Complying With Spiritual Laws

The definitions of the wisdom of Kabbalah are not quite like definitions we use in the ordinary spoken language. The “nations of the world” are the desire to enjoy for oneself. “Jews,” the people of Israel, are desires aiming to bestowal.

Therefore, each person can be divided into nations of the world and Israel: into desires seeking only to satisfy themselves and desires aiming to the love of others and from it to the love for the Creator. On this basis, everyone can determine to which part of the general desire, that is, the creation he belongs.

Religion (Daat) is the method of Kabbalah that helps a person reach the middle line (Sefirot Daat-Tifferet-Yesod), and accordingly aim his desire to enjoy bestowal. If, when reading Kabbalistic sources, we perceive them through these definitions, we will not get confused and we will attribute everything to the desire to enjoy, the material of creation and its various properties. Then we will be able to identify them correctly and understand where we are: in a corrected or in a corrupted state. ¹

The desires of Israel, directed straight to the Creator (Yashar-El), do not feel satisfaction until they reach correction. Such a person feels internal restlessness. If he is drawn to the revelation of the Creator, to correction, he cannot be satisfied with ordinary civil life, but must reach the revelation of the Creator. Only in this he will find comfort, tranquility, and satisfaction. ²

If we are given a desire to attain the Creator and we do not develop it, do not promote it toward the revelation, we inflict great troubles on ourselves because we are lowering the heavens to the earth. By this we cause the fall of the generations who were called to correct their desire. After all, instead of ascending to the upper Light and being filled with it, they want to receive abundance below without any correction, and by this they cause darkness and all disasters in the world.

People who were capable of making a correction and rising, becoming a channel for the upper world for all others, but failed to do so and did not realize the desire given to them to reveal the Creator, suffer from this themselves, and they also condemn others who cannot do anything by themselves and depend on them. Therefore, the nations of the world suffer from the fact that Israel fails to perform its mission, to correct itself. This is the reason for the existence of anti-Semitism. ³

Instead of climbing the degrees of bestowal and love of others and conducting the Light to the nations of the world, which was possible already from the First Temple, the people of Israel absorbed corporeal desires of the nations of the world and adopted their customs. In each generation only a select few Kabbalists remained. ⁴

There are laws of nature that act on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels. If a person does not follow them, he receives punishment because these are laws of physical nature. There are also laws of spiritual nature that relate to the equivalence of a person with the Creator. These laws act selectively, according to a person’s degree, like a system of justice that does not punish a child, gives only partial punishment for the same offense to a teenager, but punishes an adult person in full.

The spiritual ladder is created on the attitude of the upper Light toward the desire to enjoy, the material of the creation. According to this, a spiritual law acts at each level. The law is a proportion between the upper Light of the certain level and the desire to enjoy corresponding to it, when they are equal and can connect.

Therefore, if at some degree we do not see and do not know something, it means that it is for our benefit, because the ladder of degrees from above downward is built in such a way. We cannot complain that this is unfair. ⁵

Everything we feel in this world is an influence of the forces that guide us with maximal love and care in the right direction. Wherever I fail to see this, I need to correct myself in order to agree with this governance. ⁶
From the From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/18, Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”

“Do Not Show A Fool A Job Half Done”

Question: What does the Kabbalistic principle “Do not show a fool a job half done” mean?

Answer: The Creator does not show us half of our work until the step is completed.

The measure of the full step is called “seah” (an ancient measure of granular substances). Until we fill up our “cup” with a full measure of effort, we will not feel that we have done anything. We are shown neither half of the work, nor a quarter—only the completely finished work.

In every Partzuf (spiritual system) there cannot be less than ten Sefirot, otherwise their presence in Malchut (the tenth part of the Partzuf) is not felt. Only after all the processes in the nine upper Sefirot reach Malchut does she begin to feel that something is happening. Therefore, it is written that the spirituality is not divided into parts—there is only an integral structure.
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From the Kabbalah lesson in Russian, 11/26/17

Happiness For A Kabbalist

Question: What is happiness for a Kabbalist?

Answer: Happiness for a Kabbalist is an opportunity to fulfill others and, through them, the Creator. However, I by myself cannot bestow to the Creator or receive from Him, but only through a buffer, which is the group, and even better, the whole of humanity.

Question: What is a Kabbalist’s greatest joy?

