Question: In Kabbalah do the words “birth” and “death” differ from our usual concepts? As far as I know, Kabbalists do not celebrate their birthday.

Answer: And not the day of death either. However, there is an example of such a celebration in history. On Lag B’Omer we celebrate the day of departure of Rabbi Shimon from this world, the man who wrote The Book of Zohar.

The fact is that Rabbi Shimon totally completed his work. He worked his life hundred percent, and passed on he source of life to people, the method of correction. As soon as he finished this, he immediately retired from material life. What else could he do in this world? He fulfilled his mission.

In this world, we exist as many times, as many lives, as necessary for us to be realized. And then we do not have to come back. This world is the worst state of all that exist in nature.

Comment: But we think it is something wonderful and beautiful.

My Response: We have nothing else. We are just scared to get away from it.

Where are we going? What is happening to us? We do not know. In fact, a person who has not reached at least the first ten Sefirot of his soul’s development simply dies, i.e., his animal body dies, and he reappears again in an animal shell. He does not feel himself in other dimensions.

To enter the spiritual world, one must enter it while living in this world, and then the animal body living or dying in no way affects your spiritual state. Therefore, it is said: “See your world in this life.”
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From KabTV’s “Close up. Beyond the last line” 5/3/10

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Question: You say that a Kabbalist exists above the level of death, while an ordinary person exists below this level. What does it mean?

Answer: A Kabbalist is not afraid of death and an ordinary person constantly lives in this fear, tries to forget himself, and flirts with himself through various actions just not to think that his life is drawing to a close. Fear, an incomprehensible feature of disappearance, termination of life, “Why then do I exist, why do I do all this?”

And although these questions are very relevant for us, they remain unresolved, out of our lives. We simply remove them from ourselves, engage in secondary and tertiary activities, and leave the most important thing aside as if it does not exist.

But if we set these questions as most important for us, then everything else simply would not make sense until we solve them. “Why do I give birth to children? Why do I exist? I chase after all sorts of petty fillings in life, for what?!”

And the Kabbalist reveals all this and therefore exists in absolutely clear, real movement. For him, everything is in its place. He does not engage in half hints, does not hide from birth and death, the cessation of this life.

He understands the importance of each of his states. He behaves rationally in this life because he treats every phenomenon in its present perspective, in its present dimension, in its present importance—in accordance with life, movement, death, reincarnation, the achievement of some final goal, which, perhaps, will be in a few lifetimes. He sees this whole perspective.

And so for him this little life is also part of many. He understands where his every movement, his every action is. That is, he does not act in our world like an ordinary man that he lived today and tomorrow—”What will be, will be, what can I do?”—without understanding the next moment, not imagining whether it will happen at all or not.
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From KabTV’s “Close up. Beyond the Last Line” 5/3/10

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Question: When speaking of Jerusalem, one cannot but mention the city wall surrounding it with its eight gates. What does this mean spiritually?

Answer: The wall is what surrounds the city. It was necessary to emphasize that within the city there are special properties of bestowal: connection, love, and reciprocity.

Therefore the wall means the connection between all egoistic desires, which take the obligation to be interconnected altruistically, spiritually upon themselves. Thus, the presence of the wall meant that there could be no egoism inside the city. Otherwise it’s not a city.

As for the gates, as a rule they open and close so that you can accept something or it is impossible to keep it in yourself and  you need to let it out of the city.

In the language of Kabbalah, this can be represented as a screen (Masach). If you work for the sake of bestowal, then it lets the light of the Creator’s delight into your desires. If not, then the gates are closed.

Comment: It is interesting that one of the gates in the city wall of Jerusalem was walled up. They say they will open in the future.

My Response: This is the Moshiach Gate.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/22/22

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why are great artists usually terrible people?“

Recently, a renowned writer was found to have hurt several women, some of whom say that we now need to get rid of his books. Indeed, there have been acclaimed artists throughout history who have created masterpieces while exhibiting terrible behavior in their personal lives.

One has nothing to do with the other. People can be great artists who create the most beautiful and inspirational art about the loftiest of matters, and exhibit terrible behavior in their personal lives. It is unsurprising, because a person includes an entire world of positive and negative qualities.

As we head into the future, it is important to understand that we are headed toward recognition of our evil, i.e., how our egoistic and divisive drives do not let us positively connect, and such awareness will lead us to the conclusion that we have to change.

We were created with an egoistic nature, where we each prioritize self-benefit over benefiting others, in order to become aware of our opposition to the altruistic and whole nature, and to reach a sincere desire to invert our nature into the latter. Doing so would invert our perception of the world as we know it. We would then experience a harmonious and peaceful life.

Based on the video “Why Are Some Artists Such Terrible People?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Pesach (Passover)” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” 

Selected Highlights

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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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Question: Is power over other people the greatest pleasure?

Answer: There is nothing higher than this in the egoism of a person.

Comment: But you once said that honor is the greatest pleasure.

My Response: You receive honor from others and a sense of power comes from you. Power over others is the highest egoistic state.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/22/22

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Question: Igor asks: “It seems that Armageddon, the war of Gog and Magog, has been going on for a long time, but for some reason we have not seen or felt it. Is that true? Or will everything settle down, pass and be forgotten?”

Answer: Everything will pass, except for one thing, which is the last state we will come to. And it will contain all the previous states that are concentrated, collected, and taken all together. And it will be the basis for the last state.

That is, the last state will consist of two, one called “Kli” and the second called “Ohr“—vessel and light. So the vessel will consist of all the states that each of us and all of us together have gone through in history. This is a terrible amount of suffering, doubts, and misunderstandings, everything altogether.

Question: So everything that we have gone through, all wars and all sufferings come down to this vessel?

Answer: To one state that includes everything. And then this state is corrected by the upper light or the Creator, which is one and the same. And this state becomes equal to the upper light. That is, everything that is realized and comprehended in all the millions, many millions of sufferings that all of humanity has gone through at every moment, all this turns into light. And thus the Creator is attained.

Question: So there was nothing we should regret?

Answer: It never happened!

Question: And all the most terrible suffering?

Answer: It never happened. It’s not something that has been forgotten and now we don’t feel it.

Question: And these are not mistakes that we once made?

Answer: None of this happened at all! It existed only as a preparation for us to feel today’s absolute state.

Question: What do you mean never happened? There were: the Second World War, the Holocaust, the First World War, the Civil War, the blood spilled, it all had happened! Or did it? Or do we then go into a difficult explanation?

Answer: In the impossibility of explanation, perhaps. But I still have to say that this did not happen. We rise to another level of perception of reality, a sense of reality where nothing like that ever happened.

Question: Then what happened?

Answer: There was only preparation for us to feel the only existing state, the state of being filled with absolute universal love. And it in turn is simultaneously felt as absent, negative, and an aspiration to the positive. And the absence of love and hate, everything else, all this is included in love because it is impossible to feel one without the opposite.

Question: So this exalted love is shining on me and I feel it as hatred? I haven’t attained it yet and that’s why I feel it as hatred?

Answer: No. You attain it, but in what you attain, you also comprehend the opposite quality. Otherwise you won’t be able to feel it. We don’t feel one without the other.

Question: So it exists together all the time?

Answer: We are creations, created! The Creator, He feels one state, if I may say so, only love. And we can feel one thing only from its opposite.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/28/22

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Comment: Many viewers, quite a number, are asking this question: “How do you talk to children about the war? How do we explain to them what’s going on?” How does one explain why they are bombing and why childhood has ended to those children who are hiding with their parents in bomb shelters and in the subway?” And other children whose childhood continues, those who do not hear sirens and explosions but see what is happening to their peers, ask why this is so.

And the main question is: How do you raise children at a time like this when wars, suffering, and tears are non-stop?

My Response: Children can understand because they also fight with each other. After all, egoism works from a very young age.

So there is nothing here that needs to be hidden from them. Indeed, if we don’t bring up children correctly, then, just like they play in childhood and want to take away from each other and become such bullies, so they continue in adulthood, and that is why we end up with war as a result. Grown men no longer have just shovels or sticks in their hands, now it is something serious. And that is when war begins.

So what should we do? While children are little like yourselves, remember, we tell children, we need to teach you, to bring you up to be able to talk to each other, to come to agree with each other, and to learn to compromise. Then you will not get to such terrible, big problems like these men who start these wars. That is what comes from the fact that in childhood they did not obey their mother.

Question: Do you think that a child will listen to that?

Answer: When he sees this very thing? He is extremely impressed.

Question: When he is under fire? Can he be told just like this?

Answer: Tell him exactly like this. Of course. This is true education. This is the basis of wartime education.

Question: So it’s not to dwell on “enemy,” “hatred,” or “against us”?

Answer: No, they will not understand it; they have no concept of it, no foundation. But when you explain in terms of childhood play and give and take, “when you wanted to take something, but he didn’t give it to you,” you can talk about everything.

Isn’t it how it really works? These games of oil and gas and all sorts of international relations, are they not the same children’s games?

Comment: It has turned into something dangerous.

My Response: Yes, because they didn’t stop it in time or couldn’t explain it in time. So this is how it turned out. Because in childhood they could not explain to understand that it is never necessary to resolve disputes by force. Can you convince the others? If yes, great. If not, compromise.

Question: Should the child understand that disputes are not resolved by force?

Answer: They can’t be resolved by force; otherwise, we will destroy each other. Can you imagine it in the modern world?

Question: How are disputes resolved? What should the child we are raising understand? How do you explain to a child how to resolve disputes?

Answer: Only by persuasion, when you do not force another person to peace, but when you explain to each other how you can come to peace together, with mutual concessions, and not with the approach of “I am right and you are wrong, and now you will understand it.”

Comment: Now you have said a very serious thing, that a child should be able to compromise.

My Response: Of course! This is the most important thing in education. Otherwise what is all the education for? To teach how to hit first? To hit stronger? Or better? It is for the sake of being able to stop and compromise.

Comment: This is the most difficult thing, for children especially.

My Response: Of course. Because they have exposed egoism, small, but revealed.

Question: So you propose to teach concessions, to teach a child so he can yield to others?

Answer: Everything needs to be explained. And then sit in a circle and conduct practical exercises.

Comment: If there is an argument, let’s sort it out? How can we not fight but make peace. This is such a long system…

My Response: Otherwise it will take even longer.

Question: Can this be explained to children who are under fire?

Answer: To everyone! It all depends on the words, vocabulary, and expressions you use. You are explaining this to the ego, which is the same in a small child as it is in a grown-up man, it is the same egoism.

Comment: The main problem here is to train teachers, prepare those who can teach what it means to come to peace, and what annulment means.

My Response: Yes, this is the most important.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/3/22

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Poor Earth, all our shadows fall on it ( Stanisław Jerzy Lec).

Question: Why is it poor that our shadows fall on it?

Answer: Well said! This is exactly why it is poor. Our entire egoism and everything we obscure with ourselves, with our disgusting “I,” all of this falls on Earth.

We want to cover the Earth with all our egoism, literally cover it with all our egoistic intentions, desires, and thoughts, in everything.

Question: How should it be? After all, we are egoists.

Answer: We have to make an absolutely transparent body out of ourselves so that the light fully passes through us to the Earth.

We should not leave any traces of our own on the Earth at all! We must live on Earth as animals live on it. They do not pervert or vandalize the Earth, they do not distort it. We should be the same.

Question: Then our shadows will not fall? Will there be no shadow then?

Answer: Yes, this is our problem. Do you understand what we are doing to Earth?!

Question: So we should cast no shadow on Earth?

Answer: No.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/10/22

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