Question: What is the difference between a corporeal group and a virtual group?

Answer: If the friends work correctly between them, there is probably no difference.

Why probably? In order to do that, we need to go through certain phases of development, to achieve something, to begin to understand and to perceive it, to process these phases, and then to advance. We are pioneers in this sense, because we are doing something that has never been fulfilled in history.

After all, the group that Abraham assembled in ancient Babylon and called Israel operated in different conditions. They were not shattered and they ascended to the level of the First Temple, which means one level below full correction.

Then they were partly shattered on the level of the First Temple, and fully shattered on the level of the Second Temple. They passed another 2,000 years of detachment from the spiritual state. This is the reason that today we are beginning to reconnect.

Since the Babylonians dispersed all over the globe at the time, and Abraham’s group also dispersed in the world and mixed with other nations, we now begin to gradually reassemble, not knowing from where and how. Yet, these are not our own independent actions, but the outcome of the Creator’s effect, the effect of the general light on us.

So when we reassemble, we don’t know how to act. There are general schemas, general rules of the correction of the broken Kli (shattered vessel) of the one soul. But no matter what you ask about, I will not tell you that that is the way it should be, even if I am absolutely sure of the answer, because in the spiritual world there is the rule of “there is none wiser than the experienced.”

A wise man is a person who undergoes everything and speaks about it only from his own experience, but who knows the levels that we are undergoing now? There are no such people in our generation.

It will be easier for the next generation though. We will leave them our teachers, our impressions, we will leave them the broken Kli (shattered vessel) that we have begun to reconstruct, and so, of course, it will be easier for them to do it.

I am not quite sure how the group will undergo the levels of attainment. We are advancing by making small steps, and although we are advancing quite fast, every small step is still new, so time will tell. We will intensively move forward and see for ourselves how it works.

On the whole, our movement is similar to the states Kabbalists underwent in earlier generations, but there may also be changes since group work is implemented for the first time. It is new, since throughout history the assembly of the broken Kelim (shattered vessels), the vessel of the general soul has never been fulfilled.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/11/19

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Question: How can we know that we have a connection with the teacher?

Answer: If you participate in the lessons and follow my advice all the time, then you already have a double connection with me. After all, you receive the method from me and you try to implement it between you and return to me with questions.

This is your connection with the teacher. It is conveyed through an external connection to an internal connection, and you begin to feel it.

Question: Can people who have no connection to the wisdom of Kabbalah at all open up new horizons for me in understanding the wisdom of Kabbalah and in understanding myself?

Answer: Absolutely not. They will begin to delve into psychology or philosophy, into the philosophies of the East etc., but not into the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Baal HaSulam says that the only way to attain the wisdom of Kabbalah is through a Kabbalist teacher. I met a Sufi sage in England once.

In my meeting with that sage he also told me: “If you wish to study with me, you need to love me.” This means that everything is based on the connection between the teacher and the student.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 12/2/18

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Question: How can one come closer to the Creator after a serious trauma? How can the Creator desire this suffering and pain? Why and what for?

Answer: I cannot explain this to you. You must learn this by yourself, and gradually, precisely gradually, you will begin to see the true picture of the world. I do not even want to talk about this right now. You will not understand me, you will reject what I can tell you.

Question: Doesn’t the very presence of trauma prevent development?

Answer: No. It even encourages us.
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From KabTV’s “Ask a Kabbalist” 12/31/18

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic of “Mingling/Inclusion”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 4, Chapter 2, Item 7

Selected Highlights 

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Are we heading towards World War III?“

We live in unprecedented times. In our era, humanity is becoming increasingly interconnected, and together with this growing connection, we discover more and more inner resistance, rejection and opposition. Moreover, today we also see that we have no idea about what to do about our growing division.

In the past, we would settle our growing divisiveness with war. Nations and states found direction and motivation in their mutual conquest for control and governance over other nations and peoples.

Today, however, we see no media discourse about war as a solution to our problems. It also becomes increasingly clearer to world leaders that war will solve nothing. Governments are finding that they cannot even control their own populations, and so the idea of taking over and controlling other nations becomes all the more elusive.

People are realizing that we have no energy to go to war, yet at the same time, governments continue to strengthen their military forces.

Wars between countries have become replaced by cold wars within nations, where increasing divisiveness and polarization lets no one rest, especially among the countries’ leadership ranks. Country’s leaders today have to deal with ever-strengthening political opposition striving to bring them down. In such a situation, countries engage more in internal struggles, and less on external enemies.

At a bird’s-eye view of such development, we see how nature constantly increases our interconnection and interdependence, and until we adjust our attitudes to match such connection positively, then we experience it negatively. While war is a tragic and unfortunate phenomenon, it was also seen as a solution that provided direction and motivation to mobilize countries in the past. Today, however, through the process of increasing connection on the outside and increasing division in our attitudes to each other on the inside, nature is exhausting us. This growing helplessness of world leaders and their populations are making divisions between countries less important than the divisions within countries, and it is ultimately growing a desire in us for sincere connection. We will eventually come to see that only connection above the divisions can bring us peace, balance and harmony.

