Question: You once said: “If you unite, I will be able to explain more.” Do you own the information and you need a formed desire toward which you give this information?

Answer: We need desires that will be at the level of what I want to explain. If there are no such desires, then the explanation will not work.

Let’s say you are sitting in front of a group of students. They ask you some questions, and at the level of these questions, you have to explain everything to them. You can’t give them an answer a few courses higher—they won’t understand it and it will only confuse them.

Therefore everything goes only according to the plan that my students dictate to me. Sometimes I get a little ahead of events in order to prepare them for the next degrees.

Question: If an external person listens to the information that you give us and which is clear to us, will he somehow understand or will he not hear it at all?

Answer: He will think that I am saying something completely incomprehensible, philosophical, psychological, and generally abstract from our world.

But there are people, many people in the world, who are familiar with this information although they are not in it. Even the same Hasidim, although they do not attain what is written in their books, they know it. And so if they hear me, they will say, “Yes, he says what is written in our books.” After all, the founders of Hasidism were great Kabbalists.
[303917]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Hidden Information” 8/6/13

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In the News (CNBC): “Of the estimated 828 million people globally who were affected by hunger in 2021, around three-in-five (59%) were women, according to a report released earlier this month by humanitarian organization Care.

“That’s equivalent to 150 million more women facing food insecurity than men.

“And the gap is widening. …

“According to the U.N.‘s 2022 ‘The state of food security and nutrition in the world’ report, women have poorer food security than men in every region in the world. That disparity is especially pronounced in developing countries and specifically in the Global South. …

“‘Women are very heavily socialized to pull that burden on themselves. And everyone around them is socialized to assume that they will,’ Janoch said. …

“Indeed, even when both men and women are technically food insecure, women still tend to bear the bigger burden.

“In Somalia, for example, men reported eating smaller meals while women reported skipping meals altogether.”

Comment: In many places in the world “women eat last and eat least.” You keep giving the example of a woman and a child as an example of bestowal in our world.

Could you say a little about a woman in this perspective?

My Response: Responsibility. After all, a woman feels her family, her children, her husband, and all her surrounding space. For her, this is herself. Therefore the Torah says: “A woman is a house.”

Question: Are these not the greatest qualities for our world?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Why can we not give the reins of power and everything else to a woman?

Answer: No, she cannot do that. But when a man does everything for her sake, then it will be good because we have to create such conditions for a woman, with the help of which the world will actually be corrected.

Question: That is, will the world be corrected through a woman?

Answer: Yes. This is true.

Question: Why does a woman have all these qualities? Is it because she can give birth?

Answer: Because she can give birth. Because she feels nature through herself, through the heart, through the uterus. That is what is written in the Bible. Abraham was told straight away, “Listen to what Sarah tells you.” This is not simple.

Question: Can we see this as a piece of advice that you need to listen to what a woman tells you?

Answer: This was the Creator’s instruction to Abraham!

Comment: Is this mainly about the natural wisdom of a woman?

My Response: Yes, precisely about natural wisdom. Not an artificial one, like in a man.

Question: Do you perceive nature as female?

Answer: In general, yes. A man is made for correction to the extent that he can earn the quality of correction, the power of correction. A woman, however, on her own is already inside nature.

Question: Does it mean that if we listened to a woman, if we treated a woman correctly and worked for her, there would be no wars, suffering, or troubles?

Answer: In general, of course.

Question: Is it possible to lock everything on a woman?

Answer: It depends on how to turn it. But in general, yes. If we listened to a woman, then of course there would be more order in the world. This is clear to everyone.
[303814]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/1/22

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Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #5 “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below”

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Exile and Redemption”

Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Education as an Antidote for Hunger”

This week, the UN, and several related organizations, marked two significant dates: the World Food Day and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. International organizations for the poor and hungry have existed at least since the end of World War II, but neither poverty nor hunger have been eradicated. If anything, they have increased. What, then, are we doing wrong, and can we change the dismal reality?

The problem is not lack of food; there is plenty of it. In fact, much of the food that is produced gets thrown away and pollutes the water and the ground rather than feeding hungry mouths. So people are hungry not for lack of food, but because there is no interest in helping people get it.

The prevailing attitude is one of narcissism. We care only for ourselves and suspect everyone else’s intentions toward us. If we have any surplus funds, we use them to build walls and fences, not to help others. This is how we behave around the world as individuals and as nations.

To quiet our conscience, we create organizations to tend to the poor and hungry. We fund them generously and appoint functionaries and bureaucrats to deal with the problem.

But if our hearts were with the poor, we would not leave them in the hands of bureaucrats, just as we would not leave our children in the hands of social workers to see to their upbringing. We would see that the people we care about get what they need.

Because we do not care, we appoint uncaring people who present plans for dealing with the spreading poverty and hunger, and announce special days to bring the problem to public awareness. They do not do a thing about the actual problems, but simply justify their bloated salaries through professionally designed presentations and verbose speeches that glorify their (nonexistent) achievements.

