Kabbalah4women

How Could Katrina Happen To A Country With A God-Fearing President Like Bush?

2005-09-06T12:05:00.000Z

Please visit my NEW and UPGRADED blog at http://www.kabbalahforwomen.com/

Doesn't it seem a little strange that this terrible disaster took place at a time when America has a god-fearing president like Bush? Doesn't it make you stop and wonder what really makes the world go round? Maybe it's something very different to all the traditional (religious) stories we've been told all our lives. Maybe it's something much more sophisticated and advanced than we are capable of understanding right now? On the other hand, maybe if we make a tiny bit of an effort to understand it we will ....

The science of Kabbalah explains how it is man's collective thoughts and prayers that drive us forward. Although the current events in New Orleans may seem like a punishment of some kind, there will come a day when America will look back at these tragic events and see them as a tremendous turning point for mankind. The force that created us is sending these blows to make us grow up and start thinking about what we were put here for. And here's a clue - I seriously doubt that movies, TV, eating out, and non-stop shopping were what that force had in mind at the time of our creation.

Kabbalist & Scientist Rav Michael Laitman explains global changes in An Interview With The Future (that is available for free download). He explains how if we want to know what's going on we must know that there is a system (or upper force) with subsystems within it, which operate on us, on our body and soul, and the whole universe.

In order to achieve permanent contact with the upper force, we need to develop a new sense for feeling this connection. That upper force tells us how the communication system is built, how it works around us in reality, and how it aspires to bring us back to the center. It shows us how this force 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. The soul 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. The program never changes. It is our thoughts and prayers, meaning our desires, that change the program and man alike.

Kabbalah explains that the upper force, is complete, and it is only our perceptions of it that change. Everything depends on the changes we undergo, 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 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.

Tags: katrina new orleans kabbalah Intelligent Design Science Religion DARWINISM Creationism

Kabbalah: Choosing Not To Be a Victim

2005-09-04T11:26:00.000Z

THIS BLOG HAS MOVED TO A NEW HOME: http://www.kabbalahforwomen.com/

I spoke to my graphic designer this morning, who doesn't study kabbalah. He is of course devastated by the news from New Orleans. This is how our conversation went:

Designer: "I can't believe something like this is happening in America, it's just unbelievable."

Me: "It's going to get worse because Israel isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing."

Designer: "What are you saying - that you know what's going to happen? We've seen prophets before ...."

Me: "It's not a matter of seeing the future! The root for everything that happens in our world is in the upper world. Kabbalists or people who study kabbalah, are people who research the upper world and essentially live both in this world and that world at the same time. So they can run the movie of our entire existence back and forward because they have the complete picture in front of them."

Designer: "Well there's all sorts of changes taking place in the world .... it's just nature taking its course ... there's nothing we can do about it ... we can't control nature."

Me: "Actually we can. And that's our whole purpose for being here. Kabbalah is the only way to achieve real freedom."

Rav Laitman is talking about all these 'blows' we're experiencing nowadays in today's morning lesson, how this is the only thing that's coming to us now from the upper world, because the force that created us wants us to grow. "If we go with the flow of things, Laitman says, "we can use these sufferings to get to a better place. But if we don't use these 'blows' properly then we will feel them like blows. Mankind is now experiencing suffering and hardship on many levels and this will only increase. Our spiritual advancement is dependent on these blows. If we recognize them as good we will see how beneficial they are. Once we reach a certain stage of development, the corporeal world we live in will dissappear because there will no longer be a need for it. The purpose of these blows is to show us that our time here is running out - that it's time to correct ourselves and move on to the upper world."

Israelis are so arrogant - it's very difficult for someone whose grown up here all his life, survived all the crazy stuff this country goes through, done everything he was told to do, served in the army etc. - to all of a sudden realize that they're missing something really big. Thank god there are lots of young Israelis waking up now and joining us. Hopefully, eventually my designer will get the message too.

Tags: katrina new orleans kabbalah

Catskills North American Kabbalah Congress: Sep 23-25

2005-09-01T18:44:00.000Z

The Next Step (click for more info)

View a video invitation from Rav Michael Laitman

Spiritual Rocket Fuel
Dear Friend,Working on your own you have a single power of desire that attracts the surrounding light. Now imagine the vast, positive force that becomes available to you simply by coming together, even for a few days, with people from North America and all over the globe who share this true desire to reveal the Creator. The gentle intensification of the light is truly transformative. A gathering of Kabbalists is like spiritual rocket fuel - it can swiftly bring about desirable changes within us that ultimately reveal both inner and outer peace, our healing and the healing of our world, by taking a person to the next level: to know and fulfill the purpose of life.

Three days that will change your life
This year our annual Fall Congress will take place in a beautiful retreat setting in upstate New York where you’ll meet with master Kabbalist, Rav Michael Laitman PhD, many of the students from BB and the world. For three days we’ll study together, laugh, eat, enjoy workshops, seminars and entertainment. We’ll celebrate and take in all of the natural beauty of the Catskill Mountains.

Whether you’ve studied for a month, a year or just a week, you’re invited !!
The cost per person for the 3 days and 2 nights is $230 US, which includes lodging, food, transportation, lectures, seminars, and much more. Transportation to and from metro NYC airports (JFK, LaGuardia, Newark Liberty) will be provided.

Congress will start at 3pm EST on Friday and finish at 2pm EST on Sunday. We would prefer that all air travel will be completed no later then 1pm on Friday, so that we have sufficient time to transport people to the Congress before the opening. All outgoing flights should be scheduled for after 6pm on Sunday.

Space is limited so REGISTER now. In order for us to process your registration on time, please, register by August 30th.

Phone: 800-540-3234 Fax: 212-918-0737

Looking forward to meeting you all!www.kabbalah.info

Tags: kabbalah

Kabbalah: Forces We Haven't Discovered Yet

2005-09-01T13:36:00.000Z

THIS BLOG HAS MOVED TO A NEW LOCATION: WWW.KABBALAHFORWOMEN.COM

Take a free trip to the Upper World: Check out this morning's lesson (one hour video)

Here's an excerpt:

The forces, from the coarsest that we can feel the most - to the most hidden forces that I am only now discovering, or will discover in the future - but only according to my revelation. It's not like they didn't exist before and now all of a sudden they exist. The corporeal reality and the spiritual reality are one and the same, it's just that for us the corporeal world is revealed and the spiritual world is still hidden. As we progress and perceive the different forces around us (reception, bestowal, etc.) the spiritual reality slowly becomes revealed. We can feel the forces at work and then that reality becomes more and more revealed.

A person separates these things subjectively according to what he feels or doesn't feel, but it's actually all one and the same thing. But once we start discovering these hidden realms we understand that our five senses present us with just a tiny portion of reality and that if we depend only on them we can't move onto the next level. A person in this world may have more intelligence, but not an augmentation of feeling. He uses his mind to constantly add to the dimensions of time and space, and therefore sees bigger processes. But that's it. The wisdom of kabbalah adds additional senses, of course along with intelligence, and this person gets into a much higher type of research, of another reality. And when we do discover this other reality, it will feel perfectly normal - just like little kids today know how to operate all kinds of complicated computer things that didn't exist 10 or 20 years ago. In other words, when it actually happens, we will go into the revelation of the hidden reality in a very natural manner.

Tags:
kabbalah

Kabbalah on Katrina

2005-08-31T07:15:00.000Z

Got the following from the Huffington Post off of Neil's blog:

"This month, a study published in the journal Nature by a renowned MIT climatologist linked the increasing prevalence of destructive hurricanes to human-induced global warming. Now we are all learning what it’s like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged. Our destructive addiction has given us a catastrophic war in the Middle East and–now–Katrina is giving our nation a glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children."

Yes - everything happening in the world is our fault but it has nothing to do with global warming.

The only Kabbalist & Scientist in the world, Dr. Michael Laitman often explains how nature is in perfect harmony - and how the only thing out of whack in the natural order of things is the human ego. Everything that is happening around us in the reality we live in is all simply to direct us toward taking care of the issue we were put here for in the first place - and that is getting our ego in perfect sync with nature. That is the only way we can advance and rise above our obsession with material things that actually give us no lasting type of filling.

Here is the part that we can't see in our current state: Humanity is ONE - and not divided into all these groups - Republican, Democrat, American, Christian, etc. All that is an illusion and is simply like that to distract us from the main goal - which is to return to that state where we are all truly as ONE MAN WITH ONE HEART - just like we were when we received the Torah at Mt. Sinai.

What am I trying to say here? We are all on the same team - we have a job to pull off here together. If you don't have a burning desire to know the meaning of your life then we're going to have to wait for a few more of your incarnations until you're ready. The greatest Kabbalists throughout time who achieved very high levels of adhesion with God cannot get to the final stage until the rest of us have woken up. Think about that for a second. If Katrina isn't making you think about the meaning of your life today, maybe the next disaster will ...

As Baal HaSulam writes, we can choose to advance through suffering or pleasure - the choice is up to us. That is actually the only real thing we choose here on earth. The script for everything else we do here was written a long long time ago.

Tags: kabbalah

Kabbalah - The Power To Change Reality

2005-08-30T08:49:00.000Z

I really recommend checking out this morning's lesson (1 hour video with full english translation) - Rav Laitman is talking about how Baal HaSulam's material gives us light for the entire way.

The last greatest Kabbalist to grace the earth in our time, Baal HaSulam (hebrew for: owner of the ladder) explains where we exist, in which status, the reality around us, who we are, how we perceive our lives and reality, how we should relate to it, and whether it is in our power to change reality. How we go through this world and return again in different incarnations. Are we in some other situations than our current situation? Are there other dimensions? In another time? That we can be in at the same time as that we're in now? There is time and space and movement. Can we alter that? And if so can we move between this world and other dimensions in a different manner?

The answer to all this comes from recognizing who we are. As we come to know ourselves, we see clearly the reality that is inside of us, and from that point that we begin to develop.

Tags:
kabbalah
reincarnation

Kabbalah: Expand Your Perception Of Reality

2005-08-29T13:51:00.000Z

Rav Laitman talks about his teacher's father, the Baal Sulam (hebrew for: owner of the ladder) :

"... He revealed the wisdom to the world. No other Kabbalist apart from Baal HaSulam wrote for people who don't yet have a sensation of the upper world. He was the first to put the wisdom in a format that anyone who simply desired something above this world could understand. His books enable people to enter the feeling of the upper world and get close to the Creator.

Lately we've started explaining to academics in Israel about the importance of Baal HaSulam and his vital role in Jewish Philosophy. They realized that they had missed him and hadn't seen how big he really was. His books explain the entire history of all of mankind - all the reality beforehand - about the creation of the worlds and ours, and the entire process mankind is going through.

Through all of this he essentially paved the for getting into kabbalah. And his son, who was my teacher, expanded upon his father's writings even more by talking about the internal work an individual must undergo for spiritual advancement. So that anyone who has an interest beyond this world, who feels that this world doesn't fill him, can simply open Baal HaSulam's books and through them arrive there."

Tags:
history
kabbalah

Kabbalah Explains The Male Female Relationship

2005-08-28T18:40:00.000Z

Rav Laitman's words from the Heidelberg Congress -

... Why do women always have to be inferior to men? That is because we relate to this world in the wrong manner. Kabbalah says just the opposite - that it is impossible to achieve harmony and perfection without using two forces - the man and the woman together. Only the right combination of these two allows the discovery of a brand new vessel - it cannot be discovered in one of them on their own. Their joining forms a third vessel that is in a very special situation - that is ready to feel the Upper Force. It is possible for a man or woman to achieve this in a partial manner on their own because each of us are divided inside to female and male sides - but this is in the preparation period where we feel uncorrected - it is possible to advance individually or with a group. But serious advancement can only be achieved by finding a spiritual mate that complete each other's souls in an internal/spiritual manner - and through this relationship the new vessel will become revealed where they will feel divinity. Because divinity has no gender - and the separation into genders is only for us to complete one another and create this special vessel for receiving the Light.

Tags: kabbalah relationships

Kabbalah Explains The Secret Meaning of the Bible

2005-08-26T14:52:00.000Z

Very special newsletter this week - but first view an invitation from Rav Laitman for the Catskills Congress in September, where he talks about discovering hte hidden parts of reality and forces around us and how we can use them to change our destiny and improve our life.

The Secret Meaning of the Bible
Imagine our universe for a moment: the endless amount of galaxies, stars, and worlds. Now imagine that we remove from our universe a specific portion of space. How are we able to imagine the resulting emptiness of this void if it contains nothing that is able to be measured or described? In reality we perceive all phenomena in terms of time, space, and movement. We cannot envision something that is absolutely static, frozen in time, without any volume. This is an analogy of our understanding of the spiritual worlds. There is no time, movement, or even space in the spiritual worlds. Since all our reality and perceptions are based on these physical concepts, it follows that there is absolutely no connection between spirituality and our construction of physical reality based on our perceptions and sensations. This results in a lack of words and vocabulary that is able to express spiritual concepts
The Secret Meaning of the Bible

Why There has to be Death?
Question: Why do we come into this world? And on the other hand, if it took so much effort to bring us into this world, then why do we leave it? Why do we have to die? Can we exist in this world forever? If a human being is destined to live for 100-120 years, wouldn't it be better if he lived for 600 years and died, after finishing all of his incarnations? Why do we have to come back into this world and revive it again? And the last question: if the soul is some sort of entity that continues to live after physiological death, then why do we relate to death as to something that happens to us and at the same time, not to us? That is, we do exist at the place where the eternal soul dwells - we die and have no idea what happens next. Is it a fact that although we perceive only this world, our soul exists simultaneously in some other dimension which is on another side of the verge that we call death?
Why there has to be Death

Heaven and Hell
Question: Let us talk about Heaven and Hell. Does the science of Kabbalah believe that Heaven is a kind of pain relief pill, an analgesic, used by all religions? Religions depict images of the Heaven Garden and Hell to manipulate believers. Do such places, such dimensions really exist? Is it true that after death each soul either burns in the fire of Hell or enjoys eternal pleasure? If there really are such dimensions, then how do they correspond with the fact that according to the Science of Kabbalah there is no reward and no punishment, as everything in this world is predetermined, and man is not in fact responsible for his actions?
Heaven and Hell

Thought of the Week
If you attune yourself as a part of the group, and, along with others, wish to feel the Upper Light that would correct your egoism, then this Light will affect you. This is because now it has to influence you only in this way – through correction.
Rav M.Laitman PhD: One Law

Tags:
kabbalah
bible

No Such Thing As A Coincidence

2005-08-25T11:56:00.000Z

A client of mine was just here for a meeting. We got into a very long discussion about Kabbalah, and of course he forgot his notebook (and actually just came back to pick it up as I started writing this). This is perfectly normal.

A fellow blogger of mine just had a similar experience. He visited my new blog yesterday, left a comment, updated my link on his site to the new domain etc., and all of sudden got a very unusual kabbalah sign from Above.

This is something I forgot to mention in my Monster-In-Law post. Jennifer Lopez runs into the man of her dreams (in the movie) about three times in a matter of two days - and she knows that there has to be a reason. She's absolutely right. We get signs all the time but often choose to ignore them because change requires effort. And we are very lazy by nature.

All we do throughout the day is simply to reach a state where we can chill out at the end of it all and do absolutely nothing. That is because in the Upper World life is like that all the time. There is no hustle and bustle up there because we're all connected as one so there is no need for any of that. That is why the Sabbath (a day of total rest) was created so we could start training for that type of existence. Actually everything we do in the other six days is all just for achieving the state of "Shabbat".

Kabbalists are people that can achieve that state of Shabbat any time they want. A few times a week, or even a few times a day. But don't expect to ever catch them with their feet up on the sofa watching tv. Our guys get up at 3:00AM every single morning for a 3-hour lesson that is broadcast on Israel TV and to the rest of the world on www.kab.tv.

So what am I trying to say? If you're reading this - don't kid yourself. It's not by chance. You may not do anything about it right now but don't expect the signs to be there forever. There's always your next incarnation. Me? I'm not planning on coming back to this world. I've set my sights on a better place and I have every intention of getting there.

Tags:
kabbalah

Another Kabbalah Movie Review: Monster In Law

2005-08-25T09:30:00.000Z

I whole heartedly recommend this hysterical movie, Monster In Law - especially if you happen to have a really annoying mother-in-law. I've been married for two years so I'm a big expert on the subject.

There is a single law governing the entire universe and the way it works is very simple - you go along with it - you have pleasure. You go against it - you suffer. The law or Light or whatever you want to call it is always pushing us in a certain direction and that is up - to grow, to develop, to progress - in a nutshell to constantly yearn to be on a higher level than the one we're on right now. To constantly want to attach ourselves to something higher than ourselves. That's what we've been trained for all along.

So when a mother attaches herself to her offspring - she is going against nature. She is essentially going in the wrong direction and that's why it makes everyone around her so uncomfortable. It also makes it very difficult for the kids to have something to progress towards because their next level is coming down to their level and messing everything up.

Tags: kabbalah

Kabbalah Take on Mr. & Mrs. Smith

2005-08-24T20:10:00.000Z

My new favorite movie is Angelina and Brad in Mr. & Mrs. Smith because it is a great demonstration of the male/female relationship in action. You can basically take any movie and look at it from the perspective of kabbalah so here goes.

At first you throw two perfect strangers together and hope for the best. Most couples are pretty much winging it in the early stages. There are two completely separate egos at work here, each with its own very compelling agenda that is based on a person's background, upbringing, work and social environments, etc. Sort of like two lines making up a V - the egos are totally independent of one another and going in completely different directions. That situation is no fun because there is nothing to gain from it. And not only are these two people not getting along they basically wouldn't mind strangling one another just to further their own interests. Because each feels totally justified that their interests override those of their partner's based on their personal value system.

We see that the situation shifts altogether when the two egos (or lines) converge into one - two egos - one male and one female - with the exact same goal in mind - that is an unbeatable thing. A couple in this situation can overcome anything - and I mean anything! - as long as they stay focused on the goal. That is the entire foundation of human development in a nutshell. And you heard it here first.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith could only achieve their personal goal of surviving when it transformed into a mutual survival goal and they began working together as a team. If they hadn't each given a little to reach that state they would have been history. Notice they didn't really do it willingly at first because it's against the natural inclination of the human ego. It took a bit of direction from Above. Think about that next time you look at your partner.

Tags: relationships kabbalah

Moving Up in the World: New Blog on New Domain

2005-08-23T18:40:00.000Z

I'm very happy to announce that I have a new domain and new home on typepad.

So please update your links and click here to see the new site:
www.kabbalahforwomen.com

I hope to see you there!

What The Bleep Meets Kabbalah

2005-08-22T10:05:00.000Z

Pity this clip of Rav Laitman and the Bleep scientists meeting up in Los Angeles isn't on the English site yet - for now you can see it on the Hebrew site.

Tags:
bleep
kabbalah

America Gearing Up For Spirituality

2005-08-21T12:14:00.000Z

All the signs show that spirituality is on people's minds in the US and that is a very good thing (finally!!).

Here are some of the signs:

Good Sign #1

There are many articles on the whole science/religion issue of what to teach in American classrooms - I chose this one because of the brilliant title - A Life With No Purpose

I've often quoted Kabbalist and Scientist Rav Laitman on this issue and here it is again. He suggests supplementing current curriculums with a secular Meaning of Life course based on the wisdom of kabbalah. "Education is currently the biggest issue facing mankind because 20 years from now these youngsters will be all grown up and then we will understand exactly what we put into them. A person of any age who is exposed to kabbalah very quickly understands the structure of the universe and nature, beyond the world we grasp with our five senses. From my experience, children are more receptive to this material and automatically apply it to their everyday behavior."

Good Sign #2 -

This week's issue of Newsweek, called Spirituality in America. The article 'In Search of the Spiritual' is written by Senior Editor Jerry Adler who normally deals with science issues.

Headline: Move over, politics. Americans are looking for personal, ecstatic experiences of God, and, according to our poll, they don't much care what the neighbors are doing.

All I can say is Thank God - Americans may be bored silly at this point with their comfy lifestyles and are seeking a deeper meaning for being here.

If you want spirituality - a good place to start is the largest source of free spiritual content on the web at www.kabbalah.info. This site is quickly becoming a 24 hour broadcaster of free spiritual content from Israel.

Tags:
kabbalah
spirituality
israel
spiritual
america
education

A Collection of Essays By Baal HaSulam

2005-08-20T18:29:00.000Z

Another great newsletter this week - Shamati is a book of notes that was handed down to Rav Laitman from the last Kabbalist to grace the earth in our generation:

"Among the books and manuscripts that my teacher would study from, there was one particular notebook titled Shamati (What I Heard). That notebook would go with him wherever he went and time after time he would delve into it. On his deathbed, in the wee hours of the night, he suddenly handed me that notebook and said: "Take this notebook and study it." Early next morning, with me by his side, his pure soul climbed into the heavens. The notebook holds a collection of essays written word for word from the mouth of Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), my teacher's father, immediately after they were spoken."
Rav Michael Laitman PhD.
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The Reason for the Difficulty of Annulling Oneself for the Creator
Everyone works, studies, lives, leads a normal life, and has a realistic attitude towards life, that is, they are just normal people. They have egoistic reasons for behaving, earning, and feeling pleasure. In other words, contrasting himself with other people, one sees that he is somewhat unreal, weightless, floating, and somehow not solid in his actions. One thinks of the spiritual, the need to annul oneself, to do something with oneself...

In other words, there is this clear psychological difficulty in crossing from this state into another. There's nothing you can do about it. Sometimes it's even embarrassing to be this way, be so absent from this life, share these out-of-this-world ideas. It is not manly, not serious to treat life differently than the laws of human existence seem to dictate to us. This is how one feels.

"...as if the entire world stands still and he alone is now seemingly absent from this world; and leaves his family and friends..." In other words, it seems that he abandons everybody around him. He does not participate with them in regular life, consumption, securing, or communication. "...for the sake of annulling before the Creator."

Shamati no4 - Lesson by Rav M.Laitman PhD

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There should not be Emptiness in the World
"There should not be emptiness in the world." A world is a creation; the will to receive that was created by Creator. Each of us possesses the desire that perceives the Creator's Light, His manifestation within us which is called "world."

"Desire is the basis of creation and man's magnitude is measured by it (Katnut or Gadlut; small or big desire). Since desire is the basis of creation and is what prevails in man, it follows that man always has to have some desire for this world or for the spiritual. The person who has no desires is considered dead."
Desires can be good or bad, with a screen or without one, but all the same, the person can be big regardless of whether he is good or bad; his desire per se should be big.

Each of us has many desires. The desires which we do not feel at any given moment are referred to as dead, and the desires that demand fulfillment are called living. This refers to our world.

Shamati no154 - Lesson by Rav M. Laitman PhD

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There is no Coercion in Spirituality
What is the life of a Kabbalist? First of all, for him it is an ordinary life. Why is it ordinary? Because there is a law in Kabbalah that states "There is no coercion in spirituality." Everything happens only according to what action one feels is correct. From outside, it is impossible to impose anything upon a person. So you may find a thousand and one books filled with advice, various laws and customs, all of which has absolutely nothing to do with the truth. Kabbalah says nothing about how a Kabbalist should behave.

