A Special Silence During The Day of Atonement

Question: The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is the most special of days in Israel, when complete silence is established: stores close and mass media and transportation stop. There is no other example like this in the world.

There is consensus among the people of Israel about this day: according to surveys conducted in the past year, about 60% of Israelis fast on Yom Kippur.

There is a very special atmosphere on this day. Why is it treated with so much respect in Israel? Why do Israelis honor the quietness and the possibility to ponder and scrutinize the soul on this day? How do we use this day with a deeper meaning so that it affects the whole year to come?

Answer: Yom Kippur is a special day, not because there is special weather or special forces are activated, which people don’t feel anyway. People, with our special attitude to this day, make it so special. It does not descend onto us this way from above.

If the calendar didn’t indicate when Yom Kippur is to occur, we would not feel it. But when we all hold this day in such great esteem, it becomes special.

Once I happened to be in Manhattan on the day of Rosh HaShana. Another time I was in the Czech Republic on Purim, and even in the Jewish neighborhoods I did not feel the kind of holiday mood that one feels on the streets of Israel.

The “Day of Atonement” (Yom Kippur) is a time for inner spiritual calculation, reflection, and a special attitude. One feels that it has to do with his soul. Everyone tries to be a little better, softer, and calmer on this day, depending on his ability and upbringing.

Even those who do not fast, still consider this a special day. The Day of Atonement pertains to each of us and forces us to perform our individual calculation by scrutinizing one’s soul. But one cannot do this alone—only together. I cannot judge myself according to the upper force, the Creator.

Yom Kippur is the Day of Judgment on yourself, following a repentance after the beginning of the new year. During the new year we decide to realize our potential in life and figure out during the year how to do that and come closer to this goal. One reveals that there is an upper force, which controls our whole world, a general force of nature, which has a precise plan and program.

Therefore, this force created us and develops us now. We are in a net of nature’s laws that bind us from all sides. We fail to understand to what extent we are controlled from above, like babies who don’t even suspect that there are companies producing their formula and all the other necessities. A baby is unfamiliar with this world; he just knows that he needs to scream and mommy will come and do everything for him. That’s all he knows how to do.

Similarly, we only know a tiny world around us on this earth, and that’s it. We don’t even suspect that there is a great system of forces, preparing us and taking care to eventually lead us to a certain forethought state.

All that is hidden from us. However, the science of Kabbalah explains this process and the upper force that controls it to us. We must reveal this upper force on our own and bring it out of concealment in order to broaden our world.

We need to cancel the boundaries of the capsule within which we exist and see all the worlds together, as it is written, “You will see your world during this life.” In fact, this is our purpose and our realization as human beings in this world.

We must reveal the whole eternal and perfect world, where the Garden of Eden exists, instead of just this tiny, transient, and insignificant world full of suffering. And we will reveal that Eden due to opening ourselves up to a great external world.

The science of Kabbalah teaches us that a person needs to rise above his egoistic nature and connect with other people by removing the boundaries between us. In this manner we also remove the boundaries between our world and the upper, external, and eternal world.

Everything depends on canceling our self-love and turning to others. If I begin to treat others like myself, I will thereby eliminate all boundaries and begin to see beyond the boundaries of my usual circle. It is not easy and we need to learn this, but Kabbalists achieved this state in previous generations and came out into the external world.

Kabbalah says that we have to realize this goal.
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From KabTV’s “New Life” 9/17/15

A Dramatic Contrast

Parshat Shalach says that when the spies reached the land of Israel, they saw how wonderful it was. But at the same time, they understood that it was impossible to enter it because terrifying giants lived there, and when the people were informed about this, they began to be resentful.

Generally, when do I begin to be resentful? It is when they say to me, “You must do this.”

That is, whenever I am going toward the next level that I must reach, I cannot escape from it because circumstances are pushing me. Yet, I feel that I no longer have any strength. This dramatic contrast where I must do something but don’t have the strength, awakens resentment in me.

Even though the land of Israel is so attractive and flowing with milk and honey, I still can’t enter there. All that remains for me is only to be envious from a distance and relax. As it is said, a man has no desire for the daughter of the king because even just dreaming about her is suffering.

So, I don’t suffer. I know that she is not for me, a dream that will not come true. So automatically I remove her from my desires and live in peace, enjoying what is attainable.

Here the problem is that I am required to win the king’s daughter, “You must,” and I don’t see any possibility of doing this. But the circumstances force me, “It doesn’t matter. Hold on. Go up. You will climb this mountain and do everything.”

