Question: How should we respond to the fierce criticism of Kabbalah coming from family during the quarantine period?

Answer: You should explain to your family that Kabbalah talks about how to create good relationships between people, how to raise children correctly, how to make sure that when you drive you are careful not to hit others or crash into the car in front of you, and to give way to others. A person should understand that society is integral and how beneficial it is for it to be connected through good relations.

Kabbalah explains the correct social structure in which everything works smoothly as one single organism. Creating such an organism is completely contrary to our egoism, which is decidedly opposed to it. This is the state we are in, but we must still find a way to correct ourselves. Kabbalah talks about how this can be done.

There is a positive force in nature—altruism. We must attract it to help us balance the negative force—the egoism that initially exists in us. Then we will live in an open, friendly, kind society. Otherwise, we will bring ourselves to mutual destruction.

Tell this to your family. It is unlikely they will be able to object.

Kabbalah is the science of how to use the positive force of nature, the quality of bestowal, the quality of connection, against our egoistic quality of separation and distance.

This is the science of balancing the two opposing forces in human society: positive and negative. By balancing them out, we transform the family, society, and the environment into something good and positive.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 5/3/20

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #3, “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”: “This is so because the word ‘name’ indicates attainment, like a person who names some object after having attained something about it, and according to one’s attainment.”

Baal HaSulam writes that which we cannot comprehend, we cannot name by name; we cannot precisely determine it. Therefore, “name” indicates the level of the attainment, the attribute, the connection with others and many other things.

As in our world, when we turn to a certain person, we do not simply call him by his name. After all, one who knows him immediately understands his connections with the world, the state he is in, how he is connected with others, etc. And for someone who doesn’t know that person, his name means nothing.

That is, the name indicates all the properties of a person and the world around him, with which he is interconnected. It is the properties of the object itself and the one with whom or with what it is associated that determine the name in Kabbalah. The very name of an object—the soul, or the world, or the level, or the force—determines the basic attribute of this phenomenon, the force, the object, the volume, or the level that we are talking about.

In Kabbalah, a name is not given by chance like in our world. It is based on the numerical value of the attributes of an object, on its connection with the world, which point of the general soul it is in, which forces influence it and how it responds to them. In general, all this determines and defines the object and its name.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/8/19

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In the article “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment,” (Shamati #3) Baal HaSulam writes: with respect to spiritual attainment, reality in general is divided into three discernments: 1. Atzmuto [His Self], 2. Ein Sof [infinity], 3. The Souls. …

3) The souls, which are the receivers of the good that He wishes to do.

The souls are the desire to enjoy, which receive the light of the Creator, the filling that comes from Him.

Ein Sof is called so because it expresses the connection of the Creator with the souls. This is actually how He wants to bring us pleasure, to fill us so that we will feel Him as an infinite source. We do not attain anything other than this connection, and so we cannot speak about anything else. It is in this connection with Ein Sof that everything begins.

When we begin to attain the Creator, the upper world, we discover that this state is unlimited. It is as if there is an infinite ocean around us from which you can take whatever you like, and it all depends only on your desire. Similarly, when we begin to reveal the Creator’s light, we feel as if we are swimming inside Him since He surrounds us.

We understand that we are in the ocean of the Creator’s light, and His attitude toward us is absolutely good, eternal, infinite, and perfect. But how can we receive anything from this state?

Imagine that you are like a newborn and your parents relate to you with infinite love and benevolence. What is next? You do not know what to ask for, what to demand, what to do, and how to relate to them because you are facing absolute love.

Such a state, which we experience when we begin to reveal the Creator, seemingly stops a person, since what can one do if one encounters such an attitude?

So, we begin to realize that our mutual cooperation with the Creator can be built with certain boundaries when we try to create a kind of barrier between us and the Creator so that we will be able to feel ourselves in some kind of framework. Otherwise, it is as if we are swimming in an ocean and cannot scrutinize anything at all, cannot feel anything.

As created beings we can exist only when there are specific, accurate frameworks which enable us to feel ourselves in relation to certain qualities and influences. But if there is no framework, this situation cannot be described or felt, and we cannot integrate it into our attributes in any way.

We must place ourselves in some framework, enclose the Creator in this framework, and then we will be able to speak about our attitude or about our connection with Him.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/8/19

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Question: You are talking about nature as a derivative of my own properties, that something seems to depend on me. Are there no absolute, unchanging laws and forces that would act independently of my perception?

Answer: Of course there are. But you want to understand the integrity of nature. And since you perceive it only in your sensations, you must somehow adjust them, change them to the correct perception.

Question: That is, I, as a particle of nature, should feel its integral picture?

Answer: Yes. Therefore, Kabbalah speaks only about this. In order to comprehend all of nature, you must, as they say, relax and rise above your egoism. Then you will feel nature not through your egoism, but as a system existing outside of you.

You will begin to feel that you exist not individually, but in an eternal, perfect total. You will feel not yourself, but the big picture as a whole, all the laws, the functionality of this system, in which everything is in mutual movement, complementation, and communication, in absolute integration.

Then you will understand what you are missing, what you must add to this eternal, perfect integral picture, which, passing through your subjectivity, through your egoism, gives you a completely distorted picture of reality.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 5/17/20

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Question: What is nature?

Answer: Our nature is the egoistic desire to receive, to enjoy ourselves, to be within ourselves, and for ourselves.

And the opposite nature that we do not feel is altruism: caring for others, love for others. We do not feel this, but we can somewhat imagine it from the example of how a mother treats her child, although these are also egoistic manifestations. In our world, there can be no true altruistic relation between one creature and another.

But by studying Kabbalah, we will see that this is still possible. There is the upper light—a special substance that can affect and change us. And we will become different.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/19/20

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New Life 1178 – Can We Make Heaven On Earth?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

The wisdom of Kabbalah suggests “you will see your world in your life”; meaning, we can open a door to heaven during our lifetimes on earth. Life was not given to us to be merely swallowed and enjoyed. There is a much greater purpose for all our suffering. When something unpleasant happens to a person, if he or she realizes that one can correct one’s egoism, the evil will become good through the power of love. Love is the key to heaven’s doors. When a person feels others and discovers that they are all connected to him or her, one begins to experience the force that flows between the souls, the source of all life. The upper force revives everyone and gives each person wholeness. Heaven occurs when all of humanity comes to a complete and eternal embrace.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1178 – Can We Make Heaven On Earth?” 11/19/19

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Lesson Preparation

Writings of Rabash, Article 34, “What Are Day and Night in the Work?” (1988)

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 54

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

Selected Highlights

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