Question: Can a person love his neighbor if he does not love himself?

Answer: A person cannot but love himself. Even if he hates himself, he still loves himself.

We are originally designed so that our whole nature is selfishness. Therefore, it cannot be that I do not love myself. Even when I hate myself, even when I want to commit suicide, it still comes from pride. It is within us, it is our foundation. Therefore, everything above it can only be built on the basis of self-love.

A person does not want to suffer so he may even give up his life, perhaps from a subconscious feeling that he is immortal, but still out of self-love. In all our actions there is no other motive than the fact that we love ourselves.

I think after digging around on the Internet, you can find a lot of confirmation on this topic.
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From KabTV’s “Videoconference”

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Question: The women are dividing into tens now and they often meet on Zoom® and connect between them on the phone. But there is no effort to disseminate. It seems that they are trying to imitate the men’s work and not do what you advise them to do, to grow stronger in dissemination.

How can this be changed? How can dissemination become the preferable activity in women’s tens?

Answer: I do not know how to endorse this.

You need to understand this from the structure of the general vessel that we learn about. If there is no unity between us or if our unity is not aimed at expanding outward, we will not be able to receive anything.

We are the upper part, the head of the vessel, called GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim), which includes Keter, Hochma, and Bina. The other part of the Partzuf is called AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh), and it is made of the lower part of Bina, ZA (Zeir Anpin), and Malchut.

We can receive the light from above, from the Creator only to the extent that we are integrated in the desire of the lower vessels.

So, the desire in the lower part of the vessel has to be precise, a deficiency from the lower vessels (from the people). But if there is no such basic desire, we will not receive anything from above.

It is very simple. You cannot do anything without the right desire, without wanting to correct something. We, the upper part, only prepare ourselves for the correction so the correction will help us feel the lower part, the desire of all the people in the world, and then we will be able to raise their desire to the Creator.

This is how we work.

This is the reason we are called Israel, Yashar-El, straight to the Creator, whereas they are called the general body, the general vessel.

They cannot correct themselves in any way. Only we can correct them. Without them, there is nothing for us to correct. This means that the connection with the Creator can only be if we take their desires first and raise them upward, then we will be able to be in contact with the Creator.

So without dissemination there is no hope that the Creator will relate to us in any way because all our work stems from the desire for the goal of the creation that we received from above. Why has the Creator given us our desire? So that we will format ourselves and begin to raise the desire of the rest of the vessel to Him. Then we will really be in our right place, serve the Creator correctly, and become His servants.

But if we do not use the desire to the Creator, which was given to us in order to turn to the world and connect with their yearnings and their sufferings and raise them upward, there is no need for us because we cannot ask for ourselves.

All our requests can only be in order to connect the world to the Creator. It is only for this purpose that we exist.

So, do not hope to attain the Creator, to reveal Him, to be in contact with Him, if you do not begin to raise the uncorrected, shattered desires of the world to Him.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/13/19

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #35 “Concerning the Vitality of Kedusha?”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 79

Selected Highlights

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Question: The Paralympic Games in Tokyo ]recently ended. You look at tennis players without legs, shooters without arms, jumpers on prosthetics, basketball players in wheelchairs, and at the same time you read the stories of them overcoming themselves.

What do such games give them and what do they give to the world?

Answer: This gives them and the world the opportunity to show that a person can overcome any obstacles and live a full life, and even win.

We need to learn from them—to have a goal, to overcome difficulties and to achieve this goal.

Question: When you set a goal for yourself and move toward it, do you have any examples?

Answer: I have my teacher! I take everything from him.

Question: I do not draw parallels with these games, but can we say that your teacher was in such a state that it was simply impossible to rise, and did he rise? Did you see that?

Answer: Yes! This is in Kabbalah at every step if you want. That is how a person should live.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/2/21

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can you forgive someone who commits murder?“

In 1994, the devastating Rwandan genocide saw the murder of around 800,000 Rwandans. When a new government came about, it established the state forgiveness project: perpetrators of the genocide had to ask the survivors and victims’ family members for forgiveness, and the survivors had to forgive those who committed the genocide. The decision was made: although it is very hard to do, it is the price we must pay.