But there are huge giants there, and I have to fight them? Must I overcome obstacles like rivers with strong currents and high mountains? I am not ready! So, I am resentful and grumble.

Resentment appears depending on my present understanding of the possibilities that are standing in front of me and the obstacles that are placed before me. Even though I may later expect a reward, rivers of milk and honey, it’s not for me. Let me live in peace. I lived forty years in the wilderness, and I could live there for another forty years. It’s not so bad. That is basically how a human being is constructed.

The problem is that I take account of my present characteristics and possibilities. However, the Creator says, “I will put you in such circumstances that you will have no choice, and you will turn to Me. Then I will help you. I will support you, and you will rise up to this level.”

But in the meantime, the people are resentful, “We will choose other leaders who will take us back to Egypt.” This is because it is impossible to remain in the middle of the wilderness. Either go forward or back. So, it is preferable to turn back. What was bad there?

For a person in the present situation, it always seems like this, “How I hate the state I am in now. I am leaving.” What he escapes from seems positive to him. So, he goes back.

All of this is completely natural, except for one thing: to ask, to demand, the strength to master the next level. Only then does the person get powers. Until then, he always forgets that it is possible to receive the powers that he lacks from the Creator with the help of demands and requests.

Question: How is it possible to explain this colossal forgetfulness, the constant alternating in us of sensitivity to the Creator and descent, again sensitivity and descent, and that is how it is until the Creator is erased completely from our memories and thoughts?

Answer: The fact is that a person is new all the time. The memory is not stored within him. Everything disappears as if he never had experienced anything and had no similar circumstances. After all, what was on the previous stage is lost, like a rocket. The previous stage is disconnected, and everything is completely cleared away. Nothing is left because at the new level all ten Sefirot are new.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/6/15

Is The End Of The World Coming?

Question: According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we are at the end of a 6,000-year period of the existence of our world; we are in the year 5,775. Does this mean that in another 225 years the end of the world will come? Will everything be destroyed?

Answer: Yes, that is what is written. But what does it mean that it will be destroyed? Our world will be lost; it will disappear from our feelings. For what you are feeling now seems to you as a reality in which you exist. It is a reality that we feel because it is created within our senses.

We humans perceive reality like this, but if you were clothed in other characteristics, if you had other senses, sight, hearing, tasting, smelling and touch, then you would discover reality in a completely different form. That is, the reality that you perceive is very subjective.

So with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah you begin to change yourself, which is called correcting yourself; you begin to acquire all kinds of new characteristics and abilities, and it follows that you begin to see the world much more deeply than ordinary people.

In it you see systems and forces that activate it. Before you the walls of the world are seemingly opened wide and you see behind them the immense and amazing system of management and supervision that is called the “kingdom of the Creator” and you discover how these forces manage the world.

In all of their books, the Kabbalists explain how this system works. In particular, Baal HaSulam’s book, The Study of the Ten Sefirot that we study explains how these forces operate us and all the worlds, and how we enter into this system and begin to take the role of management upon ourselves.

Question: When they say that Abraham discovered that there is a single force that manages everything, do they mean that he discovered this system that manages all of reality?

Answer: Certainly! That’s the main idea. You are called Adam (Man) in accord with the future state where everyone will become similar (Domim) to the Creator.

To resemble Him means to learn, to attain, to acquire this entire system of management and supervision, and to take upon yourself the management of this system rather than the Creator. About this it is said: “And the children will return to their Creator.” It means that you will understand, feel, and discover the whole world for yourself.

All of the suffering of today, all the problems, and all the history of our world is designed to compel a person to discover and know why and from where he receives this suffering. All the suffering is only to push us to attain the higher system of management and participate in it to transform our lives for the better.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 8/9/15

Preparing The Young Generation For Implementing The Plan Of Nature

Question: What is to be done with schools, universities, and work, if people don’t want anything?

Answer: First of all, a person must learn the method for realizing the goal of creation, which is for all of humanity to reach attaining absolute love, mutual connection, and bestowal to one another.

And on that basis, doing whatever is necessary to achieve it, which means getting the right education and information. Certainly we need to provide ourselves with everything, because if the younger generation doesn’t want to work or learn, what will happen to it when the older generation cease to exist?

