Question: In our world we have two states. If I were able to reach awareness and sensory attainment of the common soul, of the common organism of the entire humanity, then I, in a way, would receive this feeling and continue to live in it.

If not, would I then feel only my Reshimot and also continue my existence in it until they give me a new body?

Answer: Let’s say yes.

Comment: It is hard to explain all this somehow.

My Response: No, it is not hard. You just need to realize yourself correctly in the right society. Then it will show you correctly everything that Kabbalah says.

Comment: But so many years have already passed, we have existed for thousands of years, and…

My Response: Who implements it? Very few individuals in every generation. Nowadays, however, there are more of them.

Comment: Still, there is no consensus on this issue.

My Response: Among whom should it be? It exists among the Kabbalists—those who attain this wisdom and change themselves. The rest of the people do not yet go beyond the limits of their animate, material body.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/12/22

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“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to also sit together.” These are the friends as they sit together, and are not separated from each other. At first, they seem like people at war, wishing to kill one another. Then they return to being in brotherly love.

The Creator says about them, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to also sit together” The word, “also,” comes to include the Shechina with them. Moreover, the Creator listens to their words and He has contentment and delights with them (Zohar for All, Aharei Mot [After the Death], “Behold, How Good and How Pleasant,” Item 65.) 

These are the great words from The Book of Zohar. This is what happens when people go through enormous obstacles and discover how much they hate and dislike each other, to what extent they are lying to each other, and how much they deceive themselves. They like to say beautiful words and then realize that all this is meaningless because after a second, as soon as they say something, they already completely disagree with it, and so on.

When they come close to the right correction and it is revealed to them how much they were at war with each other and how they deceived each other, then from this they return to brotherly love. This is when they say, “How good it is for brothers to sit together.” After all, they feel the manifestation of the Creator between them. Precisely between them. This is the occurrence of the Shechina, the manifestation of the Creator.

They feel how much they bring contentment to the Creator and how He rejoices together with them. By merging with each other and with the Creator, they become one single whole when both the desire and the light that fills them are one.
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From the “Arava” Convention in Europe – Lithuania 2022, Lesson 1, 7/22/22

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Question: What are the types of lights?

Answer: The Creator influences creation in many ways. There is direct light, reflected light, and surrounding light; there is light that comes from above downward and from below upward that disintegrates into many different kinds of lights.

Question: What is the difference between direct and surrounding light?

Answer: The creation feels the direct light as coming directly from the Creator and the surrounding light as the Creator’s action on it by extraneous methods, through some phenomena or persons.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/19/22

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Comment: There is a touching love story told of two twenty-two-year-olds; we even know their names: Jess Peak and Joe Matthews. It began 20 years ago in a nursery school and continued through kindergarten. At the age of four, Matthews proposed to Peak and they had a make-believe wedding. After kindergarten, these two British kids went to different schools and lost contact.

And now suddenly, after 14 years, they met on a social network and realized they had been waiting for this meeting all their lives. They are just as happy together as they were back in kindergarten and nursery school. They are happily planning a wedding today. That’s what the buzz is all about on social media. “This is indeed love!”

My Response: What kind of love is this? They haven’t been together.

Comment: They didn’t see each other, but they kept this longing for each other.

My Response: Well, this is true. Things that happen in childhood leave great impressions.

Question: Now they are getting married. They say that most likely this wedding, this connection, will be a guarantee that they will have a long and happy life. What do you think about this conclusion?

Answer: There is a book that begins with the words: “Rarely do we marry our first love.”

Question: Let’s say we rarely marry our first loves. But if we do, is that a guarantee?

Answer: No. Usually we go through many, many mistakes, trials, meetings, divorces, and separations. And then, at an age closer to the end rather than the beginning, we meet someone and start appreciating [this connection].

Of course, she is not the same little girl with bows anymore and you are not the same boy. Their ideas of connection, closeness, and relationships are totally different now. This is how it usually works.

Question: Do you think that until they go through hard times in their ups and downs together, we cannot say anything?

Answer: No! Only out of destruction can one learn. That explains why a person who has never gone through ups and downs is not able to appreciate things. He will not cherish a relationship.

Question: So, you’re saying that you’re in favor of a sense of destruction in a connection between people? As if everything falls apart?

Answer: Of course. It is crucial they experience such feelings also so they would protect their relationship and not let it get to this.

Question: But it will keep hanging over them, right?

Answer: By all means! They are two egotists! How can they cut selfishness out of themselves and become so sweet? It’s impossible. We meet, learn our lessons, come to desperation, and understand how to build a life where we strive only for good relationships. We no longer need to be in bad relationships as we used to in our youth, then in good ones, and so on; we need only good ones.

Question: But do ups and downs we go through at a young age lead us to this?

Answer: Of course! Without them, there is nothing. You must accumulate an arsenal of various negative sensations and states, and only then can you avoid them.

Comment: That’s interesting. You store weapons, fight, and then suddenly cast them aside.

My Response: This is how it will work for humanity.

Comment: Meaning, humankind is now accumulating various weapons, and then…

My Response: It will understand they need to be cast aside.

