Question: Should I correct my path in accordance with criticism or not? What do you think?

Answer: I think you should not. If this criticism ties you even more strongly to your root, then it is good. This is what you must check!

Question: So I have a path I am following, and if criticism binds me more tightly to this path, then…?

Answer: Go.

Question: Go. And then can one relate to the critics with warmth and kindness?

Answer: Of course. It is from the Creator.

Question: That is, if you are criticized, let us not use harsh words like “hated,” but criticized, or if they try to knock you off the path; then you must hold on to this path even more?

Answer: I cannot tell each person in what exactly.

Question: And what would you say to anyone who is being pressured from all sides? How can he hold on?

Answer: If you are being pressed from all sides, then the best thing is: disconnect, step aside, and look from the side at yourself and at them. And you will see to what extent you may be right, to what extent not. And then make your decision.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/19/26

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Question: How does the intention for the sake of bestowal differ from an intention for the sake of receiving?

Answer: The intention for the sake of bestowal and the intention for the sake of reception only alter the importance of what impresses a person most. That is why Baal HaSulam writes that the difference between working for yourself and for the sake of bestowal is purely psychological. In spirituality, “psychology” is a crude word because here we are talking about change on an animate level.

However, a person has to work on this because there are advantages to the importance of one or the other. If the Creator is important to me now and everyone around me is talking about it, then no matter how many thousands of different things are offered to me that previously seemed unimportant to me, it will not help. I could have devoted my life to this, or I could choose not to.

So what is the difference? In all other things except those concerning the Creator, my body will support me. But in what concerns the Creator, the body will always behave like Pharaoh. And if I am truly moving toward connection with the Creator, then from the beginning to the end I need the Creator to help me build a connection with Him, whereas I can achieve other things on my own without His help and support. The group and I acting together can provide that for me.

In everything I do in life, the Creator must be my partner, my source of strength, the goal, the reason, the empowering force. If this sequence is absent, then it is defined as a material action.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/26, Rabash, “Moses Went”

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When a person is standing on the street carrying a heavy load, and he is asking a passersby to help him lift the sack onto his back, everyone tells him they have no time.

But if a person is carrying a heavy sack on his back and the sack is dropping off and is about to fall to the ground, and people pass by him and he is asking for their help to put the sack on his back so it does not fall, we see that at that time, when the sack is about to fall off his back, no one will tell him, “I have no time; ask someone else to help you.” Rather, the first one next to him will immediately help him (Rabash, “Moses Went”).

Question: What compels any passerby to rush to help someone carrying a heavy burden?

Answer: The example of the burden that Rabash gives is very clear for one who intends to walk in faith above reason. Above reason means that I do not close my eyes to the obstacles, and I am even glad that they come. Even if I do not feel this way, I understand with my mind that it will ultimately be for my benefit.

When the Creator sends an obstacle, He is showing me precisely the point where I can find a connection with Him. I only need to begin working with this obstacle and, despite it, constantly strive to connect with Him.

At first, I try to connect with Him using my own strength. Then I see that I am unable to do so; I require the correction of Hessed.

After this correction, I want to reach a state where I am connected with Him and connected with the obstacle. Not only does the obstacle no longer disturb me or disconnect me from Him, but I already want to use it in order to receive for the sake of bestowal so that it will lead to an even greater connection than before it appeared. And then I demand His help.

But until a person cries out that his burden is about to fall and that he can no longer resist the obstacle that disconnects him from the connection with the upper one, the Creator will not help him. This is because the person has no Kli to receive the help and cannot properly use the obstacle.

The state in which he fears that the burden will fall from his shoulders and cries out is a very good state. For this, several factors are required: the burden must be very heavy and he must greatly fear dropping it. Although his body does not care whether it falls or not, for the goal, it is crucial. He understands that if the burden falls, he will not be able to connect with the Creator.

That is, first of all, a person must arm himself with a feeling of the greatness of the Creator; this must be extremely important to him. All these factors create a state called “standing in the middle of the street and crying: ‘Help!’”

Thus, from what seems like a simple situation (so what if the sack falls from his shoulders, what would happen?), he turns it into the most important matter in life. Then salvation truly comes; he receives help.

