A: Kabbalah gives one answer to one common question: what is the essence of my life and what do I exist for? The one who has not succeeded in feeling comfortable with himself after all he tried throughout his life. This is the man who is suited to studying Kabbalah, because the Kabbalah shows man the source of life, thus the purpose of his life. Before I ask you what Kabbalah books you have bought, I want to tell you that these Kabbalah books are not dealing with the true Kabbalah we are dealing with. We provide a basic course in Kabbalah through our homepage.

A: To start learning Kabbalah no previous or prerequisite conditions are needed except one's will. But through Kabbalah studying one should learn how he can be similar to the spiritual world in all one's deeds and thoughts. We believe that this study may begin from our homepage.

A: Your anxious question "what do I exist for?" is the question which urges man to study Kabbalah. The way to know G-d is a very difficult one and requires a specific study. And only after a spiritual feeling becomes revealed to him he understands that all his former feelings were just products of his imagination. One cannot feel G-d until he crosses the way into the upper world by turning all his egoistic characteristics into altruistic ones. There exists a biological field known as "Aura" around each creature in our world; they, and other fields of this kind, exist in our world but they have nothing to do with spirituality. We prepare Kabbalah articles in which we teach all the stages of man's development along his spiritual course. As long as one hasn't achieved true spiritual feeling he shouldn't analyze his illusions too deeply.

A: We understand the source of your thinking, but as Rabbi Ashlag said, the book of Zohar was written by the great Kabbalist, either Shimon Bar Yochai or a Kabbalist of the same rank. Indeed Rabbi Moses de Leon was a Kabbalist as well. The book of Zohar explains how a man in this world can reach the source of his soul. This road consist of 125 "steps." The author of Zohar must have passed all these stages. Hence, Rabbi Ashlag said that it must have been only Shimon Bar Yochai. Rabbi Ashlag may say so because he existed at the same time, and in the same place, together with these souls while being with us in this world.

A: It is almost impossible for our generation to understand its language and profound essence of Etz Haim. In each generation there must be an appropriate book which suits the characteristics of the souls in that generation. In our generation the book of ARI "as is" is not understandable to us. Hence, in addition we use the books of Y. Ashlag, who has written an extensive commentary to "Sefer Etz Haim" ("The Book of the Tree of the Life") by Haim Vital, scholar of Luria. The commentary is more than 2000 pages long. Moreover, Rabbi Ashlag left us all his notes which have not yet been published. We are the followers of their spirit. Our on-line lessons on Zohar should provide you with sufficient knowledge in Etz Haim of ARI.

A: As you know there are many web sites on the subject of Kabbalah. We are not connected in any manner to any groups or organizations on the internet which deal with Kabbalah.

A: Rav Michael Laitman has published a series of Kabbalah books in English that are based on the authentic sources i.e., Shimon Bar Yochai, ARI, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag. You can find them on our site (E-books section) or purchase them on-line or at major bookstores in NA. Our site also provides translations of the original Kabbalah articles and sources.

A: You may read in the Bible that at the end of the restoration all will know G-d from the youngest to the eldest no matter sex or race. Kabbalah is about man and a general "desire to receive" which G-d created. This "will to receive" includes all creatures. Hence, one who wants to participate in the process of restoration may do this consciously. The restoration is a process of exchanging your intentions from egoistic ones to altruistic ones i.e., from the benefit of yourself to the benefit of the Creator. It is hoped that all mankind be involved in this. Before all, the Creator alone existed. He created a general "will to receive." This "will to receive" is called "The First Man." In order to enable "The First Man" to commune with the Creator the general "desire to receive" has been divided into many parts.

Kabbalah teaches that the purpose of the creation is to achieve the communion with the Creator because only in such a state (of communion with the Creator) can man achieve fulfillment, endless tranquility, and happiness. Each division of this "will to receive" is called a soul.

After each part individually undergoes a correction process, through the correction process, all parts are joined again to the first general - but now restored -"will to receive." With the correction of each soul, our entire world ascends to spirituality.

All parts of "will to receive" differ from each other by the time each is corrected and if it is done by itself or by others like all nature which is restored in accordance with the restoration of man. Thus, one who truly feels a need to commune with the Creator may use an appropriate method to perform his private process of correction.

A: Kabbalah does not deal with our physical body but only with our spiritual component. The upper world is like one creature - one soul whose parts are projected to a lower world (the one we perceive) in which we feel ourselves as distinct from each other. To explain more simply: because we are limited within our egoism, we feel ourselves as separated from each other, despite the fact that we are actually one spiritual body. Hence the separation exists only within our mistaken perception, for we are all, in fact one.

A: In Kabbalah there are lots of mathematical concepts as matrices, geometry, numbers, graphs, characters, letters and more which are codes, shown in the bible, telling about spiritual objects and the connection between them. Each spiritual level has its own name or number equivalent (based on the sum of all letters in the name). The transformation of a name to a number is called Gimatria. These codes refer to spiritual levels that we should attain.

A: The general idea of all religions and all mystic groups is how to commune with a kind of an Upper Entity. Every person comes with his own reason for seeking communion with the Upper Entity. For example some people wish to enjoy a good and happy life in this world, merit prosperity, health, wealth, confidence, knowing the future, to understand this world as much as possible, in order to manage their life better. Others wish to learn how to manage in the world to come (upper world) after death.

Both of these two goals are selfish and arise from man's egoism, but Kabbalah does not deal at all with them. Rather, Kabbalah aims to change man's nature in order to enable man to have qualities similar to the Creator.

The other mystic "ways to spirituality" - even though they speak about getting rid of man's egoistic desire, say so because it decreases man's suffering and gives him freedom and prosperity. Thus again the purpose is egoistic.

Kabbalistic method says that man must use everything he has in this world with the intention to give to the Creator. To reach this intention, however, man needs to sense the Creator and must feel that the Creator enjoys his deeds. This is very difficult and complicated to explain and one who studies Kabbalah begins to understand its meaning from his sensing the Creator.