There is no Coercion in Spirituality

Thought of the Week
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.
Rav M.Laitman PhD: Interview with the Future

New Interactive Kabbalah Course (Free)
Bnei Baruch North America is pleased to provide an interactive course on the fundamentals of Kabbalah. The first of its kind.

Duration
One lesson(1.5 hours) a week for 6 weeks

When
Every Sunday evening 8pm EST.

First lesson on Sept 11, 2005
more info

Tags:
kabbalah
books
religion

Kabbalah on the Gaza Disengagement

2005-08-19T05:18:00.000Z

Very intense days here in the Holy Land. Everyone in the center is very moved and sad about the current state of affairs but inside they're happy it's happening to someone else and not them.

My 70 year old mother who lives over the green line in the Shomron is in her element - she attends every single demonstration - day or night - anywhere in the country.

Me? I'm not phased by the current saga because I'm connected to people who see the big picture. People who know exactly what we have to do to make things better. Kabbalists have all the answers. They explain to us that these sufferings are sent to push us in the right direction. To realizing our true purpose for being here. It has been like that throughout time - our lackings and desire for fulfillment is what has got us to where we are - and we are now in the final stretch of discovering what Providence (or whatever you want to call it) put us here for.

Everything that's happening outside us is simply a reflection of the lacking inside.

In Rav Laitman's words, "When we learn to attach the attribute of Bina (bestowal) to Israel - then we will be connected - and all these disconnections won't be necessary."

With all the confusion there is one thing for sure - the ball is in your court at the moment. You can either keep reading about all the drama surrounding this sad affair or you can start doing something to change the future.

It's not going to happen on its own - the force that created us is waiting for us to give something back. It's time we got started on that because up till now we've just been taking.

Good places to start are the live broadcasts on www.kab.tv, the new interactive series for North Americans, or the upcoming event in the Catskills.

Tags:
kabbalah
Current Affairs
disengagement
israel
gaza

Free Interactive Kabbalah Course for North America!

2005-08-15T12:17:00.000Z

I'm really happy to have great news to post - Bnei Baruch North America is launching a new interactive kabbalah course - the first of its kind ever in the world!

The first lesson is on September 11th, at 8:00pm - the lessons will be given by Rav Laitman's advanced students Tony Kosinec and Mike Kellog.

This is especially for people who are new to kabbalah and just want to get the basics. You don't even have to register if you don't want to but registering allows you to participate in the live lessons.

Here's a link to all the info:
http://www.kabbalahgroup.info/~nabroadcast/

Come ONE, come all!!

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Women, Love and Kabbalah

2005-08-10T19:11:00.000Z

Some random quotes about women and kabbalah from www.kabbalah.info:

There are no women at the mid-night session. “Women have a spiritual head start and they don’t need the discipline of the nocturnal study hours,” said Rabbi Michael Laitman, 55, teacher and founder of the Bnei Baruch Center.

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First of all, what is love? Everyone thinks that it exists in our world. We want to feel it, and possibly, we are even ready to love somebody. But what does the notion of "love" mean?

Scientists have not discovered it yet, but now they are beginning to see that genes determine everything; that there are genes that determine a person's inclination towards theft or murder for instance.

Perhaps there is a love gene? If someone does not have this gene, then can that person be held responsible for not being able to love? If everything depends on genes?

What is love? What does it mean that I love someone or something? I love what brings me pleasure. This is clear. If something brings me suffering, I hate the source of my suffering. I draw closer to someone I love, I desire to establish a connection with that person, to be together. But the moment I discover that possibly, this is not so good for me, I start to cool off and move away.

Love is a sensation of pleasure from an object that gives me pleasure. If I am a desire to receive, then I must look for someone who gives me pleasure.

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If a human being advances and attains the degree of love of the Creator, and in addition, he has a wife with whom he can work with in the same manner, then of course, as they advance, they create among each other a system of Kelim, a connection in which they feel the light existing between them.

But if the connection between them does not go beyond their egos (under the condition that both of them perform work for the Creator), no other connection between them will materialize. It will exist out of necessity, in order to help each other, to raise children and so on, but this will not be love...

In our world, we have no idea what love is. There are stories about a few exceptional couples, such as Rabbi Akiva and his wife, in which both husband and wife existed at the spiritual level. Just a few records on what they experienced and felt have reached our times.

Evidently, in the condition of Final Correction, when human beings will rise above their egoism (it is said: "the world behaves according to unchangeable laws", everything stays the same as it is now; life continues), the connection between people, and especially the connection between spouses will originate from the spiritual realization. Then, undoubtedly, there will be love between them.

__________________________________________________

This is why the minute I stop enjoying my wife or it seems to be that another woman will bring more pleasure to me I leave my wife and get another one. All of that is happening because I pay attention to the level of my own fulfillment.

But if the source of my fulfillment is the Creator, and if my relationship [with my wife] is defined by correspondence of form, this is something completely different, and permanent.

__________________________________________________

Love between mother and child comes from nature; it exists among animals as well and it is a natural love. The mother does not undergo certain corrections in order to love her child. She loves her child because it is implanted in her nature. If we switched off a certain system in her brain, she would stop loving her child and would relate to the child as to anybody else. The relationship between mother and child is not love.

Based to what we can understand, all of our relationships - such as relationship between mother and child, and, in general, between people in this world - are not love. It is either natural instinct, defined by our genes, that is, our natural systems that compel us to act in a certain way towards each other, or it stems from our egoism, when I feel pleasure and, thus, become attached to someone.

When a young man says to a young woman: "I love you!", what does he have in mind if not the pleasure that he receives from her? Sorry, I do not want to spoil the romantics. (Laughter)

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Not all, because the others became disappointed already. (Laughter) Some people have immersed themselves in drugs, while half of the world is swallowing pills from depression. This is the picture for today.

Whether we want this or not, our live pushes us towards the true definition of love, towards the realization of where we can really fill our Kli (vessel) for love. Kli for love is in bestowal, in the Reflected light.

If you are looking for love, what does this mean? You are looking for nice, pleasant, and beautiful fulfillment. There is a lacking in your Kli, in your egoism, and so you want to fill it. You give the name of love to a certain filling. But you will not receive fulfillment in this way. It is a pity to waste time!

_______________________________________________

Today, single men or women also do not have any problem studying Kabbalah, neither do couples, or one spouse. These are the times when everything happens according to the person's lacking, his or her need for the spiritual development.

And if a human being feels that some new Kli has really revealed itself in him, and that there is no fulfillment in this world neither in money, nor in fame, nor in knowledge, nor in animal pleasures - in nothing, and if a human being yearns for some fulfillment that comes from above, then he or she should study Kabbalah.

________________________________________________________

The era of the descent of the souls lasted until the 16th century, and ended when the ARI wrote that from his time on, not only is the study of the Kabbalah desirable, but it is a must for everyone: men, women and children of all nations.

It is explained that the souls have reached a certain degree of evolution, so that each soul, using the unique system that the ARI developed, will be able to attain complete attainment of reality, the attainment of the source of light and its own end of correction. Thus, each soul would be able to attain the purpose for which it came down to this world, to fulfill its destiny in this world.

___________________________________________________________

Q: Is there a different curriculum for women?

A: Women study differently to men. The purpose of correction is different and the ways to approach the Creator are different. Women, like men, will ultimately attain adhesion with the Creator - the highest degree in creation - there’s no discrimination in spirituality.

Q: Can any woman rise to the spiritual world, and If so, to what degree?

A: Yes, any woman can, and no less than men, provided she has a desire from above and devotion on her part - exactly the same requirements as for men.

Q: Is it the will of the Creator that a woman will study Kabbalah?

A: All the souls reach their destiny. All the souls should reach equivalence of form with the Creator, to become a part of Him, male souls and female souls alike.

_______________________________________________

Today, out of the people that are interested in Kabbalah you see that 90% are women, 10% men, none of which knows Aramaic or the Hebrew that was used in these books. There is no clear method either.

_____________________________________________

A correct use of the light of wisdom is attained only through a correct mating between a ‘man' and a ‘woman': the mating between the desire to give and the desire to receive.

______________________________________________

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Free 10-day Birthright trip to Israel

2005-08-09T12:47:00.000Z

This is a really great opportunity - my nieces and nephews come on these trips all the time -

Check it out: www.israelfree.com for the winter 2005-2006 trips in December and January.

Hopefully one day soon these trips will include an introduction to Kabbalah

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israel
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Who is a Kabbalist - Kabbalah Newsletter

2005-08-09T09:26:00.000Z

From this week's newsletter:

Who is a Kabbalist
Does a person who starts studying the science of Kabbalah withdraw from our world and distance himself or herself from daily life? Maybe he no longer cares about his family, work, children, or humanity and all of our human concerns cease to exist for him? Maybe he looks down on us from above, scornfully thinking, "What are these little people so busy with?"

He comprehends the entire existence and its entire process; sees everything from the beginning to the end: all the worlds and souls; how these souls descend into our world, move with its flow, and ascend upwards. Seeing their preoccupation with petty daily problems, seeing how meaningless, powerless, limited they are, perhaps he scorns us. Is that how a Kabbalist looks at our world?
Who is a Kabbalist

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Rav Laitman's recollections about his Teacher, Rav Baruch Ashlag

The only prayer that is answered instantly is the prayer for spiritual ascent. All our other requests, all our other prayers and longings come from within the egoistical will to receive and therefore we are not worthy of an answer. This contradicts the Purpose of creation. The Purpose of creation is to bring us to spiritual elevation, adhesion with the Creator. We receive an answer only if we plead for this.
Memoirs about Rav Baruch Ashlag, 1997

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Thought is a Consequence of a Desire
"A thought is a consequence of desire. Therefore a person thinks only about what he wants and never concentrates on something undesirable." He cannot act differently because desires control him. Our mind and properties are guided by desires. This means that contrary to widespread view, man's head is not the superior organ of the body, but the inferior one. If a person feels pain, all he can think of is alleviating the pain. Any of his desires, to get rid of pain or enjoy something, command the mind what to do.

Rav Michael Laitman.PhD:Thought Is a Consequence of Desire, Shamati No 153.

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Thought of the Week
Man cannot control anything. He cannot control feelings or thoughts. If he tries to control one thing, it comes at the expense of something else. A certain kind of water is healthier than drinking another kind. So I choose this kind over that one. This is called controlling one of my desires and replacing it with another. This is not control.
Lesson in the Perception of Reality (Lesson 4)

Definition of the Week
The divine Light exists in an absolute stillness, only the souls are transformed. At every stage of the transformation they receive new information from the Light.
The Order of Creation

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Getting Personal

2005-08-03T12:42:00.000Z

I basically only have one person commenting on my blog at the moment so I guess I better answer all his questions. (You're getting lots of points for this Neil!! and not from me ...)

How can you call Kabbalah a science without scientific experimentation?

Like I've said before it's better for a male to hear about this stuff from another male but we'll let that slip for now. Kabbalah is only about one thing - learning and applying the method for receiving light. This is done in a trial and error manner just like learning to ride a bycicle. But while learning to ride a bycicle is something you do externally with your hands and feet, kabbalah is about changing your insides into something completely opposite to what they are right now. Why the heck would you want to do that you may be asking? When you realize that all the external things we do here for progressing (money, honor, power, etc.) are simply distracting us from the real path of progression - you do an abrupt turn and go the other way. There is no one outside of you telling you to do this or do that - yes there is a Rav guiding the guys but basically you have to figure out everything for yourself - within yourself so to speak. And that can only be done through experimenting. Eventually after a couple of years people get on a steady path of advancement without really requiring the things that helped get them there in the first place.

I'd also like to learn more about you -- again. Chances are that I'm not going to jump right in and study Kabbalah. I'm sure the same happened to you. Were you into traditional Jewish stuff before? Do you keep Shabbos and kosher? At what point did you say to yourself, let me explore Kabbalah. Even if it found you, what were the circumstances? How did you learn about it? Did you take a seminar? Are there different schools of Kabbalistic thought? Why do you choose one over the other?

I was in private jewish school in Montreal from grade 2. My family got religious right before we moved to Israel, but I was dead against it by the time we got here and insisted on being in a secular school. Nowadays I keep kosher etc. and dress differently but probably for very different reasons than religious people. My family doesn't care why they just love it that I'm not prancing in from the beach in the middle of shabbes with the car keys in my hand and my stomach on display.

How did it start? After 10 really crappy and lonely years of depression and all kinds of not pleasant experiences - I lost two sisters one right after the other and that really messed me up for a long time - I escaped to NY, read hundreds of self-help books - I was on lithium for about 8 years - long long story - whatever - a few years after getting back to Israel from New York I decided to start taking some holistic courses. I kept hearing about kabbalah in the background because the owner of the school used to give free lectures every thursday evening to a packed room - but it was all hush hush in those days and it took me about 2 years and 3 courses till I finally went to one of the lectures. If I tell you what happened to me while I was sitting in the front row there you will have me hospitalized ASAP. We can't talk about these things. It's not right and it's not allowed. All I can say - and remember I had just done all kinds of feel-good imagination courses that take you flying all over the place - there is no other feeling like it in this world. From that moment there was no going back. Around that time is when the owner of the school took me to meet Rav Laitman who needed help with positioning his organization and the rest is history. There are other people that teach kabbalah - but the system is all about doing it in a group - ours is the most intensive group in the world (I'm talking about people studying authentic kabbalah) - and that can be felt immediately by walking into one of our events if you are slightly sensitive. I brought my sister once and she said "what's in that room?" - she couldn't feel her legs when she walked out. There are lots of people selling things under the title of kabbalah - but anything you receive from that in your five senses (success at business, marriage etc.) is not real kabbalah - because real kabbalah is about acquiring a sixth sense.

And why did Kabbalah replace all your "secular" pasttimes? Can't you be involved in both Kabbalah and skateboarding?

You can be involved in both and some people are - I'm just as close as you can get here with my husband in the core group in Israel - you do those things for the adrenaline - I used to skate on ramps with 8 year olds! There is thousands of times more adrenaline in my every day life so why should I shlep all the way to a ski resort?

Was your husband interested before he met you?
Yes - I saw him on screen in the morning lesson and knew somewhere inside that he was my future husband. But was in total denial for about half a year even though he was really the only available guy in the group my age (39). I had so many issues building up in me for so long that I probably never would have gotten married if it wasn't necessary for spiritual advancment. Finally we were matched up, went out twice and got married a couple of weeks later.

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spirituality

Talk about receiving pleasure!

2005-08-01T20:00:00.000Z

Searching for satisfaction and the process of filling

Human life is a process of endless search. Man incessantly looks for something that can satisfy his new desires: he keeps seeking after food, wealth, sex, power and knowledge. All these desires constantly pop up and alternate in him. Man devotes his entire life to satisfying them.

There are many people in the history of mankind who managed to fill their spiritual desire. In their books they tell us about the search for satisfaction and the process of filling. Their explanations and the description of this process have developed into a science called Kabbalah. Such people call themselves Kabbalists.

Kabbalists explain that while being in our world man should fill his soul with the light so that it will rise to the same spiritual level which it was prior to descending and dressing in man’s heart, i.e. his earthly desires. Our task, regardless of all other desires called “heart” or “body”, is to fill that point in heart with the Supreme light.

Kabbalists say that filling the soul with the light gives man a sensation of the upper world. This means that he can simultaneously live (feel) both in the upper world, and in ours. He unites these two worlds in him. The state, when man in our world completely corrects and fills his soul at the highest spiritual level, is referred to as the End of correction of a soul or simply “the end of correction”.

From the moment he begins to feel aspiration to spirituality a person receives his initial information on Kabbalah. Kabbalah enables the person to master a method of filling his soul, to attain a state of infinite delight, sensation of eternity, absolute knowledge and perfection. Moreover, he receives an opportunity to realize it now, in this world, in this life, instead of coming back again and again to this "not the best" of worlds searching and suffering from birth to death.

Since souls continuously change, develop and improve, the task of Kabbalah is to create a method of reception of the spiritual filling suitable for each generation. This science is called "Kabbalah" – reception, because it offers a method of filling the soul with the light. Kabbalah teaches man to receive the Supreme Light and fill the soul with it, i.e. both desires of the heart and spiritual desires. This is possible, since all our desires are created by this very light. Hence, only direct filling with the light can satisfy us.

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Kabbalah in the Catskills

2005-07-29T15:47:00.000Z

"The sensation of unity which we experience when we gather together and carry with us into all of the regions of the world shows that the media of our thoughts, the greatness of the Creator is what unites us. When we gather together for a congress and unite in one thought in order to achieve the ultimate Goal, the resulting force overcomes all obstacles."
Rav Michael Laitman PhD
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Bnei Baruch
North American Kabbalah Congress
September 23-25

"The Next Step"

Spiritual Rocket Fuel

Dear Friend,

Working on your own you have a single power of desire that attracts the surrounding light. Now imagine the vast, positive force that becomes available to you simply by coming together, even for a few days, with people from North America and all over the globe who share this true desire to reveal the Creator. The gentle intensification of the light is truly transformative. A gathering of Kabbalists is like spiritual rocket fuel - it can swiftly bring about desirable changes within us that ultimately reveal both inner and outer peace, our healing and the healing of our world, by taking a person to the next level: to know and fulfill the purpose of life.

Three days that will change your life
This year our annual Fall Congress will take place in a beautiful retreat setting in upstate New York where you'll meet with master Kabbalist, Rav Michael Laitman PhD, many of the students from BB and the world. For three days we'll study together, laugh, eat, enjoy workshops, seminars and entertainment. We'll celebrate and take in of the natural beauty of the Catskill Mountains.

Whether you've studied for a month, a year or just a week you're invited

The cost per person for the 3 days and 2 nights is $220 to 240 US Transportation to and from metro NYC airports (LaGuardia, Newark Liberty) will be provided.

Space is limited so register now. Email your name, location and how many reservations you need to: newyork@kabbalahgroup.info or call 1-800-540-3234 and we'll send you a form to complete your registration details. We must receive your registration before August 15.

Looking forward to meeting you all!

http://kabbalahgroup.info/~newyork/

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Current Affairs

Kabbalah - The Ultimate Science for Receiving Pleasure

2005-07-27T08:39:00.000Z

Like any other science, Kabbalah is characterized by repeatability of experience, registered data etc. Kabbalah is a science and has nothing to do with religion. Religions do not teach Kabbalah, because it reveals to man the true universe, where the Supreme governing Force desires only one thing – to make man equal to itself.

Why is Kabbalah a science about reception of pleasure?

In Kabbalah we understand pleasure as filling in all its manifestations: material, moral, intellectual or physical. Furthermore, here we speak of delight (filling), which is absolute, eternal, perfect and infinite.

Delight is felt only when a very strong desire is present – provided there is a crystal-clear desire for something, which is unavailable. The received pleasure instantly extinguishes desire which in turn reduces pleasure. The greatest delight is felt only during the first contact of the desire with the desired, the way the first bit of food feels in a hungry man’s mouth. Then hunger subsides, the desire disappears and satiation sets in. The food stops bringing the delight that was felt at the beginning of the meal. Gourmets leave the most delicious dishes for the end of a feast, because greater delight compensates for the lack of desire.

If we start researching the various kinds of pleasure we receive from knowledge, power, riches, sex and food, we’ll notice that all of them diminish upon reception of the desired. Oftentimes man works for years to get what he wants, but having received the object, stops enjoying it.

It is the disappearance of the sensation of pleasure forces us to look for new delights. Advertising, fashion etc. supply us with new desires, and we get carried away by the constant pursuit of anticipated pleasure. Once the desired is received, we feel compelled to seek new enjoyment. This process is endless. Hence, man can never really be delighted. He is constantly moving.

Kabbalah teaches man how to receive non-vanishing pleasures: eternal, absolute and perfect, revealed as permanent peace and delight. Hence, this method is called “Hochmat HaKabbalah” (the science of reception). It was given to us by the Creator so that our enormous desires would be immediately satisfied and then new desires would emerge, be fulfilled and so on. The absence of a gap between a desire and its filling would allow us to enjoy never-ending peace and delight.

How can such desire be created? It does not exist in our world. Hence, the soul is opposite to our entire world. It differs from this world by its property of altruism called “a screen” in Kabbalah. The process of acquiring a screen is the subject of Kabbalah studies.

We speak about a strictly practical approach, about mastering a special method. It can be accomplished in the process of studying certain Kabbalistic books. For example, the principal Kabbalistic six-volume composition “The Study of Ten Sefirot” is compiled as a regular academic textbook: in each of its 16 parts, on more than 2000 pages the structure of the upper world is expounded in modern language. The part of the books entitled “The Inner Reflection” gives a more detailed explanation of its functioning. The part called “The Meanings of Words” provides questions referring to the meaning of the words used. Finally the part called “Questions and Answers” deals with descriptions and explanations of spiritual phenomena.

We welcome and await all those who find no peace searching for the answers to the questions about the structure and functioning of the universe, about the purpose of life. These are the people who discover the spiritual point in their hearts. It is for them that we created our internet site available in 22 languages.

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Current Affairs

Some Scientific Facts About Kabbalah

2005-07-26T20:35:00.000Z

What data is Kabbalah based on?

Kabbalah uses only precise, experience-tested data. No theories or assumptions are taken into consideration. Everything Kabbalah is based on has been received from people who personally attained the spiritual sensations through the point in heart, through the soul. They tested, measured and described their sensations. The combined results of their research form the science of Kabbalah.

As in any other science, Kabbalah operates with precise mathematical, physical and graphical data (diagrams and tables). Instead of dealing with feelings, Kabbalists use vectors, forces of gravitation and suppression of desires: their correlations are numerically measured; desires and their filling are accurately defined. This is the means by which Kabbalists describe their sensations of Supernal Providence.

In our world we can measure neither man’s inner efforts, nor his subjective sensations, to all the more accurately compare perceptions and impressions of two different people. One can only sympathize with psychologists and psychiatrists, who are totally unable to operate with the parameters of man’s soul.

The history and the language of Kabbalah

Everything that we know about the upper world even before we discover it by ourselves was written by people who personally attained it. They described their method, their sensations, conclusions and offered recommendations so that we could follow in their path. Kabbalistic books are the accounts of their journeys in the upper world.

Everyone begins the attainment of the Supreme governing Force by asking the question about the point of his life, sufferings, and the purpose of the universe, destiny and chance. A deep analysis of these questions leads man to the necessity of revelation of the Supreme Force. The first known Kabbalist described his impressions of the divine revelation around 3700 years ago in the book entitled “Sefer Yetzira”. He used the language of Kabbalah in his book, which is still studied by Kabbalists today.

The languages of narrative and prophecy are also used for the description of the spiritual domain. It makes no difference to a Kabbalist which language a book about the Creator is written. In whichever language, like a musician who hears music while looking at the notes, a Kabbalist feels what the author describes in a Kabbalistic text.