Moreover, he is given a feeling that it is not important, not frightening. He must increase the importance of the connection with the Creator from zero to the point where nothing is more important than this, and if the burden falls, it would be a catastrophe. Then the burden becomes the means by which he can reach the desired place.

Who needs this burden at all? The fact is that the will to receive was created precisely in order to build a connection upon it, to construct a screen above it and establish the coupling by striking (Zivug de Hakaa) with the light.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/26, Rabash, “Moses Went”

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Question: How should one choose a Kabbalistic partner?

Answer: A person’s partner is the Creator. With Him we must attain unity, complete adhesion. That is all. That is the partner. Everything else is only a means to that end.

All the fellow students, the friends, serve as what might be called “witnesses of your adhesion with the Creator”; they are the ones that provide your contact with Him.

Question: You are speaking now about friends. And a woman? Does she play some role in this?

Answer: A woman must understand your work, its importance, and must not hinder it.

Question: Isn’t she the spiritual woman with whom I can advance?

Answer: You should not think about a “spiritual woman.” Your spiritual partner is the group.

And a wife, it is desirable that she understands you, that she herself aspires to this, and does not hinder you, although disturbances can also be a help along the way.

Comment: Now you are speaking about a woman as a disruptive element. But recently you said that she is a very important element.

My Response: I said that one must choose a wife who will be close to you and similar to you in her understanding of family life rather than someone who pursues a lifestyle and earthly goals that are completely at odds with yours.

We know that the basis of spiritual development is your similarity, common aspirations, common mentality, and common language. Similarity in your parents’ families is already a guarantee that further on there will be mutual understanding rather than disagreements, because all of us are drawn to those values that we received in our upbringing.

In addition to this, similarity in the spiritual goal is necessary, the goal that fills our life and stems from the spiritual understanding of the state. A spiritual state consists of a vessel and a filling.

The vessel is everything that is familiar to me, what I understand as life, that is, the existing conditions, values, and earthly habits. The filling is what I want to fill my life with so that all this will more or less suit both her and me. Then everything will be fine.

Besides that, one must look at what environment I am in, so that it will be suitable for both of us. I cannot find a suitable partner and then go somewhere to Asia and join an Asian group. This too must be more or less suitable for us, so that a person will not feel too great a contradiction. Although in our groups this is not so sharply expressed. Today the world is very close in all its ways of life.

We must strive precisely for such similarity, and through it for similarity to the Creator. Attaining complete similarity is the most comfortable point.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Spiritual Couple” 9/15/10

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As one ascends the spiritual steps, the descents become more profound. No spiritual renewal, deeper revelation, or ascent is possible without first falling. I detach from my previous state and feel as though I have never been spiritually elevated and never will be; I experience darkness, helplessness, and fear.

This fear is triggered by trivial, imagined reasons. I am frightened not even by people, but by shadows, like a small, scared child or animal.

This happens at all spiritual levels; the higher you rise, the more clearly you are shown that you are lower than everyone else. Everyone around seems to be fine, while you suffer from problems that are so trivial they are even embarrassing to speak about, yet at the same time, they are frightening. It is the feeling of a terrified infant who wants to hide in their mother’s arms.

One must value such states, understand their benefits, and try to work with them correctly. Then we will overcome them very quickly and return to the realization that “There is none else besides Him, the good who does good,” is the one who is playing with us. And so we unite and present our unity to Him as our response to this problem, and thereby rise above it.

Then the problem disappears and a new one appears, an even smaller and more insignificant one, yet one that frightens us even more. For the higher the ascent, the deeper the descent. This process continues until the final correction; through it we can increasingly clarity regarding the true nature of our states. There is no other way to understand our nature.
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From the Kabbalah Congress Preparation Lesson, 4/26/18

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Comment: I thought that the law of mercy emanates from above, and that everything is held by this law. I thought this was the main law of life.

Answer: Why would it be so? I look at inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature and see no observance of such laws there. No, but humans, with their imagination, have scribbled countless books and theories about it. But generally speaking, no.

I think the worst human trait is inventing a future or surrounding reality for oneself based on one’s own desires.

Question: So this is a kind of violence? A person commits violence against nature?

Answer: Yes, and then he makes demands from nature: “Give me this!”

