T.V. Program with Rav Michael Laitman, PhD,

Ask the Kabbalist

Interviewer: Oren Levi

November 29, 2007, Tel Aviv, Israel

Oren Levi Levi: Good evening to all our viewers, we are happy to be with you this evening. It's been a week since our last program "Ask the Kabbalist." Good evening Rav Laitman.

Rav Laitman: Good evening.

Oren Levi: I would like to take this opportunity and tell you, since there is never time at the end of the program, that what I say reflects not only my thoughts but also what our viewers feel, since I see what they write and the questions that they leave on the answering machine. I simply want to thank you. Thank you for bringing us the wonderful wisdom of Kabbalah.

Rav Laitman: I am glad to be alive in this generation, when you can actually make this wisdom public, as stated by Baal HaSulam and that people begin to understand that it is the wisdom of life and is meant for us to enjoy life—that the more we use it, the more we succeed in making it part of our lives, the sooner we will reach happiness.

Oren Levi: I am simply so impressed by the variety of people who call and ask questions. They are so different and from all over the country, and all over the world. They are the elderly and the young, children, people of all different professions.

Rav Laitman: I see. I also meet these people on the street, when I happen to go for a walk. Then I see that many different people find this interesting. It is just like it says, that learning the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn't require any special talent or skill, or that a person be especially bright. It is rather those who feel a kind of emptiness inside that cannot be filled by what they see in this world.

Oren Levi: Let's start with the questions; there are many questions. Before we start with the new questions I have collected, there are many questions from the last program. I will ask you several questions at a time and in this manner we will be able to pay our debt from last week. Several people asked:

Question: How does one know who is a Kabbalist? Can everyone study Kabbalah? And what is the "Torah" and the "practical precepts" that a Kabbalist must observe in order to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, as Rabi Chaim Vital, the ARI's disciple stated?

Rav Laitman: Oh, that's a real "bomb"…who is a Kabbalist? Well, first of all a Kabbalist is anyone who studies with a renowned Kabbalist. I, for example, studied 12 years with Rav Baruch Shalom Halevi Ashlag.

Oren Levi: And who did he study with?

Rav Laitman: He was the eldest son and the first disciple of his father the holy Baal HaSulam, Rav Yehudah Ashlag. It is well known. Even today anyone can go to Bnei Brak and ask people on the street what I did for my Rabbi. I was his personal assistant, his secretary and his disciple.

Oren Levi: So this is in fact some sort of a condition?

Rav Laitman: It was known in Bnei Brak. If he went anywhere I always used to accompany him. That's how it was. …

Oren Levi: Yes, you can find all this information about Rav Laitman on the site.

Rav Laitman: Yes, I was really his disciple and always next to him…

Oren Levi: You mean this is the first condition? That you receive it from a Kabbalist teacher that is well known?

Rav Laitman: This is the first condition. It's a must. Yes indeed, it's a must, it is impossible to receive the wisdom of Kabbalah without studying from books. People often say, "Oh, I've learned a bit, I understand and now I know…" they don't even study from the sources and don't know anything. There are inner keys to the wisdom that one can only acquire from a known Kabbalist, who passes it on "from mouth to mouth", as we say. Not from "mouth to ear" but from "mouth to mouth" to the "the disciple that understands."

Oren Levi: Are there any other signs to identify a Kabbalist?

Rav Laitman: A man on the street cannot identify one. He must go to whoever he feels can answer his questions. It depends on a person's level of development. There are all those elderly women who go to fortune tellers. There are those who buy all sorts of talismans, red strings and holy water. There are those who understand that there is nothing more than a psychological effect in these things. They can no longer accept it, so they search higher up and when they arrive they feel.

In order to find my teacher I looked all over the country for four years and didn't know where to look. I was told the questions that I wanted to find answers to and couldn't was Kabbalah. I traveled all over and went to many Kabbalist, real Kabbalist. I am talking about the Baba Sali and many others who were Kabbalists in those times; I'm talking about 1975-1978.

Then in 1979 I found him. He was very modest. He didn't accept students. He had five or six students, that was all. When I arrived I saw an old man. How could I know that it was him? Since I had gone over a lot of material and had questions that no one had been able to answer, but had just given me all sorts of answers, even the Kabbalists couldn't give me answers, but when I came to him I understood from the first lesson that that was the place where I would get an answer.