The point where both world leaders and their populations will feel helpless, and that control is out of their hands, is called “the recognition of evil.” It is a phase that we need to undergo toward a more positive connection and sensation of livelihood. This phase takes place in order for us to develop a sincere desire to connect above the divisiveness.

Through increasing division, we evolve in our understanding of what unity means. In the past, we related to unity in terms of families, tribes and nations. Today, unity needs to be revealed on a much broader scale, which is defined not as unity of one group against another, but unity above division.

Therefore, if we understand the principle of unity above division, how to approach it, and know how to invite the fundamental force of connection dwelling in nature that has the power to connect us, then we will be able to realize a new harmonious state in humanity: the unity of humanity upon the forces of division within every one of us.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 30, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Tu BiShvat (15th of Shevat) is a holiday called “The New year of the trees.” On this day, trees begin to awaken to life in anticipation of summer, of the New Year.

It is written that man is like a tree in a field. Therefore, Tu BiShvat symbolizes the beginning of the blossoming of man, of his spiritual development.

There are four New Year celebrations during the year on four levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human. The New Year of trees refers to the vegetative level, which is not still but grows and develops, and therefore, it relates to man.

On this day, a person should realize that he himself determines his path, the process of development, and the goal. There is no coercion from above, but here at this place in the connection between us, we determine and execute our development. Therefore, we need to check whether our goal and our every step are correct. If all this is aimed at connection, then we will certainly succeed.

New Year is the time of judgment, so we need to judge ourselves and the world to determine the direct path to the chosen goal. In fact, we should judge ourselves every day, but especially today, in the New Year of trees. After all, this is no longer an inanimate but a vegetative state, that is, a living state that wants to achieve something. Therefore, today we will try to think again about how to grow more and more toward the goal.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/21, “Tu Bishvat (15th of Shevat)”

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can you describe your spiritual awakening experience?“

We start our spiritual ascent from having an entirely egoistic desire, which wants solely to receive for personal benefit, and then a tiny spark of a spiritual desire emerges within us.

The spiritual desire is one of love, giving, and positive connection with everyone. However, we initially do not feel this desire as such, but instead feel it as inner emptiness among our egoistic desires. It raises deep questions about our true identity, and our meaning and purpose in life.

Existential questions such as “What is the meaning of life?” “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” urge us to seek their answers. If these questions bug us enough, we embark on a journey through new and different environments to those we grew up in, reading all kinds of texts, and reaching out to various teachers and groups.

If we sincerely ask about the meaning of our lives, then eventually we arrive at the wisdom of Kabbalah, which was made specifically for answering that question. The wisdom of Kabbalah is also called “the wisdom of connection,” as it methodically guides a process for how to positively connect in order to discover our ultimate unification among each other and with nature as a single soul, with the force of love and bestowal dwelling in nature holding us all together.

We learn about fundamental principles of the reality that we live in: We once existed as a single soul, called “the soul of Adam HaRishon,” which shattered. The shattering of Adam HaRishon gave rise to our state as we know it in this world, where we perceive each other as separate beings, and feel detached from nature as well.

However, while we exist in this perception of separation, we have a small spark, called a “point in the heart” in the wisdom of Kabbalah, which belongs to our connected state as a complete soul before it shattered. This point in the heart awakens existential questions in us, and urges us to search for how we can ultimately discover our perfectly connected, harmonious and eternal soul.

At the start of our Kabbalah studies, we learn the difference between humans and animals, that humans have an additional egoistic inclination for self-love unfound in the animal world. Whoever feels this egoistic self-love, a sense of uniqueness, can also reach the sensation that it is an evil inclination, and that in order to discover spirituality, they need to rise above this evil inclination in order to discover a “good inclination.”

The good inclination is one of connecting and integrating with others. By investing ourselves in such a connection, we invite spiritual forces that dwell above the point where the soul of Adam HaRishon shattered, and through the influence of these spiritual forces, we eventually reach the discovery of our true connection as a single soul. That revelation opens up to us a complete picture of reality, and a sensation of connection that is absolute, harmonious, perfect and eternal.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 26, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Do we influence the rest of the people by the fact that a large enough number of people are studying Kabbalah?

Answer: Of course! We are in one single system, as if in one spiritual body, we are mutually connected, and therefore, directly influence each other.

Suddenly I receive messages from Japan, China, Iran, Chile, and so on, that is, from completely different, opposite points of the earth where people are beginning to feel the emptiness of today’s life and see in Kabbalah the only opportunity, the only means, to change it.

I hope that those who read and listen to us will understand that Kabbalah offers them something incredible, amazing. Moreover, it does not oblige them to anything in any way.

You can stay as you are in your profession, in your life, in your religion, in your studies, in your leisure, in your habits, it does not matter in what. This has nothing to do with anything. Just begin to understand, to realize, to become familiar with the fact that you have an additional part that makes you an eternal perfect being.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #3

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Question: To what extent are different spiritual states, ascents and descents measured as our feelings inside the ego?

Answer: There are states that we feel in the ego that is not corrected yet. These are preliminary sensations.

However, there are states in which a person corrects his egoism and then begins to feel the Creator in the attribute of bestowal to the extent that he is in equivalence of form with Him and is no longer in the attribute of receiving. This is the right feeling.

The complete revelation of the Creator to a person is the goal of creation, the goal of our development.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 12/9/18

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