Ask the Kabbalist

Ask the Kabbalist

TV Program, Israel

April 3, 2008

· Bold: Questions/Comments

· Regular: Commentaries of Rav Michael Laitman, PhD

· lowercase italics: emphasized words

· Capitalized Italics: Transliteration from Hebrew

Question: In the period of the Torah, the time of the Mikra, when Solomon built the Temple and the Creator dwelled within us, didn’t we have a spiritual bond then? Didn’t we have a spiritual elation? I think that if the Creator dwelled among us, then it meant that we were closer to Him, to the Boreh (the Creator) and still we stumbled. What is the guarantee that we will come to that same level and will not repeat the same mistake? It may well be that the road must be a different one.

Rav Laitman: Yes, we were at a very high level. It is described in the wisdom of Kabbalah as something called Mochin de Haya, which was the First Temple; a great Light that dwelled among the people of Israel. Even after the exile in Babylon, where Purim occurred, we returned and built the Second Temple where the divine also revealed itself. However, it was in a lower level called, Mochin de Neshama. Yet we were still together, even though we had a lot of arguments, wars, and many problems in overcoming our increasing egoism. There was the problem of the ten tribes and all of that which happened historically.

We read about it in the Bible as well. But as a people we were still able to overcome. We were still within a spiritual level, loving and giving to one another, and there was the actual revelation of the Creator among us and it was tangible.

Moderator: So what happened?

Rav Laitman: Because of our will to receive, our egoistic desire grows from one generation to the next within all of humanity and within us as well, so we had to close this gap and cover the evil that awakened within us. And on the one hand we didn’t succeed all the time. On the other hand, that was the process we had to go through as well.

Moderator: So you’re saying it was preplanned?

Rav Laitman: Yes, of course, as we learn in the wisdom of Kabbalah about the spiritual world, before the powers descended into this world, all the planning was already done in the spiritual world: the exile from Egypt, the First Temple, the Second Temple, the destruction of the Second Temple, the complete fall from spirituality that happened to the people of Israel and their sojourn amongst the nations of the world. That's until the Ari (who is Messiah son of Joseph) opened the wisdom of Kabbalah again, whereby we started from there to gradually prepare ourselves for spirituality, to the same state that was during the First Temple.

Moderator: So this time does the way have to be different?

Rav Laitman: Yes, it is different and final. It’s to be an ascent with no descent, only towards the final correction, the Third and final Temple. It starts by Israel correcting itself with the help of all the nations of the world, and then the nations of the world correct themselves.

Moderator: When you are talking about the Third Temple, are you talking about going to the temple mount and building a Temple?

Rav Laitman: No, that is the corporeal result that is only after we build that Temple within us. The temple in Hebrew means a house. It is the heart of the person. All his desires are to be sanctified and will be for the love of the other, as it is written “love thy friend as thyself that is the inclusive law of the Torah.”

If we use the Light that Reforms us that comes to us through the study of Kabbalah, we will be able to correct our ego and then its opposite, the brotherly love, will emerge among us. And from that brotherly love, we will reach a state where we connect to one another as being all of Israel, as friends and as brothers. And that is called, building the Temple first between us in spirituality. And then we will feel the Godliness that dwells among us and the revelation of divinity. This will materialize in Jerusalem at a place where it has to be, because it can’t happen any other way.

And besides that, it’s also written in The Prophets that the people of the world will help us go back to the Temple “for My House will be called the House of Prayer for all Nations” and that is the Third Temple. So the nation of Israel is coming back to that state through the help of the people of the world as it is described there, “The nations of the world will carry your sons and daughters on their shoulders,” and thus we’ll achieve correction.

Question: An eight and a half year old boy asks, “Sometimes it’s hard for me to take into consideration other people. So how can a person be otherwise than bad?”

Rav Laitman: He can’t, that’s our nature. We were born with an egoism that eats us and accompanies us all of our life and directs us to exploit and take advantage of our surroundings for our own benefit. We do it consciously or unconsciously and we can’t give any account for it. But only if we start studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, are we then connected to that special force, the Light that reforms and then we start to feel within how and where the ego controls us.

According to that recognition of evil, we realize that it is our enemy, disrupting our way to goodness. Feeling it as an enemy, we naturally want to depart and get away from it. Therefore, we don’t have to do any actions forcefully here. Only the study of Kabbalah acts against all of this when studied correctly through the books of Kabbalah and the correct method, then its Light Reforms. A person by himself cannot find a way or the power to be saved from the ego.

Moderator: You’re saying that a person will feel his ego as his enemy. But a normal person doesn’t normally feel that. He feels his ego as his “I.” “I want, I try and I make efforts to succeed.” This is his liveliness his sense of existence.

Rav Laitman: Yes, you’re not telling a person to throw everything away and do something for some abstract idea. When studying Kabbalah, one starts to open up his eyes and see that this is to his detriment.

Moderator: What is to his own detriment?

Rav Laitman: Using his ego and exploiting others. He starts to sense that if he gives, surrenders and connects to others through his inner feelings of giving and love, he benefits from it. He starts feeling some Light flowing through him, some fulfillment and some good feelings of elation. He starts to see this whole world as transparent. He starts to see that we are all interconnected within one system and that’s vision.

Without revealing this, he cannot make these corrections. As it’s written, “Know thy Creator and work for Him.” He has to discover that. And revealing the truth already brings a person accordingly to good action and thus, one advances.

The Torah doesn’t demand from us to be simply good. If my nature is evil, how can I be good? Not by chance it is written, “The Light that is in the Torah Reforms.” You don’t have to do anything but attract that Light.

Therefore, there was a time when the Kabbalists hid the wisdom of Kabbalah because we were not supposed to correct ourselves. We were supposed to be in exile, enslaved by the culture of the people of the world. We were supposed to be mixed with them for about sixteen hundred years. And from the time of the Ari onwards, we began to leave that state; differentiate ourselves from them and then advance. And then the wisdom of Kabbalah started to be revealed. Why? It is because precisely by that wisdom we are able to attract the Light that Reforms. Everything depends only on the Light, not on one’s own strength or on oneself.

And in study of Kabbalah, one does not need to put in more effort beyond studying. And by the study he starts to see the whole system, how everything is interconnected. He sees that, ‘If I do harm to another and do this and that, if I do not elevate myself, then I do myself harm.’ And that vision, which is called “opening your eyes in Torah,” opens a whole new path for him and he changes accordingly. Because a person is built in such a way that he will not cause harm to himself and then he sees that it’s worthwhile for him to do so.

Question: I’ve been watching on TV the meeting in San Francisco many times. And every time I see it, I’m so excited and I cry. Because the scientists finally understood the wisdom of Kabbalah that Rav Laitman communicated to them. My question is, why can’t we do it with our leaders, so that they get a little of this exalted wisdom?

Rav Laitman: Regrettably, the state of affairs is not good with our leaders and with the leadership of Israel in general. And what can we do about it? The scientists all over the world are willing to learn. According to their nature they like to hear new things and build their own advancement in wisdom and science based on these new things. It says “the envy among authors increases the wisdom.” And that moves them and advances them because they are prepared to hear what the others have to say, to collect all the various information, inventions, and thus promote their own ideas. Each one does it for himself but the attitude at least is good. It is like ‘I don’t seal my mouth, ears, or shut my eyes; rather I want to absorb new things.’

Unfortunately, our leaders and basically all of the leaders worldwide are kind of blocked from absorbing new things. They have only one thing to hold on to and they can’t hear new things which might even seem unrealistic to them. And it is even hard to speak to them. I met members of the Knesset, and I met abroad a few world leaders. They’re all incapable of absorbing such high ideas.

Moderator: What will then be?

Rav Laitman: I spoke to very strong, great and ruling people. Well, so to speak “ruling,” because as it says, “The heart of ministers and kings is in the hands of the Creator.” However, they are not the ones who rule; rather the Creator guides the world through them. But this is what they say, “Tell me how much money you need, how much power you need.” They know only one thing, “I have an army. I have the treasury. This is how I run everything (money and power). These are the two reins and this is how they manage the world.”

Therefore, you can’t talk to them, because first of all, I recommended that they start immediately educating the people spiritually; to elevate the people to the spiritual level of the love of men, the love of Israel. Because within this is our power and with this we can triumph. We can never be victorious with any other force nor have we ever been. Torah says this as well. Therefore we must ignore our leaders and let them be as they are.

Moderator: What else can we do? Everything is run by them. The simple citizen doesn’t feel that he has the power to do anything, besides throwing a ticket once in a while into the voting booth.

Rav Laitman: That’s all worthless, because everything is in the hands of the Creator. It will be different when the people begin to feel that they want spiritual elevation and that they can’t stay in that lowly state they are in. They will have to have new values, a new life and want to be the real Israel on a completely different level of the love of man, in self-actualization. That won’t depend on any leader.

Therefore, what we have to do is (I hope we will do it in time) find all these powers in society that want spiritual change. That power of the spirit will sustain us, and will let us win over our leaders, which we will transform. They will change along with us as well as being changed from Above by the forces that manage the whole of nature and then we will have new life. I think it depends on the education of the people.

Moderator: It sounds like what you’re saying is some kind of revolution that starts from below.

Rav Laitman: Yes, and this is the only thing I believe in: that it will start from below. Don’t think that from those prominent ones Torah will emerge; never, it will only emerge from the people. The wisdom of Kabbalah and the Torah in general, come from within and from below, as water does.

I therefore, do not anticipate any change unless it’s from the ranks of the people, who will feel more and more through the TV, radio, and the press (like the magazine you just presented in the beginning of the show). Through these things the people will change and understand that brotherly love is the force by which we will vanquish all of our enemies, both our external enemies and inner enemies and we will achieve adhesion with the Creator.

Question: I heard that the King of Saudi Arabia is going to have a gathering of Muslims, Jews and Christians. They will deal among others, with the blow to morality and the dismantling of the family. Do you think we should try to participate in such a meeting?

Rav Laitman: Who do you mean by ‘we’? I am not the one to decide. However, if you ask me, I don’t think there is a place for it.

Moderator: Now that they (all those religious people) are finally meeting, will you not participate?

Rav Laitman: They are not capable, because they are religious people.

Religious people each have their own solutions. Their solution is to create the popular correction so that every person will follow what’s written in their Scriptures. Israel will keep the Torah and Mitzvoth (commandments), in their differentiated way, and all the other religions will keep theirs. And this will calm each of them.

Moderator: But they have some kind of common denominator.

Rav Laitman: The common denominator is simple: at the base of every religion, at the very start there is some kind of ethical laws.

Moderator: Right, but now in the twenty-first century, when everything is falling apart, they say, “Let’s try to do something together.”