. the recognition in man’s destination, in the spiritual life and the management of reality.
Therefore, it is said precisely about our time: “then ye shall be Mine own treasure from among all peoples” (Exodus 19, 5), and “for a father of a multitude of nations have I made thee” (Genesis 17, 5). Now we must teach ourselves, and all other nations the method of the Kabbalah; how to effectively utilize our Reshimot, develop the spiritual sense and cross over to the spiritual world, to come in contact with the Creator and take on ourselves the management of the world.
Philosophers have sought all throughout history for the answer to the questions: “Is there freedom of choice?” They tried to define the concept of choice and reached the conclusion that there is only a limited freedom of choice in society, to those who have a developed personality.
But among themselves they understood that they would never be able to free themselves of the absence of control in their future, because there was always the possibility that they would be run over by a truck the very next day, catch a fatal illness and perhaps even go into a coma. Of course, if you want to, you can ignore such a humiliating example of the absence of freedom of choice, but that would not make life any easier. The evolution of genetics hasn’t improved our situation either, but only strengthened the feeling that we are in a closed compartment, surrounded by chains of genes from which we can never escape.
And then comes the wisdom of Kabbalah, which Kabbalists regard as the last stage of the development of science, and we find that not only are we chained by the biological genes, but we are ‘programmed’ and not just for this lifetime, but throughout a long and consistent chain of Reshimot (reminiscence) that is set in the mind, the heart and the soul. And that is what determines our lives.
Question: Do we have to ignore the question about the freedom of choice, and choose only the most convenient option of the ‘choice less’ options before us?
Answer: Humanity cannot ignore that question any longer, because it is one of the most fundamental questions in our lives. Especially now we must expand that question and research it from all sides, otherwise we will not have the motivation to change anything in our lives, or to change ourselves. We must clearly see where we have freedom to choose and what is dictated from above. On our current level of development we still can’t see the limitations that are acting on us from above.
But if there are one or two issues in our actions and decisions where we are free to choose, we must study and understand those issues specifically, because it is only there that we can express our freedom and change anything in our fate. In all other things we still remain under the laws of nature, the one we can and the ones we cannot see.
Question: Where then is my freedom of choice according to the Kabbalah? Where can I change anything, and where is it not even worth trying?
Answer: First, in our world, we are almost completely dependent on nature’s, providence. We are compelled to be born; we do not choose our talents or the people we meet in this life. We did not choose our time of birth, our family; in fact, we fell into an environment we never chose.
All my characteristics are predefined: the feelings, the aspirations, and the character. It is said that everyone is born with his own ‘luck’. Moreover, it says, “there is not a blade of grass below (in our world), that has not an angel above (a force from the upper world), which strikes it and tells it: Grow!” So is there any freedom at all?
Both nature and society evolve according to their own laws, and so do all the changes in the universe and ever- greater catastrophes that happen, hence there is nothing that depends on us.
If everything in man is dictated from above, the characteristics, the inheritance, and not only that, every thing outside us also, the forces that are meant to lead us to the end of correction, to a predetermined state, what kind of freedom then can we talk about, or even think about?
On the other hand, if we just obey nature’s orders, it is unclear what we were created for in the first place, and every thing else around us. If everything is predefined and there is no freedom of choice, there seems to be no point to the whole of creation.
The point to creation is not necessarily that everything will continue the way it has so far advanced, without any reason, but the goal is to attain completeness, precisely through free choice. Therefore, we must find where and in what do we have free choice.
All the animate, the vegetative, and man, cannot tolerate the denial of their freedom. Despite the awareness of the rigid frameworks in our world, the aspiration for independence is the one that dictates one’s life. Even animals that lose their freedom, if they do not die, they lose their livelihood and weaken because of their captivity. It is a true sign that nature will not tolerate any kind of slavery, and all living creatures want to be free.
Therefore, it is not a mere coincidence that in the recent centuries there has been so much bloodshed just to attain a certain amount of freedom.
Question: So where do we get the desire for something we cannot attain, something that doesn’t exist in our world?
Answer: Man is created in the image (similitude) of the Creator. Therefore, knowingly or unknowingly, he aspires to have all the attributes that characterize the Creator. For example, the Creator is in eternal and complete rest. Because of that we too aspire for rest, and all our movements are only a means to attain it. The Creator is one, unique and special. Therefore, everyone declares how much he, meaning his ego, is also special, different and unique. Our aspiration to what you claim cannot be attained comes from our soul, which is a part of the Creator. We in fact aspire for the situation of the Creator, who is actually free. And this is the purpose of our existence. If that weren’t possible, the concept of freedom would simply not exist.
Question: Are you saying that our desire for freedom proves that we can attain it, but we still haven’t succeeded? If so, how can we attain that freedom?
Answer: Man’s freedom, his independence, is only possible to the extent that he is freed from his nature, when he can rise above it. That is because our nature is predetermined. In order to attain the real and absolute freedom we have to activate a special mechanism to open the door of the ‘cage’ of our corporeal world, into a spiritual, eternal and free realm.
We understand that we have to fight for our freedom. Our whole life is made of struggles for bits of fictitious freedom that society obliges us to. We try to be as it would have us be, and we are prepared to fill up our lives with empty acts, just to get some recognition and respect.
At first, we fight for freedom from the burdens of parents and the family. We try to escape circumstances that were forced on us, and the duties that make our lives difficult. We invest a great deal of effort just to attain this fake freedom. But in order to attain genuine freedom, freedom from our nature, where everything is predetermined, we have to make an effort. That freedom can be attained not in the afterlife, as religions promise us, but here in the corporeal world, in this very life. But for that we need to make an effort, to rise above our nature, above our world.
Question: Now you are drifting away to upper realms and say “above our world,” but what happens in this world?
Answer: The meaning of the words, “above our world” is that man acquires spiritual attributes that are above our world. There cannot be any real freedom of choice in our current attributes, which are dictated from above. Everything is predetermined, except one thing!