Oren Levi: To Rav Baruch Ashlag?

Rav Laitman: Yes, with Rav Baruch Ashlag and then I stayed with him, until… until he passed away.

Oren Levi: So a Kabbalist is someone who received from a Kabbalist teacher…

Rav Laitman: Yes, it is the basic necessity.

Oren Levi: The second question was, can anyone study Kabbalah?

Rav Laitman: Yes, this is what Kabbalists tell us, I'm not making this up. Even if you hear the answers from me, you may ask where I take this information from and the answer would be from the sources. By sources I mean the Torah or the Gemara, or the ARI, the Zohar, Baal HaSulam, Rav Kook, the AGRA, RAMHAL, I mean those who are known as the spiritual fathers of the nation.

Oren Levi: I would like to give you a reference, you can find Rav Laitman's answer as to the fact that a Kabbalist must learn from a teacher in the book "Kabbalah for Beginners," in the two central articles by Baal HaSulam, "The Wisdom of Kabbalah and it Essence" and "the Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah."

Oren Levi: So, can anyone study Kabbalah today?

Rav Laitman: Yes. These Kabbalists say that anyone can study the wisdom of Kabbalah and there are no restrictions. The truth is that the ARI himself wrote about this. You can find it in his introduction to Etz Hachaim (The Tree of Life). You can also find it in the writings of many other Kabbalists. Baal HaSulam and Rav Kook also talk about this, that the wisdom of Kabbalah is not only for the people of Israel, it is intended for the whole world, even though it may seem new and inconceivable.

Oren Levi: This is really the opposite of what it used to be. Before it was hidden and suddenly it is revealed to everyone.

Rav Laitman: Yes, just like it says; that God turned to every nation and offered the Torah, but none wanted to receive it, so he gave it to the people of Israel. The people of Israel are like a transmitter in passing the wisdom of Kabbalah to the whole world. With it the world will reach the desired correction.

Therefore, as Kabbalists say we are living in the Messiah's generation and we should make it known throughout the world. What is more, until the wisdom of Kabbalah becomes known, the people of Israel and the whole world will have no spiritual redemption. There is no point in arguing, these aren't my words. I can give you the reference; it is from The Messiah's Shofar, an article by Baal HaSulam. Rav Kook also said that everyone can study Kabbalah, and there are no restrictions, etc.

You can find all the sources on our site.

Oren Levi: Right. The third question was what is Torah and practical precepts that a Kabbalist must observe in order to study the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Rav Laitman: "To study the wisdom of Kabbalah" means "to study the deeds of the Creator." The deeds of the Creator can be studied by equivalence of form with Him. When a person does the same thing; "From your deeds we know you" as it says. If a person does the same things as the Creator it means that he performs precepts. How can one perform these deeds? By the "Light that Reforms”. How does it reform? Where does one find the light that reforms? By studying the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Baal HaSulam tells us in The Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot, Item155, that a person who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah, and only the wisdom of Kabbalah, draws upon himself the light that reforms that opens up his soul, and it begins to receive the same form as the Creator. In this way he gets to know the Creator. The actions he takes in correcting his soul are called precepts. Thus, by Torah and precepts we refer to the correction of the soul and its filling with the light of the Creator.

Oren Levi: And then he studies the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Rav Laitman: Then all these actions and the light that fills him are called Torah, and this is the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah—how to attain the revelation of Godliness, this is the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question: Hello, my name is Ran and I am 11 years old. My question is why doesn't Rav Laitman do some kind of miracle, like Jesus, for example, who turned water into wine and so was able to get the support of all the Christians?

Rav Laitman: Well, I doubt the miracles you are referring to and the man who performed them. What I wish to say is that a "miracle" is what is above our nature—something that we do not understand. It is something we do not know and which happens suddenly. Then it is called a miracle. The truth is that at a higher level it is no longer a miracle. It is something ordinary… something ordinary and certain.

Why is it forbidden to perform miracles? Because people should reform themselves and approach spirituality of their own free will. Even if it were possible to perform miracles, it would put great pressure on people. It would obligate them and prevent them from advancing by their free will.

