Question: How do you explain Kabbalah to a modern day person?
Answer: First there was nothing. Then the collective force of nature began to evolve. It began to create worlds, blocks, the universe, the vegetative and the animate. Science speaks about evolution in much the same way. Unlike religion, Kabbalah speaks about the earth evolving over millions of years, not of a five thousand year old world.
Question: Then there is only one thing missing in conventional science – the purpose?
Answer: The purpose is above, and scientists are disconnected from that. They lack the sixth sense to grasp what is above, which is precisely what Kabbalah deals with.
Question: Perhaps Kabbalah is better organized, more beautiful and more focused than others?
Answer: I can tell you as a scientist, that there is nothing missing in the science of Kabbalah compared to other sciences. Among my students, there are academics from the renowned Weitzman Institute in Israel, from the Institute of Technology, computer scientists as well as members of the Kabbalah department at Tel-Aviv University.
I think that Kabbalah will adopt a more contemporary and easy form. It is impossible to imagine how I studied with my rabbi and how Kabbalists studied in earlier times compared to how we teach today. It was done in a way that would be intolerable today. When I studied I did not understand a thing, and no one explained anything to me either. There were no articles next to the dry study to explain man’s way, everything was disordered. Today there are books and sketches; this is a gigantic step forward.
Question: Why are there so many ‘pretty’ methods and so few ‘pretty’ people?
Answer: First of all, the ‘pretty’ behavior is in the eyes of the beholder. Can one really judge with one’s own eyes which is right and which is not? Besides, what is his reference point for judgment, his own law book? How can one tell what motivates someone else’s behavior? It might be that he’s just a little harmless egoist, acting like a nice little child who really doesn’t want anything from anyone, and he might be a great, ruthless man, a robber or a murderer who has already evolved to the point where he has cleansed himself to such an extent that he turned it to bestowal, to altruism. It is something that no one can tell and hence we can never judge.
It brings us back to the same point: no one can judge any method, especially if he is in the middle of the way. He should only clean himself up from any stigmas and choose what he wants, what he feels that he wants. This is the entire wisdom. Because of that there is no coercion in spirituality. It is a rule that Kabbalah sticks by firmly. The same applies for the upbringing of children. There must be no pressure, if you don’t want, don’t do. You can only set an example that your children can learn from. But if you teach them right, you should not say no to them.