Question: What stage of the path is it when a person moves from ascent to ascent?

Answer: A person approaches a state in which he fully feels himself as being within the Creator.

Question: I thought that the greatest descents occur before Gmar Tikkun, like with the Baal Shem Tov or with Shimon “from the market.” But here it turns out that there is a stage of ascent after ascent, without descents. I want to understand where this stage of work is.

Answer: Let us look at where a person begins. He begins with the desire to draw closer to the Creator, to draw Him into his life, to not detach from this, and to constantly dwell in adhesion with this state.

What must he do for this? He must sense his states, choose from them those in which he can rise to the Creator, and by this strengthen himself and cling to the Creator. This is what it means that he strives to make the Creator a witness so that the Creator will testify about him.
[350732]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 12/11/25, Baal HaSulam, Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Related Material:
Final Correction for All Descents
Descents And Ascents On The Spiritual Path
There Is No Room For Downtime Between Ascents And Descents

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: There is a classic saying that in his life a person should plant a tree, build a house, and beget a son. Suppose he has built his little house, planted his garden, and so on. What is the meaning of all this? Grandchildren run around who hate their grandfather; children wait for him to finally die. And nothing good happens at the end of life except disappointment.

Must a person necessarily come to disappointment at the end of life?

Answer: You don’t have to; you don’t have to be disappointed. It is up to you. As a rule, people who die a natural death agree that they must die. They simply die from exhaustion.

Question: But not from joy, not with a smile?

Answer: No, I would not say that because it is a kind of deliverance. A person does not think of death as something terrible. It appears to him as liberation from various problems, especially those that cannot be solved that are still hanging over him and he is tired of.

Comment: I have seen many people your age who have given up on themselves.

My Response: They simply have nothing left anymore. Especially when a person retires, he has nothing left but to continue his animal existence for as long as his body lasts. Then, of course, nothing can be done; you live involuntarily because the body lives.

Comment: But at the same time they do not want to perceive anything. It is as if they have shut themselves inside their little world.

My Response: Tired! Tired.

Comment: Once he was ready for anything. You explain to him…

My Response: You cannot explain anything to him because inside us operates the desire that causes all our actions.

Around 50 and onward, a person’s desire begins to fade. Until 40 he lives with open eyes. From 40 to 50 one begins to stabilize, and then one begins to decline in one’s desires. And when these desires completely disappear, the body dies.

Desires bring about life, flourishing, or the death of the body. That is all! The body by itself could live for thousands of years. It is the desire that leaves.
[350538]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Purpose of Life,” 9/19/10

Related Material:
Born, Suffer, Die, and That’s It?
Life After Death
Why Are We Afraid Of Death?

Filed under: Body and Soul, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: You say that a person should improve and change. Some people can intelligently lay out what is happening in the world and why. Some religions describe this by saying: “Because people do not believe in God, He punishes them.” How can you stand out from a large number of smart people?

Answer: I am not going to stand out.

Comment: But you want people to know the truth.

My Response: I say what I say, but I do not want to criticize others. A person who yearns for serious analysis and scrutiny of cause-and-effect phenomena will see a rational seed in me, and in all others, their failure.

Comment: Many people convert to Buddhism. They may think they will find peace in Buddhism.

My Response: They may think that, sit there for a few years there, and then come to their senses because they will not find a solution. Their solution is to disconnect from this world, reach nirvana, and detach from everything.

Where do we see an example where Buddhists are happy? Where do we see in India (with its castes and disunity, where people live in squalor, and everyone fights for their piece of bread while they worship the sacred cows that walk the streets) an example that we should live like this? Is it the fact that they retreat into their illusions where they find at least some escape from this life? Or is it their belief in burning souls and then launching candle-lit boats along the Ganges?

I do not see anything in this, not in their state structure, nor in their friendship with each other when they shout about love. What kind of love is there with their castes where you cannot give a hand to another, let alone marry someone from another caste, where there is such poverty, such a separation between classes?

What can they set an example in? In an escape from reality.
[350664]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Harry Potter Platform” 10/4/10

Related Material:
A Step To The Left, A Step To The Right: Attempts To Escape Reality
The Wisdom Of Kabbalah Is Not Philosophy
India Dalit Boy “Killed Over High-Caste Man’s Name”

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Q&A, Religion - No Comments →

Question: We constantly kill others with words. And the smarter ones kill gradually, not immediately. So as not to become an enemy, they kill gradually by starting rumors that spread through others. It is our nature to put the other down.

Why doesn’t it hurt me that I slowly humiliate another person, get them out of my way, and kill them?

Answer: I believe the other person does not let me live, that he is my enemy who sees me standing in his way and must destroy me.

Question: Why were we given such a nature to live like this?

Answer: It is all for the same reason, so that we correct our egoism, so that we can be convinced that “love your neighbor as yourself” is the main law of the world.

Comment: In that case, at some point, it should make me feel bad that I am like this.

My Response: Yes, of course.