Therefore, just like it is forbidden to obligate someone to suffer, it is forbidden to obligate someone through miracles or by any sort of reward. A person must say that "the world was created for me" and must see himself "half innocent and half guilty." This means that he can always choose freely one way or another. Seeing a miracle will certainly rob him of that.

Oren Levi: Is this why the greatest Kabbalists conceal their greatness?

Rav Laitman: Of course, they conceal themselves. There is no true Kabbalist that does not conceal himself. People can say whatever they want about him, but he behaves as an ordinary person. He wishes to advance in his internal state, and that no one should sense that. Because if they do, he simply deprives people of advancing by their own free will, which is the only way a person can advance.

Question: Hello honorable Rav Laitman. First I would like to thank you for all that you (Bnei Baruch) are doing for the human race and for the whole world. I study with you every day. I understand that the soul of a Jew is always reborn as a Jew; a man is always a man and a woman as a woman, according to the root of the soul. However, what about a person who is not a Jew and who has joined the Jewish people for one reason or another by converting?

Rav Laitman: It is the same. If a person who is not a Jew does everything that the Jews in this world do, then he is just like all the Jews in this world and becomes a Jew. But if a person in this world begins to reform internally, and studies the wisdom of Kabbalah because that spark has awakened in him—the point in the heart, and he begins to ascend and to discover his soul and to fill it with God's Light, he begins to resemble the Creator. Then he becomes a Jew in the spiritual sense. Our Jews, which we know as our people in the physical sense have not reached such levels yet.

In other words, there are those we consider Jewish in this world and there is a
"Jew" who reaches a state of unity with the Creator in the spiritual sense. This can be someone who is born a Jew and someone who is not.

Question: Rav Laitman says that our experiences, our conclusions, and knowledge accumulate from one life to the other. In other words, we become smarter from one life to another. Why haven't I heard about anyone, including myself, why don't we remember anything that we did or what we were or what happened to us in previous lives?

Rav Laitman: I have already spoken about other lives and I have said that from one life to another a person does not need a mechanical memory, in the form of pictures from every previous life, as we remember in our life. I can remember things by their smell, by the noise, by something that reminds me what happened thirty, fifty years ago. But from one life to another, all the experience that we had in one life and all the knowledge become attributes in the present life. Therefore, a child is born and he suddenly knows better than us how to relate to this world. He doesn't know how to relate but in a short time he learns it because all the previous knowledge is in his instincts, in his attitude.

Oren Levi: Built in, inside him?

Rav Laitman: Yes, inside. It is in his nature and so it comes to him naturally. It isn't that he remembers in the same way we acquire experience. We will never find a mechanical memory from one life to the other, but rather our improved and more advanced attributes which we receive from a previous life.

Question: If everything is predetermined, then where is my free will? I mean, where am I and where is my free will? I mean, if one already knows that everything is predetermined and there is someone above who guides you, and there are many laws that guide you and there is a Creator, then where is a person's free will in his lifetime?

Rav Laitman: There is no free will in this world. We are born with all the genes, with all the elements, the information, the knowledge for life. A good example of this would be twins who live in different parts of the world. When we study them in different parts of the world we see the way they live, behave, that their wives have similar names and their children have the same names. We can see that everything is the same.

This means that a person is born and performs all the "Reshimot" (remembrances) as we call it, meaning his internal genes. Today we learn about it from genetics and biology that also confirm this. Besides, there is society's influence on a person who is not free at all. He is influenced by society and manipulated by it and a person cannot do anything about it. He surrenders to society and must obey its conventions.

Oren Levi: Today in behavioral genetics they talk about the fact that 50% of what a person does is determined by his genes. The other 50% is social influence and there is the question, where is one's free will? After all, it says: "and you shall choose life."

Rav Laitman: Yes, well, that's the only place where one has a choice. The saying "and you shall choose life" is only with regards to that.

Oren Levi: What do you mean "about that?"

Rav Laitman: I mean in the spiritual life which is unlike the physical life. In the physical life we are like animals, like beasts. We are like robots, like puppets that have no free will in this life. It is always our body, our inner consciousness that advances in this manner—that we choose maximum pleasure for minimum pain. This is what drives us in every sense in this world.