So we need to understand the entire program of the world and recognize that the years of youth are given so that people will prepare themselves for life, meaning the maximum realization of the program of nature: absolute harmony of all of humanity with nature, and full mutual connection, love, and cooperation between them. That is how our next level of development and exit to another level of existence is attained.

For this, first and foremost we need to be involved with education. And in order to exist respectably on the physical level, we need to be concerned about the minimal requirements: nourishment, a dwelling place, communications, and everything else, acquiring a profession, developing industry, but to the degree that it is necessary for attaining the goal. If we reach this, we will see that we need very little. Of everything that we manufacture today, 90% could be thrown into the garbage. We require simple healthy nourishment, simple clothing, a normal and comfortable place to live so we won’t divert our attention from the goal of existence and will make it possible to be involved with our internal work. So 90% of the population of the world cannot work at all, or the entire population on Earth will begin to work, let’s say, two hours per week, and this will be enough to supply ourselves with everything that is needed.

Question: Why is there no way for us to achieve this?

Answer: Because the ego pushes us forward: It needs more and more, and this is very beneficial for someone. It is not by chance that lots of money is spent on advertising and the media, which educate us in such a manner to convince us that “You need everything.” But in the meantime people only need to know about the true force of nature and its purpose. I hope that in the next few years everyone will know this.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 10/8/15

Yom Kippur: Resting From One Evening To The Next

The Torah, “Leviticus”, 23:29 – 23:32: For any person who will not be afflicted on that very day, shall be cut off from its people. And any person who performs any work on that very day I will destroy that person from amidst its people. You shall not perform any work. [This is] an eternal statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. It is a complete day of rest for you, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth of the month in the evening, from evening to evening, you shall observe your rest day.

Because the day begins in the evening, the Torah commands us to observe Yom Kippur by resting from one evening to the next. If a person comes close to a state of atonement and forgiveness, clarifies, and feels it correctly, he totally refuses to do anything on that day because all his actions will stem from his finite ego. A person who has not yet decided and tries to do something hinders his advancement and corrupts his soul.

Therefore it says: For any person who will not be afflicted on that very day [Yom Kippur], shall be cut off from its people, because the desire with which a person could have begun his ascent is gone and is concealed from him. Only if he performs many different actions will he be able to get another chance to feel and understand it. These actions help him return to the same state, but with a different clarification that is deeper, more correct, and helps him go through this state properly. But he prolongs his path this way.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 18/6/14

Related Material:

Sins And Errors

The Torah, “Numbers,” 15:22 – 15:25: And if you should err and not fulfill all these commandments, which the Lord spoke to Moses. All that the Lord commanded you through Moses, from the day on which the Lord commanded and from then on, for all generations. If because of the eyes of the congregation it was committed inadvertently, the entire congregation shall prepare a young bull as a burnt-offering for a pleasing fragrance for the Lord, with its prescribed meal offering and libation, and one young he-goat for a sin-offering. The Cohen shall atone on behalf of the entire congregation of the children of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them, for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, before the Lord because of their error.

There are errors a person makes unknowingly because he doesn’t feel them. He doesn’t feel or doesn’t understand that he is doing something wrong, and thus unintentionally becomes partner to or even the source of a corrupt state.

But these extenuating circumstances do not change the outcomes, and there is no turning back. But there are errors that are actually sins because a person knows that he is breaking a certain rule or prohibition. The fact that a person consciously causes society and the whole system of providence harm doesn’t stop him.

Moreover, in both cases there are different levels of errors and this is the reason that there are many additional items in the laws in our world that take different circumstances into account. The opinion of the jury who examines a specific transgression, and thus decides what legal item to attribute it to, is also taken into account.

These are very delicate matters that are part of a person’s inner world and cannot be decided without people’s intervention. It is impossible to feed these data into a computer and let it decide who is guilty and who is not. Human participation is crucial here.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/13/15

General Intention For The New Year

The New Year in Hebrew is called Rosh Hashanah, which means the head of the year, its beginning. The year ahead of us depends on how we start it, what goals we’ll set, what intentions we have, on our plans.

This is why we have to clearly understand why we need this year, why we exist, and what we really need to achieve.

Fortunately, we live in the world that demonstrates to us its uselessness and absolute insignificance. This is why it is much easier for us to navigate in it than it was 100 or even 50 years ago.

What can we wish for ourselves for the new year? We see how throughout all of history, humanity has constantly erred. We have tried to do something and erred; again we tried and again missed, and so it has been every time.

We cannot make one correct step. In the wisdom of Kabbalah this is explained very simply: Humanity doesn’t know its past, from where it came, and towards what it is going.

