Question: At which point in history did the Jews lose any sense of spirituality?

Answer: I think they had it until the 18^th century. Then they completely lost it. Only a few knew about it and the rest did not. Baal Shem Tov tried to revive it, but only to the extent that it worked out. Then, closer to our time, spirituality completely disappeared from their sensations.

Question: You live in a country for which the Jews fought for a long time, and from which they were expelled. Can the past sense of spirituality wake up in those who now live here?

Answer: They will have to wake up! It does not matter in which way, but in the end they will still wake up.

I am not talking about what will happen between now and the moment they wake up. Maybe decades will pass during which they will need to go through all sorts of metamorphoses, but they must come together in the same way as they were in the past—as one man with one heart in a state of mutual guarantee, not only them, but all people in the world who feel the same need and understand that it is necessary.

All these people together will become the brain, the mind of humanity, which will lead all the rest, and will begin to shape them, invigorate, and enlighten them toward universal guarantee, until they reach “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

People are still obliged to come to this, otherwise they will not reach similarity with nature and they will lead themselves to destruction.

The law will still be observed, and the thought of the upper force will have to be realized; there is no doubt about it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What to Expect from the Jews?” 1/21/12

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Comment: The group requires absolute compliance to its rules and discipline, as this is the only way to salvation, is given and a characteristic of cults.

My Response: What does the way to salvation mean? We are not talking about salvation. We are talking about correction. In ordinary society, there is a salvation army or rescue from drowning. We, however, do not have such a word. We have correction.

Humanity must correct itself and get rid of its ego, then it will come to a good life. Until then, its ego itself will be “pushing it with a stick” to happiness.

We talk about it everywhere. By the way, the Torah and all religions talk about this. They all agree that “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the main slogan of humanity. They just do not implement it. Kabbalah shows us how it can be implemented.

A cult is a closed organization with a clear, strict, and secret statute, which very cautiously lets people in and does not let anyone out. It has special norms of behavior associated with mysticism and some physical actions, like when people make self-sacrifice or self-restraint, etc.

There is absolutely no such thing in the Kabbalistic group. Everything is only within yourself and only regarding a friend, and then regarding the world with absolute kindness and love.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalah about Cults” 12/18/13

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Comment: During a lesson you said that it is wonderful when you do not have calculations with yourself.

My Response: Calculations should be only in relation to the group and in relation to humanity. What calculations can there be with yourself? This is included in the same system of deception, as if I exist, but no one exists except the Creator.

We create one single common Kli, Malchut, which must feel Him. Therefore, I have no personality. I am only an auxiliary element serving the global soul.

Question: A person does everything based on what is beneficial to him: “This is beneficial to me, and this is not.” Does a Kabbalist do the opposite: “How wonderful that I am not doing this for my own sake”?

Answer: Of course, a Kabbalist rejoices that he does everything for the sake of the Creator. Therefore, it is very important to tune ourselves up here. If your friends around you will think like that and go forward like that, what can be better than this?!

We must try to methodically, calmly, and gradually tune ourselves like an instrument. Months pass, maybe even several years, but all this time you should be making attempts to attune yourself.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Freedom from Myself” 2/15/14

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Question: Can you briefly explain the benefits of egoism? How did it lead us, and to what stage did we reach where it already became poison for us? Has it been helpful all this time?

Answer: Since ancient Babylon, egoism had to be remade. Abraham called for this, but no one could hear him then because there was no point in the heart in people. It wasn’t that it didn’t wake up, it wasn’t in them. It manifested itself only in a certain number of people, in those 10,000 to 20,000 Abraham took away from Babylon.

I give such figures because the great 12^th century Kabbalist and philosopher Rambam, a researcher of the era of Abraham, writes in his writings that tens of thousands of people left Babylon with Abraham.

Abraham wanted to correct everyone, but it did not work out because only a few had the primordial point in the heart, the desire to rise above the corporeal level of existence.

We can say that initially it originated in only one person, Adam, and then through him it began to spread like a virus to others. For 20 generations it reached such a state where in Babylon, under Abraham, tens of thousands of people were infected with this spiritual virus. They joined Abraham and he led them away from Babylon. The rest of the Babylonians were left without this point.

As Abraham’s group was isolated from everyone, they developed it in themselves first under his leadership and then under the leadership of Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David.

This continued until the destruction of the Second Temple when they completely fell into the same state as all the other Babylonians who had spread and multiplied all over the world by that time.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Evolution of Humanity” 11/16/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is there a risk of famine today? Why or why not?“

One of my students asked me about the possibility of global famine, citing a report where almost 90 percent of international food security and nutrition experts surveyed predicted that “without innovation and bold action, global hunger would continue to rise over the next decade.” It is indeed possible, and ancient Kabbalistic sources also state that in our era, we can reach states as horrible as mothers eating their own children. That is how severe it can become.

