Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What really is the intended meaning of ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’?“

Before the commandment of “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” described the key prohibition in holding a correct relationship with the Creator: that we should not use our relationship with the Creator for self-benefit. Receiving pleasure for self-benefit alone kills our desire.

“Thou shalt not commit adultery” is similar, but viewed from a different angle. It means to not use our connections with others for self-benefit.

The Creator’s quality is love and bestowal, and adultery is an act of receiving for self-benefit alone. If we receive pleasure at the expense of other people, then it is considered committing adultery.

Based on the TV show, “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 26, 2019. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Commandments, Q&A, Quora | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: I don’t understand your interpretation of the Creator. You call Him nature. Doesn’t this term contradict what the Torah refers to? After all, the Torah reveals the Creator’s nature as a personality, as an image.

Answer: Not at all. If you see things this way you will reach idolatry.

The Creator has no image. It is the power of love and bestowal, which fills all of creation. Above that there is the power called Atzmuto, which symbolizes the fact that it is above any connection to the created beings and so we cannot call it by any name.

All the adjectives that refer to Him, (terrible, awful, etc.) all stem from our perception, just as a small child calls his father or mother bad, but they actually show their attitude toward him this way in order to invoke the right reactions and actions in him by that, and this is how they try to stabilize him. But the parents actually don’t have any such attributes.

Question: What does it mean when we say that the Creator is nature?

Answer: Nature is everything we are in. One of the Creator’s names is God. In numerology the word “God” equals the word “nature.” There are many references to this in Kabbalah books.
[243211]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 12/16/18

Related Material:
The Creator Is Not A Person
An Unchangeable Law Of Nature
Tell Us About Spirituality!

Filed under: The Creator | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Pesach (Passover)”

Selected Highlights 

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog | Add Comment / Ask Question →

I vote for a government that can ensure safety in #Israel. The main idea that drives me is unity of the nation, but unity can exist only with those who are alive, not with those who have died. #IsraElex4

Indifference to the #Elections2021. If we weren’t surrounded by enemies, awaiting our weakness to attack, there would be no point in having elections. If not for national security, we could just sleep. The elections should be taken seriously, without succumbing to despair. It’s time to wake up.
From Twitter, 3/14/21

Related Material:
My Thoughts On Twitter 3/11/21
My Thoughts On Twitter 3/9/21
My Thoughts On Twitter 2/28/21

Filed under: Israel Today, Thoughts on Twitter | Add Comment / Ask Question →

If we were able to defeat the evil inclination that confuses us, if we could rise against it like heroes and were able to bestow, if we could capture our will to receive and bend it, then we would only increase our egoism. It would have inflated even more!

Therefore, there is no way to reach bestowal unless through a special transition. We discover that the will to receive is not worthy of anything, but we cannot overcome it.

Therefore, we depend on the upper force, which is outside of us. We cling to this upper force and want to grow only with its help, as if we enter the womb of the upper degree as an embryo and there we completely nullify ourselves, we wish that the upper one will mold us into whatever form it wants.

In this form, we are already beginning to grow on the other side of the Machsom in the quality of bestowal.

There is no choice. We must give up and raise our hands, as it is written: “And it came to pass that the sons of Israel sighed because of the work, and they cried out, and their cry because of the work went up to God … and God heard their groaning.” However, this is only after we have done everything possible and have reached a complete breakdown, the point where we cannot continue like this. What we can do is only to cry out to the Creator. And it will be a perfect cry because we are sure that we depend only on the upper force and have no chance to reach what we want with our own forces.

This cry is actually from the unsuccessful work, that is, it requires at least a group, a ten, and only then can we reach a true cry and receive the help of the upper force, the reforming light, which takes us from the intention for our own sake to the intention for the sake of bestowal. Thus, we escape Egypt.
[279516]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/21, “Pesach (Passover)”

Related Material:
When Will We Finally Exit Egypt?
Cut Pharaoh Off
The Front Brakes

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Passover is an extremely important holiday, a state underlying the entire spiritual development of man. Passover means a transition, that is, we leave one place and enter another; we make the transition from the desire to receive for our own sake to the desire to receive for the sake of bestowal.

The direction of this desire changes: to bestow upon one’s neighbor and through it to bestow upon the Creator.