However, when we talk about a man's ability to be free in any way, to be totally independent, not in my past with the attributes I was born with, not with the ones I acquired during childhood, and not with what society demands of me. So where am "I"? Not only on this plane but in the spiritual ascent. A person has to make that choice at every moment and thus he progresses. There isn't a single movement in our lives that is free, neither a thought nor a feeling in the heart.

Question: Could you please explain what the "Eser Sefirot" are exactly?

Rav Laitman: To put it simply, Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod are nine Sefirot, the revelation of the Creator to a person. Man is the Sefira of Malchut. Malchut is a person's desire to know the Creator. If that desire is really big, and together with it a person studies from the right books, he opens up and begins to receive what he deserves from the Creator. He receives from the Creator in nine manners—the nine manners of the Creator's relation to a man. A person feels that and accordingly wishes to resemble the Creator and his relation.

Therefore, he is called a man, Adam (in Hebrew stemming from the word similar or to resemble the Creator). Then such a person becomes a man. It isn't like in our world. He actually becomes a spiritual man, an eternal man, a whole. As it says: "Return the children of Israel to God, your Lord." A person takes nine Sefirot, nine forms of the Creator's relation to him and becomes similar to them. The rest is from studying.

Question: What determines my attitude to different people? I can meet a certain person for example, and immediately feel a connection between us and that we are close or it can be the opposite, I can hate him. Where does this come from? Is it from our roots in the world of Ein Sof, or is it something else?

Rav Laitman: No, this feeling comes only from physical matching and it has nothing to do with the spiritual part in you or in the person you met. It is possible that you don't see him as close to you spiritually at all and perhaps it is possible that physical affinity is different from spiritual affinity. Spiritual affinity stems from a mutual cause, by a common bonding called Arvut. Then the souls unite and complement one another.

Physical affinity, however, could result from genes, hormones or anything else you may have in common. In other words reward or punishment in this world—what might seem or not seem worthwhile for bonding. Therefore, a bonding in this world has nothing to do with spiritual bonding. When you know spirituality you will act so that your connections in this world will be in accordance to spirituality. Then you will benefit.

Oren Levi: The next question is from the south part of the country, from Be'er Sheva.

Question: How does the infinite Light flow? In what form, in which frequency, in which wave length, can you please elaborate on that for beginners?

Rav Laitman: The Light of Infinity doesn't flow, it just seems that way to us, and it is just a figure of speech. It is just like I often say… I feel like… I have the feeling. It means that it awakens in me and I become more and more aware of it. It is the same with the Ein Sof Light. We are in a sea of light, as it says "His Greatness fills the world". It is impossible to escape it; one cannot hide himself from it. It is our adaptation to the Light that opens up our feeling of the Light.

I have to resemble the light in order to feel it. It is like a radio receiver. I have to tune it, the inner radio wave, so that it will produce the same wave as the one outside. Then I can receive the waves outside and hear them. A receiver has to produce waves like the ones outside and then they can be received. Similarly, I also have to create inside me the same attributes as the light outside me. Then I can receive it and feel it. In fact the whole wisdom of Kabbalah is about how we can create inside us the same attributes as the light. Then it can fill us and give us a feeling of eternity and wholeness in our lives, adhesion with the Creator—this is what a person has to reach; only by studying Kabbalah.

Question: I have read the book Together Forever and I like it very much. My question is when will more such books for children be published?

Rav Laitman: I am very sorry, but this is a book that I actually felt erupted from me, but I cannot say when more books will be published. Writing fairy tales and stories for children is very far from me. I guess I have to get closer to children. Then maybe I will have this ability. I would be very glad to write more, I will try to do so Eti, thank you for telling me.

It was really a wonderful experience, the way I felt… (Oren Levi: that was the book The Magician, wasn't it?)… Yes "The Magician"… where I could express these things. It could be… there are many legends and beautiful stories in the wisdom of Kabbalah that can be adapted and made suitable for children, and one can learn great wisdom from them. We will try to do that… there simply isn't enough manpower, perhaps you could help me.

Oren Levi: What do you wish for our viewers? Next week is the holiday of Hanukkah.