If they truly wanted to solve the problem, which funds their lavish lifestyle, there would be many ways to do so. However, the surest way to lift people from poverty is education.

First, there are technologies that can increase the yield of fields by multiple times through sophisticated irrigation systems, controlled environments, and other means. Farmers need to be taught how to use these technologies, and should be given the means to acquire them. This step alone would lift countless people out of hunger and poverty.

Next, I think that organizations for eradication of poverty and hunger should use their budgets to buy lands where they will both grow crops for food that will be dedicated for the poor, and use some of the land to teach local farmers more efficient agriculture.

Additionally, these centers for agriculture and education should be used in order to provide general education. It is well known that educated people have more opportunities in life, are generally better off, and can provide for themselves and their families better than uneducated people. Therefore, as a means to eradicate poverty and hunger, these centers should also provide general knowledge and education.

Also, education should not be only about avoiding poverty. Poverty is not a personal matter, but a social one. Therefore, people who study at these education centers should also learn about solidarity, mutual responsibility, interdependence in today’s world, and other topics that will help them establish themselves as positive elements in a connected world.

In this way, we can create an agrarian transformation that will become a social and cultural transformation that can free people not only from the grip of poverty and hunger, but integrate them in the global society of the 21st century as confident and positive individuals. In turn, these people will help others rise from poverty, and the process will gain momentum.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can one rise above themselves?“

We can rise above our egoistic selves in a group setting where we conduct various exercises that guide us on how to connect with each other until we receive a feeling that we live in a single system of nature.

By learning how to connect, we start learning what nature wants from us, and the extent to which we can realize this desire of nature. The more we learn the ways of positive connection above our egoistic selves, the closer we come to a state of living in a hate free and united world. We then start feeling the attainment of a higher world.

The feeling of rising above our egos in a group setting is different to the feeling of working on ourselves in a purely individual manner, for instance, in practices such as meditation.

In a group setting, we remove illusory concepts of rising above ourselves, and learn together with others how to invert the negative egoistic force into a positive one. In individual practices, we are closed within ourselves, and solely by the power of our imagination and inner effort, we seemingly try to not be under the ego’s control. We likewise receive no forces from above. Indeed, such practices somewhat let us detach from the ego, but we do not work with the ego in a way where we build a new system. Likewise, those engaging in individual practices such as meditation are not connected among each other. It is as if each one sits in their own personal corner. They might seemingly enter a different world, but it is detachment from the earthly corporeal ego that gives such a sensation. However, it gives us no ability to truly rise above our egoistic selves—to enter and act in the upper world with understanding and awareness.

When we aim to rise above our egoistic selves in a group setting, we reveal the extent in which we need to invert our egos. We come to see how our egoistic nature operates in opposition to others, and the more we try to positively connect, the more we discover the negative force working against our connection. Eventually, from such an interplay, we come to genuine demands and responses to rise above our egoistic selves and discover higher worlds of perception above the ego.

Based on the video “How to Rise Above Yourself” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Let’s say a person has some material problems and he asks the Creator to sort them out somehow. Is this normal?

Answer: Do you see that it helps?

Comment: It probably helps someone, but not someone else.

My Response: In principle, no.

Question: In Kabbalistic literature it is written more strongly that you harm yourself with this. In what way exactly?

Answer: By asking for yourself, you are asking to fill up or at least calm your egoism.

Comment: Then this information should be known to everyone because people usually ask for themselves.

My Response: Let them come and study Kabbalah. In many sources it is clearly written that if a person asks for himself, then he harms his soul.

Therefore people should come and learn how to properly address the upper force and thereby direct themselves to the right goal, to good.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 9/25/22

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Question: The topic of reincarnation interests many people, but why is there so little written about it?

Answer: It is in order not to pass incorrect information and it is not to try to hide the correct one, but to give a person only what is needed. Therefore, Kabbalists prefer to remain silent.

Question: But does the concept of life cycles still exist?

Answer: Yes, it exists. In principle, nature is full of cycles: gasses, water, minerals, air, planets; everything is subject to some kind of cycle.

Question: So, life does not end after death? If there are cycles, then nothing ends?

Answer: Is this the most important thing that interests a person? He is not happy with his life, sometimes curses it, and still fears that it ends and there will be no continuation.

Let’s say a person was born, grew up, was taught, punished, and encouraged. In the end, he grew up, created a family, and gave birth to his children. And what is next? He reached the state of death and died like everything in nature. So is there anything to worry about? As it is said: “Against your will you are born; against your will you live; and against your will you die.”
[303969]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual states” 10/9/22

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Comment: People feel a lot of states as a result of hearing your words during a lesson and think: “I have discovered something incredible here for myself!”

