A person has to exist on two different levels. One level is his usual, egoistic attitude to the world, which exists in him by nature and is concerned only with taking care of himself.

The second, a higher and a more advanced level, which he needs to build in himself, is the awareness of the integration he must achieve in order to conform to the general reality, that is, caring for others.

In this, a person does not sacrifice himself, he just begins to realize that concern for others is his real life. This is similar to anyone who does something kind for their own children; it feels no different from doing something kind for themselves.

Question: How does a person perceive unfolding events from these two levels? Can punishments that happen to him on his animal, egoist level be perceived as rewards on his integral, “human” level?

Answer: Of course, that which I perceive as evil on an egoistic level, I see as a reward on an altruistic level. This is with respect to any event in our lives.

Question: And what if, G-d forbid, something terrible happens to my children?

Answer: It is difficult to explain this question because there are too many personal feelings involved here. But, in reality, there is no evil in the world. That is what we discover when we rise to a higher level.

If we look at life from the most narrow and egoistic angle: here is my life, my children, me, and our perception does not include anything more than that, then it is impossible to explain anything. If a person looks at reality through the general system, then for him, on the material level, there is no life or death, no rewards and no punishments; all calculations are only for the common good.

The general system is eternal and complete; therefore, there is no such thing as death in it. Although in the physical body some cells constantly die as millions of cells are renewed each second, new cells come to replace the old, and life continues.

Therefore, if we look from the perspective of the general system, then our understanding of reward and punishment moves to a completely different level.

And we even see the same thing in our everyday life. If a little child cries because his mother doesn’t give him what he wants, is the mother is evil or kind? It’s impossible to say because each level has its own understanding of reward and punishment.

Question: What good actions should I do in order to receive only rewards, only positive responses from the system?

Answer: The only action that guarantees success is to find people who are already involved in developing this integral level within themselves. And then together you will learn how to connect to the physical general system and the spiritual one.

The most important law of the Torah is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the sign of connecting with the entire system in an integrated way. If you completely connect with the entire system, then it will, without doubt, affect you only in a positive way.

Question: And what if someone screams at me or hurts my feelings?

Answer: We have to understand that he is, as yet, an uncorrected part of the system and we must help him to correct himself.

The system is perfect and behaves according to one law: love of others. And if we want to be connected with this system, then we must learn to love!

All so-called rewards and punishments come to us only in order to direct us to this single law of love. And even if right now it seems to us to be the opposite, we need to follow this law with faith above reason, and then we will come to a higher wisdom.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/2/17

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New Life 859 – Our Approach to Life: The Solution For Anxiety
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

When we learn to connect to the upper Light, our life will be perfectly secure and happy.

A person who feels absolute love is not afraid because he is close to the Light and the Light fills him.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 859 – Our Approach To Life: The Solution To Anxiety,” 5/23/17

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 9, “One Should Always Sell the Beams of His House”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 17  

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” “Conscious Development and Unconscious Development”

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I see the #G20 Summit in Hamburg July 7-8, 2017 as a meeting between a doctor (Trump) and a sick patient refusing treatment (EU).

The New York Post’s address to #Trump–an article with three words: “Stop, Just Stop.” I would respond with a two-word expression…

From Twitter, 7/1/17

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Question: What can a person do who has achieved a particular spiritual level and has fallen from it?

Answer: The person needs to prepare a guarantee for himself even before the descent so he will descend and rise correctly. This guarantee is found solely and only in the society that surrounds the person, in the group.

If a person is with the group in an optimal state, then it will always help and take him out of any state; this is called making a covenant.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/29/17

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Comment: Friends are talking about their impressions of participating in conventions virtually, how their groups of ten sit together with us in lessons and in all the events, without moving from the computer and in mutual support for each other. They feel that their responsibility is much stronger than with us in the hall.

Answer: Certainly. In that way, they are bridging the distance.

The impressions from the conventions don’t depend on their physical presence. Rather, it is whether a person was ready to give everything to be in a convention, but he didn’t have the possibility. Therefore, it makes no difference if he is here or at home.

Question: What kind of future conventions do you see?

Answer: I see the future conventions as virtual conventions. A few thousand people will come to them physically, while all the rest will connect from a distance. Which is to say, the nucleus will be physical and the main part will be virtual.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/19/17

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Question: The movies about superman always have a great success. Now Israel has a reason to be proud, the movie Wonder Woman, which the entire world is talking about: an Israeli actress plays the main role. Her entire role in the movie is dedicated to saving humanity.

In thesraeli viewers comment, “The heart fills with pride every time when we see an Israeli woman do a heroic act and save people.”

Jerusalem Post columnist Herb Keinon wrote about “The wonder of Israelis watching Wonder Woman. …

‘The collective chest of those in the audience seemed to puff up as we all watched an Israeli woman – who in real life is very proud and open about here Israeliness …

“No shades of gray in this storyline, it was black and white … . It was the good against the bad. And Gadot – and through her, all the Israelis in the theater – were clearly, unmistakably on the side of the good.”

This symbolizes how the small, relative to the big world, people of Israel must bring Light to all of humanity. Is there a deeper meaning in the fact that it’s now the Israeli woman who saves the world, at least in the movie?