Answer: It is from the action where he can bestow to the Creator through the group, and discover the Creator in it, seeing how one enters another, how the group becomes a buffer between him and the Creator, and how all of them together, the three of them, meet in this group, in this mass.
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From the Kabbalah lesson in Russian 12/31/17

New Life #30 – Interpersonal Communication

New Life #30 – Interpersonal Communication
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

In interpersonal communication and listening, each one understands that the world is his or her own picture. I see my own corruptions before me and realize that I have to try to ascend above all the corruptions and establish connection withs others. If both partners in the relationship participate in this process, they help each other and forgive each other.
From KabTV’s “New Life #30 – Interpersonal COmmunication,” 2/7/12

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Breaking Israel News: “The Greatest Role Natalie Portman and Other Jews in the Entertainment Industry Should Aspire To”

The largest portal Breaking Israel News published my recent article “The Greatest Role Natalie Portman and Other Jews in the Entertainment Industry Should Aspire To“

While the media spins into a frenzy over Natalie Portman’s turning down of the Genesis Prize (the “Jewish Nobel”) as a critical statement of Israel’s leadership, I was asked to comment on her actions. Frankly, I have nothing to say about her or what she did. Instead, the discharge of anger, accusations and opinionated ping pong surrounding the event presents a clear example that we as a Jewish people are not focused on what really matters. If we were, thenwe would rise above all the outrage and examine the core issue: our very identity and function in the world.

It’s no secret that the media thrives on generating hysteria by amplifying celebrities’ insignificant comments into wildfires of public opinion. What should we ask ourselves is why do we enjoy it so much? Why do we let ourselves get swept into this socially divisive snowball effect? Why don’t we enjoy in more socially beneficial ways, by engaging in the creation of a more positively connected society?

Actors Had Far Less Influence in the Past

Historically, actors were never at the center of public discourse as they now are. For example, in ancient Rome, actors had even less civil and political rights than their fellow citizens. Their ability to switch between different characters and behaviors made them seem “soulless,” as if they lacked personality and identity. As such, they were considered as being of lower social status. However, the 1920s saw Hollywood’s penetration into mass consciousness. Actors drew public attention. They suddenly rose in popularity and wealth to a high social status, and their opinions were also placed on an international pedestal.

Backed by the immense material strength of an audacious industry, actors ride controversial media trends, mostly political ones, showing support or opposition to one of the sides, in order to create buzz and empower their public image. It stems from sheer self-interest, and it’s why I’m not interested in dealing with it.

If we’re speaking about Jewish people in the entertainment industry, then I would expect them to portray an authentic representation of the Jewish essence. More succinctly, I would expect them to show examples of the tendency to unite above differences, that a kind, loving and caring attitude to others above all the primal divisive urges is what defines Jews at their nucleus.

A Mission for Jews in the Entertainment Industry

In practical terms, I would recommend that the entertainment industry’s Jews work on creating a new social vision, one of a positively connected future where we and humanity as a whole will succeed to connect above all of our differences. Instead of romanticizing the past or creating fantasies completely removed from reality, we should emphasize what can bring us together: the creation of a vision of how our society can overcome our current problems, divisions and conflicts and reach harmony rich with everyone’s individual characteristics and expressions continually strengthening a massive enveloping unification.

For example, the ceremonies in last week’s 70 years of independence celebrations in Israel sentimentalized the nation’s struggles and achievements over the last 2,000 years. From stories of the nation receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai, through 2,000 years of exile, encounters with anti-Semitism, tragedy in the pogroms and the Holocaust, the return to Israel, and the extensive efforts and ingenuity of Israel’s progress in security, agriculture, the economy and high tech in order to reach the solid national infrastructure Israel holds today—it is true that the people of Israel have been through a lot and have a great story to tell.

However, I would completely shift the focus of this story. Instead of reminiscing about our past and present achievements, we should see these as a background to our real challenge: How can we realize a new and enhanced vision of nothing less than a perfect future, one where instead of division, conflict, friction, and struggle, we will bring to the world connection, positivity, love, and happiness? We should accept the fact that we have been given a portion of land as an opportunity to realize our true identity and function in the world: to unite (“love your friend as yourself” [Leviticus 19:18]) and be an example of that unity for humanity (“a light unto nations” [Isaiah 49:6]).

The biggest story about our fate as a Jewish people is not in the past. It is happening right now. If we work toward envisioning and materializing this vision of social unity, then we will find ourselves living out our monumentally epic tale of biblical proportions on a day-by-day, moment-by-moment basis: we would start carrying out the role we were put here on this planet to fulfill.

