Question: What is the difference between cynicism and humor where someone mocks others and goads them?

Answer: Humor, satire, cynicism, and sarcasm are various manifestations of a person’s attitude to his own or to the common existence.

Humor, as a rule, does not indicate personality. Humor is good. It speaks about the general structure of the world, humanity, and people, which must be perceived as given to us from above. That is, such is nature and that is it. Humor does not aim to eradicate some phenomenon in character or in anything. It simply states: this is what we live with.

And satire is aimed at eradicating shortcomings. In addition to it, there are also exaggerations: sarcasm, criticism, and all kinds of ambiguity.

Question: But sometimes you tease some students, even bring them to tears. Do you somehow measure when it needs to be done?

Answer: I feel that this is necessary, and often I do this in order, on the contrary, to remove something negative, to soften it, to turn it around a little.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Humor Will Save the World” 5/20/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is there a creator?“

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains our complete interconnection in the general system of reality. We are completely connected whether we like it or not throughout the still, vegetative, animate and speaking degrees of nature.

Even though we do not see the full extent of our interconnectedness, we are nonetheless connected in a way where we each determine each other’s states.

The system of our connection is hidden, and we can thus harm each other because we perceive other people as disconnected from us.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, however, states that we share a deep essential connection, and the closer we come to discovering our deep and true connection, we likewise discover the force that dwells inside that connection, called “the Creator” or “the upper force.”

In other words, the more we discover the true connection we all share, then the more we discover the Creator that acts in this system, flowing through it like how blood flows through our bodies.

Based on the video “Where Is the Creator?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)”

Writings of Rabash “One Should Always Sell the Beams of His House”

Selected Highlights

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Question: When we are all singing together, a person seems to enter into a common wave. Is he actually included in some level of connection with others or is it just our imagination?

Answer: The fact is that our common desire draws the surrounding light, which gives a certain illumination, and people feel that they are in some kind of cloud.

In addition, serious mutual efforts can even cause the manifestation of the upper world and then people really get a clear feeling of what is happening, but only for a certain time. And then, if they do not have the opportunity to constantly remain in this state, it goes away.

It is not like in our world when I have caught something and keep holding it by force. I can retain the feeling of spirituality only through my own properties. If I have the properties of the upper world, then this feeling exists in me. Yet it seems to people that they can hold it by force: “Now I will strain myself, crouch, jump up, and fly.”

There are no such “flights” with us. One has to work very seriously to raise and hold on despite the fact that all sorts of opposite desires are constantly arising in you.

Based on this, one needs to reckon. There are people who just sit with their eyes closed and try to catch some special mood.

There are those who feel it more. There are those who already enter this state, but temporarily. And there are those who stay in it constantly.

But when a group gets together and aspires together to a certain spiritual manifestation inside itself through connection, then it results in a corresponding ascent. And then, when this ascent passes, some of them descend from that state to a lower but still spiritual level and some descend and pass through the Machsom back to the earthly level. Each one on his own at different sub-levels.

Question: But is it singing long drawn-out songs that we sing at our meals or meetings of friends, that lead a person into different states? Does it actually work in a person?

Answer: Only in the case that people unite, it works, and if they do not unite, it does not work. And you can sing whatever you want. The main thing is that it supports you and helps you unite. There is nothing supernatural or mystical in this singing.

Comment: It is not even mystical here, but precisely the feeling where private states are canceled, as it were.

My Response: It is because people believe so, because they try to connect their feelings with the music from which they came.

In the past Kabbalists used it, and so naturally as these sounds exist in the spiritual world. Like with Munchausen, they froze and then they played. In the spiritual world, all this happens all the time. If great Kabbalists used this, then we connect to them with the help of these sounds.

But this is not mysticism. We simply excite the field that they once excited. Basically, there is no “once.” Nothing disappears in spirituality.

Question: Can a person enter spirituality through Kabbalistic singing?

Answer: No. Kabbalistic singing can affect a person a little, move him, or raise him up. He will feel that there is, perhaps, something attractive in this. But nothing more.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Magic of Singing Together” 5/11/13

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Comment: You once said that a person should use the light of confidence that occasionally shines on him.

My Response: This happens when the group provides him with their support. When he feels that he is walking with his friends, they support him all the time, and he has something to fall on.

Question: Is isn’t the light when a person felt his first contact with Kabbalah and really felt that this was the truth?

Answer: No, of course not.

Question: Why does a person still lose the feeling he experienced the first time he encountered Kabbalah?

Answer: So that he can move forward normally. Now he must understand it himself within his corrected properties.

Question: It turns out that the initial feeling is erased so that there are no moments one can become attached to?

Answer: Of course. After all, you return to a normal state in which you do not believe that there is something that is not material. You can even say, “All this is nonsense,” despite the fact that you once absolutely clearly experienced spirituality.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Forget Spiritual Attainment” 6/9/13

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Rosh HaShanah is the time to ask forgiveness from the Creator for your crimes. In other words, I feel that I do not have a sense of the importance and greatness of the Creator, and I apologize for this. After all, if I felt the greatness and importance of the Creator, then of course I would behave differently. It turns out that I lack only the feeling of the Creator.