Rav Laitman: Well, Hanukkah is the "holiday of Light." I wish us all to ascend to the level of "Hanukkah"—that we correct ourselves and light the candles inside us. Every person is the Creator's candle ("The light of God, a man's soul") and that we start advancing towards the state where our lives will be total light. This holiday requires that and our lives require that. We are at a new age nowadays where everyone can reach that, so let's light candles.

Oren Levi: There are many beautiful questions. Let's begin with the following one.

Question: Why should one deal with the spiritual world? I think it is better not to deal with the spiritual world because it causes people to go mad and it is better to live life as it is.

Rav Laitman: If there is the fear that one might go mad then he shouldn't deal with the spiritual world. I agree with the person asking the question: carry on in this world. However, there are people who say and feel and cannot live without this, since only this fills them. My death is better than my life" as it says. Then they are ready for dealing with the spiritual world. Besides, we see that because of the crisis the world is in now that people give in to despair; which is the number one disease in the world today. They say that it will affect everyone. It will engulf everyone. (Oren Levi: today it is considered an epidemic)… yes.

How many people today do drugs or are involved in violent acts, states where a person feels empty inside? He cannot fill himself and cannot find an answer to the question "what do I live for?" "What is there in this world for me?" this drives him to all these deeds. Therefore, in most cases, I would say that a person mustn't be told that "it isn't worth it" or that "it is forbidden to study Kabbalah." We have it now, we should attain it. We will all have to deal with it. So as “to going mad”; even though I have had thousands of students, I haven't seen anyone who has gone mad because of that.

Question: Can I study Kabbalah although I don't believe in God?

Rav Laitman: Of course. What do we mean by "believing" anyway? Did someone tell me and because of that I believe that there is someone or something up there? "Believing" as we call it in this world is; believing in what someone tells me about something, a grandfather, a father, a teacher in school or someone else. It isn't believing in God, it is a belief in the person who told me. Therefore, we do not take into account such beliefs at all. Believing in God is called "knowing God", "feeling the Creator," just like we feel one another. That's the way we should feel the Creator. Everyone can do it—reach such a belief by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question: Why is the method of Kabbalah the only way to reach spirituality? In your lessons you say that one has to use authentic books, how can we be certain that we are using the right books?

Rav Laitman: No one can tell you. Everyone may tell you that the books of the Hindis, or Chinese, Japanese or any other religion—the Islam, Christianity, Judaism and many sectors in these religions, they all say that their books are the real ones. You should judge by yourself, if this is close to you. But you should check quickly because it a shame to waste your life. It is a waste of time. Everything passes so quickly. Check quickly what is good for you and what is bad. What appeals to you and what doesn't and follow that in life. I am not telling you what is true and what isn't. You have to find that out for yourself.

Question: My question is about the "help." The way to general correction is self correction. What can someone who chose a profession like social worker or professions of aid and assistance, benefit? Is there any benefit to the world from such professions?

Rav Laitman: The world benefits from every profession that people have a need for. A doctor, a social worker, a teacher or a street cleaner, a guard or a fireman, we need all these professions. If a person wishes to make the world better, he has to think about his inner correction along with his profession, his being an ordinary citizen, part of his people, his state and the world. As it says "determines the whole world …"

I mean, a person who wishes to reach the goal of creation, who wishes to bring his soul back, to ascend to the root of his soul while still alive, who wishes to perform this great correction. He is doing good to the world. This is a profession everyone should learn.

Question: I would first like to encourage you and to thank you for your dedication for all of our sake. Second, I would like to ask whether Kabbalah has anything to do with "healing" since it is dealing with energies and stuff, and if not, how is it that without physical contact a healer can affect my body immediately, I have experienced such things in the past. Does it have anything to do with spirituality?

Rav Laitman: No. it has nothing to do with spirituality. From a distance we can use magnetic power, electro-static, electric or any other type of power waves. The heat I feel from the distant sun… do I have to be in direct contact with the sun in order to feel it? No. There are many powers that act upon each other from a distance. There is also a lot of energy in people. A person radiates lots of energy—"the evil eye" for example, or when you feel that someone is watching you. So is this spirituality? No. There are people who can actually affect others with their thoughts and give them orders. There are people who can feel what others think and want, but this has nothing to do with spirituality.

Oren Levi: So healing has nothing to do with spirituality either.

Rav Laitman: Of course.

Oren Levi: So let's define what it is in one sentence. This is everything that it isn't, so what is "spirituality"?

Rav Laitman: Spirituality? Spirituality is pure bestowal from one person to another or from a person to the Creator. It is possible to acquire this attribute only when it comes from Above, from the Upper Force, from the soul's root. Spirituality is called "that which is above nature." It is possible to reach it only by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. Only by studying the wisdom does a person draw upon himself a special power that reforms him, that creates a new attribute in him called "spirituality." It appears as the love of others in a person, as bestowal to others, but not on the physical level which we are familiar with, in the nice relationship between people.

Question: What does it mean for all the souls to be united—to be one at Gmar Tikkun? How does that happen?

Rav Laitman: "How does that happen?" it is not to feel oneself but to feel everyone as one. In fact, we see this in the stories of the Torah. The Creator created one man and his soul divided into two—a man and a woman. Then there were more and more, until today when all the people in the world are all parts of that one soul, the one created being. We are parts of one soul.

What should we do? The Creator's purpose in the creation was that we begin to unite and become that one soul once again, that one image that stands in front of Him, that we become one man. This one soul is called "Adam" (a man) standing in front of the Creator. Then we reach unity among us and the same status as the Creator. As it says "return Sons of Israel to the Lord your God." Then we reach perfection and eternity, limitless, endless life.

Question: Is reaching Tikkun a privilege for educated people? What about those who are illiterate?

Rav Laitman: No, on the contrary. People who are not so educated, but who have a feeling, an open heart, feel that they must advance according to the emptiness they feel in their heart and thus reach the wisdom of Kabbalah. The truth is, the higher a man gets in life and the more he finds himself in a special profession, he finds himself practically buried there. He buries himself there and then never reaches the wisdom of Kabbalah and spirituality.

Therefore… it isn't a problem for those who are illiterate. It is enough to hear. It is enough to want to be, even if one is deaf. Suppose one is deaf and blind and there are no Kabbalah books available in Braille print. If he wishes to enter and to be with Kabbalists and feels that he is drawn to it, he advances without any limitations.

Oren Levi: How does this work?

Rav Laitman: It works on the soul. It works through the soul. Accordingly, if he does have such conditions where his senses are impaired, it means that his soul is more open, so I think he has better chances of advancing than anyone else.

Question: I would like to ask about the destination you are leading us to. When we all ascend, meaning that we all aspire for equality, equality among everyone. That there will be no envy, that we won't envy one another that we will annul our egotistic desire. Then there will be equality among all. After all the Communists also carried the same banner and they have disappeared. We have seen that there cannot be equality among all people. Now, if we learn from history, if economic and material equality didn't work, will spiritual equality work?

Rav Laitman: You are right. I lived nearly thirty years of my life in Russia and I felt Communism very well indeed. You're correct, the oppression and the need to seemingly unite with others or at least to speak nicely, etc.; this isn't the wisdom of Kabbalah at all. It has nothing to do with what the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of, because people speak about uniting for the sake of a better material life, in this world.

Oren Levi: In Communism.

Rav Laitman: Yes. The healthy plan is to bring a person, by uniting with others to the top of human spiritual development, to equal the Creator; above this world. When a person ascends above beastliness, and stops worrying only about his donkey—about the beast in him, but identifies with his soul, with the eternal part in him; then one would feel eternal, perfect, peaceful and limitless life without boundaries of time space or location. This is what one should reach.

So the connection among us is basically a means to attain spirituality—this kind of life, and not to feel good in our material life where everyone takes care of the other and then everyone feels good. We find satisfaction in food, security, etc.; but this isn't really our life. It is a temporary period that we spend here only to ascend from it to spirituality.

Question: What are Behina Alef, Bet, Gimel and Dalet (1^st 2^nd 3^rd and 4^th discernments) and where can I read about it?

Rav Laitman: These discernments are called the four phases of the Direct Light.

Oren Levi: What is this? There are people who have never heard these words.