That is why Passover is so important to us. It builds the whole foundation of a spiritual person. By the fact that a person is drawn to learn more about this holiday, you can feel a strong spiritual foundation in him.

The desire to become like the Creator is expressed in a request to Him to correct our egoistic desire: for its restriction, for the screen that does not allow us to use the desire for our own sake, and for its gradual transition into the desire for bestowal.

All this happens with the help of the reforming light called the light of Passover. These are the upper forces that come to us, and just like an adult takes a child by the hand and leads him, so the light takes us out of our egoistic desire to the desire for bestowal. This transition is called the exodus from Egypt.

There is nothing more important in spiritual development than getting out of Egypt. Therefore, all subsequent actions of bestowal are based on the memory of leaving Egypt, that is, they became possible because we made this transition from egoism to bestowal.

This action is caused by the reforming light, that is, a special illumination of the Creator from above to give, which affects us more and more, and grows the desire to achieve bestowal in us. We begin to feel unimportant in this world although it would seem that we have everything for egoistic fulfillment. But we want something more.

We do not yet know what we are missing, but we are approaching the desire for bestowal. In this way, the Creator brings us closer to Him from afar, from within our egoism He grows a sprout of the desire for bestowal, one form within another.

Then we will learn to attract the light that reforms and we will see its action in ourselves: how it overturns the egoistic desire, makes a restriction on it, and then directs it to bestowal. It is in those places, in the desires, where we sought egoistic fulfillment that we now want to be filled altruistically.

It is like a child growing up. While he is small, he just grabs everything and pulls it to himself. But when he grows up, he understands that it is by connecting with others that you can fulfill yourself more, and by giving to someone you love, you get fulfillment yourself. Even in this world we find that it is possible to enjoy the actions of bestowal. Thus, a person gradually grows from the animate to the human level.

Exiting Egypt, from egoism into the desire to bestow, is the beginning of man’s true spiritual development. Therefore, this is a very difficult and lengthy process, and until a person goes through it in all the details assigned to him according to the root of his soul, he will not be worthy to leave Egypt.

In essence, all of humanity goes through these stages of development. That is why we exist in this world. But there are people who have already felt the need to know the root of life, the spiritual root. Therefore, we only have to actualize this exit into spirituality: to finish the whole process of development in Egypt, in our egoistic desire, to hate it, that is, to realize its evil and to pray to the Creator.

Then the Creator will act on us with a special light, a force that can pull us out of egoism and into bestowal. And if we unite to be one nation, one group, we will come out of our egoistic intention and feel that we are rising above it to the force of bestowal. Then we will begin to experience the spiritual world beyond Egypt, beyond the waters of the Final Sea.
[279442]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/21, “Pesach (Passover)”

Related Material:
Escape From Egyptian Darkness
Pesach Is A Holiday That Is Always With You
The End Of The Slavery In Egypt Is Near

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

In the corporeal world, fulfillment extinguishes pleasure. If I am hungry and start to eat, then gradually I satisfy my hunger and lose my appetite, and along with the appetite, the pleasure disappears. As a result, I remain empty, a complete zero, and so it is with everything.

Fervent love that flared up at first gradually becomes routine and cools down. Habit dulls the taste of pleasure and eventually kills it, which leads to death.

But spiritual life is eternal and perfect because even before entering spiritual actions, we learn how to make them eternal and perfect, that is, our desire does not disappear but only grows. You must understand that desire is the main thing, and you must constantly work on its growth and quality.

Therefore, spiritual progress is determined by how developed and multifaceted our desire is that includes all sorts of shades of properties prepared for us by the Creator when Adam HaRishon was shattered.

And we cherish this desire so that not a single particle disappears from it. We make sure that all desires exist and support each other, that they grow enriching one another, and it is through this that we reach the full light of NRNHY, the end of correction.

The difference between the corporeal and the spiritual world is that in corporeal actions, fulfillment extinguishes the desire. And in spirituality, we learn how to increase the desire more and more by receiving pleasure.

Therefore, desire is the main thing for us, not the fulfillment. After all, the fulfillment depends entirely on the growth of the desire and its correct positioning. I begin to enjoy the desire itself, the fact that it grows and gets stronger.

This is a completely different work because I do not care about fulfilling my desire. After all, there is always infinite content in the upper world, and I only need to worry about having the right desire all the time and growing it as much as possible.