Therefore, in echoing the words of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, that “I am glad that I have been born in such a generation when it is permitted to disclose the wisdom of truth,” (in “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”) we all have access to feel this joy by focusing ourselves on a vision of a positively connected future for ourselves and humanity, and starting to work together to materialize this vision.

The Greatest Role Jews Have Is Creating a Better World

I, therefore, wish for us all to start thinking about this vision and our role in it, that we discuss it, act it out and promote it to each other, and that large aggregates such as the entertainment industry and its actors whose opinions constantly ripple throughout our media networks, will start also playing their part in this new direction. Today, we have the opportunity and the potential to set off a major transformation to a positively connected world the likes of what we’ve never seen before, and it is my dear hope that we will realize it.
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Implementation Occurs In The Ten

The cascading of the worlds from above downward was the preparation for the correction, and the opposite process from below upward is its implementation. During the cascading from above downward all the conditions were established for disparity of form, so that we would reach the equivalence with the Creator from this disparity. The end of correction is complete equivalence between the created being and the Creator.

All this implementation occurs in the ten. The first ten, the first HaVaYaH, was divided, shattered in all possible ways and descended to complete disparity of form with the Creator, to complete lack of connection. We then begin to correct this shattering by connecting tens. By working on connection in our ten, we unknowingly gather many different tens, until we begin to see how they form an ever more advanced ten. ¹
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/18, Lesson on the topic of “Discovering the Creator’s Force in the Ten” (Preparation for the Convention “All As One” in New Jersey 2018)

Don’t Be Like Everyone Else!

In the News (Business Insider): “According to Moran Cerf, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University who has been studying decision-making for over a decade, the surest way to maximize happiness has nothing to do with experiences, material goods, or personal philosophy. …

“‘The more we study engagement, we see time and again that just being next to certain people actually aligns your brain with them,’ based on their mannerisms, the smell of the room, the noise level, and many other factors, Cerf said. ‘This means the people you hang out with actually have an impact on your engagement with reality beyond what you can explain. And one of the effects is you become alike.’ …

“Cerf’s conclusion is that if people want to maximize happiness and minimize stress, they should build a life that requires fewer decisions by surrounding themselves with people who embody the traits they prefer. Over time, they’ll naturally pick up those desirable attitudes and behaviors.”

My Comment: On one hand, here is another example of the irresistible impact of the environment on a person. On the other hand, I always avoided societies where everyone thinks the same. After all, it is a gray mass that doesn’t give anything. It is impossible to develop in it. Worse yet, the leveling of people breeds fascism.

Why should I be like everybody else? On the contrary, everyone should strive for individual development. Don’t try to be like others, express yourselves as much as possible. Then everyone will differ from each other, and everyone can bring something special to society, a “prominence” that is found only in you and not in others.

The problem is that we do not have a common methodology, a general knowledge, which allows us to build a cohesive society from uniqueness. People should change. They should all be very different and at the same time strive for a single goal.

This is a clear development of opposites on their union in a single, common source.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/13/18

Winnings—Beneficial Or Harmful?

In the News: In the US, a twenty-year-old Florida resident won 451 million dollars in lottery—one of the biggest winnings in history. How does Kabbalah consider such cases? Is this an accident or a coincidence? And if not, then to whom does luck come? (NBC News)

Answer: There are no accidents. There is a clear system of governance of our world, down to its smallest particles. This system is called “the upper world.”

It governs humanity in order to eventually elevate each person in his desires to the upper level. This is the program of development of each of us individually and all of us together.

According to this program, there are an immense number of commands that descend on us all at every moment. We receive and perform some of them instinctively, and some semi-consciously or consciously. Many of them we miss, are unable to perform, but nevertheless they pass through us in a certain way, forming and developing us.

Someone dies in sufferings, and someone wins millions or just lives his whole life without seeing or feeling anything bad in it. Why is it so?

The fact is that we do not understand the work of the upper “computer.” The wisdom of Kabbalah explains it; however, really comprehending and grasping this program is possible only by ascending to the system of governance.

After all, even an action by our own computer programs cannot be explained straight away. What can we say about the comprehensive program that gradually assembles us into one whole and reveals this thus-far-invisible thing, called “soul”…

We need to study the upper system of governance very seriously. It astounds with its uniqueness, its logic, its absolute interconnection and harmony. Getting acquainted with it, a person feels great pleasure because it fills him with greatness and perfection.

Then the very concept of “luck” also changes. For Kabbalists, “luck” is that they discover the future world, their future states, and bring their approach closer. The wisdom of Kabbalah is needed exactly for this. It says that there is no afterlife, that everyone should receive and master his future world now, in this life.

We live in the lowest, “dullest” of the worlds—until we reveal in it the upper world of love and bestowal. One cannot get there based on luck. There are no favors, lotteries, or accidents. Each person should search, make efforts—and his reward will not be dollars, but the degrees of an exciting spiritual ascent.

Regarding this ascent, everyone is equal and no one has advantages. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, everyone has the facts.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/16/18

The Revelation Of The Creator Is In Sensations

Baal HaSulam, The Writings of the Last Generation: This is because in fact, there is nothing more natural than coming into contact with one’s maker, for He has made nature. In fact, every creature has contact with his maker, as it is written, “The whole earth is full of His glory,” except we do not know or feel it.

Such contact exists all the time. It comes from the Creator and not from creation, and our task is to start feeling it. This is the wisdom of Kabbalah.

By definition, the wisdom of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to man in this world. The revelation is only in sensations.

Question: So, “the whole earth is full of His glory” comes from the Creator, and “we (the creation) do not know or feel it”—from our side?

Answer: Of course, every bug, every insect and leaf—everything is directly managed by this force, this field, called the Creator.

But this is not given to us in our sensations. Nature is an objective reality given to us in sensations. Therefore, what I feel is what exists, and what I do not feel does not exist for me. I can acquire additional senses and then everything that I can feel in them will also be part of nature that manifests in relation to me.

Question: Does a Kabbalist have the ability to constantly control his perception of reality?

Answer: There are no people living on Earth who cannot do this because we are all moving toward an ever-increasing correction. And when we become included in the Creator, everything will become simpler.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 10/9/17

New Life #29 – The Future Of Human Education

New Life #29 – The Future Of Human Education
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary:

We are facing the need for an absolute change, an innovation in human education.We are disconnected in every facet of life. Education needs to rebuild each person in order for the family unit to survive. We can only be educated in this way through exposure to a new type of environment that will provide a good example to us regarding relationships and social life. This environment will show each person how to get to know and understand his true nature, what life can be like, and how to get there together.
From KabTV’s “New Life #29 – The Future of Human Education,” 7/2/12

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Strength In Connection

In the work in the ten, it is insufficient to simply get closer in order to unite. We need to connect to each other to such an extent that no difference is felt between oneself and the group, and you do not feel yourself at all but only the unity of the ten as a single whole. This is the meaning of dissolving yourself in the ten.

Of course, this action can only happen through the action of the reforming Light. But the Light acts only in response to our demand. Nothing happens by itself because there is no coercion in spirituality: neither in the relation of an individual toward others, nor from the upper to the lower. It is possible only to awaken, which is only possible in an indirect way.

Nobody is coerced into achieving the quality of bestowal. Even if this is already what we want—to be forced and taught against our will quickly—it will not happen. The upper force does not behave in this manner because it cannot deprive us of our free will, without which it is impossible to achieve complete attainment. Everything is organized so as to bring us to the true, complete unity.

That is why we receive only hints pointing us toward connection, and even those are indirect. We must try to notice them.¹

As a result of connection, each one receives strength from all the others. This is only on the first level where each one receives strength from the ten. On the second level, with this strength, he once again connects with everyone and receives ten times more; on the third level, again ten times more, etc. Each time we multiply everything, we multiply our strength, but this all depends only on our readiness to annul ourselves to the group.²

In our world, an individual easily falls under society’s influence. Whether or not one wants to, one accepts the opinions of society through mass media and advertising. The more he follows society’s views, the more confident he feels, because he is thinking just like everyone else.

However, in spiritual work, everything is the reverse: an individual has no desire to connect to the group. He does not feel that this will give him confidence, he does not feel that the egoism will get anything out of it. He always has to work on overcoming himself, even to connect to the friends just a little bit. He does not see any egoistic benefit in replacing the opinions of this world for the opinions of a small Kabbalistic group.³

A Kabbalistic exercise is to detach from all your desires: food, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge, and bring them all to the Creator. Since, obviously, it is from Him that the Light that awakens in me the desire for all these fulfillments comes. And it is as if I reject this influence, reflecting the Light that triggers such motivations in me, such desires. I am left with one general desire for fulfillment, having no characteristics or concrete aspirations. I reject all concrete forms of fulfillment, as if removing my outer layer from myself, and return it to the Creator.⁴

We must discover and come to despise the qualities that hinder our achievement of unity, which distance us from it. If I seriously despise them, in a focused manner, correctly, consciously, then this hatred will distance me from these qualities and even turn them from hindering to assisting unity.