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London Being Awakened Like Israel

2005-07-24T10:17:00.000Z

When things are good no one takes the time to ask questions. It is usually only in our darkest hours, when disaster strikes, that we stop and turn inwards to that deep point inside of us. That is because we were programmed to ignore the big picture and just concentrate on our own needs, our own circle that concerns us. So suffering is essentially the only means the universe has of waking us up and letting us know that we’ve strayed off track, but only highly developed people are aware of this. Most people just attribute tough times to things like fate or luck, without realizing that they have been singled out for special treatment from above. It is only by going through and overcoming tremendous suffering that we reach into that dark source inside of us and draw some type of super-human strength that we didn’t even know we possess.

Instead of waiting for disaster to strike, Kabbalah teaches us to do this on a regular basis. For some people that would mean reaching into that innermost part of our being once a month, for others once a week, while the advanced students do this on a daily and even minute by minute basis. The material somehow causes us to go through emotional highs and lows that we barely even knew we were capable of, which accelerate our inner processes. In a nutshell, if a person normally goes through external situations over a number of years that advance their soul such as breaking up with a soul mate, getting fired, fighting with someone close, getting married and having kids etc., people who study Kabbalah are on a constant roller coaster of feelings and sensations that cannot be seen from the outside. That is why Kabbalah is called the hidden wisdom – because whatever someone is going through is hidden from all except the person going through it. The moment we come to the understanding how much this internal frenzy we work our souls into is advancing us in the spiritual world (while we’re still living in this world) we want to get as much of it as we can.

The time has come for us to realize that our individual and collective fates are bound to one another and that there is no escaping from our natural progression to the next phase of our development: spirituality. We can either get there through suffering or under much more pleasant circumstances. The way things are going it looks like we prefer to ignore all the signs for the moment and just continue watching TV, going out to dinner and movies, clubbing, partying, playing games, and whatever else we do to try to fill our lives with meaning.

If you have been searching forever and want to make a change that will really be significant and beneficial to you and everyone around you - please visit www.kabbalah.info.

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Kabbalah: The Key To Understanding Everything That Happens to Us

2005-07-24T01:06:00.000Z

The wisdom of Kabbalah is the source of all sources. It's an infinite body of knowledge that provides us with a practical method for understanding everything that happens to us, and the world around us.

Kabbalah allows us to comprehend the source of our existence, while filling us with a sense of harmony and perfection that cannot be compared to any other human experience.

Kabbalists are people who are in touch with the upper world – the spiritual world. They are capable of connecting to the higher realms, and bringing the information they absorb there down to our world, in a manner – or language - that we can comprehend.

The first Kabbalists in the world were Abraham and Moses, who provided us with the Torah – the basis for everything in our lives. The Torah, that is presented as a series of stories that even small children can understand - was specifically written to suit to the simple souls of that time – yet the entire realm of Kabbalistic terms and concepts are buried deep within its text – only to be revealed by those worthy of attaining that information. That is why Kabbalah is called the secret wisdom.

In each generation throughout time, a chosen few were placed among us to create new Kabbalah sources based on the information they attained through their unique connection to the spiritual world. But it was very difficult for people to accept that such a sacred connection was possible – and the turmoil that caused prevented the chosen few from exposing themselves – as a result Kabbalists have always hid their writings – and handed them down discreetly from rabbi to rabbi. In our generation, much larger quantities of people are supposed to be able to reach that elevated state through exposure to the authentic sources – yet this is also very difficult for people to digest – that such a state even exists.

The last greatest Kabbalist of our time was the Baal Hasulam, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, who wrote the commentary on the book of Zohar. He stated very clearly in his writings that from 1995, the authentic sources of Kabbalah must become available to the public at large – because he knew that we were the first generation capable of benefiting from the authentic sources.

So in addition to the Torah that uses biblical language, the book of Zohar that is written in Aramaic, and all the other traditional sources, there is a special source of knowledge – specifically developed for the souls of this generation – that was handed down to our rabbi - Rav Laitman - from his teacher and rabbi – the son of Baal Hasulam – Rabbi Baruch Ashlag – a Kabbalist from the last century. This source was provided in modern-day Hebrew to enable anyone in this generation to understand the underlying concepts of Kabbalah, simply by reading the text.

Bnei Baruch sees its mission as spreading this wisdom to as many people as possible, in order to accelerate the spiritual processes individuals need to go through to attain the upper worlds. This is why it provides unlimited access to daily kabbalah classes and many types of material on www.kabbalah.info in over 22 languages.

Although the material appears religious and connected exclusively to Judaism, it is actually intended to unite people of all races, religions and nationalities. Because in the upper world, we are all united in a single soul – which is where we descended to this world from – and where we have been striving to return to for the last 4000 years.

Kabbalah provides us with a systematic method, for gradually making our way back to the perfection of the source of our existence - while still living in this world.

All this may sound like science fiction, but there is simply too much evidence available nowadays for the souls of this generation to disregard this unique source any longer.

So what you may ask is the source of our existence? Our souls come into this world to get from point A to point B – whatever deviation we make from that path is felt immediately in the form of suffering – whether it is on an individual or collective basis. But we were not put here on earth to suffer. We were put here to enjoy the ultimate perfection that we were provided with. We were put here, to receive all the good – but not what we consider good in our world – a good that is far greater than anything we are even capable of imagining in our current state.

The wisdom of Kabbalah – from the word Lekabel – which is 'receive' in Hebrew - is about learning how to receive all the good – not for oneself – but for the sake of extending ourselves beyond the limitations of this world in order to fulfill the purpose of creation. People who have been awakened through a point in the heart have an unquenchable desire to progress along this path through authentic Kabbalah studies – and in this day and age – anyone can learn how to do this.

Eventually – we'll all figure out that this is what we were put here for – establishing a connection between this world and the spiritual world that is the source of everything. Kabbalah just gives us a way to speed up the process.

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Kabbalah: Recollections

2005-07-23T20:01:00.000Z

From this week's newsletter:

I Believe in Rav Laitman, Recollections of Feiga Ashlag, the Widow of the Late Rav Baruch Ashlag (last greatest Kabbalist)
And suddenly, exactly in 1995, came a wave of genuine interest. Today this group holds the hopes of everyone, that it will make an unprecedented breakthrough and compel Rav Laitman to dig within himself even more. Fourteen years have passed since Rebbe left. There is no need to wait another six years, as Rabash did after Baal HaSulam's death. People have to examine themselves and find the questions, the demands for the Creator. Today, the world needs the Creator's light! The knowledge has been passed through Rav Laitman to us and we have to receive that light, that which Baal HaSulam talked about. And this light can only be received through a living person. Over three years, I kept asking Rav Baruch Shalom: "How can one reach love for the Creator?" I was sincere in my question. He used to answer me: "This is a reward. One should work for free, and reward will come..."
Recollections of Feiga Ashlag, the Widow of the Late Rav Baruch Ashlag

What Happens after the Final Correction?
Does our body remain after the Final Correction of the intent? Nothing is said about our biological body. It does not belong to the area of correction. Nothing changes in it except for the process of aging. Correction is necessary only for the desire to receive and enjoy. Our body is a piece of meat that needs sleep, animal pleasures, food, rest, etc. It has nothing in common with inner spiritual corrections. Therefore, no changes are being made in the body while the soul is changing. The character does not change either. My Rav was running all the time, even at the age of 80; he just wasn't able to walk slowly. That was the character, which did not change. Today, we cannot even imagine how we will perceive the world when our soul is corrected. Our body will lose all its value. Will the universe and all around us be kept intact?....
Rav M. Laitman PhD: Talks with beginners - What happens after final correction

Virtual Lessons
Broadcast live Sundays at 9 PM Israel time. To watch the lesson, go to http://www.kab.tv/ press "English" and "View Lesson". Previous lessons can be found in our archive listed on each Sunday from August 8, 2004 forward.

Tags: kabbalah

Kabbalah: Natural Disasters and Catastrophes

2005-07-22T09:09:00.000Z

Events in the Life of Mankind
An interview with Kabbalist and Scientist Rav Michael Laitman, PhD
(Transcribed from Karma TV channel in Israel)

Due to many requests from our viewers, we’ve decided to dedicate one program to the subject of natural disasters and catastrophes. Here with us is Rav Laitman. Hello Rav Laitman.

Hello.

And… we wanted to talk today about disasters. So, maybe we will begin with the first question,

Yes

which is the most essential. Are disasters, catastrophes, natural calamities, such things that we see happening to people, that hurt several people, preventable, or aren’t they?

Well, this is not new; it is possible to say that through our entire history we have experienced minor or major disasters. Is it preventable or not, does it actually depend on us?

Yes, we can say that on one hand it simply comes to show the insignificance of man against nature, to show how small man is compared with the entire universe. On the other hand we may say that man is controlling this, or… that it comes from above.

Yes, all sorts of philosophies are derived from this kind of speculation. Should we accept it as something that is a natural part of life? Or perhaps we should resist it? Maybe if we prevent something here it will pop up somewhere else and be even worse, so we should not touch it, and so on. There are many approaches to it.

I would say this: that I usually love explaining how Kabbalah relates to the subject.

Okay.

And, as a result of it, each and every one will be able to explain to himself or herself, in all that happens, what, how it is right to interpret the situation.
The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us that we are living in a reality which is invariable. This reality is called the Creator, or upper law, nature.

And this upper light, the Creator, the general law, is at complete rest.

Just as there are many verses about this: "I did not change my name" (Ani HaVaYaH lo Shiniti – Hebrew), and so on.

It means that we are in something permanent, in some ocean of the upper light, which has an unchanging nature.

And what happens is that we change.

The overall plan of ours, and the light that we are in, is such that at every time, every moment, we have to adapt ourselves to the light.

Desires are revealed in me, and my desires are of a nature which is opposite to the light - egoistic, in order to receive - while the nature of the light is to bestow.

As it is said about the Creator: “The good and benevolent".

So I have to correct my desire accordingly, that I would be aimed in order to bestow as well. I have to go through a correction of myself. And if I do not perform this correction, to the extent that I am opposite to the light, I feel suffering in all kinds of ways.

Actually, all of humanity and our entire world - inanimate, vegetative, living and speaking - sense that difference from the light we are in, which in fact pours and fills the entire reality.

And because the will to receive in us constantly grows and intensifies more and more in every generation, it accumulates and rises in us and we don’t even think about the fact that we have to correct it. Thus we find ourselves in the chain of generations, our growing, uncorrected egoism causing more and more suffering.

Since the end of the twentieth century onwards, this accumulation of suffering has grown and will continue to grow to the extent that was indicated in the Zohar; that we will arrive at such a state which will simply be intolerable.

The use of drugs will increase dramatically, as also the amount of suicide deaths. The predominant problem in the world will be a person's state of depression and this will outnumber all other human illnesses and problems. Terror will emerge as well as all sorts of manic outbursts, all coming out of a person who feels his or her existence in a world full of suffering.

And there is only one reason for all this; the lack of equivalence of our form with the form of the upper light which we are in.

It turns out that there is a correction that can be carried out against it, which is quite simple, and which is what Kabbalah recommends for us to take upon ourselves. However there is a psychological dilemma here; to agree with it, to grasp it, to take it and change ourselves, and consequently come to feel eternity, wholeness and benevolence.

So actually, according to Kabbalah, you are saying that it can be avoided. Meaning that…

It is preventable only through the inner correction of a person.

There is no other way. No external actions will help us.

What do you mean by external actions?

Well, suppose we would now begin to place all sorts of sensors to detect earthquakes and other possible disastrous phenomena. In short, any technical means other than our inner correction will eventually turn to our disadvantage.
We see that the more medicines we produce, the more ill we become. We advance in one certain field of development and eventually we come to a state of "recognition of evil"; a point of crisis for which we cannot find a solution.

So you are actually saying that the wisdom of Kabbalah agrees with the approach that claims that everything is predetermined, that all disasters are predetermined, and there are all sorts of prophecies in the Koran, the New Testament, the Bible, from the prophets, who actually talk about this time as a period of disasters. So you are saying that the wisdom of Kabbalah fits in the same framework?

No. I will explain. Especially throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the human race needed to develop forcefully and to suffer, to accumulate bitter experience, and out of this experience to evolve. Humanity will come to discern that development does not bring it to any kind of substantial fulfillment.

And eventually, a general crisis in all areas that humanity deals with will emerge, and we are reaching that state today, in our very era. This general crisis spans the domains of technology, education, family life, society, international relations, and many other areas now filled with problems. In all the fields that we engage in, we see that we do not know how to progress.

We do not know what direction to take. Whatever direction we take, we reveal that after a few years what we actually achieved was a bitter result.

Until now, any development that took place was only in order for us to arrive at such a conclusion, and for this fundamental question to awaken in us: What should we do? “What is the meaning of our life?”

What do we live here for? Is there some plan for evolution that does not lead us towards failure and to a bitter sensation?

So is there any gain from all of these disasters and sufferings?

And here is exactly where the Zohar claims that this is the time when the wisdom of Kabbalah will be revealed, because there will be a need for it.

That is why in our days we see that people from everywhere begin to talk about Kabbalah, even though they still do not understand the reason for it, or the truth about why they talk about it. It is already coming from above, as the next step of development.

So, I would like to understand one point. I can take a certain disaster, and now try to understand, let's say an earthquake, has killed tens of thousands of people.

It is not important. They say that if there is trouble anywhere in the world, at any level, human, natural, no matter what, it is the fault of the people who are meant to correct themselves but have not.

But why does it come in such a way? Meaning, there is an earthquake, and out of having an earthquake, and some fatal disaster, I need to now realize that an inner correction is necessary.

It is because, out of the entire human race, there are people responsible for beginning the correction. Whether or not they correct themselves determines the entire existence of nature either in accordance with the upper light, or opposite to it.

Their refusal to correct their egoism could cause all sorts of disasters and events, explosions on some stars, some forest would burn somewhere, or even without any connection to a person, even at such levels of inanimate, vegetative or animate which are less relevant to us; all catastrophes come out of our lack of correction, and the acceptance of the process of correction depends solely on us.

Now another question: Does location have a meaning?
You spoke about explosions in the stars. Does it mean anything if a disaster takes place in Europe or in Asia, or America?

Yes. But it does because we are included in each other, within the system of Adam HaRishon (the First Man), where all souls are included together as one soul toward the upper light.

There is a part that is more important which is required to be corrected first, consisting of the souls called "the people of Israel", and there is a part that awaits a later time to be corrected, so called souls of "the nations of the world".

So the account is quite complicated. Because the inclusion of the souls creates a situation as is written: “The righteous suffer, and the wicked benefit”, where we do not exactly see where the blow is aimed.

So do you actually see these disasters as punishment for the fact that people have not corrected themselves?

No. It is not punishment at all. It is as I drew in the general picture. You can see that it is not punishment, but a system that functions according to the plan of equivalence of form between forces, between our inner forces and the force of this light, the upper light. To the extent that there is balance, everyone feels eternity and wholeness. To the extent that there is no balance, the souls suffer.

And this program was written in advance, nothing changes in it, except for our desire and free choice, which can really save the situation here and achieve correction.

So how is this approach different from any other approach that tells you to take a book, read it once a day, and then things will get better. If you do this or that then the world will change. Where is the essential difference here? Is there anything new here?

The essential difference is not in reading a book. It is in the fact that a person learns what he or she needs to do with him or her self according to the system.
The essential difference I would say is this: that you may have many books in the world that discuss inner correction, improving one’s attributes, “love thy neighbor” and all sorts of things. The essential thing here about the wisdom of Kabbalah is that it opens for you the upper world.

You begin to see it, and once you see the system, the mechanism that you are in as an inseparable integral part, you see how to behave correctly.

We can see that no theoretical proofs, lectures, or arguments will help.

Only if a person can clearly see and feel the way this system is designed will he or she be convinced that it is so, and then the person acts out of his or her nature. A person cannot put his or her hand in a fire, or jump from dangerous heights, the person just does not have that capacity.

And in such a way the person will also behave as soon as he or she will see how the entire natural system, the system of reality, behaves.

So there is an interesting question here about this point: Does a person who studies Kabbalah and advances, let's say even attains the sensation of the spiritual world, receive less “blows”, or does he receive the same amount, but has a different way of relating to them because the person sees the reason behind them?

The person, first of all, does not perceive the blows as blows. Because even if he or she revealed the true picture, it is already easier for him or her because the person sees the situation, even if it is uncorrected and bitter, as something purposeful. So it is like a person who is ill and needs to go through some treatments, knowing that eventually there will be a good, healthy state. The person is already happy about the state that will exist. It is a so-called “Sweetening of the Judgments”, a sweetening of the sufferings.

In addition, the person immediately sees how he or she can correct this situation and attain a good life, not having to do it through reincarnating another thousand years and being some poor, desperate person who would not know what will happen in the next moment, and in this, really being lower than all other creatures.

And here you are provided with a method which is healthy, open, simple, and is today being revealed to everyone.

This did not exist previously. It has been discussed for thousands of years, but no one who talked about it knew what it was, and it is still like this today. However, now it is starting to be revealed and can be reached by anyone who feels interested in it and has a desire for it.

So you are actually saying that the wisdom of Kabbalah, its revelation, and humanity which is suffering, need to meet somewhere, at some point along the path?

Yes.

What does this point depend on?

The truth is that it depends on the feeling of suffering.

So perhaps it is better if there would be more sufferings now?

No. It would be much better if we could convince people to begin their corrections. This would alleviate the sufferings.

The way of correction is much more preferable to suffering. The way of suffering would entail such blows that, as we have witnessed in the past, who knows how much we would have to go through until we decide that we need to change something?

We see that even now, suffering in itself does not bring anybody to any right answer. We see all throughout history, such as when the nation of Israel went through the holocaust, some people begin to ask themselves why such a thing happens to them. They do not say that there is no Creator, no God, no control. Some even erased this issue from studying why it happened.

And even if such phenomena do not bring us back to research, to a state where we have to somehow deal with the reason why it happens, then it indicates that we have to go the other way, to reveal the method, the wisdom, the general system and how it behaves, so that people will see it and open it up. Out of that, humanity will realize that it will be possible to achieve its correction.

And here, perhaps another question, perhaps to end, last question, there are many people, many approaches in the world, we also see that some use crisis and disasters to try to convince people of their being right, try to take advantage of the pain.

How is the Kabbalah any different, in coming now and trying to explain and convince humanity at a time of pain?

No. So what you are asking is that maybe there is no difference when I say: "You know, there is suffering in the world and there is a reason for it." Everyone says it. And then they say that the reason that so and so did such and such is because it is simple human nature and that somehow we have to change. Yes, everyone says that.

What’s next? Do they have anything further? Something in their hand? Do they have the upper power, the light that brings correction, so that they would actually be able to change human nature, or not?

Human nature is the only thing that changes in the entire reality.

Can we apply some force that will change nature or not? It is in this one point that makes all the difference between any other method and the method of Kabbalah.

So there is actually no issue here with trying to convince someone?

No. No convincing at all. And it is not possible to talk with somebody and convince them if they do not feel that his or her trouble, suffering, is related to some higher cause, who do not ask themselves about the cause of the suffering.

Baal HaSulam asks in the introduction to the book, Talmud Eser Sefirot (the main Kabbalistic study text for our era), why does he even write this six-volume set? It is a very deep and very difficult book to study.

So he asks: Who is the book intended for? He does not say religious people, or secular people, or philosophers, or anybody. He rather opens the study to any person who has ever asked the question: “What is the meaning of my life?”

It is a simple question.

It depends only on the inner maturity of the person. He or she can be a construction worker, a shoemaker or a professor. It does not matter who.
Whoever begins to sense that it is coming from within cannot ignore it, the person just has to understand why he or she suffers, why his or her life is full of suffering. It is not asked in order to escape it. To simply escape from suffering is not as essential question about life. It is just a question about everyday survival.

The person instead seeks for something much more substantial about a deeper cause in life. Why is our life as it is? Where does life come from? Where does trouble come from?

Meaning that the question has a deeper foundation, and a deeper foundation is already a spiritual cause. That is because everything that there is in our world evolves from the spiritual world. And everybody that comes to us, from all of these different people, we cannot even say in advance which population to turn to.

So, what does it actually depend on, if a person will now receive a thousand blows, more and more painful, and the point will awaken in him or her, or if the person will just continue to receive another thousand blows?

Wise is the one who sees what is coming. That is the whole difference. There is a person who is beaten for his or her whole life and just lowers his or her head, going by saying "what can I do, that’s life".

Meaning that he or she still does not have the brains along with the bitter feeling, which may help him or her to escape the blows, to prevent the next blow, to start to study where it comes from and why it comes to him or her in order to sweeten everything, to change the steps of his or her development. And there are some who develop brains alongside the suffering until the intellect begins to work on the person and the person begins to ask and evolve this way. Much suffering is necessary.

I am very optimistic because I see how the wisdom of Kabbalah is starting to take an important place in our lives. We will perform the correction demanded of us, and to the extent that we will be able to equalize ourselves with the upper light we will enter peace and eternity.

And that also includes all of humanity?

We will then be the light for the gentiles, because that is actually our duty.

Okay, so thank you Rav Laitman, thank you to the viewers at home, and here ends another program of “Mekubal Alai” on the subject of disasters, as we end with an optimistic message after all.

london
kabbalah

Kabbalah: Today's Science Crisis

2005-07-22T08:55:00.000Z

Question: What exactly is this science crisis everyone is talking about today?

Answer by Kabbalist & Scientist Rav Michael Laitman, PhD:

I wouldn't say that science is in crisis, this is probably what a person not involved in science imagines - that science has come to an end – no, science keeps developing. So many new things, and opportunities emerging around us – this is all the result of scientific development.

Science is in crisis because OUR hopes that it will save civilization has crashed into pieces. I remember how as a child I was convinced that the exploration of space, of other planets, development of new technologies, etc., will make our world and man happy. We praised science as a redeemer of humanity. Today everyone sees that it does not bring happiness. So we start to criticize science.

Gradually it's becoming clear that this question, this appeal to science has nothing to do with it – what we are dealing here is not fulfillment of our life with all sorts of comfortable innovations – this question deals with the meaning of life. Science is not called to answer this question to begin with.

I also used to think this way and hoped to discover the secret of the meaning of life through science. I got disappointed in science, then realized that my demands for science are invalid, after which I started to search for the field of knowledge that would answer this question.

Because the question about the meaning of life covers our states preceding our birth (where are we from) and after our death (where do we go to, what's the meaning of passed years), which are not studied by the sciences of this world, basically, there is no crisis in science. What is in crisis – is our understanding that nothing in this world will give us an answer to the question about the meaning of life. And there is no way for us to forget and let go of this question.

Today, the second most spread illness in the world – depression. The biggest losses – come from drugs. Humanity must find an answer why it exists. Meaningless life brings forward aggression, terror (imaginable ideals and goals), and unpredictability.