Parents change their location, or change an address on their ID in order to select the place where their children will learn by themselves, and the kind of education that they want for them. They try and create for their children such an environment that they believe will guarantee their good development, and they are absolutely right in doing so. They naturally understand that when they are under the influence of a certain environment, there is no freedom of choice, and so they will try to act in the one place where they can make a difference, the freedom to choose the environment that would influence them. Many philosophers tried to analyze and measure the influence of the environment on people’s personalities. On the basis of research and experiments that were made, and also through their own intuition, they realized how strong was that influence.
The Kabbalah gives us a full analysis of the influence of the environment on man. Its conclusions are unequivocal: there is an absolute dependency of man on his environment – willingly or unwillingly. Even when he objects to it, his whole life is then wasted rejecting and trying to exit it, although eventually he will surrender and come to live in it.
Question: But still, many dream, and only a few succeed exiting the influence of the environment?
Answer: True, and yet we try again and again, because it is the only thing we have – the freedom to choose the right society for us and for our kids. That determines almost everything in our lives. It is important to understand how to build such an environment for ourselves, and what we need it for.
Kabbalah opens before us a complete and trustful picture of the upper management, which was until now closed to us. We see by it that each and every one of us, and the whole of mankind will have to accept the purpose of creation and the purpose of our lives, whether through torments in this life, or in the next, or by our own free will.
Question: Do the previous lives dictate our present lives?
Answer: Don’t forget that there are future lives as well, not just previous ones. Today, every person has a chance in this life to affect his future lives. Every one of us should know how to influence his life correctly, to study the laws by which the influence continues from life to life.
Man can pass on from one life to the next a lot more vital information that would assist him, and thus prepare himself for a better life in the next round. Man can advance toward the purpose of creation within just a few lifetimes, and accumulate his attainments. He is the only creature in the whole of creation that is given that opportunity.
A person can determine his own destiny and consciously influence the environment he lives in. Our whole world lives at the expense of the light that comes down to us and clothes everything around us. This invisible light revives the entire reality. Man can control the descent of this light to our world: The acquisition of a screen through the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah enables a person to control the descending of this light. He can open a Kabbalistic prayer book and act according to the orders that are written there, instead of waiting for heaven’s mercy.
(Should be a photo of a Kabbalistic prayer book)
In order to demonstrate it, here is an instruction page from a Kabbalistic prayer book by the Rashash (Rabbi Shalom Sharabi). It says: “Extend the middle third of Partzuf Abba to the Sefirot Keter, Hochma, Bina, Daat of Partzuf ZA, and reject to the Sefirot Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet.” After that it explains elaborately how to perform this instruction. In the end it says: “Build an aim for rejecting a small light to the two bottom thirds of the Sefira Tifferet of Partzuf ZA.”
A person who still hasn’t risen to spirituality cannot understand the meaning of these instructions; it is not clear to him what to do or what to do them on, and what should be the outcome of the act. That is why the wisdom of the Kabbalah is the wisdom of the hidden. But it is hidden only from those who still haven’t attained the sensation of the upper powers.
A person who follows these instructions passes the upper light through him and as a result feels confidence and the perfection of the attainment. He knows what is going to happen and how to control it.
This is where the real freedom of choice appears. In this level of bestowal man holds the full control over his life, his future and the whole of nature. He brings to our world all the goodness through the upper light, and that light reflects back on him doubled and tripled.
Question: Does a person have to study his past lives in order to affect his future ones?
Answer: The evolution of the generations in the world is nothing more than an appearance and disappearance of physical bodies. The souls, however, which are the filling of the physical body, man’s primary “I,” do not disappear. They only change the body that carries them. Therefore, all the generations, from the first to the very last are considered to be one generation that has been stretched over thousands of years, from the cradle of mankind to its final correction and the attainment of the complete rest and wholeness.
That is why it makes no difference how many times a soul dresses in the body, the demise of the body doesn’t affect it, because its substance comes from an upper level. It is as meaningless as cutting our nails or our hair is to the physical body. That is because they are in the degree of the ‘vegetative’ in man, whereas the physical body belongs to a higher degree, the ‘animate’ in man. By studying the mechanism of the dressing of the soul in the body, a person becomes freed from the control of death in his life.
Question: Can we get back to our world, to our life, for a minute? Is there a way that we can find some freedom after all, somewhere where we have the ability to act freely and make a difference?
Answer: There is an aspect of creation, in our world, in this life, that we can indeed influence. This aspect, in turn, affects every other aspect of reality. But that is only on condition we know how to control it, how to change it for the best, and then we can avoid being controlled by nature.
Question: What exactly does the upper force leave us to choose?
Answer: In order to answer that question, we must first examine our “I,” what elements man is made of.
Man is made of four elements. The first element is called the “bed,” the foundation. It is the basic, primary substance we are all made of. That is what we received from the Creator. It is what defines our essence. The Creator created it “existence from absence” (when something new is created that does not exist in the source). This is the substance that is imprinted in every one of us. That is why I said that we need not worry about the basic fundamentals of the soul, because they are predetermined in advance.
Question: How can we examine any kind of natural phenomenon?
Answer: Only when we rise above nature both in mind and heart will we be able to observe it from a higher degree. For example: we can meticulously research the evolution of the seed of the wheat, influence the course of its life, the number of lives it will have, by putting it in the ground and thus killing it, but also reviving it from its previous condition to the new life.
These processes can be done only with the vegetative nature, because there are no cycles of life and death in the still, and we cannot yet rise above the beastly-living nature, because we are in it. We cannot investigate outside this nature with our ordinary senses from above. Even the most sophisticated instruments cannot help us here, because they were also built in the same beastly level.
We will be able to see what happens with us only if we exit this level, which is the highest in our world, to a higher level, to the spiritual world. We will be able to research ourselves and influence our own lives, much like we research and influence the wheat. That is precisely what the wisdom of Kabbalah enables us to do.
