Entries in the 'Egoism' Category

A Wind-Up Doll

417Question: What example would you give of a person who is developing?

Answer: A doll moves by means of a small motor, beneath that lies a rheostat. As the rheostat is adjusted, development begins in the doll. The doll transforms, becoming increasingly driven by consumption, then by a desire for knowledge, and finally by a desire to understand the root cause of suffering, suffering that neither the development of consumption nor knowledge, nor attempts to escape suffering have been able to resolve. All of this brings the doll to a desire to understand where the suffering comes from. All of this happens according to the program built into the doll.

And it comes to understand that the suffering is purposeful; it forces it to change. The Creator begins to “disturb” those whom He wants to draw closer to Him.

The Creator shows a person through this that the person himself needs to change, rather than trying to change the environment around him or his way of life to suit himself. There is no escaping suffering through any of this, and nothing can truly be achieved that way. In this way, the Creator compels a person to change.
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Engage in Both the External Torah and Kabbalah

258Comment: In religious societies, things are coming to light that are no less bad than those found in secular society.

My Response: Ultimately, the will to receive bursts forth and grows unchecked. Then both religious and secular boundaries lose their significance for the person; they become unrestrained and frenzied.

Nothing can be done about this. Such things, of course, happen both here and there. But it is better to maintain at least something. Perhaps in ten years the conditions will change, but in our time, I think, it is worth it. The main thing is to minimize the damage.

Comment: But Baal HaSulam writes in several places that one who engages in the Torah in its external form causes the greatest damage. He warned about this before the Holocaust.

My Response: Baal HaSulam indeed writes at the end of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” that one who engages in the external Torah and does not want to engage in the internal—not that he is unable, but precisely that he does not want to, neglects it, or hates it—causes all the damage, and brings about the worst things in the world. That is correct. But this does not mean that a person must distance themselves from the external Torah. He must engage in both the external Torah and Kabbalah.

Moreover, whether you like it or not, Baal HaSulam writes there as well that those who engage in the external Torah must begin to engage in the internal. He is not speaking about you, not about your guilt, not that you are causing the worst things in the world, not that you must begin to engage in the internal Torah. He is not speaking about you, but about them. Why?

You want to say the following: if they cannot engage in the internal part, then let them abandon the external as well, let them simply be secular; at least in this way we will harm no one. This will not help you. Already today, what they engage in cannot be called the external part in the true sense. Therefore the damage lies not in this, but precisely in the fact that they do not engage in the internal part.

Of course, it is easier to approach a completely secular person with a proposal to study Kabbalah. This will not work with a religious person. However, the problem lies in education, in millions of young people. If you completely free them from studying the Torah or from frameworks suitable for the people, nothing good will come of it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, Article 14, 1984 “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

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At the Turn of the Century

527.04The fact that the level of the people a hundred years ago differed from today’s illustrates a global regression across generations. For example, in the times of the destruction of the Temple, people were very pure. Even the destruction and hatred we speak of back then were then very subtle and pure.

Subsequently, over the course of two thousand years, the desire to receive has increased in every generation; people become more egoistic, and all this evil has surfaced, especially at the advanced stages, because the process develops, not arithmetically, but geometrically.

A leap occurred at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Educated people emerged. Why did they suddenly stop being religious? How could this happen? A desire to receive was added from above, which led to a new stage in the soul’s development, and the individual saw how hollow the restrictions dictating their actions and speech truly were.

Their inner part strengthened while their outer part weakened; they were unable to restrain themselves.They cast off these constraints. They were no longer content to remain at the still (inanimate) level of holiness. All this stems from the growing will to receive within the souls.

What is respected among ordinary religious people? A person who faithfully attends the synagogue, observes all the commandments, and presents himself to the public as free from any anxieties, as someone whose life consists of nothing but “simple faith.”

In religious circles such a person is deemed good, wonderful, or even holy. Yet we say that they lack the will to receive and are merely acting according to their nature. Add a bit of ego, a will to receive, and you will see them abandon it all. Thus, whether you like it or not, you cannot leave them as they were 500 or 2,000 years ago. The will to receive is growing, and nothing can be done about it.

Consequently each new generation is worse than the previous one, to the point that “the face of the generation will be like the face of a dog” that barks: “Give me! Give me!” It is impossible to resist this; it is bound to happen, and for now a process of searching and struggle is underway.

However, knowing what happened in the 20th century allows you to foresee what will happen in the present one, what inner development will take place in people. You will see how with each year the world focuses increasingly on this direction, while everything else collapses. People will suddenly begin to sense that the entire world depends on their inner state.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

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Hasten TIme

712.03Question: Why does spiritual work take so much time? If it originates from infinity, shouldn’t it continue infinitely?

Answer: Everything has an end. Scientists say that this world has existed for twenty billion years. How long has man existed? Let us say a million years.

How long has the point in the heart that is in a person’s body existed? It first manifested in man more than 5,700 years ago, and counting from Abraham, it has been more than 3,700 years. You can see that development is very slow. But the closer to the end of correction, the faster the pace of development grows; it increases exponentially.

We can see how over the course of 120 years, the world has advanced more  in a than it did in the preceding thousand years. And in our time, a decade will bring as much advancement as in the previous 2,000 years. But in any case, it takes a long time because our collective structure is incredibly complex, and we do not know it.

We do not realize that we are all included in the infinite Kli (vessel), each of us. Within it, there is only one point—mine. All the others are not mine but originate from the rest of the Malchut of the world of infinity. I need to connect all these points to myself for the sake of bestowal to the Creator, incorporate them in myself, and get to know them, because I do not even know my own point. I have to annul it and connect it with all the other points, build a Kli from this, turn with it to the Creator, and begin to merge with Him (Zivug) for the sake of bestowal to Him.

In short, these are very slow actions. Not because they are slow in themselves. The corrections are very fast—billions of actions per second, so to speak. There is no way to count the movements, and there does not apply; I am simply citing specific numbers as an example.

But even though we are talking about billions of operations per second, it is like a computer: despite performing countless operations per second, we sometimes have to wait and wait to retrieve some information from it. Sometimes we have to wait half an hour for data to travel along a thin wire from a massive storage system.

It is the same with us. That is why it seems to us that we are standing still. We are advancing at a very fast pace; much faster than in the material world. No matter how swift the changes in the material world may be, in the spiritual world, they are even faster. Compared to the millions and billions of years of our development at different levels (inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking), our current rate of progress in the spiritual is accelerating tremendously.

You will soon see how the world will change over the course of a year or two.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/26, Rabash, “What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator?”

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A Desire Revealing Itself

109Question: What is the value of human development over millions of years as an animal, up to the moment when he received a soul?

Answer: Biological bodies develop according to the same laws by which the Earth and the entire universe were formed: through the stages of “inanimate–vegetative–animate–human.”

Question: At some point, was a soul imprinted in this animal?

Answer: No. The Kelim, the desires, having begun to grow from zero, build the external material according to the inner desire.

You ask what the difference is between ancient man and us. It is in the revealing desire. A million years ago, the spiritual gene was practically imperceptible. There was a need only for animate things: food, sex, family, shelter. The lower the level of development, the more time it requires, while at the higher stages development takes place much faster.

This process resembles a pyramid. Therefore, the development of ancient man took many thousands of years, say half a million, it does not matter. Then the desires reached more advanced states: from animalistic pleasures to money, honor, and knowledge.

And now you see how the development of desires is accelerating in our days, and what increasingly extreme forms they are taking. The world is reaching its extremes, and this is happening because all its parts are becoming connected. Look at what this leads to: one becomes part of another, suffers and enjoys through it.

We will see that every day this will take on such unprecedented forms that it will be unclear how it will all end. This will happen throughout the entire world, not just to you personally. You will begin getting up in the morning without knowing what will happen by evening: Will we all blow up or will we live, and if we live, then how? And so it will be throughout the entire world, every day. It will be “fun.” We see that our existence will soon become like this.

And what is surprising is that we will get used to all of it. You will still be able to endure anything, accepting it as something ordinary. Even to the point where, remaining alive at this very moment, you will no longer think about the next one. You will not think.

People say: “Why think about tomorrow?” Well, tomorrow will become the next moment, and everyone will live this way until time disappears. This will be the correct inner definition of time: through it we will truly feel that it is possible to rid ourselves of the will to receive.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/26, Rabash, “What Is the Prohibition to Teach Torah to Idol-Worshippers in the Work?”

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The Condition for Unity

938.03Based on an understanding of our animalistic nature, we begin to realize that no one can ever unite with another. Each person remains separate.

Today we see that the family, as it once existed, is disappearing. The former relationships between parents and children are no longer the same. The reason is that as humanity develops, its ego and its desire to receive continue to grow. As a result, each person becomes increasingly distant from everyone else, and all the bonds that once existed within the family, the extended family, the nation, and society are breaking apart. Egoism destroys every framework and leaves the individual isolated.

After making the necessary discernments, one can come to the conclusion that a connection between people is possible only through the Creator. If we wish to fulfill the law, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” it cannot be achieved by force, as was attempted in Soviet Russia. Only through our connection with the Creator will we begin to unite with one another.

Even the smallest group can exist only under this condition, and all the more so the whole world, when it begins to fulfill the law, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is because every true connection can exist only on the level of the human. By “human” it means a connection with the Creator.

Everything else we do, apart from establishing a connection with the Creator, belongs to the animate level. These things require no correction, and we should pay them no attention, because it is a waste of time and effort.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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The Point of Choice: Toward the Creator

571.01The states that a person goes through are not so important in and of themselves. Of course, it is possible to say that they are analogous to receiving a blow one moment, candy the next, then a stronger blow, and again a candy. But the “carrot and stick” do not form a Kli (vessel) in a person. Its continuous strengthening on the path toward the goal is exactly what is building the Kli.

The Kli is the intention. Neither the blows, nor Malchut, nor Keter form the Kli. The intention that you define, when you truly decide what it is, is called the Kli. Only in choosing the intention does freedom of choice exist.

Look at how the whole world spins and what it does: We seek peace and we seek happiness, nothing helps because the search is conducted in the wrong direction, and we only become more confused, spend money, and drown in a sea of blood. And so it is all over the world.

Look at what an enormous process of development the world needs to undergo in order to finally come to the conclusion that development must be in only one direction. All the achievements of science, engineering, technology, medicine, culture, and education are simply a mistake.

We made a mistake; we followed our egoistic desires and developed all sorts of things that are absolutely unnecessary. No matter how magnificent, grandiose, and fulfilling all the achievements of civilization may seem to us, it is Klipot.

We could have lived peacefully in caves and, being connected to the Creator, enjoy life. What difference does it make where you live?

The point of choice is in the direction toward the Creator. When this question awakens in me, I must strengthen myself so as not to turn in another direction. It is like a pointer rotating in a circle, at each of the 360 degrees, it seems to point to 360 targets, yet it aligns with the direction toward the Creator only once.

It is precisely here that I must “step on the gas.” This is where I must break out of the vicious circle. If I do not do this, all kinds of desires start spinning inside me again in this circle.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

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Happiness Is Not in the Battery

600.04Comment: In 2019 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to scientists for their work in lithium-ion batteries and were recognized for “laying the foundation of a wireless, fossil-fuel free society” (New York Times, 10/9/2019).

Until now, humanity was always tied to an electrical outlet and lived from the outlet. And here they have created a line of such batteries with which a person can move freely around the world.

My Response: In our time, of course, it means a lot if a person becomes freer from the outlet. But what comes next?

I do not think this discovery will free humanity. It will simply enslave it in another way. Everything is moving toward showing a person that happiness is not in the battery.

We see that humanity is not becoming happier. On the contrary, the more toys, technology, and all sorts of things it has, the more it becomes confused in its life.

Question: You often emphasize that no invention on our earthly level means anything to you?

Answer: It will give nothing. Absolutely nothing! But these inventions will lead humanity to the recognition of evil. Everything we invent, supposedly for the benefit of our egoism, ultimately leads us to evil and to the recognition of this evil.

Comment: So if humanity were to stop and invent nothing at all..

My Response: We cannot stop, because the same egoism drives us toward progress so that we will understand that we have no choice but to correct the ego itself.

Question: Why does humanity constantly invent more and more things?

Answer: It wants to achieve a calm, good life. But the result is the opposite.

Comment: Indeed: nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and immediately nuclear energy that wipes everything out.

My Response: Yes, and it is the same with everything. People cannot invent anything good or benevolent. Nothing at all!

Question: What invention would you call eternal, beneficial to humanity, and capable of leading it to happiness?

Answer: The correction of man’s evil nature—that alone. There is nothing else.

Comment: But first people must realize that they live with an evil nature.

My Response: That is precisely what drives them toward that realization. The world is in a state where it no longer knows what to do with itself.

At one time we thought that socialism, communism, or capitalism would save us, or something else, some form of freedom, liberalism, and so on. But everything very quickly leads to the realization of evil.

Comment: You used to say that humanity’s development was once a linear progression of egoism with the thinking things would get better and then communism would eventually arrive. But now egoism seems to have closed in on itself.

In other words, we have become interconnected, like a single village, yet the same old pursuits continue, and humanity still fails to grasp the evil nature within itself.

My Response: I think we will reach a point where humanity will say: “It would have been better if we had not invented this!” As for the atom, it can already say this today. And they will say the same about everything else.

And what was wrong with living in caves? What exactly?! Absolutely nothing. When people know what they have, they realize that it is enough for them.

Question: So huddled together around a fire, people were happier than those who today run around with electric batteries?

Answer: Of course! Without a doubt. There were more opportunities to be happy there.

Well, what can you do? It is written about this: “One who increases knowledge increases sorrow,” or “One who increases wealth increases suffering.”

Question: Do you think these sayings are still relevant today?

Answer: More than ever!

Question: We cannot help but increase our knowledge, can we? Egoism drives us.

Answer: We cannot. We cannot help but increase both wealth and knowledge. Egoism will constantly push us to do so.

The goal is to bring us to the recognition of evil, specifically that the evil lies in our very nature and evil lies in the fact that we believe the world we live in is what needs improving. But it cannot be improved; we must rise above it.

Question: In other words, we must change ourselves. Will we reach that point within our lifetime? I would love to see the truth of your words come to pass.

Answer: I do not believe that this will happen that quickly. But personally, that does not concern me. What difference does it make when it happens? Regardless of the state we are, it will happen to all of us eventually.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/15/19

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We Have Ruined the Human Being!

235Question: Are you saying that the entire path of technological progress, technological revolutions, and even the Nobel Prizes awarded for them have ultimately brought harm to humanity?

Answer: Everything! All of it exists only so that we may recognize the evil within it. Can you imagine how I must sound saying this?

Question: Do you realize what you are challenging? Everything!

Answer: Everything! Absolutely everything!

Comment: Scholarships, scientific research, universities, factories, industries, everything.

My Response: Until a person understands what all of it is truly for, nothing should be placed in his hands, not even a small gadget, let alone an atomic bomb. Otherwise, this is exactly what happens. Our entire life is spent neutralizing the negative effects that this progress has on us.

Question: So our present condition is, in a way, the consequence of this progress? All these downfalls, all these viruses?

Answer: Yes. We do nothing but neutralize its negative consequences.

Question: Then would you stop all technological progress?

Answer: All of our progress has been aimed solely at allowing us to act egoistically, however we please. to behave selfishly without suffering the consequences.

Question: Under what condition is technological progress beneficial and necessary?

Answer: Only to the extent that it helps us become more closely connected with one another.

Question: Only if that is its purpose?

Answer: Yes. We do not realize where egoism leads us when it is the only thing we develop. Everything that comes from it ultimately becomes harmful, and in the end, it will have to be stopped. I am not advocating that people suddenly reject everything, as some do today. I am speaking about the overall course of humanity.

Comment: So we should not give up medicine, of course.

My Response: We should not give up anything. We simply need to behave correctly toward nature. Wherever you can act according to the law of connection, goodness, love, and so on, act! Everything else should be set aside. Then you will see how everything begins to form a completely different picture.

Comment: You realize that you will receive a flood of letters and comments saying that you are against progress, against the development of humanity.

My Response: I am in favor of reasonable progress, which consists of combining the egoistic and altruistic forces of nature so that they work together. Both the left line and the right line are necessary, but there must also be the middle line that guides them forward.

Question: On that basis, will the process that follows be correct? Precisely because of this combination?

Answer: Yes. But at some point, we departed from this correct relationship with nature and began developing in only one direction—for the sake of egoism alone.

Question: Is that why we have wrecked the environment?

Answer: Yes, everything! Not only the environment; we have ruined the human being!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 6/21/26

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Humanity’s Primary Malady

294.2Question: What is wrong with us, what is our ailment?

Answer: Our ailment lies in the fact that we cannot distinguish good from evil, and we cannot gather the good within ourselves and integrate it in such a way that it gradually covers the evil. It is a very difficult path.

Question: So, we will be searching for this good? Something to take, like a pill, in order to escape the evil? In other words, regarding evil, will we come to feel that we are complete egoists?

Answer: That is precisely what will be considered evil.

Question: And will we understand that it is evil?

Answer: Of course.

Question: And then we will ask for some kind of remedy?

Answer: Yes. Because through the suffering, we are already drawing an illumination of benevolent light that can reveal to us where our evil actually lies.

Comment: Is this the most important thing? We always come back to this point. You constantly lead us toward this point: for a person to look and see themselves as they are: evil, bad, and flawed. Usually people are told the opposite: “There is still something good in you; you are capable; you can succeed.”

My Response: That exists only as a starting point. But who are you really? You are absolute evil. Yet, there is a spark within you that will guide you. And you need to fan it into a flame.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 6/15/26

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