And that’s why I ask: “Let me feel You and I will become different!” This is what a person should say to the Creator; this is the correct request and the right apology. After all, why do I commit crimes? Because I lack the sense of the Creator, which is called faith. There is no feeling of the Creator, there is no faith, and therefore, there is no one to stop me. I cannot do otherwise because if the Creator does not rule over me, then the evil inclination, egoism, rules.

Therefore, I ask the Creator to take authority over me. This is my main request, after which we come to Rosh HaShanah, we come to the king, and we want to place Him to reign over us.

I want to repent of all my sins, to know and feel everything that prevents my correction. I ask the Creator to open my eyes and let me feel where the crime is and where the commandment is so that I understand where I fulfill His covenant to give, to love, and to unite, and where I do the opposite.

I don’t feel it now at every moment of my life. If I did, of course I would improve. The problem is that I don’t feel the Creator, the force of bestowal, which I could check myself with. So with this, I turn to the Creator and demand that He give me the opportunity to test myself regarding the force of bestowal, and then I will never commit a crime.

We do not recall the past and do not ask for forgiveness for it. I should not cry about what happened, but about the fact that I do not strive for correction and do not require the Creator to help me in this. I want to move forward, not dig into the past and shed tears about what I did.

Did I do something? I didn’t do anything, the Creator did everything. And He did it on purpose so that I now know what I need to fix. I take this evil, the crime that has now been revealed, and begin to correct it. My whole aspiration is forward, not backward. This is the difference!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/20, “What Is Preparation for Selichot (Forgiveness)”

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Question: Let’s say some scoundrel teases me, laughs, and mocks me. Should I say that the Creator sends me this and I justify Him and do not take revenge?

Answer: When others mock you, when you are in such a hostile environment, but you perceive it as coming from the Creator, then this state is called exile from spirituality.

It encourages you to break out of there, to look for methods of how to do it. You begin to understand that such a state is specially created and acts in such a way as to bring you closer to the Creator.

After all, if there were no negative impact from the environment, for example, of other nations upon the Jews, then in the end, they would have dissolved, disappeared, and would not have come to today’s fulfillment of their mission.

Therefore, it is said that Pharaoh brings the Jewish people closer to the exodus from Egypt and closer to the Creator, and forces them to this by his negative attitude toward them.

Question: Does this justification of revenge come at any stage?

Answer: Of course, because everything comes from the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Take Revenge on the Enemy” 5/24/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is money evil, or is it just a myth?“

Money is the universal equivalent for effort. It is an indicator for our personal exertion that shows the extent to which we succeed by using the special talents we receive. For instance, money can somewhat measure whether one person is smarter, more successful, stronger or luckier than another person. It is essential to have a universal equivalent for such measurements.

Having such a universal equivalent is not evil. We cannot measure each and every person, yet we still need to be able to somewhat evaluate people and their efforts.

In Hebrew, the word for money is “Kesef,” which derives from the word for covering, “Kisuf.” It means that we cover our efforts correctly, with an intention to bestow goodness upon others, and the measure of covering our efforts is called “money” (“Kesef”). However, in its original Hebrew use, such a meaning of money/covering implies spiritual efforts and results.

Yet it also applies to our corporeal world. As mentioned, money is a certain universal equivalent we use to measure human efforts. It can, however, be replaced with another universal equivalent: relationships. That is, when we understand human relations and exercise positive connections among each other and with nature, when the laws of nature becomes our common universal equivalent, then the other dimensions will disappear, except for our inner attitudes to each other, our relationships. In the language of Kabbalah, such a measurement is called a “Masach” (“screen”) and “Ohr Hozer” (“reflected light”). The screen and reflected light become spiritual tools akin to the way in which we use coins and banknotes today. The strength of the screen and reflected light that we receive is equivalent to the strength we have to resist our own egoistic desires, which prioritize self-benefit over benefiting others, and raise the importance of benefiting others over benefiting each person’s own self. We can then measure the extent to which we positively connect in ties of bestowal above our egoistic resistance.

The more we can bestow above our egoistic resistance, the more we discover true spiritual wealth, which is eternal and completely fulfilling, unlike corporeal wealth that never truly satisfies. Wealth is about how much of ourselves we can give to others. That is the high spiritual root of money, and it has since descended to simple cash and coins that we relate to in our corporeal reality. However, we need to descend to the very bottom, and see the true egoistic extent of our relationships, in order to realize the lowliness of such relations and reach a critical juncture where we develop a genuine desire for change. At that point, nature’s positive forces will lift us. We just need to realize the lowliness of our current state and the desire to change, and accordingly ask for the kind of change that nature responds to: to improve our attitudes to each other and wish for nature’s quality of bestowal to enter into our connections.

Based on the video “Is Money Evil?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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