If we compare our lives with the life cycle of the wheat we will discover our own evolution mechanism. A seed that is put in the ground rots and disintegrates completely until there is nothing physical left of it. It is turned to dust; still. From that situation its new form begins to emerge, its new life. The former shape is completely gone and there is nothing left of it but the spirit, the force, the Reshimo, the knowledge that instigates the appearance of a new life.
If we were in the degree of the vegetative, in the degree of the wheat, we would not be able to examine life and its transformations. We would not be able to see how the seed loses its vitality, disintegrates and loses its former life, and from that situation begins its growth again with all its former attributes passed on to the new life. Although nothing physical is left, because everything rots, but a new fetus emerges from the former state, from the spirit, a new cycle of life evolves, a new entity with no recollection of the past.
Question: If everything disintegrates and disappears, what will be left of the present life to the next? What will be left of the feelings, the thoughts, and my own unique personality?
Answer: What happens to our body is much like what happens to the seed of the wheat. The physical body disintegrates and we receive a new body. But the soul, the former spiritual potential still remains in the form of a gene, potential information that transcends from one phase, from the old physical body to the next, through a physical detachment called “death.”
As long as the old substance of the body did not disintegrate, the next cycle does not start. Only when it disintegrates do the previous Reshimot begin the new cycle of evolution. That is why Jews bury their dead without delay. There are even some practices that enable the new life to begin sooner, such as adding cement to the grave so that the body would rot faster – as though asking for the new phase of correction to begin sooner.
The transition from life to life involves a complete decay, just like the seed of the wheat, until there is only the essence left; a pure power, denied of any physical clothing. This is the Reshimo. Between the degrees, between one life cycle and the next there is a severance, a void. For this reason a person cannot see the transitions from phase to phase. However, a Kabbalist transcends from cycle to cycle thousands of times. He controls the transitions and in each of them he leaves a Reshimo. He doesn’t need to leave his physical body in order to begin a new life, because he identifies with his soul, not with his body.
Question: Is it possible to go from this life to the next without dying?
Answer: In order for this ‘breakthrough’ to happen, in order for the soul to jump over this corporeal incision for the purpose of instigating a new degree of development, where a new body will carry it, a person has to die physically, or be detached from his body in a different way, mentally/spiritually, like the Kabbalist. Thus he experiences many cycles during his physical life. In one lifetime he can go the whole way from beginning to end, to the purpose of creation, to the starting point of the soul.
We will be able to see the changes that occur in us with our own eyes, only if we exit the degree of our world to the spiritual world, much like a person in a state of clinical death, watching from the side how the doctors fight for his life. From the upper level we can see what happens to us, research and manage our own lives and control their quality.
This force that transcends from our past lives, from the previous body of the previous seed, to the next life, is called the “bed.” It is the force that carries on the spiritual information itself, the essence. If the seed were a seed of wheat, it continues to be a seed of wheat. A certain soul will remain the same soul, but it will be dressed in a different body.
Question: What does the choice of a new body for the soul to dress in depend on? Can we affect it in any way?
Answer: The soul dresses in a body that is suited for the execution of the program inside it. The attributes of the soul and the corrections it must go through, define the characteristics of the physical body that it creates around it. We determine our future situation through our spiritual attainments in this cycle, meaning what kind of body and what conditions we will have in the next life. It is all up to the Reshimo, which creates around it a new body after the demise of the current one. All the data about the corrections that the soul still has to go through is found in the Reshimo.
Question: If a person finished his corporeal assignment, does he still come to this world?
Answer: Yes he does. And what is even better, he appears when he is already completely corrected, and his soul descends only in order to help others. From the same Reshimo that creates the human body extend all the differences between people: the characteristics, the talents their tendencies, are all determined by the internal attributes of the soul, by its need to realize what it must do in this world. By the way, that is why any coercion is strictly prohibited in education.
We receive the first element, the “bed,” the essence, the spiritual object, our spiritual gene, directly from the Creator. Therefore, it is clear that it is impossible to influence it in any way.
That element includes the origin of man within it, his echelon of thought, and the state of mind of his ancestors as well as the knowledge they had acquired. Afterwards this knowledge appears as tendencies and corporeal and mental characteristics of the personality that we are unaware of. They can be imprinted in a person as tendencies to believe, skepticism, materialism or spirituality, or perhaps to shyness or stinginess etc. These attributes are like the seed of the wheat that had lost its corporeal shape in the ground. They are given to us without a physical body to contain them, through natural inheritance, and because of that they sometimes appear in the opposite form.
The second element is the laws of the evolution of our essence. These laws do not change; they are predefined by the Creator, because they extend from the nature of the essence and its predetermined form, which the essence strives to come to as the purpose of its creation. Every seed, animal or human, have within them the program and the laws of their evolution. This is the second element, and we cannot influence it.
The other two elements, the third and the fourth, relate to our development, but they are external to the soul itself. Those are the external conditions that make voluntary changes in me, of my own free choice, but activate on me a pressure that I cannot control, sometimes against my will. Hence, the third element in our evolution is the external conditions that can partially change our path of evolution to the ‘right’ way, or to the ‘wrong’ way.
Let us get back to the seed of the wheat, because it is an easy process to observe. It will help us understand the principle in discussion. For example, if we sow the same kind of wheat in two parts of a field, and influence each part differently, such as block the sunlight on one side, not give enough water, not weed out the weeds, while the other side gets the best possible conditions, we will see how much the external elements affect the growth process. Although we will get the same wheat, but the question is what difficulties did it encounter during its growth and hence, what final quality will it have.
The fourth element is the changing of the external conditions. We cannot directly affect ourselves, but if we provoke a change in our external conditions, we can determine our own future, our future thoughts, aspirations, and in one word, the quality of our future.
The first element, the bed, and the second element, the laws by which our essence evolves, can be expressed negatively through what we refer to as inheritance: physical weakness, feeblemindedness, or a psychological or spiritual weakness. Therefore, if a person finds himself the right place to develop, by going under a positive influence of society, he can attain wonderful results, much like the seed.