Therefore, our prayers, requests, and praises to the Creator are so important, any appeal to Him, because they determine our state and fulfillment. In fact, I enjoy the desire that I have in me.

That is why the torments of first love are so sweet. They are the ones that give pleasure, not corporeal fulfillment. Fulfillment comes and goes and leaves emptiness behind. It is the yearning that is capable of filling the soul and remains in the memory.

We see that all works of art speak of mental anguish, aspirations, and prayer. Therefore, we must not forget that genuine fulfillment comes from yearning for the loved one.

If fulfillment only increases the desire, this is a sign that we are in spirituality. Only when striving to give out from myself do I not suppress the filling but expand the room for it and increase it.
[279362]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/21, “Everything Is Obtained by the Power of Prayer”

Related Material:
Deficiency And Fulfillment
How Can We Attain Infinite Pleasure?
The Formula Of Life

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Man must be convinced of his complete helplessness, must have lost all hope to reach spirituality by his own forces. This is a very important conclusion, and it takes a long time for a person to understand that there is not even one quality in him with which he can succeed except for the only chance the Creator left—connection with Him.

The only thing a person can do is to ask and nothing else! In everything else I am just an animal, and only a tiny thread connects me with the Creator. By grasping this thin thread, I can climb from the degree of an animal to the degree of man.

This discovery can take years for a person to understand and start asking. He asks for one thing only: for the force of bestowal. I want to bestow to my friends, to bestow to the Creator; I do not want to remain an animal, I want to become a man.

And here a question arises. Why do I need the degree of man? What is my intention? Is it unpleasant for me to be at the animate level or do I want to bestow? Maybe I hope that at the spiritual degree it will be better for me, for my egoism? This still needs to be clarified in order to cross the border from the corporeal to the spiritual world.
[279302]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/21, “Everything is Obtained By the Power of Prayer”

Related Material:
Pray And Seek A Connection With The Creator
Constantly Turn To The Creator
Ask The Creator To Do It!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

The Creator arranges all states of man in such a way that they all direct him to search for the upper force, the source of life. He engineers everything so that man constantly stumbles against a wall.

After many bangs against the wall, this labyrinth finally brings him to the correct appeal. A person learns how to turn to the Creator and with what request, and in return, the Creator gives him the force of bestowal out of His own forces.

That is when a person becomes a man, Adam, that is, similar to the Creator according to the force he received from Him. This is how he begins to come out of his egoism, like a sprout breaking out from the ground, and to correctly build himself with understanding and awareness.

However, the Creator constantly sets new conditions for him against this growth, and each time a person must find a way to turn them into favorable conditions and advance until he reaches the goal.

The most important thing is to see that all the conditions we receive both in spirituality and in corporeality, individually and collectively, come from above, from the Creator, in order to arrange us and take us through the labyrinth that leads to the entrance of the spiritual world.

It is important to discover in each state that we will not achieve anything through the force of our egoistic desire. Only by breaking away from it spiritually and fully relying on the Creator, on His force of bestowal, the second force that exists in nature, and connecting our spiritual life with it can we move forward step by step. The Creator will put obstacles in our way each time by placing new conditions, and we will turn to Him again and again above these obstacles.

All states must be perceived as necessary stages, degrees that we must go through in order to build the correct appeal, and external accompanying conditions. Everything is arranged in an optimal way to lead us to the correct request. As it is written: “And it came to pass that the sons of Israel sighed because of the work,” from the slavery, from being under the control of the egoism.

This is when we emerge out of the control of egoism, that is, from the Egyptian exile, enter the upper world, and reach the revelation of the Creator to the created beings. The Creator gives us the force of bestowal, the force of faith above reason above the force of reception.

The main thing is to realize more and more clearly that everything depends only on the Creator. The difficulties, their resolution, and the correct answers, everything comes to us from the Creator. Only one thing depends on us: not to give up our attempts, but to pressure and pressure the Creator through the ten, to ask and demand He give us His force in order to resemble Him. Then we will become “…sons of the Lord your God.” having received the force of bestowal, like the one He has.
[279297]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/21, “Everything is Obtained By the Power of Prayer”

Related Material:
Pray And Seek A Connection With The Creator
Constantly Turn To The Creator
Ask The Creator To Do It!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →