I remember that at the time of the first Lebanon War,  my teacher Rabash and I listened to the news on the radio all the time, and he shared his impressions with me about how he perceived all that was happening. And I was surprised about how such a great Kabbalist was worried about events in the country and the world.

And for him it was a map of the battlefield. He completed everything through his internal calculations with higher Sefirot, and somehow this worked for him.

During the military operations Rabash was very focused, more quiet than usual. In general he was a person who very much loved jokes, but the moment the war began, his state changed sharply. This was truly derived from within; he was terribly concerned and very happy about our victories and successes on the battlefield.

I felt that this was terribly close to him, unlike the rest of the people around him in Bnei Brak. At that time I was a beginning student, and I was quite surprised about how much a person believed or didn’t believe in the Creator, His power and how everything comes from above.

Rabash always wanted to know the factual news, without any commentary, to react to them correctly. And when they asked him why he needed it, he answered: “And if your children were there, even then would you act calmly and dispassionately like this?” That is, he felt that his children were there in Lebanon. That is really how he felt about it.
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Comment: Lately there has been an active discussion in Germany about the question of the removal of Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf. And now comes the announcement that the German Teachers’ Association intends to include this book in the school curriculum.

They think that a detailed investigation and analysis of this work under the guidance of the teachers will make it possible to shield the students from extremism.

Answer: Everything depends on the form of the approach and study. But in any case, this will have a negative influence because that is our nature.

It is like offering children to learn words that are forbidden to be used, or showing pornographic movies and analyzing them from the perspective of high craftsmanship. But in any case the youth will look at it like a wolf at a goat, and he will converse with them about high material and simultaneously swallow his saliva.

I would imagine that this will not teach the children anything. Certainly they will develop various circles and youth movements of the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) type because each of them will feel that it is his history and he wants to justify himself.

The book itself was well-written, with all kinds of historical and other proofs. In principle, the author was right that the Jews are to blame for everything and that everything that was and is in Germany resulted from them.

I would say that this was not only in Germany but also worldwide. For everything that was done in the past and in the present was realized either by the Jews or through the Jews, or from the Jews through others. That is how our world was built and organized; we just need to understand how to use this correctly, finally leaving this vicious circle.

Humanity always goes in the same circle, constantly hitting itself and stepping on the same rake. So in this context, it is doubtful that this book will help.

Certainly it will give birth to a great number of anti-Semites. After their grandfathers, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren will stand up and it could be that it will then be possible to explain more to them. But today the anti-Semites are too atrophied if not completely indifferent regarding this problem. When they become more rigid, this will hasten development even though a movement like this in the left line is certainly an undesirable movement forward. But there is nothing to be done here.

The problem is again the Jews. For the world to go in the right direction, the Jews don’t need to convince anyone of anything and do anything else. For if they succeed in reorganizing themselves and finding their dependence and completing each other correctly in friendship, in love, and in integral connection, then the whole world will automatically aspire to that state and become like it.

Then the book Mein Kampf will also be perceived differently. So the outcome depends on what is done in Israel. If we don’t take any measures, then it will be bad. But if unity will begin in Israel, then this book seemingly will highlight those characteristics of a person that are in need of correction.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/20/15

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Midrash Rabba, Parshat Balak: The bird in Parshat Balak revealed secrets to Balak that were not known to anyone. Among other things, the bird told Balak that he would overcome the children of Israel, yet would ultimately fall into their hands.

In a previous attempt, Balak did everything that was required so that the bird would speak. He bowed to it, burned incense to it, but the bird flew away from him.

Much later, the bird returned when a flame singed its tail. This showed Balak directly that the control of the Creator would ultimately prevail over his impure power.

Balak could not win because the highest point is general bestowal and love. Only on such a level is it possible to be like the Creator.

Question: What do the miracles of the left line indicate?

Answer: These are not miracles, but egoism that is created by the Creator because a spiritual structure, the spiritual world, is created only from the discovery of the ego and its correction. In fact, the spiritual world does not exist. We create it from the ego that is found in us and from the Light that we attract from above.

The influence of the Light on the ego is what builds states or images of mutual cooperation, thereby connecting them together. These are forms of mutual cooperation between two opposing forces.

To the extent that we attract the Light and want to resemble the Creator, the ego is born and developed in us. About this, it is also written, “The greater the man, the greater his Evil Inclination” (Sukkah 52a). So, to the degree that there is spiritual growth, problems increase.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/9/15

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Comment: The commander of Ayalon prison was under house arrest because of sexual harassment, although it later turned out that it was romantic love.

Answer: We are nearing the correction of the world. Our egoism kept growing throughout history and thus determined our evolution. But in the last 150 years the ego has begun to grow exponentially. In the past people didn’t think about sex so much. In ancient Rome and ancient Greece, for example, different celebrations and distortions were part of the elite’s life.

