However, if one’s faith is incomplete, and he engages in the Torah and in the work only because the Creator commanded him to study, then we have seen above that in such Torah and work the light will not be revealed at all (Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“).

Question: It is usually believed that for successful advancement we need to study the Torah and observe the commandments. But here it is said that performing the commandments does not lead to the revelation of the light. Or am I misunderstanding something?

Answer: I understand this only slightly more than you. We simply need to try to study the Torah ever more deeply, its causes and its consequences.

In this way, we will arrive at clarifying what these causal connections truly are, and gradually we will begin to understand the Torah.
[350193]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“

Related Material:
Studying the Torah
It Is Important To Understand What The Torah Says
What Does It Mean To Study And Engage In The Torah?

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

Question: How does one know when it is time to conceal the secrets of the Torah and when it is time to reveal the tastes of the Torah?

Answer: We receive that along with the revelation of the task set before us.

I think we should simply continue studying the articles, examine all the nuances of every sentence, and in this way make our way toward the understanding of the spiritual.
[350190]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“

Related Material:
Grow Until We Reveal The Secret
Tastes Of The Torah
Taste in the Torah

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

Question: Is it possible to always go by faith above reason?

Answer: Of course it is impossible. But Kabbalists do not discuss whether we can or cannot go this way. We simply must!

And when we cannot, we ask for help, and the Creator performs this work for us! All the work is the work of the Creator and not the person’s. But we need to ask Him to carry it out.

A person is obligated to go all the way in trying to do this work! Even though it is clear from the start that in the end, he will fail to reach the goal on his own. But the success lies in discovering that the Creator will do it, and in knowing how to ask Him.

I am always in this process, moving in a straight line between the initial (current) point and the final goal, which I must inevitably reach.

The final point is bestowal, love for the Creator and the created beings, faith above reason, and bestowal over reception. And once I leave the starting point, I must arrive at the final one.

And on the path I have:

1. First stage: Do everything that is within your power! This comes first.
2. Second stage: Complete disappointment in your own strength.
3. Third stage: Understanding that only the Creator can save me.
4. Fourth stage: I begin to work together with Him in bestowal (Hafetz Hesed) and love.

But being at the very beginning, I must know that I will definitely reach the end and rely on my own efforts! I cannot fold my hands and simply wait for action from above.

If I do not give my absolute all in the first stage, if I do not do everything possible within my power, then I will never reach despair, I will never reach the understanding of my own helplessness. And therefore, I will never realize that I need help from the Creator. And then, how will I draw the light that returns to the source?

One stage unfolds after another; each stage defines and builds the next state. A person does not truly know where he is or what awaits him in the next stage, in the very next moment. But all advancement happens thanks to his own pushing forward.
[20271]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/10, Writings of Rabash, Article 35, 1985

Related Material:
The Work of the Creator
See the Work of the Creator for Yourself
All Desires Come From The Creator

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

Preparation to the Lesson

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

1st part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “Work with Faith Above Reason” (11.1.2020)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Recording of Rabash, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 4, Chapter 6, Item 8

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

3rd part of the Lesson — Conversations of a Kabbalist With His Students During the Day

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

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

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3Audio

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

Hence, the student pledges, prior to the study, to strengthen himself in faith in the Creator and in His guidance in reward and punishment. Thus, he will be rewarded with enjoying the light in it, and his faith will strengthen and grow through the power in this light (Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“).

Question: Why would a person aspiring to aim his efforts at the Creator exert them for the sake of the commandments of the Torah? Why tell him that in this way he will enjoy the light of the Torah?

Answer: This is necessary to assure him that the path that leads him to the revelation of the Creator is the same path that reveals the whole Torah to him.

Question: Let us say a person just wants to work for the sake of the Torah. If you tell him that there is a special, great pleasure in it, you will complicate things. You are being shown that you are not working for pleasure, but pleasure awaits you there. This is not clear to me.

Answer: First of all, I need to figure out what I am striving for: pleasure, knowledge, or maybe for some other goal?

Question: What if I just want the work itself to be a reward? Why would you tell me that a certain pleasure is awaiting me? I want to work for the sake of the commandments of the Torah, to direct my efforts only there.

