Question: Before explaining a certain topic, you always ask to read the relevant article first. Why do you do that instead of just starting to talk about things in general?

Answer: I could speak for myself as well. But I want to teach people to be connected to the primary sources because the main thing for us is to be connected to those great Kabbalists, participants in the common system of souls, who perceive the unified field, the Creator, and exist within it.

That is why we study a book written by a Kabbalist who once lived in our world. In truth, this is a soul that felt the field of the Creator and described it: what happens in its relation to us, how it created us, developed us, and brought us to the state we exist now.

Question: But your own texts are also very deep. Don’t you transmit from your level just like other Kabbalists?

Answer: Yes, but I still do not claim the role of Baal HaSulam, my teacher Rabash, Rabbi Shimon, or the ARI. These are great Kabbalists—powerful parts of the collective soul—who are in deep, vast connection with this field, with the Creator.

They described their sensations and perceptions in a special way. And if I adhere to them through what they wrote, then I connect to their sensations as a small part of them, and in this way I can move forward. But if I do not interact with their source, how can I move forward?

After all, in our world, we also learn from others. If I try to learn by myself, it would take me twenty to thirty thousand years to become a human being. Imagine a child abandoned in the forest, what does he grow into? Nothing more than an animal. He can never become a man.

So do you want me to leave myself and my students alone in the forest? We must make use of everything the great previous generations have done for us, and they have prepared everything!
[342769]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. The Importance of the Sources” 7/15/10

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 107

How Do We Know if We Acted Correctly?

If we do something incorrectly, we simply get stuck. However, if we study, are in the right environment and are generally on the right path, then although we undoubtedly make mistakes in every detail, we do not veer off the course of the work. Why? This is because we are in the right environment, we have access to the correct books and proper guidance, and all that remains for us is to recognize our mistakes in every detail and endure the disappointment. This is how we remember the Creator and realize why we do not progress. We recall that it is not us who act, but the Creator who does everything.

Then, the obstacles and disappointments bring us back to the Creator; they give us a deficiency that compels us to connect with Him. Where can we obtain this deficiency if, from the outset, Pharaoh exists within us? Initially, we think that we will build everything by ourselves and that is enough. For example, we are given a desire to advance in spirituality, but this desire still lacks direction. It is up to us to shape it so that it is directed at bestowal upon the Creator or receiving from Him. What matters most is the connection with the Creator.

We can achieve such a connection only through failures. By entering the work with our own strength, we eventually reach the awareness that “it is not my strength and might that has achieved this.” Then, from disappointment and helplessness, from realizing that we are incapable, we begin to see that there is no point in the work if it includes only us, the individual. We start to understand that our action is merely a beastly effort like that of all humanity, unless the revelation of the Creator is present within it.

This realization returns us to alignment with the Creator. We must turn to the Creator and ask Him to perform the action for us because we have seen that we ourselves cannot do it. This means that if we did not experience disappointment and despair in every single detail of our work, we would not turn to the Creator. Why do we turn to Him? Out of necessity, for the work to be completed.

But all these acts of “not for our own sake” ultimately lead us to the realization that what truly matters to us is the connection with the Creator, not the actions themselves, not the bricks, nor anything else. Everything else is simply a means since we are built this way to eventually return us to the right intention, to the understanding that we do not need any of those things. All we need is to be connected to the Creator in order to bestow upon Him.

This is a sequence of thoughts, causes and effects, and external demands that gradually become internal. It is a chain that develops within us and takes us from a state where we want to place brick upon brick, but are unable to. Then we become frustrated with ourselves and recognize that our true concern is the Creator. We first become angry at the Creator for not letting us place brick upon brick, but later we begin to realize that placing bricks is not the goal. Instead, we must be connected to the Creator. The emphasis, the center of gravity, gradually shifts from ourselves to the Creator.

As this process unfolds, the importance of the connection with the Creator grows, and the connection is no longer about the brick but about Him alone. Then, we are not connected to the Creator for our own sake but in order to bestow upon Him. There are many details to examine in this, but by engaging with each and every detail in the corporeal world, we ultimately scan through all aspects from one end to the other.