Answer: The problem is that this is only in the movie. After all, we, the people of Israel, really must be the Light for the nations of the world and save humanity from the deep hole we are sitting in now, from our egoism that is killing us. Unfortunately, we are setting a bad example to the whole of mankind of how to use our egoism skillfully in order to succeed more, to win, and to surpass everybody.

It is no accident that humanity hates us, because instead of being the Light for the nations of the world, we became darkness for them. Therefore, when we rejoice at the release of such a movie, we should understand that we really must be such superheroes who will show everyone how to achieve a good life.

A good life will come when we rise from our egoistic desire, which keeps us in slavery from birth, to the desire to bestow, to love instead of hatred, to unity instead of separation. We must show the entire world an example of how to do this. And the entire world will learn from us, will accept this method, and will correct the relationships between people, between countries, and between nations.

No tricks can correct the world, the whole world must change, and people must change. How is it possible to save a man if he does not change? So, where is the salvation, in receiving a palace instead of a small house?

The correction is only possible through a person’s inner change, his relationship to others. This is when we’ll turn hell into heaven where there will be love instead of hatred and bestowal instead of reception. In this way we will really come to a kind world. The wisdom of Kabbalah obliges us to fulfill this mission.

But it is pointless to wait for some superhero to come and save us; this won’t happen, this includes the Messiah. After all, the Messiah, Mashiach, is a force that pulls (Moshech) us from our egoism toward bestowal, love, and connection. Thanks to this, we reveal our new sensory organs and begin to see the wider world.

The people of Israel should lead humanity exactly to this by passing the method of correction to them. Until we do this, everyone will hate us. Such beautiful movies won’t help us. I think that it awakens very unpleasant feelings in the other nations.

On the one hand, they subconsciously expect that we will bring salvation to humanity and we aren’t doing this. In addition, we show them movies about superheroes, as if mockingly demonstrating that Israel can bring correction to the world, but for some reason isn’t doing it. So I don’t think this movie will have a positive impact.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/8/17

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Question: Our generation is like a ship that is ready to sail, but it is anchored. How can we lift this anchor so that the ship will sail?

Answer: Only the upper Light can do it! We have to understand that the decision is only in the influence of the upper Light on us. Only efforts are required from our side in order to make the light influence us correctly.

Question: The goal of the last generation is to come to adhesion with the Creator. On what principles will the society of the last generation be based?

Answer: There is only one principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Everything else is an aspiration to the fulfilment of this principle.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 5/22/17

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Question: People believe that they will be rewarded if they keep the commandments of the Old Testament and punished if they break them. Is it really like that? I know that some people put on tefillin before going for a medical check-up and believe that it will help them.

Answer: According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person is one big desire to receive, which makes him opposite to the system of nature in which he exists.

In order to achieve connection with the system, he must correct his desire from egoistic and caring only about himself, to altruistic and acting for the benefit of the general system. Obviously, only then will he be fulfilled because he will belong to the entire system and not be disconnected from it as he is now.

That is why our entire work is centered on transforming our nature from radical individualism to complete integration with the system. This transformation happens as a result of correcting the desires of the individual. As we begin to correct our desire, we discover that it is not just a single desire; it consists of 613 parts.

All these 613 parts are egoistic, but they can be corrected with the help of a certain force hidden in nature, called Light. When we attract this force of bestowal and love that corrects and transforms, then is can be said that we are keeping the Torah and Mitzvot.

Every time we correct another and another egoistic desire, we connect it to the general system with the help of this Light that Reforms, the Torah.

In the Kabbalistic sense, keeping the Torah and Mitzvot is engaging in the work of correcting desires from egoistic to altruistic and integrating this connection with the general system. Ultimately, a person becomes an integral part of the entire system. To the degree that he connects with the system, correcting one desire after another from individualistic to altruistic, he begins to sense the system to a greater and greater degree.

This means that he increasingly reveals the general system of all of reality, climbing the steps of attainment of worlds, spiritual levels, understanding increasingly more and experiencing it. This is the revelation of the true reality for a person that is offered to him by the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question: Where are the rewards and punishments in all of this?

Answer: Rewards become everything that help me correct another of the 613 desires and connect it to the general system. In this manner, from complete disconnection, I come to complete integration with the system and this becomes a reward for me because now I can be a useful element of the system. And punishment is the revelation of my disconnection from the system.

Question: There is a spiritual punishment for breaking the commandments that is called karet, which literally means “excision” or “cutting off” from the collective soul of Israel. What is meant by this?

Answer: The separation of a person from the general system is the punishment of karet.

Question: What does “death penalty” mean? Why does the system enact such punishment?

Answer: Punishment by death can only be on the egoistic desire, like s a person treated with chemotherapy or radiation that kills a cancerous tumor within him. That is, punishment by death is carried out on the tumor. In the general system there are no such punishments, only in egoism.

The entire system of reward and punishment is only with respect to a person’s egoism. Egoism can receive punishment and even the death penalty, while at the same time, the person begins to live as an integral part of the system.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/2/16

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