Question: In some movements they promote not pondering over the group’s teachings. The members say: “It’s impossible to explain, come to us, you have to experience this.”

Answer: That is correct. There are things that you can’t appreciate from afar, even music, until you get used to it, understand it, receive explanations, and get trained. This is the same as culture that teaches a person how to perceive paintings, sounds, dancing, and ballet.

If they take you now to the opera, for example, you will run away from there, because you have a clip-perception. And here in front of you on stage for two or three hours, they will be singing about love, and you will be admiring and crying. You must be ready for this.

Comment: Often such misunderstanding is used as criticism.

My Response: Of course there will be criticism. How is it possible not to criticize what I don’t understand? It is easiest to say: “Ah, it’s worthless, empty.”

Personally I have no complaints about such people. They are just shallow, small people who, without being able to figure something out, talk about it.

Likewise, the lyrics philosophize about physics. But they have nonetheless the opportunity to ask around and understand something in an easy way, but this is impossible in Kabbalah. In Kabbalah, you must see it and feel it, because this attainment is not from our world, not in our senses. We do not have adequate perceptions about what we feel when we acquire spiritual sense organs.

That is why I have a problem explaining this to a person. My parents asked, “What are you doing anyway?” I couldn’t explain it to them.

I am engaged in Kabbalah.

What is this?

This is the science that speaks about the upper world.

And what is the upper world? Is it the world we get after death?

We get nowhere after death.

Where do the souls reside?

Souls don’t reside anywhere, there is no place.

Where then is the upper world?

And it doesn’t exist until I create it with my changed qualities.

“It looks like our child skidded off somewhere. It’s a pity, he gave such hope both for science and business. He gave up science, then opened his own business. Quit business and went somewhere into Kabbalah, and really got enslaved with Kabbalah,” my parents said and they left for Canada.

That is all.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalah about Cults” 12/18/13

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The center of the group is not in any of the members of the group, but only between all of them. If we all tried to unite with each other in such a way as to feel everyone together as one single whole, this would be the center of the group, the point of complete connection between us.

Question: In order to concentrate in the center of the group during a workshop, do we need to depict this state you have described to ourselves?

Answer: Yes, of course. After all, when we connect, everyone’s personal “I” disappears, and “We” remains instead of “I.”
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Where is the Center of the Group?” 5/14/14

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Preparation to the Lesson

Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “You Are Partners with Me”  

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Does Kabbalah improve how people get along?“

The wisdom of Kabbalah is all about bringing people together.

Human connection holds primary importance in the method, and becoming a Kabbalist means becoming an expert in positive human connection.

For instance, I understand every person I have ever spoken to, and I have spoken to thousands of people. I find in each person some part of them in me. It could be an enemy, an antisemite, a Nazi, a drunk, someone very coarse, a thief or a mobster. I find the same qualities that they have in me. It is not that I am a complete thief that dedicates their life to robberies, but that quality exists in me.

I have to let others feel that I understand them. And it could even be the most terrible criminal: I have to show them that I understand them, that I can somewhat step into their shoes, understand where they come from, and justify that I would turn out the same way given the conditions that they went through. When you relate to a part of other people in you, you can then easily talk to anyone.

Show me any person in the world who I am not included in? We learn in the wisdom of Kabbalah, whether you like it or not, from the very top to the very bottom and in all directions, that you are an integral part of all the souls. Likewise, you include all the opinions and discernments of the souls. Other people should then feel that inclusion when they talk to you.

Based on the video “Does Kabbalah Help People Get Along?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Tal Mandelbaum. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Why the Russia-China Axis Is Unlikely to Pose a Threat to the West”

The evident warming relationship between Russia and China has been causing some concern in the West. Also, some media outlets relate to the alliance between the two powers as an asset to China in its struggle against the US for world domination.

Additionally, Iran’s surprise status as a major arms provider to the exhausted Russia has added another partner to the alliance, a partner whose animosity toward humanism, and indeed toward anyone who is not a Shiite Muslim, is unsettling for many. Considering also that there is North Korea with its warm relations with China, and warming relations with Russia, the picture becomes even bleaker.

I am not saying that we should not be worried over what might materialize from such a quadrilateral alliance. I think we need to take whatever measures necessary to prevent the axis from taking shape. At the same time, I think that such an axis is unlikely. Even if it does materialize, at the moment, Russia is too exhausted to pose a threat, and its forces have been thinned down by local wars it has been conducting over the past several years. For this reason, I do not believe it is in a position to face the West.

Besides, over the past year, and especially since the start of the war in Ukraine, the United States and Europe have become much stronger. They realized that they had no choice but to boost their military capabilities, and they acted accordingly. In a sense, the war in Ukraine has benefited the Western bloc compared to the Eastern bloc.

There is another tactic that the West is using against Russia: its own pride. Russia could have gained a great deal, economically and otherwise, if it chose to make concessions in Ukraine in return for favors and support from the West. However, its pride will not let it do this, so it will continue to fight until there is nothing left of its military. The only ones who will gain from this extended slaughter is the West.