The life of ordinary people was very hard and they only thought about how to survive. They had several children, but they could never know how many of them would survive. Therefore this issue wasn’t relevant then.

Now, however, the growing ego is revealed in the form of sex since we are quite satisfied with regard to food. Therefore sexual desire is growing sharply, changing its forms beyond the ordinary frameworks of traditional sexual relations.

Different impulses, which humanity never encountered before emerge. We can see school children as young as 10 years old surfing pornographic websites, etc. It seemed that it would pass, but it isn’t, it keeps developing, taking on new forms each time.

The point is that man first develops in his desires for food, sex, family, and then there are the desires for wealth, respect, power, and knowledge.

But as I have already said, people are generally satisfied when it comes to food so it is time now for people to be satisfied sexually, just like they are with regard to food.

In the past sexual impulses were minor and a person could satisfy them in the framework of the family, but today it is erupting everywhere and all the time. After all, people live much longer now and while in the past a couple was married for 30 years and then died, today they live together for 50 years. This means that we are facing a totally different humanity, a different atmosphere, a different connection between people!

Why has the divorce rate increased so much? It is because the mutual relations between people are not meant to be for so long, not to speak of the egoism they have today.

Generally speaking, we should approach all the problems we encounter today in a totally different manner. We have not developed a new systematic perspective of modern relations between men and women, but we see how everything falls apart and that everything is temporary, casual and therefore an affair between a commander and a female prison guard is inevitable. Perhaps it makes no difference that he is a commander and that she is subordinate to him because if such relations do exist, it is very hard to resist them.

A person suddenly begins to feel that it is the main thing in his life. On the one hand we think: “What is going on?! A grown man, a prison commander, in such a post, he has three kids, a family…” She may also be in the same situation, and suddenly this happens. I believe that we cannot remain in outdated frameworks although the law strongly forbids such behavior.

We must understand the current state of man. Many may criticize me, but we cannot live according to the old principles and according to the old rules today. We have to change our approach to life every day, according to our ego.

The current laws were written 50 years ago, and you cannot accept them today like you did in the past. If 50 years ago 90% of the women were virgins when they got married, today hardly 10% of them are and men don’t care what the woman they marry did before they met.

Question: Does this mean that you endorse the legislation of new laws concerning this issue?

Answer: I believe in laws that go along with current circumstances. We have changed and the circumstances have changed, but the laws have remained the same. We put the laws above us instead of changing them to suit the circumstances, the relationships that we encounter in humanity today. Under no circumstances can we use the frameworks of the Middle Ages today!

We will not achieve anything this way but will only destroy people’s lives. They will not go along with the outdated laws anyway! Laws regarding mutual social relations and formal laws of conduct will differ. People will begin to disrespect and hate them. They need to be changed since otherwise society will be ill.

We should have social debates; debates on TV and on the social networks, everywhere. We have to work on this in public institutions and suggest changes in legislations and regulate them so that the laws constantly change according to the changes in society.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/16/15

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Midrash Rabba, Parshat Balak: Balak could have been better than others by creating a magical bird. His name, Balak ben Tsipor (bird), indicates that he could predict the future with the help of a magical bird.

Midrash Rabba is a book that was written at the time that the Torah was written, and it could even have been before then. Sometimes, we even associate it with the times of our father Abraham who preceded the appearance of the Torah. This is because everything that is written there is written after that in the Torah, separated by 600 to 700 years.

So historically, Midrash Rabba is no less important than the Torah. The explanations in it are very broad and deep, delving into all kinds of different niches of the way to the spiritual development of a person.

When a person develops spiritually, he passes through those niches, understands them, but does not linger in them. Indeed, everyone can delve into them as a result of his development.

But there are souls who are so broad that they enter into all of these states and can describe them.

It must be understood that this is talking only about forces of nature, about the forces of man, those through which he passes by way of the systems of right and left, one system nourishing the other.

Egoism cannot exist without altruism and altruism without egoism. So, in a person there is only egoism, and solely and only above it he builds altruism as he transforms the ego and immerses it into altruism.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/8/15

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Preparation for the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 17

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Writings of Baal HaSulam,“The Giving of Torah,” Item 15

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Gatehouse of Intentions,” Item 21

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The Torah, “Numbers,” 22:5 – 22:6: He sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of his people, to call for him, saying, “A people has come out of Egypt, and behold, they have covered the ‘eye’ of the land, and they are stationed opposite me. So now, please come and curse this people for me, for they are too powerful for me. Perhaps I will be able to wage war against them and drive them out of the land, for I know that whomever you bless is blessed and whomever you curse is cursed.”

A person always will be mistaken before he attains the state of accurately yearning for the Creator. To be mistaken means to be under the curse of Balaam.