Answer: In the end, this is what will happen, but not immediately. Under the influence of your requests, because the Torah, which influences you with its light, gradually changes you, shifting you from this point to a more correct request.

Question: But there is not only pleasure in spirituality. We learn that there must be suffering, hatred covered with love. Why not write about hatred covered with love, or suffering covered with pleasure? It only talks about pleasure.

Answer: Because that is not the actual goal. The true purpose of studying is to reveal the Creator to man and fill him with the Creator, which is called the human Kli .
[350080]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Related Material:
Studying the Torah
Moving toward the Next Degree
Learning not with the Mind but with the Heart

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

I do not believe at all in a positive change in the world. I believe only that humanity will bring itself to such a state, I hope not to the final one, where it will understand that it must change, and seriously.

Question: So are you saying that humanity will change only when it is horrified?

Answer: Yes, it must see its own end.

Question: But you surely have some hope? After all, you are conveying something, one way or another. Many, many people watch you.

Answer: I hope people will see that they are heading toward a quick and inevitable end. And then, perhaps, they will understand that there must be some way out. But they do not see this way out.

Tell people today: “Let’s treat one another well.” And what then?

Comment: For them, this sounds like something childish. And for you it is something very high.

My Response: It is a very high approach, but unfortunately, it sounds unattainable. Although I do not laugh at it, and I understand that, in principle, it must happen. But how much suffering must humanity still endure before it says: “Enough!”?

Question: But one step before the abyss, what thought will suddenly come to humanity or to a person? What thought? One step before the abyss.

Answer: I believe that when people understand that they are losing everything, for example, their children. Something so terrifying that there is nowhere left to run, nowhere to turn away, and they must make a decision.

In such a case, perhaps they will agree to change something. Because change will still come from above, but only when we are ready for it. And readiness, it looks like this: when children and grandchildren are under the threat of death, disappearance, extermination, then we will be able to do something with ourselves.

Comment: I see. But this is a formula where I cannot stop along the way, but must reach that point.

My Response: Yes. We are moving toward this, and we cannot stop.

Comment: So neither my reason nor my logic will work.

My Response: There must be a feeling, the deepest inner feeling, that a dead end is inevitable.

But let us hope that, on one hand, through our dissemination we will accomplish something. And on the other hand, humanity must see its own end and decide.

There must be a way out. Otherwise, our entire existence is meaningless. But how can we make this happen quickly, smoothly, and perhaps even somehow in a controlled manner? That is the problem.
[350025]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 11/14/25

Related Material:
The Debt Will Have to Be Repaid
The Creator Stopped Us Before The Abyss
Attain Harmony With Nature

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, News | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Professor James Tilley, a political scientist, identified five lessons that human politics can learn from the power struggles and social dynamics of chimpanzee groups. 

Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer.

Answer: Friends are friends. But you have to watch out for your enemies. And you can’t keep watch over them if you push them away. It’s best to keep them “in a cage” right next to you.

When building your alliances, pick someone weak, not someone strong. 

My Response: So that you can command them.

Question: And for humans, should it be exactly the same?

Answer: That is how alliances are made. We would like to create them that way too, but it doesn’t always work out.

It’s good to be feared, but it’s better to be liked.

My Response: Of course, it is more peaceful when you are loved. There is nothing better than that, it is the clearest protection. But at the very least, let them fear you.

It is good to be liked, but it is even better to be able to hand out goodies.

My Response: Of course, because then others become dependent on you.

External threats can shore up support (if they are real…).

My Response: An external threat can bring support because it forces you to realize all your internal capabilities, and then you seek partners.

An external threat mobilizes and helps; you can’t move forward without it.

Question: These are five chimpanzee principles. Could you name a few human principles?

Answer: A human has no principles; he is unprincipled. All his “principles” last only for a moment.

Question: Why do chimps have principles but humans don’t?

Answer: Chimpanzees act according to nature. Even their reason, whatever they have, comes from nature; it is the accumulation of various results.

But humans don’t have that because everything in them is constantly developing. Egoism develops, and that is why a person cannot solve today what he decided yesterday using the same method. Because the circumstances are completely different, the ego is different, the view of the world is different, the environment is different.