Thus, it is written: “A righteous person falls seven times and rises.” Every step forward involves a moment of failure, regret, the recognition of evil, and correction. This is how we were made. We need to go through every single detail.

We do not determine these states. We do not know when a new desire will arise, how it will become scrutinized, or what needs to be done for that to happen. When we fully immerse ourselves in a desire, we cannot act as a philosopher looking at the big picture and “wandering” between different states of consciousness. What matters is the overall movement that we maintain, as it is written, “Whatever your hand finds to do with your strength, that do.”

The general effort we invest is what brings about this unfolding sequence of events, the transition from state to state, until we reach the completion of our scrutiny and correction, and attain the intention to bestow. That is the goal. Everything we have experienced up to this moment has been nothing more than a means to reach the point of unity with the Creator.

When we complete this recognition, we are once again given the opportunity to place “brick upon brick.” Once again, we begin placing bricks without the Creator’s presence. We rush forward and act with our own strength, thinking we are doing something great, that we are engaged in construction.

This can happen in any action in this world, from the most beastly to the most spiritual, even in spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah or giving an important lecture, where we think that we are about to make a great effort. We become immersed in the action itself and forget the required outcome of the action: the strengthening of our connection with the Shechina.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Article 933, “Concerning the Exodus from Egypt”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 934, “The Duty to Tell the Story of the Exodus from Egypt”

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3rd part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “Pesach (Passover)”

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Selected Highlights

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Question: What does it mean when we say that the group comes out of Egypt? Is it referring to a local group or the entire world Kli?

Answer: The entire world Kli! No one will be allowed to exit alone, not a single group nor a single person. Mutual guarantee (Arvut)! What can you do?! Everyone connected in the system with us will receive spiritual revelation.

Right now, we are gradually forming the conditions for mutual guarantee. What is mutual guarantee? It begins when you break away from egoism and cross its boundary.

As you pass the boundary of egoism, you see a massive force of evil separating you from your friends, an integrated force built up over your entire path of spiritual work, from your first lessons to the very point where you break free from egoism. That is when the condition of mutual guarantee arises.

And what else could mutual guarantee be built upon if not on top of complete egoism?

Mutual guarantee means that despite the development and manifestations of egoism within me, I pledge to relate to all group members with love and devotion, no matter what I may perceive from them.

Because what I think they are doing to me is simply how it appears to me. Remember the concept of the perception of reality, a person paints the world within themselves.

Question: So am I accumulating egoism in order to reach Mount Sinai and then, like a rocket, burn it up?

Answer: You don’t burn egoism; you begin to rise above it. It never disappears. In fact, it continuously helps you “digest” yourself more and more. You’ll elevate above it, use its qualities, and transform them into qualities of bestowal.

This is the beginning of the spiritual path. Before that, everything is just preparation. The entire period of recognizing egoism, meaning Egypt, is not yet a spiritual ascent.
[74631]
From a Kabbalah Virtual Lesson on 4/1/12, “The Group Is Exiting Egypt”

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Question: I look at the world and there are already eight billion of us. And I assure you that very few people can say that they are the ones who need to be educated. No, I need to educate others, that is the go-to formula. They are the bad ones, the selfish ones, not me. It is because of them we suffer.

How will a person understand that he is the one who needs to be educated?

Answer: Only through blows. How else? If they think they are so good, why is the world so bad?

Comment: Others are bad, that is why the world is so bad.

My Response: If everyone thinks that way about others, does it mean the world is bad or good?

Comment: The world is bad.

My Response: Except for me?

Comment: Except for me; yes, that is what people think.

My Response: And we will keep believing this until something falls on our heads and there is nothing left to think.

Question: Can we say that by doing this we are summoning trouble upon ourselves?

Answer: Of course. Instead of correcting ourselves or trying to do something, we calm ourselves down.

Question: We say: “Others are bad, but I am good.” Am I calling trouble on myself?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Not examining myself? Is it bad?

Answer: Very bad! This leads the world to disaster.

Question: Is genuine education when I learn to examine myself?