The solution to this question – is the revelation of the science about the Upper World – Kabbalah - to humanity at large. Kabbalah researches the Upper World, which is where we exist before we are born into this world and after we leave it. That's why Kabbalah answers the question about the meaning of our existence here, about our existence in the Upper Worlds, and about the entire Universe and its Creator.

science

A Drug Abusing Generation

2005-07-21T20:08:00.000Z

Drugs as an Inevitable Inclination - When & Why Do People Turn to Drugs
An article by foremost Kabbalist & Scientist Rav Michael Laitman, PhD

An increasing addiction to drugs is becoming a strategic problem of the entire world. Politicians do not take too much interest in this problem, because all they need is to rule over someone or something. Therefore they do everything possible to hide it and do not even prioritize it during their election campaigns. This is because they feel their helplessness and regard this issue a failed mission. Yet if we pay attention not just to what is going on at the moment, but also discern a tendency, we would certainly conclude that the humankind as an intelligent and volitional part of the universe is entering a period of self-destruction.

The drug problem in the modern world has been thoroughly researched, described and presented at numerous conferences. It is on the UN agenda and is discussed during open and closed government debates. Hence without repeating ourselves let’s just mention what directly refers to the solution we offer.

From the point of view of their production drugs happen to be very cheap merchandise. The entire humanity can easily be provided with it. So why not do just that? So many people on the earth suffer from idleness, unemployment, degradation, homelessness and diseases. Health budget exceeds defense costs. Being able to receive their daily dose, drug addicts would not pose any serious threat to the society. Compared with any other condition of an average unemployed citizen they will only require a minimal care. They exist in their own world detached from the society’s problems causing no serious harm.

The problem is that since the state of narcotized numbness of an individual stops the development of humanity, it contradicts the fundamental law of nature. Nature will never put up with man’s disconnection from the process of conscious attainment of life’s meaning. It will never agree to an uncontrolled drug abuse.

Narcotics have been known to humankind for thousands of years. However, in the past they have never been used so excessively. People did not feel such a pressing need to be disconnected from the sensation of life, because they somehow managed to fill their desires. The person wanted to receive pleasure and to acquire the things he saw in the world around himself. All he desired was more or less available in his world. He saw a goal and decided whether it was worth his while to make a required effort to achieve it. He always made his choice to pursue a certain objective or not and made up his mind this or that way. He was never left with an open question that demanded an answer.

He worked hard, went through incredible sufferings and was sold into slavery, but he still saw the pleasure he so much craved for, anticipated it. The person clearly saw that in exchange for something or through making a certain effort he could get what he wanted. If, however, his dream was unrealistic, he preferred to forget about it, because the body (will to receive) does not wish to suffer and eliminates it from its field of vision, as it is written: “Man of the common people will not seek King’s daughter’s hand”.

Seeing even a distant goal, the person is ready to work hard for years in order to achieve it. He does not need drugs as a means of escape from reality, because he anticipates the future satisfaction.

When does someone turn to drugs? It happens when the person cannot fill his desires in this world. Having no other option, he then prefers to disconnect himself from the feeling of deficiency and frustration and turns to drugs. He would never do that, if he could see some source of pleasure.

Human desires are known to grow and develop from one generation to another: from bodily needs and pleasures for food, sex, home and family, which the person feels even while living alone, outside of the society, to desires for:
- wealth,
- esteem, fame, power and
- knowledge.

Every person includes all of these desires in various combinations, but in the course of history they grow both in quantity and in quality. Just the growth of these desires in each person determines the progress of humanity.

It transpires that when the growth of all human desires stops, a new desire and aspiration for something vague and incomprehensible emerges. The person cannot even describe it, he simply wants something without knowing what it is or being able to find it in this world.

Such people refer to this state as depression. This leads to an enormous number of divorces. Man feels the need to change something in his life and believes that a new marriage will solve his problem. As a rule, he discovers a complete vainness of his actions and falls into a deeper disappointment and loneliness.

Many people interpret the appearance of this new desire for something unknown as an aspiration for the spiritual, for the beyond. More and more people feel this and join the ranks of drug addicts and psychologists’ patients.

In the long run the person gradually discovers that this new longing is really a desire for the Upper world. People begin to rush about searching for a method of attaining the source of spiritual filling. They go to India and other eastern countries looking for gurus; bookstores are teeming with all kinds of literature about spiritual methods and quests.

All the person’s desires are conditionally referred to as his “heart”. The emerging desire for the unknown that no source can fill is called a “point in heart”.

Science has lately been found to confirm the existence of the Upper world. More and more of the prominent scientists in the course of their research of matter and energy come to the conclusion that there exists some other reality. As a rule, these are nuclear physicists, biologists, etc., i.e. the people, who each in his field, delve into matter.

Humanity has the method of attaining the Upper world at its disposal. This method is called Kabbalah. Kabbalah is a means for filling the desire for the unknown spiritual pleasure. We should check this method, not reject it. There is no alternative to the growing problem of depression, divorces, aloofness among people and, most importantly, to drug abuse.

The situation is only deteriorating. People will continue to buy drugs. Their production will increase tremendously; tiny factories will spring up everywhere. Drug-containing plants will be grown on vast plantations; narcotics will be produced in home-based labs.

However, this should reach such proportions that politicians, economists and other people of influence would see that they have no one to control. They will stop receiving pleasure from money, recognition, etc. The problem will then be termed as “strategic”.

When the person discovers Kabbalah, he begins to realize that there exists a solution, an answer. Well, it may take another five or ten years, but the solution is there. In this case the person has no need for drugs, because he already lives in anticipation of the future. Instead of narcotics the purpose should be revealed to him and with it an opportunity to fill himself.

Essence of Kabbalah
This wisdom reveals the most general, all-embracing force of nature to people. By studying it, the person discovers that by the end of its evolution the entire humanity should inevitably come to the revelation of the universe and its purpose.

This revelation does not occur simultaneously in all people. This is an individual process of everyone’s inner advancement. Starting from the 20th century the larger part of humanity reaches a certain level of its development. As a result of this many people feel a desire to attain something that transcends the bounds of this world.

The science of Kabbalah is divided into two parallel paths:

· The order of descent of the Upper forces from the highest world down to this world.
· The order of attainment from down upwards. From this world the person ascends the levels of attainment that were formed during the descent. He is obliged to gradually attain every level in complete compliance with the laws established during the descent of the Upper forces. “Attainment” means a higher level of comprehension.

Reality of the spiritual attainment is similar to our everyday study of the forces that surround us. The material reality perceived in our sensations consists of real things the essence of which we cannot grasp even in our imagination. For example, take such phenomena as electricity and magnetism. Can we say they are unreal, if our knowledge about them completely satisfies us, even though we have not the faintest idea about their essence?

The main thing in knowledge is not the essence, but its manifestations. Our knowledge of any material objects or people - of all that we can touch - is none other than making “acquaintance with actions”, which provides us with the impressions of their contact with our senses. This gives us absolute satisfaction, although we know nothing about the essence.

Attainment of the Upper world is similar to that. A student feels perfectly content with complete knowledge, even though he only attains actions. It appears as a result of the Upper light’s contact with someone who attains it. It resembles the person who feels no need for the sixth finger, because he is quite happy with five.

narcotics

Reporter Lead: Teaching Kids About Life

2005-07-20T14:41:00.000Z

As posted on PR Newswire's ProfNet:

RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN, PH.D. Israel-based Kabbalist and scientist, suggests supplementing current curriculums with a secular Meaning of Life course based on the wisdom of kabbalah: "Education is currently the biggest issue facing mankind because, 20 years from now, these youngsters will be all grown up and then we will understand exactly what we put into them. A person of any age who is exposed to kabbalah very quickly understands the structure of the universe and nature beyond the world we grasp with our five senses. From my experience, children are more receptive to this material and automatically apply it to their everyday behavior." News Contact: Uri Laitman Phone: +1-877-524-8626

Claiming my feed at Feedster

2005-07-20T13:45:00.000Z

No'>http://feedster.com/claimfeed.php?key=0dc0ec8eb6f7f72cf311cecf71fa49d3">No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster

Reporter Lead: General Crisis Humanity Faces

2005-07-19T09:22:00.000Z

As posted on PR Newswire's amazing ProfNet service:

RELIGION: THE GENERAL CRISIS HUMANITY FACES. RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN, PH.D. Israel-based kabbalist and scientist at the BNEI BARUCH WORLD CENTER FOR KABBALAH STUDIES, can discuss essential tenets of Kabbalist thought: "A general crisis in all areas of humanity will emerge, and we are reaching that state today. The general crisis spans the domains of technology, education, family life, society, international relations and many other areas. The accumulation of suffering has grown and will continue to grow to the extent that was indicated in the Zohar; that we will arrive at such a state which will simply be intolerable. The purpose of all this is to awaken in us the fundamental question -- 'what is the meaning of our life?' -- which will ultimately lead us to the next stage of our development: spirituality. News Contact: Uri Laitman: uri@kabbalah.info, 1-877-LAITMAN

Transcribed Kabbalah Lessons from www.kabbalah.info

2005-07-19T06:37:00.000Z

If you're looking for the most exciting material and don't have time to view the live broadcasts, this page takes you to transcribed lessons in English:

http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/translated_lessons_(texts)/translated_lessons_(texts).htm

Check out the Shamati and Kabbalah as a Science sections that have just been updated.

Enjoy!

Wife of the last greatest kabbalist to grace the earth speaks about Laitman

2005-07-19T06:19:00.000Z

I Believe in Rav Laitman, Recollections of Feiga Ashlag, the Widow of the Late Rav Baruch Ashlag

May 2005

Since Rav Baruch Ashlag (1901-1991) was the last in a long chain of kabbalists who passed the secret wisdom on from one to another throughout the generations, this recent interview with his wife about his special relationship with Rav Laitman is very moving.

Here is an excerpt:
People believe that a Rav is someone who has to behave and look a certain way. There is an expected standard, and Rav Laitman did not fit into this. It was as if he consciously violated certain conventional norms; externally, he did not try to look like a saint or righteous man. He was even more of an ordinary man than Rebbe. Rav Baruch used to at least dress in his religious-looking attire. Meanwhile, Rav Laitman came out into the public as a simple, relatively young person (he was forty five). These guys had to accept him as their Teacher, their Rav. They did, but there was a point when they started having big doubts.

Once I told a few of them: “Everything is in your hands. If you let Rav Laitman go now, you will let your desire for the spiritual slip away, and you will not be able to increase it! Afterwards there will be no one around to receive it from. You will have nothing! Now, you just have a complete faith that everything is in the hands of Rav Laitman, that he has something to say. Everything else is the exterior! This doubt that you have is probably given to you on purpose!” I remember this from Rav Baruch. He used to do similar things to his students to deliberately try to lessen their homage to him. “Disregard what appears on the surface! Focus on the heart of the issue – Rav Laitman holds the strings to the spiritual!”

Rav Laitman was, is, and will be guided by the Upper Providence for the purposes of bringing the world to completion, correction, and going beyond the boundaries of time and space.

Kabbalah.info: First Television Broadcast of Morning Lesson in Israel

2005-07-17T13:19:00.000Z

Rav Laitman of www.kabbalah.info gave his first morning lesson on Israel's Karma Channel today - to see the entire lesson go to www.kabbalahmedia.info and click on 'Talk About Wisdom of Kabbalah'.

Here's an excerpt:
A person, throughout thousands of years of development, arrives at certain questions - about the purpose of life - this is the most difficult question that comes at the beginning of our development - this is not for nothing - it's a matter of survival - it's a natural question - if a person would get the proper education from his environment - if he was taught about there being a specific purpose for our existence - then people would get the answer to this question at an early age and our world would look completely different.

Today all of humanity is facing this question - in the form of crises with the environment, drugs, family, education.... and prefers not to pay attention to it - there are TV and movies to take our attention - anything - just not to think about it - even the big people who are actually responsible for being concerned with the future of humanity - are incapable of planning anything because they don't know the secret of life. This question - the purpose of our life - is hidden in each and every act we do throughout the day. There is no way to escape it.

Kabbalah Newsletter: Preface to the Zohar

2005-07-16T18:51:00.000Z

This week's newsletter is packed with lots of goodies:

Intro:
"Our entire wisdom lies in studying these shapes that we have to acquire. Baal HaSulam says in this respect, that books of Kabbalah such as the Zohar, are "caged behind a thousand locks." So what are the boundaries, that if we take them on ourselves, we will be aiming directly at the goal which we want to perceive, acquire the same form as what is before us, and be able to grasp it?"
Rav M. Laitman PhD

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Preface to the Zohar
Lesson given by Rav Laitman PhD
1. "The profoundness of the wisdom in the holy Book of Zohar is enclosed and caged behind a thousand locks, and our human tongue is too poor to provide us with sufficient, reliable expressions to interpret one thing in this book to its end. Also, the interpretation that I have made is but a ladder to help the examiner rise to the height of the matters, examine, and scrutinize the words of the book itself. Hence, I have found it necessary to prepare the reader, to give him a way and an inlet in reliable definitions, concerning how one should contemplate and study the book." (Original text of Baal HaSulam - author of the commentary on the Zohar)

We have a simple problem: when we encounter something, we do not know how to perceive it, how to examine it. The problem is that our tool has to be designed correctly to perceive the reality, according to the properties of the object that we intend to examine, sense, and perceive.

Our work is in limiting the Kli (lit. tool, or vessel). By designing our Kli correctly, we immediately position ourselves to perceive it, and discover what we have before us. This is, in fact, our work.

Our desire is unlimited, amorphous, disoriented. Our ability to design our desire helps us formulate certain patterns in it, boundaries, sensitivity to various things, bestowal, reception, the ten Sefirot and their interconnections
Lesson by Rav M. Laitman PhD

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Reward and Punishment
Can a person really say when he deserves a reward and when – a punishment? For instance, a piece of a balcony falls down, killing a man passing by; a natural disaster occurs, etc. Is there anyone we should blame or punish? Or, let's say, a child brakes something. We can punish or even beat him, but we will discipline a child according to our animal perception of reward and punishment, that is, will transfer our perception and attitude to him. That's how it was in Russia. If one did not acknowledge the communists they could even kill him. They had established their law and their justice, their understanding of good and bad. But indeed, there must be a direct objective system of reward and punishment, not for the benefit of this system's authors, but for the benefit of its observers.
Rav M. Laitman PhD: Talks with beginners - Reward and Punishment

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Music of Kabbalah
Each of us perceives music individually. It is impossible to compare how two different people perceive the same melody. Kabbalah, the science about the soul, is also very individual. Kabbalah is the method for the full revelation of each unique soul's potential, placed in it at the moment of the creation of existence...

What is music? It is an emotion, captured in its evolvement. Only music can deliver the process of transforming feelings through time. That is why the music of Kabbalah provides those who do not yet perceive the spiritual world with a certain analogy of the impression of spirituality that is felt by the Kabbalist.

Bnei Heichala (Baal HaSulam melody)
More Melodies

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Perception of Reality"An Overview"
by Rav Laitman PhD
Bnei Baruch is happy to announce a new series of lectures by Rav Laitman PhD. The series will run for 6 lessons and is highly recommended for both beginners and more advanced students
Overview Part 6 ( Final lesson)
Overview Part 5

Virtual Lessons
Broadcast live Sundays at 9 PM Israel time. To watch the lesson, go to http://www.kab.tv/ press "English" and "View Lesson". Previous lessons can be found in our archive listed on each Sunday from August 8, 2004 forward.

Kabbalah Films
Bnei Baruch is proud to introduce ARI Films, its new dynamic production enterprise that provides, among other things, content services for cable and satellite T.V. stations, as well as specializing in the production of educational and documentary films and custom-made Kabbalah productions.

Thought of the Week
When a person feels good, he has to remember that he had some bad moments in his life, and to relate this as to cause and effect: good – bad or bad - good. This draws a person closer toward eternity and perfection. In everything that happens you see two sides of the coin, realizing that one cannot happen without the other. And you have to accept what happens the way it is. When a person does this, evil will be perceived as good.
Rav M. Laitman PhD: Talks with beginners - Feeling Good or Bad

That's all for now friends... until next time...

Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman, PhD.

2005-07-11T09:53:00.000Z

Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman, PhD.,Kabbalist, Rabbi, & Author

World leading Kabbalist, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD has an MS in Bio Cybernetics and a PhD in Philosophy and Ontology. Rav Laitman is the author of 25 internationally selling books on Kabbalah; his books have been translated into nine languages.

His lessons are broadcast live throughout the Internet and cable TV to tens of thousands of students the world over. In recent years he has become a sought-after lecturer in academic and learning circles in the US and Europe.

His search for the meaning of life led him to the teachings of Kabbalah in the 1970’s. At first he studied Kabbalah with various teachers in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel. In 1979 he discovered his true teacher, Kabbalist Rav Baruch Shalom Halevi Ashlag (1907-1991).

From the time he met Rav Baruch Ashlag (known as the Rabash), he was never apart from him and spent most of his time in his presence, as his disciple and personal assistant. Up until his death, Rabash passed on to Rav Laitman the wisdom he had acquired from his father, Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag, known as Baal HaSulam for his Sulam commentary on The zohar (The Book of Radiance).

Rav Dr. Laitman held a successful public meeting in San-Francisco in March 2005 with leading American scientists, participants of the blockbuster hit "What the Bleep Do We Know?" Here are some of the impressions of the scientists after meeting Dr. Laitman:

Fred Alan Wolf, PhD. author of eleven books, among them The Yoga of Time Travel, Matter into Feeling: a new Alchemy of Science and Spirit, and Mind into Matter: "I admire your knowledge. I would love to sit at your feet and study for a long time."

Jeffery Satinover, MD (Psychiatry), MS (Physics) – Author of seven books including The Quantum Brain & Cracking the Bible Code: "The emergence of Kabbalah from its concealment in a genuine form is historically significant and is truly remarkable."

Rav Laitman is the founder and president of the Bnei Baruch Association – Kabbalah Education & Research Institute. Bnei Baruch is an Israeli based non-profit organization that is dedicated to spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah to all of humanity. Bnei Baruch conducts daily Kabbalah lessons, broadcasted live on the Internet and available for free.In 1996 Bnei Baruch created, what is now the largest and most popular Internet site on the subject of Kabbalah--www.kabbalah.info. This website provides unlimited access to Kabbalistic texts and media in over twenty languages, and hosts over a million readers every month.

Website: http://www.kabbalah.info./

Kabbalah in Boston

2005-07-03T12:47:00.000Z

The Boston group has created a very nice site for attracting people in that area to discover the meaning of life: www.masskabbalah.info

Kabbalah Films & Documentaries

2005-07-03T12:43:00.000Z

Another new site worth visiting - with exclusive footage of foremost Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman of Bnei Baruch in Israel.

ARI Films: www.arifilms.tv

The Vision:
The greatest human desire is to find the world's greatest treasure. This treasure is discovering the true meaning of life. The wisdom of Kabbalah reveals the meaning of life. By utilizing the ability of modern media to provoke and impact the audience, ARI films can provide humankind with an opportunity to discover and connect with the secrets of the Universe.

Independent Film Production Company

ARI Films is a young, dynamic production enterprise that provides, among other things, content services for cable and satellite T.V. stations. We also specialize in production of educational and documentary films, as well as custom-made Kabbalah productions.

ARI Films entered the Israeli market in 2004. It has since become a successful and rapidly growing film production company. It is currently producing a daily Kabbalah based talk show series, featured on the Karma cable channel, hosting numerous celebrities.

It has the highest rating on its channel and is aired in prime time. The show is broadcasted four times a day, and boasts well over 130 programs that have been aired thus far. The channel has also broadcasted four other movies by ARI Films in prime time.

Kabbalah Music - Old & New

2005-07-03T12:37:00.000Z

Here is a great new kabbalah music site to check out:
www.musicofkabbalah.com

The site contains the timeless melodies of Baal Hasulam as well as modern productions by the young and talented kabbalists at Bnei Baruch.

Music and Kabbalah... What is the connection between them?
Everyone has a conception of what music is, but not everyone, by far, knows what Kabbalah is. Kabbalah is the science of the structure of the universe, the developmental laws of spiritual worlds and our world, and of the purpose of man. Through these graphs and schemes, Kabbalah talks of mans' feelings, his soul, and music. Music also talks to man in a language of feelings and emotions; therefore it is close to Kabbalah. What is music? It is an emotion, captured in its evolvement. Only music can deliver the process of transforming feelings through time. That is why the music of Kabbalah provides those who do not yet perceive the spiritual world with a certain analogy of the impression of spirituality that is felt by the Kabbalist. Kabbalistic music is written by great Kabbalists as an expression of their spiritual sensations. It is inherently located at a high spiritual level. This music delivers the listener to eternity and perfection.

Check it out! All music is available for free download.

Five Worlds – Five Levels of the Will to Receive

2005-07-01T10:33:00.000Z

From this week's newsletter:

What we are going through is similar to the experience of when one is engaged in study that includes practical training. Sometimes, the surrounding world looks so gloomy that we see the situation as if it was the end of the world and there is no way out. But later, through training and study, we realize that this is not the case. These events are very precise and correct exercises given to us from above. We are only able to comprehend this later.
M.Laitman PhD: Talks with beginners - Feeling good or bad

Five Worlds – Five Levels of the Will to Receive
There exist five worlds between the Creator and our world. They are called: Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. Beneath the world of Assiya there is the Machsom, and our world is below it. Our goal while still located in our world is for our soul to attain the level of the world of Ein Sof, meaning, to attain complete unification with the Creator. That is, when our soul is clothes the body of this world, to change the attributes of egoism into the attributes of the Creator on each spiritual level until our entire egoism is replaced by altruism. When that occurs, our soul's attributes will become fully equivalent to the Creator's attribute.
M.Laitman PhD: Talks with beginners - Five Worlds - Five Levels of the Will to Receive

Thought of the Week
One can enjoy infinitely only if the reception is not for one's own sake, i.e. one receives delight for the Giver's sake. Then the Light, which enters the vessel, does not eliminate a desire to enjoy it. This is the most optimal model of existence, sheer perfection. The Light does not simply bring pleasure. This is the delight from unlimited attainment, infinite existence, self-knowledge and self-analysis. This is the sensation of eternity, perfection and bliss on all coordinates.
M Laitman PhD: The Order of Creation

Definition of the Week
The perception of the Creator is called Faith. A common mistake in interpreting this concept centers on the idea that faith implies groping in the dark, without seeing or perceiving the Creator. In fact, the meaning of faith is exactly the opposite. According to Kabbalah, the light of the Creator which fills a person, the light of the connection to the Creator, the light which gives a feeling of unification with Him (ohr chassadim) is known as the light of faith, or simply, faith. Faith, the light of the Creator, gives a person a sensation of being linked to the eternal, an understanding of the Creator, a feeling of complete communication with the Creator, as well as a sense of absolute security, immortality, greatness and strength.

Revealing the Creator

2005-06-25T19:17:00.000Z

Another moving newsletter this week that explains what we're doing here:

When we are in this world and we begin to study the spiritual world, we first learn to build our inner attitude according to the spiritual world, and then we gradually learn the external attitude. The Creator wants us to live in this world according to spiritual laws. The more a person is able to exit out of his "I" to the outside, the more he acquires the ability to feel the spiritual and to rid himself of his body, which is the cause of all his problems.
M. Laitman PhD: Two Worlds - Our World and the Spiritual

Revealing the Creator while Living in this World
According to the thought of creation, we have to come to the state where we can live and exist according to the spiritual laws. All of the misfortunes that occur for each of us, as well as all disasters and catastrophes, take place in order to bring every person and humanity as a whole, to carry out the spiritual commandments during their life in this world. This is what Baal HaSulam writes. Kabbalah is the instruction for the Creator to become revealed to the creatures living in this world. Kabbalah does not write about what will happen to us after death, but rather what should happen to us during our life in this world. Kabbalah talks only about what a person in this world needs; what he must achieve in order to avoid living his life in vain, only to involuntarily come back again and complete whatever was not finished before. Therefore, Kabbalah is the most indispensable and practical science in the world. M.Laitman PhD: Talks with beginners - Revealing the Creator while living in this World

Thought of the Week
The intensity of the love between a person and the Creator is determined by the agony of the longing. The agony is a consequence of the absence of the light from the vessel, and the longing comes from the sensation of the fulfillment with the light of the Creator when in adhesion with Him. Thus, if only one could collect the genuine desires, the appropriate answer would come.
M.Laitman PhD: The Path of Kabbalah

Definition of the Week: Inner Reflection
The essence of time lies in the sensation of movement. The human mind imagines and gives shape to a certain number of movements that are perceived in a sequence, one after another, and creates the concept of "time." However, if man and his environment had been motionless, the notion of time would have ceased to exist. The same applies to the spiritual. A number of changed properties defined as spiritual movements, one coming out of another in the form of cause and effect, are called "time." The notions "before" and "after" always mean cause and effect.

Want To Join The Tribe?

2005-06-23T13:04:00.000Z

I'm plugging this blog for the second day in a row because it's really getting everyone revved up to discover the true meaning of their life:

Check out Neil Kramer's
http://www.citizenofthemonth.com/2005/06/23/want-to-join-the-tribe/

Want To Join The Tribe?

Excerpt:
Being Jewish is cool. I’ve enjoyed it my entire life. I went to Hebrew School. I got bar mitzvahed. I had a great Jewish wedding ceremony, complete with klezmer band. I like temple… sometimes. I don’t even miss not celebrating Christmas. There’s no law that says I can’t sing "The Little Drummer Boy" with my non-Jewish friends or even with Jewish friends. The secret is out - Jews love those great Christmas songs. That’s why Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond made those awful Christmas albums. You Christians win hands down with Christmas over Hanukkah, but sorry, guys - Passover is better than Easter.

FAME! I'm gonna live forever!! (and more on why celebs are attracted to Kabbalah)

2005-06-22T12:21:00.000Z

Got a not-very-flattering mention in this popular blog: http://www.citizenofthemonth.com/2005/06/05/kabbalah-101/
Don't worry - as you can see we are rectifying the situation.

And yes - I'm learning Kabbalah and that is connecting me to eternity. So I actually feel like I'm going to live forever, even if and when this physical body I happen to be in right now checks out in a few decades. As Rav Laitman puts it - we leave all our worldly goods and accomplishments behind when we move on - the only thing we take with us to the next stage is our spiritual advancement. Think about that.

Everyone is concerned right now with why all these big celebs are attracted to Kabbalah - what the connection is between Kabbalah and money and fame etc. The connection is that these people more than anyone else have exhausted all means of advancement in this world. They've achieved everything there is to achieve here and naturally want more.

But of course Rav Laitman explains it better than me - here it is in his own words - after being asked why Madonna came to Israel of all places to make her clip:

"I told them that the person comes to a state, when he or she ostensibly achieved in this life all he ever wanted. Nevertheless, he suddenly realizes that he in fact has nothing. He understands that by increasing his desires he will only intensify his suffering, i.e., he will increase the emptiness of his Kelim, his sensations. So instinctively, he begins to search for an alternative method of fulfillment and discovers that this method is at a level that is higher than the usual pursuit of pleasures. We see that, after satisfying their big desires, people like Madonna suddenly feel that it is not the end, that there is more pleasure waiting to be received."

And again just for the record - a person studying authentic kabbalah is not allowed to earn a single dime from teaching it to others, or from anything remotely connected to kabbalah - to do so would endanger the spiritual level they have reached. And no genuine kabbalist can reside outside of Israel or be away from Israel for any extended length of time - it's difficult enough as it is to advance in Israel - a land that has special spiritual powers - but outside of Israel it is impossible for people at a high level to advance.

Foremost Kabbalist Michael Laitman P.hD is broadcast live every morning from Israel on www.kab.tv

Blogher.org Conference on July 30th

2005-06-20T09:44:00.000Z

A group of incredible women have come up with a brilliant concept of bringing women bloggers together from all over the world!! Amazing!!

Here's the link to Blogher.org:
http://www.blogher.org/2005/04/announcing_blog.html

As Rabbi Laitman puts it - women have different spiritual energy than men - our role in this world is completely different - we are closer to correction than the men but we need the men for advancement.

I can't go (baby hasn't even got patience for driving to the beach!) but I hope I'll still be able to participate somehow ...

Kabbalah is all about our desires

2005-06-18T20:23:00.000Z

From this week's awesome newsletter:

Perceiving the Desires
The more man desires, the smarter he becomes for his mind must resolve how to obtain the desired. Mind is the fruit of our desire's evolvement . To reach the desired, we contrive all sorts of tricks. A strong desire is the key to mind's development. We shouldn't concern ourselves with developing mind; rather, we should develop the desires. A Kabbalah student does not have to be clever: it is enough to desire and to sense the desired. One cannot see the spiritual world with his mind; one can only feel it with his soul.
M. Laitman PhD: Justifying actions of the Creator

Perceiving the Desires
How can a person perceive the desire? In order for a person to know what he wants he must first try it, since by doing so it leaves a pleasurable perception or taste inside of him. The pleasure was sensed and now it's gone, at which point the person aspires towards it. This is what the real Kli must consist of. Meaning, the light has filled it in the past, and the Kli has tasted the entire force of the sensation of pleasure from the light's presence. Then the light disappeared and now the Kli passionately longs to feel the taste of the light once again.
M.Laitman PhD: Talks with beginners - Perceiving the desire

Course: Kabbalah and Philosophy
Lesson 6: The carving of the soul
Is there a connection between corporality and spirituality?
Is what we don't grasp called spiritual?
Matter changes phases
The force behind matter – is it spiritual or corporeal?lesson 6

Thought of the Week
We should never judge a person by his present condition, but rather, by the goal to which he aspires. We do not assess anything by its form or quality, but in accordance with its development and the goal it strives to achieve.
Virtual lesson - Peace in the World

Definition of the Week
"We find that the law of oppositeness of form operates in the spirituality. According to this law, souls whose properties differ from those of the Creator, separate from Him the same way as two objects in the corporeal world, cut apart by the ax. And the distance between them is proportional to the oppositeness of form."
Introduction to the Book of Zohar

kabbalah.info Cool Site of the Day

2005-06-12T15:32:00.000Z

The world's largest and most comprehensive site on kabbalah is today's cool site of the day

It couldn't have happened on a better day than today - the day we receive the Torah. Here is a little something about the holiday of Shavuot:

The Torah is a unique force that can alter our nature and enable us to sense the will of the Creator. It is the power we are meant to discover, if we ever want to really change. Without it, we don't really stand a chance of ever reaching any contact with any force that leads us.

Torah is the connection that enables us to escape the authority, to escape the rule of our egoism.

He who attains this strength, discovers it is given from above, with no limitations. But who can accept it? Only he who wants to change and acquire a new vision of reality, who understands that without Torah he will forever be unsatisfied, anxious and concerned, only he will search for it and utilize for correction.

The Torah tells us that Israel came out of Egypt and walked in the desert for fifty days before receiving the Torah. The exodus is a revelation, given to a man from above. It is a gift he receives, that shows him the Creator's rule over reality. Once he has seen how his inner Pharaoh, his evil inclination, grows within him, and how Moses defeats him with the help of the Creator, a man searches for a way to attain the will of the Creator on his own. He searches for guidance, clear instruction that will bring him to full recognition of his Maker; he searches for Torah (in Hebrew also means instruction).

In order to attain the Torah independently, there is a need for gradual preparation. Moses is the people's representative before the Creator. It is the inner power, the purest, that can come in contact with the Creator, but it is not enough. We have to reach a state where the people as a whole, meaning all the desires that aspire to attain the Creator (Israel), will come in contact with Him and acquire His attributes.

For that a man has to go through forty-nine special corrections, one each day, for seven weeks (Hebrew: shavuot). Only after those seven weeks is it possible to receive the Torah. That is why the celebration of the receiving of the Torah is called Shavuot.

The attributes of the soul that is corrected can be marked with names of Sephirot. Each soul has ten Sephirot. The first three need not be corrected, and therefore there are only seven that need correction. Each of the seven contains within it all the other seven, so that on the whole, a man should correct forty-nine Sephirot, which are the attributes of his soul, each correction, against one of the inner Sephirot.

The order of the Sephirot that are been corrected is: Chessed, Gvurah, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, Malchut. On the first day after the Passover night, the Chessed within Chessed is corrected. On the second day Gvurah within Chessed, on the third, Tifferet within Chessed and so on.

During the second week the Sephirot within Gvurah are corrected and so on, until on the forty-ninth day, Malchut within Malchut is corrected. The meaning of the correction is the realization that we need only the Torah, the healing power, that will finally redeem us from egoism.
On the fiftieth day, after one has verified in each and every trait, that all one needs is this strength, called Torah, his attributes unite, above all his evil thoughts - Hebrew: hirhurim, from the word 'har' (mountain) - and above all his hatred - Hebrew: sinah, hence the word 'Sinai', and ask for one, whole correction for them called Torah.

Kabbalists have a custom of studying through the night on the night of Shavuot, to receive the full correction.

The preparation that the people of Israel - the desires that are aimed toward the Creator - go through in the course of the forty-nine days from the time of the Passover, the corrections a man performs on himself during the Omer count, and the study at night, have all prepared for him the right vessel for the reception of the Torah, the power of correction.

However, we must not forget that the Torah, the force that redeems man from all misfortunes, can only be received if it is demanded together, to change for the better, "as one man with one heart". The Torah has already been given, but we can receive it only if we unite with a common aim - to discover the Creator.

Kabbalah and Philosophy Part 5

2005-06-10T09:08:00.000Z

From this week's newsletter:

"Everything is grasped through comparison. By comparing the Creator’s attributes to ours we realize both His might and our lowness. One needs to be thus aware of His magnificence and His omnipotence. Faith means actually feeling the Creator and His Presence."
M. Laitman PhD: Selected topics in Kabbalah

Course: Kabbalah and Philosophy

Lesson 5: Forces that are above Matter
- The worlds of Asiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut
- AHP de Aliya – ‘the revival of the dead’
- What are the real “Torah and precepts’?
- Traditions
- Development out of sensation

And according to this you will distinguish here four degrees of love. The instance of the gift is called the world of Asiya. The multitude of the gifts is called the world of Yetzira. These are states man feels towards the Creator. And the revelation of the love itself is called Beria. The world of Beria.

And here in the world of Beria, begins the study of the formative wisdom of Kabbalah, because at this level the love has been abstracted from the gifts. We elevate above the gifts, which is the secret: and creator of darkness, meaning, that he banishes the light from creation
Lesson 5

Body and Soul
The Revealed and the Concealed Modern science has already come to an understanding that absolutely nothing is obvious in reality. Theorizing and hypothesizing have always been forbidden in Kabbalah. The Kabbalists divide the science into two parts: The revealed and the concealed one. The revealed part of the science includes all that we understand by simple realization, when the study is based on the practical basis, without any theorizing. The concealed part of the science includes the knowledge that we have attained by ourselves, or from reliable sources, but is insufficient for analysis from the point of commonsense and simple realization. Therefore, this part of information we are temporarily obliged to accept as “simple faith” and never try to research it, because it will be based on theorizing and not on practical experience. M.Laitman PhD: Body and Soul

Thought of the Week
"From the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is a method of man’s correction and elevation to the level of the Creator, it is clear that the purpose of this science is to lead us to a state when we will be able to fulfill the commandment, "Love thy neighbor as thyself."
Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings

Perception of Reality"An Overview"
Bnei Baruch is happy to announce a new series of lectures by Rav Laitman PhD. The series will run for appx 6 lessons and is highly recommended for both beginners and more advanced students Overview

Virtual Lessons
Broadcast live Sundays at 9 PM Israel time. To watch the lesson, go to http://www.kab.tv/ press "English" and "View Lesson". Previous lessons can be found in our archive listed on each Sunday from August 8, 2004 forward.

Contact Us
Your feedback, ideas and questions are most welcome english@kabbalah.info

Definition of the Week
Every renewal of form is considered a spiritual movement because the previous form changes and assumes a new, different name.

The Michael Jackson Case

2005-06-04T20:16:00.000Z

In response to the post on blogcritics: Michael Jackson Trial: Jackson's Fate Now With Jury

Michael Jackson's fate isn't actually in the hands of anyone - his fate was carved out some 40 something years ago the moment he was conceived - we are all born with a very specific set of traits - under a very specific set of circumstances - so that we will go through a predetermined succession of events in this world - or more specifically, so that our soul will go through the exact experiences it needs to advance as much as possible in each incarnation.

The beauty of Kabbalah is that it allows us to pass go and collect $200 here in this lifetime - by accelerating inner processes in such a way that we won't have to keep coming back to this furtherst of worlds over and over again.Michael Jackson may appear to be going through hell at the moment - but this could possibly be the best thing that ever happened to him - he may actually for the first time in his life be stopping to contemplate the meaning of his life - and if that is happening then all the pain and humiliation in the world would at least be serving its purpose.

That is the only way for the Creator to get our attention, because when everything is fine and dandy we don't stop to question anything and just take all the abundance He has to give. Little do we know in our uncorrected state that he has millions times more of filling to give us than we're capable of receiving.

Think back to the lowest point ever in your life - I'll bet you anything that looking back - it was one of the greatest turning points of your existence.

Have a great week -

J.

Kabbalah and Philosophy: Part 4

2005-06-04T19:49:00.000Z

Great stuff in this week's newsletter - write to english@kabbalah.info to subscribe:

Thought of the Week
"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."
M.Laitman PhD: Interview with the Future

Upbringing
Upbringing is the central problem of all humanity. If we were able to raise at least one generation properly, then we could be certain that all of the following generations would be brought up suitably and exist optimally in our world, thereby reaching the necessary goal. This is because each generation that receives the right upbringing can and will be capable likewise to adequately raise the next generation. Alternatively, if we have not succeeded in raising such a correct generation in even one selected society, and if we observe each succeeding generation to be inferior in comparison to the previous, then this bears witness to the fact that humanity has never possessed the correct method of upbringing. M.Laitman PhD: Upbringing

Course: Kabbalah and Philosophy
Lesson 4: A Gift Compared with Love
What is more important: the gift or the giver of a gift?
The structural wisdom of Kabbalah
Four levels of development in the attainment of love
The limitations of the human intellect
The starting point – increasing the importance of the Creator

Matter and Form in Kabbalah
"And the point is that this love, even though it is only an end result of the gift, is immensely more important than the gift itself. Similarly to when a great king gives a small object to a person, even though the gift itself has no value, the love and the attention of the king are infinitely valuable and precious." Suppose I have received a postcard which is worth 10 cents from a great man, I would appreciate it and be proud of it as it gives me a sense of importance. This means that the gift itself is not important at all. The difference between myself and Him and how important He is to me is what actually determines the value Lesson 4
Previous lessons:Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3

Perception of Reality"An Overview"
by Rav Laitman PhD
Bnei Baruch is happy to announce a new series of lectures by Rav Laitman PhD. The series will run for appx 10 lessons and is highly recommended for both beginners and more advanced students Overview Part 1

Virtual Lessons
Broadcast live Sundays at 9 PM Israel time. To watch the lesson, go to http://www.kab.tv/ press "English" and "View Lesson". Previous lessons can be found in our archive listed on each Sunday from August 8, 2004 forward.

Contact Us
Your feedback, ideas and questions are most welcome english@kabbalah.info

Kabbalah The Only Real Solution To Global Poverty - Message to Bob Geldof

2005-06-01T19:24:00.000Z

I hope Bob Geldof and the Live 8 VIP's, celebs and participants, will take a moment to digest this important information expressed by kabbalistic sages in many different forms throughout time:

Whatever the results are, the final result must come from a feeling of justice and equality in each and every person. In a situation of equality and fair distribution someone can earn ten times more than someone else, but the distribution of such a salary will be received by the public as fair and equal, and no one will contest this. The feeling of justice and equality in the final situation is the solution for the human race, there is no situation better. The big answer, that will revigorate the nation and bring salvation to it and the world, will be an answer that comes from the feeling of holiness that will pervade, any other situation brings war, killing and destruction, and all the evil in the world. As long as humanity does not provide a solution for equal distribution it will go through many sufferings. And in the end it is the sufferings that will bring it to agree that it is better to reach equality and justice rather than die. When humanity agrees to equality and justice as the ultimate solution another question will arise, namely what is the best way to implement these values?

Ba'al HaSulam (the author of the commentary of the Zohar) directs his words over and over again to the same explanation, that even if a person determines out of his own good will to be in justice and equality, his desire to receive will not allow him to actually implement them. In order to establish a system of equality with just distribution a person must correct his will to receive. He must first correct his desire. Correcting the desire will allow man to live in justice and equality. The correction is only possible to attain by the light that restores man to his ideal state. The correction is only possible if the justice and equality come from an equality of form with the Creator. In these conditions man attains the world beyond, and justice, equality, security and success in this world.

Words of foremost kabbalist Michael Laitman, PhD, broadcast live every day on www.kabbalah.info.

live8

How Women Advance in Kabbalah

2005-05-31T10:11:00.000Z

Highlight from the morning lesson:

What's the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and other situations? Here it's important to see the greatness of the teacher in order to believe what he says and implement what he advises in order to have fuel - to receive from this fuel for continuing - because the Creator is hidden, the book doesn't explain this issue - there is a game here - teacher and pupil - that a student must build for himself the greatness of the teacher - and in accordance to that a teacher must hide himself and appear to be simple in the eyes of the pupil - to give the pupil (based on his level of development) a chance to work on faith above reason - and whoever is capable fine - whoever is not - won't have fuel to continue - it's not about pride or anything to do with this world - it's simply from a need/obligation to do an act toward the Creator that is impossible - without having fuel from the teacher. It is felt very much with women - a woman feels that she cannot advance without seeing the greatness of or receiving fuel from the teacher/Rav - for her it's very clear - for men it's not - because a woman has no other option for advancing clearly - because she needs nothing else - eat and let your wife eat - a woman eats from her husband meaning that a man receives on his own and a woman is not capable - so for women this issue is very clear in their subconscious - that there is no other option here - and for men it's not clear - and that's what Ba'al HaSulam is talking about here. We don't see all the forces at work here that build the relationships in the group etc. - we're not here alone - each situation comes from Above for us to work in - and when we forget that it comes from Above - this is the root of all mistakes. Sometimes it takes years to grasp this and to begin advancing properly - because any advancement without understanding the greatness of the goal won't be in the right direction.

Words of Rav Michael Laitman PhD, broadcast live every day on www.kab.tv

Kabbalah and Philosophy Part 3

2005-05-29T01:04:00.000Z

From this week's newsletter:

"The Creator acts upon us using the various elements of our world. Man must understand that events occurring to him are nothing but messages from the Creator. If man responds correctly to divine action, he will clearly grasp what the Creator expects of him and he will feel Him. Not only does the Creator act upon us through the people in our environment, but he uses everything which exists in our world. The structure of our world is such that the Creator can influence us and draw us nearer to the goal of creation".
M. Laitman PhD: Talks about Spirituality

Course: Kabbalah and Philosophy
Lesson 3: A fraction of truth developed by the human intellect
When will it be possible to submit Kabbalah to humanity?
The role of Kabbalah
What is spirituality?
The theft from the books of the prophets
The philosophers’ mistake

Why don’t we have philosophy like Islam, Christianity, ancient China, ancient India, Greece, and Rome have? As I’ve said, it is because we did not have to research humanity, life and nature, using the human intellect. From the beginning, we have been approaching the research through the development of the point in the heart and through the upper world.

Abraham from whom emerged the group called "the nation of Israel", actually began researching the spiritual world immediately. In the "Book of Creation" he immediately describes to us the structure of the worlds, what they exist for, what the source of life is, and what the purpose of life is. So there was no room left for philosophy or any intellectual assumptions. What was left is only to actually achieve the goal...Lesson 3
Previous lessons:Lesson 1 Lesson 2

General and Particular
"The main purpose of researching the creation is to analyze the actions of the Creator - to learn how to act the way He does and to acquire the ability to imitate His actions. The acts of the Creator are called "governance" or "nature of the creation". Scientists also investigate the actions of the Creator (they call them "nature", "laws of nature") pursuing the same goal - to learn something in order to imitate the "wise" nature. Everything that we do in our life - all is imitation of nature. All the works of human hands or thought - technology, music, art - everything is based on resemblance to nature. We can't escape our nature. Anything that we are capable of creating is nothing else but the development of something that is instilled in us already.
M.Laitman PhD: General and particular

Thought of the Week
When one is sometimes preoccupied with fear, one should know that there is none else but Him. And if one sees that fear still has the upper hand, one should know that there is no such thing as chance, which God has given from above, an opportunity to contemplate the end one has been sent this fear. It appears that it's been sent so that one could say, "there is none else beside Him". But if after all that, one is still afraid, then one should take it as an example and say that one's fear of God should be as overpowering as the fear that is presently felt.
When One is Sometimes Preoccupied with Fear-Shamati 138
View lesson by Rav. M. Laitman PhD : Shamati 138

Virtual Lessons
Broadcast live Sundays at 9PM Israel time. To watch the lesson, go to http://www.kab.tv/ press "English" and "View Lesson". Previous lessons can be found in our archive listed on each Sunday from August 8, 2004 forward.

You can also join our EuroKab series broadcast on Tuesdays (German, French Italian and Hebrew), and Wednesdays (English, Spanish and Russian), at 9PM Israel time, or download them from our archive listed on every Tuesday from February 22, 2005 forward.

A new series of lectures by Rav Laitman on the topic - "Freedom of Choice", begins on Tuesday 17 May.

News Highlights

Los Angeles
Last weekend the L.A group represented BB at the "Day of Israel" celebration, held annually in all major US cities. They assembled a new class from folks that visited their booth and saw the materials. Several other people have also begun studying.

San Francisco
San Francisco will host a similar event on June 5 called "Israel in the Garden". 15 000 people attended the event last year and the S.F. group have signed up for a booth and are looking forward to this opportunity of disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah

Contact Us
Your feedback, ideas and questions are most welcome english@kabbalah.info

What is Spirituality?

2005-05-26T11:02:00.000Z

Highlight from the morning lesson:

How do we conduct a brit (circumcision) in our world? You take a baby that doesn't know anything, doesn't want anything or understand anything - and a Mommy and Daddy - and you conduct the brit. In this world everything is about branches and the spiritual roots - just what we have in our nature - in spirituality - you must have the desire - a person has to have a desire like a baby - that doesn't understand or know anything - but is willing to give himself over to a Mom and Dad - if he is prepared for this - and makes himself exactly like a newborn - then this act is conducted on him - and he enters holiness. In other words all our work that's called 'the time of preparation' is to achieve the cancellation of oneself - that you're prepared in a faith above reason manner - everything I need for getting into spirituality - into a connection with the Upper One. It sounds like we have to bow down to Him somehow by bestowing to Him. There are actually only two terms: to bestow and to receive - and in between them the person chooses and works and does - the fact that the person reflects his personality on the Creator and thinks that the Creator also has a personality - it allows a person to understand how to please the Creator - i.e. coming close to the characteristic of bestowal.

kabbalah.info Cool Site of the Day

2005-05-22T11:27:00.000Z

Just got word that www.kabbalah.info was selected for Cool Site of the Day on June 12 - very exciting news - make sure to go in and vote on that day so that it will get picked for Cool Site of the Year.

Very cool!

Kabbalah and Philosophy - Part 2

2005-05-20T12:05:00.000Z

More terrific insights in this week's newsletter:

The Alternative of Our Life
"When the human body dies, the soul passes to a new-born one. From one life to the next the soul gradually accumulates readiness to manifest in man. He lives many lives without feeling his soul – an aspiration to the upper world. Don’t confuse it with the earthly "aspiration to loftiness", which normally stands for creativity, poetry, music and art. Man feels the manifestation of the soul as a new desire, longing, as emptiness he has no idea how to fill. From this moment the search begins; ultimately it will lead man to Kabbalah. Thus all people in the world are led to Kabbalah, because it is the only method of filling the soul."
M. Laitman PhD: The Alternative of our Life

Course: Kabbalah and Philosophy
Since the beginning of time man has been searching for the meaning of his life. In this course we will examine the similarity and the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and philosophy. Through Baal HaSulam’s article "The wisdom of Kabbalah and philosophy", Rav Michael Laitman opens for us a wonderful porthole into the understanding of thousands of years of search by humankind for the meaning of life.
Lesson 2: What is out there?

"Me" and what happens to me – the actions of the Creator

How do our senses function?

Will we ever be able to come out of the "shell"?

Can a feeling be proven?

Why didn’t the ‘point in the heart’ develop in philosophers?

What is the difference between wanting to be similar in attributes to the Creator and researching His deeds?

The deeds of the Creator are actually what we are made up of, and all that happens both in us and to us. These are things we can study. So I may only be able to sense a small part of myself, but whatever it is that I sense I am able to research. On the other hand, anything that is outside of me that I can not sense, I am not able to comprehend, investigate or discuss. These things outside of me are simply abstract imagination. I sense and interpret these things using my inner perceptions, which is certainly not a true perception. Why does it have to be this way?
lesson 2

Previous lessons: Lesson 1
_____________________________

Assignment of the Week
"One should not be misled into having to acquire anything, but there is only one thing a person needs, namely faith in the Creator. He should not think of anything and the only reward that he wants for his work should be to acquire faith in the Creator." What is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work? Shamati 4

Kabbalah Podcasts - Listen Up!

2005-05-18T12:47:00.000Z

Kabbalah Daily Lessons
International Academy of Kabbalah, under the direction of Michael Laitman, PhD, welcomes all its listeners and viewers on-camera! Lectures are translated in video and audio layout, with draft demonstration and a possibility to ask questions and get answers.
http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podcasts/index.php?iid=751

Here's what people are saying about it:

Doctor of Physics
This is the best thing that happened to me. after more than 30 years of research and trying to figure out what is the power of nature, finaly I have a real source for all my answers.Written by: John Melbaun on 2005-04-18

amazing!
Amazing!Written by: Masha on 2005-04-16

A touch to the Greatest Wisdom of Kabbalah from the jenuine kabbalist Michael LaitmanWritten by: Mitay Havkin on 2005-04-14

Beautiful, profound, pleasantly raw and genuine.Written by: Ron Fink on 2005-04-13

Shamati letters Fan of Shamatis. Well translated and enjoyable listening. Thanks Written by: christiane on 2005-04-13

Kabbalah and Philosophy (... more spirituality from Israel)

2005-05-17T13:08:00.000Z

From this week's newsletter - you can subscribe by writing to english (@) kabbalah.info

From the beginning of time man has searched for answers to the main questions of life: Who am I? What is the goal of my existence? Why does the world exist? Do we continue to exist after death? etc. These unanswered questions about the goal and meaning of life add to our everyday human suffering – Why do we need to suffer at all? It does not allow us to feel fulfillment, even when some of our everyday desires are temporarily satisfied.
Laitman PhD: The Science of Kabbalah

Course: Kabbalah and Philosophy
Since the beginning of time man has been searching for the meaning of his life.In this course we will examine the similarity and the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and philosophy.Through Baal HaSulam’s article "The wisdom of Kabbalah and philosophy", Rav Michael Laitman opens for us a wonderful porthole into the understanding of thousands of years of search by humankind for the meaning of life.
Lesson 1: The Creator: A dialogue or a sensation?

Why doesn’t the Jewish nation appear in the evolution of philosophy?

The Kabbalah "emerges from the cave" to answer humanity’s pains.

Is it possible to discuss what is not sensed and seen?

Research of spirituality through sensations.

What is researched: the Creator or His action

If we observe the development of humanity during the previous generations, we see that in actuality all the nations, societies, and cultures, have developed in a certain direction. There may be gaps of few hundred years between them, but yet it is the same regular development of a desire to receive which grew from the level of root, to the first (Alef), second (Bet), third (Gimel) and fourth level (Dalet). Lesson 1
_____________________________________________

The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy

"Philosophy has gone through a great deal of trouble to prove that corporeality is the offspring of spirituality and that the soul begets the body. Still, their words are not acceptable to the heart in any manner. Their primary mistake is their erroneous perception of spirituality, that spirituality fathered corporeality, which is certainly a fib. Any parent must somehow resemble its progeny. It is this parent-progeny relation that is the path and the route by which its sequel extends. In addition, every operator must have some regard to its operation by which to contact it. Since you say that spirituality is denied of any corporeal incidents, then such a path does not exist. Thus, what regard can the spiritual have of the corporeal by which to contact corporeality and set it in any kind of motion?"
Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag: The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy

Lessons
Broadcast live Sundays at 9PM Israel time.
To watch the lesson, go to http://www.kab.tv/ press "English" and "View Lesson". Previous lessons can be found in the archive listed on each Sunday from August 8, 2004 forward.

You can also join the EuroKab series broadcast on Tuesdays (German, French Italian and Hebrew), and Wednesdays (English, Spanish and Russian), at 9PM Israel time, or download them from our archive listed on every Tuesday from February 22, 2005 forward.

A new series of lectures by Rav Laitman on the topic - "Freedom of Choice", begins on Tuesday 17 May.

Thought of the Week
"The Science of Kabbalah never deals with an abstract, detached from the matter form. An unshakable, iron rule exist in Kabbalah: "The unattainable can have no name". It is strictly forbidden to ignore this rule."
M. Laitman PhD: From "Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy"

Code of Ethics Among Kabbalists

2005-05-08T09:46:00.000Z

In the first portion of the morning lesson (Shamati) Rav is talking about a special code of ethics that exists between Kabbalists studying together - that is designed to protect each person's spirituality i.e. their screen. He mentioned the term 'hatzna lalechet' (go modestly) - which is good for external things as well but the true meaning is about internal issues, meaning to never share anything about the Creator's revelation with a friend in the way - not to open up on that level because the friend can latch on to it with his will to receive - and that will damage the friend who will be dependent on the wrong things - it actually harms both of them. Everything a person needs to get from the environment is an external impression - which comes from all the souls being counted in the general soul - a Kabbalist is counted in the general soul with his screen - he doesn't have to reveal himself in order to have one - and all the other souls are within him to the extent that he can work with what the other souls have attained - but he has to work with his screen on their attainment. So it works out that no one is capable of revealing to others his own private work because it is his own across from the Creator. This allows us to understand our behaviour here in the group - and it turns out that here it is even more severe - we need to only show people here things that are connected to this world - and according to my screen I will see how big their desire is for spirituality - that's all we have for now. And this allows us to see the system that connects all of us. And then everyone according to his level raises this to a spiritual level - seeing how important the purpose of Creation is to each friend. So Kabbalists have always been against talking about revelations in any manner.

Why Madonna and other Celebs Attracted To Kabbalah

2005-05-07T20:28:00.000Z

The following may shed some light on why so many celebs are into Kabbalah (and things like scientology) ...

If the person does not purify the desire to receive in order to turn it
into bestowal, it grows during his lifetime, until he dies without gaining
the desired objective.

This is what happens with us during all our incarnations, until we
really understand that the pursuit of pleasure never leads to fulfillment.

I was asked by a local TV station to comment on Madonna’s visit
to Israel and her plans to make a video clip about Kabbalah. People want to know why she decided to do it in Israel. The presenters were genuinely puzzled asking why would someone who has seemingly everything, millions of dollars, influence and fame, all of a sudden seek Kabbalah, come to Israel, although the situation here is rather volatile. Why would Madonna be promoting Kabbalah?

I told them that the person comes to a state, when he or she ostensibly
achieved in this life all he ever wanted. Nevertheless, he suddenly realizes that he in fact has nothing. He understands that by increasing his desires he will only intensify his suffering, i.e., he will increase the emptiness of his Kelim, his sensations. So instinctively, he begins to search for an alternative method of fulfillment and discovers that this method is at a level that is higher than the usual pursuit of pleasures. We see that, after satisfying their big desires, people like Madonna suddenly feel that it is not the end, that there is more pleasure waiting to be received. These desires are purely egoistical, but unfortunately, the hosts of the TV show do not feel that way. Everything depends on the level of development of egoism.

Thus, the person is under the power of the Klipot and impure forces. Their task is to extend and increase his desire to receive and make it limitless in order to show him the material (all of his AHP) which he should work on and correct. Until the person receives this AHP, until he perceives it as dead, unfit to be used for receiving pleasure, he will continue reincarnating repeatedly.

Excerpt from Introduction to the Book of Zohar - Volume Two - with commentary by Rav Michael Laitman (free e-book available on www.kabbalah.info)

Kabbalah: Keeping the Momentum

2005-05-05T12:36:00.000Z

The only way to keep the momentum is by having the power of the group around you that is a general field that works on you, awakens in you the power of advancement, moreso than what nature/the general light, influences you - and all of humanity. All of humanity is advancing - you want to advance more? You must have additional surrounding light - apart from the general surrounding light that comes from Above - that can only come from the group - therefore I want to have good thoughts, I want to be protected, I want to all the time be pressured to advance so I won't forget the goal and the intentions, I am not capable of guarding anything on my own because at any given moment all the 'reshimot' (states) are changing all the time, and obviously the former is erased and I am in a completely new situation - and Kabbalists say don't take into account anything from your previous state - by doing that you are stopping yourself - if you want to advance it's great that you forgot your last state - but you'll also forget the GOOD things for advancement and that's where the power of Arvut (guaranteeing one another) comes into play - they give you confidence that you will stay in the way - that is called Arvut - not that I will have bread to eat etc. but rather that the group promises me that I will remember the target - that I will go into the right direction with the new 'reshimo' - that is the main thing I need from the group - and here a man has no ability to determine something what will happen in the next moment - only through the group - how much he invests in it and wants to be in their hands - and cancel himself - in accordance he will be more sensitive to receiving in the tiniest bestowal that will push him forward - immediately - it depends on how tuned in he is to what is happening in the group - there are no other powers.

Why is this kabbalah blog dedicated to women?

2005-05-05T08:24:00.000Z

Just a quick reminder of why this blog is dedicated to women:

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, women’s souls are already in a corrected state and our job here in this world is actually to help men undergo correction. We do this by organizing everything around the men to ensure the ideal conditions and environment for uninterrupted advancement. So even though the focal point of these issues is men’s spiritual advancement, it is usually the woman that draws her mate into studying. It is women who are less intimidated by life-altering methods because all we want is for things to be better.

I would like to clarify that you are not expected to sign up for a Kabbalah class the minute you finish this. Only people whose souls have reached a certain stage of development will feel inclined to study Kabbalah. The point of what is conveyed in these pages is simply to increase awareness about what needs to be done to reduce suffering in the world and make the most of our time here on earth. Just the fact that you and others like you are enlightening yourselves about the thought of creation – is already advancing all of mankind by leaps and bounds. So you don’t actually have to do anything beyond reading this blog unless you feel inclined to join thousands of others who are actively reaping the rewards of spiritual ascent through the free broadcasts at www.kab.tv

Kabbalah: It's all about changing our attitude

2005-05-04T19:16:00.000Z

Just got the new books - very exciting stuff - every household in the world should have these precious books that are finally available in English. Here is an excerpt from volume 2 of Introduction To The Book Of Zohar that can be read on http://kabbalah.info/

Let us understand that there is nothing new existing in this world
that did not emanate from the common root in the Creator’s World
of Infinity, his personal root in the World of Atzilut, that came down
into the Worlds of BYA and became the creation by unfolding into
our world.

That is to say, if we observe a creature or an action in this world, we
should take it as the Creator’s act descending from the World of Infinity.
In accordance with it, we need to check very well whether we should
intervene in the process, or just change our attitude to it. We see that all
of man’s attempts to change the world lead to deterioration in ecology,
to bigger disappointments and suffering. The reason for that lies in our
conviction that everything does not descend from the World of Infinity,
but depends on our actions.

If the person stops interfering in the surrounding world and only
concentrates on his inner work (i.e., on his attitude to the world), he can
transform it beyond recognition and elevate his own perception of the
world to the state of Infinity and perfection.

By giving up his attempts to change this world mechanically outside
himself, but, rather, trying to correct his attitude, his inner sensations,
man truly acts. This is the most efficient means and the greatest power
that is given to us in the entire universe. Whatever inner attitude we may
have towards the world, our senses cannot perceive the influence of this
attitude on the universe. I believe that science will clearly demonstrate it
to us in the near future.

Be that as it may, “The Zohar” teaches us that everything descends
from the World of Infinity and all that takes place in our world is a consequence of what happens there. By changing our attitude to it, by aspiring
to it, by seeing everything as if it is already there, we can reach it.

Kabbalah: A Big Desire Pushes Aside Smaller Desires

2005-05-04T12:19:00.000Z

Great stuff in this morning's lesson:

A person at any given moment in his life, in his reality, can only be one vessel - I cannot get pleasure in two vessels - a desire is always a single desire - complete - which is the desire that will take pleasure? It is always the larger desire that is felt as demanding and enjoying - and it pushes aside smaller desires - if I want to enjoy meat right now - I can't enjoy bread at exactly the same moment - they can be one moment after the other but not at the same time - that's how we are built - everything about us is precisely defined in stages, bchinot and perceptions - if my goal was to make an important person happy by carrying his suitcase, and I felt pleasure from serving someone big, and he pays me $3 instead of $2 that he would have paid a porter - I have no vessel for this - but He sees himself as giving me payment, filling - He doesn't give me filling by only letting me serve Him, He cancelled my service by giving me $3 - so I can say to myself, what do I care? I also enjoyed carrying His suitcase, and also got $3 - I gained twice - right or wrong - no I didn't gain twice - he cancelled my vessel because I don't have two vessels - I only have one vessel - one big vessel that cancels all the little ones - the fact that he gave me $3 cancelled my relating to Him as someone big. He made me a porter, but appreciated the fact that I was doing it realizing how big He is - so he gave me an extra dollar. He doesn't appreciate my vessel of honor. And this is how we see how much a person can fool himself - at first he thinks he's doing things for the greatness of the Creator and then expects to receive payment for it - why isn't the Creator revealing Himself? - where is the world beyond? Why is there a lacking? And that's like asking for the extra dollar - and that's how he cancels his vessel - because from the beginning he was under the impression that he was working for the greatness of the Creator - it happens to us all the time.

Kabbalah: Accelerating Time

2005-05-03T08:23:00.000Z

The most beneficial situations - most effective for advancement - are situations where a man discovers his weakness - that he is confused and disconnected from the target - that he is wasting time - that he doesn't feel what is right to do with himself - and then he needs help from the group, the Creator - for direction - and these are times of demand - as it says "demand and you will receive payment" - according to what do you demand - what are you demanding? According to your lacking that has been revealed - in other words you discover that you do not belong to the target and that you're wasting lots of time - it is impossible to come to a proper demand except from difficult situations of desperation, confusion ... from reaching these situations. So a person must get through them - must reach situations where he sees himself completely in a fatal state - in other words that he understands that he cannot achieve spirituality or a state of bestowal - but to reach this you can go through tens of years, a few years, or a few months - it all depends how much the environment helps him with this. Here he is a baby in the hands of the group. That only in a situation where he is completely focused on the goal - the more that this silent demand will grow - this inner truth - it will work on him.

Kabbalah - Living In An Ocean of Light

2005-05-02T10:52:00.000Z

You HAVE to hear the lessons from our Passover event - here is an excerpt from the morning lesson of the 28th - the full lesson can be viewed at http://www.kabbalahmedia.info

The words of Rav Laitman -
Light can only appear in an adequate vessel - if we exit the atmosphere - largely come closer to the sun - we will see darkness because the light has nothing to bump against - say if we open a window and a beam of light comes in - it will bump against the dust in the air and we will see how light comes into the room - if there hadn't been any dust - we would not have seen the light - so it's not enough for us to be in an ocean of light - it goes through us - wraps us - we are in the world of infinity - but we don't have the vessel - we are not that particle of dust in the air that the light bumps against - so how do we make a vessel of ourselves? If we're not a vessel to that light that we are in and we don't live a spiritual life then we will also not know what is missing - so what do we do? We continue our regular life independent of the light - those people are in a lower state of the light that exists in reality - our entire life is beneath the threshhold of spiritual life - so even in our world light has to appear through some type of clothing - in the spiritual world as well - the clothing for the light according to Ba'al HaSulam is confidence - in the book Shamati (I Heard) - there is an article - Confidence is the Clothing For The Light (my personal favorite!!) - let's first read it and then we'll see if we can be clothing for that light...

New Kabbalah e-Book (FREE!) Helps Understand The Hidden Message of the Zohar

2005-04-27T13:59:00.000Z

We are truly the luckiest generation on earth to have access to authentic kabbalah sources that have been passed down from one kabbalist to another over thousands of years - and now to also have them in English is unbelievable!

Introduction to the Zohar is the second in a series written by Kabbalist and scientist Rav Michael Laitman, which will prepare readers to understand the hidden message of "The Zohar". Among the many helpful topics dealt with in this companion text to The Science of Kabbalah, readers are introduced to the 'language of root and branch', without which the stories in the Zohar are mere fable and legend. Introduction to the Zohar will certainly furnish readers with the necessary tools to understand authentic Kabbalah as it was originally meant to be, as a means to attain the 'Upper Worlds'.

To read the book online go to www.kabbalah.info
To buy it go to www.kabbalahbooks.info

Bleep Scientist Jeffrey Satinover, M.D. Speaks at Kabbalah Congress in Israel

2005-04-27T08:34:00.000Z

It was wonderful putting on my earphones this morning and hearing our distinguished guest Jeffrey Satinover, M.D. from the hit movie What The Bleep Do We Know who came all the way to Israel to particpate in the fifth international kabbalah congress. I actually got a really good intro to quantum physics that even I could understand (he promised to make it very simple with no math) - and he talked about how scientists are very much aware that there is something beyond our physical world that they have no tools for researching. He also talked about everything in this world being just different combinations of all kinds of particles and the interaction among them - it was very very interesting and I recommend checking out the media archive to see when it goes online - look under topics and then events.

Impressions from Spring Congress 2005

2005-04-26T13:12:00.000Z

We're having a great congress here - people from all over - lots of young guys from Australia and Germany - intense energy - we had a real highlight today when an elderly gentleman from Toronto got up to speak during lunch (there are about 1500 people at each meal) - he said he has had problems with food for a very long time and when the BB secretary told him he would not be able to bring his own food with him he almost didn't come - but then he remembered how Rav speaks about faith above reason and decided to come - he said if it was his time to go Sitrin would be a good place (!) - well he's here for a couple of days already and eating everything along with everyone else and feeling better than he's felt in a long time. He said he's experiencing many strong feelings - feelings that he's never had before. Feelings that he didn't know he had.

Then a young guy got up and said he's so happy to be in the right place at the right time with the right people - and sang a song he wrote specially for the occasion - it was very moving - you don't see young guys getting up and really baring their souls like that every day.

There's a big special ceremony today - everyone is wired as usual.

Rav gave a special talk to the women at the beginning of the week - he again clarified our special role - he said imagine in your mind all the men at the bottom of Mt. Sinai waiting to receive the Torah - they are in the middle - and all the women and children are spread out around them - and raise that picture Upward - that is all we have to do - he spoke again about our important role of supporting the men to help them reach their goal. The men are the main issue but we are a crucial for forming a complete vessel to receive the Light.

That's it for now -

J.

Fifth International Kabbalah Congress Hosts Largest Seder in Israel

2005-04-21T20:27:00.000Z

For Immediate Release

Haifa, Israel – April 22, 2005 – Bnei Baruch, a non-profit organization spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah, is proud to announce its Spring Congress taking place at Kfar Sitrin in Haifa, throughout the week of April 22-30, that will be hosting some 1500 students from over 24 countries including the US, Mexico, Germany, Columbia, France, Spain, Italy, UK, Australia, Russia, Lithuania, Austria, Ukraine, Brazil, Canada, Turkey and more.

Many public figures are expected to participate throughout the week of the congress such as well-known artists, spiritual and academic figures, along with additional guests who will take part in the largest Passover Seder held in Israel, seminars, lessons, and special cultural events.

The peak of the congress is a gala event that will take place on April 27th. Beginning at 6:00pm with a special lecture from Rav Laitman, at 8:00pm a festive dinner will be served. Distinguished guests joining the festivities include Israel’s Ambassador to El-Salvador, the Ambassador of Mexico, and the Ambassador of Costa Rica.

The cultural part of the evening will include a special appearance by award-winning actor Sasha Dimidov of “Gesher” theater who will perform selected scenes from his new play “Pulsa Venora”, currently running at the Tsavta Theater in Tel Aviv. Dimidov has been studying under Laitman for fourteen years.

Additional celebrity appearances will include a special performance by Israel singer of the year, Arkadi Duchin in his new show. (http://www.arkadi-music.com)

To see footage from Bnei Baruch’s last international event at Kfar Sitrin visit: http://www.kabbalah.info/sitrin.wmv (17.5 MB). Footage of the current event is available upon request.

In a recent event in San Francisco, scientists Fred Alan Wolf, PhD, William Tiller, PhD, and Jeffrey Satinover, M.D., from the feature film What The Bleep Do We Know?, met up with foremost Kabbalist Michael Laitman in a panel discussion called, Quantum Physics and Theology Meet Kabbalah – the long hidden science of the how and why of reality. The meeting took place on March 22 at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco, and was attended by 500. The scientists recognised Kabbalah as a science able to solve today's crisis. They also expressed their belief that Rav Laitman offers an authentic Kabbalah teaching.

Bnei Baruch was featured last week in Yediot, one of Israel’s leading publications, regarding local cable company HOT commencing broadcasts of live kabbalah lessons from Rav Laitman's Bnei Baruch center in Petach Tikva, which will be featured on the Karma channel at 3:00am. It appears that this will make Israel the first country in the world to broadcast live kabbalah lessons on TV. Rav Laitman is a regular on Shmuel Viloznia's television program, "Mekubal Alay" (Hebrew for "It's OK with me"; mekubal also means a kabbalist).

About Kabbalist/Scientist Dr. Michael Laitman
Michael Laitman received his Ph.D. in philosophy and Kabbalah from the Moscow Academy of Sciences, and his MSc from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University in the faculty of Biological Medical Cybernetics. Laitman has earned himself the reputation of an authority in Kabbalah through the twenty-two books on Kabbalah that he has published in his twenty-five years of teaching Kabbalah according to the method handed down to him from Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, author of the authoritative Sulam Commentary on the Zohar. Being a scientist as well as a Kabbalist, Laitman has always sought to provide a coherent presentation of the true nature of Kabbalah. Kabbalah, according to Laitman, is an empiric, hard science, involving hypothesis, experimentation, documentation of those experiments, conclusions, and most importantly, the ability of fellow scientists of Kabbalah to repeat those experiments. Laitman is the founder of Bnei Baruch, a worldwide organization for researching and teaching Kabbalah.

About Bnei Baruch
Bnei Baruch is a non-profit group that is spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah to accelerate the spirituality of mankind. The group was established in 1991 and registered as a non-profit organization in 1997. Bnei Baruch operates by far the largest, most extensive content site on Kabbalah, hosting 140,000 unique visitors, with over 1.5 million page views a month, as well as a newsletter in five languages with 28,000 subscribers. Available on http://www.kabbalah.info are authentic Kabbalah texts in twenty-two languages including books for free download. Bnei Baruch broadcasts live daily video/audio Kabbalah lessons over the Internet, which are simultaneously translated from Hebrew to English, Russian, and Italian. In addition, Bnei Baruch maintains a large and dynamic archive containing many types of media and texts. The organization produces daily T.V. programs for various channels throughout the world. The head of the group is the Kabbalist Michael Laitman, (PhD in Philosophy, M.S. in Bio-Cybernetics), author of over 20 books on Kabbalah. He was the disciple and personal assistant to Rabbi Baruch Ashlag, the son of the greatest Kabbalist of the 20th century, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (author of the commentary on the Zohar).

World group site: http://www.kabbalahgroup.info/eng/

Contact information:
Avihu Sofer
Bnei Baruch
Tel: +972-54-5606721
E-mail: avihu (@) kbb1.com

Perception of Reality

2005-04-21T18:41:00.000Z

Awesome stuff in this week's newsletter - to subscribe write to english (@) kabbalah.info

A course in Perception of Reality

Lesson 1: I and The Reality Around Me

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method of research to reveal the true reality.At the present moment we are in a certain state of perceiving reality. In our childhood we thought that the world was full of forces and ghosts, as told in fairy tales, and this was not observed by adults, but it existed for us, and we lived in that world.At a later stage this view of the world disappeared, although even today it seems to us that to some extent these forces do exist. The truth is that we are constantly searching for them. We want to know about the world in which we exist, because without this knowledge we will not be able to survive, enjoy, to eliminate the feeling of uncertainty. We need to know how to answer the questions, "Who am I, what am I exactly, and what does tomorrow hide?" We are awakened by questions out of the desire to improve our situation, out of curiosity, and from the desire to understand the world better. These questions push a man to know the reality in which he lives.
Course: Perception of Reality - Lesson 1

The Meta-Science of Kabbalah and the Scientific Method of Perception
Major concept of the science of Kabbalah. Kabbalah is a science dealing with the laws of governing this world by the supreme information and energy layer inaccessible to the direct perception of our senses. Briefly, we will refer to this layer as "Supreme Force". Thus, Kabbalah is a methodology of revealing an initially concealed portion of creation to a human. This methodology leads us to understanding of the general structure of the creation, its purpose, and cause-and-effect relations.

• The major function of the science of Kabbalah: to provide people with the knowledge of the hidden part of creation and their positive real-life application;
• Objective of the science of Kabbalah: to lead a human to harmonious relationship (balance) with creation;
• Object of the study: the Law of Supreme Governing, which affects all human beings.
Read more...

The Perception of the World
Q: Why are we unable to perceive the spiritual world the same way we perceive our world?
A: Through self examination, we discover that we are enclosed within ourselves: our five senses enable us to perceive "something" that surrounds us - exists outside of ourselves. If our visual sense was different, for example, in the frequency spectrum of x-rays or ultraviolet or infrared frequencies, we would perceive a completely different world image. If our hearing would be in a different frequency range, we would hear different sounds. If we would possess different senses of smell or touch, we would sense differently.
M. Laitman PhD: The Perception of the World

The Law of Cause and Effect in Kabbalah
The Science of Kabbalah states that the purpose of researching the Upper World, part of the creation that is originally concealed from us, is to reveal cause-and-effect relationships in the entire Universe. What interests us is not an object itself, but relationships between objects in all their diversity and endless variations. This cause is the Upper Force - the Creator or the supreme ruling principal. The actions stemming from it descend from above downwards, and every action, naturally, gives birth to its cause. Precision of cause-and-effect relationships in Kabbalah manifests itself so clearly, and prevails over any other research or approach so much so that basically, it is the most important thing that we study.
M. Laitman PhD: The Law of Cause and Effect in Kabbalah

WHERE ARE THE LADIES?

2005-04-20T19:23:00.000Z

Question in the forum:
Okay just for the record I am new to Kabbalah. I get on the computer and I come to the BB site on Sundays or any day I can to see the lessons via the live feed it helps me try to feel like I am really connected to a person or persons in my kli. My wife comes upstairs, looks over my shoulder, she (like me) doesn't understand what I am doing or studying and the first question she asks is "where are all the ladies?" It's not that I didn't notice it before but I just didn't know what to tell her. Do we in fact have women at these classes in Isreal? Is it a religious issue? I don't know if it is correct to ask or not but ....... well...my wife wants to know okay? john martin

Moderator's answer:
This is the core groups men's morning lesson. There are no women in this class. The core BB women study at a different time and in a different manner according to the root of their souls. It is not a religious matter, but something that women desire when they reach some level of attainment. Outside of the core group in Israel there are mixed classes at "The Point in the Heart Study Center" in Tel Aviv, as well as in other cities there. Even though men and women study together in other places in the world we find that the more advanced a group becomes the closer they come to their higher nature and then even in the US we see women choosing to study differently than the men. -Tony

View topic:
http://www.kbb1.com/en/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2146

Israel First Country In The World To Broadcast Live Kabbalah Lessons on TV

2005-04-19T18:08:00.000Z

News item from Yediot - one of Israel's leading newspapers:

A new kabbalah studies trend is going on air: The cable company HOT is starting to broadcast live kabbalah lessons. The lessons will be taken at 3:00am from Rav Laitman's Bnei Baruch center in Petach Tikva, and featured on the Karma channel (the body & soul channel). It appears that this will make Israel the first country in the world to broadcast live kabbalah lessons on TV. The channel will begin test shoots in the coming days and the direct broadcasts are expected to begin in a month. Rav Laitman, who holds a doctorate in philosophy, is a regular participant in Shmuel Viloznia's new television program, "Mekubal Alay" (Hebrew for "It's OK with me"; mekubal also means a kabbalist). Each show focuses on a different aspect of the wisdom of kabbalah.

To see the article in Hebrew:
http://kabbalah.info/hebkab/index.php

You can see this featured in the culture section of Blogcritics: http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/19/141010.php

Two more days to go till our big Passover get together up north with people from all over the world!

The Central Question of Man's Spiritual Life

2005-04-17T18:08:00.000Z

A quest for the purpose and sense of an individual life, as well as of the life of humanity at large is the central question of man's spiritual life. Since mid-20th century, we have been witnessing a rebirth of mankind's religious orientation. Technological progress and the world cataclysms that have given rise to all kinds of philosophical theories have given man no spiritual satisfaction. As kabbalah explains it, of all existing pleasures our world received just one tiny spark. Its presence in material objects gives us pleasure. In other words, all agreeable sensations that man experiences in different situations and that are caused by different things are, in fact, due just to the presence of this spark. Furthermore, as time passes, man has to keep seeking out new objects of pleasure in the hope of experiencing greater and greater pleasures, without realizing that all those objects are but outer shells and that the essence of Ner dakik remains the same.

As it is written in the book of Zohar: "Open for me slightly your heart, and I'll open the world for you"

For the full article Who Am I?
http://kabbalah.info/engkab/whoami.htm

The Promise of Kabbalah

2005-04-17T13:22:00.000Z

Here's the highlight from the morning lesson:

The problem is that more than my momentary intention to to preceive the importance of spirituality - I am not capable - because my life is organized in such a way that I am counted in the general soul - and if I don't organize a connection with other souls that anything they have in connection to the Creator becomes mine - I can't buy from them - their time of clinging to the Creator - my time of clinging to the Creator is only a moment - and apart from me there are all the vessels that together we form the First Man - I can give importance to the Creator from my single point - in other words if I take my life - so one moment in my life I can have importance for the Creator - all the other moments in my life are connected to the other souls - I must receive from them their importance - so the Arvut (responsibility for one another) is in getting from everyone their point of contact with the Creator - if not then the Surrounding Light doesn't come down to me - I have no choice because I am incapable with my vessel to be connected to the Creator for more than a moment - therefore to connect through others to the Upper Force - is called Arvut - that I through them - through everyone - receive what I can't on my own - it turns out that the Creator is a guarantor - but only under the condition that I do the Arvut - that I connected to all the other souls. It's not like He comes along and says - "ok I see you've worked hard enough" etc. - there's no such thing - but rather the promise comes from Him if I connected to the other souls - then in return I receive from them Arvut - and this Arvut is the promise.

Words of the kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman broadcast live from Israel every day on www.kabbalah.info

Kabbalah on the true meaning of Pharaoh

2005-04-17T01:51:00.000Z

An excerpt from Attaining The Worlds Beyond:
Free e-Book: http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/book_4/book4eng_20.htm
Free Audio Book: http://kabbalah.info/engkab/worlds_beyond.htm

A further example can be found in the Passover Haggadah (story) on the exodus from Egypt, from the spiritual captivity of Pharaoh - our egoism. "Pharaoh died" - finally the person sees that his egoism is not for his good, that it kills him, and obligates him to serve it all of his life. This principle now, in his eyes, "dies." And as long as he does not recognize that his egoism is his sole enemy, he thinks that his life and servitude in Egypt (captivity to the desires of the body) was a good and favorable condition. And even afterwards, occasionally (during spiritual downfalls) he cries for the "plates of meat and bread" that he had in Egypt, namely, that served his egoism in abundance.

As long as Pharaoh (the egoism in the heart of a person), the king (who ruled over all the thoughts and desires of a person) of Egypt was alive, he dictated against the person's will what all of the person's desires and actions would be. The person is said to be found in the exile (imprisonment) of Egypt, captive to various egoistic desires (mitsraim deriving from the words mits ra - "a concentration of evil"). We ourselves are not able to understand that the nature that rules over us is bad. And this is only as long as the Creator has not yet done the good for the person of "And behold, Pharaoh died." He gives to the person those types of experiences in his life which cause him to recognize that egoism is his enemy. Only then will this symbol of evil die, and we will feel that we are incapable of existing as we once did, working for nothing.

And "the sons of Israel groaned because of the servitude and they cried out" - when they realized that they are not even able to move without some egoistic benefit for themselves, and have not yet gained a spiritual, altruistic nature. "And their cry for help from their servitude rose up to God, and God heard our voice" - only if one truly cries out from the very depths of the soul, and this is possible only if the person reached the outermost limits of patience and suffering, only then does the Creator send help, and this help always arrives unexpectedly. An individual can never know in advance which tear will be the last one; all tears should be shed as if they were the last. As for the help of the Creator, "yeshuat haShem keheref ay'in" - it appears suddenly and always unexpectedly!

The Zohar is considered by many to be a moral teaching based on the Kabbalah, since it is written in the language of the commandments, prescribing what an individual should do. It is clear that by defining the book of Zohar in such way, they attempt to deny its mystical, concealed essence. The authors of the Zohar have written this book, which deals only with the composition and the operation of the spiritual worlds, in a deliberately scholastic and legalistic language. The purpose of this was to leave no doubt in the readers' minds that the main aspect of the Kabbalah is not the wisdom, but the "dispenser of the wisdom," and that the main purpose of the Kabbalah and of the spiritual laws is to develop a need for the Creator and to come closer to Him in the qualities of the soul.

Kabbalah: The True Meaning of Passover

2005-04-15T12:29:00.000Z

The holiday of Passover embodies the exodus of man from the sensation of our world to the sensation of the spiritual world. During our life, various unpleasant events are constantly coming upon us from somewhere. They come from the upper world, and descend upon us in our world. We are trying to react to them somehow but we do not know exactly how to go about doing this, because we do not understand their causes.

And most importantly, we do not see the consequences of our steps because they also go to the upper world. We are like the blind kittens, in the middle of a chain who have no idea where the beginning and end are. Because of this, we cannot learn from our own actions without seeing their results. And we usually act completely senselessly from the perspective of the perfection of eternal life…

In order to lead a man out of this condition, there is very clear scientific methodology, with an extensive mathematical and logical set of instruments. It is called Kabballah and with its help, a man can start feeling the upper world, where all events begin that later on descend upon us, and the results of our actions go back there as well. A comprehension of this upper world is the very salvation of man. The only thing we do not have is the ability to see the entire universe in its true form.

Such a condition of man where the true reality is hidden from him is what is called the Egypt Exile from the spiritual. In other words, the Egypt Exile is a condition of a man who only senses our world. We all are in exile but we need very clear sensation of it as such.

How to achieve the sensation of the entire world, how to see all the actions from the beginning to the end, how to understand everything that is happening, control it, connect all states before the birth in this world to the whole life in this world, life after death. This is the very thing Kabbalah teaches you, it teaches you how to close the entire cycle of a man's eternal existence, his own "I". Kabbalah opens one's eyes so man can see the upper world and act with full sanity.
The beginning of a man's sensation of the spiritual worlds is called the Exodus from Egypt captivity. The whole road of a man is the road of mastering the upper world, the road of receiving a spiritual vessel consisting of seven attributes (Sphyrot) and correcting it. Each of these attributes in its turn also consists of seven sub-steps.

A man receives all 49 of these attributes uncorrected. He should gradually correct them within himself, and while correcting the 49 attributes, he is mastering the spiritual world step by step, beginning to sense it more and more. The whole complete universe appears before man according to the degree of his correction of the 49 attributes.

A man starts sensing the spiritual world. By comparing his own attributes and those of the spiritual worlds. He comprehends himself, his small selfish desires, his disposition to squabbles, theft, minor mean actions, betrayal, search of injustice. In the contrast between his attributes and comprehension of the spiritual, a man starts hating his attributes. This very hate makes him ask the Creator to change these despicable attributes to spiritual virtues.

The people who experience clinical death where they only slightly encounter the feeling of the spiritual world become kinder, clearer, and more altruistic when they return to our world. A man's loathing of his personal attributes cuts him apart from them, so he can start using them to make good deeds.

When man starts sensing the Creator, he rises higher and higher, seeing the whole universe each time in a bigger volume, seeing all causes and consequences located in the upper worlds. Those who still reside only in our world can correct themselves spiritually if they want to. To exit from our world to the spiritual is sometimes achieved through three to five years of studying Kabbalah.

All actions of a man that he performs in the spiritual world for his internal correction are called Commandments (Mitzvot). Like for example the commandment of sacrifice. What it means is that a man sacrifices a part of his natural egoism, in order to correct it. And into this corrected altruistic desire he receives the higher light, the sensation of the Creator, which is what is called the Torah.

Kabbalah on the Exodus from Egypt

2005-04-15T12:19:00.000Z

Here is an excerpt from the morning lesson:

We have no greater story than that of the exodus from Egypt - or a greater deed that is told about that belongs to the underlings. Because that is essentially what we have to do under the same conditions in the story - only by our own awakening - to cause it to happen to us. And to the extent that we will know the conditions, what is happening in the story - we will invite upon us more surrounding lights that belong to that - and in this time that is coming close - the time of Passover - as Baal HaSulam writes the lights of Passover can bring Geula (redemption) - if a person wants and is capable of using them - the story of the exodus from Egypt - it's not for nothing that it says in the Hagada that everyone is obligated to tell others about it - to remind people of the miracle - to tell their sons - it must be a special situation that a person gets into with his relatives - where he sits and talks about the miracle of the exodus from Egypt - all this is taken from the spiritual root that if we do everything it says in the story - then it will happen to us. So let's see what it's about. The entire Torah - all the studies - the whole process is based on a person exiting one world to another - in other words leaving this world for the spiritual world - which is essentially the exodus from Egypt.

Kabbalah vs Torah/Religion

2005-04-13T18:38:00.000Z

You can view this topic in the community forum -
http://www.kbb1.com/en/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2082

Question:
I am a beginner at Kabbalah and I am trying to understand a few things regarding the need for religion for the Jewish people. Please do not be offended by my lack of comprehension and cultural background. 1. Simply put why did the Jewish people need a religion at all if they had been given access to Kabbalah? 2. In my readings I have come across several mentions that the Jewish people have to adhere to 613 commandments as opposed to 7 (?) for the Gentiles? If Kabbalah is the path that keeps us from the path of suffering why would the Jewish people need so much regulation from the creator? Why not just teach kabbalah? 3. They are his chosen people and they have been given this wonderous knowledge, so what part does the Torah play in all this? 4. Why are they falling under different standards from the rest of humanity? 5. Lastly if religion is not neccesary why did G_d bother to give it to the chosen people in the first place? Again no offense is intended by my crude questions but I would appreciate some answer if you are allowed to give one. Thank you. john

Here is the forum moderator's answer:
Hi John, No offence taken. You asked some very good questions. Below is just a brief response to them. The details are in the material on our site. 1. Kabbalah has nothing to do with religion or Judaism what so ever. Just like Barney has nothing to do with the real dinosaurs – one is just an obscure and faint imitation of the other. 2. Kabbalah is a science or wisdom. Which means that is provides a practical method for achieving its goal – being the revelation of the Creator to His creatures. This methodology has been tested by kabbalists who have documented their ‘research’ in books for others to follow in their footsteps. 3. In Kabbalah, Israel is interpreted as ‘straight’ to the Creator. So anybody who is striving towards the Creator is by definition an Israelite. Not just those from the Jewish nation. Those individuals that are on a real spiritual quest to reveal the Purpose of Creation are considered ‘chosen’. One's genetic or social background has absolutely no relevance in Kabbalah – just your desire for the Creator. 4. Yes, at the ‘beginning’ the ‘Jewish’ people did engage only in Kabbalah but around the time of the destruction of the second temple, this wisdom was slowly forgotten and the people were left with only the rituals, which is what they call commandments now, and thus the Jewish religion was formed. 5. Physical acts have absolutely no bearing on the spiritual. The kabbalistic definition of commandments deals only with spiritual actions. It involves the correction of our egotistical nature to that of an altruistic one. To put it simply, there are 613 levels of desires or steps separating us from the Creator. We need to correct each of these levels. And as we correct them, we come closer to the Creator. 6. Hence, from the perspective of Kabbalah, there is no such a thing as different standards for anybody. Everybody has to go through exactly the same process of correction.

All Kabbalistic text, including the Torah and the other writings, talks about the same thing, but in a different language: The transformation of the soul from egotistical desire to an altruistic one and by that to unite with the Creator. That is the sole objective of all of the ‘holy’ books – not to relay historical events… At BB we focus only on the following: Zoar, Ari, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, Rabbi Baruch Ashlag, and Rav Laitman. These present Kabbalah in a language that the souls of our generation can best understand and can use most effectively to attract the correcting light that is contained in the kabbalistic text. Once one acquires the sixth sense, then one can interpret any kabbalistic text the correct way… Hey, no need to apologize for any questions… ask away to your heart’s content… that is what this forum all about. The more the better. igal

This is how it works

2005-04-13T11:35:00.000Z

The highlight from this morning's lesson:
First the Upper One lowers his Achap to the lower one, and then the lower one feels no sense in the Upper Achap, because the Upper One bestows more, and the lower one is not prepared to respect the bestowal and desire it - and spirituality appears to him to be pointless - there is no future - there is nothing to work, exist, study for - be in a group - life loses its purpose - and all this is dependent on the Upper One's appraisal of the situation - if the lower one works on the importance of the Upper One - meaning the importance of bestowal - then the Upper One accrodingly starts looking appealing to the lower one - as important - as a thing worth clinging to - at the moment that the Upper One/Bestowal/Sprituality - whatever a person imagines to himself - with all his power wants to be associated with this - wants to hold this - then the Upper One in relation to that start raising himself together with the lower one. But not before the lower one raises the Upper One in his eyes - that begins to recognize the greatness of the Upper One - to recognize the trait of bestowal as a big thing - as the goal.

Words of Rav Michael Laitman broadcast live every day on www.kabbalah.info

Help From Above

2005-04-12T15:07:00.000Z

A person always receives help from Above exactly according to his ability to use this power/help 100% in the right manner to correct his desire. And if he didn't correct it, he should know that he is the only one to blame and there is no problem here such as not giving him powers. The powers/thoughts/awakening etc. - were given to him - he received enough. Because that's how it's calculated Above - this against that. So we have to be very aware of the proper use of what we have - and like Ba'al HaSulam says in the article Freedom, if a person uses the environment that the Creator provided him with - and implements through this environment all his traits and awakenings in the right way - puts them opposite each other - and through the group raises his awakening power in such a way that he can deal with his evil. A person is inside and this is the environment, and gets awakening from Above (Rav Laitman is drawing a picture here) - he then must turn to his environment (group) to receive from it increased strength and apart from that he must cancel himself in front of the group - he then receives importance of the goal from the group and that is enough to conquer his own evil. If he doesn't cancel himself in front of the group and receive the increased power from the group of the importance of the goal - then he won't be able to fight himself. That is the entire process we go through. And in accordance to what he receives from the environment he turns to the Creator with the proper cry - which can be called raising ma'an.

Pleasure in Kabbalah

2005-04-10T14:33:00.000Z

Here's the highlight from the morning lesson:

All our work is first of all to be on the right - because when the Creator is revealed that is not called being on the right - but is rather called that you see that you have profit from your will to receive - and you are fulfilled and happy - you are satisfied - and proud of yourself - your will to receive is pleased with itself - feels the future and present - and this is not called right - this is called the egoistic pleasure - and in this way if a person enjoys the way - this is not pleasure of kedusha (holiness) - but rather pleasure should be for being connected to the trait of bestowal that comes and is revealed to me. And I slowly slowly advance and acquire through it a connection - and want to be more and more connected to it - and I am happy that I am more and more connected to it - and respect it - raise it above all in importance - and then when I am in touch with it and desire the trait of bestowal - I get fulfillment from it - so in the time of concealment (the Light) you can beckon the right.

