Bestselling novelist Edward Topol interviews Rav Laitman on topics ranging “What is God?”, the Bible code, smoking, human evolution, judgment, body and soul, freedom of choice, and Rav Laitman’s personal life. The following is a section from the interview:

What is God?

Edward Topol: I’ll tell you honestly. I’m not at all prepared. You are on one level and I’m somewhere there. My questions are simple, from the very first lower level.
What is God?

Rav Laitman: The general law of the universe which surrounds us, and in relation to us reveals itself as absolute and total love, is called “God.” This is felt on all of the inanimate, animal, and vegetative levels in the capacity of the universe. We don’t feel this because our nature is opposite to that of the Creator.

The Creator is the quality of bestowal, the quality of love, a totally altruistic quality which surrounds us. This quality is invariable and constant, like the tremendous love of a mother towards her child. The child feels it to the degree of either its corruption or its correction. This is the relationship we are in with the Creator.

In Hebrew, the Creator and nature are described by the same word Elokim, the same word. The Creator and nature are one. There isn’t anything outside of our surrounding nature, the nature we perceive as well as the part of nature which we don’t perceive. There are higher layers of nature which are concealed from us, but are still within our scope. All of them together are called “nature” or “Creator.”

Edward Topol: If the Creator is love, if the Creator is something that surrounds us, then why do I have to move towards Him? He’s already right here, inside of me, and around me. Why do I need to study Kabbalah or other methods of attaining or comprehending the Creator? more…

Download the full interview (ms word format)

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Listen to the quartet version for violin, bassoon, guitar and piano by clicking on the Flash player’s button below:
[audio:http://kabbalahmedia.info/files/Music_of_Baal-Sulam_2004_09.mp3]

Ki Halatzta Nafshi
a song by Baal HaSulam

1. Download Instrumental Version
2. Download Version Performed by the band “Bnei Baruch”
3. Download Quartet Version for violin, bassoon, guitar and piano.

The melody to this song was composed by Rabbi Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (Rabash).

Perhaps this melody seems sad, but the truth is that it is not sad, it is tender, and it expresses the feeling of someone who entered the property of Bina – bestowal, the properties of the Creator – where there are no cries and everything rests in peace. Rabash expresses the entering into this state through this melody, when he undoubtedly sees that all of his Kelim, his entire soul, all of his desires submit to this Upper Force and begin to reign in it.

It is a short song that sings about serene peace, about a man entering the Upper Force and staying there in the state of absolute, eternal rest.

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We are continuing to post responses to the “Misconceptions of Kabbalah” competition…

ENTRY SENT BY JANNET: My encounter with Kabbalah was when I went to the library and out of curiosity borrowed the book entitled “Qabbalah Magic.” It told of what magic you can achieve and things you can acquire by performing all these rituals. However I didn’t finish the book as I felt it wasn’t what I was looking for.

Myth: Kabbalah Is All About Magic

FROM THE BOOK: It is a common mistake for people to think that Kabbalah deals with fortune telling, revelations of the past, and the study of the present. The definition of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to people in this world today, not after death. Perhaps some draw this parallel as a result of the perception of secrecy that surrounds Kabbalah.

Either way, Kabbalah has no connection to magic. In fact, Kabbalah forbids fortune telling or any attempt to find out about the destiny of the physical body. The body is temporary, negligible, and, thus, insignificant. It is not worthy of attention beyond the question of how it serves the soul.

pp. 55/6 in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD and Collin Canright.

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This World (Olam HaZeh, Heb.) n.

1. The sum total of sensations that a person receives through the five senses.
Source: The Perception of the World

2. The lowest level of entirely egoistic desire.
Source: The Perception of the World

3. The feeling of extreme remoteness from the original cause, of absolute inability of even minimal contact with it, while realizing its existence and longing to reveal it entirely.
Source: The Language of Kabbalah: Fundamentals of Terminology

4. Where the “desire to receive” reaches its final development and receives completely separated from the light.
Source: Pticha—Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, item 2

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