Question: What happens to a person when they isolate themselves and are left alone with their thoughts?

Answer: It depends on the person and on the purpose for which they seek solitude. If one is striving toward a special spiritual goal, then it makes little difference whether they isolate themselves in the middle of Manhattan or in a true desert.

Question: If a person goes into the desert with the intention of clearing their thoughts and listening to their inner voice, is there a chance for them to understand who they really are?

Answer: If a group of people goes into the desert, far from the rest of the world, in order to attain an inner, shared spiritual goal, then such solitude certainly makes sense. Undoubtedly, the desert is a more suitable place for this than a forest, because it is silent, empty.

The desert leaves a person with no illusions, it makes it absolutely clear that nothing good can come out of life in it, just as nothing good comes from ordinary human life. That is why in the desert we feel in tune with nature.

I love the desert because there you have nothing but earth and sky, especially at night. It gives a person a special mood, impression, and feeling, especially when many people are together there, searching for the meaning of life. Then the desert and the heavens begin to speak to them, showing: “This is all there is, and you are here alone in this empty vacuum. So seek the hidden source of life!”

Question: You are talking about a group of Kabbalists going into the desert with a special purpose. But if an ordinary person isolates themselves in the desert, is there a chance for them to discover their inner essence?

Answer: On their own, it is impossible. I believe that even the Torah, when telling about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, is referring to whole groups. Because a single person cannot be spiritual; one does not exist in relation to spirituality as a separate element, but only in connection with others, ideally no fewer than ten.

Question: Isn’t it a contradiction: “solitude in a group”? Isn’t it either solitude or a group, one or the other?

Answer: Solitude is only possible within a group! Because the solitude of the individual is just an animalistic act, physical isolation of the body. But solitude within a group is spiritual solitude.

Being connected with one another, we begin to reveal how much we lack the meaning of life and the force that sustains it.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 925 – Inner Solitude.” 11/28/2017

Related Material:
Alone with Oneself, Part 1
The Desert, Part 2
The Desert, Part 1

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