Kabbalah - Why Now?

2005-04-09T18:50:00.000Z

From this week's newsletter - to subscribe write to english @ kabbalah.info

"Today we have come to a stage that the Kabbalists have described since the emergence of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the 20th century B.C. They assert that from 1995 and on, humankind will feel an inner urge to spirituality, because man exhausted all of his previous desires in many consecutive incarnations. His egoism has developed sufficiently and although all his previous desires are still present in him, the spiritual aspiration prevails over the rest. The person begins to feel that nothing else can really fill him anymore."
Rav M. Laitman PhD: Historical Aspect of the Science of Kabbalah

News Highlights:

San Francisco, USA
The San Francisco group informs that after the Rav Laitman's conference with the "What the Bleep" scientists on March 22, 2005 the group received about 300 e-mail enquiries: majority of people - university students and teachers - expressed their interest in getting more information on the science of Kabbalah; others wanted to join Kabbalah study groups or events.

Sao Paulo, Brazil
The BB-Sao Paulo is conducting a Free Intro lecture in a new location, which they hope to develop into the BB Kabbalah study center. The group translated Rav's introductory lecture and will show it to about 20 people who signed up to attend the lecture. They will also offer a new 10 lecture course after the intro lecture.

The History of Kabbalah and the Zohar
The first Kabbalist we know of was the patriarch Abraham. He saw the wonders of human existence, asked questions of the Creator, and the upper worlds were revealed to him. The knowledge he acquired, and the method used in its acquisition, he passed on to coming generations. Kabbalah was passed among the Kabbalists from mouth to mouth for many centuries. Each Kabbalist added his unique experience and personality to this body of accumulated knowledge. Their spiritual achievements were described in the language relevant to the souls of their generation.
Rav M. Laitman PhD: A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom

The Zohar
According to legend, The Zohar writings were kept hidden in a cave in the vicinity of Safed in Israel. They were found several hundred years later by Arabs residing in the area. A Kabbalist from Safed purchased some fish at the market one day, and was astonished to discover the priceless value of the paper in which they had been wrapped. He immediately set about purchasing the remaining pieces of paper from the Arabs, and collected them into a book.This happened because the nature of hidden things is such that they must be discovered at a suitable moment, when suitable souls reincarnate and enter into our world. That is how The Zohar came to be revealed over time.
M. Laitman PhD: A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom

Thought of the Week
Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, the Baal HaSulam, is the recognized spiritual leader for our generation. He is the only one in this generation who has written a fully comprehensive and updated commentary of The Zohar and the writings of the Ari. These books, with the addition of his son Rabbi Baruch Ashlag's essays, are the only source we can use to assist us in further progress. Baal HaSulam

Education Series
Rav Laitman returned this week from his science tour of the US and has resumed the Euro Kab series of lectures. The lessons are broadcast in German, Italian, French, English, Spanish and Hebrew. The course is broadcast every Tuesday (German, French and Italian) and Wednesday (English, Spanish and Hebrew), at 7pm GMT (9pm Israel time). To view the lesson in your language, or for more info, refer to the banner on our site.
This week's lesson (English)

Quantum Physics Discovers Kabbalah

2005-04-08T12:54:00.000Z

In a truly momentous event in the history of western science, three scientists; Fred Alan Wolf, PhD, William Tiller, PhD, and Jeffrey Satinover, M.D., the unlikely stars of the underground runaway hit feature documentary film What The Bleep Do We Know?, met up with foremost Kabbalist Michael Laitman PhD, of Israel in a panel discussion called, Quantum Physics and Theology Meet Kabbalah – the long hidden science of the how and why of reality. The meeting took place on March 22 at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco, and was attended by 500 (100 were turned away).

For the first time in history, modern day scientists met with an expert in the science of Kabbalah. In the presentation portion of the event, Laitman described a single structure that comprises both the universe and man's inner life. He explained that Kabbalah is an ancient wisdom meant specifically for this time, when science has begun investigating the very nature of reality. The discussion focused on how contemporary science is gradually discovering that questions regarding reality are directly related to the observer of any given event. The panel members, four scientists who are experts in the investigation of the frontier of human thought and its effect on reality, were in agreement with Laitman that the science of Kabbalah can enable science to penetrate the causal levels of life and reveal many unanswered questions.

About Kabbalist/Scientist Dr. Michael Laitman
Michael Laitman received his Ph.D. in philosophy and Kabbalah from the Moscow Academy of Sciences, and his MSc from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University in the faculty of Biological Medical Cybernetics. Laitman has earned himself the reputation of an authority in Kabbalah through the twenty-two books on Kabbalah that he has published in his twenty-five years of teaching Kabbalah according to the method handed down to him from Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, author of the authoritative Sulam Commentary on the Zohar. Being a scientist as well as a Kabbalist, Laitman has always sought to provide a coherent presentation of the true nature of Kabbalah. Kabbalah, according to Laitman, is an empiric, hard science, involving hypothesis, experimentation, documentation of those experiments, conclusions, and most importantly, the ability of fellow scientists of Kabbalah to repeat those experiments. Laitman is the founder of Bnei Baruch, a worldwide organization for researching and teaching Kabbalah.

About Bnei Baruch
Bnei Baruch is a non-profit group that is spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah to accelerate the spirituality of mankind. The group was established in 1991 and registered as a non-profit organization in 1997. Bnei Baruch operates by far the largest, most extensive content site on Kabbalah, hosting 140,000 unique visitors, with over 1.5 million page views a month, as well as a newsletter in five languages with 28,000 subscribers. Available on http://www.kabbalah.info/ are authentic Kabbalah texts in twenty-two languages including all books for free download. Bnei Baruch broadcasts live daily video and audio Kabbalah lessons over the Internet, which are simultaneously translated from Hebrew to English, Russian, and Italian. In addition, Bnei Baruch maintains a large and dynamic archive containing many types of media and texts. The organization produces daily T.V. programs for various channels throughout the world. The head of the group is the Kabbalist Michael Laitman, (PhD in Philosophy, M.S. in Bio-Cybernetics), author of over 20 books on Kabbalah. He was the disciple and personal assistant to Rabbi Baruch Ashlag, the son of the greatest Kabbalist of the 20th century, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (author of the commentary on the Zohar).

Israeli Celebs Discover Kabbalah

2005-04-08T12:13:00.000Z

This will be remembered as the year top Israeli celebs discovered Kabbalah.

First of all we have songwriter, composer and performer Arkadi Duchin .

Then there's actor and musician Nir Friedman who is featured on Israel's Karma channel interviewing Rav Laitman. Same goes for Avi Toledano, writer Yochi Brandes, and former European MTV star Eden Harel.

That Special Time of Year Again

2005-04-06T19:44:00.000Z

50 of the men (including my husband) are out at Citrin tonight until 2:00am - they've started building the huge white tent that will host over 1000 people at each meal during Passover.

Every Citrin event so far has been very special - but we're expecting this particular one to be even more exceptional than the others.

The countdown has begun ... 15 more days

Kabbalah on Life, Death and Reincarnation

2005-04-06T08:29:00.000Z

When the human body dies, the soul passes to a new-born body. From one life to the next the soul gradually accumulates readiness to manifest in man. He lives many lives without feeling his soul – an aspiration to the upper world. Don’t confuse it with the earthly “aspiration to loftiness”, which normally stands for creativity, poetry, music and art.

Man feels the manifestation of the soul as a new desire, longing, as emptiness he has no idea how to fill. From this moment the search begins; ultimately it will lead man to Kabbalah. Thus all people in the world are led to Kabbalah, because it is the only method of filling the soul. As soon as man discovers Kabbalah, i.e. finds a teacher, books and a group, a so-called “preparation period” (for discovering the upper world) starts. This period can last for a few years (minimum 3 years).

The spiritual space opens up before him. Man finds himself on the periphery of that space with the Creator being in the very center. The spiritual space is a realm of properties similar to a physical field with a maximum manifestation of power in the center and the gradual weakening of it towards the perimeter until this property completely disappears on the border beyond which our world begins.

By changing his properties with regard to the Creator, man can move in the spiritual space: the difference of man’s properties from those of the Creator makes them remote from each other, while the similarity of their properties leads to their closeness. A complete equivalence causes them to merge.

We, in our initial state, are opposite to the Creator’s properties; hence we are totally outside of this field and cannot feel the Creator. Having completed the preparation period, man reaches the first, minimal degree of similarity with the Creator and crosses the barrier (Machsom) between our world and the upper one. Then he begins his spiritual advancement; distinctly feeling the Creator, he consciously corrects his properties and gets closer to Him.

This way of gradual rapprochement with the Creator through the similarity of properties consists in consecutive correction, i.e. the substitution of all 620 egoistic properties for altruistic properties. Kabbalah describes the process as an ascent through 620 steps. It speaks about the methods of correcting desires on each of these steps. As a result, man every time attains the Creator on a new, higher level. Man must step by step correct all his 620 desires, i.e. climb all 620 levels, while being in his physical body, living in this world.

Upon completing his spiritual ascent, he fully associates himself with the soul and doesn’t have to return to the material world again.

Words of the Kabbalist Michael Laitman, broadcast live every day on www.kabbalah.info

Happy Birthday to Me ...

2005-04-05T11:41:00.000Z

I turned 40 today. I just want to take the opportunity to stop and thank the Universe, Nature, God, the Creator, the Upper Force, Higher Power or whatever you want to call it - for allowing me to understand what I'm doing here. I spent a good 20 years trying to figure out what the point of everything was - like many others who study Kabbalah, went through an intensive "preparation" period - lots of personal tragedies, hardships, things that made absolutely no sense at the time but now all make perfect sense.

Here is the highlight from today's lesson:
With all the perceptions he has in his will to receive that spirituality is worthless, that he is not receiving pleasure from it, that he is not getting any sense of importance from it, that it's not giving him anything - if he works on this disrespect - this disrespect is garbage in spirituality - it looks like something you can't get pleasure from - if he takes this garbage and raises it above the head - above his reason and understanding - above his vessels of reception - his thoughts - then he is building a proper relation to spirituality - a screen - and goes from being Not for Her Sake to For Her Sake - in other words in our vessels of reception and in our perceptions there are all the reasons that if we check them and relate to them properly we will reach building the screen.

The screen itself is of course built by the Upper Light but from our material - from what is revealed in my vessels of reception as unimportant in spirituality - the disrespect - if I actually raise these perceptions - against my reason - against my egoistic calculations - from that the screen is built. It is wrong for a person to say that he can do without the perceptions - let's just get through this time quickly - what do we need it for? Until we don't take out of all these situations the negative perceptions of spirituality and transform them to important - because positive and negative only depends how I look at it - with my will to receive or my will to bestow - so what is garbage for the will to receive will look extremely important to my will to bestow - if I relate like this to my perceptions - and everything I have disrespect for in spirituality - I will perceive this and grab it - this will push me to go into the group and studies - and demand in return raising the importance - that the things that appear to be not important - I won't run away to things that make me feel good - but rather will experience feeling bad and transform that feeling to good by seeing its importance. That for my will to receive it will remain bad - but in my feeling it will turn to good because it is close to spirituality - to bestowal - to the Creator - if I take for each perception that appears as garbage and transform it to a schach - meaning a covering (like on the Succa) - then I will achieve having a screen. Meticulous work during the time the Creator is hidden from us. To start with that is already a big thing - it's already the beginning of the straight line to the target. When a person understands this principle - he is already in some type of conversation with the Creator.

THE SEARCH FOR SATISFACTION AND THE PROCESS OF FILLING

2005-04-01T12:15:00.000Z

Something for you to think about over the weekend --- do you want the real thing?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some people in the history of mankind managed to fill their spiritual desire. In their books, they tell us about the search for satisfaction and the process of filling. Their explanations and the description of this process have developed into a science called Kabbalah. Such people call themselves Kabbalists.

Kabbalists explain that while being in our world, man should fill his soul with the light so that it would rise to the same spiritual level in which it was prior to descending and dressing in man’s heart, i.e. his earthly desires. Our task is to fill that point in the heart with the Supreme Light, regardless of all other desires called “heart” or “body”.

Kabbalists say that filling the soul with the light gives man a sensation of the upper world. This means that he can simultaneously live (feel) both in the upper world, and in ours. He unites these two worlds within him. The state when man in our world completely corrects and fills his soul at the highest spiritual level is referred to as the End of Correction of a soul, or simply, the End of Correction.

From the moment he has felt the aspiration to spirituality, and as a result has received initial information on Kabbalah, it enables him to master the method of filling his soul. It enables him to attain a state of infinite delight, sensation of eternity, absolute knowledge and perfection. Moreover, he receives the opportunity to realize it now, in this world, in this life, instead of coming back again and again to this "not the best" of the worlds only to search and suffer from birth to death.

Since souls continuously change, develop and improve, the task of Kabbalah is to create a method of reception for the spiritual filling suitable for each generation. This science is called "Kabbalah" – meaning reception in Hebrew, because it offers a method of filling the soul with the light. Kabbalah teaches man to receive the Supreme Light and fill the soul with it, i.e. both desires of the heart and spiritual desires. This is possible because all our desires are created by this very light. Hence, only a direct filling with the light can satisfy us.

Ecosystems are not the real issue!

2005-03-31T19:24:00.000Z

Today's headlines:

United Nations Millennium Ecosystems Assessment Report

A new worldwide environmental survey says humans are damaging the planet at an unprecedented rate and causing irreversible changes to the world's ecosystems.

The study says a rising human population has polluted or over-exploited almost two thirds of Earth's ecosystem during the past 50 years. More than 1,300 scientists and researchers from around the world contributed to the four-year study for the United Nations.

The Millennium Ecosystems Assessment Report concludes that 15 of 24 ecosystems -- including oceans, forests and grasslands -- are being damaged by human population growth and global warming.

The co-chair of the United Nations study, Dr. Hal Mooney, says, "We've altered the fundamental ecosystem base more rapidly, and extensively than any time, any comparable period of time in history."

See full article:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-03-31-voa8.cfm

Well ... duh - we're the most sophisticated generation to ever inhabit the earth so of course we have the most sophisticated means for destroying nature. Rav Laitman says that the only thing truly out of sync with nature is the human ego - once we fix that the environment will go back to being perfect. Everything outside ourselves is really just an elaborate illusion to get us back on the right path.

What more will it take to get this message across to humanity?

The Spiritual Work - Perceiving Our Defects

2005-03-31T16:55:00.000Z

Rav Laitman is back from his travels so we're back on the air with highlights from the morning lesson.

Here's an excerpt from yesterday's broadcast:

Our perceptions are made between us and the group as one soul to the rest of the souls. That's how a person starts feeling, and the work is not at the level of bodies but rather at the level of souls. He is in an environment of broken souls and he is also a broken soul - and he begins to check the relation between himself and these souls - what he needs to do so that the proper relationship between them will produce the proper and true desire for the Creator - for correction - for cleaving to the Creator - for love - from the negative situation - the non-spiritual relationship between us - that each of us will want the spiritual state - because the society is egoistic and man is egoistic - and the Creator up above sheds light with His light - so we understand what we're missing in our connection with one another - and from this connection we check our lacking - in other words our true defect that needs to be corrected.

You can hear this entire section of the lesson by visiting:
http://www.kabbalahmedia.info/VIDEO/eng_TRANS_ShamatiIgrot-6_31-03-05.wmv

Feedback from Bleep Event in San Francisco

2005-03-28T09:19:00.000Z

I am 31, but when I was 19 I got a book on Kabbalah...Israel Regardie. I have always been fascinated by Kabbalah, but at the time it was still over my head. I just attended a panel discussion in San Francisco with Mr. Laitman and some physicists from the movie What The Bleep. This was the event I had been waiting for years to see ... something like it at least. I sat enraptured, happy and my spirit was jumping out of my skin. I feel as though I have been called to this knowledge for many years. My interest has always been in science and in the soul ... since I was a child. I feel like I am called to teach it, or work in a field that is directly involved with the issues of science and soul. I don't think I could focus on much else anyway, so I might as well pursue a career in the area that attracts me.

I look forward to learning through the Bnei Baruch organization, and participating in the virtual study group!

Sincerely,
Amphi (San Francisco)

Kabbalah is Spreading

2005-03-27T23:54:00.000Z

News Highlights from the newsletter - to subscribe write to english (@) kabbalah.info -

U.S. Science Tour Rolls On
On Tuesday March 22, Rav Laitman completed a very successful conference with leading U.S scientists from the popular movie "What the Bleep do we Know". 500 people along with a large media delegation attended and the scientists recognised Kabbalah as a science able to solve today's crisis. They also believe that Rav Laitman offers an authentic Kabbalah teaching.

St Petersburg Congress
On March 13-15 Bnei Baruch- St Petersburg, Russia hosted a regional Kabbalah Congress. 250 people attended the event, including 20 people from Bnei Baruch central group. The Congress was a huge success and was perfect preperation for the upcoming Sitrin Congress in Israel beginning April 21. Some impressions.....

New Israel Program: Hatzlaha (Success)
Bnei Baruch launched a new program "Hatzlaha" which offers young adults with a desire for the spiritual an opportunity to embark on a rewarding self-discovery journey through the means of Kabbalah studies. Check out the new site for more information: www.kabbalah.info/hatzlaha

New York
NY group continues the weekly Kabbalah classes for the beginners. The group informs that 18 new students came to the first lecture and 10 more are planning to come this Tuesday. New students who finished an Intro course have decided to meet every Monday for the next 6 weeks before the Spring Congress. It is planned that by that time the two groups will be merged together and will proceed with studying the "Pticha" - The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah". Classes are held: 44 East 32 Street, 11 floor, New York, NY 10016, at 8 p.m. Email: newyork@kabbalahgroup.info. Tel: 718-645-3887.

Brisbane, Australia
BB Australia is giving a Free Introduction Lecture in Brisbane, Australia. The lecture will be held on Thursday 31 March, 7:30pm - 8:30pm.Location: Central City Library Theatrette. Email: kabbalah@bigpond.net.au; Phone: 0411 602 213

New Book: Introduction to the Book of Zohar - free download

2005-03-27T23:45:00.000Z

Introduction to the Book of Zohar

Introduction to the Book of Zohar is the second in a series written by Kabbalist and scientist Rav Michael Laitman PhD., which will prepare readers to understand the hidden message of "The Zohar". Among the many helpful topics dealt with in this companion text to The Science of Kabbalah, readers are introduced to the 'language of root and branch', without which the stories in the Zohar are mere fable and legend. Introduction to the Zohar will certainly furnish readers with the necessary tools to understand authentic Kabbalah as it was originally meant to be, as a means to attain the 'Upper Worlds'.

Here is an excerpt from the preface -

For many centuries, the wisdom of Kabbalah was inaccessible to anyone who could not read Hebrew. Now, for the first time in the history of the Western World, readers of the English language and serious students of Kabbalah have the opportunity to learn the Wisdom of Kabbalah from the 20th Century's greatest Kabbalist, Baal HaSulam. In this text, the student will find a systematic, graduated exposition of Kabbalah unlike any treatment found in other available texts. This text comes with a brilliant commentary by Michael Laitman, a scientist and
Kabbalist who received the Tradition from that illustrious chain that includes the Ari, Baal HaSulam, and his teacher, Rabash.

Order from the website
Download free

New Book: The Science of Kabbalah - free download

2005-03-27T23:42:00.000Z

New book available for download on www.kabbalah.info: The Science of Kabbalah

The Science of Kabbalah is the first in a series of texts that Rav Michael Laitman, Kabbalist and scientist, designed to introduce readers to the special language and terminology of Kabbalah. Here, Rav Laitman reveals authentic Kabbalah in a manner that is both rational and mature. Readers are gradually led to an understanding of the logical design of the Universe and the life whose home it is. The Science of Kabbalah, a revolutionary work that is unmatched in its clarity, depth, and appeal to the intellect, will enable readers to approach the more technical works of Baal HaSulam (Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag), such as 'Talmud Eser Sefirot' and Zohar. Although scientists and philosophers will delight in its illumination, laymen will also enjoy the satisfying answers to the riddles of life that only authentic Kabbalah provides. Now, travel through the pages and prepare for an astonishing journey into the 'Upper Worlds'.

Download free

Global Warming Can Be Fixed

2005-03-19T09:34:00.000Z

From this weekend's headlines -

Global Warming, Sea Level Rise Inevitable
Even if all greenhouse gases had been stabilized in the year 2000, we would still be committed to a warmer Earth and greater sea level rise in the present century, finds a new study by a team of climate modelers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The findings are published in this week's issue of the journal "Science."

The article goes on to talk about the solution -
"The good news is that we know how to fix the problem," Lashof said, "cleaner more efficient technologies that keep our economy strong without compromising our health or our environment." "To make it happen, we need standards and incentives to deploy new technologies to re-energize America and cut carbon dioxide emissions," said Lashof. "The bad news is that we are running out of time to do so. Due to the momentum built into the earth's climate system, we must put the brakes on global warming long before we reach the cliff's edge."

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah - we're reaching the cliff's edge in all aspects of our being here on earth - not just global warming. All the technology in the world isn't going to help us. Because nature has always been - and will always be way way ahead of us.

All these issues are influenced by one thing only - the acceleration of the thought of Creation. We can fix all the world's escalating problems by doing the hardest thing on earth - looking inward to correct ourselves (instead of looking around us for things to blame about our current state). This is actually an extremely complicated and impossible process. It is really the Creator that does everything for us but we need to be in a position to consciously agree to the process. And that can only be done in a very special environment made up of three crucial elements: the teacher, the books and the group.

I know how this must sound to non-believers - but it's the truth. The minute you embark on the path of spiritual ascent you start going through an intensive internal process that changes the reality around you. Can you imagine what our world will be like if more people stop putting off the inevitable to take this exhilarating route? The sages tell us we're going to go through it anyway but it will either be willingly or by suffering. Pretty much the same as starting a serious diet, huh?

Facts About Israel

2005-03-18T12:47:00.000Z

Got this info below off a great blog called: http://www.newsoftheday.com/israel/

If you think all this is just by chance - think again - there is a reason why the smallest country in the world is overloaded with a tremendous amount of brainpower. At the moment it's pretty much going to waste. When everyone has shopped till they drop, partied their hearts out, eaten all their favorite foods over and over, and filled themselves with all the material abundance in this world they can handle - and still don't feel any sense of genuine fulfillment - we'll all wake up to a better world.

Facts about the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population.

Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.

Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.

Israel has the highest per capita ratio of scientific publications in the world by a large margin, as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

Israel is ranked #2 in the world for VC funds right behind the US.

Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.

Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies

Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 is over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.

With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world (apart from the Silicon Valley).

With an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16s, Israel has the largest fleet of the aircraft outside of the US.

Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

The cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola-Israel. Motorola built its largest development center worldwide in Israel.

Windows NT software was developed by Microsoft-Israel.

The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.

Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.

AOL's instant message program was designed by an Israeli software company.

Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.

On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech start-ups Israel has the largest raptor migration in the world, with hundreds of thousands of African birds of prey crossing as they fan out into Asia.

Twenty-four percent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees -- ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland -- and 12 percent hold advanced degrees.

Have a great weekend!