Question: Once again we have approached the study of the Preface to The Wisdom of Kabbalah (Pticha), but at a new level, through feeling. This is so interesting, so deep, that again we miss the technical details.

Why, when we start to ask any technical questions, does it takes us away from the sensory perception that we have entered, knocks us out of it?

Answer: This happens only in the beginning. For example, when people learn to play a certain musical instrument, at first one has to work on technique. They have to do exercises and get used to the instrument.

Once they have mastered it, then it is as if they unite with it and the instrument begins to express their feelings, those that they cannot express themselves. I take a violin in my hands and it sings they way I never could. But through its singing, through its longing, through its sounds, I am able to express myself.

It is the same here. First we have to learn the instrument. Our instrument is feelings, nothing more than feelings because we are merely the desire to enjoy. This is what the Creator created in us.

In order to express our feelings for the Creator, we need to take them above our egoism, that is, through the desire to the friends. This is a great, special, wonderful opportunity to take our feelings through them because I will not get into the Creator otherwise!

The group for me is an instrument on which I play. If I did not have it, I would not be able to convey anything to the Creator. Therefore, the shattering of the common desire into a vast number of desires gives me an opportunity to play, as if on piano keys, all sorts of melodies of connection. From them, I assemble a symphony, a song of love for the Creator. These are feelings. Yet, they work on mathematics, on desires.

Several times in our lessons, I told you about my friend who worked on the restoration of the organ in the Riga Cathedral. He told me how complex this instrument is. He had books and articles on the structure of the organ with complex mathematical formulas, including diameters, pressure, tune, and so on.

A question arises: what are we going to study: mechanics or how with its help we can evoke feelings? The Creator needs both.

Why? It is so we could fully become masters of the desire that He created, and with its help, express everything in the same way He does, as our quality of bestowal in relation to His quality of bestowal. So that we could connect, adhere to Him.

Therefore, we do not go into feelings with no connection to mechanics. Currently, we do not pay more attention to feelings, because once we run into this, we do not understand what is required of us. We must develop our sensory perception, and then we will play.

We will look at different drawings and cry or laugh—each one will have one’s own reaction. You have no idea how many drawings there are—thousands. So you don’t have to worry about mechanics. You will have all the mechanics you want.

Thus we will come to this. Then everything will be balanced: both feelings and mechanics. You will be able to play the instrument perfectly and express your feelings through it so that both you and the Creator will really be in a common understanding and enjoyment.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/4/19

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New Life 265 – Overcoming Social Anxiety
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Overcoming social anxiety requires that each of us play the character of Noah by making an inner effort to put others at ease. Whether I am at work or at home, I do not do what is hated by me to others and I make room for everyone. I restrict myself and become like air that does not pressure anyone. Everyone must agree to go into Noah’s Ark together and hide there from the evil force that separates us. Today, we imitate characters from films and no longer know ourselves. We play all kinds of false characters, according to false values. We need to cleanse ourselves from this hypocrisy since it only leads to stress. If everyone plays the “Noah” game together, we will connect to a wonderful puzzle in which everyone will find his place.
From KabTV’s “New Life 265 – Overcoming Social Anxiety,” 12/6/13

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “To Learn From the Descent in the State of Ascent” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,”  Item 50

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 6/23/19

Our groups from 34 countries participated in a special talk we had this morning in preparation for our upcoming Kabbalah Convention in Europe, that will take place in Bulgaria, November 8- 10, 2019.

The theme of the talk was: How to Unite Babylon? Kabbalah Academy Students from the EU gathered with a great concern regarding the future of their continent and presented their questions, so we can begin preparing a strategy for spreading unity in that region. Thank you to everyone who joined us.

Austria Belgium Bulgaria Bosnia Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cameroon Czechia Denmark Estonia Finland
France Germany Greece Hungary Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Moldova Netherlands
Norway Poland Portugal Romania Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom

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It is possible to accelerate the movement toward the Goal of Creation while being in any state, but especially in a state of ascent: to realize that one has received it in order to move toward the Creator and to ask to come closer, EVEN THOUGH one feels no need for it.
And if one does not succeed in the request, he will receive a descent…

Being responsible for one’s actions means that within the boundaries of the freedom of will that I’ve been given, I respond as if the Creator was in my stead…

Good deeds are when you wish to be in the common desire to draw upper light in order to fulfill the friends through you, as a conduit between the Creator and the others. Fulfilling others is exactly what a good deed is.

A sinner is one who has performed great work on oneself. The “Light of Torah that Reforms” comes to him and shows him the place from which he must return to the Creator.  A righteous man is one who, with the help of the Light that returns one to the Creator, corrects his Kelim—intentions for bestowal.