The idea is that we descended below from the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) into our world, and now we must ascend upward again. But we are not conscious of the descent nor of the future ascent, and so we are found in a pitiful state.

Kabbalah tells us that if we want to be different, we need to work on the unity of our people, meaning on what Abraham did in the past in ancient Babylon, when he called to all who were interested in uniting and gathered them into a single unique group called the people of Israel.

Israel, means “Yashar-El” (Straight to the Creator) and is also “Li-Rosh” (I have a head), meaning that I am going head first. Rosh Hashanah means the same thing—head first.

It means that I begin to understand that I will always be mistaken and will receive a blow with every step forward, even with the smallest step, if I don’t know the program of creation and the way that it is leading me.

This way is concealed from the ordinary person, and if I don’t progress towards where nature is leading me but go in the opposite direction, nature will drag me back by the neck and push me in the right direction. This is the way of suffering. A correction like this is very cruel.

So it is up to us to understand the program of creation and to begin to apply it correctly; this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us.

The application is very simple; it is summed up by connection and unity. This was said to the people at the time of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai: “Do you want to be as one people with one heart, to be found in full Arvut (Mutual Guarnatee) for this, not doing to your friend what is hateful to you and loving your friend as yourself?”

All of these Mitzvot (commandments) deal with our people, within which we need to unite correctly. And in the connection between us, we discover the Creator, the upper world, the next stage of our development. The more we unite, the more we ascend above our world and begin to feel the next level of existence, the next dimension.

In principle, this is our role. Kabbalah gives precise instructions about how to do this and teaches us according to the original Kabbalistic sources.

I hope very much that the old year that has ended will teach us how to properly treat the new year, and from this day on we will learn to direct ourselves towards clear and correct development in harmony, in the connection and union between us.

If the Jewish people will do this, then it will influence the entire world positively, will annihilate anti-Semitism, and will bring humanity to prosperity by raising it to the next level of existence. Everything depends on us; only we determine the future of the world.

Let’s do this so that this new year will be good as has been determined for us from above, so that we can bring the entire world to the new state, and as it is written in the Torah, we will become a Light to the nations, we will realize ourselves in the best way. This is our destiny. Let’s ascend in this year to level of eternity and wholeness.
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From KabTV’s “Holidays. Rosh Hashanah” 8/6/15

A Forty Year Preparation Before Entering The Land Of Israel

The Torah, “Numbers,” 14:26 – 14:31: The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “How much longer will this evil congregation who are causing to complain against Me [exist]? The complaints of the children of Israel which they caused them to complain against Me, I have heard. Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘if not as you have spoken in My ears, so will I do to you. In this desert, your corpses shall fall; your entire number, all those from the age of twenty and up, who were counted, because you complained against Me.

You shall [not] come into the Land concerning which I raised My hand that you would settle in it, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. As for your infants, of whom you said that they will be as spoils, I will bring them [there], and they will come to know the Land which You despised.

The Torah tells us about the actual levels a person climbs internally, but one doesn’t understand that it is all done by the Light and not by oneself, and one keeps forgetting that and thus cannot help being wrong.

We will make many mistakes when we try to go back. There is no other way! We must fully recognize our ego and see how big it is. We cannot do anything with this giant cyclops.

We gradually have educated ourselves on every level, on every step during the forty years of wandering in the desert so that when we are about to enter the land of Israel, we will be absolutely sure that we are totally powerless and cannot do anything by ourselves.

Neither our mind not our hearts can help us in any way. We are facing a giant cyclops, a strong army, nations that hate us that are ready to do anything so as not to let us cross their borders. The new generation also recognizes this, and things are becoming even clearer.

However, at the same time, during the forty years we gradually develop the attribute of love and bestowal between us and begin to discover the Creator in it as the source of this attribute. It turns out that we can enter the land of Israel only by faith above reason, which means with the attribute of bestowal that is external to us.

So, what is the problem? We had to be mistaken in order to discover and explain to ourselves and to the nation what is going on in the land of Israel, what great forces are there, why we cannot overcome them, and why we are so distant from each other and from the Creator.

Therefore, the sin of the spies is necessary in order to understand the extent to which we are not part of this. A person cannot leap from one level to the next without the forty- year preparation before entering the land of Israel correctly. All of the problems clarified by the spies and the revelation of the negative attitude of the nation are natural and cannot be otherwise.