Rav Laitman: The Light before the creation, the attribute of bestowal, the love of the Creator that develops and bears the created being out of His love. Just like parents bear children out of their love. The phases in which the Light creates man, the soul. In Kabbalah we call the soul a man. It isn't a man as we know it. In Kabbalah it is called a mere body, a beastly, material body.

The Light creates a man—the soul in four phases. These four phases are the basis. Just as the light that creates the soul in four phases is called the four Hebrew letters in the name HaVaYaH— a name that everyone knows. So in these four phases it actually completed its action in the soul. The soul begins to develop until it resembles the Light once again.

You can read about this in Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. There is an article by Baal HaSulam which is one of the prefaces to the Book of Zohar. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, where he explains this issue right at the beginning and also in Talmud Eser Sefirot part 1.

Oren Levi: I would like to add that the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah is in the book Kabbalah LeMatchil (Kabbalah for Beginners). I would also like to recommend another book with easier explanations. It is Rav Laitman's book called A Journey to the Upper World. It is a text book of ten lessons where you can find detailed explanations and drawings. It is very interesting and very helpful in your studies in a light manner.

Question: Could you please explain how I can direct my ten year old children to study Kabbalah and to know about Kabbalah?

Rav Laitman: Start explaining to them and read with them. We have a website, go into the children's site there, or even material for adults starting from the first lessons which is easier. It is worthwhile to interest children in it. We can see from our experience in working with children to what extent it helps to keep children away from unwanted social connections, away from drugs and violence. As a whole it keeps them alive in every sense, since they come close to the Light. The Light is all the energy of life, the force that guards us. So you are actually providing your child with the right way for life.

Start together. Start reading together from the easiest material to the more difficult. You can also consult us. Go into the children's site where you can ask women what they recommend for teaching children. Then you will get a clear answer. I hope you succeed.

Oren Levi: You may reach the children’s site. There is also material on our site www.kab.tv. There we put all the material that is suitable for both parents and children.

I would like to tell you something. Last night I came home, at eight o'clock, when my kids were just finishing their dinner and about to go to bed. I sat down to have dinner when my daughter who is in the 3^rd grade and my son who is in the 1^st grade jumped on me and said, "Well, let's have a Kabbalah lesson."

We started studying a bit a few weeks ago and since then every day I come home this is the first thing my son says to me, "let's study together." Then he brings a book and sits next to me and I start talking to him as I eat. He has a notebook and he draws in it. My daughter comes close and says, "I also want to," and she runs quickly and brings paper sheets and so I sit with the kids through dinner and have a real deep Kabbalah lesson and they don't want to go to bed.

Rav Laitman: They get it, don't they?

Oren Levi: They don't want to go to bed. What do you mean they ‘get it’, it's amazing.

Rav Laitman: Yes. These are different souls. We should also understand that our generation is a very special one. These are totally different souls, high quality. They don't demand like us, they really want to feel the upper, more spiritual world. They are already built for that. Therefore, if you just start teaching them a little, you will feel to what extent they pull you forward from within, from within the wisdom.

Oren Levi: The next question is a phone call from Batya from Ra'anana.

Question: In one of the morning lessons on TV you said that a person cannot know the other's deficiency because we are different from one another. So how can I fill another person's pleasure and will I know how to fill the Creator with pleasure, which is much more difficult?

Rav Laitman: A person who begins to correct himself, who begins to feel to what extent his ego shuts him from inside and that he cannot see anything outside himself. Then, gradually, by studying, a "sixth sense" opens up and he begins to feel others. He begins to feel the deficiencies of others and the desires of others, the thoughts of others and he begins to tie them to himself. Then he and others become one. Like a mother and child, let's say. When she feels exactly what he feels, then all her actions are to fill him. This is exactly how we begin to feel towards others.

The Light makes us feel this unity. Then we can exit ourselves and feel others and so we begin to feel the Creator—life outside our body. This is called "the life of the soul," eternal life. This is what we should reach. Then the principle of "love thy friend as thyself," feeling the other, filling the other, is not that I fill others, I fill my own soul because my soul is in everyone and in me there is only the initial desire to bond with it.

Question: What is the meaning of Sabbath according to Kabbalah, what is the meaning of observing the Sabbath according to Kabbalah?