As you weave the blanket of love, treat negative things as being sent from above. The Creator deliberately created evil, but everything is predestined to direct us to the upper force. If we attribute everything to one Source, we will weave a foundation for the light, the blanket of love that will envelop us.

The extent of unity in the 10 determines the degree on the ladder of ascension: the greater is the unity in the ten, the greater is the degree. The higher we are, the more influence we receive from the integral system of the universe—the Kli and its filling, the Creator’s light
From Twitter, 6/23/19

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Question: Your Instagram readers are asking: “How can we accept evil?” You answered: “There is no evil. Evil simply points out to a person that he hasn’t reached perfection in goodness.

That is, concealed good is felt as evil. It is felt acutely so one will pay attention to what other possibilities exist for him to correct this property and turn it into good.”

One of your readers is asking: “What about rape? Abnormal behavior in our connections?”

Answer: This is egoism, it is excess. Of course, this is evil. But egoism must be corrected, and then there will be no evil. That is, this is an incorrect attitude toward another. The intention toward another is just intention. If it acquires either a positive or a negative form, then we have to discern and correct the “minus” into a “plus.” But the intention itself cannot be changed. In other words, we cannot castrate a rapist; we need to reform him.

Question: But how?

Answer: How to do it is another thing. Actions will not change the world. We have to delve into the root of the problem, into why some people treat other people in such ways, and correct that direction,or in other words, his intention. This is what the science of Kabbalah deals with.

Question: Suppose someone commits violence against others. What does it mean to correct his intention, that the same actions of the same person would be beneficial to others?

Answer: Did he intend to hurt others? No, he wanted to fulfill himself. So let him fulfill himself through different actions: acts of kindness toward others. He needs to be corrected, reformed, and educated differently.

He will then receive the same pleasure, even a much greater one than he would have felt while perpetrating violence. Kabbalah can give him pleasure that is 620 times greater. Instead of violence, it will be acts of kindness toward another person, as that person will be enjoying it together with him.

Question: What accounts for such transformation in a person?

Answer: The upper force, the upper light. This is not a simple matter. Nor can the rapist do much about it. A person must be changed, re-educated.

Question: But what can be done?

Answer: At the very least, do not imprison him. According to the Torah, there is no concept of prison. There is no concept of “isolating one from the society.” In order to isolate him—there were six cities of refuge. That is where one would get re-educated.

Question: What happens to a person when his intention changes, when his attitude toward others changes? At what level does this change take place: chemical, psychological?

Answer: On the spiritual level. On the highest, most inner level. He has to change his attitude, his understanding of where he is: in a society, in the world, his attitude toward life and death, toward the whole universe, everything has to change inside him. This correction takes place under the influence of the upper light.

Question: Suppose a rapist wants to change his attitude…

Answer: Even if he doesn’t want to change, we will gradually influence him in such a way that he will want to change himself, and will be changed.

Question: What does it mean to influence him in such a way that he will change?

Answer: Through examples, education. It is an educational system that has to influence him over a long period of time. People that were sentenced to the refuge cities could not leave. If a person killed or harmed anyone, he could find a refuge there, turn himself in and admit his crime, and then the societies in the refuge cities would work on him.

He was influenced in such a way that the upper light could affect him. One has to put himself under the influence of the upper light. A person cannot do it himself, he is completely corrupt. Therefore, he is aided in such a way that the upper light begins to affect him.

How is this achieved? By inclusion into society. The collective works on attracting the upper light, and a person, by being in the society, whether he likes it or not, receives a portion of the upper light through it, and the upper light reforms him.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/28/19

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Question: How do you explain the phenomenon when you suddenly begin to understand?

Answer: Understanding is an awareness of the connection between the previous and the present state, that is, cause and effect. The connection between cause and effect is called understanding.

Question: What does it mean to understand the Creator?

Answer: From His actions on us we begin to understand Him.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/3/19

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New Life 264 – Sexual Development, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What attitude should a person establish from a young age toward others in order to build the right relationships with them and what emotion should we develop in order to succeed in finding a partner that suits us?

A man and a woman, like plus and minus, can form a spiritual connection over the opposites, above the human ego. Even during sexual intercourse, each one needs to be directed primarily at achieving the inner spiritual connection. The intensity of the joy of intercourse in the degree of the speaking is immeasurably greater than what we know of in the level of living. When I’m hungry for sex, I have to think about how I can, with the help of this urge, fill my partner up. Each one thinks only about how he or she can transcend oneself and give pleasure to their partner.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 264 – Sexual Development, Part 2,” 11/29/13

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