Hatred must serve the correction, that is, it must be thought through, weighed, and aimed at specific qualities. Hatred, disgust, and repulsion must help me turn rejection into connection; in other words: “love covers all transgressions.”⁵

Shame arises when I compare myself with the friends, with the Creator, and discover a huge difference between our states, our levels. Shame is a consequence of my lagging behind, my weakness, which I am possibly capable of avoiding. To a newborn, nothing is shameful. If there is something I do not understand, then I am unashamed: “Go to the craftsman who made me.”

Shame arises only when it is clear to me that I could have connected with the friends, could have done something to bring benefit to the group, but I did not do it. Shame is revealed in the place where I did not exert enough effort. But if it is a result of the qualities given to me by the Creator, then I do not feel shame. Shame is only experienced as a result of my causing harm, and it is my insufficient effort.⁶

We always have the opportunity to turn to the Creator and ask. But the reaction can feel as if it is completely nonexistent, or it can be either negative or positive. But if I want to advance further, then I must express gratitude for everything that I receive. Even having felt a negative reaction or nothing at all, I must act as if I received the desired answer.

After all, the request builds a spiritual vessel (Kli) in us. The Creator does not need my request. I need it! The request develops my desire, my need, and that is why “a prayer” means “to judge oneself.”

There is always a reaction, only we do not feel it, do not value it, because it does not come where we are expecting it, but in a different place. The reaction occurs without fail because we work against a system, not against a material force, and the system cannot take pity on us or just ignore us.

The answer always comes, only we do not notice it because it is in a different place, in different qualities, in a different time, and because it is not immediate. But do not doubt that each moment we exert an influence on reality. And if we do this consciously, then we influence it much more powerfully.⁷
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/18, Lesson on the Topic of “Dissolving Into the Ten” (Preparation for the Convention “All As One” in New Jersey 2018)

Everything Starts With Mutual Guarantee

The whole correction is in reconnecting the single system of the common soul that was broken on purpose by the sin of Adamwith the tree of knowledge. The breaking was a preparation for our work. We need to collect all the broken pieces and correctly connect them together.

The difficulty of this work is that every time we do something in practice, adding some part, perhaps not even consciously, then as we move to the next part, the previous one disappears. After all, there are new qualities, new sensations, and new conditions.

Even when we read some article we have read before dozens of times, every time we as if hear it for the first time. Everything done in the past vanishes like water in sand and nothing remains. This is actually a good sign that we are moving from one quality to another, and each time we are renewed.

Nevertheless, this brings us to despair because it is not what is accepted in our world: if I study, I must at least remember something, feel something, keep something in my heart and mind, and gain experience. Here there is no experience, as if every day you begin everything from scratch and do not feel whether you did anything before or not.

But this is just a sign that each time we are receiving new qualities for work, new broken desires that we did not have before.

Another difficulty of the work is that we were given a task to assemble the whole “puzzle” of the broken common soul, but we are unable to do it! After all, to assemble this puzzle we need to depict the complete picture that will be revealed to us only at the end of correction. So how do we assemble it?

It is written about this, “The Lord will finish the work” (“The Lord will accomplish that which concerneth me” (Tehilim, Psalms 138)). That is, we just need to put half a shekel, to invest a certain amount of effort by always trying to do this work, like a little child who tries and sweats, but nothing happens. Then we ask the upper force for help, we pray, and it does everything for us. That is, the upper force does all the work; we just need to discover the deficiency for it.

Therefore, the work seems incomprehensible, incessant, and incomplete to us. After all, the correct work at the end should lead to a cry, a request. According to this world’s traditions, the cry and request for help testify to our failure because we are giving up and admitting our inability to do the work. Yet in spiritual work, on the contrary, one must see great success in reaching a prayer, a request, tears, and a broken heart.

This is called the revelation of the truth, and nothing else is required—all the rest the Creator will finish for us. It turns out that this work is very different from what we are used to in our world. We need to remember this and support each other, trying to change our attitude to the work, to its results, and to our role. Egoistic work in this world cannot be an example for our work in the spiritual world.