Rav Laitman: The "Sabbath Day" in Kabbalah is called "a day that is total goodness," a kind of the next world, of the day of Gmar Tikkun, when we all reach a state where we are full of goodness and limitless pleasures, this is what the Sabbath symbolizes for us. After all the Tikkun in this whole process we are going through, called the "six days of Creation," when we end the Tikkun. These six days are the six thousand years in which we exist in this world. Starting from Adam who lived according to our calendar five thousand seven hundred and sixty eight years, before that and until Gmar Tikkun six thousand years should pass.

Oren Levi: Maximum.

Rav Laitman: Maximum. It may be less than that, since it is Saturday evening, the Sabbath begins a bit before that, on the sixth day…

Oren Levi: "The fifth hour"…

Rav Laitman: "The fifth hour of the sixth day'' right, like the ARI explains. So we can reach Gmar Tikkun before six thousand years are over. It is possible to reach it today and the Sabbath symbolizes that. We sanctify it as a symbol of that nice, pleasant, perfect and eternal state which we should reach.

Oren Levi: We don't have to wait for the Sabbath, right?

Rav Laitman: No. Let's decide and do it here every day of the week.

Oren Levi: The next question is from Moshe of Tirat Ha'carmel.

Question: How was Kabbalah discovered?

Rav Laitman: Abraham our forefather discovered it

Oren Levi: How?

Rav Laitman: He was actually a pagan. So from research, since the wisdom of Kabbalah is a wisdom just like science, as Baal HaSulam writes in The Wisdom of Kabbalah as a Modern Science, The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah, and there are many more articles about the fact that the wisdom of Kabbalah explores the spiritual world. Just like we, by using our five senses explore the material world. From our study of the material world we collect all sorts of data which is actually all the different wisdoms. We attain our wisdom from experimenting with different objects in our world.

It is the same with a Kabbalist. By his feeling of awe from the spiritual world a "sixth sense" opens in him, called "a soul" with which he begins to explore the spiritual world. He begins to study his actions through his soul and thus collects all this data. This is what we find in our books, as it says "the judge has nothing but what his eyes see." Everything that they use is from attaining the levels, "we will not name what we have not attained."

Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah is like physics. We explore the spiritual world and then collect all the data, all the findings of our research into a Kabbalah book. Why? It is like we use what we learn in physics in order to live better in this world, so studying the wisdom of Kabbalah can help us live better in the spiritual world. Why is that good? The forces that operate us descend from the spiritual world. If we know how to use these forces in the best possible way for us, we will benefit and our fate will be much better.

Question: How does one dedicate his thoughts to the greatness of the Creator? How am I supposed to love the Creator?

Rav Laitman: It is impossible. I am telling you straight.

Oren Levi: But you speak about the love of the Creator in that book.

Rav Laitman: Yes, but one can reach it only by feeling who it is, what it is, what the Upper Force is. Why should I love someone or something in our world? I have to know it, I have to feel it, and I have to understand that it is for my own good. I have to be impressed by it. It is the same in spirituality. A person is not required to just love someone. But by studying, and especially by uniting with other people, a person opens up these channels in him, called "the sixth sense." He begins to feel the Upper Light, the Upper Force. He begins to feel that it is for his own good and to what extent love flows, from it to him. In this process the reciprocation of love begins to that source which draws us.

This development is the same development we have to go through by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. We see to what extent we are being pushed nowadays towards spiritual development by suffering, drugs and despair. So let's start doing it, let's take action. We will reach the source of all goodness and then there will be no problem to love Him. We will see that He created us in His great love that is eternal and limitless and so we will unite in this love.

קבלה מדיה

קבלה מדיה

איזור אישיכדאי להיכנס כדי להוסיף לייק לסרטונים, לשמור תכנים ולהירשם למינויים.

ספר יהושע, פרק כ"ד

ספר יהושע, פרק כ"ד

ספר יהושע, פרק כ"ד

קבלה מדיה© כל הזכויות שמורות 2003-2026 בני ברוך - קבלה לעם

איזור אישי
כדאי להיכנס כדי להוסיף לייק לסרטונים, לשמור תכנים ולהירשם למינויים.

קבלה מדיה
© כל הזכויות שמורות 2003-2026 בני ברוך - קבלה לעם