There are no mistakes along the spiritual path. The calculation is realistic: whatMasach (screen) do you have against your ego, whether one covers the other.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/6/15

The Sixth Sense, The Soul

Question: You say that the same soul reincarnates into our world, changing bodies. On the other hand, you say that an ordinary person has no soul and needs to build it within himself through connection with others. How can this contradiction be resolved?

Answer: None of us is born with a ready-made soul. The soul is a force that we acquire through studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. When we realize this method within ourselves, we grow a new quality of bestowal and love for one’s neighbor within which we discover the Upper Light or the feeling of the presence of theCreator, the upper force.

This additional “sixth sense,” a feeling of love and bestowal to one’s neighbor, that is acquired by the person, is called the soul. The Kabbalists write that the soul is aKli (vessel) designed to be filled by the Upper Light. Every person must attain the root of his soul and was created only for this sake.

It is written that the soul is “the portion of God from above” (Job 31:2) through which one begins to feel the upper force.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 9/6/15

Spiritual Diet

Question: Must I give up my physical desires to build my soul?

Answer: It is not necessary to give up any desire. The wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t require any human limitations. Through studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, we attract the Light that Reforms, which carries out all the corrections.

The study is constructed such that we connect with each other at the time of the lessons, the group work, and joint activities, and, through our connection and unity, we attract the upper force that influences all of us. In this way we create a new nature within us, the force of bestowal, within which we begin to feel the upper world.

At the same time we are not required to give up any material pleasure. The Upper Light gradually changes us such that suddenly we feel how some desires disappear and some appear. The Light makes us like it; it renews and corrects, creating from us a Kli(vessel) that is prepared to feel and discover the upper world.

But a person doesn’t need to limit himself artificially and keep a “spiritual diet.” It is only necessary to learn and apply the method of correction.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 8/16/15

Who Is To Blame For The Sin Of Adam?

The discovery of evil is called the sin of Adam. But, this was in fact not a sin, for the Creator Himself says that He created the evil inclination. This means that Adam did not sin, rather he only discovered the sin, his evil, egoistic nature.

From the start we were created with a nature such as this so that we would have the opportunity to rise above it, and from this evil, become aware of the good, the Creator. It is impossible to discover this without that nature, “As the advantage of Light over Darkness,” (Kohelet Rabbah 2:13).

In the New Year (Rosh Hashanah) we celebrate the opportunity to rise up and attain the upper force, the Creator, to become Adam (Man), meaning the person who resembles Him. This is within the power of everyone, for Adam was simply the first who did it. As it is said, “for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jeremiah 31:33), and “…for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Isaiah 56:7). So Adam is an image that is relevant to all of humanity.

If during this holiday we make the right accounting of the past year, we clarify that we have still not attained correction and that we have not ascended with all of humanity to the peak of our existence, the spiritual world, the level of resembling the higher, eternal and perfect power. And for this we ask forgiveness, meaning we judge ourselves that we could have discovered our evil inclination and corrected it, rising above it and uniting between us, but we didn’t do it. So we ask in the beginning of the year that we be given the power that makes it possible to correct ourselves and reach the goal of creation.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 9/6/15

The Secret Of Life Discovered By Adam

Question: We usually celebrate our birthday and that of our relatives. What is the meaning of celebrating Rosh Hashanah,which is the birthday of a person who lived thousands of years ago?

Answer: We celebrate the anniversary of the day that the opportunity to discover the secret of life, the purpose of our life, and the meaning of life, which makes it worth living, was first revealed to mankind.

These questions about the meaning of life awaken in many people today. Adam HaRishon (First Man) was the first to discover this secret. He explored it and found out that we are living in this world in a special reality so that we will ascend from it to an upper level, to a whole and eternal existence.

We can actually attain this existence right now and don’t have to die in order to do so. Death itself doesn’t provide us with the right to enter the upper world. If it were so, why would it be worthwhile to do anything in this life?

People think that by living without the revelation of the upper world they will be able to enter it after they die. So what do we need this world for?

Many don’t even believe that there is anything else other than this corporeal world. This is exactly the secret that Adam discovered. And this is the event that we celebrate when the Jewish new year begins.

It is because we discover that we have nowhere to advance to since this world is only a passageway, a corridor, through which we can arrive at the revelation of the Creator(Bore), which means to come and see (Bo – Reh).

Question: Will this happen after we die?

Answer: It will not happen after the death of our body, but after the death of our ego. It says “you shall see your world in your lifetime.” So please see it while you are alive!