Answer: Yes, when I look at myself, at what I am like. When I look at what I owe to others, at being the only one uncorrected. That is, everything that is in me: a liar, a thief, a deceiver, a hater—I do not know what other epithets to come up with here—it is all me.

But everyone else is not. All others do not exist at all. All others are my various reflections that I see around me. That is, I look at a lot of people around me, and each of them portrays me negatively in this form and that and that.

There are eight billion people in the world, and each of them represents some kind of negative quality of mine. Eight billion! That is how I am depicted into the world. And that is how I see it.

Question: So what do I do when I see evil, an evil person?

Answer: If I correct myself, I begin to see the world as more united, as striving for bestowal, love, and connection. Eventually I realize this is all one system, one person called “Adam,” and this Adam is me. Because that is how I put it together with my actions, behavior, thoughts, and all sorts of corrections.

Question: Do I absorb the world into me and become this one soul, as we say, Adam?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this true?

Answer: It is true.

Question: And is what we see a lie?

Answer: No, we also see the truth, but it is a partial truth, torn apart by our inner egoism.

Question: Otherwise we do not pass it through our ego? Are we looking not through egoism?

Answer: Right. If I put them all together in one single image, then it is me.

Question: How can I focus on it like this?

Answer: This is our task—to gather the whole world and say, “This is me, and this world depends on me.”

Comment: Am I responsible for everyone and everything?

My Response: Absolutely everything is here.

Question: Every person?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is the simplest, most ordinary person responsible for the world, for everything that happens in this terrible world?

Answer: To the extent that he finds himself in this world.
[342829]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/3/25

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Question: We have the option to either receive acceleration from the Creator or let everything happen in its own time. What caused the accelerated exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt? What can we take from this example to speed up time?

Answer: The reason for the premature exit of the people of Israel from Egypt was a tremendous wave of “dark force” that descended upon the Israelites in Egypt and made their life there unbearable, worse than death. That is why they fled from there, and this led them quickly to the realization of their spiritual identity.

Question: How can this be applied in the ten when there are major disagreements?

Answer: If the ten is not like one man, then it does not truly exist yet, and this cannot be applied. A ten is when all the ten are as one.

Question: What is spiritual individuality?

Answer: It is the unique quality of each soul in the ten in relation to the others.
[342928]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/25, Writings of Rabash “But the More They Afflicted Them”

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Comment: You say that The Book of Zohar must be understood, but it is very difficult! Even Israelis, who in principle…

My Response: So what about Israelis? What difference does it make whether you are Israeli or not? That does not matter! What matters here is attainment. One must enter this book. For that, you need to feel the world it describes, nothing more.

Question: So it begins to work effectively only for a person who is in spirituality?

Answer: Yes, that is a natural and necessary condition.

Question: Let’s say you distribute this book throughout the world now. How will people be able to perceive it if they are not in that state?

Answer: With its help, they will begin to draw closer to the upper world and gradually enter it by drawing the upper light upon themselves.

In item 155 of the Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, it is written that a person who, even without understanding anything, reads about the upper world, its structure, connections, functioning, and draws its influence upon himself because he is already within that structure albeit in an unborn state. Yet in doing so, he tries to awaken himself, to elicit the influence of the system upon him. That is how it works.

Comment: Basically, you are speaking of someone who intentionally tries to do this. But now you are giving a lot of material from The Book of Zohar to people who are not in spirituality, for example, while holding conventions and different events.

My Response: That is exactly how it should be! After all, they also need to be influenced by it. Otherwise, how will they approach it? How will they develop?

Comment: But it is hard for people. You see that yourself.

My Response: What difference does it make if it is “hard”?

If I have a small child, I constantly present him with tasks, try to provoke him with new, unfamiliar details of this world so that he can get to know it, discover it. I try to spark his interest so that questions arise in him: “What is this? What is it for? Why?” Only in this way does a person develop.