As for China, it is unlikely to sever its ties with the West. It has too much to lose, and it is too dependent on the West’s purchasing power to risk its ties with Europe and (mainly) with the US. Although it appears robust, China is currently in a precarious situation having suffered economic setbacks following the zero Covid policy, and now the out-of-control outbreak of the virus. China will continue to maintain good connections with Russia, which provides it with cheap gas, but it will not stretch the rope with its Western business partners too tight. In short, it will continue sitting on the fence.

In my view, the most likely scenario is that the tug-of-war between Russia and the US will continue until either the US or Israel move to unseat the Iranian regime. Without Iran, Russia has nothing more to offer in Ukraine; it has exhausted its military options, its manpower, and its firepower. As a result, without Iran, it would have very few options for continuing its assaults in Ukraine.

In such a state, if the Iranian fanatic Shiite regime comes down, Russia’s supply of suicide drones will dry out, and its main assault weapon against Ukrainian infrastructure facilities will no longer be available. Surprisingly, therefore, a move in Iran could signal the end of the war in Ukraine.
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The more uncorrected our vessels of reception, the more we cannot open our mouths to receive His abundance, for fear of disparity of form, as in “One who eats that which is not one’s own, is afraid to look upon one’s face” (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 5, Item 22).

If I do not become similar to the Creator, then eventually, I constantly lose.

Without acting like the Creator, I am immersed in a sense of shame that belittles me, presses me to the ground, and explains how insignificant I am.

I feel ashamed that I am not similar to the Creator, that I am the opposite of Him.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 12/18/22

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But “The righteous in their land will inherit twofold.” …Not only do they attain the perfection of the pleasures and a variety of possessions, they also acquire the equivalence of form with their Maker. Thus, they come to true adhesion and are also at rest since the abundance comes to them by itself, without any movement or effort (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 4, Item 21).

We are talking about those people who understand how to receive fulfillment. Therefore, Kabbalah is called the wisdom of fulfillment, the wisdom of reception. If we can receive fulfillment correctly, we can receive everything we want, and, having achieved this, we will be at rest.

Baal HaSulam writes that a person learns not only to enjoy correctly, but also receives an equivalence of form with his maker. That is, these are two types of pleasure, when he receives pleasure both from being similar to the Creator and from being filled with what the Creator gives.

Question: What pleasures does the Creator give? What can we enjoy?

Answer: Being like the Creator. This is the highest pleasure. In this case, a person is filled with constant, absolute pleasure and does not feel any need.

Question: If there is such a technology, and it has existed for several thousand years, then why has no one revealed it and advertised it?

Answer: Because it is against our nature. Even when we advertise it, we do not see that people are eager to learn it. Our goal is absolute fulfillment. But it is reached by the fact that a person must rise above his egoism, and we do not agree with this.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 12/18/22

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Question: Irina writes: “I have not become a mother yet, but I really want to be. I see how mothers bring their children to our classes. I am a dancing teacher myself. I see how the kids are cleanly dressed, how their mothers admire them. And then I see the news, how men, still boys, kill each other. And I do not understand why? Why were there all these classes, clean shirts, matinees, and school? Why? How should one educate, love, and warm a person so that he does not want any wars and would not want to kill anyone?”

Answer: I understand this young girl. But I do not know how to answer her, except for one thing. At the core of human nature is egoism, which brutalizes, kills, and does everything to destroy us. We need to declare war on this egoism. How to do this is the most important thing.

Kabbalah teaches this. Let’s master this science together and destroy egoism. I have nothing more to say except for these compulsory words. But you will learn everything else from our courses, lectures, classes, and books.

Question: Is it possible to do this at the degree of our world with agreements with some kind of economic sanctions?

Answer: That is worthless!

Question: Will humanity be convinced of this?

Answer: Humanity must reveal that its nature, egoism, is evil. And that is why it cannot do anything good, no good will come out of it. So, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

Question: So those barbaric wars that happened, are they going to be just as barbaric in future?

Answer: Even more barbaric.

Question: And the fact that man becomes more cultured, more knowledgeable?

Answer: All this will only be to his detriment. This is because egoism invents everything: all sciences, arts, techniques, and technologies.

Question: Does no spirituality enter into man?

Answer: No. Spirituality is love for one’s neighbor without any reason.

Question: And we cannot come to this through technical progress?

Answer: No, of course not.

Question: How will humanity understand this?

Answer: It will understand either through light or through suffering. There are two ways. And now they are beginning to open up to us.

Question: But are they both paths that somehow lead to the same path?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So one can be so long, lengthy, and the second is more direct and clearer?

Answer: Yes. Let’s hope that we will see it all somehow. At least the beginning of it.
[306571]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/27/22

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An insight into women’s inner quest and spiritual development

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