The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches that if I place myself under the influence of a good environment, I adopt a desire for spirituality and the attainment of the purpose of creation. Such a desire would normally come only as a result of accumulated suffering over hundreds of years. However, through the positive influence of the environment, I can speed up the process significantly. That is the one freedom of choice that the Creator left me with – to choose for myself the right society.
Today, we need to build an environment that would pull us toward the purpose of creation and the attainment of the upper worlds more than ever before, because it is only through that kind of attainment that we can begin to manage our own destiny and save ourselves from the anticipated agony.
Question: Where in this world can I find such a society? Is there a society with the right conditions for this development?
Answer: The best is for a person to find a group that aims its aspirations to the goal of creation, and that would be able to influence him to prefer spiritual development to anything else.
In the Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot ( Breaking the Iron Wall), the principal text for studying Kabbalah, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag explains why the Kabbalists obligate each person to study Kabbalah, regardless of their age, sex or religious background: in the study of the Kabbalah there is a great strength that everyone should know about. A person who studies Kabbalah awakens on himself the affect of the upper light by simply wanting to understand what he is studying, although he still doesn’t understand it.
Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag writes (item 155): ”Therefore we must ask: why then, did the Kabbalists obligate each person to delve in the wisdom of Kabbalah? Indeed there is a weighty thing here, worthy of being publicized: that there is a magnificent, invaluable remedy, to those who delve in the wisdom of Kabbalah: that although they do not understand what they are learning, but through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the lights that surround their souls.
Meaning, that each man from Israel is guaranteed to finally attain all these wonderful attainments, which God has resolved, in the Thought of Creation…” That affect is based on the fact that before the decline of man’s soul to our world, it was filled with the upper light, but once it has descended and clothed in a body, the light that filled it remains in the upper world. And it is the same light that shines on it from above and wants to return to it and fill it. But that light can shine to the soul only in the amount that he studies the wisdom of Kabbalah, because Kabbalah is the way to fill the soul with light.
A person must attain the filling of his soul in one of his cycles. The desire of the soul to be filled with its former light is felt by man as various kinds of pain. The longer the time that passes without the filling with the light, the more intense the pains. The pains will ultimately bring a person to recognize their cause, being the need to be refilled with light, and will lead him to a desire to find a way to fill himself with the light – the method of Kabbalah.
When one turns to genuine sources of Kabbalah, a spiritual light from above begins to extend on him. When he practices the study in a group, with a teacher who is a Kabbalist, a collective spiritual force affects everyone, whose power is many times stronger than the light that shines on a single person. This way the group builds around it a ‘field’, a unique spiritual realm, while the group itself becomes an environment that grows a person toward the purpose of creation and safeguards him from all evil through this light.
There is no need to regret a lack of talent, being born in the wrong country, or into the wrong family – everyone has the best possible conditions for his spiritual development. In the next world no one will be able to say that he did not get the chance to attain perfection. There is only one factor that I can freely choose: I must create for myself the right environment.
That is why there are free beginner’s courses opening all over the world today, in order to build groups that study Kabbalah. All the Kabbalists in every generation worked this way. Each of these small groups will act as a small society and influence its members. In the future, these groups will grow into whole societies of people who practice Kabbalah. More and more people understand that there is no other way to be saved from the troubles but through the study of Kabbalah. These groups are the ones that will gradually formulate the new spiritual background of our society in Israel, and later on the in the whole world.
We do not say anything new in Kabbalah that goes against human logic. All the laws of natural sciences speak in one form or another about each part of creation striving for the center, for a physical-biological balance (whether an atom, a molecule, a still object or a living organ). This is the principle of every law of nature, and this is also the principle of Kabbalah, but Kabbalah relates those collective laws of creation to man.
The very fact that we are a part of nature necessitates us to be subordinate to it. It is not a question of will, and neither is our very existence in this world. Hence, if a person takes upon himself the laws of nature and keeps them, he will feel good, and if not, he will feel bad.
The collective law of nature brings us back to a certain state of balance called the “center of creation.” The minute you begin to want to go back to that center, as the law that returns does, you will feel that you are stepping on a comfortable road, because you agree with the force and keep its laws.
If you do not know that law and act according to your own understanding you will be punished. That is the way nature works – anyone who breaks its laws is punished, including man, who is an inseparable part of nature.
By the way, besides man, no other creature breaks the laws of nature, because all other creatures work only according to their natural impulses. Those impulses also exist in man, but they are not enough for him to know how to behave in nature, and if he does acquire this knowledge, he will simply become extinct.
For that reason, we better understand that the best thing for us is to go along with the purpose of nature, which is (by definition) to bring all levels of reality to perfection, the still, the vegetative, the animate and the speaking, and the level of Israel within the speaking level.
Man must strive to always keep in mind the thought that everything that he feels comes to him for a purpose from the upper force, from the collective laws of nature. That law brings balance and movement to the physical-biological level, as well as to the spiritual level.
You might say that this balance is the return to the center from which we came. Hence, the first condition for keeping this law is to keep in mind the thought that everything I feel comes from one source only, from one center, in order to pull me to it. That law is called the “law of equivalence of attributes” or the “law of equivalence of form,” the center, or the Creator.
The will of the Creator is to bring us to perfection. I too seek to attain perfection, but for that, I need to study the program by which the Creator promotes me. If I want to know the Creator, the system, which works to benefit man, will appear before me. Baal HaSulam (Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag) writes that in the beginning, one must understand that he is dependent on the Creator alone, and that if he does not make contact with him, he might be extinct.
Every thought about wanting to draw closer to the center, to the goal, to the upper force, is far more efficient than any ordinary prayer, or some other ‘strong’ will.
If a person wants to intensify his thoughts along the way, he will have to dedicate his time to a principle called “There is none else beside Him,” and study the system of the worlds. This way he will make the light come inside him.