Adam discovered that anyone who wants to has the opportunity to discover the upper world, that is, the next level according to the order of our evolution, here and now in this world.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 9/6/15

Invisible Righteousness

Question: When you look at people who are known as Kabbalists, you don’t see that they are more kind and loving than others or that they help other people. They are serious, religious people who study from books. How can you identify who is a real Kabbalist?

Answer: I don’t know how people define and determine who is a Kabbalist and who is not. It is impossible to determine this by one’s external behavior.

Question: Are all the Kabbalists righteous?

Answer: Some Kabbalists can reach the state in which they become righteous. A righteous is a special spiritual level. Every great Kabbalist is a righteous.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 9/6/15

Hallucinations: Caused By Drugs Or The Attainment Of A New Reality

Question: A new movie came out not too long ago in which the main character, a woman who uses drugs, seems to feel all of creation and melts into it.

Answer: I don’t even want to talk about that because it is a completely unrealistic world that was created in man’s dark and foggy consciousness under the influence of chemical substances that can lead to different illusions and fantasies. Why should we talk about such states if they are artificial? What problem can we solve with that? What do we achieve that way? It is needless to imagine that by using drugs we enter some different reality. It is an absolute fallacy.

Publicizing drugs in movies or books is very helpful to those who spread them. This is the reason they make such movies and laws that make drugs legal.

We must reach the truth in our real life. After all, nature has its own goal and its own way of attaining it. But if we pass this way consciously or under the influence of blows, whether we see this goal from a distance or go into gridlock, receiving blows and then going to the main road to reach the goal—only this is the problem of our development.

Question: Does this mean that a person worries about nothing but pleasures and sufferings? Can’t he think about anything else?

Answer: Of course. We are absolute animals because the ego manages us. Our nature is a desire to enjoy, and if we believe that we are controlled by positive impulses, we are terribly wrong because these impulses are also part of the desire to receive and enjoy.

Question: What can we do in order to be free of that?

Answer: We must simply learn to manage it correctly, and then all of our problems will disappear.

We will look at the world, at ourselves, and at life rationally. We will understand our nature and how, by using it and controlling our ego correctly, we can bring ourselves to the feeling of an eternal, whole, and unlimited state. We can receive such information about our feelings and about harmony that no drug addict can ever dream of. It is possible.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 8/10/14

The Wisdom Of Kabbalah Is Not A Religion

Question: You receive a lot of criticism on your position that Kabbalah isn’t a religion and has no connection to Judaism. Please explain to me why the great Kabbalists who lived in our times Baal HaSulam and Rabash were Orthodox Jews and in no way said that God is just nature and not a personality.

Answer: Baal HaSulam explained this in the best way in his article, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.” We know more from Ramchal (Moshe Chaim Luzzatto) about the wisdom of Kabbalah for people who are not Jewish. And all of the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks only about the development of love for others, and religion talks about the carrying out of corporeal Mitzvot (commandments).

The definition of the wisdom of Kabbalah is: a system to reveal the Creator to the created beings in this world. Religion doesn’t aspire to achieve the same goal (revelation of the Creator through love of others) as Kabbalah. Thus it is not the same thing.

Thus your proposal that God is a personality simply makes me wonder if maybe you are an idol worshipper.
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Moses’ Legacy Isn’t Lost

The Torah, “Numbers,” 14:24 – 14:25: But My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land whereunto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the Vale; tomorrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.

Question: The Creator distinguishes Caleb (stemming from the words “like a heart” in Hebrew) and says: “I will bring him into the land whereunto he went and his seed shall possess it.” Does that mean then there is another desire in us to be there other than Moses?

Answer: There is no greater prophet than Moses, but there are many attributes that we discover after him. Moses is the attribute of Bina without which Malchut cannot move one millimeter towards the Creator.

But the attribute of Bina is limited. It provides everything Malchut can demand in order to sanctify itself and to correct the intention so that it will be in order to bestow, but Binaitself feels nothing towards receiving.

Connecting the attributes of Bina and Malchut enables the appearance of new attributes that are stronger than Bina because then Malchut can receive in the intention of in order to bestow. These attributes are much stronger than Moses, but at the same time, are also closer to the Creator and more distant from the Creator.

They are closer to the Creator by being able to receive the revelation from Him. The Creator isn’t revealed to Moses. On the contrary, Moses always keeps away from that because he is the attribute of Bina.