My Response: This is how I reveal the world to them! I sit in front of them and, one can say, open up more and more connections and interactions between all its parts. Of course what we do during the lesson is the discovery of the world.

Comment: It seems that it is impossible not to absorb this information, although it is hard for external people.

My Response: A person will not be able to absorb it. No matter how much he writes down, no matter what he does, it is impossible to absorb. You can only listen to this information many times in order to change. Try to change!

And the changes themselves occur only during practical study in the group, only when trying to connect on an equal level.

Question: As a result, will those people who are not listening to us now come to this through feelings or through practice?

Answer: You are in the same system with them. To the extent that you absorb, you pass the light of correction through yourself to the whole system. And if you are also actively disseminating, then even more so.

Yet if you have these opportunities, but you don’t use them to communicate with others, you shut yourself up and there will also be nothing left in you. Everything is arranged in this simple way; as long as the system passes through itself and is connected to everyone, it works. If there is some kind of breakage in it, then this part stops working.
[303965]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Hidden Information” 8/6/13

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Everyone knows that The Book of Zohar is special. This is the only Book that can lead man into the spiritual world. It has become famous because of its unique purpose, and humanity treats it in a special way.

A man is born into this world without knowing anything about it. Nature has prepared a very strange entrance into the world for him, nothing is explained to him in advance, and sensations, memory, or mind are not transmitted to him from his father or mother or from previous generations.

He is born as a piece of flesh and begins to receive impressions from this world: heat, cold, light, darkness, sounds, noise, and silence.

At first, he does not feel anything at all. Gradually, he begins to react to sounds, light, and then to the attitude of his mother, to some actions upon him, and he laughs or cries. He begins to explore the world, seeks to find out what surrounds him and gets acquainted with his body. This is how he grows.

It is amazing that a couple of days after its birth an animal cub knows everything and can survive in this world on its own, and a human baby is not capable of anything without the care of adults. Besides, if it is left in the forest, it becomes the same as the animals around it.

The whole development of a child in our world takes place on the basis of the impressions he receives and examples and behavior patterns that exist in the world and that adults show and explain to him.

There is music for children, toys, playgrounds with sandboxes and slides, various construction sets and games, all so that children learn to break, assemble, and disassemble, and distinguish colors and sounds. All this exists for the development of man in order to prepare him for life in our world.

Parents and an environment are ready to provide the child with everything so that he grows up befitting his generation and the world in which he lives. Instinctively, we are created in such a way that we want to give the child everything there is in us. Otherwise, he will not be ready for life.

Such upbringing is natural, it comes from our nature, and we cannot destroy it. We cannot stuff a person with information by connecting him directly to a computer and filling him with encyclopedic knowledge.

We cannot fill him with education and knowledge immediately after birth and develop sensations, reactions, and sensitivity in him; only gradually, step-by-step, to the extent that he accumulates impressions, does he himself take the form of an individual.

It takes the first 20 years of a person’s life and even more. And as adults, we also continue to learn and develop, and when we come of age, we regret that we did not know something earlier.

A similar process of development takes place with us at our birth and formation in the upper world. The only difference is that I exist in this world, and it really interferes with me!

But I also need a spiritual father and mother, an environment, toys, education, upbringing, and explanation. And if I do not get examples, I will not be ready for the spiritual world, it will not open up to me, and I will not recognize it.

Just as a person cannot exist in our world without information about it, so his soul cannot exist in the upper world without information about it. Moreover, the knowledge of the upper world is a feeling of life in it (Baal HaSulam, “Body and Soul”).

Imagine that if a newborn baby were left lying in a crib and not provided with anything other than what is necessary for his existence. He would remain a piece of flesh.

We will not be able to develop if we do not receive new, varied impressions. We may not understand them, just as a baby does not understand them, but we are first filled with all sorts of external influences and impressions, and in this way we grow.

The same is true in spirituality. We must fill ourselves with various external influences that come from the spiritual world. But they do not exist in our world!

It is exactly this “external” influence that The Book of Zohar has on us. And that is why this Book is special. If a person reads or listens to this Book, regardless of his understanding, the Book fills him with various impressions of the unknown upper world. No other Book has such an impact on a person.

Gradually, as we study The Book of Zohar, we will receive impressions from it, accumulate them, and they will penetrate us, and will take care of our advancement.

Of course, we will accompany reading The Book of Zohar with small explanations in order to give a person some connection with its narrative.

But in fact, a person can read it even without any explanations with only the desire to understand, like a child with widely open eyes wants to attain the world and to know everything because nature does not allow him to remain at rest for a minute.

If we open our senses, heart, and mind just to absorb everything from this book, like a baby absorbing the world with enthusiastic eyes, we will move forward.

And it does not matter whether a person has a brilliant mind or it is difficult for him to learn, whether he is lazy or agile, rational or sensitive, everyone will receive the development most favorable for him.
[5745]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/09, The Book of Zohar “Noah”

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