Hence, it is a must that man will have a minimal contact with the principle of creation, with the Creator, with the system that controls the worlds.
For a person who is already practicing the study of the Kabbalah, it doesn’t matter which language, words or sounds define the spiritual degrees or states, be they the language of the bible, the Kabbalah, or precepts (commandments). But the language is very important for a beginning student. It can confuse and inflict undesirable materialization of the text, and cause him to imagine corporeal objects. Hence, the language of the Kabbalah is a technical language, which is close to the modern day man. It is comprised of Sefirot, systems of worlds, Partzufim, Behinot and sketches.
Thus, one must know that there is a system with subsystems within it, which operate on us, on our body and on our soul, on the whole universe.
When man wants permanent contact with the upper force, he develops a new sensory organ, and through it, he slowly begins to feel his connection with it. That upper force tells man how their communication system is built, how it works around us in the entire reality, and how it aspires to bring us back to the center. It tells man how it runs through the entire world and through man himself.
That system is what motivates man and the world around him. You can call that force “upper force” or “Creator,” it makes no difference. If you feel the collective power of the world, you will be able to understand how to conduct yourself correctly. It is called: “One learns from one’s soul,” or “the light reforms.” The soul is like a computer program. Before it dresses in substance, it is no more than a thought, an idea, and a collective of certain connections between certain events in various situations.
That comparison enables us to explain what is an upper force: the Creator is a desire. “The desire to delight (please) the creatures.” He built a system that is like a computer program. If we study it, we will be able to organize the situations we face in the best possible way for ourselves and for society.
That program is not detached from one’s thoughts, it is inside us. But it is a still object in and of itself. Hence, if you want to change it, for the sake of explanation, let’s say that we want to change it, whom do we turn to? Will it be the Creator?
No, the program doesn’t change. But thoughts and prayers, meaning man’s desires, are what change the program and man alike. As a result of past suffering, man becomes better suited for this program, and he feels it as suitable for him, he feels that it is seems to treat him mercifully.
Kabbalah explains that the upper force, meaning the plan of the Creator, is complete, and it is only the vessels that change. Everything depends on the changes in the vessels, not on the light, because the light does not change.
The light behaves intransigently, mercilessly, and atrociously. That modus operandi cannot be changed, because the light extends and works on the entire creation from its origin, from the point of the “end of correction,” the point where the creature is equal to the Creator. Hence, this condition and operation of the light on us force us to reach the same situation. It is therefore obvious that if we do not aspire for the same thing we find ourselves placed under the pressure of a vicious power that pushes toward the center.
The equivalence of form is tantamount to your consent with the plan. I compared the plan of the Creator to a computer program, because they are both unchangeable. You can scream at your computer all you want, but it will not answer you until you fix the problem by yourself. And so is man with regards to the Creator – before man corrects himself, he has no reason to expect creation to treat him benevolently.
We turn only to he who can change, and only when there is hope that he will change. But there is a big mistake that is prevalent regarding the Creator. It states very clearly: “I the Lord change not” (Malachi 3, 6), and indeed you are the one changing, although the Creator makes you think that it is He who changes and not you.
We are unaware how much our sensory system, which is the whole world, depends on the emotions, on our ‘vessels.’ If they change even just a little bit, the whole world immediately looks altogether different. But before a person crosses the barrier and doesn’t feel the upper world, meaning the Creator, he feels that it is the Creator who changes.
I want to teach you how to do whatever you want using a special program in your ‘computer.’ The system in this computer is nature, but man is the only part in this system that actually operates.
That is why it seems as though nature is caged in a box, in a computer and only man is outside. He is the only one who can work with this program, receive data and affect that data and get a response to his actions on the ‘screen.’ I want to teach you how to use this program, because I too learned it from my teacher and I was convinced how effective it is.
Kabbalists are the only ones who use and control this program, and they pass the knowledge about the right approach to nature and how to control it from generation to generation. Their books describe how this world can be managed. This wisdom is called “the wisdom of the hidden,” because only a worthy person can study it, and for the rest it remains a secret. If a person does not correct his attributes as nature demands, he cannot understand that wisdom.
Even in our present situation we can begin to learn this wisdom. And even if we use it egoistically for the time being, we will improve our situation and improve our feeling.
In order to make contact with the Creator, a contact that existed between the Creator and the soul before it came down to the corporeal world, and clothed in a body, there was a system that was made to slowly bring us from the farthest point from the Creator, to the nearest point to him, to complete equivalence of form with him.
There is a goal programmed into this system, and the system leads the entire creation to this ultimate goal. The program is the general law, intended to bring everything to perfection – Israel first, and then all other nations, and after them, the animals, the plants and the entire corporeal world.
That law acts like the law of gravity in our world: the source, called “perfection” attracts the entire reality and all the creatures toward it, but it is we Jews who stand directly opposite it. We are the first to be attracted to it, and that is why we feel its intense power as pain.
If we do not aspire to the center more than its pull on us, we will feel pain, according to how deep the gap between our desire to approach the center and the intensity of the pulling force is. If the desire to advance is stronger than the pulling force, we will feel complete and content. If one relates correctly to reality, one begins to understand that everything one feels comes from the Creator, in order to make contact, and force me to connect with him.
And then a person relates to the reason that makes him turn to the Creator as a consequence. He relates to his desires as actions of the Creator and feels that everything in him comes from the Creator, except the decision to turn to the Creator. The contact with the Creator and turning to him become a goal, instead of a means to attain something. The goal, therefore, is the Creator, not man.
That means that I must return to the place from which I came before my soul came down to this world. I must connect with the Creator while in this world. If I want money or rain, it is called “ Lo Lishma” (not for Her name), the degree of still. If, however, I ask of the Creator permission to approach him, to attain him, then my goal is not me, but Him, the Creator, as it says: “Our hearts will rejoice in Him (the Creator).” This is the real purpose of creation.