However, we should not relate to the idea of an impending famine simply in order to fill our storages and our barns with supplies. The fact that we can consider such terrible scenarios is in order for us to seriously concern ourselves with how to avoid such states in advance, and to learn about and deal with the base cause that brings about such crises.

If we investigate the core reason behind not just famine but any crisis that befalls us, then we will find that it is all due to imbalance in human relations, the fact that we are not behaving toward each other the way we should.

How should we behave toward each other?

We need to reach mutual understanding among each other, to establish ties that would help us reach a balanced state. Today, we are doing the contrary, regressing and thus rocking the boat we all share. The world thus naturally heads toward periods of famine and destruction.

The destruction that we can bring upon ourselves should very much frighten us so that we would change our attitudes to each other, and by doing so, change the world. That is the sole reason we can consider impending famine and other crises, and it is also the reason for our experience of crises and suffering in general: to bring about a shift in how we relate to each other, from negative to positive, egoistic to altruistic, and apathetic to mutually responsible.

What could be the catalyst for such a transformation?

I believe that there should be a leader that initiates and promotes it. Our world is tough without someone that human society would accept as their leader and follow, one who would discuss unification and how we could overcome famine and other crises. Of course, it would only work if people would listen to such a leader, and famine would emerge to open our ears to such a person.

Then, after a period of famine, we would be different. We would hold a different attitude to life and to its values. We would no longer underestimate the vast importance of our survival and what it means for us to survive in today’s trying times.

While there have been periods of great famine, wars and other crises in the past, today is fundamentally different because our current era is preparing us for mass awareness of the evil of our egoistic relations, which will spur in us the desire to change ourselves. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, such an awakening is called “the recognition of evil.” It takes an enormous amount of suffering for us to reach a state where we can sense our own nature as evil, to define it as such and to draw the necessary conclusions: that we need to put an end to our rat race of individuals competing against each other for material well-being, and shift to new positively-connected relations where we seek to benefit each other and nature, feeling ourselves as parts of an interdependent and interconnected whole where we each affect one another. We are still not there yet, but that time is nearing.

Based on the video “Is the World in Danger of Impending Famine?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Preparation to the Lesson

Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “Two Points” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 57

Selected Highlights

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Imagine that you are standing at a crossroads: If you go left, it is for your own sake, and if you go right, it is for the sake of the Creator. How can you choose the correct intention in order to go in the direction of bestowal?

We must yearn for bestowal and try to reach it by all means. Then the Creator will always correct us and teach us how to do it. The main thing is to act together with the friends and look for forms of connection between us that will give us a feeling of coming closer to the Creator.

Let’s create such a unity in which our inner connection will be able to reveal the form of the Creator, His quality, and His character to us. The more we move in this direction day by day, the better we will begin to understand who the Creator is and who we are, what distance separates us, and what we need to do in order to come a little closer to Him.

Every day, every moment when we yearn to connect, we must check whether the form of our connection is becoming more and more true, in mutual bestowal to each other. This is the very first exercise that The Zohar gives us: to connect in a ten and reach such mutual bestowal and mutual connection that approaches the form of the Shechinah.

This does not mean physical distance, but rather a feeling of inner, spiritual closeness.

But we are not required to reach this correct intention ourselves; the main thing is to search for it. The most important thing is the search, the questions, the inner regret that we are not able to come to it. From this, a prayer will be born that will help us reach the desired goal.

The Creator must arrange the desire for us, and He also arranges its fulfillment, the answer to it. We just need to be searching.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/23, “Zohar for All. Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “‘Love your neighbor as yourself’. Do we really practice this in the world today?“

We can realize the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself” in today’s world through education.

Education means filling our media, our schools, colleges, universities, and our cultures, i.e. literally everything that influences us, with examples and explanations of our need to achieve positive connections among us all.

If we do so, then there is hope of reaching positive social values and a whole, pleasant, good and perfect world. If not, then our constantly growing ego—the desire to receive that wishes to devour others and nature for self-benefit—pits us up against each other on a collision course to destruction.

We can understand the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself” similarly to how an ideal family functions. In the beginning of creation, we were a single family. Today, we need to realize ourselves as a single family among several billions of people, which is possible through regular learning of our interconnection and interdependence. We are currently like a family that grew up and lost their connection, and we need to bring them together to talk about it. That is what we need to do today in humanity.

Based on the video “How to Make ‘Love Your Neighbor as Yourself’ a Reality in Today’s World” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Einstein proved that time depends on the speed of the observer. According to the scientist’s theory, time slows down for things that are in motion relative to other objects. What does Kabbalah say about the relativity of time?

Answer: Kabbalah does not speak about time at all. It says that time should be measured by our actions. The flow of our thoughts and actions, meaning the change of states, is time.

And states can be very fast or slow, whichever you like. We attribute our own subjective feelings to them and call it time.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/25/22

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