Therefore, of course, I must show the unknown and indicate that it is the unknown. Look at it, explore it; first find the question, and only then look for the answer.
[342811]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Zohar is Book №1” 7/8/10

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 106

Chapter 11. A Person Builds a Home

What does “And through the Torah, the person was created” mean? Human (Adam) comes from the expression Adameh leElyon (“I will be like the upper one”), and it is written: “You are called Adam, but the nations of the world are not called Adam.” This means that if the will to receive undergoes a correction called “for the sake of bestowal,” the corrected part is called “human.” How is this done? It is done through the Torah. How is it done through the Torah? We are given various opportunities to perform different actions in this world, and through our successes and failures, our will to receive develops.

After the development of the beastly desires for food, sex, and family, and the development of social desires for wealth, honor, and knowledge, we reach the development of the spiritual will. The development of the spiritual will is not a further expansion of desire. Rather it is the desire’s direction toward the Creator, and accordingly, its growth. If before the development of the point in the heart, which is this new desire for spirituality, we work on developing our desire, usually unconsciously, without knowing why or how, impulses and cravings surface within us, we simply run after them and fulfill them. Such work is not even considered a single line, and certainly not two or three lines. But the spiritual desire can only be developed, expanded, and corrected in the form of lines.

“Lines” mean that the small desire is not simply inflated into an ever-greater one without direction, which would make its form a circle, but it is straightened so that it aims at a specific goal and that it is intended for a specific use. The desire is aimed not at the person themselves, who is the central point within the circles, but at the Creator, outward from the central point to the source of light.

Therefore, in the spiritual desire’s development, there are several forces, conditions, and states that influence it so that the process of the desire’s correction does not follow the laws of other desires. It operates in a very complex and precise way, so that the desire grows only according to the degree of its correction toward proper use, toward the Creator. Suppose, for example, someone is inspired with the desire to build a house, a desire that is already connected to spirituality. They need to relate every detail of the construction process, the planning, the ordering of materials, the actual building, the selection of workers, and even themselves, to the purpose of creation. They must constantly remember that this house is meant for a use related to the purpose of creation.

That person becomes so immersed in the work that they forget the direction, the meaning behind each and every action. Then the work seemingly stops and various disturbances begin to arise. These disturbances are not real obstacles, but signals, signs, that they have forgotten something very important: the intention, the reason for each action. Since spiritual progress happens step by step, sometimes we get stuck at a certain stage stubbornly trying to find a solution on our own, insisting on continuing construction at all costs. But we see that we cannot move forward until we remember that the problem is that we forgot the intention.

This means that instead of moving from the left line to the right line, we thought that we could complete the work by our own strength alone. Then we remember the right line, the Creator, alignment with Him. That is, we remember that we must be connected to Him with all of our heart and soul while performing the action. Only then can we progress again until we forget once more, and the cycle repeats.

In all of our work in this world, we constantly forget the goal. We forget that the goal is not to work according to the way that we think in this world, but the work itself is an effort to remain connected to the one who gave us the work, and to use it as a means to hold onto the thought and, most importantly, as a means to increase the intention. The work itself is merely a tool only to the extent that it is meant to build and develop the intention. We think we are building a house, as if the house itself is what matters. But in reality, we are supposed to build a structure of intention rather than a structure of bricks.

Since we are made of both material and spirit, intention, we are given material tasks so that we can construct a spiritual structure alongside the physical one. It is true that we cannot build a purely spiritual structure, even though, ultimately, that is the only structure we truly need. This means that we must establish only the intention, the screen (Masach), and the reflected light (Ohr Hozer), while the will to receive, the “bricks,” will always be available to use properly, according to the intention of bestowal.

This is how we build a house, and this is how we build ourselves into a human (Adam). How? Through the 248 organs and 365 tendons, which are 613 components or desires within us, which we must construct. We want to use these desires as much as the corresponding spiritual form allows. We need to arrange our desires according to bestowing intentions so that these two aspects—the use of all desires, on one hand, and the alignment of those desires with the intention to bestow, on the other—are in harmony and work together.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “What Is ‘For Lack of Spirit and for Hard Work,’ in the Work?”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 815, “Bo (Come)”

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Ari, “Gate of Intentions – for Pesach“

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Selected Highlights

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