Even when a person asks for rainfall, there is still the upper force behind his plea, although it is not aimed at the real goal, it is still a prayer to the Creator. Whether we like it or not, we are tied to the Creator like the umbilical cord ties a fetus to its mother.
But a person who prays unconsciously does not prevent the future pains, because the reason the Creator sends us those pains to begin with, is that we understand that there is a reason for the pain, which cannot be overlooked, because without it man will never attain the purpose of creation. That is why it is crucial to understand that the suffering is purposeful, that they come from a certain origin, from the Creator, for a certain purpose.
The advancement toward the Creator begins the minute a person prefers the contact with the Creator to any thing, good or bad. He seemingly neutralizes his desire for worldly pleasures, an act known in Kabbalah as “restriction.” Once a person attains that kind of ability to control himself, he goes on to acquire the ability to enjoy for the Creator’s sake and not for his own, something that goes completely against his nature.
A person who wants to draw near to the Creator does not regard him as a mere source of pleasure for egoistic pleasure. He accepts everything that happens to him lovingly. Even the bad sensations are regarded as signs that his vessel is not corrected, because that is the reason we feel everything that comes from the Creator as bad. The pains and the bad sensations disappear. At first we feel the pains as bad, but then they are viewed as vital for spiritual progress.
It all started with believing in supernatural powers. People believe that there are people with supernatural powers who can influence people and even large groups of people, foresee the future and even control it. People are willing to spend fortunes on healing, defense from ‘evil eye’ and fortune telling.
They believe that evil thoughts can harm another person and that the damage can be so great that it will be beyond repair and might haunt a person for the rest of his life, and cause bad results in every aspect of life - business, family and everything.
When someone comes to me with a complaint about suffering from an ‘evil eye,’ he is in fact trying to say that someone influenced him badly, meaning someone acted on him a certain way through the power of his thought, and harmed him. He also believes that I hold the power to neutralize that evil thought through my own power of thought.
If that person asks to neutralize another person’s thoughts, then they believe in the power of thought and that the thoughts do act and come true in our world.
The power of thought is the single most powerful force in reality. There are even scientists that recognize it. Our experience tells us that the more the power is subtle and elusive, the more powerful it is and less limited.
Radio waves, magnetic and electric fields, radioactive radiation, and gravity, are all examples of forces that we know of only by their actions and the phenomena they induce in our world.
There are, however, forces, such as the power of the thought, that we cannot even identify their actions and do not know the phenomena that are induced by them, although phenomena such as ‘evil eye’ or ‘luck’ are phenomena we are already familiar with. It is precisely those forces, which we cannot see in action that are the greatest powers. Today it is no longer enough to believe that they exist, we have to learn how to activate them by ourselves, and how to determine our future through them.
Question: How can Kabbalah change the future?
Answer: In order to understand that connection, you have to ‘clean your head’ first, and understand that Kabbalah is not about ancient mysticism; it is the most modernistic science and the one that is the closest to man. It is the science of the 21st century, which studies the forces we cannot see, forces that operate our world and affect every moment in our lives. It is the science that will change the future of each and every one of us in particular, and the whole of mankind as a whole. The special thing about this science is that the study itself is the connection with those powers. A person changes his life by simply studying it. He finds his connection with the upper power, with the one that brought him to our world and arranged his entire life. That power has but one goal – to bring humanity in the shortest and quickest possible way to its peak, meaning the recognition of all the laws of the upper world, as well as the ability to operate them. For every person is meant to live in both worlds together: in the familiar physical world, and in the spiritual world, which determines everything that happens here. Using this power, a person becomes like that force through the study of the Kabbalah, and conducts his life, his todays and his tomorrows.
Question: Does that mean that every thing that happens to us, every minute of the day, is related to Kabbalah?
Answer: Correct! Kabbalah is a practical, up to date science that answers every thing a person looks for in his life. It is time to reveal the secret wisdom to everyone. The Kabbalah is becoming a practical science that anyone can learn how apply and use for his own needs. That is what Kabbalists have always been writing, and that is what the book of “Zohar” says as well. Today, we are obliged to recognize the wisdom of the Kabbalah and study it in order to control reality by ourselves, according to its own instruction. The Kabbalah is a wisdom to lead the entire reality, which is meant for all people.
Question: To every person, meaning the whole of mankind, not just the Jews?
Answer: Yes. But there is an order of development. We Jews, the ‘chosen people,’ have to be the first to get to know the forces that come from the upper world and use them correctly, in order to convey that knowledge to the rest of the world, and conduct the entire reality. That is the ‘choseness’ of our people. We must be the first to study it and pass it on to the rest of mankind. The progress of the Jews determines the progress of all the others, and right now we are very late, which causes the other nations to be late as well.
I did not invent these things, they are all written in all the books of Kabbalah. According to the plan of the upper world, all creatures without exception must rise from their present situation to a much higher degree, and that can be done only through the study of the upper force and the connection with it. Man can change his life while in this world. He can avoid unnecessary pains, attain happiness, wholeness and eternity. Then, there won’t be any difference between life and a physical death for man will be living in both worlds at once.
Question: How can it be that the Jews are the chosen people, while we do not even understand why, and don’t behave in a way that justifies that reputation?
Answer: We Jews have a special role: we have to find the way to rise from the corporeal, beastly life, to a higher degree; to the spiritual life, and we have to show the world how it is done. That is the only thing that we are ‘chosen’ for. In the meantime, we are not doing our job, and that is why we look so bad and unworthy.
Because we have special souls, and our souls are special, we have to be the first to work on attaining that knowledge and accordingly do what we must. We have no advantage over anyone, but only in that we have to start studying about the upper worlds, about the force, which comes from the upper world, and ‘dive’ into that work first, and after that pass it on to all the other nations. This is what all the books of the prophets and Kabbalah say.
This is something that is known to the entire world, except us. In my many journeys, mainly to North America, in lectures that I give in universities, and in radio and television interviews, I am critically asked by non-Jews: Why aren’t you doing what you’re supposed to do? They have some sort of an understanding, or at least a clear feeling that we Jews have to do something that will improve their lives too. But we don’t want to understand our goal and by that we arrest the development of the whole of mankind.
Does this part carry an exclusively spiritual nature?
Answer: I wouldn’t say that it is exclusively spiritual. It is a very practical duty that we must perform on a day-to-day basis.
Question: Does it also require the election of a political leadership?
Answer: It has nothing to do with politics. I would say to the leaders of the country that there is a great deal of unpleasantness ahead, greater than we’ve known before. The only way out of it is by the education of the entire nation and advertisement of our mission as the chosen people - in what exactly are we chosen, what should we deal with besides our daily chores, which we obviously still cannot abandon, until we come to know the upper forces and are strong enough to control them to the point that the rest of the world will follow us and all the nations will come to our help, as it says, “…and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.” (Isaiah 49, 22)
Question: What about our duties in keeping the Jewish religious laws, is that not a part of our duty?
Answer: What we know as the laws of Judaism are rules that were set by the greatest Kabbalists in every generation. They set them according to the needs of their time and the goal that they wanted to attain. The goal was to preserve the nation and the Jewish tradition in order to cross all the exiles, until we come out of the last exile and return to the land of Israel. Their only goal was that we would not forget our Judaism and assimilate in the nations. That is why they set laws and customs that preserved what we had. It is a degree called “sacred still.”
It is only thanks to those laws that we survived through this long exile and returned as Jews to the land of Israel. But since our return, our role as Jews has changed: the goal is now a lot more active. Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the Introduction to the Zohar: “If Jews do not add the spiritual practice of precepts to the practical practice, meaning the study of the laws of the upper world and their utilization for man’s development and his approach to the Creator, then we will no longer be able to exist.
The practical practice of precepts ( mitzvot, the laws of Judaism), which had been important during the two thousand years of exile, was the right thing to do. But now that we’ve been given the land of Israel again, since we’ve begun to settle in it, we have begun a new era. We have to equalize our corporeal life with the spiritual laws of the land of Israel. What we refer to, as the corporeal land of Israel is in fact a spiritual, sublime value, with a great spiritual strength, that only here that we can attain.
If we continue to behave as we did in exile, we will not be able to go on living here. We will not be thrown out of here, but the assignment of the chosen people will be forced on us mercilessly and ruthlessly. The upper force, as we’ve said above, is aiming us to its one goal in the shortest and quickest way.
The Zohar promises that we are already in the last phase and after that everything will fall into place. But there is a tough time ahead of us, called the “coming of the Messiah.” During that time we must discover the upper laws in order to learn how to use them. And that can be done only as Jews in the corporeal land of Israel.
Question: They say that only married men over 40 are allowed to study Kabbalah. Why do you say that the study of Kabbalah is for everyone?
Answer: The conditions to study Kabbalah were also set by great Kabbalists. For two thousand years, the study of Kabbalah was forbidden and there was a reason. In fact, all the books of Kabbalah, including the Torah (the Pentateuch) were written only for our time, when everyone needs to practice the science of Kabbalah. What we should all do now is open the Kabbalah books and begin to learn how to attain the upper world.
Kabbalists have expressed their anger at the fact that we are not studying Kabbalah and are still not using the study as a springboard for the attainment of the upper worlds since the time of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai (Rashby), who wrote the book of Zohar, through the 20th century’s Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), who wrote the contemporary commentary on the Zohar. That is because this is the one key to the gate to spirituality, the knowledge and the understanding of the wisdom of the upper world, which means eternal life, happiness, wholeness and bounty for all mankind.
Question: Will we all practice Kabbalah, give good- luck charms and blessings?
Answer: Kabbalah is a science with clear and concise laws that must be studied. It has no connection with charms and blessings and other things that are done in its name, things which originate in the time Kabbalah was concealed from people and ascribed magical forces. The books of Kabbalah clearly explain what are the steps that we need to make in order to acquire that knowledge.
The special thing about the genuine books of Kabbalah is that they are suitable for all and contain the connection between the person who is studying, his soul and the upper worlds, where his soul originally came from. The books direct him to develop in a way that is suitable for him alone, according to his inner structure, and the root of his soul. It is much like the way a person chooses a profession in our world according to his character and the inclination of his heart.
Man’s pace of progress depends on his own will, how much he desires to know what is written in the books and his desire to know the upper world. The study makes a person begin to prefer the nearness of the upper world and choose living according to spiritual laws to living according to the corporeal laws of our world. He necessarily connects himself to good, positive forces.
We will always believe, and hang our hopes, on a change that will come from above, on a change of luck, on things being better. It is true that what happens in our world today is a direct consequence of what comes down to us from the upper spiritual world. But we can make sure that only good forces descend on us and give us bounty, provided we know how to act in the spiritual worlds.
We will know how to act correctly by a practical and systematic study of the structure of the upper worlds. We will learn to avoid a negative reaction to our actions, to do only things that will provoke a positive change in our lives. If our connection with the upper worlds were organized correctly, it would be for the best of all of us, for our own people, for the other nations and for the whole world.
Kabbalistic books are not like ordinary books. They’re not like the ones we buy in a bookstore, or like the ones we study in University. They are not even like the ones we study from in yeshivot (Rabbinical colleges). The special thing about the genuine books of Kabbalah is that reading them improves the reader, makes him feel something new, different, another sense, a sixth sense. It is in that sense that one begins to discover spirituality, see what is beyond our world. With it he begins to see the forces behind the objects of our world.
The minute we are able to go beyond this outer shell before us, we will begin to feel the forces that revolve our reality and operate on it. Then we will able to connect with those forces, influence them, see what exactly we are doing right, and what we’re doing wrong; how we should behave in order to match ourselves with a supreme and mighty force that surrounds the entire reality. This way we will be able to live consciously in a better world for all of us.