Comment: In other words, “You are merciful, and I want everyone around me to be merciful.”

My Response: Yes. If we reasoned soberly with nature, we would not make demands of nature, but we would demand of ourselves the correct attitude to ourselves, to others, to nature, to everything. And then, perhaps, we would get a hint about how the universe exists and in what way we can rise above it.

Question: So rather than demanding that the universe be merciful to me, I should demand that I be merciful to others?

Answer: Yes.

Question: “Merciful,” did I use the word correctly here?

Answer: It can be used like that, yes.

Question: Then what should be put into this word if we indeed come to being merciful? That I must be merciful to others, what should I invest in that?

Answer: I must do for others all the good and kind things that I would wish for myself. And under no circumstances should I imagine think that I will receive some kind of reward for it. Absolutely not!

Comment: This second part is very difficult: receiving nothing in return.

My Response: In this, in fact, lies the whole point of the first part.

Question: Then will I come into balance with the universe if I begin to move in this way, as you say?

Answer: If so, then yes. And then there will be no destruction, no self-destruction.
[354306]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/17/26

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 44 “What Is the Reason for which Israel Were Rewarded with Inheritance of the Land, in the Work?” (1991) (10.4.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: How can I determine for myself what state I am currently in: the right line or in the left line?

Answer: You can determine this by whether you feel joy. The sensation of joy should always accompany a person. This is a great commandment to always be in a state of joy.

Question: Even during the revelation of a Hisaron (deficiency)?

Answer: Yes, even during the revelation of a Hisaron. This is the primary test.

A person has to search for deficiencies in fulfillment precisely in order to advance forward. This means one must constantly be guided by the principle: “The end of the act is in the preliminary thought.”

First of all, I must keep the final outcome I wish to achieve before my eyes: attainment of a completely corrected state, union with the Creator. My first thought has to be: What must I do right now to achieve this?

If I advance in this manner, then my approach is correct. I can even search for a Hisaron: what else is not corrected in me? However, I will be searching for it from the perspective of that distant point, my final correction, asking: “What I can reveal within myself now that will pull me a little closer toward the goal?”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/26, Rabash, “The Connection between Passover, Matza, and Maror”

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I like lazy people; they do little harm to the world.

Question: So, they don’t really contribute much, but at the same time they don’t cause harm?

Answer: Yes. That’s good!

Comment: But that’s some kind of complete complacency, like a stagnant swamp.

My Response: So what? We’ll just stroll through a green meadow and graze on some grass.

Question: A sandwich in your pocket, and that’s enough?

Answer: Yes. You don’t need anything else.

Question: Just breathe the air and let nature take its course. But seriously? You actually like rebels and revolutionaries.

Answer: Inside yourself! Within yourself, do whatever you want. Stage all kinds of revolutions and wars, but do it inside yourself. And everything else, let nature live in peace; don’t disturb it.

Quietly move out to the countryside, buy yourself a little house instead of your city apartment, and live a peaceful life with a wife and children. What else does a person really need?

Comment: To see out their old age.

My Response: Yes, to see out their old age.

Comment: But at the root of all prayers lies an initial sense of gratitude, and inevitably it is followed by some kind of request. It seems impossible to have a prayer without a request.

My Response: To achieve one’s purpose. The highest, greatest purpose is to become equal to the Creator!

Comment: There is no peace in that. It is a state of constant movement.

My Response: Inner peace! Because I am absolutely certain that in this way I will reach the goal since I surrender myself to the Creator and in this I go with Him. And He can do whatever He wants. I remain in absolute peace.

Question: But this movement toward Him, isn’t that a source of constant anxiety, trembling?

Answer: It’s not anxiety. There isn’t even much trembling in it. If I am confident in Him, if I have faith that I am in His hands, then I am like an infant in its mother’s arms. I cling to Him, that is all, in complete safety, peace.

But each time I check myself so that I can remain in His arms and draw even closer to Him despite my egoism with greater fervor. I need nothing else. I am already enveloped in this cocoon, right now.

So what is there to strive for? Why engage in comparing myself with others and calculating who is greater, who is better, who is higher?

Question: But what about our constantly growing egoism? You speak about it all the time.

Answer: That is so we always have the opportunity to be in dynamic closeness with the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/20/26

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