We have no other choice: we must acquire the force of bestowal in addition to the egoistic force of reception given to us by nature. And then we will have in our hands two reins with which we can control the world and our lives.

But where do we get this force of bestowal? It exists in nature, but it is absolutely alien to us. Man was created with the sole force of egoism and cares only about receiving.

We need a second force, an altruistic one, in order to build a complete system with the help of two forces and to be able to control the world with two reins, like a rider of a horse.

And there is such an opportunity! The second force is present in nature; you just need to learn how to use it. If we want to attain the force of bestowal, we can act by combining two opposite forces—just like nature works where there are plus and minus, heat and cold, etc. All of nature except man consists of two opposites: the entire still, vegetative, and animate world, as well as the still, vegetative, and animate level in man himself.

And only man, in his inner intention, acts with the sole force of reception. There is no force of bestowal in him at all. Even if he gives, it is only with intention to receive something; that is, his giving is a hidden reception.

This is our problem and because of it we cannot build a normal society or family. We cannot perceive reality correctly because it is woven from two forces. We are in a spiritual, infinite world, but we do not feel it. We lack only one more organ of perception for us to sense it, the organ of bestowal in addition to reception.

And then, we will feel a complete, perfect system, and understand where we exist and how to live. We will discover that we are actually eternal and perfect! We are not so temporary and mortal as it seems to us now when we observe everything with only one sense, which is so tiny, short-sighted, and does not see beyond the degrees of this world.

The universe is much bigger and higher, but we cannot even feel it with this desire to receive that we have; it is so pitiable.

All systems of nature consist of two balanced forces: reception and bestowal, plus and minus, absorption and segregation. And the human system contains only one force, and we always face shattering because we want to use only the power of reception and not the power of bestowal. We lack a second force. We are obliged to establish systems of bestowal between us. Yet, we are not capable of this by nature, and therefore we need to build a new relationship between us.

No one is born with the force of bestowal. Everyone knows that small children pull everything to themselves and do not agree to let it go from their hands. This is our nature. And how do we build systems that will fulfill us and balance our relationships?

We need to achieve a balance. No one forbids us to use the power of reception, but it is necessary to balance it with bestowal, and then the human system will begin to work correctly like metabolism in the body, like all natural systems.

Otherwise, we exist in nature as a hostile, foreign body, like a cancerous tumor.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/21, Writings of Rabash, Note 919, “Concerning the Environment”

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To Revive the Spiritual Body

Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: Four attributes are provided for that purpose: mercy, truth, justice, and peace. These attributes have been used by all world reformers thus far. It is more correct to say that it is with these four attributes that human development has advanced thus far through the government of heaven, in a gradual path, until it brought humankind to its current state.

The Creator controls us through four forces, four attributes, four qualities—mercy, truth, justice, and peace. He causes them to manifest in us both in a positive and in a negative form. As a result we are adjusted by these four attributes to our perfect state in which we complement each other like cells in the body.

Take, for example, the human body, disassemble it into the smallest cells and try to fit them together. How will you compare them with each other? How can they connect, complement each other, interact, integrate? This is an incredible job!

But this is how it happens. However, if we could see our physical body operating, then we will see that we do not have such a spiritual body, it is broken.

We begin our journey by Adam being shattered, and he must be assembled together piece by piece through mercy, truth, justice, and peace. This is the work of a person in our world.

It has already been written that it would be better for us to take the law of development under our own hands and government, for then we will rid ourselves of any torment that the developmental history has in store for us henceforth.

If we took this law into our own hands, we would understand that each of us has absolutely broken qualities of mercy, truth, justice, and peace. We have nothing in common with them, and therefore, we cannot communicate with each other. After all, we can connect only based on these four categories.

This is our job. Let’s study them and try to put them together. Each of us consists of all parts, but we need to understand how we can connect them.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 7/28/19

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First of all, I live inside the ten, my small group of friends, as if I grow in a capsule. And only when I grow up will I be able to get out of it into the open world and be freely connected with it.

In the meantime, I can only work in the world to provide for corporeal needs and take care of my family, which means, I communicate with it on a physical level. But beside that, I have a part of the upper world, a part of eternity, and this is the group that determines my eternal spiritual state.

I will have to say goodbye to this world anyway because we will all die one day and lose all connection with it. But I will not lose touch with the group because I am building an environment in it with which I will continue on. This is my spirituality.

Therefore, do not confuse one with the other. And let’s decide what is more important to us.

The importance of the goal, the spiritual path, gives us strength. After all, what could be more important in life? Is it worth focusing on material ties that will break sooner or later when I leave this world, or on a career, on money? The world is shifting to such a state that soon we will all be left with nothing. And then, what should we worry about except spirituality?

The Creator gradually brings us closer to understanding that there is nothing to think about except spirituality. Ultimately, we have no freedom of choice and ability to change anything. Even before we die, we already realize that there is nothing significant left in this world except actions of bestowal, connection, and to reveal of the Creator.

Nothing else remains even in our material life, nothing remains for our ego. Under the blows of nature, we will gradually come to this awakening. All egoistic fillings in this world disappear: there is no money, no honor, no power. A person loses everything, and this is a lesson from above. Only emptiness remains.

Therefore, we must correctly prioritize life, find out what is important and what is secondary in it. Being human means weighing what is more important, what is less important, and what is not worth wasting time on at all.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/21, Rabash, “Environment” Article No. 919

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How does culture influence us negatively?“

Without any connection to how the general culture influences a person, the result of being parts of a culture that values materialism and consumerism is that it gives us a heightened sensation of emptiness, which leads us into more and more problems like depression, loneliness, stress, anxiety, drug abuse, suicide, extremism and crises in families and in our upbringing. The negative effects of living in such a culture generally leads us to a global crisis, and we could even reach such states as a Third or Fourth World War, or the threat of annihilation resulting from an ecological or nuclear catastrophe.