I do not mean to say that Kabbalah teaches us how to get on better in our lives at the expense of others. On the contrary: the contact with the upper world teaches how to refrain from hurting others, how to attain the true desire to give. The laws of the upper worlds are the only laws that exist in reality; they raise humanity to the degree of Man. We currently have no contact with them, and because of that we break them and thus inflict harm on others and ourselves.
Question: Will the study of Kabbalah immediately change the reality in Israel? Will it stop the shooting and terror, and perhaps even their desire to destroy us?
Answer: I’ve been studying this science for more than twenty years now. In order to relate seriously to what we see in our study, and to understand exactly what is the desire that pushes us from above it takes more than sitting and delving in the books. It is not that the entire nation has to open books and start studying in some obligating framework. We still have to work, raise families, go to school, and we have to keep guarding ourselves and serve in the army.
As a start, let us begin to grasp the purpose of life, reality and indeed the entire creation. It is more important than the material goals of life, the purposes we all chase in our world. This will put us in the right direction; that will already be progress. This way we will begin to actively cling to the upper force. We will become alert to the fact everything really does come from above. It is not like we thought of until today, when we passively thought that everything comes from above and it would all fall into place. Today we all have to participate in it. We must begin to try and understand and take an active part in reality, and by that we will immediately change it.
If we develop and better understand our role, if we take into our own hands the management of providence, as we are requested from above, we will really be able to see how the world around us becomes a better, calmer and serene place. It must be an immediate change, because there is no delay in spirituality. But as long as we are not in control of the upper forces it is our duty to defend ourselves in the ordinary way, as is the custom of this world.
Question: You mean everyone must go to the army, no exceptions?
Answer: I learned from my rabbi, Baruch Ashlag that a person must work, study, and serve in the army, for his country and his people. We have to use everything in our world and the only thing we need to learn is what is the right way to use it.
The problem is that to the extent that we cannot and do not know how to conduct our world and our lives through the upper force, through the upper world, to that extent we feel our lives in the world as bothersome, painful and a burden. It is a life of pain and torment with the army, hard work and trouble. Only to the extent that we can correct reality can we be freed from these things.
Question: So there is an upper will, and we, little people, must obey it; what is that will?
Answer: The upper will, called the Creator, wants from us to be his partners. He sees us as his sons, as all the books say. What we call “the end of correction” and the “coming of the Messiah” is really an ascent of man to the degree of the Creator, where we unite. Man becomes united with the Creator according to his awareness, and the strength that he requests from above, receives and acquires. Then he begins to be a part of the global spirituality. Only this way can a person avoid trouble in his life, because all the troubles come for the sole purpose of forcing us to search for the reason for them, and then one discovers that the reason for them is the detachment from the upper spiritual worlds, from spirituality.
Question: What do you propose to do right now?
Answer: I propose reading books, listening to cassettes, reading the texts on the Internet site that concern this issue and commence studying the nature of our duty to the upper force. And most importantly, we have to start thinking and picturing in any way possible, that behind all the events that occur, there is one supreme force, which is trying to wake us up unpleasantly to take the good path. It is turning us in an increasingly unpleasant way to the actual reality.
The wisdom of Kabbalah is not just a wisdom, it is the wisdom of truth; it is a real science, a way to study the upper world, and use it scientifically as in any science. The wisdom of Kabbalah renders a practical method to enjoy the upper world and it is the most practical method to learn how we can enjoy the entire reality in the right way.
Question: What can I do right now so that I don’t feel bad, so that I will not suffer and that we avoid trouble?
Answer: Unfortunately, you do not understand that it is about the united force of everyone together, about the power of will and the power of thought of the entire nation. If all of us, as a nation, relate differently to the force that comes from above, that will be the best way for us to influence reality and change it. That refers also to the reality that threatens us right now. It doesn’t matter if the threat will be with tanks, planes or missiles, or a multitude of Arabs; it will change our reality completely; it will be a completely different life.
We are chosen in that our souls have the powers of thought and desire, which, if used correctly, can induce an immediate change in reality. The collective power of our thought, which will change to appreciate spirituality instead of corporeality, will change the entire reality from above in our favor. It will be the exact opposite of the situation that we are facing today. This entire change depends only on how we relate to the mission at hand, against what has been placed before us from above.
We currently don’t know the powers of thought and will that are concealed in us, though we have the greatest powers of thought and will in the world, and in that we are chosen. But if we change our attitude to spirituality, and to the upper worlds, to what we call the guidance of the Creator, we will see that he, and only he, watches over everything that happens to us. We will begin to relate to it differently, and start to learn how we can change those things, and take the leadership into our own hands.
There is no need to know how to change the situation right now, but the very desire and the strive to understand what is happening to us, the concern for who it is who operates our reality and why, and the feeling that we are being lead from above toward some unknown goal, that this guidance is perpetual, that very attitude and the thought and the change of values in regards with the upper spiritual force vise-a-vie our corporeal forces are by themselves enough to change our situation drastically.
Question: What must I do in order to induce a significant change in the nation?
Answer: There is already an urgent necessity for the knowledge to reach everyone, individually and by government institutions. The various ministries of the government have to participate, possibly the ministry of education. In any case, it must be the relevant ministries that make decisions in order to lead us courageously to this necessary and vital change.
There are already small groups active around the world, studying, circulating in anyway they can, through the Internet, radio and television, and in the written press. But there is still a significant change necessary in the upbringing of the Israelis and the entire Jewish nation, and it must be lead by the Israeli government.
The emphasis must be put on our mission as a chosen people, on what we must do in order to promote the world and ourselves. It is written clearly and accurately in every book of Kabbalah, and today it is even handed down in an easy and understandable manner. It is important to stir up the desire in the public to understand it, to study the laws of the upper world so that we learn how to better conduct ourselves in this world, so that we can determine our own future, and make it the best future possible for us.
Question: If this is the most important mission, how can we bridge the differences in opinions and the rivalries and unite in order to attain it?
Answer: That message is for the entire nation and indeed the entire world. One’s perspective on life does not count here; it is about saving ourse