The conclusion is very simple, “It is not for you to finish the work, nor are you free to idle away from it” (Avot, Chapter 2:21). Our task is to perform our part, to provide our half shekel, and the Creator will add the second half for us. We just need to reveal the deficiency for this: to find out we cannot do it ourselves and at the same time be glad that we are helpless because then we have a reason to ask for help and we know to whom we turn. That is, we feel dependent on the upper force and are glad that we ourselves do not have any strength other than the spiritual spark that pulls us forward.

Our progress always goes into minus, toward revealing the lack, weakness, helplessness, emptiness, and impotence, which only the Creator can correct. This requires changing your attitude to work, understanding that “The opinion of the Torah is opposite to the opinion of the landlords.” “Landlords” are those who know how to learn and do everything without involving any help from above. And the one who studies Kabbalah, on the contrary, feels weak and incapable of anything. This means that he was rewarded with the revelation of truth.

The Creator gave us this work so that we would reveal that the upper force does all the work. Therefore, our work is called “The work of the Lord”: we reveal that He is the source of all the corruption and the source of all the corrections, He gives the work and accepts it, and the goal is an adhesion with Him.

We need a covenant and mutual guarantee to bring about the Creator’s work on us. Without this request, the upper force that organizes everything and assembles us into one Kli will not come. ¹

There is no worse state than to not think about the Creator, to disconnect from Him. After all, then the Creator as if does not exist, we erase Him from the world. We please Him by the fact that we cling to Him, like little children who require help from their father. Most importantly, the request should be directed toward correction. There is no greater pleasure for the Creator than our realization that He is the source of all of creation and the only force acting in it, apart from which there is nothing else.

The created being is the one who is able to reveal this and thereby bring contentment to the Creator. This happens when we discover that we cannot do the work ourselves and require the Creator’s help. We bring Him contentment exactly by the fact that we call upon Him to work. In spirituality, everything is not the way it is in corporeality, because the work itself is the reward. ²

First of all, it is necessary to reach mutual guarantee (Arvut) between us, and through it we will be able to keep all the “commandments,” that is, connect the broken desires. We will do it with the help of the Light that reforms, which is called “the Torah,” we will reveal the Creator within our connection and adhere to Him, which is the purpose of creation. Therefore, everything starts from the mutual guarantee: without it, we can neither keep the commandments (that is, unite the parts of the soul together) and the Torah (that is, draw the Light of correction), nor reveal the Creator, since He is revealed only in our connection. ³
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/18, Lesson  on the topic of “Signing The Arvut In The Ten” (Preparation for the Convention “All As One” in New Jersey 2018)
1 Minute 0:20

My Way

Question: Is it difficult being Michael Laitman?

Answer: I do not know. I never asked nor answered this question. I have a duty, and I must realize it.

Remark: But people know you, criticize you, love you—whatever…

My Comment: As for whether they love me more or hate me more, I find it difficult to say. And to work for posterity only for the sake of being appreciated afterward is also not in my nature.

I will say only one thing. At the age of thirty-five, I was a fairly wealthy man who could afford not to work and to live peacefully somewhere on an island or in Canada. One could prefer this kind of life, but I could not afford it.

I chose the path with a lot of mistakes, doubts, and torments. But this is my way.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/31/17

Communication Between Kabbalists

Question: How do you communicate with your teacher and how do you learn from your students?

Answer: I communicate with my teacher on the spiritual level. It is not a problem that he is not in his body and I am still in it because our communication is on the level of equivalence of spiritual, not corporeal form. This is exactly how I am in contact with my students as well. Whether or not they are aware of it, there is an internal contact between us.

Comment: It is said that a teacher can learn from his students.

My Comment: Of course. It is practically a daily occurrence. My students all over the world constantly communicate among each other, forming various virtual groups, and the individual souls merge into one common soul. Each student displays a particular quality, a nuance in the spiritual Kli (vessel). By feeling them, I reveal new opportunities through them. They are like my eyes and arms.

Question: So, we are not talking here about some actions when you can observe a behavior and learn something from it?

Answer: No, this is solely an internal feeling.

Question: How often does this happen?

