Question: Researchers from the Weizmann Institute in Israel have found that human tears contain a substance that suppresses aggression. For the study, they collected emotional tears from women. Then, men were given the opportunity to smell these tears or a physiological saline solution. It turned out that female tears induce changes in the brain that reduce male aggression by more than forty percent. What is the spiritual root of tears?

Answer: Tears are excesses of the desire to bestow. In Kabbalah, this is called Ohr Hozer, the reflected light that comes out from the source of the light and envelops it. In other words, tears are a great force.

Question: Even in a spiritual sense?

Answer: Especially in a spiritual sense.

Question: So, it overwhelms me, I want to bestow, bestow, and bestow?

Answer: When a person feels that he cannot solve the problem of bestowing, then tears manifest. I really want to bestow, but I cannot; my nature is different.

Question: It is one thing when a child cries. Another thing when an adult cries. Are tears still a form of helplessness?

Answer: Yes, it is helplessness every time.

Question: So, I have to reach a dead-end and then tears come?

Answer: And then tears appear. These tears are the reflected light in which the direct light from the Creator is dressed.

Question: Can you explain the terms reflected light and direct light more simply?

Answer: It means that a person appeals to the Creator and receives help from Him. This is called light.

Question: Is this the direct light?

Answer: Yes, and reflected light is the light that comes to a person and reflects from him in the desire to merge with the Creator.

Question: In our world we have tears of happiness, tears of sorrow, pain, hatred, and all of these are still tears. Why are they all tears?

Answer: Tears are a lack of the ability to embrace the immensity.

Question: Do I want to embrace the unattainable?

Answer: Yes, those who want to encompass the unattainable and find that they cannot do it, they cry. This can happen to a little child or an old person as well.

Question: In Kabbalah, there is a concept called “gates of tears.” They say that the gates of tears are always open. Can you explain?

Answer: When a person has a complete realization that he has done everything possible to come close to the Creator and sees that he still cannot achieve it, he then explodes from within in sobbing, thus opening the gates of tears. In other words, all gates are closed, but the gates of tears are open to a person who comes to them in this way.

Question: When you said that he has been through everything, already done everything, does that mean that all gates are closed? So, he checked all the gates?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, one must still check all the gates?

Answer: Otherwise how will one explode in suffering and prayer?

Question: Can we say that, in principle, our life is to check all the gates? Is this our life? And all the sufferings we get along the way, are they because the gates are closed?

Answer: Yes.

Question: We come to it with age, with wisdom? What do we come to the gates of tears with?

Answer: With a plea out of helplessness. With a request that we have done everything, and besides the Creator no one can help us, and only to Him do we turn. But we are capable of it! Not just crying and screaming like a child. But when you have been through everything and your despair is greater than all the problems that came to you.

Question: Have you ever cried?

Answer: I have cried. The last time I cried was when my friend was drafted to the army. And with this I felt that childhood and youth were ending.

Question: Was it your childhood friend leaving?

Answer: Yes.

Remark: So, you had that period of happiness called childhood, and it ended.

Answer: Yes, something like that.

Question: This is an overflow of what?

Answer: It is an overflow of emotions. We were very close friends, and it was the end of it.

Question: Another question: Your teacher Rabash, did he ever cry?

Answer: No, I imagine that it could have happened, but I never saw a single tear.

Question: Even, as you said, when his wife died, when he was distraught by that blow?

Answer: No, he did not cry and did not show any emotion.

Question: Why?

Answer: He did not have it in him. He did not have anything like it. I was with him for 12 to 13 years; he passed away in my arms, and never did he cry.

Question: But when you think about him, very often tears come to your eyes?

Answer: I am not him.

Question: What do you feel at that moment?

Answer: I feel bitterness that I could not bestow to him more than I did. And sometimes, it caused him a sense of offense toward me. So… I still have to figure this out.
[323852]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/25/23

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Question: A survey of the medical staff of nearly all Israeli hospitals was conducted. Nurses and doctors were asked one question: “When heavily wounded soldiers regain consciousness after surgery, what is the first question they ask?”

“Where are my comrades?” Then they ask: “Are they all alive?” And then: “Take me back there.” That’s what they say.

There was an interview with a soldier’s father. He says: “When my son woke up after ten days of intensive care, he saw his mother and me and said, ‘I need to get back urgently.'”

Why is this?

Answer: This is what surfaces in such cases among the people of Israel. I hope this will grow, expand, and we will feel how much we need each other.

Comment: So not questions like: “What is happening to me?” or “Do I have arms and legs?”

My Response: No, no. This is the need to feel others.

Question: Such a brotherhood?

Answer: Yes, it comes from a deep place inside us. And that, actually, is the reason why what happened took place.

Comment: Please explain this if you can.

Answer: There is a need to bring people closer together here and now; this is a must for the Jewish people. This is why the event really awakened this miracle. We are paying a heavy price for it, of course, but in fact we will see that it is worth it. What even some of the people feel now, you can’t get any other way.