Question: Is that why now all wars and other troubles are happening? Is the accumulation of weapons also happening for this reason?

Answer: Everything is only for this reason. There can be no good without the recognition of evil. Not in private life nor in the general world.

Question: What advice would you give if these young people listened to you?

Answer: I don’t know if they have accumulated enough suffering and expectations or a desire to appreciate the other, to show every minute you love them, to care for them, to like them the way they are, and so on. In other words, they need to have qualities, impressions from life, which simply do not exist at a young age.

The accumulation of these impressions must take place during their lifetime. If there were such an injection to gain an instant understanding, to see things for what they are, we’d live happily. Instead, we get divorced, sometimes more than once. And only afterward, possibly, can we create the right relationships.

Comment: What is your advice to young guys and gals who enter a life together with the feeling everything will be just fine and they will live together forever!

My Response: They need to have very, very long, nagging conversations with each other. Spill out whatever each of them thinks, like two explorers. And gradually they will be able to reach a state where they will mutually explore themselves and one another.

Then life becomes interesting; it turns into research: how can we make our relationship different, to change it somehow, to get closer. And if so? What if it’s different? What if they constantly try to discover their qualities, feelings, and their relationship as vibrantly as possible? Even if people do think about such things and realize them, it’s only after about 50 to 60 years.

The time will come that people will live this way. But we can teach them about it! This needs to be said: we can train these youngsters how to become researchers. We can, so to say, “age” them by teaching them. They can gain practical experience.

Question: Even before they join together? Prepare them for this life?

Answer: Yes, of course. And then they will see for themselves how to act one way or another.

Question: So, you say young people should come to their wedding and begin their life as old people?

Answer: Yes, on the inside. Of course. Do you want them to discover who they really are through their own experience? No.

They must come with communication experience! As if psychological interaction. This will give them confidence that they will be able to overcome all sorts of challenges, to get closer and turn these problems into greater contact.

Comment: Beautiful! We talked about a scientific laboratory.

My Response: Yes. The world needs it very much!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/27/22

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I was the absolute master of my old robe. I have become the slave of my new one (“Regrets for my Old Dressing Gown, or A warning to those who have more taste than fortune,” Denis Diderot).

Question: The philosopher Diderot spent almost his entire life in poverty and did not care much about material wealth, but he suddenly received a red robe as a gift. It was a beautiful red, satin robe! Soon after, he noticed that his chair was old and made of straw; therefore, he changed it to a beautiful, leather chair. Suddenly, he also spotted that his desk was shabby. So naturally, he replaced it with a large, gorgeous table. Not long after Diderot fell into debt.

Do we really have to live our lives in old robes to understand it?

Answer: Generally speaking, yes. And what is wrong with living your life as is, not investing all your energy into external things? Why would you care for them?

If we are talking about children or other living creatures, even kittens or other animals, that is a very different story. But if it is furniture or something material…

Comment: But man wants to dress well. It is in his nature.

My Response: If external circumstances do not force him, then he can by the virtue of his internal circumstances continue living as he were.

Question: In an old robe?

Answer: Of course.

Comment: Then there is no progress. Look, everything around us is about buying a new house, dressing well, keeping up with styles.

My Response: You need everything to comfortably pursue your goals while making sure you do not become a slave to your possessions or to the times we live in—a slave to your environment.

And all our free time should be devoted to “our beloved selves.”

Question: So, is this how we should live?

Answer: Yes. Why should I work for a robe, or a desk, or anything like that?

Comment: You are saying: do not waste your life, stay in your old robe, and take care of yourself.

My Response: Yes.

Question: What do you mean when you say: “Take care of yourself?”

Answer: Do what you want. Do what you deem important. Meaning, what you think is important and not what your peers think.

Question: So, your advice is to stop?

Answer: Instead of stopping, never even get into such traps. Do not fall for it.

Question: No matter how much I crave these things internally, right?

Answer: It should be a goal of the basic human developmental stage, that is, the animate level in a person not to follow any other goals, habits, and so on. Live for yourself! Although it appears to be egoistic. And so you will live for others: for a woodworker, for a carpenter, for a fashion designer, and so on.

Question: You just gave a very egoistic formula: live for yourself and not for others.

Answer: Choose a goal! And live for it. People must validate their path, direct and shape it in a way not to harm anyone, including themselves. That is about it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/27/22

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic, “For Every Penny Joins Into a Great Amount” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 4, Chapter 1, Item 11

Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do you explain war to a child?“

Children can understand war because they also fight with each other. The human ego, which makes us want to primarily enjoy ourselves without considering anyone else, operates from a very young age. So we need not hide anything about war from children.

Indeed, if we fail to raise children correctly, teaching them how to rise above the human ego and positively connect with others, then just as children play—wanting to take things away from each other in order to please themselves, and sometimes resorting to bullying each other—then this is how they continue into their adult years, which is why we end up with wars. Grownups no longer have sand shovels, sticks and toy guns in their hands, but weapons capable of doing serious harm.

Therefore, we should explain to children that they need to become accustomed to communicating, making peace and learning how to compromise. By doing so, they will not end up with terrible problems like those big people who go to war.

They should not be told about the enemy and the hatred in the conflict, and who is right or wrong, as they have no concept or basis for it. Rather, they understand words like giving and taking, wanting and taking, not wanting to give what they have to others, etc. and it is possible to explain war to children in such terms. Nevertheless, give-and-take relations are at the basis of war and all kinds of international relations. War is a dangerous and terrible outcome when these grownups could not reach any peaceful compromise in time.

Therefore, we should teach children from as early as possible that disputes should not be resolved by force, otherwise we will destroy each other. Disputes can be resolved by discussing how to reach peace together, with mutual concessions, rather than with an approach of “I am right and you are wrong, and now you will understand it.”

The most important aspect in education is learning how to compromise. Otherwise, what is all this education for? To teach how to hit first, harder and to inflict as much damage as possible? No, we need to learn how to stop and compromise. It is extremely difficult to do, especially for children, because they have a very direct and straightforward egoistic approach to life, shamelessly wanting things for themselves without any concern for others. Therefore, education should consist of explaining such concepts, learning them together with the children, and seating children in circles to engage in practical engagement on such topics. That is, if a dispute arises among children, then it is time to sit down and sort it out. They should develop such templates from their youth on how to not resort to fighting, but to resolve disputes through conversation and compromise. It is a very long process, but if it is not implemented at these early stages, then it will only get worse later.

Such education is not only necessary for children, but for teachers too, the adults. It is the same human ego in both children and adults, and it requires the same kinds of explanations and training in order to rise above it and realize that conceding for the sake of peace is much more worthwhile than going to war.

Based on the video “How to Explain War to a Child” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is the world facing so many crises and problems?“

We are undergoing a cleansing process. It is as if we are inside the drum of a washing machine, and our attitudes to each other, to life, and our worldviews, are tumbling and turning.

It is indeed a sign of our times, and as a result of this cleansing process, we are supposed to revise the way we relate to each other, to the world and to nature—to reach a clearly defined inner frame of reference through which we view everyone and everything.

We need to go through a process of revealing just how uncertain and incomplete we are within ourselves, how far we are from any kind of objective view of reality, that everything in our worldviews has been imposed on us and is subject to change according to the various influences we encounter throughout our lives.

In order to overcome our constant drifting in our worldviews and attitudes, we have to zero in on life’s ultimate goal. When we grab hold of our life’s purpose in such a way, as if harpooning it, and then it will start pulling us closer, and we will constantly progress toward it.

Our life’s purpose is to reach a clear perception and sensation of the laws of nature, laws of love and bestowal, by equalizing our qualities (egoistic) with nature’s (altruistic). We will then experience an eternal and perfect state of existence, and likewise exist in harmony and peace, free from the accumulating crises and problems we currently experience.

We will then see that nothing else actually exists. That we currently find ourselves in a state of exponentially-increasing crises and problems is already the beginning of such a state of being.

Moreover, we approach the revelation of the final state of existence scientifically, by means of experience: research, reviewing and reproducing the results, like scientists. We go through this process quite naturally, through trial and error, with various experiments, seeing what works and what does not.

In aviation, there is a mechanism called a gyroscope that maintains the aircraft’s orientation in space. It is a motor with a clear aim, for instance, at the North Star, and therefore, regardless of how it rotates, from any direction, the motor aims precisely at a certain set of coordinates with its inner axis.

The result of the accumulating crises and problems we are experiencing are thus in order to develop within us a similar inner device, an inner attitude that relates to everyone and everything with our final purpose in mind—a state of absolute love, bestowal and connection that we are bound to reach.

When we develop such an inner device, we will then see how everything will calm down, and achieve a newfound sense of balance, harmony, peace, happiness, safety and confidence.

Based on the video “Why Is the World Facing So Many Crises and Problems?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Bad Times – Opportunities for Correction”

Today is the 9th of Av according to the Hebrew calendar. On this day, the First and Second Temples were ruined and the people of Israel were exiled from their land. It happened centuries apart, but on the exact same day of the year. On the physical level, there are days that are prone to trouble. The three weeks before the 9th of Av are such days, and especially the 9th of Av itself. However, on the spiritual level, there are no bad days. Every day is an opportunity for correction, and bad days are actually the best opportunities.

Both temples were ruined because of Israel’s hatred for each other. In the First Temple, it manifested itself in bloodshed and slander. In the Second Temple, the hatred became so intense that it needed no reason or reasoning whatsoever. This is why it was called “unfounded hatred.” That hatred, the worst of all hatreds, destroys everything, just as it did to the children of Israel at that time. Because they were consumed by such hatred, they lost the city of Jerusalem, the land of Israel, and were scattered throughout the world for two millennia.

Healing this hatred is the spiritual work we have to do. Every day is an opportunity to heal the hatred in our hearts and turn it into love of others. But days when we remember the horrific consequences of our hatred for each other should give us an extra drive to cure ourselves from that plague. This is why kabbalists do not regard such days as bad days, but as opportunities for
If we treat such days as invitations to correct our hatred and increase the love between us, we will do ourselves and the world a great service, since hatred is the cause of all our troubles. If we heal it between us, it will be healed all around us.
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