Ask the Kabbalist

Below are questions presented to Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, on his weekly TV show, Ask the Kabbalist.

Q: My mother suffered from cancer for many years. When her illness worsened I was advised to go to all kinds of Kabbalists to receive their blessings. My father, being a rational man, didn’t believe it could help, so we didn’t go. But since my mother passed away I’ve been asking myself if Kabbalists really could bless someone success, health, wealth, and so on.

A: I have known many Kabbalists in my time. But none of the Kabbalists I knew had ever given blessings, mascots, charms or anything of the kind. However, there are people who can understand human nature and the human anatomy, and can therefore help others.

The power of thought, exercises, and talks can relax people and restore their chemical and hormonal balance. This balance results in a positive feeling and healthy functioning. So if one feels that folklore healing, treatment with energies, rocks or any other objects are helpful, there is no harm in using them. However, there is no connection between these remedies and Kabbalah.

Kabbalah deals solely with one’s spiritual evolution—the correction of the soul. It has nothing to do with the correction of the body. Kabbalah teaches how one can transcend one’s ego and acquire the quality of love and giving. The spiritual world is indeed the reason and the root for everything that happens in this world, and ascension to the spiritual world does affect one’s corporeal problems. However, this does not mean that corporeal, physical objects have any spiritual powers to them. They do not.

Q: Why aren’t there leaders like there used to be? There seems to be a feeling that today’s leaders care only for their own interests and for those who are close to them.

A: Humanity is rapidly advancing towards the recognition of evil. In other words, we are quickly coming to realize that we are governed by our growing egoism. Social systems that were originally built to help connect people are collapsing, since they are all based on egoism, in opposition to nature’s system.

The growing ego is the reason leaders seek fame, fortune, and power instead of the well-being of their electorate. Although it is presently difficult to see, this state is a natural and positive development of humanity. The failing social structures will allow us to search for the real leaders.

A real leader is one with a complete picture of reality—corporeal and spiritual. The leader’s corrected state allows him or her to understand that the goal of leadership is to serve the public and work for their interest. Yet, we will only be able to find such a leader after we realize that today’s leaders do not serve the public’s interest, but their own.

Previously, there were visionary leaders who led humanity and devoted themselves to society. But the ideals they served were earthly ideals, meant to improve our lives on earth, not to promote our contact with the Creator—the quality of bestowal; this is why they eventually failed.

Q: What should happen for a real leader to come to power?

A: Kabbalah teaches that there is no leader without a parish. Put differently, if there is no need among the people for a genuine leader, no such leader will arise. There should be a correspondence, or similarity, between people’s will and the qualities of the spiritual leaders that they choose. If we understand how low we have stooped, and if we truly seek a way out of our plight, the right spiritual leaders will come and guide us to the height of existence.

Being a genuine leader is not something you can major in at college. It depends on the inner structure, on the root of one’s soul. Let’s hope that we will soon have a true need, and the true leader will appear and will guide us to prosperity and progress in the spiritual world and in this world, too.