Question: Then what is “humanity”? People always say: “Be human, be kind,” and so on.

Answer: I believe it is a stance dictated by weakness. It can’t be otherwise, if our nature is egoism. What kind of “humanity” can there be? Only if I want to appear good, or want others to treat me well.

Question: So they are all just masks?

Answer: Only masks. If a chimp’s egoism is natural and everyone understands each other because of it, then a human wraps himself in so many forms that it is very hard to understand him. And on top of that, he uses kindness, reason, and everything else to rule over others, to control, to elevate himself above everyone. So in that sense, he is much worse than any monkey.

Question: What should one do, then? How can one come to light, to goodness?

Answer: There is a method of correction, but for that, a person must understand that he needs to be corrected.

Question: He has to feel that he is like this?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: And if a person comes to realize that he is completely egoistic, that this is his nature…

My Response: Then he must come to Kabbalah. He must study his nature and go forward from there. There is no other way; everything leads to this, and the sooner, the better.

For me, to become “human” means to become like the Creator. It is when a person begins to realize that connection with others is his personal, essential need, one that overrides all others.

Only by developing this completely anti-egoistic, meaning anti-natural, quality within himself can he not only survive, but rise to the stars. Only in this way. It is extremely difficult, impossible, unless you come to the right method.
[235402]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/13/24

Related Material:
One Percent That Made A Human From A Monkey, Part 1
Extraterrestrial Civilizations On The Planet Earth, Part 2
A Meat Diet Transformed The Ape Into A Human

Filed under: Children, Education, Egoism, News | Add Comment / Ask Question →

At first, when a person begins to be taught, while still on the spiritual level referred to as “a woman, a slave, or a child,” they are told that it is worthwhile to work for the Creator out of fear (Rabash, Article 12 (1987), What Is Half a Shekel in the Work? – 1).

The spiritual levels, conditionally labeled as “a woman, an old man, or a child,” represent dependent states of a person. A woman depends on a man, a child on parents, and an old man on the help of the young.

There is also the state of “a slave,” who depends on his master, that is, on his egoism. Therefore one must approach any person very delicately and carefully, and explain that Kabbalah is concerned with his development for his own benefit.

Kabbalah can help him better understand how to act in this world. And he begins to speculate. “If I understand how to act correctly in this world, I can become richer, stronger, more successful, and healthier.”

It is said that a person must serve the Creator out of fear. This means out of fear of losing, of missing out, of not receiving a reward.

But later, when the person matures spiritually and acquires wisdom, it becomes possible to explain to him—or rather, he himself understands—that it is necessary to serve the Creator from other motivations, and gradually, the secrets of the Torah are revealed to him. 

At this point, a very subtle transition occurs, a dramatic, difficult moment when a person discovers that the entire world is in a state of complete chaos and confusion. Everything is governed by a capricious egoism that grabs whatever it can at any given moment. This state is called darkness.

At this black point, a person feels complete hopelessness, confusion, and lack of control over himself, over others, or over fate. He sees that everyone, like tadpoles in water, are darting back and forth, and he can no longer bear such a life.

He feels himself in total darkness, tries to escape, and begins to cry out to the Creator: “What should I do?!”

And then gradually he is helped from above, and he receives spiritual clarity. This is how he transitions to the revelation of the Creator.

When the upper law is revealed to a person, by comparing it with harmony, he clearly sees the chaos ruling our world—harmony vs. chaos.

This is the drama, the inner tearing. On one hand, there is the upper law, on the other, complete disorder.
And this is actually the best state for a person because it is there that he feels the Creator’s help and salvation.

And he thanks the Creator for this dark state because it is impossible to move forward with the right foot without first stepping with the left.

When he understands this, he anticipates both, and relates properly to both good and bad states since he sees that the spiritual path lies precisely between them, exactly in the middle.
[225912]
From KabTV’s “The Last Generation,” 11/6/17

Related Material:
How The Soul Grows
Shorten the Time of Our Maturity
For The Sake Of Spiritual Advancement

Filed under: Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3Audio

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