Question: I see all these wars now, all these killings, directly, indirectly, and so on. And at what point does it come to me: “What am I doing? It is all inside me. How can I get away from this?”

Answer: At the moment of revelation.

Question: And when does this happen? Can this be accelerated, or can something be done? I understand that this is really the most important moment in my life. That everything is in me, that everything is because of me, that I am the killer. Does it come to a person at all?

Answer: When he becomes convinced that he is full of evil, then his true nature is revealed in him, and he can no longer tolerate it and turns to the Creator.

Question: Does this happen unexpectedly for a person? Or is it as if he already wants that?

Answer: No, this revelation usually comes with a serious push.

Question: So there is something before that; is there some kind of impulse after all?

Answer: Yes.

Question: When this is revealed to a person, does prayer to the Creator become natural because one understands that everything depends only on Him?

Answer: Yes, then a person turns to the Creator, judges himself, and by correcting himself, corrects the world around him.
[350505]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 12/3/2025

Related Material:
When I Kill A Human Within Myself
With Words We Pollute the World
Why Are We Offended by Being Compared with Animals?

Filed under: Egoism, News, Perception, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “Why Is the Torah Called ‘Middle Line’ in the Work – 1,” 12 (12.4.2015)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Recording of Rabash, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 4, “Inner Observation”

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

3rd part of the Lesson — Conversations of a Kabbalist with His Students During the Day

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

After a person crosses the machsom, one moves forward—one’s soul teaches the person. He understands where he is.

Question: Is the method that the Kabbalists pass down primarily intended for the preparatory stage?

Answer: No. Kabbalists write about many stages. For example, The Book of Zohar speaks only of the three lines when you are already moving up the ladder of spiritual ascent. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we are talking about ongoing spiritual movement.

Of course, there are articles and letters that deal with the preliminary stages. But in principle, the main material concerns serious spiritual advancement.

The preparatory stage is like this: act as you can, and then see what happens. No matter how much you talk about it, a person still doesn’t fully understand it.

The main problem that throws people off is that they either confuse Kabbalah with religion, believing they must perform some external actions, or they confuse it with work as in our world where the result depends directly on your own effort, or they confuse it with Eastern methods where you do nothing and simply wait for everything to come.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, spiritual work is built on the middle line. You must make many efforts, become disillusioned with your own strength, and reach a genuine request for the light to correct you. By doing this, you create the conditions for the light to act upon you. The Creator does not need your suffering or your pleas; rather, your desire becomes ready to change—and then it changes.
[350490]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call, Over the Machsom” 9/12/10

Related Material:
Stages On The Way To Bestowal
Before The First Ascent
How Does The Soul Teach Man?

Filed under: Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Let’s say a person is studying Kabbalah. But in the world around him all kinds of negative actions, hatred, intimidation, etc. are happening. You say: “It does not have any effect. Follow a clear path toward the goal. And everything that happens is, as it were, special effects that distract you; they simply divert you from the main path.”

But what for? If a person does not pay attention to these “special effects” and focuses on the goal, why are they needed?

Answer: It is in order to work them through. You must rise above them and connect with the goal. These “special effects” and everything that is created in the world are needed to direct you toward the goal, to lift you up, to sharpen your movement, and to accelerate it. Only for this! It is in order to more sharply orient you on the goal and accelerate the movement toward it. Nothing else.

Comment: So if someone puts a knife to your throat, you say, “Excuse me, I have to run to the lesson now”; or something else. And you say: “Don’t be afraid, it is all for your own good.”

Answer: Yes, this is how everything is arranged. And this is felt when a person works on himself in order to somehow create the image of the Creator within himself. He sees that from all these images that are created by him, before him, inside him, and outside of him are all so that he can correctly form the image of the Creator within himself.

Image means qualities, not some visual image, but, let’s say, character. The character of the quality of bestowal and love.
[350747]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. External factors or why does everyone hate Jews?” 9/14/10

Related Material:
There Is Nothing Outside of a Person
There Is a Place for Everything in the World
What Is The Purpose Of Our World?

Filed under: Q&A, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

I am not in favor of suffering. There are many examples of people choosing suffering and believing that this elevates them. This is incorrect.

Question: What does it mean not to suffer?

Answer: If you clearly understand, and you have the conditions where your suffering alleviates someone’s difficulties and helps them progress, then yes. But if this exists only in your imagination…

Comment: You have raised the bar now by saying: “If my suffering makes someone’s life, fate, and soul easier for someone.” You did not say “for me,” but “for someone.”

My Response: For someone else, of course.

Question: So if it serves as an example for someone, and I do this in order to set an example that it is possible, try it?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: That is high!
[350606]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 12/5/25

Related Material:
They Raise Humanity Closer to the Creator
Man Must Be Forbidden from Suffering
Correct Yourself And You Will Not Suffer

Filed under: News, Q&A - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “These Candles Are Sacred” 12 (1991)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Recording of Rabash, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 4, “Inner Observation”

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →