Question: You say we must correct the connections in the ten and pray for our friends. How does one pray for friends if their behavior irritates you?

Answer: That is wonderful! It means you have something to pray for and ask the Creator that you will have the right attitude toward your friends so that you constantly forgive and justify them although you accept each other with hostility.

Question: How can we maintain a connection with the Creator when it seems there is no Creator and you see your friends as uncorrected?

Answer: This is similar to how a mother leaves small children in a room, goes out, and closes the door behind her, but she watches them from afar and sees what is happening with them. So it is with you.

You feel that you are forgetting that the Creator is constantly among us, inside us, and around us, and under no circumstances should we leave this fact behind. Therefore, there is nothing we can do here except constantly be careful not to throw the Creator out of sight. Otherwise, we fly out of the real world and from real feelings.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “She Is Like Merchant-Ships“

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Question: The first commandment of the Torah is trepidation before the Creator. Should I fear that I cannot implement the Creator’s commandments?

Answer: Yes, because the Creator’s commandments are the laws of nature. If we implement them, we feel in harmony with nature. And if not, then we experience their negative consequences on ourselves.

Question: So I have a choice: I can follow them or not. So are these not laws like the law of gravity that I must observe?

Answer: These are somewhat different laws, but have the same effect as physical laws. If we ignore them, we are punished for it.

But we must remember that the laws of the Torah apply to a person’s relationship to the world, to his own kind, that is, their difference from the physical laws of nature, which apply to the level of inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, including humans.

The laws that we study in the science of Kabbalah apply to relationships between people and between people and the Creator (the supreme governing force).
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 12/10/23

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Question: How can you check whether a person is in touch with the Creator or not? Who is that inner voice that one constantly talks to?

Answer: It is him, himself.

Question: There is confusion here. On the one hand, it says: “There is none else besides Him,” i.e., all thoughts of a person come from the Creator. So, is it Him after all?

Answer: It is Him. But the fact is that man does not see the Creator and does not feel Him. He simply acts as directed by the Creator, establishing the necessary connections in the group with his friends who strive for the same goal.

Thus, heading toward one goal, they gradually change from beings who only want to receive into people who want to bestow.

Thats is the gradual approach to the Creator, likeness to Him.
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From KabTV’s “Practical Kabbalah” 12/5/23

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “What It Means that ‘Law and Ordinance’ Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”

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Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “What Are Your Happy New Year Wishes for 2024?”

I wish for humanity to come closer to realizing the root cause of the deep mess it is in, and to seek a way out. Indeed, the more we feel responsible and accountable for what happens this year, the closer we will come to a harmonious and peaceful world.

What is the root cause of our troubles? It is our egoistic human nature that has grown so much today that excessive desires for benefiting ourselves at the expense of others and nature are wreaking havoc.

I thus hope that the wisdom of connection will reach more and more people so that humanity will come to feel that by adjusting our attitudes to each other—prioritizing positive connection and the benefit of others over our divisive drives that emerge from our inclination to benefit ourselves at others’ expense—we will find a way out of our destructive nature.

Every person who expands their minds and hearts to embrace a positive, kind and caring connection to each other above the quagmire of greed, the thirst for power, and the cutthroat will for recognition over others, can become a source of light and blessings in the world.

The more this unifying consciousness spreads atop the ever-growing divisive drives that surface from one moment to the next, the more we will balance ourselves with nature’s laws of interconnection and interdependence. This alignment with nature will then serve to draw the positive forces of connection dwelling in nature into our connections. That is how we can make a significant breakthrough into a world free from wars and malevolent influences.

We would thus be wise to learn from those who have applied the wisdom of connection to themselves, to cultivate positive human connection above our egoistic nature, and to direct ourselves at our more unified state where we click into harmony with each other and with nature.

I thus wish the happiest new year that everyone could possibly experience, that we will fuel each other with an ever-blossoming vision of the most perfect kinds of relations that could manifest, and by doing so, draw nature’s more unified states that await us already into our lives at this time.
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People ask about this, “Why did a spirit of folly enter? So he would sin.” He said that since there is a rule that “The eye sees and the heart covets,” if a person sees something bad, whether in sight or in thought, he must come to covet it (Rabash, Article No. 5, (1988) “What Is, ‘When Israel Are in Exile, the Shechina Is with Them,’ in the Work?”)

Question: In this excerpt, it is written about the way a person comes to a descent. How at such a stage, when you just saw something or thought about something, can you immediately come to some kind of understanding and repentance and not develop a thought that leads us away from the purpose of creation?

Answer: We constantly encounter the possibility of falling into egoistic temptation. At first, you look at something without realizing what it is, then you sort of photograph it in yourself, and then you start to relate to it with feelings.

Here you have to stop yourself, not give free rein to your feelings, and switch to something else, that is, look for the opportunity to bestow, connect with friends, unite, and only then add your feelings.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/23, Writing of Rabash “What Is, ‘When Israel Are in Exile, the Shechina Is with Them,’ in the Work?”

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Question: What does the greatness of the Creator is what He gives mean?

Answer: The Creator should not give anything else. If he raises His greatness in you, then in this way He spiritually elevates you, and you no longer need anything.

You will be able to answer all your questions, understand more deeply what we are studying, and you will have the opportunity to go with faith above reason. Thus, you will gradually come to a sense of the upper world.

But do not sit and wait. If you want to get an impression of the greatness of the Creator, then you must act by any means. The most important thing is to do this through getting closer to your friends.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is the Exaltedness of the Creator?”

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If a person has now made up his mind to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven for eternity, it is considered wholeness (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 58 “Joy Is a ‘Reflection’ of Good Deeds”).

Question: What does taking upon oneself the burden of the kingdom of heaven mean?

Answer: It means that we accept the authority of the Creator upon ourselves. Just as we put a yoke on a horse to plow a field or transport something, so are we ready to take upon ourselves the instructions of the Creator in order to be under His authority all our lives. This is what we must do.

Question: What can keep us in spiritually forever?

Answer: The upper light, under the influence of which you will feel that you are constantly moving toward reaching the highest goal that exists in our world, in the entire universe, and in all worlds.
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From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 12/22/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Joy Is a “Reflection” of Good Deeds“

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Question: What is the mind? Where is it located? Why do we use it? Is it our brain or not?

Answer: Of course the mind is our brain. But we are talking about the spiritual mind, the inner part of our consciousness that we can control. We call it knowledge.

Question: Are we connecting with the Creator through the mind?

Answer: Yes, if we make an effort to do this, we will succeed. However, I want to say that no matter what, all our attempts and efforts that we make trying to ascend to the Creator will nonetheless have their positive consequences—if not now, then later.

Question: What is the difference between mind and knowledge?

Answer: Knowledge is simply accumulation of data. And the mind is the brain’s ability to process the information received, systematize, and use it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Difference between Faith and Intellect“

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