Only when a person reaches the point of accurately yearning for the Creator, which he can reach only after internal wars and the revelation that all of the problems are inside him, does he receive a blessing instead of a curse. This is what we see.

Question: Balak’s call to Balaam is like to the Creator and sounds exaggerated: “… whomever you bless is blessed and whomever you curse is cursed.”

Answer: Balaam is higher than Moses in that. Moses cannot turn to the Creator like Balaam because he turns to Him from an egoistic perspective.

His “she-ass” [donkey], his animal level, is connected to the Creator. Interestingly, his ego is on a level of a prophet. If you are on the left part, in a shell, you have enormous powers, animal powers called Balaam’s she-ass.

Here the she-ass prophesizes, which means that his lowest desires are connected with the upper forces, and all of this is revealed to a person as the left line.

What is poor Moses worth? He must ascend above this state in his connection with the Creator because, with regard to the Creator, he is like a baby. Balaam commands the Creator here. In other words, you face a king who has a loyal companion, a loyal force that gives commands: to stop this little Moses. What is he running around for?

Moses can do only one thing, which is to surrender, but this is how he wins. What is more, their forces are absolutely unequal.
This attribute in us that leads us to the Creator is the peak of our continuous yearning for unity.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/8/15

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Question: In your spiritual development was there a time when everything seemed meaningless to you? If so, what brought you back to the path?

Answer: A Kabbalist passes through states like these every day! This is on every level! In The Book of Zohar, they describe the difficult states that Rabbi Shimon and his great companions went through when they wrote this book.

Likewise, I saw states like these that my teacher went through. When he was in a state like this, he could not move or open his eyes. He didn’t have any strength; it had left him!

There is no Kabbalist, not even the greatest, who hasn’t experienced daily opposing states on the way, from the greatest minus to the greatest plus. Specifically with their help, he advances in the right and left lines, like walking with the right and left legs.

People going in the path of truth go through states like these because it is impossible to achieve a new, higher level unless we first feel its emptiness.

All knowledge is built on a comparison between darkness and light, so the feeling of disappointment in life—in emotions, in work, in tasks and in everything that a person does, and for which he exists—is natural and necessary. Otherwise, he cannot push himself and rise higher.

However, there is no need to fear these states! It is simply necessary to strengthen the connection with the right environment, and then all of these states will seem like blessings. So, I suggest that you will have disappointments and, together with this, great fulfillments, and then you will feel life!
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/25/15

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Question: Is it effective to read The Book of Zohar in Russian or English, or must you read it in the original language?

Answer: Of course it is. Read it translated in the language you understand.

Question: You say that if we do anything at the expense of others, we draw further away from the upper world. But we live only at the expense of others: we eat, dress, and so on. What do you mean when you say at the expense of others?

Answer: At the expense of others means that I steal another person’s efforts, what he deserves and not me.

Question: I think that a person attains the Creator after much suffering and pain. Is that really so?

Answer: Not necessarily, a person must feel pain, but it must be pangs of love, like a person in love yearning for his loved one. This means that he experiences pain, but it is sweet.

Question: Is the wisdom of Kabbalah similar to Buddhism?

Answer: No, according to Buddhism, you are supposed to destroy egoism. But in Kabbalah you are told, “Don’t give up anything; yearn for spirituality and, to the extent you yearn for it, the desires for this world will begin to diminish by themselves.”

Question: I have strange dreams. The feeling of reality is blue and white. I come out of my skin and feel free. What does it mean?

Answer: I think that it is a problem and that you should consult your doctor.

Question: Nature speaks to me in a language that I understand perfectly, so how can I discern the thin border between a psychological illness and a healthy perception of reality?

Answer: I can say only one thing: a person who studies in a group with friends according to the right sources and guided by a teacher will not have such difficulties, neither of white and blue dreams nor problems with his psychological perception.

Question: Must a person live with a partner as a couple? Sometimes two people meet, then their kids grow up and one of them dies. Must the other look for a new partner or carry on by himself?

Answer: It is up to you and to what your heart feels.

Question: How can you discover and feel the upper forces in our five senses?

Answer: It is only with friends. When you begin to build the network of forces, you will discover the upper world in it.

Question: Why do I sometimes begin to shed tears during the lesson?

Answer: It happens because the upper force begins to operate in you, but your desire cannot perceive it since its volume is bigger than your desire. But it is a very good thing.

Question: Is all of humanity on the same level?

Answer: All people are on different levels and will never reach the same level of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Those who have stronger egoistic desires are more attracted to it because they want to find an answer to the question about the meaning of life. Those who have smaller desires are more passive in this life.

Question: Why does the Creator need the creation to resemble Him?

Answer: It is in order to reach a state of absolute pleasure.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/11/15

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