Everyone else, those who conquer the land of Israel, the generation that began to live in it, those who build the Temple, etc., attain the Creator in their previous egoistic desires that were corrected by the attribute of Moses (Bina) and thus ascend towards the Creator.

The difference is that when you work with the ego with the intention of in order to bestow you are like the Creator because you bestow like Him, in practice. The attribute of Bina, on the other hand, isn’t like the Creator in its actions but in the attribute itself.Bina doesn’t do anything but simply has the same attribute as the Creator.

So on the one hand, Moses seems to be so humble, even weak, protecting himself from the revelation of the Creator, and the Creator turns His posterior to him and goes behind him. But this attribute is a typical attribute of the Creator and is the strongest of all the attributes that can be revealed in the created being. When you begin to use it in your work with the ego, it isn’t in a clean way, although it allows you to ascend spiritually.

The attribute of Moses in Malchut created individual figures like Caleb. Moses’ job is to awaken those who can continue the spiritual action. This is his job. Therefore, the attribute of Moses lives in each of us, from the first man who attained the Creator to the last. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to correct ourselves, to work with Malchut, sinceMalchut is Pharaoh. Moses is the attribute of bestowal that was created above Pharaoh, so not one man nor everyone together can attain a private or a general correction unless they use the attribute of Moses that actually exists in opposition to Pharaoh.

Caleb and all the others, on the other hand, are derivatives of Moses in Malchut, and although Moses dies, he exists in everyone who enters the land of Israel because he inserted himself into them. But now he isn’t revealed in his pure form, the way it was during the forty years in the desert but in the attribute to receive in order to bestow. This is the reason that it says that he was dying because this attribute in its pure form disappears.

Everything that happens later happens as a result of what a person, the ego, absorbs from the attribute of Moses that totally dissolves and begins to work.

In other words, we process the attribute of Moses into our ego in everything that happens until the end of correction. In the correct form, all the egoistic attributes buildMalchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) or the general vessel for the revelation of the Creator, which means our perfect state.

Thus when Moses is processed inside us, new names that are created as a result of the symbiosis between Malchut and Bina emerge. Bina is that attribute of Moses andMalchut is the land of Israel that has received the minimal correction from Moses on the level of the still nature. Then there are the levels of the vegetative, the animate, and the speaking, and everything enters the four levels of the correction of the desire.

As a leader, Moses is an amazing man, but he is first of all the attribute of love and that’s the main thing. Then there is everything else, but only love rules: both love for people and love for the Creator. This is the leader, but hy itself, it doesn’t exist.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/29/15

Sweet Apples From The Tree Of Knowledge

Question: What is the meaning of the symbols of Rosh Hashanah: apples in honey, a fish head etc.?

Answer: A fish head symbolizes our desire to be a head and not a tail. It is because we want to determine our life by ourselves and not allow ourselves to draw us in the direction of the ego. We want to know what this life was given to us for, what the purpose of our life is, and how to fill it with meaning and make it worthwhile and significant. This is the difference between a head and a tail.

The pomegranate symbolizes the nation of Israel, the unity of all the souls in one body. This is exactly how we want to feel, united in one soul.

The apple in honey symbolizes our desire to fill our life with meaning and sweetness. It is the same apple that Adam ate and sinned because of his calculations. He meant to perform a correction for all of humanity at one time because he included all the souls in him. This is how great the egoistic desire was that was revealed in him.

But Adam didn’t succeed in performing the correction. To correct means to fill with sweetness and to ascend above our ego. The apple symbolizes our egoistic desire that was created by the Creator and when we dip it in honey and correct it we reach a good life.

Adam tried to perform this correction at one time and didn’t succeed, and so we perform it gradually—many people throughout history, one correction after another, gradually attaining the end of correction.

The apple dipped in honey is the symbol of the correction and the sweetening of the ego that allows us to use it for good.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 9/6/15

A Million Dollars For A Good Thought

Question: How is it really possible to reach recognition of evil, to express remorse, and repent in this world where it has become the norm to harm each other, disregard others, and deceive every day?

 Answer: Humanity developed for thousands of year in order to reach the recognition of evil in our time. All of nature around us is starting to “round off” and put pressure on us, forcing us to connect to one connected system, similar to the world of still, vegetative, and animate that is united in one symbiotic system, and people need to be connected with each other like that. This state is created now, the first time in all our history.