Question: We are talking about unity, which is the foundation of the people. But how can you want to go to a place of death where you are constantly walking under the threat of death?

Answer: This feeling is beyond death. Death is not considered anything special here. They feel what binds them together is beyond death.

Question: Do they feel, in this unity there, a sense of the life they want to live all the time?

Answer: They feel this is exactly what is worth living for.

Question: Is it true?

Answer: It is true. In this, they can be envied.

Question: What would you say to this soldier?

Answer: I would say he really is together with his comrades, that their merging together in one soul is a stage of their unity that has already happened, and that it will only get better from now on.

Question: So you can even envy these guys?

Answer: Yes, you can. They gain so much more from this than any injury or anything else happening.
[324309]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/8/24

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Question: Is fortune (Mazal) itself a correction? And what does the correction consist of?

Answer: Mazal is not your success. Is it the result of our work, our efforts?—Yes.

But in principle, this is not a human action, but an action descending on us from above.

Question: The Book of Zohar speaks of the tears of the Creator falling into the sea and correcting it. How does this relate to the concept of Mazal?

Answer: This means that sparks (Nitzutzin) of reflected light fall into the sea (Malchut). Thus, Malchut gradually rises and gets corrected.
[326113]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Explaining the Discernment of Luck”

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This is similar to one who wishes to move a big building; of course, this is impossible. So what does he do? He takes the building apart into small bricks, and he can move each piece. So it is here: Through diminishing the light, one can make a small effort (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 202, “In the Sweat of Your Face Shall You Eat Bread – 2”).

Question: What does it mean to “move a big building to another place”?

Answer: Imagine that the Creator wants to give a person some kind of reward weighing 50 kg. But he is not able to hold it and bear it.

In this case, the Creator gives him small portions that he can take and carry away, take and carry away, until he collects everything that he received from the Creator in his place.

Question: What are we building brick by brick in the world of infinity?

Answer: The house in which the Creator will dwell.
[326057]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “In the Sweat of Your Face Shall You Eat Bread – 2”

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When you get older, you will understand that you can somehow live in the world only under one indispensable condition: you must understand that selfishness is a natural property of man.

When you come to terms with the idea that everyone lives only for themselves, you will be much more lenient towards your neighbors. They will stop disappointing your hopes, and you will begin to treat them more mercifully. People strive for only one thing in life – pleasure. (Somerset Maugham,Of Human Bondage).

Comment: We need to come to terms with the idea that everyone is an egoist, that everyone lives like this, and from this everything will calm down.

My Response: Of course, if everyone accepts this condition.

Comment: If we understand that everyone lives in their egoism—and I do, too—everything will calm down.

Answer: Yes, sure.

Question: “What is yours is yours, what is mine is mine.” This is still the law, right?

Answer: This is the first law on the path to real peace, that I accept all the weaknesses of others. It is called “what is yours is yours, and what is mine is mine,” and we do not interfere with each other. We respect each other.

It is not yet talking about convergence, merging, or “love your neighbor as yourself,” but about understanding our general law of nature.

Question: So, do you think this law is fair? Is this the law of our world?

Answer: At some stage, yes.

Comment: But Sodom was built precisely on this principle.

My Response: Why do you think that Sodom is evil? If today we were offered Sodom instead of our state, then having understood this, we would gladly accept it. We would be content. There would be no war, and there would be no atrocities. We would simply peacefully coexist.

Question: Why did the Creator not like this Sodom and overturn it?

Answer: This is not the end of creation. It is not the purpose of creation. The purpose of creation is for everyone to live in caring for each other.

Comment: That is clear. And in Sodom, those caring for each other were punished. But in any case, it would be suitable for the first step.

My Response: I am not saying we need to take these steps exactly. The Torah shows us that such a society will still be destroyed.

Question: That is, does such a society have no future?

Answer: That is correct. But as an intermediate, it exists. Here we are given an example.

Question: We have not even gotten to that first half step yet.

Answer: We are still a long way from Sodom.

Question: Before “What is mine is mine, what is yours is yours”?

Answer: Yes. You see what happens between neighbors, states, countries, and everywhere in general.

Comment: “What is yours is mine” is the main principle today.

My Response: We are at the lowest stage of egoistic development.

Comment: It always seems that this has already passed, that we are already somewhere…

My Response: No way!! Look what is being done! How people treat each other, what thoughts they have!

Question: If let us say we come to this step: “What is mine is mine, what is yours is yours,” is the next step “I do not harm another”?

Answer: Yes, by no means do I harm anyone else.

Comment: Do not do to others what you do not want to do to yourself.

My Response: Yes, but this is also not good.

Question: This is like the second step. And the third?

Answer: The third step is to imagine myself in the place of another and do good to him as I imagine what they would do to me. This is called “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Question: That is, we have three steps: first Sodom, as you say, “What is mine is mine, what is yours is yours”; second, “Do not do to others what you do not want to do to yourself; third, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And what do we come to then if we take these three steps?

Answer: To ensure we all have the same desire: to do only good things for each other.
[324055]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/4/23

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Question: Are our little requests that are combined into a common prayer of the ten the light we return to the Creator?

Answer: No, the light is not between you; you do not return it to the Creator. You act only to create one desire between you that is capable of receiving a little of the light the Creator wants to give you. And by this action, you delight the Creator.

Question: How do we feel the light of the Creator in the ten?

Answer: Like the desire to do everything just for the sake of friends.

Question: What action attracts more light?

Answer: Just to connect even closer with each other.
[326060]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “In the Sweat of Your Face Shall You Eat Bread – 2”

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Comment: You said that in reality children never learn from their parents’ mistakes.

My Response: Of course. How could that be? You cannot convey your life experience to another even in our world, much less in the spiritual world.

I remember my teacher sat in front of me on long winter evenings in Tiberias, and I pestered him with the same questions. He looked at me with compassion, eyes full of pity. He had very expressive eyes.

I saw that he sympathized with me, but could not help in any way more than what he was trying to explain, guide, and suggest. Usually, after my questions, he would sigh and say: “Let us read something.” And that was it, nothing else.

I remember I felt very bad. We went with him for a walk in the Beit Shemen forest. This was at the very beginning of my study. I studied with him for about a year, and a year is nothing to study Kabbalah. He saw that I was completely torn to pieces. I prayed: “Help me with at least something!” Such requests are generally not typical for me, but I blurted out: “Help!”

He looked at me with such pain, like a father who is ready to give everything to his hopelessly ill child, but can do nothing to help. We sat on a bench; I can show this place even today. He took from his pocket the article “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before” (“Achor Ve Kedem Tzartani”) and began to read to me. This is an article from the book A Sage’s Fruit, which we were just preparing for publication at that time.

In principle, the title of this article can be translated as “I control you from all sides.” I cannot say that I understood anything in it. But what else can you give a beginner?

In this case, we are talking about those people who strive to penetrate the spiritual system; they feel bad because they do not know it and do not attain it, and this pain speaks inside of them! After all, nothing corporeal was pressing on me at that time. I was perfectly settled, healthy, and young. It was spirituality that I lacked!

Question: Can you now evaluate how he perceived you at that moment? You, in fact, were part of him.

Answer: Of course, I was incorporated in him. He perceived me as a small system that needed to be adjusted, and he sympathized with it and really wanted to help it, and it reacted naturally. What else can you do? You just have to keep working with it and wait for the results.

Of course, he was worried about me, but he was worried as a father for a child who was not in a hopeless state. The father has a medicine that he gives to the child every day and sees that in the end the child will recover and do what is needed.

One day I could not overcome myself and did not follow him to take him to the sea. Then he was taken there by another student, who on the way asked: “Why is it always only Michael who accompanies you?” Rabash replied: “I cannot do anything about it. He has a special soul.”

I learned this 20 years later from that friend during a chance meeting. I did not even think about it and, moreover, I was surprised that Rabash said that about me to another student.

Therefore, when you look at a student, you take into account his entire future, and it sets you up to treat him accordingly. You tolerate his antics and lead him forward, or you “hit” him more often, or maybe, on the contrary, you pull him out “by the forelock.”
[325750]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. You do not Learn from Past Mistakes” 1/15/12

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Question: How do you distinguish between the concept of “if you did not labor and found, do not believe” and luck, which can come without effort? After all, luck is a gift from above.

Answer: In any case, we must do something to make such a phenomenon happen.
To exist means “to be loved in the eyes of the Creator.”
[326117]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Explaining the Discernment of Luck”

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Question: How do we correctly reduce the light of Hochma to be above reason and to receive luck?

Answer: We must go by faith above reason, and in this way, we will merit the revelation of all knowledge. The process of revelation, however, is a Kabbalistic secret.

First, you must develop a desire for knowledge within yourself and negate the idea that you attain the purpose of creation through knowledge, and instead you focus primarily on acquiring the same corrections applied to the desire to receive.

Then, through this refusal, called reflected light (Ohr Hozer), you will attain true knowledge and uncover all that exists in nature.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is for this purpose, which explains that you must make a restriction (Tzimtzum), a screen (Masach), reflected light (Ohr Hozer), and gradually uncover the quality you wish to reach.

Question: Suppose a certain state comes to me. Should I say, “No, I do not want to receive this; I want to connect with my friends and through the connection, bestow to the Creator regardless of what is revealed”?

Answer: No, you should not refuse. From this desire, directed toward the Creator or His action, you should simply make a suitable vessel, an instrument for revealing the Creator.
[326017]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Explaining the Discernment of Luck”

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