We are developing to a whole new peaceful and harmonious state of existence, but on the way there we need to experience our egoistic nature as an evil and negative force. It is undesirable to feel this realization of our egoistic nature as evil through suffering. On the contrary, it is desirable to reveal our ego as evil by means of a specific form of education and awareness.

However, for the time being, we are developing from a smaller ego to a bigger one, and from small pains to greater suffering. Nature is purposefully formulating a menacing feeling and environment around us so that, whether we want it or not, we would feel that our egos are the source of the evil that evokes all problems and suffering in our lives. Through such a realization, we will discover that egoism itself functions in order to compel us to see its evil and to annul our drive to serve it.

In the same token, there is also a possibility for a short, positive and painless path to a peaceful and harmonious world not via suffering, but via the realization of evil. We can do so only with the help of disseminating the wisdom about how nature works on all of its levels—still, vegetative, animate, and of course, human—and how to achieve the final state nature is guiding us toward peacefully and harmoniously. It is possible and much more desirable to achieve a change of human nature by means of awareness and connection-enriching education instead of by suffering.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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I do not give advice to the Creator, but I bow down and am ready to fulfill all His requirements as far as I can. After all if I do not agree with what is happening, it turns out that I am telling the Creator how to treat me.

First of all, my consent is needed, that I am in the power of the upper force and I want to get closer to it, and I do not require the Creator to change and get closer to me. I only ask the Creator to work on me to bring me closer to Him.
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From the International Kabbalah Convention 9/25/21, “Entering Impregnation – Revealing a New World”, Lesson 1

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Comment: You claim that Kabbalah is approximately 4,500 years old. But historians and philosophers claim that it is much less.

My Response: The fact is that philosophy has nothing that could be put to the test of experience. Therefore, each generation writes a new philosophy and the previous one is stored. In the end, nobody uses it.

I met with many experts, in particular, with Professor Daniel Matt, who translated The Zohar into English in a special, academic language. He taught at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. We gave lectures together. Before that we had a lot of conversations, and I asked him: “Why do you assert that The Zohar was written in the eleventh century by Moshe de Leon?” He replied,: “From the descriptions in The Zohar, it seems to us that it is about the nature of northern Spain, those meadows, those hills… .”

I asked, “Are there really no such meadows and hills in Israel, in Galilee?”

He answered, “Well, so it seems to us.”

This is despite the fact that The Book of Zohar itself repeatedly describes how Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was sitting with his disciples and writing this book, how one disciple asked a question, then the second one, the third, and so on. There is not a single page in it that does not mention how Rabbi Shimon’s disciples discussed all these questions among themselves and immediately wrote down the answers to them.

This is what the book consists of. From this the book was formed.

But Professor Matt believed that Rabbi Moshe de Lyon purposely wrote it in such a way to hide his authorship. It is not clear why.

I think that philosophy’s pride is somewhat hurt because in comparison with Kabbalah, it really is worth nothing, because it operates with purely illusionary, unprovable categories that have no basis whatsoever.

But nothing can be done, and this also has a place in humanity.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Seekers” 9/16/09

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Prophets, Joshua, 17:3-17:4: But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters; and these are the names of his daughter: Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

And they came near before Eleazar the priest, and before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the princes, saying, “The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers.” According to the commandment of the Lord, he gave them an inheritance among the brothers of their father.

A daughter is the will to receive without an intention to bestow, which so far has no personal correction.

There are such desires in a person for which he cannot acquire the correct intention. Yet, since these desires exist, he wants to reach their correction. But how? He does not have such capabilities.

Man symbolizes the intention for the sake of the Creator, and woman is the desire without intention. Therefore, desire plus the correct intention can give birth to a correct action called a child, children. Therefore, a woman cannot do anything by herself.

However, since they have accurately checked and made sure that they do not have any suitable desires, this leads to the fact that they seemingly complain to the Creator, “Why are desires created in us without the opportunity to correct them?”

Question: Still, inheritance was given to daughters. Why?

Answer: Because the most important thing is the earth, the female part. The male part gives only intention to the female desire. Therefore, female desire cannot be destroyed. You must find a suitable intention for it. Thus, we see that this problem is not resolved yet. The Creator did not provide people with capabilities to correct, and yet, correction must happen.

Question: Why does the Torah always speak about sons being born and not daughters?

Answer: Because the most important thing is the intention. The desire is there, but the intention is given by the Creator from above.

Question: When the intention to bestow appears, it means that a son is born. Is a daughter born in parallel or together with this desire?

Answer: In the original narrations of the Torah (Bible), it is said that male and female are almost always born together. Then we see that each time there are more and more confusing states because we are constantly advancing.

As the correction progresses, problems and inconsistencies arise between the male and female parts. Thus, we must search for the male and then the female part.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/9/21

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Question: What is murder in spirituality?

Answer: If the desire falls out of the right correction and I cannot work with it yet, it is called that I killed it.

Question: What does unintentional murder mean?

Answer: It happens that I could not fulfill the thing I was given to work with. Or maybe the opposite is true, I was given work with an egoistic desire and instead of transforming it into a positive, altruistic one, I simply killed it.

I could not overcome it in the correct way, but I as if destroyed it, it just disappears from me for now. In fact, it does not disappear anywhere, but I can no longer work with it.

Question: Then, who is the judge in me?

Answer: Practically, it is me on the next degree. In addition, the other groups, the friends, and Joshua leading me forward are all special forces that explain to me where I am.

In principle, the judge is a view from the next, higher degree at the lower one.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/16/21

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #15 “What Is Other Gods in the Work?”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 61

Selected Highlights

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