The Kabbalists pointed to the 20^th Century as the time that humanity would start connecting. To this end, the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed, the method of connection, unity, and correction. But the correction is not possible as long as the ruin is not revealed, and that’s why so many problems—hatred of each other, separation, parents and children unable to find a common language, people not getting married and establishing families or divorcing—are revealed in the world.

All these are signs of the time that Kabbalists described precisely like that many years ago. Evil, hatred, and separation is revealed and people are looking for every opportunity to retreat and hide in order to take a break from each other. But we need to understand that nature obliges us to unite, leaving us no choice. We are in the framework of the laws of nature. Just as you cannot go against the laws of physics, chemistry, biology, anatomy, there cannot be disregard for the internal laws of human behavior, that is, the soul.

The wisdom of Kabbalah tells about the laws of the soul: how to assemble it all together from the separated parts of the broken Adam HaRishon. We all must connect, but not in physical bodies, but in our inner desires in order to complete each other. When we unite and connect, one mutual general virtual creature comes out that is called Adam (Man). We all work for this virtual unity and make efforts to improve it, and then inside it we will feel the upper spiritual world.

Question: What can I do if I curse everyone on the road, argue with the cashier in the supermarket, insult people that are near me in my egoistic attitude?

Answer: Everyone behaves like that. The main thing is to understand that this is bad, that is, to reveal what benefit we would receive due to our unity, for example, a million dollars. For example: if a few people unite together and each of them would receive a prize of a million dollars, everyone would run to unite if they would see such a benefit from connection.

Imagine that ten people are sitting around a roundtable. Ten is the number required for a complete measure of connection. And if we succeed in connecting, then from above a sack with $10,000,000 falls on the table, one million for each.

Then I realize that my inability to connect with others is my evil nature, my enemy. I could have gained, but my ego did not let me connect. Only this recognition is lacking.

The wisdom of Kabbalah reveals a little of what is the upper world to us. How good it is, but the condition to enter it is that we scrutinize our main obstacle, our egoism, calling it the evil inclination. We are only lacking this recognition; otherwise, we don’t think that our egoism is bad. And this is whole purpose of repentance, which is customary to do in the month of Elul before the new year. Repentance is the revelation in me of the disturbances against good connection with everyone.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 8/30/15

The Whole World Is My Home And Castle

Question: How can we start believing that relationships among the people of Israel can be corrected to such an extent that they will be an example for the entire world? After all, today we can see that they are becoming increasingly worse and the rift within the society is growing.

Answer: It is actually good that the situation is so bad, as this is forcing us to discover the cause of all evil and correct it. I am happy when transgressions are revealed, and may they come to light even more.

These transgressions existed among the people of Israel before, ever since the destruction of the Temple. Only now, they have finally emerged and floated to the surface in such a way that nothing can be done through the usual means. Things cannot be smoothed over, nor silenced, nor hidden. Only one thing remains, and that is to explore and understand their true cause.

It is then that the people of Israel will discover that they have the wisdom of Kabbalah, which speaks about this, that there are people who know what to do, and that it is worthwhile to learn from them. They will see that a whole system is already in place that should be strengthened and broadened, but that salvation will come specifically from this handful of Kabbalists.

Question: And what is this salvation? Everyone understands it in their own way, and usually one’s salvation comes to the detriment of others.

Answer: Salvation is a way out of the evil of egoism. The good is love amongst all people, with such a connection between everyone that we feel ourselves as one body. This method and its effects will spread from Israel to all countries where it will develop and fill the entire world.

Question: What does a country, where all citizens feel themselves as one body, look like?

Answer: It is like a close knit family where everyone feels at home, in his castle in the best possible sense.

Question: And how will this influence international relations?

Answer: It will force the entire world to adapt the same form as Israel. The nations of the world do not have freedom of choice in this. Today they are copying Israel’s negative form, and this is why they hate it. But when Israel will influence them in a good way, they will realize it and treat it with the same goodness.

Question: Should the people of Israel give some thought to why the world hates and blames it these days?

Answer: It is necessary to understand the root cause and stop hoping that the situation will resolve itself. From now on, there will no longer be a good life, it will only get worse.

This will be to such extent that after waking up in the morning, a person will be thinking about how to survive until evening, and when going to bed at night, he will not be sure that he will wake up in the morning. Life will become worse and worse until we fulfill our mission.

The people of Israel will not be able to escape it, because only they have the freedom of choice and determine all relationships in the world, including the relations between Russia and the United States, about which everyone is very concerned.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/6/15