Answer: At every lesson, every conversation, all the time. And particularly when they form a certain union between them. Then that union plays in perfect harmony, like a well-tuned piano.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/31/17

New Life #28 – Infidelity, Sex and Emotion

New Life #28 – Infidelity, Sex and Emotion
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi, Nitzah Mazoz and Orit Dolev

Summary:

How is it possible to help a partner who has been sexually or emotionally betrayed?Does understanding the difference in the type of betrayal help in preserving the family? The power of the relationship is in the hands of the woman.
From KabTV’s “New Life #28 – Infidelity, Sex and Emotion,” 7/1/12

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What Is A Kabbalist’s Attitude To Everyday Life?

Question: What is a Kabbalist’s attitude to everyday life and its luxuries?

Answer: A Kabbalist is an ordinary person. He wants everything around him to be arranged in a simple and convenient way. I saw this both in my teacher and in other Kabbalists. They did not have anything superfluous: simple healthy food, simple furniture, comfortable clothes.

At the same time, a Kabbalist does not impose any restrictions on himself. He has everything a person needs: food, sex, family, work, etc. It is absolutely forbidden to deny yourself of the elementary filling of our world, because doing so you would stop the implementation of the program of creation. You must live a full life simultaneously in both worlds: material and spiritual.

Question: Does it mean that if the Creator gave me a lot of pleasures, then I should try everything?

Answer: No. You must take from this world what is needed to function normally and to attain the upper world. The upper world is the goal, and this world is the means to achieve the goal.

Question: That is, I myself decide, depending on my moral level, what I need?

Answer: Only if you do not harm others.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/7/18

A Question To Oneself

Question: What question should a student of Kabbalah ask oneself every day?

Answer: The most important thing is not to part from the feeling that there is none else besides Him. Never disconnect from this.

That is why each student should constantly ask him or herself the question: “What must I do so that I do not separate myself from the source of all existence?”
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 12/31/17

“The Greatest Role Natalie Portman … Should Aspire To”

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/29/18

It’s no secret that the media thrives on generating hysteria by amplifying celebrities’ insignificant comments into wildfires of public opinion. What should we ask ourselves is why do we enjoy it so much? Why do we let ourselves get swept into this socially divisive snowball effect? Why don’t we enjoy it more socially beneficial ways, by engaging in the creation of a more positively connected society?

Read my full article on Breaking Israel News >>

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A Dream Or Not A Dream

Question from Facebook: So we do not exist, and everything is just a dream? Does this include concentration camps too?

Answer: Indeed, when we see the true picture of the eternal world permeated with perfection and love, we understand that, as it is written in the Psalms, “We were like in a dream.” In other words, in isolation, in disconnection from reality.

All that we perceive before this state—our entire lives today, everything that we have gone through and everything that we will still go through—is drawn by our corrupted properties. And if we do not correct them, then many difficult problems, be it wars or other disasters, lie ahead of us.

But on the other hand, we can correct what is inside of us and go through the next stages in a positive way.

In general, we “prepare” our future for ourselves—through our uncorrected or already corrected properties. They should manifest themselves against the background of the white light—absolute love and bestowal. If we do not approach it voluntarily, then we are led by a circular path of suffering.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 02/13/18

New Life #27 – Concession In Regard To Marriage

New Life #27 – Concession In Regard To Marriage
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi, Nitzah Mazoz and Orit Dolev

Summary

The family unit has been completely destroyed since we no longer understand male and female natures. The idea of the family is embedded in all levels of nature – the still, vegetative, and animate. However, in today’s society, we feel no need for relationships. The framework of modern life simply doesn’t allow for the possibility of sustaining a good family and actually supports divorce. We have been turned into machines to create profit for someone else.

Relationships require a supportive society. We need to be educated in order to maintain our relationships.
From KabTV’s “New Life #27 – Concession In Regard To Marriage,” 7/1/12

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Everything Is Under Control

Question: If Kabbalah, its Light, develops strong egoism within a person and between us, is there a chance that this process might get out of control and destroy the people or the group with a wave of built-up egoism, leaving only hatred, malice, and disappointment behind?

Answer: Naturally, strong hatred, malice, and disappointment will begin to increase. But usually, it is manifested to the degree that we can counter it in order to progress us in the middle line.

Therefore, among students in each group, there will be contradictions, misunderstandings, and hatred, like with the students of Rabbi Shimon who wrote The Book of Zohar. Nonetheless, this process will not get out of control because everything is given in its proper measure. Every situation that arises can be solved or it would not have been given. Everything is done according to the concept: “Do not place obstacles before a blind man.”
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/17/17