If the victims can overcome their desire for vengeance, we will be able to heal through forgiveness. Otherwise, we will face a cycle of murders and hatred. Although Rwanda is still struggling, the country managed to break the vicious cycle of hostility.

Can we truly forgive murderers? Yes, we can. Either consciously, we can attract a positive force into our lives that lets us do so (which is possible with the method of Kabbalah), or unconsciously, we can do so by law, by understanding that there is no other way. Yet the greatest and most exalted way to forgive murderers is by comprehending that a positive force is operating us all. Here, we must agree that such a setup was not created by us, nor was it our doing. We were governed by the same higher power, which is good and omnipotent.

Based on the video “Can You Forgive Someone Who Murdered Your Family or Friends?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Why do you only accept Kabbalah as the knowledge of the universe? The universe is one, the Creator is one. Why are you so categorical?

Answer: The more you study Kabbalah, the more you see that it includes all other methods. Nature does not reject them, but simply explains how humanity passes them at different levels of its development.

All of them take place until a person comes to a state where he can absorb a universal picture of the universe, the world, humanity, its development above his egoism, and then he comes to Kabbalah.

Therefore, Kabbalah was hidden until our time and only now is it gradually developing so that as a result of searching humanity goes through many different stages of development under the influence of other private methods that are studied within egoism, and not by rising above it, it comes to the conclusion that within egoism itself there is nothing to look for—just to get out of it, to rise above it.

By having gone through all these stages and studied them, I personally see the roots of all possible methods and theories, and therefore I teach only Kabbalah. I insist that it is nature that is the universal system for changing a person in this world and raising him or her to the highest level.

There are two forces in nature: reception and bestowal. Kabbalah aims to ensure that a person, working with egoism, can rise above the power of receiving and master the next level of nature—the power of bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “Videoconference”

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It is said in the Torah that the people entered the land of Israel. This means that those people who have a true demand for the disclosure of the spiritual world make every effort to change their desire from receiving to bestowal. And to the extent this desire is formed in them, they begin to feel the upper world.

The sons of Israel entered this land with many egoistic desires, but by gradually conquering them, they changed them to bestowal, connection and love. That is what the conquest of the land of Israel is—gradual and very difficult.

They worked on themselves for a prolonged period of time, and to the extent everyone changed and everyone united with each other, the people of Israel emerged as one common mass with one desire, with one intention.

All their desires under the influence of the upper light, which is called the help of the Almighty, gradually transformed from the desire to receive to the desire to bestow. This is what reclamation of the land of Israel consists of.
[288285]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/30/21

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Prophets, Yehoshua, 23:7: Nor shall you make mention of the name of their deities, nor exact oaths [by their name] and you shall not serve them, nor bow to them.

Question: What does it mean not to exact oaths (by their name)?

Answer: Actually, it is prohibited to swear altogether. One must not be sure of anything in advance except for one thing: that only the Creator’s help and His actions from above will correct, determine, and put everything in place.

That is the only thing I am counting on, hoping for, and acting on. Therefore, I must bring all earthly affairs to such a state, that is, make every effort to the very last and, as if, bring it before the Creator for Him to complete it. This is called “The Creator will complete instead of me.”

I can only swear to the Creator that I will do everything in my power. When I make an effort, I must be sure that it is me doing it, but the Creator will complete it. The action depends on us, but its completion depends on the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/30/21

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Question: I have been studying Kabbalah for three years, and all this time I am in a constant feeling of happiness and bliss from the study and I do not have any descents. Is that bad?

Answer: This is great! Just continue in this way.

There are people who advance through suffering, through all kinds of remorse. And there are those who advance out of joy, out of the understanding that they are the lucky ones.

You belong to the second type. I envy you. Good luck!
[288327]
From a talk at the MAK video conference

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